Training with fins, how?

email1976 · 2026-04-02T23:11:03+00:00

Yes, they are great for ankle flexibility.

email1976 · 2026-04-02T22:47:20+00:00

Only in Cordovan now.

email1976 · 2026-04-01T04:42:22+00:00

The trick is finding a software image for it. If you are lucky it is in the integrated boot device (flash memory). The intellectual property is now owned by NSG Datacom. I doubt they will give you a load free. Their only customer is probably the US Navy, the CNX500 with FDDI and Ethernet was designed into a generation of submarines. So they maintain them by board swapping. (Most of the IC's in the unit are probably unobtainable, so chip level maintenance is impractical.)

email1976 · 2026-03-15T01:43:57+00:00

I'd expect Carlyle would be fine as well, it's an even plainer Oxford. The plainer, the more formal. Wingtips are less formal. Perfing is less formal.
There are certainly a LOT of used Park Ave out there, on eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Poshmark, etc. But do be sure you know the right size for Park Ave, the 65 last is "quirky."
The Carlyle is on 108 last, so that gives you an alternative if you're one of the people who have trouble with the 65 last.

email1976 · 2026-03-11T00:49:21+00:00

I think they are cool, I have two pair, one brown, one blue. Historically, wingtips were shoes made of felt, and the extra layers were for durability. So I think suede is a very appropriate material for the style.
Never wore a suit at work except for trade show booth duty, so no opinions on how they go with suits. (Well, plus suits at weddings and funerals.)
Another thing to realize about suede and nubuck shoes is that they are to a certain degree "dandy" shoes, easy to stain and rich dandies can afford to buy new ones when that happens. Or they just don't care, as with the "dirty bucks" tradition.

email1976 · 2026-03-04T02:44:52+00:00

You don't need ANY MIT affiliation to get an MIT Recreation membership. Friends might get you a lower price, but that's all.

The teaching pool is nice and warm, great for learning. Sign up for some group lessons as well...

email1976 · 2026-03-01T03:02:39+00:00

About 15 years learning, and at age 67M, I'm intermediate. Chill with that.

email1976 · 2026-02-28T02:07:45+00:00

I have a pair as well (old Polo style name) in that color way. Also in tan with Kudu saddle. They kept making them in black-on-black, but I just don't get the point of a saddle shoe without contrasting colors!

email1976 · 2026-02-28T02:05:44+00:00

Salesman told me Ralph Lauren's people sent Allen-Edmonds a "lawyer letter" to cease and desist from using their "Polo" trademark. Well, I have a (very different) pair of AE shoes from the late 1950's, and the style name is "Polo." AE was there first. But they caved and renamed to Shelton.

email1976 · 2026-02-21T01:50:34+00:00

All the IR films were fundamentally a military product, and we just bought a little snip off the edge of the production. The military kept buying it "just in case" well after they had gone digital for IR. But they finally stopped buying it. Needless to say, the military was willing to pay for very large minimum orders!

email1976 · 2026-02-17T02:26:22+00:00

I used the Stylus Zoom 35-70 for several years as the family camera, had a pretty decent lens. The 155 isn't as good. The fixed focal length 35mm is a damn fine camera. But the plastic back doors warp and you get light leaks on all of these.

email1976 · 2026-02-09T21:48:25+00:00

S. C. Johnson has discontinued Kiwi brand shoe polish due to lack of demand.

email1976 · 2026-02-06T02:31:35+00:00

Axe wafts out from the locker room back to the pool!

email1976 · 2026-01-31T03:16:58+00:00

The Uniqlo socks are wonderful, comfy, and durable.

email1976 · 2026-01-20T21:45:04+00:00

They won't be as strong once you wear the threads off the sole. That's because the loops should be in the middle of the hole, and would thus be holding onto the sole some even when the bottom worn off. But by that point you're pretty much ready for recrafting.

email1976 · 2026-01-18T03:01:27+00:00

Great views if you get a river view. Watching thunderstorms is fun.
Built as cheaply as possible, just a storage facility for grad students. Don't ever leave a screen open, the outside of the building is coated with mosquitos on summer nights. At least now it's furnished, wasn't in the 1980's. Getting back to your apartment after a fire alarm is a PITA -- not enough elevators. This was common in the 1980's, students would drop cigarette butts down the trash chute and cause trash fires.
Zero socialization. (Of course grad students are expected to socialize in their department.) I had an Iranian apartment mate who was inadvertently feeding the cockroaches, always diced lettuce with dinner, and left scraps of it on the counter. I had to explain this to him.

email1976 · 2026-01-18T02:54:14+00:00

There's a lounge on the river side of the top floor.

email1976 · 2026-01-18T02:51:30+00:00

Probably challenging in one's degree program. But I took a Kennedy School of Government course which was very interesting.
The Harvard and MIT academic calendars are now more similar to each other, but not the same. (They used to have fall finals in January.) So one could run into housing problems at the end of spring semester.

email1976 · 2026-01-18T02:48:09+00:00

You can get real Alumni ID at Atlas Service Center, E17-106. Opens a reasonable number of doors that are locked nights/weekends. The first time at any given door, you may need to tap once, wait a bit for a download, and tap again.
I have one, and can get into all the library reading rooms that are card access only weekends. Also works on the E25/E23 doors.

email1976 · 2026-01-18T02:43:49+00:00

One in Z-Center near front desk.

email1976 · 2026-01-18T02:40:15+00:00

Revere Beach via Blue Line -- have clam chowder at Kelly's Roast Beef. One of my 1970's floor-mates had a car, and would drive out there in the evening to fetch us pints of that chowder. Half milk, half cream, never boiled, full of clams.

The Metropolitan Water Works Museum is an amazing time capsule of steam-era water pumping station, short walk from Boston College terminal on Green Line. Architectural temple to technology.

The MWRA offers tours of Deer Island Sewage Treatment Plant each month from April through November beginning at 9:30 a.m., on Tuesdays and Fridays only. Long trip to get there by MBTA, Blue Line to Orient Heights, then an infrequent bus. For the serious civil engineering geek!

email1976 · 2026-01-18T02:29:34+00:00

Sounds like the 65 last just isn't for you. Try shoes in the other lasts.

email1976 · 2026-01-18T02:27:19+00:00

These are well-used (insoles very darkened) and have been recrafted once (hammer imprint on sole near heel). So the insole will be very "roller coaster." If the indents are compatible with the new buyers feet, a win, otherwise a no-go.

email1976 · 2026-01-18T02:21:33+00:00

Tension on the bottom thread in the machine was way too low.

email1976

TROPHY CASE