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!
Post Category: Announcements
1 comment August 7th, 2010 at 07:56amRyan Darragh
Where does the time go? My apologies for recently being rather more absent than present. I had a bit of a domestic crisis that demanded my attention, at first because there were things that had to be done to restore order, and then because there was something shiny and it was difficult to look away. I realize that was fairly cryptic; I shall elaborate.
Our TV blew up. Not literally—there were no sparks, or in fact anything dramatic. I suppose it would be more accurate to say that it gave up. It was a ProScan 27” tube TV, fantastic in its day and it had served long and well. But it was old and tired and ready to make its way to the clearing at the end of the path. There were signs—it had been flickering a bit for a while, and some noticeable geometric distortion had crept in. Oh, and once or twice it dropped into black-and-white mode, as if it simply couldn’t muster up the energy to do color. All this said loudly and clearly that an internal power supply or some such was just about done. Finally last week, it just quit one night, about 10 minutes from the end of Top Chef. Ouch! (more…)
Post Category: Announcements,Commentary
9 comments July 16th, 2010 at 08:32amRyan Darragh
I know, I know. It does seem like I take an awful lot of vacation, doesn’t it? Well, actually…no, not really. But it does roll around with some regularity, and so here we are again. I’ll be away from 21 April through 5 May, eating drinking and carousing. (In other words, all the usual stuff.) Envy me and weep. It’s entirely possible that Mr. Oh might have a thing or two to share with you in my absence. I do have one post in the works and had hoped to have it ready to publish before heading out, but alas–it was not to be. It’ll come together all the quicker upon my return.
Seeya in a couple of weeks! 
Post Category: Announcements
Add comment April 20th, 2010 at 05:58pmRyan Darragh
Wowsers, we’ve had rain in Los Angeles! You may or may not know, but it’s true. Tons of rain. Literal tons, most likely. Inches of rain, all within a week, and things are very wet. Fortunately our house is wet on the outside but dry on the inside, the way it’s supposed to be. (That has not always been true, ugh.) But why am I telling you this? Well, one consequence of living in an older neighborhood (70+ years) is that it has older infrastructure, and stuff just doesn’t always hold up as well. We always get a little static in the phone line when it rains (a land line?–how quaint!), and unfortunately it was apparently bad enough this time to slow the internets way down, too. There were several days where I couldn’t log in to SL, so…I didn’t. Anyway, I’m more or less back on the air now. So stay tuned! And stay dry. 
Post Category: Announcements
4 comments January 25th, 2010 at 07:06pmRyan Darragh
Boy, have I ever been. Lazy, I mean. Although, not really. I mean, first I was away on vacation. There went two weeks. Then there were houseguests, which was great and fun and all, although it did put a serious crimp in my SL time. Then, oh joy of joys, there was plumbing tragedy and carpet cleaning and associated headaches. And now I’m kinda swamped with RL work, go figure. Please be assured, I am not dead–I’m still here, still shopping, and still working on putting some posts together to share with you. So, check back once in a while! I’ll be here as much as I can be. 
Post Category: Announcements
Add comment November 30th, 2009 at 08:40pmRyan Darragh
Welcome back! Oh, wait–that’s what you’re supposed to say to me. Anyway, here we are, together again. Sean and I had a fantastic vacation, probably with really too much crammed into it if you get right down to it–but isn’t that the best kind? Sometimes it felt rather like “If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium.” Yet still it was great. And here’s to turning SL friends into RL friends! Heya Loopy, Angie and Skid, that’s right, I’m talking about you!
Post Category: Announcements
2 comments November 12th, 2009 at 09:33amRyan Darragh
More like the rest of the month, actually. As I mentioned earlier in passing, I’m taking some serious vacation time–starting today!–and will be not just away from home but out of the country (U.S.) for a couple of weeks. Things will be kind of quiet around here, although I do have one Guest Style Consultant post that I hope to have ready so I can schedule it to appear later this week. I’ll be back later in the first week of November, so look around for me then…but not before!
Post Category: Announcements
2 comments October 20th, 2009 at 11:19amRyan Darragh
Hey! I just want to let everyone know that I’ll be away for the next few days—nothing to worry about, just a big work project taking me out of town. I’ve got fodder for a couple of posts to take with me and work on, in the event of any significant downtime (hey, it could happen). I’ll be back middle of next week, ready to get back to my regular routine.
Post Category: Announcements
Add comment September 25th, 2009 at 08:10amRyan Darragh
dionysia Elytis has just opened her new men’s-only shop at Hot Fusion. There are two great L$1 items at the entrance, and a recent group freebie is still available in the Subscribe-O-Matic!
