saudade

Hmm, I've a new passport that needs stamping. Put me down as: maybe, but a definite "hell yeah" if I can meet the stig.

Saudade, you're right, so many more things matter than what you're wearing. And I agree with Descartes' stance on alcohol (...therefore I am), but I find Kant quite unreadable. Still, that's a personal thing, as it all is.

Oh don't get me wrong, I'm not going to get into my viewpoints on most of the major philosophers here. It would take forever, I just immediately thought of the Categorical Imperative and ran with Kant as my before "etc..." name is all. >.<

Okie dokie lokie, threw up my location. Guess I'm the only dude in the twin cities. Meh whatevs.

I just wanted to throw my $0.02 into the ring. First up I hate this poll topic in general, but whatever. From what I've found, the women that aren't attracted to guys being "outside the norm", normally aren't worth pursuing anyway. I know I'm overgeneralizing with this comment so don't miss-understand me nor take this to be an absolute statement. As an example, just a few nights ago I met 2 awesome blondes that kicked off the conversation with the shoes at a bar, and that segued into other topics. Mainly me being a total computer nerd, I demonstrated my beta iphone app I'm building (its for cars and odb2 stuff, long story, and will take too long to explain). But to be honest the shoes weren't much of a focus once conversation progressed other than a "hmm thats odd, lets find out why" vibe at the start. Basically what I'm saying is the people that will judge you based on who you are and whats inside of your skull versus what is attached to your feet are the ones you want to filter for. Also, on that note, be interesting and have varied interests, one of them was a lawyer and needless to say this is the first time anyone has been impressed with my knowledge of Descartes, Kant, etc... In short, do they? No, not all, but the ones that do, or don't care that you wear them are the ones worth talking to. And from past experience they also seem to be the most interesting intellectually. Which is somewhat important long-term, because we're all going to get ugly as we age, but hopefully we keep improving our minds. At least that's what I look for.

I see from the poll that over 60 % of you guys can wear 5 inch heels or lower. Why do you want us girls to wear higher than that ? You have to remember our feet are so much smaller so a 6 inch heel to us is like an 8 inch heels to many guys in steepness.

More practice required to keep up.

xx

You're talking to the wrong guys methinks, that said, if you were to pick a random 5' 6" person at random would they most likely to be guy or girl?

http://sugarandslugs.wordpress.com/2011/02/

Statistics is interesting this way, while there may be more guys that have larger feet, in some ways its more a byproduct of that statistical curve. Aaaaanyways, ask the guys that expect you to wear 5"+ heels to do it themselves. At the best they'll shut up, or they'll learn what its like. Win/win either way for yourself and other women in the future if it doesn't work out.

Everything is encrypted client side, not server, all they store is the hashed information. Basically lastpass goes away the only thing you lose is synching. Might want to get the facts prior to bashing it.

Heh I hadn't bought anything from zappos for so long they have an old address and credit card too. All fixed now thanks to https://lastpass.com so whatever.

Everyone here might want to watch this TED talk by Aimee Mullins (she's an athlete and double amputee)

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/aimee_mullins_prosthetic_aesthetics.html

I'm guessing there aren't too many video game players, but a lot of her talk about the ability to switch out her legs parallels the whole Deus Ex game series. Which are some of the most up to date "what if?'s" for the ideas/fantasy of bionic or nano human modification. Essentially its a new "arms race, no pun intended" of people enhancing themselves. Which segues into the whole "what makes us human" philosophical debate, is it what we can do with our bodies, etc...

Oh and in the pre/sequel Human Revolution, there are lots of "high-heel" bionic legs and whatnot. So I'm sure some here would like it at least mildly.

Also, wear what you want, who cares what everyone else thinks. You only live once, might as well do what you want with it.

Scotchguard.

Don't think it prevents rusting. And the fact that it creates a layer of air on top is pretty cool.

Looks like it'll be out in mid 2012. And apparently shoe companies are interested not shockingly enough.

http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/438712_When-these-guys-say-NeverWet-----they-mean-it.html

Wonder if this would work on suede shoes, would help real leather anything out though one would think.

http://www.neverwet.com/

video of it in action:

Given they used it on clothes it seems like it would be good for stain protection too. I'll have to buy some and jump in puddles.

Not sure if this is the best place for the post or general forums, feel free to move it. Just thought its application to shoes would be applicable.

Course I am, my mother gave them to me after all, well dad too but i'll get into pedantry if I start thanking zygotes etc...

