In the USA at least, we refer to those shoes as "Executive Gunboats". In war, the crew of a gunboat has to be a little irritable, and quick on the trigger. No good can come from a comfortable gunboat crew. It's likely the same for shoes. Wear them when you need to kick some butt, and take names.
I've never tried Loake's but I know that with dress shoes the brand and last can be critical. Some companies go in with certain assumptions about the contours of a foot that just don't hold for everyone. For example, my fibula (long bone of the lower leg, outside of the leg) is juuust a bit lower than many shoemakers think it should be, which means that the top of the opening of the shoe is often in a perfect position to rub horribly there. I bought a pair of Teva sandals one time, left my old sandals at the store for disposal as they were coming apart, but hadn't thought to check for the problem when I tried them on.* By the time I got back to the subway station near my apartment my feet were bleeding, so I took the sandals off and walked carefully down the city sidewalks barefoot, threw the sandals (can't return bloodstained footwear, I assume) in the trash. Spoiler: * It was September 12th, 2001, and I was brutally hungover. The first plane hit at 21:46 Japan time and we'd already been drinking for a bit because I had Wednesdays and Thursdays off at that point.
A new tablet. It kills me to have to do so as my old one is basically fine except for the fact that it's on Android 5, which the world basically doesn't support anymore. I'll keep it in the bedroom as a book reader, the Kindle still runs okay. But this afternoon is the joy of the endless rounds of installations and updates that come with new hardware.
What is the conversion rate between currency and units of happiness and productivity? How do you justify the things you buy? How do you rationalize the money you spend?
I did the same, but for different reasons. I had just signed up for Kindle Unlimited and bought a new (8" ONN) tablet for reading, to compliment my NOOK. Made it through setup and updates, but if you figure out a way to uninstall Android's new stupid and intrusive Entertainment Space app, please let me know. There must be a special place in Hell for companies that force programs on their users which aren't required for the equipment to operate but can't be uninstalled.
I don't justify my spending. Getting through life is a continual learning process. Survival is a learning process. If I want something, I buy it if I can afford it. If it makes me happy, at purchase that is fine, but if it continues to make me happy in the then future, and the now, now. It was a good purchase. If it has stopped making me happy it was a bad purchase. In either case, I move on and file the information in my 'brain' for future reference. Examples: Good Purchase - My Olympus E-M5 III camera and the Zuiko 12-40 f/2.8 zoom lens. I get a little thrill just holding them, even after 2 years. Viewing the photos is also most pleasing. Bad Purchase - Alexa Home automation system - flaky, unreliable, it was a stupid purchase, and I feel diminished every time I have to repeat myself 4 times to get her to turn on the damn lights.
Most of my purchases are stupid, with the thrill of the buy pretty much dying a couple of minutes after receiving and tearing into the package. Not because the item is a let-down, but because I never really needed it in the first place. I will say, however, that I’m still to make my first ‘amazon drunk purchase’.
Ad Astra on Blu ray. I’ve not seen so much as the trailer for this film but I like sci-fi and I like Brad Pitt so I guessed it was worth a gamble.
After 20 years of use my set of neoprene longneck bottle insulators finally turned into piles of crumbled polymers of chloroprene. I bought a new set of six insulators which, I hope and pray, last as long and that I outlive them by at least a day. A decade would be better.
For me personally, I try to place a higher value on means (tools, raw product) to acquire self-actualization through some sort of labour instead of fetishizing a thing for direct self-actualization. That way I'm daydreaming about what I'll create more than what I'll peel stickers off of. Emphasis on try... aspiration. I'm not claiming a great deal of success.
Some polymer clay (and a block of air dry clay in case the whole ‘bake to harden’ thing doesn’t work out) and a set of modelling tools. I’ve always wanted to try my hand at sculpting so thought I’d start out small with some miniature skulls. Just to clarify, the above are not my own attempts, just an example of the kind of result I’m hoping for.
A new Chromebook. It's been 11 years since I last bought a computer--it really freaked me out that as soon as I got it up and running Chrome had all my bookmarks and passwords exactly like on my last laptop. Partly in a good way, I mean I wasn't looking forward to laboriously creating each one like I've always had to do before, but it also made me feel the depth and power of Google's almighty reach. I believe they know what I've had for breakfast every day of my life and everything I can't find in my house. But of course they ain't gonna let me know where any of it is, that's privileged information only for the corporations willing to pay for it. However I love how easy it is now to work on my Google Docs on or offline. This is how they get you--bread and circuses. They give you excellent toys, and then shaft you. Also, it pisses me off that apparently I can no longer use the keyboard shortcut I know to make M-dashes! Using double-hyphens for now, till I look up one of the other methods. Come on, it's my favorite punctuation mark!
Four new pairs of boots, two new pairs of sunglasses, and... a six pack of plain white socks. The socks were acquired to try on the boots, since I went shopping with my flip-flops on. (All hail New Hampshire with her endless outlet stores and sales tax haven!)