Post Category: Announcements,Asides,Dionysia Designs,Freebies,Jewelry
Add comment August 18th, 2009 at 11:28amRyan Darragh
Join me in saying hi and welcome to Jeffrey Worbridge! He’s been slaving over a hot keyboard to put together his first post for the blog, and it’s just about ready. He’ll be working hard to bring you his own take on men’s style in SL.
Welcome, Jeffery!
Post Category: Announcements
5 comments August 10th, 2009 at 08:25pmRyan Darragh
Well, last week ended up being a complete wash-out, at least for anything to do with SL. I spent much of the week on a business trip, and although I had thought I might be able to finish up an in-progress post during off hours, that really didn’t happen. Things were just too busy. I got home Friday evening, but the weekend too ended up being busier than I had anticipated. Will this week bring a return to normalcy? Only time will tell. Tune in and find out!
Post Category: Announcements
Add comment August 3rd, 2009 at 11:34amRyan Darragh
Lately I’ve come to the realization that I don’t get out and explore in SL as much as I used to, as much as I’d like to, or as much as I should. It’s not always easy to find the right balance between SL and RL, especially when RL usually needs and deserves to come first. And as much as I love doing this blog, it does take up pretty much all of the time I have available for SL. What to do? What to do indeed.
I decided that maybe I’d try something different and see how it floats. If it goes well, I’ll get to do a little more exploring, put together a feature to share with you here, and have fun along the way. If it goes over well, I’ll do a post like this from time to time, just to break things up.
The idea is pretty simple. While exploring someplace I’ve found and think is exceptional and worth sharing, I’ll take totally touristy travel photos. I’ll write up my experience as a kind of travelogue and post it here with illustrations. Never fear, there will be clothing and accessories! If I plan well, the outfit will fit right in. If I don’t, it’ll be totally random. Chances are, it’ll typically fall somewhere in between.
Stay tuned for the first installment, which is currently in post-production. After that, more Hair Fair men’s styles coverage. As always, thanks for reading.
Post Category: Announcements
1 comment July 20th, 2009 at 03:21pmRyan Darragh
Hmm, so much for vacation downtime. As you have no doubt already noticed, I did not manage to get my first round of Hair Fair coverage posted during my vacation last week (although I did manage to get it about halfway put together). I think we can credit that to all the fun I was having, and not to lameness on (ahem) anyone’s part. That’s my story, and I’m sticking with it. Anyway, I’m back home now and slowly getting back to normal, such as it is. You’ll be hearing from me again as I get back into my regular daily groove.
Post Category: Announcements
Add comment July 14th, 2009 at 12:38pmRyan Darragh
Yeah, that’s right–I’m off on a vacation trip as of today. (That’s “holiday” for many of you in other parts of the world.) I’ll be away from home for the next week or thereabouts, so things will be kinda quiet around here. I did manage to take pictures of a bunch of hairstyles I picked up at Hair Fair. I plan to work on putting that together in my downtime (even vacations have some dead air here and there) and hopefully publish around mid-week. So, hey, at least you’ve got that to look forward to! I’ll be getting back to work in earnest when I get back home next week…promise!
Post Category: Announcements
Add comment July 5th, 2009 at 10:02amRyan Darragh
My apologies if you’ve tried to leave a comment recently and found you couldn’t. Somehow a WordPress setting got changed to require login to leave a comment, which didn’t help much as we haven’t enabled self-registration. That should be fixed now, so comment away. In fact, somebody leave one just so I’ll know for sure it’s working!
Thanks to reader BoyNamed Xue, who dropped me a notecard inworld to inquire politely wtf was up with the comments.
Post Category: Announcements
4 comments June 12th, 2009 at 12:57pmRyan Darragh
“Make Him Over Hunt ~ Second Life’s first MEN ONLY hunt”
June 1 – 30, 2009
The organizers of the Make Him Over Hunt understand your frustration with most hunts, oriented as they often are toward women and their interests. Their goal is to get men involved in the fun of a hunt, giving them a chance to pick up some free items while discovering and exploring stores they might not be familiar with.
As with most hunts, once a starting location has been set, participants will be provided with a starting landmark. At each store, you can find and claim your gift item, along with the landmark for the next store location, until you reach the end. The hunt is circular, which means that the landmark at the last location will direct you to the first location. Even if you start the hunt somewhere in the middle, you’ll still be able to visit all the participating stores. Gifts will be hidden somewhere in each store–just look for the orange “male” symbol. Designers may be offering one of their current designs, an exclusive item available only during the hunt, or a store card.
Visit the official hunt blog for the latest updates and a complete list of participating designers!
You may also join the MAKE HIM OVER group inworld to receive updates.
Post Category: Announcements,Events,Freebies
1 comment May 29th, 2009 at 11:23amRyan Darragh
Yeah, I’m still here. I’m just desperately busy in RL–lots of stuff going on, including another month of physical therapy. That’s going well, though! My doctor and I both think so. Hopefully the next few weeks will bring further improvement and increased happiness on my part.
