We've reached the label production stage of DressMonkey's pre-launch. The rounding third headed home stage, if you will. But, like any day in the life of a startup, before we give the final go ahead for factories in China to start churning out a gazillion little tags that are to be sewn into the gazillion (and one) DressMonkey products that all of you will soon be wearing to work on a Tuesday or out on a Friday, we're faced with more surprise twists.

While Coley is across the pond doing what he does best -- getting samples made, screening suppliers, crackin the Chinese American whip, and shouting orders my way -- I'm busy researching all facets of "textile product labeling compliance" (say that 10x's slowly and feel the depression shink in). I spent 5 solid hours today on the Federal Trade Commission website learning all there is to know about care instruction, fabric content, country of origin, company and RN reporting. Go ahead and quiz me. Ask me anything you want about the Textile Fiber Products Act or the Wool Products Labeling Act. Come on...bring it...yeah that's what I thought! I'm now packed with knowledge that I'm sure 99.9% of you reading this will neither find useful nor willingly seek to attain.

Unfortunately, however, the newfound glory of being in-the-know does not necessarily solve all of our problems. In fact, questions loom over head. I'm now aware more than ever of the added work that needs to be done to follow orders from God; huh, I mean, from the FTC...

The overall plan of attack is to (1) test all our fabrics with a QC vendor in order to determine fabric content and best care methods and (2) establish a line of proof for the basis of our product care instructions. Only then will it finally be my turn to shout orders the opposite direction and get Coley working on the production of our damn product labels.

I called the Commissioner of the Office of Textiles and Apparel today and found out, to my surprise, that blazers do not fall under the current quota restrictions for textile products made in China. I was under the impression that blazers are classified under the wool suit category (443) and thus subject to quota. Yet, it turns out there exists a separate category for "suit-like jackets" for wool, cotton, man made fibers and vegetable plant fibers; a classification category that we can utilize for importing our products. This is great news! Not only does this make mine and Coley's life easier, but it also allows DressMonkey to pass on the cost savings of quota-free merchandise to the consumer, benefitting all of you!

It dawned on me, about 2 minutes into the Alibaba sourcing event that perhaps I should have ducked out. But the cheap, hungry (not ambitious hungry, just hungry) entrepreneur in me decided to stay under the stipulation that free food would soon follow. With my stomach growling and my DressMonkey blazer feeling nice and comfortable, I settled in for the long haul. Though there were select moments of interesting tidbits, the overall presentation and "ice breaking games," gave me a little reminder as to why I left the corporate stratosphere. Stale, recycled air along with some absolutely atrocious Chinglish left me ready for the food at the end. However I might complain, the presentation did teach me about dealing with Chinese suppliers and I will definitely be following up on some of this when DressMonkey gets a little bigger. So if you ever want to buy 10,000 or more of anything in the world from dildos to anal beads, my advice is to check out alibaba.com.

My life is set to drastically change as DM's launch and my MBA classes commence this fall. This impending doom on my social life helps explain the high value I've placed on practical tips for overworked entrepreneurs.

I'm painfully aware that most successful entrepreneurs do not date women, they date their idea that they believe will someday make them rich. To call yourself an "entrepreneur" I would imagine is sort of a hit or miss with the ladies. It's a lot like labeling yourself an artist or a musician: while you may come across to some as being industrious, creative, and best of all, mysterious, you can't help avoid the others who see you as nothing more than a poorboy's romantic. Now that the term "entrepreneur" can be used to describe my occupation, and with such subjective odds with the ladies already stacked against me, I am still faced with the difficulty of coming up with a clever way to add the term "student" to my label? DressMonkey may be marketable to the masses, but its owner certainly ain't with the ladies. But all is good. The thought of me dating DressMonkey in place of women for the indefinite future is starting to sink in -- I'll be fine as long as DressMonkey puts out like those I've dated in the past.

