Week Seven

For my review I chose my shoes, the Nike Free Everyday 2+. I purchased these shoes in August of 2009, and as such they are no longer available for purchase. However, I felt a review of them was in order, as I can now comfortable and assuredly give a well-informed and knowledgeable review of them. I am evaluating this product as my personal response to the media buzz and social popularity and impact they had upon the running world.

When the first pair of Nike Frees came out, there was more talk about them than actual sales. Though not an original idea, Nike was the first major running shoe company to produce a “barefoot” running shoe. The concept comes from scientific studies which show that advancements in shoe technology has allowed our form as a species to degrade to a point where we are hurting ourselves more than helping. Runners are landing primarily on the heel, and then pushing off hard with the toes. This adds extra stress to the knees in the shock of body weight being slammed down onto cement or concrete. Barefoot running draws its roots from the primitive form of running, which is the natural way our bodies have been designed to run, landing upon the ball of the foot and barely pushing off. It is a much lighter and more efficient way to run, employing even the use of gravity by the lean forward, shifting the center of balance forward of the feet. The Nike Free helps promote this action by strengthening the arch of the foot and being incredibly flexible.

            Due to the large amount of press and hype the Nike Free produced, Nike went on to redesign the shoe again and again, creating the Free2, Free v. 3.0, Free v. 4.0, Free 5.0, Free 6.0, and Free 7.0. They also produced a Free Everyday and a Free Everyday 2+, which are designed for strengthening the arch while walking, without sacrificing any of the flexibility of the original Free.

            I purchased a pair of Everyday 2+ mainly because most of my friends had them, and had nothing but good things to say about them. I was also in sore need of a new pair of shoes, as my old ones had worn out faster than expected. I chose the Everyday 2+ over the Free 5.0 because I have a tendency to over pronate when I run, which means I run slightly on the outside sides of my feet, rather than flat on the bottom. This condition requires minor weights in my running shoes, which doesn’t fix the problem, but creates a desire for my feet to run correctly. The weight is added through the use of a denser foam on the inside of my running shoes, which the Free 5.0 did not offer. So I went with the Everyday 2+.

            Initially, I was quite satisfied with my purchase. Nike’s website was well organized, with many different fields for easy quick navigation, and a multitude of search refining options. The delivery occurred within a week, and I was eager to try them out as an everyday shoe. The first week of wearing them was a bit uncomfortable, and my feet where usually sore after a full day. I believe this to be a problem of my arch being pitifully weak before wear these shoes, as the problem receded and vanished within two weeks. The exterior was quite ascetically pleasing, with a few suggestive curves of fabric in a simple dark grey, light grey, blue color scheme. The mesh used as a cover for your foot is very breathable, almost translucent fabric that somehow manages to hold enough heat in to keep feet warm for decently long periods of time in the winter, but cool and dry during the summer. The flat laces that come with the shoe allow for quick and easy knots that stay tied through extended use. The sole is ridiculously flexible, allowing me to touch the toe backwards to the heel. The comfort of the shoe after two weeks is also notable. For the first ten miles, the sole has a very soft and pliable upper foam. Assuming only one person wears the shoes for this period of time, the foam with mold itself to the person’s foot, similar to how a wet sponge will yield to any applied pressure. After the first ten miles, the foam will harden like a dry sponge to form a rigid structure perfectly molded to the owners own feet. Dr Scholls be jealous.

            As far as lifetime of the shoe, I have worn this shoe almost exclusively for every day since August of 2009. That’s around 550 days, give or take. The shoes are still entirely wearable, with no serious structural defects. There are minor tears on the inside, where the fabric is pulling the upper foam off of the lower foam, but these are less than ¼ inch long, and pose no immediate threat to the overall shoe. The sole shows obvious signs of extensive wear, and there is slight discoloration on the fabric, but that comes from excessive use. I could not be happier with the shoes overall durability and strength. I have been through blizzards, mud bogs, sand dunes, grassy fields, the streets of New York City, and everything in between in them.

            One last thing I have to mention is the cost. These shoes were not cheap, costing me about $140, including $30 shipping & handling. However, they were well worth the cost, as I will foreseeably get two full years of use out of them without needing a replacement. While a large initial investment, I fully recommend these shoes to anyone interested in extreme comfort without slacking in the classy department.

