Hows my little reader in 2011?

2011 has been off to a slow start for reading because of two things, less time spent reading, and the first book I read.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Fantastic book. I've had different people from all sorts of different parts of my life telling me to read this book since the springtime and I'm so glad they did. The hunger games is an exciting story about a girl attempting to survive a battle to the death with many other contestants. It is a page burner no doubt. There were no boring parts and the author's vast imagination was running wild with excitement and creativity. If you like exciting fiction and a fast read, I recommend getting started on this trilogy. I can hardly wait to dive into the second part.

From Vines to Wines by Jeff Cox
From Vines to wines was an extremely informative book on starting your own vineyard to making wine from scratch. The author threw in a little humor to keep things light and also made everything very understandable. On the other hand its also a how to book with some very long boring parts. Hence my very large gap between book updates. He also makes some very bold statements on winemaking techniques which, like everything else in the world should be taken with a grain of salt. Different strokes for different folks as they say. I would only recommend this book to someone who is either looking into planting some grape vines as it is quite descriptive on how to approach that, or someone who has a little bit of winemaking experience as many of the things mentioned seem to rely on a bit of prior knowledge. This book should not be used as someone's only reference guide but paired with several more sources of information.

The Passage by Michael Cronin
I really enjoyed this book. Even though its the first I've completed this year it might already be the favorite of 2011. Its a hard one to describe but I'll try, It is a story of adventure. It begins with several unrelated stories that eventually converge and then all abruptly end. Which was unexpected. The middle of the book pretty much starts a brand new story 90ish years into the future. The world has changed drastically and the population of the USA is severely depleted, the survivors live under lights which keep the infected away. Until one day someone (from the first half) makes their way into the colony and everything changes and a new adventure begins. I'm purposefully being vague, the book is fantastic, and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes a good adventure novel. Don't let the size scare you (800+ pages), Cronin manages to keep the story moving rapidly along through each page. Oh yeah, if it weren't for the last 10 or so pages this would have still been a great book but he threw in a gigantic cliffhanger at the very end. I can't wait to read more of the series as it comes out.

Hows my little "bare" foot?

Today I went for one of my most enjoyable runs of my life.

Its not to common for me to use enjoy and run in the same conversation or even sentence, but its true! Today I tackled my first trail run at Kickapoo State Park (a few minutes from the house). There were hills, trees, beautiful changing leaves, and gorgeous views of the river here and there. The temperature was perfect and the sun was shining through the leaves. How could anyone not enjoy that.


But there's more...

My good pal Jon recently found me some Vibram Five Finger (Trek Sport) Shoes for a measly $25 at REI and generously picked me up a pair. For those who don't know, those are the shoes with toes. My first impression of these new kicks is nothing less than thunderous praise. They are ridiculously lightweight, and feel like a thin protective extension of my foot, sort of like a nice fitting sock but with toes and a hard bottom. Its been raining like crazy lately and the trails were wet in some places and there was no issues with grip on wet uneven areas and even when I moved through a wet area they seemed to dry just as fast as skin would in a similar situation. I'll test the water more in the future though.

So by now you might be thinking, toe shoes Tony? Really?!
Well yes, but there is some history behind this that I've been meaning to share with my faithful readers for ages and today's run sparked it all.

So here it goes:


In the spring of 2010 Laura's brother Scott sent me an Email containing three links with not much preface other than interesting reading. Ever since reading the articles I've not shopped for footwear the same since then. The articles went out of their way to claim moving around barefoot was a more natural, healthier, and better way for any person to walk/run/jog.


So this is my soapbox, I'm going to give you the rundown of it all using some great articles that have inspired or informed me into this way of movement.


This article is a great one and is mostly responsible for convincing me that barefoot is the way to go. To sum it up people have been walking against evolution ever since the modern shoe became an important accessory to our daily lives. It goes on to give evidence showing barefooted people and athletes alike can reduce injuries and relieve some chronic pains by simply taking off their shoes. My favorite example of how shoes work against feet is when you look at an empty shoe on a table, you will notice the toe area curls up. You will also notice your toes don't naturally look like that when standing barefoot. Shoes are designed this way to help you rock forward. It later goes into more detail about how your sensitive feet are desensitized when wearing shoes and a person's body naturally tries to correct these feelings and generally gives a person more opportunity for injury. The article goes deeper into the subject too, and if you've made it that far I'm sure you'll be interested enough to reach the end.

