A quick update.

First I just want to thank everyone for their incredible responses to the previous two posts! I really appreciated everyone's willingness to share their own hair removal horror stories in the comments on Almost one year ago... and I'm glad everyone enjoyed the humor in A Public Service Announcement: Crossdressers and Halloween. So check out those posts if you haven't already. I really enjoyed writing them and putting them together, and I have to thank my awesome wife for her help taking the pictures and reading drafts, and another friend who also helped with the editing.

This week has been crazy busy for us, and in addition to Halloween parties, and getting ready for Halloween parties, we have had some last minute non-Halloween events added to our social calendar too. And of course, you know, our jobs were still in the mix too. So this has put me behind on reading and commenting on blogs, but I fully intend to catch up, and I just wanted to say why I've been a bit absent from blogs this week! Our last party is tomorrow, and I hope to get a write-up of all the excitement plus pictures done either late Sunday or sometime on Monday.

Halloween has turned into a big deal for me because its partially become a holiday about legitimizing playing dress up. Having this blog has made it even more fun than last year for me as well. The end result is that I can go outside and not get asked a lot of questions. Er, that's not exactly true, I do get asked questions, but most of them have been pretty good natured. But I did want to share this article a friend saw a few days ago and forwarded to me: Can a boy be a princess for Halloween? Its actually a bit personal, because it rhymes with some of my own experiences. I asked my parents if I could go as a female cartoon character for Halloween once (I was closer to 10, although I don't remember exactly what age I was...). Unlike the kids parents, mine said no, and I didn't bring it up again. I picked another costume easily enough, but it did hurt. And their reasoning was similar to the some of the worries those parents expressed: They felt I would get picked on even more than normal (I was most often on the receiving end of bullying growing up already...). I think that was actually the last Halloween I went trick or treating though. My other costume wasn't a "success". The few costumes I've pulled together in adulthood haven't been a "success" either. Actually, the first costume I've felt good about since was my costume last year.

To this day, my parents still don't know about my interests expressed on this blog, and I intend to keep it that way. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't go well, and I don't want to find out. That's also why I don't want to say what character I wanted to go as, so please don't ask about that. And hey, if I ever find a suitable version of that costume (and I haven't!), I promise you I will be wearing it the next Halloween, and if I'm still doing this blog, I will post it here!

One last point. Several readers have mentioned wanting to hear from my wife. My wife is actively involved in this blog, and usually reads all the comments and posts in addition to taking the pictures, and proofreading drafts. This is one of our "together" activities as a couple, even if I'm often the more enthusiastic participant. I have asked her about doing a post on the blog, and its something I think she is willing to do, but it will have to wait at least a few weeks due to real life.

Friday link roundup.

Its Friday, and I want to have a post, but between a crazy schedule and a flaky camera, it won't be an outfit post! But that's okay, it just means I get to do something different! And now I can't hide behind hiding my face from the camera. Er, what?... Uh, moving on. I want to thank everyone who shared their thoughts on cameras! I mean, who better to ask than people who take a lot of pictures of their outfits for blogs, right? My old camera was from the Canon PowerShot line, and its good to hear that a lot of people also good luck with the line, and so I will probably be going with an updated PowerShot model. And I just wanted to say something about cameras and picture quality. I love to see all the creativity in picture taking with style bloggers! I think its really cool that even the cheapest camera can be used to make art and share self expression. For me, its not about picture quality anymore than its about where you shop! Its can be a lot of fun to have a nice camera, but if you gave me a DSLR tomorrow, I wouldn't know what to do with it(okay, I would, I would put it in point and shoot mode! :) ), and really, I think the hard part in taking a good picture is deciding what to put in the picture and what to leave out. And when in doubt, just take a lot of pictures, one of them is bound to be good eventually! See, its thinking like this that explains why I'm not a professional photographer (oh wait, my blog is supposed to anonymous... or am I? Wait... my wife takes all my pictures... okay, someone in this house is probably not a pro photographer... or are they?). I guess my point is that I don't need a good camera, its just fun to have one, and we're lucky enough to be able to replace the one we have.

Hah, I'm not done yet! A lot of other bloggers (like the really awesome Lisa of respect the shoes) post link roundups from time to time, and since I have been sitting on a growing collection of links I found interesting and relevant.

Gender Labels and Clothing

• Switcharoo(via Feministing) - I addition to being really cool, it took me a minute to realize this was not photoshopped.
• What I Wore posted some inspiration for Halloween costumes, and in particular I found her interpretation of George Washington to be an interesting example of how what counts as masculine attire has changed over the times. Also, her interpretation of Karl Lagerfeld is equally interesting.
• She's Got Balls: 12 Creative Women Get in Touch With Their Masculine Side(via Feministing) - This is a really fun slideshow with an interesting range of female celebrities in masculine looks.
• This blog post has an interesting discussion about the site The Art of Manliness, which prompted an enterprising individual to create a website that simply gender-swaps most of the nouns from The Art of Manliness website to create The Art of Womanliness, and the resulting lack of difference makes some interesting food for thought about gender roles. I know there are a lot of diverse thoughts on that sort of thing, so I thought it would be cool to share and hear other people's thoughts?

General Style

• Scarfing it down which links to Tying scarves with the Angie knot, and then a comment shares another technique.
• How to pull off a bow tie(via A Pretty Penny - Links a la Mode)
• How to Make Heels Bearable - I enjoy wearing high heels, but I also care about protecting my feet and not damaging them, and so I really enjoyed this discussion about the practicalities of wearing heels. I have some friends who have plantar fasciitis, and its something to be avoided.

On Monday, I hope to be back with a working camera and I will be participating in a Wardrobe Capsule Challenge that the wonderful Meli from The Daily Insanity of a Fashion Addict has decided to do. I hope everyone has a great weekend, and since there were no pictures today, I will just thank my amazing wife for being amazing.