What's behind America's recent craze in employing monkeys for business names, logos, and brand collateral? And why does this marketing monkey blitz have to come about just months before the launch of DressMonkey.com!? There I was in Shanghai for over a year thinking that DressMonkey -- and the brand building startegies we created for it -- would be a fresh idea I'd bring back with me to share with everyone back at home. Little did Coley and I know that Americans were already being pre-exposed to the affability of our mischevious and playful primordial predecessors (I first became aware of this fact last month at Pac Bell Park in San Francisco when I saw a careerbuilder poster ad of a monkey smiling at me in a dress shirt and tie). We were completely oblivious to everything from LoveMonkey to SurveryMonkey to the careerbuilder monkeys.

I'll admit the Careerbuilder ads are funny mainly because they play off of the many connotations that monkeys suggest. And let's face it, monkeys wearing monkey suits in an office setting can make any desk jockey laugh. But just be sure to save some of your laughs for what DressMonkey has in store.

Check out MentalFloss the next time you're ever bored at work or in need of ways to one up your colleagues or girlfriend. Although labeled as the source 'where knowledge junkies get their fix,' you don't have to be a knowledge hungry nut to get something out of this magazine, which bottles up a healthy dose of useful information, bizarre facts, and off-the-wall trivia. Whether in the office or at a party, MentalFloss will be sure to have most scatterbrains in their DressMonkeys feeling smart and standing out.

Advertising on a website ranked 24th-most popular in the U.S. and whose readers are over 90% affluent males in their 20's and 30's sounds like it would be the perfect place for DressMonkey to invest its advertising dollars. However, we don't appear to be the only company aware of such a watershed moment for putting their marketing budget to work; plenty more are knocking at the door of Kevin Rose's Digg.com.

Rose leads a new wave of 20-something-year-old's whose fresh networking ideas are taking full advantage of today's Web 2.0 user-centric capabilities. Their successes are givng rise to a pool of young "Frat Boy" entrepreneurs.

Read the entire article here.

I went back to the enormous fabric market outside of Shanghai, and this time I came back with a clear timeline in mind regarding how DressMonkey is going to proceed. We're going to be able to offer a lot more fabric types than we originally thought, and we will be able to guarantee quality fabrics that are from some extremely credible sources. And because of this and all other news regarding fabric that this gift-from-god fabric market has brought us, I am getting really excited about our upcoming launch.

The trip itself was pretty mundane, its about a 3 hour bus ride followed by endless rows of stalls of almost always the same stuff. But every so often, you find a gem of a store as we did. Some stores are absolutely dingy and look as if they are being used as a house/business. Others look like proper offices and are very inviting for e-commerce fiends such as myself. But you can never judge a book by its cover, as often times the best fabric was sold by the crappiest and off the beaten path stores. So I bought a large amount of sample fabric for us to use in our next Meet My Monkey round commencing sometime next week. So the moral of the story is, we're getting there in terms of fabric sourcing. I'm confident that the barriers to entry that once existed for us in this business (high fabric investment) are slowly dissipating as we work harder and harder. Below is a picture of me (looking like a total tool, I know) with my friend who is visiting from CT at the fabric market of kings.

Meet the Sega Monkeys, a suite of online games sure to help any desk jockey survive through the dog days of summer.

Well, the time for Meet My Monkey has come and passed, with some positive signs as well as some challenges in the road ahead. I'll give a quick synopsis of what went down in the hai.

After submitting the fabrics and their specs to the factory, we thought all was well. How wrong we were to think with such naïveté? You shall soon find out. I collected the blazers from the factory following two separate mistakes out of the 9 blazers that were made. These mistakes were irreversible, and thus a whole other two blazers needed to be made. Never mind that however, the factory took responsibility and we were still on schedule. After delivering the blazers for their initial inspection to our designer, Adam, we sat together and discussed what was good and bad about each blazer. The craftsmanship and quality of the blazers seemed very well, I really liked the way that the factory was able to differentiate between our different designs. Quality Control Check: Passed.

