Tag: style

In which shopping for clothes somehow gets even worse

On By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy2 Comments

Every shirt I have that is okay to wear to work is at least three years old, so I’m starting to face the uncomfortable truth that I’m going to have to do some clothes shopping before this school year starts.

(Fun fact: I have two polo shirts that date back to my first teaching job. They are twenty-five years old. They somehow still fit and they do not, in any way, look their age. I promise I’d have tossed them by now if they had gotten ratty.)

Anyway, the tl;dr of this post is that it’s astonishing how many clothes websites are scams, and I came across an especially crispy example of the genre today. I’ve been scammed twice by clothing websites before, and I’m at the point now where before I order from any website I’m not familiar with I Google the name of the site and look for drama. If I find it, they don’t get my money. I saw a shirt I liked in an ad on a website I go to a lot (honestly, I’m at the point where “advertises on websites” is a reason to suspect fuckery is afoot) and clicked on it, and it wasn’t twenty seconds later before I decided the site was a joke.

That shirt above isn’t the shirt I clicked on, but take a look at that picture. There is no fucking way that’s a picture of a real shirt. Like, I’m not bothered by the idea that they might have dropped a model in front of a beach; that’s whatever, but that entire image is AI, and it’s not even fucking good AI. Look at the bottom seam of the shirt. It looks like plastic, and the colors on the entire thing are way too saturated to be real. The collar looks suspicious as hell, too.

This is so obviously a scam– and, upon doing my due diligence, the clothes ship direct from China, because of course they do– that I’m honestly tempted to order that shirt just to compare whatever I get– some cobwebs in a Zip-Loc bag is my guess– to the original image.

Shopping for clothing online, at least for anything more complicated than a T-shirt, was already ludicrous for a whole host of reasons, but it’s gotten to the point where I’m going to have to refuse to shop anywhere other than Amazon or brick and mortar places, and there aren’t a lot of brick and mortar places left that carry my size that aren’t ludicrously expensive.

Slightly related, I got an email from my district earlier today that spirit wear for 2025-26 was available, and went to take a look. Feel free to look around on the site for me bitching about my salary; I know there are plenty of issues with teacher pay, but I personally feel like I’m well-compensated for my work, but they still don’t pay me enough that I’m going to drop $60 on a fuckin’ polo shirt. If I’m wearing a shirt with the logo of the organization I work for, that shirt should be cheap or free. Not more expensive than any other shirt of that style I own.

Anyway, point is, you’ll get a post soon enough where I’m bitching about clothes I actually bought, instead of websites that expect me to send them money so they can send me a bag of ebola. Something for y’all to look forward to.

In which the day got away from me

On By Luther M. SilerIn lifeLeave a comment

Let’s see: I spent a couple of hours hunting down bosses in Black Myth Wukong’s final level, which inexplicably transitions into an open world map but doesn’t actually provide you with a map, meaning such concerns as “north” and “south” become way more complicated than they ought to be. We went out to dinner at a local Italian place, the one with the really good bread, although I’m starting to suspect that they’re using genuinely stellar bread to cover up for mediocre entrees. We finally took down the utterly terrible curtains that have been hanging in our dining room since we bought the house and replaced them, and the hardware, with something not filthy and disgusting, and we went and bought paint for the entryway to the house, a decision that I think we’re going to live to regret, but my wife thinks otherwise, and she’s usually right about these things.

I don’t feel like that gets me to 9:00 PM, and I’m not sure where the several other hours of the day have gone, and I’m rather disturbed by my inability to account for, like, half the day. The boy is at a lock-in at school right now (I have done one of these during my career, and I will never do another) and you would think having the house to ourselves would lead to something exciting, but instead we’re going to watch one (1) episode of Great British Baking Show and then go to bed.

Adulthood’s exciting, innit?

Haha LOL you go to hell

On By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy, Reviews1 Comment

You might remember a post about some new shoes I ordered a couple of weeks ago, and how before the shoes had even been shipped much less arrived in my home the company was hassling me about becoming a “brand ambassador” for them, to the point where I eventually dropped the name of their company into my spam filter.

Well, they have committed two additional sins since then: first, the shoes shipped directly from China, which, well, I’m fully aware that a number of the goods I use on a daily basis originated there, but each and every time I’ve gotten a tracking number and it’s been from a Chinese shipping company I’ve had to brace myself to either receive nothing at all or to get a piece of fucking junk. I’m fairly sure that’s been a literally universal experience. Every single time.

Then I did something I really should have done before ordering the shoes, and Googled reviews of the company, and to put it charitably they are utter shit. I have got to learn how to deal with any new company that I’ve never ordered anything from online; I’ve gotten caught up in stupid shit too damn many times at this point and I’m too old to be this Goddamn dumb.

Today, the shoes showed up. These fuckers didn’t even put the shoes in shoeboxes. There are literally four shoes wrapped up in a polybag and taped up.