I really don't have much to add except that this made me think of my favoritest random japanese website/time/apparently ads for clothes.

http://www.uniqlo.jp/uniqlock/

(not much for heels like the original post , but it changes throughout the day as for music and well you'll see just look, its a great thing to run in the background and eat up energy for no real purpose)

Tried it once, not a fan at all as it makes heel toe shifting impossible. And that's why I have race shoes in my car, then I always have the same shoes on while driving.

And John Tesh is a very recognizable name, so anything to spread the word is positive!

Sorry, I just have to, who is John Tesh?

Another possibility is that since he specializes in womens shoes, he doesn't keep track of mens fashions. Or has been burned in the past trying to market to guys. As much as 99% of the heel wearing guys here would like, sometimes simple economics or preference can drive things.

Was poking around zappos couture, and well found these:

Black http://couture.zappos.com/n/p/dp/71438318/c/3.html

White http://couture.zappos.com/n/p/dp/70639281/c/309401.html

To be honest they are kinda cool, also expensive, but thats to be expected. Whats everyone think?

There are others by dsquared too if you're not a fan of everything above the... blades etc...

http://couture.zappos.com/n/es/d/722668339/order_by/age_asc/page/1.html

I went and looked at her comments about men looking silly, the hate for religion and football..

In all sincerity, Why even bother with such a thread? From past comments made by her, theres no need to give her any legitimacy on anything as we already know where she stands. Doesnt matter ' why '.

I think your a good guy, excellent human being and open to suggestion. I dont think this is one of those things that needs to be opened like a can of worms though.

This qualifies as trolling behavior, especially after throwing religion and whatnot else into the fray.

Here's the deal, either she's intentionally trying to give a rise to all of you just to stir up a hornets nest, or she really believes it.

If its the former, even the creation of this thread validates what she writes. If its the latter, responding with this thread most likely just reinforces her belief that stilettos/whatever are "the last bastion of femininity".

Don't feed the trolls and just employ the one thing you can do, keep on keeping on and enjoying what you want, damn the torpedos full steam ahead. Life's too damn short to waste time on people that don't agree with you or actually wish you spite. Eventually I'll be feeding worms, so I don't think some silly internet argument over shoes matters much in the grand scheme of things.

But whatever, back to debugging things for work!

I don't know what people are on facebook for what reason.

Well, I am. As long as you don't begin to share these 'secrets' or pictures of yourself dancing on tables or vomiting over last nights party's buffet, I don't think you will get problems with FB.

You can stay in contact with your friends, and there are some things I don't need to hide. What's the matter if 'someone' knows my name?? You shouldn't think everything you show on facebook will only be shown to your friends, thats all.

Regarding the initial question - yes I am on Facebook, but due to certain privacy and public/community reasons I divide 'normal' life and the 'special' fetish life very sharply. As I said, there are things that shouldn't be posted on facebook.

I think this is the big failure of social sites, the "everything is public" approach doesn't fit well for certain social activities. Even in general, the people that I met from learning German, wouldn't give two hoots about my interest in the latest papers I've read about compiler theory. Much less anything related to this site. Just a thought, maybe in a generation or two it won't matter. But given how mere pictures of parties and facebook updates have affected things like employment status, I'm disinclined to merge my name with all of my activities online.

Thats just like, my opinion man.

All I'll say is that I think they do, or at least some do. The ones that do are worth the effort of sorting through the ones that don't. That and women themselves are to blame for even making me think of trying on heels. So I don't hide it to women I meet, even though it hurts my chances with some, but in a way its a really good filter for people that can't pull themselves out of their societal viewpoints of what a "man" is. Eh whatever, I've gotten more compliments than insults so, who cares?

Looking at their financials its not pretty:

http://biz.yahoo.com/e/110729/jny10-q.html

What is so massively shocking about that article - is the number of people posting 'gay' comments - and MEANING it.

It is ignorance at its' highest level.....and the frightening thing, is that it is silently infecting society more and more. Far from becoming more enlightened as we get older - it seems that the human race is actually filling itself up with hatred and bigotry.

I normally just sit around and read the occasional thread here, but I have a hypothesis for this general societal behavior.

