/stuff/Blackspot Sneakers
So I've been trying to slog through the
introduction of what I imagine is a grad-level philosophy book with a fascinating title (Order
Without Rules - Critical Theory and the Logic of Conversation by David Bogen). I gave up for now, as it makes lots
of references to concepts, people and writings that I don't know, and I just finished Free
Culture by Lawrence Lessig, which is rather dry reading as well.
Hence,
last night I picked up Culture Jam, by
Kalle Lasn, which I bought at the same time as the philosophy book several years ago. The few pages I read were
exciting, though they still ignored the "why" of the situation described, about our path towards a fully marketed world.
Today, I got my Blackspot Sneakers. They were laced funny so I spent some time figuring out the essence of shoe-lacing. After having a satisfactory lacing on one shoe I put it on and started composing this entry. I decided it wasn't right to comment on the shoes until I had laced both and worn them a bit.
Hence: My first reaction is one of satisfaction. The shoes fit, which is good because there's no returns possible. They are comfortable enough -- in a shoe store, looking for a running shoe, they would pass muster but I'd probably try on others.
I'm no expert in these matters, but the materials
and stitching seem to be of extremely high quality. The shoe feels very solid. One gets the vague impression that
these shoes are built with what would survive of 80 year techniques and materials under modern health, safety,
environmental and labour practices.
Oh, and the point: with each pair of shoes, you get a share in the company. This is a nice gesture, though for me I buy them simply because they're what I want, made how I want, not because of fierce alignment with a movement. At the bottom of the letter is a signature. I saw the distinctive name, and struggled to place it, until I looked at the spine of the brutally unfolded book beside my bed: Kalle Lasn
New Albums from the Gallery
/stuff/iRiver iFP 890t
I bought an iRiver iFP 890T MP3/WMA/OGG (i.e. "music") player. It's pretty small, takes one AA battery, does voice recordings and line-in recordings, has an FM radio, and acts as a USB storage device too. It was sent to Saskatoon, to be brought to me for my eurocycling trip. Hopefully it'll last me a few years. 180USD, from the manufacturer's website. Just in time, too, since my CD player is on its last legs.
/stuff/A Tent and a Bike
This blog entry was lost by my ISP and they did not recover it. A fairly complete copy existed on blog aggregators, but it may have lost formatting or links.
I finally got my tent. It got to customs about two weeks ago.
On Friday, I decided I finally had the time to go deal with it. I called customs, asked if they could arrange for it to be sent to the nearest Posti, but they said I had to come down to pick it up, since I had to pay some fees.
I should have known the whole "no tax" deal for having it send out of Canada was too good to be true. When I told my Finnish coworkers about this, they suggested that I should try not to pay, including various schemes. The most likely-sounding one involved keeping the receipt and arguing for at least the duties back when I take the tent back to Canada.
Getting to the customs office was a big pain in the arse. It's way far away, reasonably placed down by the harbour. No busses go anywhere near it. I plotted my route, caught the bus, walked a long way, lost confidence in where I thought it was, called my coworkers to make sure I was on the right track (I was) and kept walking. Got there. It ended up costing something like 47EUR (~75CAD). The long and the short is that it cost me the same or less than if I had bought it in Halifax when I almost did.
I also bought a used bike. 60EUR, used. It's got some major issues, and I think it sat out all winter with the previous owner never using it. But it's a proper mountain bike, and I think I can get it working muchos better with some lubricant and degreaser and some tools that I don't seem to have. :-) And I'm really out of shape. ugh.