I’m not even opening the packaging; I’ve already initiated the return. It’s gonna cost me a few bucks to ship them back and I’m anticipating additional bullshit once they receive them (the refund is apparently contingent upon “inspection” of the product once the return center, which is in Utah, receives it) but I feel like “the package was literally never even opened and I’m returning these because I hate you” is about as ironclad a reason to return something as I can give them. If I didn’t open the damn package, it’s hard to suggest I ruined the shoes.

So, yeah. Fuck Gatsby Shoes. Don’t give them your money or your email address. That’s me being a brand ambassador right there.

I remain open for actual brand ambassadorship if Kizik decides they need a fat Internet guy to hawk their shoes, though.

In which I will not sell your shoes

On By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy2 Comments

I ordered some shoes off the Internet. No, not my beloved Kiziks, although I did order yet another pair of those,(*) but some other brand that are going to scan more as a business/work shoe than what I’ve been wearing lately. Am I going to tell you what the shoes are?

No, because they immediately emailed me– and they’ve emailed me several times since– congratulating me for my new status as a “brand ambassador” for them, and explaining how I can get money by getting other people to buy their shoes, and giving me discount codes I can share, and explaining their reimbursement structure, and I’m like … motherfucker, I don’t even have the shoes yet, and can you maybe ask me if I want to be a brand ambassador, maybe a week after I’ve had them, to see if I even like the Goddamn things?

(Also: I ordered these with my real name and personal email address and it’s not like you have to enter your website to buy shoes, so there’s no earthly way they could connect the shoe-buyer with this site. I’ve had things sent to me for review before, and that’s its own thing. I bought these and they think I should sell them as a side gig now. I assume they’re doing this to everyone.)

The aggressiveness is equal parts off-putting and alarming, and honestly it makes me want to return the shoes as soon as they arrive, which is vastly annoying, as I do actually like the looks of the damn things or I wouldn’t have ordered them in the first place.

(*) In all seriousness this is, I think, my fifth pair of Kiziks, and if they want me to be a brand ambassador I’m all over it, but these other folks are gonna have to generate some goodwill with a quickness if they even want to keep the business they already got from me.

In which we have a winner

On By Luther M. SilerIn lifeLeave a comment

… by a landslide, I will be wearing the cowl to the Renfaire this weekend. It got twice as many votes as second place (the hat) here and was the overwhelming favorite on the Discord I posted the question to as well. So that’s settled.

In which I am out of my damned mind

On By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy1 Comment

We’re going to the Michigan Renfaire on Saturday, which … which means I have made some decisions, is what it means. Bad decisions.

I owned zero of those garments other than the shoes on my feet (which don’t quite fit the theme, but whatever) before deciding we were going to a Ren Faire. Now I own all of those things, plus a sporran that I’m not wearing in this picture.

Problem is, I need headgear. This is where you, and some terrible bathroom selfies, come in.

Headgear option A: Hat. Irish! Irish people don’t wear kilts. Advantages: easy, black, classy. Disadvantages: no neck covering, may not fit the theme.

I gotta get that leather string stretched out so it stops spiraling like that.

Headgear option B: Silk du-rag. Advantages: Easy, black, covers the neck. Disadvantages: A little more piratey than maybe I want.

My bathroom mirror? Filthy.

Headgear option C: Cowl. Advantages: A touch more renfairey, covers the neck, also covers the collar of the shirt which I don’t love. Versatile; I can take the hood down if I want, where the hat and du-rag will need to be carried around if I’m not wearing them. Disadvantages: Blue, but not matching the blue in the kilt, kinda feels dorky in a way the rest of the outfit doesn’t, makes me make that face, possibly more complicated to keep on/ in need of constant adjustment throughout the day. (It wears like a scarf, with long tails down my back.) Uncertain: Warmer, which may be a good or bad thing depending on weather.

So. What am I wearing? YOU DECIDE:

Pretty!

On By Luther M. SilerIn Geek2 Comments

In lieu of a post with actual content, please enjoy this photograph of my pretty new watch on my somewhat less pretty, keratosis pilaris-riddled wrist.

There’s something weird going on with the angle there, btw. The watch band could stand to be a tiny bit bigger, no more than a centimeter and probably not even that much, but I swear it fits nicely and is not cutting off my circulation in any way. 🙂

Now to see if I can make it through the day without any notifications.

So far so good

On By Luther M. SilerIn Geek3 Comments

WordPress is being wonky and I don’t have a ton to say tonight anyway, but so far school is going pretty well– fourth hour continues to be a sore spot but it’s the only one– and I finally got around to actually ordering a watch tonight after literally months of dithering about it. We’ll see if it actually fits once it gets here! I expect to tumble into despair if it does not.

Anyway, I had to reload about a dozen times to get the page I’m typing this on to actually become available, so I’m going to hit Publish until I actually have a post now.

Whee!