New threads. Newer Treads: Go to Pedro for new belts and shoes.

According to a much loved fashionista aunt of mine, Chinese New Year is a 15 day affair, that gives us many good reasons to continue shopping. Thanks to Pedro, looking for new accessories to complete our new looks is going to be less pain and a lot more pleasure.

Here are our top 10 picks

Spring/Summer 2010 collection from Pedro.

1. Conjure the reality of a nautical soiree evocative of the French Riviera onboard a luxury yacht and cavort in style this season with the Spring/Summer 2010 collection from Pedro. This season, grey is back.

Spring/Summer 2010 collection from Pedro.

2. Embark on a superlative voyage in fashion and discover the panorama of enchantment that awaits at your style destination. In this particular case, notice the Bally-alikes for those that love the look of Fiorio but not the $900 price tag.

Pedro tie and briefcase accessories

3. Deftly brought together to form an amazing amalgamation of texture, the effect is a sublime creation which has come to encompass the very essence of Pedro. Notice the attention to detail on the necktie.

Nothing says 'practical' like a dual purpose bag that doesn't look out of place in office or pleasure boat.

4. Unleash the perennial iridescence of metallics which spread the Midas touch alongside a sensory interpretation of the stalwarts of taupe and ebony.

Trophy girlfriend not included.

5. Blue loafers for that 'lady-killer' playboy look.

Look out for our "How to wear Colours" guide on at augustman.com

6. The Angry Ho says it's too much. I say, if you're man enough- Go Fuschia.

Spring/Summer 2010 collection from Pedro.

7. It's odd how they've focused on his shoes and ignored what I believe to be a patent leather patchwork briefcase.

Really.Starting.To.Hate.This.Guy's.Abs.

8. Call attention with a pair of striking blue trainers.

Belt from Pedro

9. Details on the belt that people are bound to notice.

Look out for the reptile skin design card holders.

10. Ratty, tattered looking wallet? Get a new one.

From belts to wallets to shoes, Pedro provides some of the best looking designs I've seen this season sans heavy price tags. -JH

History of the Shirt

The article of clothing often symbolizing elegance and refinement but also an expression of liberty, the shirt for centuries has accompanied and characterized the life of men. Worn by emperors, generals and by common people without distinction, with the passage of time it assumes different roles and meanings.

Until the time of the Italian Republic (1860s), as can be deduced from Latin sources, known by the term "subucula" the shirt had the function of modern undergarments. His historians report that Charles the Great "...wore directly on his person a shirt and pants of linen cotton." Men and women in the city and the country dressed in the same manner: shirt and long tunic with sleeves of different dimensions. The popularity of the shirt continuously increased and it became a gift object for both the privileged and the needy.

Beginning in the 1300s also art and literature give prominence to this top garment: in the canvases of many painters among which is Caravaggio, or in the literary works such as Boccaccio's Decameron, where often men and women wore shirts. We suppose therefore that its wide adoption was above all for reasons of hygiene.

Many cities became famous for their shirt production, such as Venice, where for the wedding of noblewoman Lucieta Gradenigo a "shirt of gold" was created. In the 1500s the true protagonist was the collar: from the small flat collars called French to the Italian version that took the form and name of "frill", to the "giorgiera" that required an enormous expanse of fabric up to 11 meters (36 ft.).

In 1843 at Montevideo in Italy the famous red shirt of the Garibaldini was born.
The shirt, its success constantly growing, began to alter its style according to the occasion: white without a collar and with wide sleeves for the painter, white and at times without a right sleeve for the sword duel, or well hidden under the jacket for pistols. In the 20th century it was above all the American cinema that popularized different types of shirts. Pure white shirts with flowing sleeves worn by Rudolph Valentino, the "Oxford" of Humphrey Bogart, the type suited for the hard life of the far west worn on screen by John Wayne, or to finish, the mythic Hawaiian worn by Tom Sellek in the cult series "Magnum P.I." of the 1980s.

Of the many types of shirts, how can one forget the "button down", in particular for the varying accounts of its true origin and authorship. The most memorable suggests that the founder of this most famous American shirt industry, the cult following of this leader of shirts, was inspired in England at a polo match where the players had their collars attached to keep them from flapping in the wind. The more credited version however is another in which its anonymous inventor found himself on a pier in the New York harbor during a particularly windy day and, annoyed by his collar blowing in the wind, attached it at the ends with buttons made of mother of pearl. Whichever is its true genesis, the "button down" is found in formal settings, with the collar open, in moments of relaxation, and dressed up with a tie or bowtie for important occasions, demonstrating that it is the most versatile leader of the many models of shirts.

With this brief voyage through the history of the shirt we can see that from its first appearance in ancient times to today man has never stopped producing it in new shapes and fashions, wearing it in different ways and loving it with an immutable passion

What?

For many animal loving evangelical Christians the problem of who is going to look after their pets when the rapture comes is upsetting to say the least.

For those who aren’t aware of what the rapture is, it is a belief in some Christian doctrines that believers will be whisked up to join Jesus in the sky leaving non believers on earth to suffer a seven year reign of terror under the anti-Christ.

Now some entrepreneurial atheists have come up with a novel idea to solve the problem of the abandoned pets and have created a website, ‘eternal-earthbound-pets’ to put animal lovers who are destined for heaven in touch with animal loving atheists who aren’t going anywhere.