Next, it came time for me to deliver the blazers to each and every one of our participants. Unfortunately, only 7 of the 9 have actually tried them on because some are away and others are always away (thanks for leaving, Jeff!...jk). Out of the 7, 3 fit correctly, 3 had some fundamental sizing problems, and 1 was only off with one measurement (meaning it could be tailored). Those are not good success ratios, and you can see some of the pictures below to further drive home the point that we've got some work to do:

Me with one of the better fitting ones..."I'm not just the owner, I'm also a client!"

Jamey's not too happy about those sleeve lengths...

Brad got a good one, thats because God likes South Africans

Cheer up Rindy! We'll get you a new one ASAP, and this time it won't fit like it was made for a 10-year old!

Well, as you can see, there is plenty of work to be done. But I think we're going to overhaul the whole sizing process and re-think how our customers will size themselves and how much they'll be reliant on our standard sizings. Some of the mistakes were the factory's and some were mine, but the point is that it appears that we have some work to do with this whole process.
We will be changing things, but rest assured however my future monkeys, you will still be able to input as much or as little information about your sizings as you'd like. The mission of the DressMonkey still remains clear, which is to enable customers the world over the ability to decide what they want out of their clothing, not what some douchebag in Milan thinks you would look good in.

Women are special. But this one takes the cake.

Fascinating indeed...

Contrary to beliefs of many young professionals, there actually is a difference between wearing a necktie and wearing it “well.” The traditional defining mark of a well tied knot is its dimple. The dimple is the little indentation directly underneath the knot of your tie.

Personally, I'm more keen on what I like to call the "push the bush" look. Pushing the bush will help you look more stylish and assertive in any tie-wearing situation (not to mention how much sexier you'll feel the next time someone compliments you on your tie: "NICE BUSH PUSH, Jeff!" sounds way better than "sharp dimple, sir.."). To find this look, simply stick your thumb up (careful where you stick it) behind the back of the knot (bush) and push it forward (think opposite of the dimple).

Though you'll never go wrong in the boardroom or on a date if you push the bush, the standard dimple is still a smart and conservative look for the office. Here's how to dimple:

1.) Before tightening the knot, gently put your index finger directly under the knot while lightly pinching the sides of the fabric.

2.) Then tighten the knot by pulling down on the wide end of the tie.

3.) A dimple should form and be aligned in the middle of your knot.

And if you still cannot master the dimple technique, there's always the option to throw down some cash on a pointless tool like this one. Just don't let your girlfriend know what you've done.

Here's a list of Web 2.0 apps sure to make your head spin. It pretty much covers the gamut, definately is worth checking out.

For those of you unaware, Esquire has been running a column since June asking the question: Who Is The Sexiest Woman Alive? Every month, the mag's handful of "in-the-know" writers plant seeds of curious fantasies in the minds of horny American men and water them with questions laced in intoxicating sexual innuendos regarding the identity of Ms. Sexiest. To quell the rush of blood to the privies and bring mind and body of man back to a state of equilibrium, a much more sensible (rather than sexual) Q&A session with the mystery women herself is published. The Q&A is always vague however; Part 3: A Trip To The Market lacks any revealing clues helpful at unraveling the mystery.

Esquire says the unveiling will be in November. Until then, expect a page out of the tv-series LOST, where the annoying game of waiting to the last minute to reveal anything of significance is bound to continue.

While you're waiting, leave us your thoughts on who the identity of the women might be, or want it to be.

Slowly but surely, our blazers are coming together. I just finished sending out inquiries for buttons (turns out Alibaba is good for something), and we have decided on our first DressMonkey crest. I won't show it here, it is still top-secret DressMonkey information which frankly, you don't have access to. Never fear, in due time all things will become clear to you and you will be able to see said crest. Our labels are also well under way, and it looks like DressMonkey will be up and running in no time. Apologies for the random nature of this post, but we had a good day in the world of DressMonkey, and I just felt like sharing it with you!