I do have a post in the works, although as per usual I’ve been overly ambitious and it’s taking longer than I expected to put together. With any luck, it’ll be ready by tomorrow. I really need to work out a better routine of alternating shorter, less complex articles with the longer, more ambitious ones. Hey, what a great idea! Why didn’t I think of that before?
Just as a reminder, if you’re interested in appearing here as a Guest Style Consultant, please let me know by dropping me a notecard! I think all the guys who have appeared so far would tell you that I’m fun and easy to work with. You can read more about how the process works here.
Thanks for reading!
Post Category: Announcements
1 comment May 13th, 2009 at 02:22pmRyan Darragh
It’s true — I am alive, I haven’t died yet, although on Wednesday I did think my physical therapist was trying to kill me. When I accused her of this, she was indignant and responded, “No! Of course not. I was only trying to make you cry.” Which she almost did, but I was too manly to let that show.
So far I’m giving the process a verdict of qualified success. I have a few more sessions before following up with my orthopedist, and then we’ll decide if I need further therapy or if they’ll discharge me. I’m hoping this will be all I need — my therapist is great (aside from trying to kill me and make me cry), but even though my insurance does cover the bulk of the cost the co-pays do add up, pretty scary, pretty quickly. And of course I’d like to feel better sooner rather than later.
In the meantime, I know I’ve been pretty absent (as I had feared I would be), but I am working on a post now and am hoping to be back in my “regular” swing of things soon. My apologies all around, both to readers who wonder what I’m liking lately and to designers who have generously provided samples for review consideration and hope to see their creations here. It truly does suck to have your time constrained in ways that aren’t even any fun.
Also, Express told me this morning that this week’s Style Throwdown is experiencing some technical difficulties due to RL interference. We’ll have that back on track as soon as all the participants are ready and able, not just willing.
Post Category: Announcements
Add comment May 1st, 2009 at 03:01pmRyan Darragh
Hmm, it dawns on me that you may have been wondering just where the hell I’ve been lately. No, I haven’t been on vacation. That would have been more pleasant. Actually I’ve been dealing with some RL physical/medical stuff–nothing serious, let’s just say that getting older is teh suck. You may remember a while back (October) that I mentioned some intermittent neck and shoulder pain I’d been having. Well, sadly that has never really cleared up, although it did lessen considerably. So now after, let’s see, X-rays and drugs and MRIs (oh my!) I’ve started physical therapy this week. The good news is, I feel great about this–the therapist seemed to know and understand exactly what I’m struggling with and how to address it. The bad news is, the sessions are twice a week for four to eight weeks, that time has to come from somewhere, and it can’t really come from the RL job. It’s bound to put a crimp in my SL time, so brace yourselves for somewhat diminished activity around here for a while. I’ll still be around, just probably not as much as I’d like to be. Did I mention that getting older sucks? 
Post Category: Announcements
5 comments April 15th, 2009 at 10:23amRyan Darragh
Thanks to a tip from a friend (and her blog) and the brilliant WPtouch plugin, Men’s Second Style now has a more elegant interface in your smartphone’s browser. If you haven’t checked recently–by which I mean, since yesterday–give it another try. I’m fairly impressed and I think you will be, too. You can of course read posts, with good placement of images, and I’ve just enabled comments so you can spout off as well. I can’t vouch for every smartphone platform out there, but it looks great on my partner’s iPhone and my G1. Yes, we are a house divided, but so far that hasn’t been a problem.
Post Category: Announcements
1 comment April 2nd, 2009 at 09:56amRyan Darragh
I’m not usually able to spend much time on hunts, but they can be a lot of fun, and for a change this one sounds like it will actually be rewarding for guys! And so I bring you the following Public Service Announcement. — Ryan
I thought you’d like to know about an exciting month-long hunt called “Spring Is In the Air.” It’s for lesser known designers to show off just what they can do; all are small businesses. Each store owner hides an Easter Egg somewhere in their store and with a starting point and clues, our hunters begin! There will be assistants in many areas to help out with any issues. The Hunt runs from April 1 – 30! We’ve all made a huge attempt to design things with men in mind because so many don’t always think of them. So far, over half of our designers have items that would be of interest to men! (more…)
Post Category: Announcements,Events,Freebies
1 comment March 31st, 2009 at 09:03pmRyan Darragh
Click on through to Roland Zepp’s SL style blog and check out his coverage of the SL Relay For Life 2009 Clothing Fair, opening today! RL demands sadly prevent me from exploring this as much as I’d like, but Roland has the 411 on all you need to know. It’s shopping, it’s for a good cause…what’s not to love?
Thanks for the great coverage, Roland!
