The new rage: Zuzu

Those of you who follow SL-drama are probably already familiar with Vic Zuzu. He's the guy that took-over the MHOH (Make Him Over Hunt), once the original creators had a falling-out. I can applaud his initiative.

Unfortunately, that's all I can applaud about him.

Once you get past his broken-english, you start to uncover his methodologies. He's very effective at making you utterly hate him. He carpet-bombed several of my designer friends (many of whom do not make men's items and have no interest in participating in his MHO hunt), he routinely uses his style-guru fashion sense (ha) to attack others when logic fails him, he does not recognize the difference between fame and notoriety, twisted moral compass regarding intellectual property, bigoted against gays, et cetera.

In a lulzy way, I'm admiring him. I've adopted his last name for my Plurk profile and often refer to him in the third person. For example, "You cannot use large words when you try to insult The Zuzu. It just won't work."

"C'mon,...how bad can he be?" I know. I hear you. I invite you to form your own judgments regarding The Zuzu. Please visit his blog page.

http://viczuzu.blogspot.com

I made it through 3 pages of The Zuzu challenge before I went mad.

Halloween 2010: Part Two

Have a safe and Happy Halloween!

Halloween 2010 part one

When the wife leaves me with the kids for a weekend, stuff like this happens:

My cupcake menagerie

Vanilla with white-chocolate cream-cheese frosting. Pomegranate accents and fondant tombstone. Inspired by Horrid Twine.

Goth cross half-and-half
Chocolate w/chocolate cream-cheese frosting and fondant zombie
Chocolate with Vanilla cream-cheese frosting and fondant hand
Chocolate with chocolate cream-cheese frosting and fondant bonepile
Vanilla with white chocolate cream-cheese frosting. Fondant accents.
Megan's Purple-frosted parental nightmare
Tigger Jack-o-Lantern

Yes, I was a sucker and bought the fancy cupcake liners.

Pictures of costumes next week!

Cake Nine

I'm becoming the family cake celebrity. Even my mom wanted to see pictures of my son's birthday cake this year (Hi Ma!).

This year's challenge was: Lego Atlantis

Fair enough, Lego has NO shortage of photo stock of their products. Even moreso, now that they've expanded to online and animated media. I acquired an underwater backdrop, complete with temple-ruins (he's really into Greco-Roman Architecture), some submersibles, and a pic of "Manta Warrior" - his favorite character from the series.

I threw these components into a Photoshop file and used Lego's website header - their font and design was just too good to try and reproduce by hand. Also, taking a tip from CakeWrecks, I decided to bake all the required text into the picture, rather than risk them writing something horrible in purple icing.

But, I wanted just one more element. I had done some marketing research with/on my son using the Lego Atlantis website. He'd picked out his favorite sets - one of which was a Seabed Scavenger - complete with giant claw, sawblade, and Manta Warrior. How difficult would it be to integrate this into the cake? Oh, about 30 minutes of assembly time...

So the night before, I rushed out to the local toy store, got the Scavenger, put it together, and hid it away - to be used as a cake-topper for the party. The sawblade would actually be embedded into the cake, as if they were mining for precious undersea resources, with the Manta Warrior standing guard.

Another successful party. The kids had a great time, and C. had no issues licking the frosting right off the sawblade.

The next thing my son wants: A Lady Gaga Jack-o-Lantern.

37

Twenty-two years ago, I met a girl. She had this sparkling personality - the kind that takes command of an entire room. Like myself, she was blessed with the gift of a keen sense of humor. Believe me when I tell you she has not a single enemy on the entire planet. She later became my sister-in-law.

Two nights ago, my thirty-seven year old sister-in-law suffered a debilitating stroke. She has compromised right-side mobility - showing improvements in alertness after 24 hours.

I'm writing this because I know how brilliantly intuitive you all are, and how bad of a liar I am - eventually, you would sense something is going on...I thank you all for your kind thoughts and prayers - you would not be my friend otherwise.