This video is related to this article, its pretty painful to watch but you can get a good idea of how a person's running gait changes with the removal of their shoes.


This article does a fantastic job at showing you how shoes, particularly heeled shoes ruin a person's posture and feet. It also shows how walking or running around barefoot can change it almost immediately. The second half is a somewhat dated but still relevant review of Vibram's Five Finger (VFF) shoes. He makes a good case for flat footed people to make the switch towards the bottom.

On a side note, although, its not my story to tell, I know a person who just by wearing her VFFs for a period of time she went from needing to wear shoes with orthotics all the time to being comfortable while walking around barefoot. Which as I understand it was an uncomfortable task beforehand. Another person I know has actually been able to wiggle his pinky toe that used to be permanently curled into the next toe, just by running in his VFFs for a several months.

The writer of this blog entry is a giant minimalist advocate and believes strongly in ground feel, what your feet can actually feel when walking around barefoot. Its a really great piece and not terribly long, it brings up a lot of good points about how we pretty much blind ourselves to the ground below us. I think its a very good article explaining why one should want minimalist footwear.

So what does this all mean?
Going barefoot is a really great idea everyone should consider. In honesty its not realistic, people work, they walk on streets with gravel and broken glass, they use public gas station rest rooms, barefoot living is a scary proposition, barefoot home living is not.

So the next step is shoes, mankind has been making shoes since they have been tanning leather, hence the moccasin, more or less a bag tied around one's ankle. No one wants to be cut or wounded on the bottom of their foot so you're going to want a some protection. Nowadays there is an expanding number to choose from, but by no means a vast sea of choices but they are out there. Some shoes are accidentally minimalist, for example; ladies who have been rocking flats for ages, you're a step ahead. Try and find some that don't look like the heel is raised any higher than the toe, very little if any arch support, and obviously a very very thin sole.

To make shopping easy for you try these brands/shoes:
Sanuk
Toms
Merrel
Vibram Five Finger
Soft Star
Innov8
New Balance Minimus
VivoBarefoot
Saucony Hattori
Feeling Cheap? Buy some ugly water shoes for $2. Same idea.

So how has my tansition been? Slow, as it should be. I've switched entirely to running in the Merrel Trail Glove and its amazing how challenging its been on my calf muscles. For me since I've had knee surgery (and issues with it since then) I'm particularly interested in the prospect of reduced knee stress/injury prevention. Laura has actually had a quicker transition period to minimalist shoes thanks to her extensive foam flip flop wearing (or so I think). Since I really dislike the chunk of fabric between my big toe I only enjoy slide style sandals, unfortunately no such minimalist version exists...yet. So I've still got fat sole sandals. I recently bought new work shoes only to bummed out that a few months later Merrel released a waterproof minimalist shoe. Hopefully they will still be around in a few years when these current fatties finally wear out.

I hoped I've piqued some interest in the subject because I've found it fascinating. If you're wondering what finally inspired this epic post, I would tell you it was the smile that spread across my face running through the woods on a gorgeous autumn afternoon.
If you do choose to dive further into the wonderful world of "bare" feet. Merrel has a great resource for beginners right here (I like the NY Times article).

Hows my little newsflash?!

**NEWS FLASH**
For the first time in Facebook's short history the overwhelming majority of users applaud the new changes on Facebook citing fewer options to publicly share their private lives. Bob Abooey enthusiastically posted on Facebook's wall "I've never been more excited to have fewer options!" The changes come on the heels of Google's new social network Google+ which allows sharing of thoughts, photos, and allows users to communicate via video connection, among many other features. Mark Zuckerberg (film star and CEO) claimed these exciting changes are to differentiate the Facebook experience from it's competitors. "By having a virtual network in which friends and strangers alike can't communicate openly, the new 'face' encourages real life encounters and facilitates networks of individuals in their physical environments." He later continued, "No more will friendly smiles and waves be interpreted as strange or creepy events but as a friendly encounter that will promote verbal communication."

