Men's Second Style

Yeah…I haven’t really been around so much lately.

I can blame a lot of things.  Eight months of unemployment is no fun for anyone, but I’m certainly not the only person who’s had to deal with that.  That said, in the end I still think it was more important to focus as much time as possible on the job search, and not while it away having fun (cough, screwing around, cough cough) in Second Life.  As tempting as that was, and as much as I would have enjoyed doing it.  You know?  Somehow I bet you do.

Re-employment can be no picnic, too.  What do you mean, my commute is now three times as long?  Going and coming?  WTF?  And the job requires more late hours and weekend work?  Oh, just kill me now.  And yet it seems ungrateful to complain about it, since I do at least have a job again.  Lots of people don’t.

But, as the song says, I’m still here.  Hopefully I’ll be able to make time again for posting here, at least now and then, since I do still enjoy it.  In the meantime, I do have something (finally) put together and ready to share, um, pretty much right now.  Although I did take the pictures some while back, you’ll be glad to know that I double-checked and the featured item in question is still indeed available.  So, score!

As always, thanks for reading.  Say hi sometime.

Life is interesting.

Real life has been particularly interesting for me of late.  And when I say interesting, I mean interesting in the way of the old Chinese curse.  I’ve recently become suddenly (but not entirely unexpectedly) unemployed, which among many other things has been, as I mentioned, interesting.  (In case you’ve been wondering, this is the main reason I haven’t been around much since Halloween.)  It’s nothing to worry about, at least not yet–I’m not alone in the world, we have savings, I qualify for unemployment benefits, and there’s also a surprisingly decent severance payment coming from my (now former) employer.  At the end of it all, maybe it’s just time for a change.

Which brings me to today’s topic.  Changes in life may or may not be scary, but in my experience they are, more often than not, disruptive.  I’m still having fun here, and as you may remember that’s my main criterion for what I do and don’t do in SL.  I’ll still be around, possibly now even a bit more than before–my real challenge may be not screwing around in SL all day when I should be, you know, looking for a job–but some things may well change.  For starters, don’t be surprised if I discover and share a new fascination with bargains!  Seriously though, I do still have some stuff in the works, some of it unfortunately delayed by RL events, but there it is.

The future had better watch out, because here we come!

I don’t do a lot of event announcements, but this one seemed worth mentioning, especially considering how much time I’m spending there myself this afternoon.  The Men’s 24, hosted by KMADD, presents a wide range of some of the best designers for men in SL.  In addition to new and already-available creations, you’ll also find a bunch of event exclusives, with only 100 at most being sold, and then they’re withdrawn forever.  I’m posting this as I head off for my own second round of browsing and shopping, so you may see me there.  If you do, say hi!  Hit the link to TP directly:  KMADD Events 141, 106, 28.  But don’t mess around!  The event only runs through the end of this week.

P.S.  Sorry for no other post this weekend–I do have something in the works, but I didn’t quite get it put together yesterday.  And, as you can see, today I’ve been distracted by something shiny.

Well, okay…some details now. Those of you who have been following along for a while know that my PC could be best described as “old and getting older”. Well, I am at long last taking the plunge and have actually (gasp!) placed the order for new hardware. This has been long overdue but was finally precipitated by one of the weirdest failures I’ve ever seen: apparently one of the RAM chips in my old PC has failed. The result is that it still runs, but on a half-ration of RAM it runs oh so much more slowly, as you may well imagine. So the time has come and I’m getting a shiny new toy. In the meantime, I’m limited on what I can actually do in SL—the client still runs (wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles), but even with graphics settings etc. turned all the way down, complex environments like let’s say for instance shops are not terribly do-able. It’s only a matter of time, though! Come on UPS Standard Ground Delivery, I’m waiting!

I had some stuff lined up in hopes that I’d get to it before an upcoming vacation trip, and I was feeling quite pleased with myself.  But then I must have stepped through a time warp or something, because over the weekend I realized that I’m leaving on Wednesday, as in the day after tomorrow, so I’m probably done until after I get back.  In all fairness to me, things were complicated over the weekend by a sudden (although not entirely unexpected) eviction from the estate where I live.  Apparently several sims in the estate are “under-populated,” including one where I live, and are to be turned off at the end of the month.  So I’ll be spending much of my last couple of evenings at home moving out in as orderly a fashion as I can manage on such short notice.  Hopefully all will be back to normal by around about the second week of May.  See you then!

Um, wow.  Without intending or certainly planning to, I seem to have taken a little break.  How did that happen?  I guess I just needed a bit of a breather—I’ve still been around in SL, but doing some fun stuff rather than “working” quite so much.

Also, I blame the Oscars.  My most sincere thanks to the Academy for upping the Best Picture ante to ten nominees while also cutting the interval between announcement of the nominations and presentation of the awards!  This makes my annual game of Oscar Catch-Up all the more intensive.  In the end it’s a lot of fun, but it does take up a lot of time.  For the record, I’d have given Best Oscar to Franco.

Oscar season is over now, though, so I can return you to your regularly scheduled programming.  Stay tuned for that casual stuff I promised you umpteen days ago.

No, no, of course I’m kidding.  About that second part.  I would never encourage any kind of electoral misbehavior.

But you can vote, if you’re into that kind of thing.  And early, if you like.  The Glance Fashion Awards nominees for 2011 have been announced, and you have until 15 February to vote for your own favorites in twelve different categories.  Those of you with sharp eyes will notice that this very blog was nominated in the Best Indy Male Fashion Blog category.  If you like what we’re doing here, please consider casting your vote for us.

No matter who you vote for, please vote!  Remember, you don’t get to complain about who wins if you don’t vote.

I’m a little late to this party, but still I think it’s worth sharing as there’s plenty of time left before it’s over!  I’m talking about Movember Month in Second Life (MoMoSL). Read the rest of this entry »

Many well known SL designers have donated items to raise funds for Project Donate, running September 4 – 19 in support of the UNICEF Pakistan Flood Crisis relief effort.  Visit the Project Donate website for more info, or drop by inworld to shop in (virtual) person!

I sent Mr. Oh a quick email the other day to remind him that I’d be out of town on an upcoming vacation getaway, and he replied to remind me that he would likewise be away from home.  So, for the next few days you’ll be on your own.  At least now you know we haven’t been abducted by aliens, or what have you.  Behave yourselves while we’re gone!