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All I have at work is MS Paint

In July of 2002, towards the end of my relationship with Rosaliana, I did something that I had never once considered doing: I cheated on her. I wasn’t the cheating type, but after everything she had put me through, all the times she had cheated on me, the people with whom she had cheated on me, I didn’t feel bad at all about turning the tables on her. Add to that the fact that I was thinking about my future. I’m not proud to say it, but I was in a place at that time in my life where I couldn’t imagine being alone; I needed to hop from one relationship to the next with no hang-time. Rosaliana and I were heading towards our final breakup and it was obvious. I knew from the first time we broke up that it wouldn’t be easy for me and I naturally figured that if I had a hot new chick in my life it might make it a little easier. If I could find a chick I actually liked then it might not be that bad after all. Read more…

I’ve been following Maiden Noir for a couple years, but it wasn’t until this collection that I was moved enough to splurge on one of their pieces. They’ve always had outstanding quality and craftsmanship, but this season they’ve outdone themselves by crafting the entire collection out of wax coated cotton canvas from the British Millerain Company. I don’t know exactly what that feels like, but I’ll let you know when my jacket comes in the mail. This particular collection is also all muted darker colors, which is right up my alley.

Maiden Noir had always been one of those brands where I peeped their collections each season on the fashion blogs, and I liked them, but they were pricey and I was already doggedly loyal to a few other brands. I would describe their aesthetic as classic Americana meets crazy Pacific Northwest hermit woodsman with Military silhouettes. Sound confusing? Peep some of the pieces in the Maiden Noir Autumn/Winter 2009 “Darken Days” collection.

Select pieces from the Darken Days collection are available now at the Maiden Noir Online Store. The entire collection will be available within the coming weeks at Haven in Canada, DRGN in Mexico City, and Union LA. It’s really a shame that Union NYC shut its doors because they probably would have carried it too.

After the jump check out some more of the eclectic pieces on sale now at the Maiden Noir Online Store.
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Every year around this time, Nike drops a bunch of sneakers with Halloween colors or themes. Here’s my wrap-up of what’s slated to release this season.

From Nike Running we have a Air Max Classic BW

Air Mac Classic BW

From Nike Sportswear we have two offerings. First, the Halloween themed Air Safari, which is Black and Grey, with Orange accents:

Nike Sportswear Air Safari 2009

The second offering from Nike Sportswear is the ‘Savage Beast’ Air Force 1, which features an all Orange Horsehair upper, and even a Horsehair midsole, which is a first for any Nike sneaker.

Nike Sportswear Air Force 1 'Savage Beast'

Lastly, Nike SB offers us a Dunk Low SB with definite Halloween tones, the Dunk Low SB ‘Orange Un-Hemp’, which has Orange nubuck frame, hemp side panels and toe box, a black Swoosh, and an Orange midsole. The reason for the Un-Hemp moniker, is that only the side panel and toe box are hemp, as opposed to previous Nike SB Hemp releases like the Bonzai Hemps, Mahogany Hemps, or Cascade Hemps, which had all hemp uppers with suede Swooshes.

Nike Dunk Low SB 'Orange Un-Hemp'

Malice was a real wild dude. I brought him to a Halloween party in 1996, about ten months after I transferred schools. The party was being thrown by Jennifer, who had been my girl during my last semester at the private Quaker school. I was still sort of friends with the people from my old school, and this just being about 10 months after I had left the school, I was still sort of considered part of their social group even though I was starting to roll pretty exclusively with the Terminally Ill cats (Malice & Tech.) I rolled up to this Halloween party with them, and I was dressed as Flavor Flav (and this was ten years before Flavor of Love so don’t give me the Gas Face!) The truth is, I didn’t even know costumes were required until I called Jennifer from Malice’s house to tell her we were on our way. It was too late to go shopping for anything so I just took Malice’s clock off the wall, tied a string to it, and grabbed the nearest pair of sunglasses. I was less Flavor Flav and more some wild looking raver kid wearing an antique wall clock around my neck, and some corny 1980’s Ray Ban’s on my face.

