Friday, August 18, 2017

morality would frown upon, decency look down upon

hello fellow walkers


yes, i did indeed check that i struck the "l" key in the above and had no accidents with the "n" one, to be sure. the fallout from the last such instance was, look you see, rather muted and perhaps not worth repeating as such.

so anyway. as the title and introduction says loud and clear, this is all about shoes. well, mostly. predominantly i suppose. indeed i am milking this, for all i have to say really is that i have some new shoes and i thought i might as well share the news here. if not quite show off.



yes, that's them. presented in what my phone app reckons is ZX Spectrum mode, just to mix things up, but i suggest with no respect at all that the above image is far too clear and good a quality to be identified as ZX Spectrum.

fear not for the price you can (sort of) see there. no, i certainly did not pay £59.99 for these. about half that, or a penny or so north or south of half, depending on the present exchange rate.

the provenance of these new shoes? Sports Direct. whilst this famous store is most heavily associated, for some obscure reason, with playing cards, they also sell many other sporting related items. well, several i suppose is more accurate. let me not get your hopes all built up.



you might think i spend an awful lot, or if you like considerable, amount of my time in Sports Direct. the truth, alas, is not. it just so happens that on the rare instances i visit the premises i would normally make a purchase so exciting that i simply must take up valuable internet space with details of it.

indeed that is a more "regular" image of the shoes. Karrimor is the brand. they would seem to be British, going on the flag and that, but that's quite an Australian sounding name. i would dearly love to tell you that it was such that attracted me, but no it was the price. i nearly bought a pair of almsot fitting Nike shoes (which is from Nike out of Japan and not that god thingie), but these ones trumped the price by a couple of quid.

for what reason did i purchase new shoes? well, what i would do is ask you to look internally for a moment and request of yourself for what reason you purchase shoes. walking, dear reader, walking. and yes, again i am mindful of that "l" and "n" mix up, although i suppose in reference to my good self they are all really rather interchangeable.



oh yes that is me, walking around on a rare sunny day, listening to some smart vibes on my ipod stick thing; the one which it transpired was as point of fact waterproof.  what was i listening to? my current mix on it, all 512MB (less Apple OS software) features Bowie, Split Enz, Neil Diamond, U2, Aphrodite's Child and The Kinks. with some Roy Orbison and Joe Cocker. and, but of course, The Blues Brothers. no, no Beastie Boys.

a simple pleasure of mine is to walk around and enjoy some vibes. it was, once, a delight to cycle and listen to vibes, but i doubt i am quite so fit as to do that any further and anyway the constabulary probably twat you one if you have vibes on as you ride a bike.

for certain reasons i have of late been doing even more walking than usual. no, there is no quarrel or issue with my motor, it's just that what needed to be done had to be done on foot, and anyway the weather is splendid and allows for strolls.



the above picture is indeed for those of you who are confessed enthusiasts of images of shoes in the mode of 8bit technology camera emulation stuff. whilst it might be true that there are not so many of you, each and all of us are important, and our tastes must be touched. so long as the boundaries of law are respected.

when out purchasing these shoes did i, in association with my family, by any chance take leave briefly of the daunting task of selecting quality footwear to eat? indeed yes i, and they, did such. very much so, as point of fact.

as it is a preference for the younger members of my family, or if you like clan, we went to that McDonalds, or if you like McDonald's, place. nothing but intrigue and controversy were to greet us in doing so. what? well, here, to start with look at this fragmented, or rather folded, receipt from our venture, or maybe excursion.



people with a passion for imaginary space stuff hardly need me to tell them this, but anyway. Order 66 is significant for them what enjoy Star Wars, for that is the term used by the emperor, or the baddie, to tell some imaginary soldiers to kill some imaginary religious types. to wit, it is the order what saw them clones turn and attack their jedi masters.

dining at McDonald's, to use the variation spellcheck appears to approve of, has become an all together different experience to what it once was. i am unconvinced it is better, whereas others are very much so convinced.

they have changed things. now instead of counters and staff one goes and uses a touchscreen to select their order. whereas once the food preparation area was on open, nothing to hide display it is all hidden away behind sleek fittings, as if to celebrate the more sinister side of something like Soylent Green.

whilst i have heard one commentator say that the changes are good, for in their view "the less interaction i have to have with McDonald's staff the better", in the long term i believe this to be a mistake. going to McDonald's is now a dehumanized experience; something that seeks to enforce ideas of isolation and lack of contact as being a good thing.


yes, they are my new shoes in situ, as it were. they are a most comfortable fit, and do all that i have requested from or required them to do.

some of you may well think my thoughts on the new order, the brave new world, of how McDonald's now operates is an exaggeration. maybe, perhaps, but i genuinely think not. this whole internet business, where friendships are formed with people you don't even know for certain if they are who they say they are, has already eroded the importance we place on social interaction, as well as increasing our acceptance level of trusting what we are presented ipso facto anonymously. between the rise of the presence of "self service checkouts" in shops and this new way of ordering food, i cannot escape the sense that those who would seek to dictate and rule society flex this in a way that is tacitly telling us all not to communicate with each other.

another image of me walking around in my new shoes, although once again a picture in which you can't actually see the new shoes as such? to finish off why not. this is from a different, yet equally sunny, day. you are not mistaken, that is my smart or if you like boss oversized Nevada celebration shirt what i have on.



maybe, who knows, it might be best to just give in, really. whatever sense of dystopia i have about the dehumanisation of the world - where we are actively encouraged not to speak or share thoughts with each other - might be all simpler and better. to not think is, after all, to not worry so much or be concerned about anything.

would i give my recommendation or endorsement to these quasi Australian but apparently decidedly British shoes that i purchased? yes, but i appreciate such endorsing from me is of little value. the larger than standard size of my feet means that the footwear i select seldom has anything to do with preference or selection and everything to do with simply what is available and what will fit.

and so off i go, then, perhaps to do more walking. with, as many of you may well have observed if you seek hypocrisy in my words, my vibes on that tend to close out much interaction with the world around me.



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




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