I was first turned on to barefooting by Tim Ferriss last May.  And while Tim is an excellent writer, marketer, speaker, and lifestyle designer, the FiveFingers just look CREEPY.  Toe socks seriously creep me out.  I wanted them, but couldn’t get past the heebies.  But nothing sells a product as well as a stamp approval from a real live friend.  If Besologic gave the nod I was definitely willing to give them a shot.

If you haven’t heard of barefooting, it’s exactly what it sounds like.  You + Feet.  People have been wearing shoes for centuries.  It has destroyed our arches, our posture, and children in third world countries.  God didn’t create us to have flat rubber soles or high heels, despite what Christian Louboutin may tell you.  The perfect sole was designed when man was formed with barefreakingfeet.

Major problem.  San Francisco is a city filled with broken glass, cigarette butts and urine, both canine and human.  Major solution: Vibram FiveFingers KSO.  KSO stands for Keep Stuff Out.  My dad figured that age 25 was the age that he should stop buying me birthday and Christmas presents.  One of the few benefits of smothering mothering is that my mom believes in no such rule.  So armed with some birthday cash I set out to find some Vibram FiveFingers.  If you’ve never seen or heard of them, they’re basically wetsuit gloves for your feet, with a rubber sole to keep your feet protected.

I was informed by Besologic that those of us looking for FiveFingers have Chris McDougall’s “Born To Run” to thank for the nationwide shortage of Vibrams.  I believe it.  I called one of Vibram’s official retailers, Redwood Trading Post, around 1pm today.  It seems they were just sorting through a new shipment of FiveFinger KSOs.  ”Great! Can you put a 42 in all black on hold for me until the end of the day?”  They were reluctant do so, but did it anyway.  ”Well, we just got 3 in, so I guess we could do that for you.”

After getting my mouth cut open (more on that later), I headed down to Redwood City to try on the FiveFingers.  When I entered the store I mentioned I had a pair of FiveFingers on hold.  ”Which one are you?”  Apparently all 3 pairs of sz 42 black KSOs had been put on hold through the end of the day.  Those very same pairs they had just received around lunch time were pretty much sold.  In the time it took me to sit down and test fit the shoes, 3 more people had come in asking to try on some FiveFingers.

The Vibrams are sized in european sizing and I apparently am a tweener.  The 41s are just a little too snug, and the 42s make me wonder if they’re too big.  I somewhat solved that by doing something I vowed neverevereverneverever to do.  I, dictator-for-life, bought a pair of toe socks.  Horrible, heebie-inducing toe socks.  GROSS.

Day 0 : Down The Street
So here’s a log of my barefooting escapades.  Normally one buys a pair of shoes and immediately wants to try them out.  I, being a normal guy, would have loved to do the same.  However, I visited my dentist’s office for some oral surgery today after which they told me not to brush and floss for a week and not to engage in any strenuous activity.  ”Be a bum, just for this week, and just enjoy the fact that I told you not to brush or floss.” Sweet. Kind of.

So instead of going on a run.  I went on a walk to grab dinner.  I have two key initial impressions.  First, they feel like they are supposed to.  I did my undergraduate at UC San Diego and, as such, know full well the joys of walking around barefoot.  The FiveFinger KSOs do their job of keeping stuff out and feel surprisingly natural.  Second, they’re still very creepy looking and quite embarrassing.  Do expect to become somewhat of a spectacle.  I intend for my FiveFingers to be used strictly for running duty, so I won’t need to worry too much about that.

Overall, the construction looks great and they seem to be great for barefoot walking.  I look forward to my very first run in them.

On the kottke meme.  One or more nights spent in each location.  Those cities marked with an * were visited multiple times on non-consecutive days.  The city marked with an ** I consider permanent residence.

The year is 2000.  I am in English class at a high school in an affluent neighborhood.  I am assigned a list of vocabulary words and am told to use them in a sentence.  I do so, but one up the challenge and create a story series about a fictional family in my weekly vocabulary exams.  The year is 2001.  My friend’s kid sister tells me my English teacher, one Ms. Elizabeth Waller, has raved about my vocabulary stories to the class below me.  I feel suddenly validated as a writer.  Thank you, Ms. Waller.

