For the second time yesterday I had the opportunity to play some tennis in the Nike Free (5.0) and they’re some damn fine footwear. I really like the lightness and the feeling that I’m more in contact with the ground.
The only problem is that they’re still not what I expected. Every time some revolutionary new shoe technology comes out I get this expectation of what it will be like and I’m consistently let down. It’s not that the shoe itself is bad, but the buildup just leads to disappointment.
Nike wants to me to think that the FREE will simulate running barefoot, which makes me believe it will feel like being barefoot. As someone who’s used to wandering around in worn to the ground sandals it’s not surprising then that to me the FREE feels like any other shoe. A great shoe, but a shoe all the same.
If I had to suggest one improvement, it’d be a reworking of the upper material. I wouldn’t mind something more meshy and ventilated. Other than that, though, I think they’ve taken a really unique idea and executed it almost perfectly.
It’s only a matter of time before the rain starts.
An ongoing and admittedly lame joke between Ted and me is to refer to our hometown as Stop, Wisconsin (get it? anti-go?).
Anyway, a few minutes north of there is my parents’ house, and Abe and I took a quick jaunt over to check everything out as they are out of town until Sunday. I also took the time to snap snap snap a few photos here and there of the wonder that is the 60+ acres of woods that reside in our back yard. Those of you who still have some brains may have noticed the image above is indeed not of those woods. Rather, it’s of the sight that awaited me out of my bedroom window every summer. I want to make this next point perfectly clear: the field is not our doing. We do not, nor have we ever, lived on a farm of any kind. Not that there’s a problem with farms, but some people have a tendency to automatically assume house in the country = farm.
I also managed to snag one of the Burnout Revenge demo discs that Best Buy is just giving away willy-nilly. I’m happy to say that contrary to what the article implies, it’s available for the PS2 as well as the XBox. I’ve yet to play it, but I really enjoyed Burnout 3 so I’m sure this’ll be great as well. Why not pick one up? What are you, stupid or something?
Oh yeah, Apple did something with their stuff and people complained about it again.
23 Jul 05
Some pipes, and also TV [...]
These pipes protrude from an ivy-covered wall behind our building.
I am watching Camp Lazlo right now, a show very similar in animation style to Rocko’s Modern Life. And hey, the voice of Lazlo, like the voice of pretty much every cartoon character on TV right now, is this dude.
Go outside to the deck at night, and after you tune out the loud squeaking that is the bats chasing eachother about, you’ll look to the left right and see the sight above.
Of many colors, some of my favorites: red, pink, lime, navy, black, charcoal, beige, sage, wine.
Last summer I needed a photo to use on my portfolio site, and went outside behind our building to the construction site for a hotel that was going up. It was a brief photo session and I only ended up with one photo of this massive crane, but it was one I really liked, so here it is again.
Also, look who else is on WordPress.
So, this katydid was hanging around yesterday.
I happened to have my camera with me on the walk to work this morning.
You’ll also notice the site has been overhauled. Welcome to version 10.
13 Jul 05
Wausau is not discriminatory when it comes to telling people what not to do.
Don’t swim here. This sign is an interesting one, since it’s the only one around town I’ve noticed that is multilingual. That must mean they’re serious.
Well, just one. This little guy was hanging out on the wall of the hotel by our building. He was not nearly as active as this other one. Two bats after all!
05 Jul 05
I don't much care for pigeons but I can't stop looking at them.
Pigeons were everywhere in Chicago.
I don’t know why I was so drawn to them, but they are fun to watch. We shared our Dunkin’ Doughnuts with some other city birds on Sunday morning.
There was this one time where I had this blog and I didn’t update it for like two weeks. Wait – that was now. Anyway, here I am with a list of fragmented thoughts:
- scootering is fun, biking is almost as fun, especially with the weather finally getting nicer.
- bought Kanye West’s the College Dropout and Jay-Z’s Black Album. Kanye’s is better.
- also bought the Kill Bill vol . 1 soundtrack – also good.
- also also bought Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Hitman 2: Silent Assassin. MGS2 is good, Hitman is hard.
- still enjoying the Getaway and eagerly awaiting my reserved copy of Driv3r.
- finally updated my blog with more meaningless blather nobody cares about.
- thinking about a new phone (camera!) but there aren’t any good ones around here. Yet.
- we gave the cat another bath the other day – he liked that a lot
- I need to go rollerblading sometime.
- it’s finally almost summer and I’m happy about that. I think