Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Underdog
Who doesn't have sympathy for the underdog? Of course, I do. We create institutions, governments and schools to help us live, but every institution has a tendency, after a while, to behave not as if they should be serving you, but that you should be serving them. That's when the individual gets in conflict, because we are paying these institutions with our taxes, we are paying them to serve us and help us live, and not to tell us how to live and dominate us.
I wouldn't say it's the underdog but it's always the conflict within the individual and the institutions. Instead of underdogs, let's talk about dogs. If you corner a dog, he's ready to bite you. That's the reality. Otherwise he's a loveable, wonderful creature. If you corner him, he can behave abominably. And so does a human being. When an individual is cornered by society or an institution, well, he can behave abominably and I can't really hide it or glorify it. Neither. It's just a fact of life.
- Milos Forman
I wouldn't say it's the underdog but it's always the conflict within the individual and the institutions. Instead of underdogs, let's talk about dogs. If you corner a dog, he's ready to bite you. That's the reality. Otherwise he's a loveable, wonderful creature. If you corner him, he can behave abominably. And so does a human being. When an individual is cornered by society or an institution, well, he can behave abominably and I can't really hide it or glorify it. Neither. It's just a fact of life.
- Milos Forman
Toe shoes (part 2)
Well, this was going to be a longer post, but I think I'll keep it short. While I like the idea of feeling barefoot all the time, in practice, in a cement jungle, it gets pretty tiresome walking everywhere barefoot. And I've quickly gotten tired of having to think about things like, "Will it rain today?" (because these shoes aren't really water resistant), or "Is it too cold to wear these?" (because the material is so thin), or about puddles, or broken glass.
All in all, I think these barefoot shoes are throwing the baby out with the bath water with their minimalist design and forgetting why we cover our feet in the first place. I mean, I went barefoot everywhere when I lived in Hawaii because the climate and culture allowed for it. But I sure didn't do that when I moved to Seattle. Padding and thick material do have functions.
Anyway, I'll keep the toe shoes for some occasions. I do like them. But still think my primary pair will be my Merrell Chameleons.
I don't want to give the impression that I hate these toe shoes. I don't. Just would like to have shoes that maintain some function that shoes in the environment that I live in should have.
All in all, I think these barefoot shoes are throwing the baby out with the bath water with their minimalist design and forgetting why we cover our feet in the first place. I mean, I went barefoot everywhere when I lived in Hawaii because the climate and culture allowed for it. But I sure didn't do that when I moved to Seattle. Padding and thick material do have functions.
Anyway, I'll keep the toe shoes for some occasions. I do like them. But still think my primary pair will be my Merrell Chameleons.
I don't want to give the impression that I hate these toe shoes. I don't. Just would like to have shoes that maintain some function that shoes in the environment that I live in should have.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Toe shoes
So I’ve been on this long process of weaning myself off of orthotics that I’d started wearing in 7th grade. For quite a while, I’d found them helpful, but over time they’d started to become less effective and weren’t magically solving my postural problems like in the early days.
The initial problems, starting near the end of high school, was that when I was scheduled to get my gait checked and my feet molded for orthotics, I had to make sure my body was in the best condition possible. So I’d always visited my chiropractor the day before I went to my podiatrist. I also had to make sure I had a relatively new pair of shoes.
The reason I did these things is because I wanted to make sure the only thing the orthotic was going to correct was my arches. If I’d gone in with something else wrong, but the podiatrist addressed the problem via my feet, then if I later corrected the problem, the orthotics would no longer be helpful. In other words, they would only help me if I were in the state I was in when I was being fitted for them. Anything I were to do to correct my posture on my own would change my state and the orthotics would then be working against me.
To deal with this, I later (shortly after graduating college) switched to another kind of orthotic. It was one by Neo Vita. These orthotics weren’t from a mold of your foot, but rather had your foot mold to them. This was better because any improvements I made to my posture made the orthotics easier to wear.
However, these orthotics were quite aggressive; giving me spider veins in my feet, pain in my neck as well as headaches, plus it was difficult finding shoes to accommodate them.
But more than that, I’d gotten these orthotics not too long before leaving for Japan to live and work for a couple years. Within a few months, I got sick of transferring the orthotics from my outdoor shoes to my indoor shoes...or the fact that I couldn’t bring my indoor shoes with me to every place I would go (restaurants, friends’ houses) where I needed to take off my shoes.
So I stopped wearing the orthotics. It just wasn’t practical to use them. I’d like to tell you things got better not wearing the orthotics (or that walking in people’s houses barefoot got me thinking about different shoes), but, no. It would still be another seven years before I started thinking about minimalist shoes.