Some of the newest changes include:
Photos are now only visible to those who are featured in them.
Friends must now pass a 5 question quiz in order to connect to each other.
Profile photos have now been replaced with Mr. and Ms. Pacman images.
The Wall & Chat has been replaced with "call" and "visit".
Due to popular demand "like" has now been changed to "dislike".
Business pages now have the ability to "export to yellow pages".
Users can now only invite 30% of their friends to any event they create.
Privacy settings are now very simple:
   -  Share with everyone ever
   -  Share with my friends who passed the quiz.
A new "report stalker" button.
The revamped inbox features cursive writing samples and links to local pen and paper suppliers.
Status updates will be limited to one submission per day.

One of the largest changes announced was Facebook will now only store uploaded data for three days instead of indefinitely. Zuckerberg lauded this change as a fantastic change for the network as a whole since it had been growing at such a rapid pace the infrastructure was "getting expensive" and this change should solve those issues relatively quickly. Privacy advocates cheered for five entire minutes during this portion of the presentation.

Also a user specific printed edition of the new Facebook will be printed and mailed to each user's household. This is to encourage sharing with their neighbors and friends they regularly see. Yearly printed editions will be made available through local libraries to ensure users will still have the ability to randomly browse both friend's and strangers profiles alike.

Users have greeted these new changes with praise and cheer. The future certainly looks bright for the social giant.

Hows my little celebration?

We made it a whole year!

The year old cake was good too.

Hows my little teardrop?

Today I lost one of my best friends in my life. My dog Chip. Almost all of my faithful readers have met him, and nearly all have experienced bruised shins from of his mighty tail. Chip had been a great friend to me through his nearly thirteen years, he taught me patience when he chewed through nearly everything I've owned. He guarded me at night. He was always around for me when I needed someone quiet to sit with. And he never failed to lick my fingers after a meal. I'm happy to say that he died a happy dog who ran freely, played joyfully and loved everyone. I have many great memories of him and will cherish them for the ages.

I miss you little buddy.

Hows my little hater?

Lately I have found myself saying more frequently, no thank you, I don't like vegetables. Which generally incurs a "really?" to which I respond. Yes.

It's interesting telling somebody you don't like something because almost always your next five minutes of conversation goes into a scavenger hunt of other things you don't like. Such as when I refuse a salad, so you don't like lettuce? (but it doesn't have any flavor! "yes it does, and its nasty") What about Carrots? Peas? Do you like celery? How about spinach? Not even Brussels sprouts?

I also don't like nuts mixed into food. For example, I HATE nuts in ice cream. Its not because I don't like the flavor. I hate biting into a frozen nut, it hurts. Then you're forced to suck on it for a while to get it warm enough to chew. Which pretty much eliminates any delightful ice cream flavor you once had in your mouth. But if you give me a bag of mixed nuts on a hike I'll eat them.

I have another friend who doesn't like fruit. I'm amazed that when I'm around him how often I hear people ask things like, "not even bananas?" "what about blueberries?" "Orange Juice?" He is always very polite with this series of questions but you can see its not his favorite subject.

I'm very guilty of said questioning, but why do we do it? Do we all want to find out how much of a freak people are or aren't? Do we do it to find a common ground? Then what do you do. If you tell a fellow hater that you also can't stand cucumbers does that make you better friends? Lord knows that's not going to be a conversation point for the rest of the night.

I don't think I'll ever know but its something to think about.

The sad thing is I DO like vegetables. I just don't like fresh ones, with the exception of Broccoli and Cauliflower, I can't stand either of those in any fashion. In fact if you cook just about any veggie for me I'm sure I'll eat it or at least give it a try for your amusement. A few weeks ago Laura and I went an entire week on a vegetarian diet, and I lived! We had all sorts of delightful foods, I would recommend everyone giving it a try once.


So the next time someone announces they don't like a food, sit back and listen to the conversation and smile. If you feed it just right you can make it a game and say, well I don't like _____. Eventually the group will reach an understanding at something everyone likes thus reaffirming everyone's good friendship.