There's no doubt that when the Swedish telecom company Ericsson invented Bluetooth technology (the application of radio waves for wireless communication between electronic devices at short distances) in the mid 90's, they had business interests squarely in mind. Ericsson's creation soon became a global standard for companies that proved to be both practical and efficient, allowing several computers to connect to a wireless network without the clutter of cables. As time passed, Bluetooth quickly proved its versatility as the use of mobile phones increased. Wireless headsets for cellphones were developed and sold to busy professionals that believed multitasking was a way of life. The use of the technology now had purpose outside the office. And, true to any invention (technological or otherwise), there is always the risk of unintended consequences:

According to the always fashionably correct Style Guy, the use of Bluetooth products outside the office by the "Ferengi's" of the world is one serious issue.

As the Meet My Monkey saga continues, we have further fine-tuned our sizing system. I mentioned in some earlier posts that we were going to change our approach, and that has definitely rung true in the past two weeks. Meet My Monkey quickly turned into Beat My Monkey, as only a few of the blazers were worthwhile. We attributed this to our poor sizing system which has completely been shaken up. It all happened while I was out at our factory for a sizing meeting with the PJ-clad factory owner. Instead of Sprite, he offered us a very strange mint cola, which actually might have been Sprite, just aged 10 years. Chinese often mix very expensive bottles of wine with Sprite, to the horror of their foreign guests, and I thought that perhaps this was another level of the Sprite-obsessed country. Somewhere in the world, everything is a delicacy, so perhaps China has found its substitute to Shark Fin (Thanks Yao!).

Whatever the case may be, he took my strange reactions to the beverage as a mild insult, but quickly lost interest as the true point of the meeting was to discuss sizings. I've decided that it is best to be extremely blunt with Chinese people. They like to dance around certain issues, and even more so are very quick to Yes you. So I told the factory owner exactly what I wanted of him for the sizing system, and he basically refused right then and there. I remember myself saying to him, "Well, if you can't provide this for us then I think that will be the end of our business together." He didn't blink and could tell that I was bluffing, I mean, after all, this guy's quality is really spectacular and I can't wait for all of you readers to see what I'm talking about. But, before I turned around and come up with another way out of the impasse, he said he had an idea. He presented me with a compromise that actually could prove to be very beneficial in the long run in terms of erroneous measurements. We discussed this for about an hour, and I left with a big smile on my face, knowing that we had just accomplished a lot. As much as I am shocked by this man's conscious decision to roll out of bed and literally go straight to work, he is proving to be a valuable asset in this process.

The heat seems to be following me wherever I go this summer. Or maybe its just me following the heat. Shanghai, Marrakesh, Berlin, Geneva, Paris, Los Angeles, San Diego -- all cities with temperatures near 100F making DressMonkey promotional days one continuous sweaty affair. To make matters far worse is the fact I'm stuck wearing mostly wool blazers because of the lack of DM samples in summer fabrics coming from China. I'm assuming the tradeoff to monkey love is sweating like a pig.

However, keeping cool in a blazer is not a hard thing to pull off. First off, do yourselves a favor and stay away from wool, espcially if you're living in a hotter climate. Instead, opt for more forgiving cooler summer fabrics that are characterized by having looser weaves and uneven surfaces.

Seersucker and hopsack come to mind as having the best qualities for showing off your DressMonkey in the heat. Seersucker weaves smooth and rough lines into the cloth so that not all of the fabric rests on your body, thus allowing for air to pass between you and your clothing. Hopsack refers more to the loose weave of a garment, ideal for any warm-weather suit.

Shanghai- In a dramatic turn of events that unfolded this afternoon, a German counter-intellegence agent has been uncovered in the heart of American territory on Jia Shan Lu near Yong Jia Lu.

"Here I thought that the building was secure," said local bao an (Chinese for "Security Guard") Wang FuJiang. "Then you hear about something like this, and it really makes you think, maybe the Germans are everywhere." He added, "I hear they don't tolerate messy apartments, I really have to say that I feel bad for [Consul General] Dale."