But, yes, living in Asia and being in bear feet while indoors did eventually get me to realize that I was more comfortable barefoot and really wanted a shoe that let me walk as though I were barefoot. But I didn’t know such a shoe existed until about a year ago.
Before that, I’d passed those seven years between losing the orthotics to my recent purchase by wearing shoes from Merrell which had good arch support and a strong sole. The Pulse II (discontinued), and Chameleon (II and III) were my shoes of choice.
But as I started becoming more involved in postural exercises, I found that my shoes (like my orthotics before) were working against improving my condition. And I started realizing that I could stand up straighter when I was barefoot. If only I had a pair of shoes that just wrapped around my feet.
Then I saw them. On the subway in Seoul, a girl got off the train and she was wearing these... foot...glove..things. They had toes. They looked a little strange and even then, I didn’t quite consider them to be the answer I was looking for. But when I told my chiropractor about wanting shoes that fit around my feet, he said, “You should try those Vibram Five Fingers.” I said, “I think I saw those the other day.”
Did I rush out and buy some? No. I was a little apprehensive about buying shoes with toes. I thought there were probably other options. Plus, buying shoes in Asia can be challenging. It was really difficult finding shoes that ran in my size, much less fit comfortably.
Fast forward to about two weeks ago, I asked my cousin about these toe shoes and other similar shoes. He briefed me and I came to know the terms “zero drop” and “minimalist”. I did some research of the shoes out there and determined the Vibram Five Fingers were the ones I wanted.
So, one week ago, I went to REI and bought a pair of KSO Treks. After wearing them a few days, I can say that I’m now uncomfortable walking in my Chameleons.
But I’ll talk more about these shoes and their hype in another post. This one’s long enough and it’s about 2 AM. The take home for this post is just the process I went through to move away from crutches for my feet.
The initial problems, starting near the end of high school, was that when I was scheduled to get my gait checked and my feet molded for orthotics, I had to make sure my body was in the best condition possible. So I’d always visited my chiropractor the day before I went to my podiatrist. I also had to make sure I had a relatively new pair of shoes.
The reason I did these things is because I wanted to make sure the only thing the orthotic was going to correct was my arches. If I’d gone in with something else wrong, but the podiatrist addressed the problem via my feet, then if I later corrected the problem, the orthotics would no longer be helpful. In other words, they would only help me if I were in the state I was in when I was being fitted for them. Anything I were to do to correct my posture on my own would change my state and the orthotics would then be working against me.
To deal with this, I later (shortly after graduating college) switched to another kind of orthotic. It was one by Neo Vita. These orthotics weren’t from a mold of your foot, but rather had your foot mold to them. This was better because any improvements I made to my posture made the orthotics easier to wear.
However, these orthotics were quite aggressive; giving me spider veins in my feet, pain in my neck as well as headaches, plus it was difficult finding shoes to accommodate them.
But more than that, I’d gotten these orthotics not too long before leaving for Japan to live and work for a couple years. Within a few months, I got sick of transferring the orthotics from my outdoor shoes to my indoor shoes...or the fact that I couldn’t bring my indoor shoes with me to every place I would go (restaurants, friends’ houses) where I needed to take off my shoes.
So I stopped wearing the orthotics. It just wasn’t practical to use them. I’d like to tell you things got better not wearing the orthotics (or that walking in people’s houses barefoot got me thinking about different shoes), but, no. It would still be another seven years before I started thinking about minimalist shoes.
But, yes, living in Asia and being in bear feet while indoors did eventually get me to realize that I was more comfortable barefoot and really wanted a shoe that let me walk as though I were barefoot. But I didn’t know such a shoe existed until about a year ago.
Before that, I’d passed those seven years between losing the orthotics to my recent purchase by wearing shoes from Merrell which had good arch support and a strong sole. The Pulse II (discontinued), and Chameleon (II and III) were my shoes of choice.
But as I started becoming more involved in postural exercises, I found that my shoes (like my orthotics before) were working against improving my condition. And I started realizing that I could stand up straighter when I was barefoot. If only I had a pair of shoes that just wrapped around my feet.
Then I saw them. On the subway in Seoul, a girl got off the train and she was wearing these... foot...glove..things. They had toes. They looked a little strange and even then, I didn’t quite consider them to be the answer I was looking for. But when I told my chiropractor about wanting shoes that fit around my feet, he said, “You should try those Vibram Five Fingers.” I said, “I think I saw those the other day.”