Post Category: Announcements
1 comment March 16th, 2009 at 11:17amRyan Darragh
My apologies for the drop in coverage the last several days. A lot of RL stuff has demanded my attention lately, and that kind of has to come first. Also, I found out last night that my mother took herself to the hospital yesterday (she’s like that). Hopefully it’s nothing major, but we won’t know until some tests are done today. Things may be fairly quiet around here for a little while.
Post Category: Announcements
4 comments March 11th, 2009 at 08:45amRyan Darragh
It occurred to me a little while back that there might be guys out there who wouldn’t necessarily want to sign up for contributing regularly to this blog, but who might just be interested in kicking in some kind of one-off. The question was, what form would that take? Long story short, the concept I settled on is something I’m calling Guest Style Consultant. I think that not only sounds but looks impressive, especially with the capital letters, and if you say it right you can almost hear them.
Here’s how it works: you have a great look, so you bring yourself to my attention or maybe I spot you somewhere and invade your personal space with an invitation. Relying on your strong sense of personal style, you put together an outfit, write up a list of the items so others can track them down, and maybe write a few lines on why and how the outfit reflects your own style. Then we work out a convenient time for a short photo shoot, I take a bunch of pictures and collect the details. At this point your work is done, so you get to be lazy while I do the grunt work of assembling and publishing the post. Then you get to brag and show off to your friends. I do a lot of the work, you get all the glory! How sweet is that? (more…)
Post Category: Announcements,[Guest Style Consultant]
9 comments March 2nd, 2009 at 12:08pmRyan Darragh
I’d like to take a moment and formally welcome Micheru Mathys on board as the newest contributor to Men’s Second Style. Ordinarily I’d give him a quick intro, say a few words about his style, his goals, blah blah blah. But in reviewing his first post (which will be published almost immediately) I see that he’s already included a brief bio and such, so there’s not much left for me to say. Oh wait–I can add that he gives good interview.
Post Category: Announcements
1 comment February 3rd, 2009 at 11:49amRyan Darragh
Hmm, things have been kinda slow around here the last several days. What’s up with that? Here’s the deal: I had some kind of muscle strain or something in my neck and back that was bothering me and didn’t seem to want to go away on its own, so I went to the doctor. Doc said, oh so helpfully, “I think you strained a muscle. The older you get, the longer things like this take to heal. Keep taking your Ibuprofen, you’ll be more comfortable. And do you have a heating pad?” Gee, thanks! It sucks to get old, just so you know.
Several days later, I was feeling better but still not 100% normal (no jokes, please). So off I went again to the doctor. This time, I got me some drugs–muscle relaxants, to be specific. Those have helped quite a bit, as I’m feeling much better. Unfortunately, some of the side effects are drowsiness and lethargy. So, I’ve been sleeping more than usual and feeling pretty low-energy when I am awake. This has sadly curtailed my SL activities.
Now that I’m feeling almost human again, I’m off on a long weekend trip, so I’ll be away tomorrow (Friday) through Monday. Never fear, kids–I’ll be back on Tuesday and plan to get back in the groove with the next installment of my Halloween series. And I’ve got a post in the works that I should be able to publish today, if I can get my timing together. Wish me luck!
Post Category: Announcements
7 comments October 9th, 2008 at 11:36amRyan Darragh
[PRESS RELEASE] Studio Red is hosting the most deviant event of the year! In Darkness is a Halloween event with the theme of “when creatures of the night come out to play.” The set is a beautiful yet dark cathedral-inspired build by Maddox DuPont of KMADD, where slaves and captures replace religious statues, and the DJs preach their musical, fiery, entrancing sermons from the pulpit. Situated on two sims, the build is vast and incredibly impressive.
Unlike a traditional show of any type, models for this event will be in a stationary position–no walking, posing, or clothing changes are required. Attire for this event will be minimal (at best) and in most instances consist of underwear only. You must be comfortable in what some may consider to be compromising positions (i.e. chained to a wall, kneeling, etc.).
While the event is scheduled to last 4 ½ hours, each model will work a one-hour shift and must be able to remain in their assigned position for the duration of the shift. Additionally, each model will be required to attend one (1) meeting prior to the event. [It's our understanding that male models are particularly in demand for this event.] (more…)
Post Category: Announcements
Add comment October 8th, 2008 at 12:33amRyan Darragh
Just a reminder that polling for Style Throwdown #1: Japanese Swordsman will be wrapping up at noon SLT on Thursday, 21 August. Hey, that’s tomorrow! If you haven’t voted yet, be sure to do so before the poll closes. You can read the post and vote here. You’ll also no doubt want to check back to see whose ensemble was selected as the winner by you, the readers. Stay tuned for an announcement of the theme for Style Throwdown #2!
Post Category: Announcements,Style Throwdown
Add comment August 20th, 2008 at 10:27amRyan Darragh
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