Week Six

            Imagine the coldest day in winter. The wind howling across your face, whipping around your hair, and biting through every layer you’ve methodically applied to your person. The snow isn’t falling, but twisting up into the sky in a sort of violent dance. You’re standing on the side of a street, with no one for company but the wind, snow, and cold concrete sidewalk. In the distance, you hear the sound of relief that you’ve been waiting for: The roar of a CATA bus accelerating from a stop, and the familiar red and white monster lumbers into view. As the brakes screech in protest, the vehicle slows to a standstill a few feet past you. As you hurriedly climb inside and feed the machine $1.50, you instantly forget the last fifteen minutes you’ve spent cursing the cold and the bus. The bus lurches into motion, temporarily throwing you off balance and into a wall of bodies. After you steady yourself against an overhead bar, you look around and notice how packed the bus is. The shear multitude of bodies pushed closer together than socially acceptable is astounding. “How is the vehicle even moving?” you wonder. As you begin to settle into the pattern of speeding up and slowing down for stops, you let your mind wander in an effort to distract from the scene surround you. Busses aren’t exactly the prettiest things in the world. Built almost entirely for function, they offer little in the way of beauty. Think of a big metal box, screw on some wheels and an engine, and throw a few of the cheapest, smallest plastic chairs inside, and you have a CATA bus. In an effort to keep the exterior of the bus clean and simple, all advertisements are placed inside the bus, above the windows. However, this has the end effect of making the windows smaller, which encloses the occupants even further. The floor is dirtier than a piece of 100-year-old carpet. The smell is comparable to a wet dog in sore need of a bath. The air is heavy with the breath of unfamiliar bodies pressing in on all sides. Even if you are lucky enough to obtain a seat, if your ride is longer than ten minutes, you will be stiff by the time your destination is reached. This, unfortunately, has become the norm for commuters across the State College area.

Quotes:

“I don’t really use the busses, Dave [a friend] has a car that we all use to get around.” – Sam Heppelmann (freshmen, physics)

“I routinely pay for the V and couldn’t care less about giving a company a few dollars if it meant they could do things right and not wait for full busses to go past.” – Thaddeus McGilicutty (junior, criminal justice)

“I don’t think I’d use the links more if they were free… I’d really like to see more buses on the blue and white loops though, so the wait isn’t as long.” – Laura Wake-Ramos (freshmen, architecture)

Facts:

A new free CATA app for Android-based smart phones is available for download. This app shows real-time bus locations and schedules, just like the app for the iPhone.

“CATA to offer bus tracking app.” Centre Daily Times [Centre County, PA] 2 February 2011: Web.

The University of Michigan offers free bussing to students, staff, and faculty on university and city busses through a program called MRide.

University of Michigan: Parking & Transportation Services. University of Michigan. n.d. Web. 14 February 2011.

CATA offers university employees unlimited CATA access for $5 a month, and students can purchase a ‘OnePass’ for a variety of time periods for decreasing monthly costs, ranging from $39 to $55 a month.

CATA. Centre Area Transit Authority. n.d. Web. 14 February 2011.

CATA is studying “the feasibility of making its entire bus system fare-free for all riders.”

Smeltz, Adam. “CATA Study to Explore Fare-Free Rider Access.” statecollege.com. State College, 17 January 2011. Web. 14 February 2011.

Further research required:

I am interested in investigating several professors who use the $5 month ride fee, and see their opinion and view on the current study. It should be interesting to compare the reaction of students to that of professors.

I am interested in analyzing the multitude of statistics available on catabus.com on ridership with many different breakdowns and spins on the data. It will also be interesting to analyze what they don’t provide statistics on.

Week Four

As an undergraduate student at Penn State, I can certainly see where the school’s ranking as the #1 Party School came from. As such, I think the report by This American Life does a very thorough job examining the issue from all points of view. It was obviously well researched, with audio clips from many different people affected by it, from students to university officials, from alumni to local residents. All of these groups were interviewed in a professional, direct method that got the information necessary without wasting time, which can be a problem without sounding too leading. Numerous statistics and data analysis were used to illustrate points in a much more numerical way. The manner in which the issue is presented is very easy to understand and follow, as the narrator often inputs their own emotions in such a manner as to not pass judgment, something which is rather difficult in investigative reporting. The reason for immediate investigation is twofold: First, the schools ranking as the #1 party school in the nation, and second, the recent death of freshmen Joe Dado. Specifically, I believe the narrator in this story wants the listener to understand that at big party schools like Penn State, alcohol consumption is too much a part of the social norm and cultural history for anyone to do anything effective about it.

Personally, I enjoyed the report. I might not have spared the time on my own to listen to all of it, but I didn’t have a problem listening to it, just finding the time to do so. Towards the end I found my mind drifting off, and had to go back and re-listen to a few portions because I was day dreaming. Other than that, I found it to be well composed, thoughtful, informative, and clear. I never had a problem comprehending the subject of conversation, or following the report. I did find myself in a relatively unique position as an undergraduate student at Penn State, and possibly that helped me relate to and understand the situation. I knew the location of all the businesses discussed, and have visited several of them myself. I have shaken hands with the president of the university, and have even had a casual lunch with him. I suppose to shorten the work, less time could have been spent on what the university is doing to curb excessive drinking. Personally, I know all of the measures they have taken, as they have all been advertised directly to me. This work supposedly was to discover what living in State College is like, and they did a fantastic job accomplishing that in the first three sections. The fourth is kind of a digression into what is being done to change life in State College, which although ultimately unnecessary, it is very helpful and relevant to the discussion. I respect the hell out of This American Life for that report, as it is exceptionally well done.

MFA Reading 1/28/11 aka Night of Many Drinks

The story of this night begins with my English 15 class, taught by Ms Denise Grollmus. You see, for extra credit Denise had informed our class we could attend any one of a series of MFA readings over the course of semester, and write a 500-word summary of the event. This seemed relatively easy to me, so I opted to attend the first of the readings, which was to take place at the university club and begin at 7:30 pm on Friday, January 28^th, 2011.