The year is 2009.  I am in the habit of complaining about my job.  A friend tells me how he truly laughed out loud at my “status messages” regarding micromanagement and general office antics.  I am once again validated in my wit and literary skill.  A year earlier I had resolved to write a book, but at this point I forget the premise.  It matters not.

The year is still 2009, sadly.  Every Friday I wake up at the buttcrack of dawn to meet with a group of men to further our understanding of the world.  I imagine us as the freemasons, or better yet, the beginning of some powerhouse think-tank with the power to make the freemasons feel as if their liberties are completely taken away.  We are in charge now.

You can call it pride, arrogance, or even naivety… but my mission is to change the world.  I will do it with my story and I will affect one character at a time.  i’m starting with the character of you.  Your story is now blended with mine and we’re setting out on a journey.

One day we may look back and see this as a defining point in our lives where we crossed over from boring to awesome.  May, but probably won’t.  It’s closer to the truth to say that perhaps you will speak in to my life and I will attempt to somehow move you in the way you think.  And in that movement of poking, proding, irritating, and infecting that somehow you would see that there is a greater purpose to all that is here that we claim to live for.

I will write.  You will read.  And together, we will be set free.

for over a decade I have served in the music ministries of various churches. and for a decade I have battled with finding a way to “worship” as we go through the motions of singing songs and playing music. I have come to the realization that for me, the best way to do so is rock out and let go.

i’ll be honest. i wasn’t feeling it tonight. i didn’t know I wasn’t feeling it until it was all said and done. i thought to myself, “did i just lead tonight? well that was thoroughly unimpressive.” turns out having a 100 people singing back at you doesn’t do all that much for encouragement. the incredible thing is that there is the slight possibility that while you weren’t feeling it in the least bit, someone else totally could have been.

i am searching for some way to feel as if what i do on Sundays is actually honoring to God and not just going through the motions. i’m searching for a way to know if the words that people are supposedly confessing with their lips are more than words on a screen and cookie cutter chord progressions.

i want to know that church is more than just a social gathering of people that are largely cut from the same cloth. whether it be the color of skin and hair or socioeconomically, why do birds of a feather always seem to flock together? i want to know that we’re bringing something more to the table than just some Joel Osteen-esque health and wealth mentality. we might think that guy sounds like a looney when he preaches, but how many of us live our lives the way he talks about, believing we should get anything we want and never have to suffer a day in our lives, without even thinking about it or without someone telling us?

i am on a search for something deeper.

at the advice of tim ferriss, i’ve outsourced my life and i couldn’t be happier.  time truly is money in the fact that i will pay someone to get my time back… and it’s worth every penny.

over the last two weeks i got “busy” and managed to let my google reader overload.  well, really that just means i got stuck doing time sucking tasks and didn’t make keeping up on things a priority.  the unread items counter simply read “1000+”.  bblee suggested i “jubilee” some feeds and i did that tonight.  i even went so far as to unsubscribe from certain feeds.  i canned my “top post only” lifehacker feed as well as some random design blogs.  it felt liberating.  i did, however, take the time to read every post of my friend’s personal blogs… so don’t think i don’t read your brainfarts people.  but i often read the other clutter to stay “busy”.

as the holidays approach, it is usually a busy season for all of us, but busyness is when you waste your time.   i run in to people sometimes who tell me they’ve been busy and that’s why i haven’t seen them.  for some, i know this means they’ve been getting a ton of stuff done and making progress towards their goals.  for others, i know it means they’ve been wasting lots of time essentially doing nothing.  having a calendar full of events does not mean you’re being productive.  activity does not translate to productivity.

i’m going to make this holiday season different.  when i return from the city of angels on sunday, there will be no busyness for the rest of ‘08.  granted i still have to go to work, still have a worship ministry to coordinate, and still have enterprises to build… i’ll take care of that without being busy.  i’m even taking a week off of work to spend in the desert to write my book.  ok, not really the desert, but moreno valley might as well be the desert. and i’m going to do it with copious amounts of stone brewing company ales and all without being busy.

“this whole economic crisis has made me rethink dating iBankers”
-anonymous friend

oh, it’s REAL bad.

ht: janet h. kim, mercury news