The idea is that those bound for heaven can find an earthbound atheist to look after their beloved pet when they are whisked away for a better life.

All those who have signed up to take the pets in are self confessed sinners, blasphemers and atheists so the pet owners can relax in the knowledge that there’s no chance of them being saved.

Read more here.

What SGD490,000 Buys You Elsewhere

I've been house hunting recently and I must say, I have endured great deal of heartache over the whole situation. Feeling rather dejected having missed a chance of owning a slice of Pinnacle at Duxton, I must say that I felt rather pleased with myself when I found a nice little high rise nook in the geographical centre of Singapore.

Looks awesome. Right until you realise there are places more awesome for far less.

Price tag: SGD600,000.
It didn't take long for my joy to fade. Globally, property prices have sunk, in part due to the greatest recession since the great depression and in part due to shrinking lines of credit. This property price paralysis is happening everywhere else in the world.

Except Singapore.

For SGD490,000 (a whole SGD110,000 less), you can buy any one of these ditties in fairly good estates in the United States.

Downtown LOFT in Memphis

This apartment is one of 122 in the South Bluff Lofts, a 1909 building originally used as a distribution center for a wholesale supply company. Suddenly my place wasn't looking so hot.
Undaunted and fuelled by massive cognitive dissonance, I decided to look deeper, perhaps I might find myself justified paying over half a million for a Design and Build government apartment. I didn't.

Because somewhere out there, was an apartment that had shared a common pool, sauna and gym. For slightly under SGD450,000.

Then again, perhaps the extra $100,000 goes towards paying my dues of living in one of the safest cities on the planet and maybe, there's just no price-tag on a safe living environment for you and yours.

"HDB flats remain affordable" - Mah Bow Tan

When dreams don't come true

Am I disappointed? Of course I am.

However, the Lord knows best. He knows how I feel.

I'll wait in steadfast faith for what He deems best for me.

It's happened before, His love endless, it will happen again.

Brilliant Social Commentary from South Park

South Park never ceases to amaze me when it comes to social commentary. In 2006, the writers had already correctly predicted that parents would eventually turn to the Dog Whisperer for tips against bratty kids.

At an early age, child brains are essentially primitive enough for psychological tricks and triggers to work- dog raising tips are would be a great idea. But the best part is, fast forward 3 years, The New York Times is finally catching on that parents are turning to the Dog Whisperer for parenting advice.

According to the NYT:

Today’s network lineup provides fewer idealized families and no shortage of questionable child-rearing role models (see “Gosselin, Jon”). For every take-charge SuperNanny, there’s a Homer Simpson, and who wants to raise a Bart?

It’s little wonder, then, that some parents, and even a few child therapists, have found themselves taking mental notes from a television personality known for inspiring discipline, order and devotion: Cesar Millan, otherwise known as the Dog Whisperer.

The suggestion that the Dog Whisperer is also a Child Whisperer of sorts has popped up — sometimes couched as a joke, but, well, not really — in parents’ forums like blogs, online discussion boards, magazines, Twitter feeds and podcasts. Some parents are starting to take notice.

“When we started watching his shows, we had intended to apply his advice toward our dogs,” said Amy Twomey, a blogger on parenthood for The Dallas Morning News who is raising three children under 10 with her husband, Matt. “But we realized a lot of ideas can be used on our kids.”

Full article available here.

The Redeeming and Condemning Power of Facebook

Available exclusively on AugustMan Magazine Facebook
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On Oct 17, 2009 at 11.49 am, 19-year-old Rodney Bradford asked where his pancakes were. At that very moment 24 kilometres away, a robbery was in progress, a robbery that witnesses said Bradford committed.

Yet for all the damning evidence, that man who looked remarkably similar to Rodney, wasn't him. Rodney was in his father's apartment in Harlem on Facebook, writing a status update, "Where my IHOP (International House of Pancakes), yo?"

However insipid and lame this update was, it saved Rodney jail time as police proved through an IP search in cooperation with Facebook that Rodney was, indeed, at home.

Just yesterday, in Bromont, Quebec, Nathalie Blanchard found herself under similar scrutiny. This time around, Facebook did not play exonerating saviour. Nathalie was supposed to be on long-term sick leave and medical benefits for depression from IBM. However, Facebook photo albums proved otherwise.

She was "tagged" at Chippendales, enjoying her birthday party and on a sun holiday. Although Manulife wouldn't comment on the Blanchard case, Nathalie's benefits have since been terminated.

The Internet and all its ubiquitous social media marvels like Friendster, MySpace and Facebook have become so intimately entwined in our lives that authorities and higher management alike have begun to use trawled "evidence" from these once-considered parasitical outlets.

My issue isn't that the Internet is being used increasingly as a character reference on us, but rather, as we head into a dystopian Minority Report kind of future, should we not, as intelligent beings exercise more caution on our vanity?

Vanity indeed. All your status updates are simply based on a premise that somewhere among your 500 friends, someone gives a damn. When you post pictures, it provides proof that you were indeed at Club Ibizia last night.

As bosses and seniors start to get on the social media bandwagon, it's perhaps time to start thinking a little more before you post your masturbatory updates, especially when last night you promised the boss you'd be working on the $2 million dollar project rather than partying at Club Ibizia. I for one, would be a little more careful on informing my friends I just killed Gildamesh the Orc King on Castle Age. - JH