…and for those of you that don’t like to read — much — here is your treat, enjoy. ;)~s

Ok, so I figured since I haven’t really worked on the site lately, the least I could do would be to write an entry. So for all of you reading this, you have my random scatter-brained mind to thank for the proceeding expose of my dip into the massive vortex that is fashion.

Since about Christmas time I decided, on another whim like this one, that I wanted to change the way I dress. Much of this is thanks to two things, hanging out in downtown Chicago for days on end and a few of my friends looking better then me — no, really, I’m not that anal, I just don’t like feeling or looking outclassed. Regardless, the second I put on clothes that *fit* me, my body style and my personality, it was like getting an instant surge of joy.

You can chalk this up to being superficial, but I could really care less, it feels damn good to look damn good, so good that you impress yourself just for wearing it. There’s only one problem, looking good is expensive, and it takes time. Far more time and money then I’m used to spending on clothes (this was obviously when I thought clothes were just clothes though, and they most certainly aren’t and have never been ‘just’ clothes). I’m quite sure that it was my acceptance of spending an excess in both of these two categories that I realized I think I’ve become addicted to it, but the transformation really wasn’t that surprising (more on that later). I’ve always valued money through what it truly is, a means to make your life happier; therefore, placing an importance on buying things that make you look and feel good is not being “superficial,” it is called living, and living for your own happiness. Fuck anyone who hates on people for doing that, then again most of my friends aren’t even close to being that naive, so it’s not something I’m concerned with. Simply felt I’d quickly address that misnomer before judgment began to kick in.

So after presents at Christmas time, and my birthday, and a few crazy shopping trips, all of a sudden I’ve got a new wardrobe, yet it’s still not enough. It’s like once you start looking for the next hot thing you’re going to wear, the search becomes endless. Never completely satisfied with everything you have, you always want more — gotta’ love that American ideal, I think I hold it highest above all others.

I’m not rich, never have been, but I will be, but I have to be in the future, with the way I like to spend money. Example you say? How about walking into the Armani Exchange store and spending 400 dollars on a jacket (a really crazy dope perfect jacket in color and fit for my body) and two pairs of jeans (ridiculously trendy, but again, look damn good). This was on a day I wasn’t planning to spend money, so imagine the days I intend to, such is life; I mean “difficult,” by that.

Now me liking fashion is nothing new. I place a large amount of importance of aesthetic beauty, then impression and quality of it. Now most humans have some amount of desire for fresh looking things, but not all of care about that aspect in everything. My brain studies and analyzes things that look good, it’s like complete playtime for me when I see something that looks so attractive to me, be it: art, people, pictures, clothes, interior designs, architecture, furniture, cars and the like. In fact, to a point, I crave beauty, color coordination, proper accents, accessories and proper placement. So when you apply this ideal to clothes, you can see where the ideal can transform into obsession. Maybe obession is too strong of a word, I shall replace it with ‘serious hobby’.

People often say, it’s not the clothes but how they’re worn, and actually, it’s both. You can put the hottest clothes you’ve ever seen on a person, and if the person isn’t confident enough to ware it, they go to waste and can often look ugly. So there is a level of mental preparation that goes in fashion that is rarely even mentioned or talked about. This is partly what has started annoying me about people telling me what I can wear to different places or events. If I’m confident and comfortable enough to rock my clothing the way I like, to the places I like, how can you say an outfit is inappropriate for the occasion? (No i’m not talking about extremes, no tuexedos to the theme park, and no shorts and t-shirts to board meetings)

As many of my friends know, I feel no shame in public, it often takes something close to a nuclear bomb to dent my level of confidence in myself. Yes, I can wear a tie bowling, yes I’ll rock a $500 jacket to simply chill at my friend’s house, and no, I don’t mind wearing a hat during dinner.

But it’s all good fun. If you think I look good, I appreciate it, if you don’t, you’re entitled to your opinion, and I simply think you’re wrong. So if you see me on the street, mentioning the threads isn’t a bad idea. :-P Until part II, holler at cha’ boy. ~s

Are supposedly amazingly versatile, so we shall see after or maybe during this post.

Lots of updates since i last talked to you on the main page.  Full working and formatted gallery, new starred review system for the playground, some spam prevention and back end admin stuff for me, oh and last.fm recently played songs list on the playground as well.

Enjoy for now, much much more to come, i might actually have all the concepts finished this week. ~s

This is a rating test, this is only a rating test.

This is a rating test, this is only a rating test.

Well, after a couple months of one of my friends (thank you katie) bitching to me about not jumping on the online music playing data cataloging services, I’ve jumped on the Last.fm train. I have to say, so far, I’m impressed.

Last.fm happens to be a full variable system that determines the kind of music you like and listen to regularly then allows itself, with it’s self-proclaimed massive computer brain, the clout to recommend you music that you will like. And to my pleasent surprise that brain must be massive cause my frist impression is dead on, it works great.

More on this later.

Truely they are. They touch me in a place where I wish more teen girls would.  Wait, that came out wrong. Anyway, this site has jumped a few levels of completion in the last 2 days, which makes me feel happy with it.  Though I still think theres quite a bit to get worked out.

Turns out i’m always pleasently surprised when I discover that the simple things to do in webdesign are quite hard and the hard things are simple, i guess it’s all in the execution.  In anycase, at the this pace i’ll have the main concept portions of the site done by the end of the week, and nothing makes me happier then a job well FINISHED.  Until then, I shall see you crazy kids later. ~Sterling

This is fun with videogames test. To see if I can exclude this category from being displayed, hopefully I can do this easily and go to bed. ~s

Good thing this site isn’t finished, or, ermm… hasn’t even been worked on since november, cause there could be problems with this update to the newest, better version of my blogging software. If you didn’t get any of that, don’t worry, with all hopes it should only make your life visiting here and this site better. See you in a bit. ~Sterling

Due to current personal portfolio work, I will not be working on this site for at least another week. Please be patient, web design always takes time to produce a quality result. I greatly appreciate your patience, and as a treat, my next posts will be the ones I wrote while in Japan last week WITH pictures (in a picture gallery that is formatted correctly ;) ). ~Sterling P. Sanders