I happen to have class on Fridays until 5:30 pm, and usually go out to dinner with some friends immediately following class. This particular Friday, we chose the West Halls dining commons for dinner, known for its exceptional quality in food preparation. This night the main entrée was crab cakes, and let me tell you, they were good. We departed the dining commons at approximately 6:15 pm, and I split off from my friends to head over to the university club. I knew I would have extra time between dinner and the reading, so I had brought my laptop with me and planned to edit and revise a narrative I had due on Monday in the downtime. I had never been to the university club, but I figured it was just another classroom building, and I would be able to find a chair or desk to sit and work at.

            Boy was I wrong. My first impression of the building was the stone walkway spilling from a large wooden front door, flanked on either side by three deep fluted columns with ionic capitals well above 20 feet in the air. This impressive entrance was made even more grand by the landscape, which sloped upwards to the structure. As I pushed aside the door, I was surprised to find a familiar floor plan stretching away from me. The floors were all wooden, and there weren’t any doors, but rather openings in the walls. This was definitely not your typical classroom building. To the right of the front door was what could only be described as a sitting room, with a multitude of couches and low-seated armchairs scattered throughout on top of several rugs, interrupted by the occasional coffee table. The room was probably close to 600 square feet. Behind it was another room arranged in the same fashion, but only 400 square feet. Both rooms where dark and deserted, and I felt relieved for some privacy in a situation that was beginning to feel slightly uncomfortable.

Through the next hour, no one came in the room or talked to me. People slowly filed through the front door, but not enough to create a large crowd. They all seemed familiar with where to go, and didn’t give me a second glance. At approximately 7:25, I packed up my belongings and set off to find the location of the people. After taking out my iPod, I could hear a repetitive slight thump from a base speaker, and found a set of stairs leading to a basement where the music was coming from. These stairs emptied into a space just large enough for a pool table, which is just where one was located. To the left I saw rows of stackable chairs all facing a podium and projector screen, which was obviously where the reading was to take place. No one was sitting in the chairs, but several jackets had been flung over a few chairs in a very possessive manner. But the feature that got my attention the most was the red carpet. You see, it not only covered the floor but also the walls. There had been wooden frames constructed over top of the cement walls, and the carpet had been nailed to this, with holes cut into it for recessed lighting. The other unusual feature was the benches that where cantilevered from the walls, also covered in red carpet. However unsightly or dirty the benches where, they looked more roomy and less awkward than the chairs, which were pushed together to the point of being uncomfortable. Thus, I took a seat near the back on a bench, and buried my nose in my laptop once more.

After a few minutes, there was a call to order, including a mention of “road beer.” As people began to shuffle into the cramped rows of seats, I caught a few glimpses of what they had been crowded around: A mini bar. After all, it was a Friday night, was it not? I wondered to myself if there was anyone else in the basement that was underage. As it turns out, there wasn’t. I imagine I could’ve gotten a drink if I wanted, but at the time I was genuinely thirsty, and only interested in water.

The program started right away with a short introduction of the first of four writers to be reading their work that evening. Though brief, the introduction managed to include a slew of sexual innuendos and naughty implications. This was obviously a group of people who knew each other well enough to laugh at such jokes. However, the effect on me was to make my desire to leave even more urgent. All introductions were given in the same manner, and just further heightened the awkwardness of the evening for me. It didn’t help that I was about eight years younger than the average age of the room, and the only one with a laptop taking notes. I was also distressed to notice Nicolette, who teaches English 15 to a number of my friends, sitting directly across from me.

Despite my sense of not belonging, I did appreciate a majority of the work read by the four writers. The first read a very elegantly worded and length fictional narrative set in the style of letters to the owner of a house from the neighborhood to which they belonged. The second and third read poems, but they were very different readers. The second had a very lively personality and voice, until she started to read her work. Then, for some reason unbeknownst to me, she became very monotone, and dragged her ‘s’ on for just slightly too long, which was just enough to distract me from trying to listen to her writing. I don’t know what she was trying to write about, but I imagine it was good. The third reader was by far my favorite. She read a series of sonnets, which covered a variety of topics. The thing I liked most about her was her style of writing. It was very broken, offering the observer only glimpses of scenes and emotions, leaving them to fill in the rest with their imagination. I liked this because it spoke to something different in everyone, provoking a different interpretation from everyone. It revealed not only something about the author but something about yourself. Very cool stuff. My expectations were high for the fourth reader, which is perhaps why her work was such a letdown. She chose to read a piece comparing panda mating patterns to those of humans, including personal experiences. Not exactly something I felt particularly drawn to.

Thankfully the whole event wrapped up at 9:00 pm on the nose. I was the first person to walk out of that basement. Yet despite how uncomfortable I was the whole time, I can see myself returning on February 18^th. Partially for the purpose of hearing good works of writing, partially for extra credit, and partially for the humor of being the only undergrad student at an event geared toward a very exclusive audience without enough of a backbone to kick me out.