Did I rush out and buy some? No. I was a little apprehensive about buying shoes with toes. I thought there were probably other options. Plus, buying shoes in Asia can be challenging. It was really difficult finding shoes that ran in my size, much less fit comfortably.
Fast forward to about two weeks ago, I asked my cousin about these toe shoes and other similar shoes. He briefed me and I came to know the terms “zero drop” and “minimalist”. I did some research of the shoes out there and determined the Vibram Five Fingers were the ones I wanted.
So, one week ago, I went to REI and bought a pair of KSO Treks. After wearing them a few days, I can say that I’m now uncomfortable walking in my Chameleons.
But I’ll talk more about these shoes and their hype in another post. This one’s long enough and it’s about 2 AM. The take home for this post is just the process I went through to move away from crutches for my feet.
What came next (the last 5 months in a nutshell)
Kinda neglected my blog. So here’s what happened. My school got the funding but decided not to hire me. Then they couldn’t find anyone they liked. Then on the day before I left for the US (one week after my contract finished), my school found out that the GEPIK budget was completely cut and wouldn’t be getting a new English teacher to replace me.
I’d tried about a month before my contract ended to transfer to another job but because of changes to the visa regulations, I needed to have an FBI check (instead of a State level check) which I’d already started, but...long story short, wasn’t able to get the documents I needed for a visa transfer to another job on time.
So, came back to America end of July. Was considering China or going back to Korea to work in a cram school. China just didn’t pay enough and a cram school in Korea just did not sound appealing.
On a whim, I contacted a recruiter asking about another public school program in Korea (EPIK). The recruiter got back to me two days later and, long story short, I’m most of the way through the process of being admitted into the EPIK program this spring in Korea.
EPIK is a similar program to GEPIK (co-teaching in the public schools), just covers schools outside of Gyeonggi province (hence the lack of a “G” in the name).
So, yeah. I’m relieved that I should be able to get back to Korea in a few months. In the meantime, been enjoying my extended vacation visiting family and relatives.
I’ll try to keep this updated. Coming up (hopefully) before the close of this season, toe shoes, farming, and the economy (that sounds boring, but I think I’m going to try and connect those ideas into a continuous line of thought). We’ll see how that goes.
I’d tried about a month before my contract ended to transfer to another job but because of changes to the visa regulations, I needed to have an FBI check (instead of a State level check) which I’d already started, but...long story short, wasn’t able to get the documents I needed for a visa transfer to another job on time.
So, came back to America end of July. Was considering China or going back to Korea to work in a cram school. China just didn’t pay enough and a cram school in Korea just did not sound appealing.
On a whim, I contacted a recruiter asking about another public school program in Korea (EPIK). The recruiter got back to me two days later and, long story short, I’m most of the way through the process of being admitted into the EPIK program this spring in Korea.
EPIK is a similar program to GEPIK (co-teaching in the public schools), just covers schools outside of Gyeonggi province (hence the lack of a “G” in the name).
So, yeah. I’m relieved that I should be able to get back to Korea in a few months. In the meantime, been enjoying my extended vacation visiting family and relatives.
I’ll try to keep this updated. Coming up (hopefully) before the close of this season, toe shoes, farming, and the economy (that sounds boring, but I think I’m going to try and connect those ideas into a continuous line of thought). We’ll see how that goes.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
What’s next?
I’ve got about eight weeks left on my contract and I’m still uncertain if (and undecided whether) I want to stay here (in Korea) or try out China. Uncertain, because I’m waiting to see if my school will be given a budget to keep me. Undecided, because whether the school gets that budget or not, I’m not entirely sure I want to stay.
The administration is one factor, but also my health. The chiropractors just aren’t quite getting it done here. There’s another kind of chiropractic (called network chiropractic) available in Shanghai and Beijing. Of course, it’s available in America, too, but I need that strategic combination of chiropractic care and employment. Plus, China would be interesting.
I’m hoping that my school will get the funding so I can have time to take a trip to China and see if I like it, see if the chiro seems helpful. And if so, maybe move there next year.
We’ll see. I should find out the funding verdict on Monday.
The administration is one factor, but also my health. The chiropractors just aren’t quite getting it done here. There’s another kind of chiropractic (called network chiropractic) available in Shanghai and Beijing. Of course, it’s available in America, too, but I need that strategic combination of chiropractic care and employment. Plus, China would be interesting.
I’m hoping that my school will get the funding so I can have time to take a trip to China and see if I like it, see if the chiro seems helpful. And if so, maybe move there next year.
We’ll see. I should find out the funding verdict on Monday.
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