As with everything else, I am keeping a positive outlook. It's naturally difficult trying to be funny in this situation, but I think my family is looking to me for an easy laugh and a strong shoulder during this crisis. Right now, I'm rather disjointed - making a chicken parmesan, 11 strips of bacon, and a pan of brownies for dinner - I really didn't know which direction I was going tonight. At least, everything tastes good...

We love you, C. You can beat this.

Your assistance please

The following is a tiny snippet from my life:

I had just come home from a more-stressful-than-usual day at the office. It was dark and I was hungry. I went into the kitchen to fix myself a sandwich: two slices of untoasted, multigrain bread, roasted turkey, and mayo.

My wife was on the sofa, watching "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central. I sit next to the seat next to her, about five feet away.

Wife: WHAT are you EATING?!?
Me (surprised): a....turkey sandwich?
Wife: You're chewing too loud.

Partially out of deference to Jon Stewart, my wife, and the fact that I was mentally-exhausted from my job, I tried to finish my sandwich as quietly as I could. However, it is now that I must ask for some guidance:

1. I was hungry: Those of you who know me, know that I love food. Some of you would say I take loving food to an entirely new level. It really was an effort to hide my lust for that turkey sandwich on that night - it was just so satisfying, so reliable. I also find it a source of pride being able to provide for myself and my family - having the resources to eat when I'm hungry.

2. Bread: My wife also prefers getting the multigrain varieties, which have loads of nuts, seeds, and other various plant-matter baked inside. I, myself, can do rather well on plain, soft, quiet, Wonderbread white. So, I think her loaf choice is partially to blame here.

3. Just a sandwich: I didn't go through my entire repertoire of exotic ingredients for this sandwich - I didn't even toast the bread! No potato chips, or crisp lettuce leaves, not even crunchy strips of bacon. No, the sandwich innards were, in my opinion, as quiet as they could have been.

So, am I crazy here? Do your significant others' eating volume annoy you? Have you been labelled a loud eater?

I'm wondering if I should cater to this, or lash out in the totally opposite direction and start making slurpy ramen noodles or hard-shell tacos for dinner. This, however, would go against my policy of using food as a weapon. But, is it my chewing or is my wife getting at something more? I wonder.

This is 40

I turned 40 last month. Since then, I've noticed some radical changes in myself:

1. Finance. I've always considered myself fiscally-responsible. Not really splurging on things - rather, I was more-occupied with saving up for life expenses, like college tuitions. I've started listening to news more...figuring out when it's time to refinance my home (rates are low, btw!) Now realizing the value of that good credit I've been working on...

2. Fashion. Probably fueled by item #1 above. Since I've been "running my numbers", I started to get an idea of how much lower my monthly expenses would be. More disposable-income can be very dangerous and very powerful. My own social circle also changed. I find myself attending more weddings and sadly, some funerals as well. My attention focused on my wardrobe.

For the longest time, I've been jeans, t-shirt, and sneakers. Comfortable, inexpensive, long-lasting, totally inappropriate for these formal-events I keep getting invited to. Time to buy something really nice to wear. It's been well over fifteen years since I needed a new suit - I take pride in the fact that I can still fit into it. But it has broken stitches and the style just isn't relevant anymore. Now that I have the means, motive, and opportunity, it's time to commit a crime.

Research. I research the hell out of everything before I buy anything, especially when we're talking about a potential four-figure spend for a new look. For style and fashion, there's NO shortage of information. I've already read up on fully-canvassed vs. fused, which labels to avoid (pretty much every label I knew in my limited exposure to suitmakers), good tailoring and alterations, and which sources to acquire quality goods from. I've realized I don't need the most-expensive, I just want to feel good in what I have - that means spending that perfectly justifiable amount of money. And hey, if it's on sale with a newspaper coupon, all the better.

You always hear about how lottery-winners suddenly change. Well, not necessarily change, but how the money brings-out those long-dormant qualities in people. I suppose that's what this is, too. I didn't think I was a closet clothes-horse, but here I am, going slack-jawed at a $1,600.00 pair of John Lobb double-monk buckles while critiquing the lack of pick-stitching on someone's lapels...

Wish me luck.