1. The internet/social media has made bigotry both easier to view, thereby skewing both the size and vitriol of certain groups, but it has also enabled people to remain in their own bubble of a group leading to self reinforcing behavior and eventually a radicalization of that group itself. I've seen this happen here with some comments, admittedly by men, that amount to the true scotsman fallacy, that is that ONLY 5-6-ballet-pony-whatever shoes count as high heels. That may be the view of that person, but we need to all be aware that while knowing lots of like minded individuals is a good thing, we need to make sure we don't radicalize our beliefs thinking that this group is the normative view. *

2. Humans seem to love to put damn near everything into a group or category, and to denounce anything not in their own preferred group or category as being wrong. The "us vs them" attitude. The only way out of this view only seems to be the realization that one of your good friends or family happens to be in your most hated group or category.

I think the general fix is for everyone to chill out and to actively seek out opposing viewpoints to their own. If only to keep you centered on your own views, but it would also help to empathize and hopefully realize that those people with other views are just as human as yourself. I know I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but something I've noticed with these "gay" comments in general reminds me of college.

I noticed that seemingly ALL of the guys that were still closet homosexuals in college, seemed to want to demonize anything that reminded them of their own inability to tackle their own demons with their orientation. (I'll apologize to my English teacher for that sentence in an email later) My first roommate was gay, and completely awesome as a person, and we distilled it down to: The people that are the most publicly against something are trying their hardest not to face that thing in their own life. They hate themselves for not having the guts to admit to themselves who they are, so they lash out at those that do, hoping to stop their behavior so they no longer have to face it in themselves. They hope that by ignoring the problem it will eventually go away.

I'd cite a list of politicians that seem to be publicly against oh say cheating that ended up having multiple women on the side. Given how common it is I don't think I need to name any names.

I don't think there is a fix sadly, outside of for the rest of us to call them out and roll our eyes.

* Don't get me wrong, I think guys wearing heels shouldn't be stigmatized or anything, just that we need to be aware of overall societal views. I typed this up super mad fast so sorry for the wall of mostly unfiltered consciousness. I'll go back to forum ninja mode.

I can't help but imagine the decline of the roman empire has something to do with decadency, raising in the upper classes because of comfort and lack of struggle for life, thus leaving room for idleness, boredom and finally decadency, which raises when people spend their time doing things that are not supporting life.

There is... much more to it than that. Start with the seminal tome, and I do mean tome,The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon. The original was about 4,000 pages and is approaching 300 years old, but its still highly relevant and a required read on Roman History. Its not close to a light read at all. But you will quickly learn why such tiny things as roman military formation and camp layout leads to the eventual fall. That or the inability of Rome to communicate quickly with its empires edges. To be honest though you can't attribute Rome's fall to any singular event or cause. More you have to treat it as a rather nuanced event with multiple interconnected and interdependent threads.

http://www.amazon.com/Decline-Fall-Roman-Empire-Everymans/dp/0679423087

What you're describing relating to upper classes is elaborated on by Jared Diamond and his two books on human history and, his view at least, how human culture developed due to farming yields allowing for specialization:

http://www.amazon.com/Guns-Germs-Steel-Fates-Societies/dp/0393317552

and

http://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Societies-Choose-Succeed-Revised/dp/0143117009/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b

I think that should be enough to keep you busy, took me over a year to get through Gibbon's book. I still don't think I fully grasp what happened to Rome over its eventual split into the the Byzantine empire, arguably the continuation of the Roman "Empire" after the western kingdoms split.

And for an audio bunch of info, these podcasts from a professor on 12 of those emperors during the split is absolutely awesome too.

http://www.learnoutloud.com/Podcast-Directory/History/European-History/12-Byzantine-Rulers-The-History-of-The-Byzantine-Empire-Podcast/19410

I haven't yet listened to his podcasts on the Norman Centuries, aka: "The Dark Ages", but I'm looking forward to it.

I think I may have just outed myself as a bit of a history buff. But really I just have a commute that is mad boring and learning history while I drive is a productive use of my time.

>.<

Tschuss!

Given its etymology, its not exactly a positive word:

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=decadence&searchmode=none

but I don’t think most guys wear heels for fun, or to look and feel sexy, or to add some colour to otherwise grey and boring events.

Wearing to feel sexy, not so much, but fun and to add colour sure. I'm more curious why you'd think guys wouldn't wear them for fun or colour? Especially if you've ever looked through guys shoes and their distinct lack of colour, is like a black and white movie reel with shades of brown thrown in to make things not overly drab and boring.

Then again, I'll admit I don't buy banana yellow or hot pink shoes, not sure how I'd ever come close to pulling that off with the clothes I have. I don't have the talent to pair that with anything.

I'm going to file this under: No way to know for sure. And leave it at that.