**[section deleted for personal and ethical reasons]**. I just went out with Scott (Mother's Sig. O.) to look at suits and sports coats, since he used to be a big-time stock broker before retiring early to take care of his family's trust.

Originally we both wanted to do a 3-day suit brokerage. Ideally you get measured out, they ship the measurements to Hong Kong, the fabric is cut then shipped back here to be sewn with a monofilament. Overall, the effect is splendid and the price is right. Unfortunately, though, businesses like this only tailor on weekends and otherwise sacrifice small children to various gods in order to appease their sweatshop worker gnomes.

Instead, we went to the ass end of town to hunt down tailors using the Verizon yellow pages. Now Verizon might have a semi-decent network, but the phone book is laughable. We hunted down places like 'Pepe the tailor' and 'Men's clothes'. We didn't find Pepe, nor did Pepe answer his phone, but we did pull into 'DiscountpriceLand'. Yeah, 'DiscountpriceLand'--in Korea Town, where 'Men's clothes' allegedly was.

The parking lot was some pock-marked leper with skin cancer, occasionally staring up at the dark green/brown stripped finish of the palatial buildings' head. I had a bad feeling just walking up. Walking in was worse. It was a series of winding mall-like corridors with squat store fronts sulking. 3/4 of them weren't open; some were open but bare. Of the stores that were open I got the impression I was a piece of perspiring white mongrel meat. Women would stop speaking in Chinese and look at me. Black customers would glance and look confused. Scott and I tried looking for 'Men's Clothes', but no dice, nothing.

After getting lost some we finally decided to use his 300 USD credit at Men's Warehouse, which you can think of as, say, the sporty Piat of American men's wear or two steps above CIA/Insurance salesperson wear. An old, calm black man approached us and took our measurements. I then preceeded to put on two and a half dozen suit jackets. I would walk to the mirror, suddenly remember one never, ever buttons the bottom button, then stand still and walk while Scott looked on with thorough dissatisfaction at almost every choice. I know nothing about suits, though, so I went with his suggestions on a suit jacket and sports coat.

And then an oddly tasteful moment happened. I had been handed a shirt and pants, even these Frankenstein shoes that were really shiny. I donned my gear, stepped out then went up to Carlos, the slightly disgruntled but good natured tailor. He made some marks for alterations to the sleeves and to raise the back. He then looked at my pants. His expression was normal. He looked at my butt and crotch. The black sales rep. came by and agreed that the waist was just fine, but the back and crotch should be let out. 'Yes,' Carlos said nodding, 'Yeah, I agree.' Innocuous, true, but it was the way the two guys nodded and sounded as if I were being considered for a top show dog prize. Later on when said black guy was trying to pawn off some designer underwear to Scott, it somehow came up that boxers for me just would not do; briefs would be ideal. I had to wonder again: letting out the crotch, no boxers but briefs. Was I being indirectly told something?

I let that odd thought slip and focused on worrying that Scott was spending way too much on me. When I heard the total was close to a grand, I felt terrible. He kept assuring me it was for a special occasion and he'd meant to do it for awhile, but...a grand? For a suit and sportcoat along with all the other stuff? Sure it was a good deal relatively speaking, but I always feel bad when someone spends money on me without me doing anything for them. I think that's why I don't take gifts well.

**[section deleted for personal and ethical reasons]**

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In other news, I've done more photographs. Here are the links:

To The Top

Comment: Noone seems to care for this one. Maybe the symbolism behind it just isn't powerful enough.

Celestine Fan

Comment: Very generic dawn shot, but still pretty.

Communities

Comment: I originally named this one "Isolation". Perhaps I should have kept the name.

Roots of Thought

Comment: Without a doubt my best piece to date. I was thinking about making this available for print.

The Blue Lantern

Comment: I love this one.

The Witching Hour

Comment: Depending on your monitor, you may or may not get the full background, since it's mostly muted blue.

Vine Waterfalls

Comment: Not much going on here, but most of my nature shots are about finding Zen.

As usual, I'll have more up later.

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