I didn’t know this, but these cats had come from a more trife background than me. Malice and his sister Tanya had just moved to NYC from Providence, RI, where they had been into hard drugs, robbing people, etc. whereas I was still relatively sheltered at that point. They were interesting characters and I never got tired of hearing their stories. Malice had been into the rave scene since its infancy and had been to some of the most famous parties ever; parties in hotels, forests and deserts. I was starting to gain some life experience, but Malice’s stories of Ecstasy fueled orgies and Tanya’s stories of robbing crystal meth dealers by luring them into alleys, and having a partner sneak up behind them to smash them over the head with a cinder block totally blew my mind. What was especially crazy to me was that people with such sketchy stories were in reality cool, down to earth people, who were just new to the area and looking for friends. Tech also had a colorful history which consisted of being the only white kid in a Chinese gang, using credit card fraud to steal thousands of dollars worth of collectibles and computer equipment through internet contacts he had with people working in middle eastern banks, racking designer clothes from department stores on a daily basis, and by the time I met him he was already a bit of a celebrity at the Limelight, and this is during the time that the Disco Bloodbath Murder took place. Read more…

Asian Kim is probably the only girl that I worked on for a long period of time, but never got. I never knew her last name and Asian Kim was just how people referred to her in my circle. I don’t usually pursue girls if they don’t seem interested in me. I don’t know if it’s about pride or laziness, but while I like a challenge, I only want to invest my effort and time if I think I have a decent chance. The truth is, it’s all about fantasy and imagination. When I first meet a girl, the fantasizing and anticipating is just as enjoyable as whatever it is about which I am fantasizing. And I’m not just talking about sex either – I mean everything.

I don’t want to fantasize and daydream about a girl I’ll never have. Call it lazy or defeatist, and I don’t really believe in ‘leagues’ in that sense; there are just certain girls who are looking for a very specific thing, and if it’s not you then they won’t even notice you. True story: I don’t even masturbate fantasizing about models or porn stars, or actresses, or even to porn; only real girls who I actually know – it’s just the only thing that my weird way of thinking can get with. I don’t think I’m hot shit, but I had an almost perfect success rate with the girls I went for in high school. I’ve had a near perfect success rate as an adult too (near – not perfect, and see above about only really going for girls I think I have a chance with) but this one girl definitely resounds as one of the most frustrating rejections of my life. The worst part is, she looked me up on Facebook recently, and the sad fact is she’s hotter than ever now. This girl is probably the physical personification of “my type”. Personality wise, it’s another story altogether.

Although Asian Kim was a ruthless flirt, I got the vibe from her pretty early on that she wasn’t really interested. The funny thing is, in terms of her personality, she was one of the least appealing girls I ever met. She wasn’t stupid but she wasn’t really smart either – at least not socially. She was friendly but it felt fake and hollow. She was shallow, boring and annoying, I can’t think of one positive thing to say about her personality. She was the kind of girl that kids today refer to as a ‘tippie’ – meaning she’s totally typical in every way; nothing exceptional. Everything from her style to her taste in music was boring and predictable; she was a conformist, because she didn’t have the mental capability or the desire to be anything else.

Her looks were a different story, and while my experience has taught me how important personality really is, Asian Kim looked so good that I pursued her tirelessly despite neither liking her, nor thinking I had much of a chance. She was short, but slightly more curvy than the average Asian girl. Her taste in clothes never really impressed me – she always seemed like a mindless sheep teenager when it came to the stuff she wore; she wore the cheesy sort of stuff you could find at any mall – now she looks like the grown-up version – but her face was gorgeous. She had perfectly almond shaped eyes, full sexy voluptuous lips (my absolute weakness in women) and high cheekbones. She was dark skinned, had long cascading dark brown hair – I think she was Korean/Chinese mixed, and if she had been about a foot taller she could have been a model (or porn star at least – I can’t call it; she was too sexy to be a model, but too beautiful to be a porn star) One night in 1999, This girl wound end up being involved in one of the most surreal nights of my life Read more…