Once you go Five Fingers, you can't go back

For the last couple of years, I have been hiking almost exclusively in my Vibram Five Fingers. They worked for almost every hike, except the very cold and wet, and for trail maintenance - people in charge of safety like it if your toes are nicely covered. I wore them for 20-mile-plus day hikes as well as backpacking trips. In fact, in my move to New York, I threw out my old boots. I wasn't so fond of them, they were heavier than I liked, and they took up space.

Here's the problem: There's more cold and wet in New York than Tennessee. I'm going hiking today, with a high of 43, and the Vibrams wouldn't be warm enough. (I own snow boots, but it's not cold and wet enough for that, either.) So, what does a girl do but go to REI and buy a new pair of boots?

The Soho REI is similar in size to the Seattle flagship, although I was surprised at how small their footwear section was. For lightweight hikers, my choice was pretty much Keens or Merrells. I took a pair of Merrells home. The next day I walked around the apartment in them, and decided almost immediately to take them back.

I inherited my dad's feet; they're actually slightly narrow, but the widest part is rather wide. In the past, that had not been a big deal. Then I started wearing the Vibrams a lot. My feet have not only gotten stronger, they've shifted a bit; the widest part of my foot is now even wider. I had noticed while attempting to purchase ordinary shoes, but it didn't become painfully evident until trying on hiking shoes.

In a couple of cases, the instep was too far forward for me. But in every pair of shoes or lightweight boots I tried, the shoe was tight across the wide part. Lacing didn't help, as it was the molding of the footbed. Finally, I tried on the last shoes EMS had, a new brand named Salewas. These were OK, so I bought them.

They're too wide in the heel, alas, which could mean blisters. I'll see how they work after my first hike with them today. Five Fingers will be in the pack for backup.

Meu mestre

Capoeira Angola Palmares, a photo by TheTurducken on Flickr.

As I promised, photos from the Baton Rouge event.

Capoeira encounter

Last night I returned home from a six-day trip to Baton Rouge and New Orleans for a capoeira workshop with Mestre Gulliver. Of course, I can study with him any time here in New York, but not for five days straight, and not with my friends from Nashville and Louisiana. I have approximately 5 zillion photos to upload to Flickr, about 1/5 of which are on Facebook.

Not that long ago, I realized that I am no longer nervous in the roda most of the time. I think that has helped my play. But my game has also gotten much better because I'm beginning to have a better grasp of the dynamics of it, and I've started to internalize the movements. I actually managed to easily take someone down in tesoro this weekend, something I couldn't have done as long as I had to think about the mechanics of it. It's nice to see improvement.

They kiss? Eeeeew ...

I'm not necessarily surprised when people disagree about whether a book is good or not. Sometimes, I understand their objections (or its appeal) without agreeing. And then there are those times when I wonder if they even read the same book I did.

I just finished N.K. Jemisin's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, a fantasy novel about a young woman who, after the death of her disinherited mother, is called to the capital to be named one of three heirs to the empire. It was, in my opinion, an engrossing book, novel more in its mythology than in the storyline or voice.

But plenty of reviewers disagreed. One complaint I saw reiterated was that it started off as a fine fantasy novel but then veered off and became, ugh, a romance. This is ridiculous on several levels. First, there is a kiss early on in the book. That should lead an attentive reader to expect more of that later. Second, it wasn't a romance in the girl+guy=happy coupledom. There is some nookie, yes. There is some love, yes - but remember that "love" doesn't just mean romantic love. It means loving your mom, loving your family, loving your God, even loving humankind. Let's just say the love in this book is of the more complicated kind. Third, for goodness sakes, if spec fic readers can handle Heinlein, they ought to be able to handle this. Does sex from the lady's angle have cooties or something?

The other baffling complaint I saw more than once was that this novel was written in a pretentious, confusing style. Based on this, I was expecting something like James Joyce. Instead, what I found was an almost completely straightforward first-person narrative. There is an occasional flashback, which shouldn't confound any reader over the age of 6. The only narrative device that was remotely non-khaki was a series of conversations that occasionally interrupt the main narrative. It's not entirely clear at first who the main character is talking to in these. Kuh-razy, I know, right? Not. Orson Scott Card did essentially the same thing in Ender's Game, and I don't recall anyone saying that book was treading in pretentious literary waters.

I could speculate on why the book drew some of this reaction, but I won't. Your takeaway: Some people are dumb. This is a pretty good book. That is all.

Beater down!

Twisted, a photo by TheTurducken on Flickr.

i realized the brown sugar was slightly hard, but I didn't know it was THAT hard.