The territory has been a sovereign state for 2 years, run by Consul General Coley Dale, and often occupied by Vice Consul Jeff Horowitz, and security has historically been extremely tight. That a German agent has been apprehended under such rigorous security conditions has already sparked an investigation into how, in fact, she was able to infiltrate the apartment and gather intelligence, and most importantly exert her own brand of "clean or your out" discipline.

"At 4:30 this afternoon, a German conspirator with the alias 'Denise Precht' was subdued while removing her clothes from her suitcase and attempting to clean the shelves in the closet," a spokesman for the apartment read. "A highly trained operative of this nature apparently has the ability to fool even the most educated of consuls, as has happened today. The fact that she was able to infiltrate the apartment this far obviously shows the extent that the Germans are truly willing to go to gather intellegence against their American counterparts."

Apparently, Consul General Dale grew suspicious of Denise Precht's alarming efficiency and acute organizational skills, and slowly realized that her claims of being a "small-town, Montana girl" were untrue.

Consul General Dale with the suspected agent, Denise Precht at a Freedom Rally. She was known for making such appearances prior to moving in with Mr. Dale to keep up the illusion that she was in fact, American

What courses of action are to follow by the apartment's leadership are really anyone's guess at this point. It is widely speculated that Ms. Precht will be pardoned, but only if she agrees to lower her cleaning requirements on Consul General Dale. Also rumored to be part of the pardon is the controversial issue of bed-sides. Consul General Dale is said to favor the right side, and Ms. Precht has widely been suspected of favoring the same. Sources who asked to remain anonymous due to the highly sensitive nature of the investigation have said that Consul General Dale would likley pardon Ms. Precht for all of her crimes, notably section 2-A Paragraph 1, titled "No Germans allowed in my apartment."

What this shocking revelation means for DressMonkey has yet to be determined. The company, soon to be named to the Forbes 500 best companies that haven't started selling yet, was started last year by Jeff and Coley in a bid to leave their corporate drudgery in the past. As of press time, DressMonkey, LLC (NYSE: DZNUTZ) has lost 10% of its share price. But not all analysts are bearish on the record-growth setting company. "Look, if its really true that Consul General Dale is living with a German, maybe its a good thing," said super-investor Warren Buffet. "They are very organized people, and she might just whip him into shape and the business very well could follow suit."

More developments coming soon.

"For me, the bigger the name on the label, the less you should have to pay for it."

-John Mayer (InStyle Magazine - August, 2006)

John my man, well said. DressMonkey couldn't agree with you more. Suddenly your breathy songs about girls and their bodies are sounding much better to me.

WOW. Red Light Center has taken social networking to a whole new level. The "sexapoluza" that takes place in this 40,000-member subterranean world of virtual fornication is downright naughty...and also very intriguing; it emboldens even the cleanest of DressMonkeys to explore their dirtier side. As tempting as it may be, I can't say it's for me. I'm no man to explore my own particular sexual fantasies with a click of a mouse. Yet I can wholeheartedly respect the ones who are, and praise 21st-century technology and its free-loving programmers for creating such fantasy.

Be An Expert On Anything

Want to be an expert on anything? Who doesn't? Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert dishes up some very useful tips on how to blaze your own trail of authority. We at DressMonkey especially endorse his use of long and intimidating German words that pass as legit. Take, for example the word Behindertenfahrdienst, a 21-letter word that, according Colbert himself, means 'the happiness and overall sense of worth felt when purchasing a custom-made DressMonkey blazer.' Thanks Steve!

I wrote a while back about my love affair with Alibaba (no, not the sheik, the website you perv) and I found out yet another reason why you should be careful who you give your business card to in this country. After I went to the sourcing event, (see Alibaboring), I got a call from some random guy named Chris from Anhui province. It appears that during the boring chaos of the event, I gave my business card out to about 50 random widget makers in the nether-regions of China's interior. Chris (his English name) it turns out is also involved in apparel, though it seemed kind of strange why he was calling me. I told him the nature of our business (i.e., we make every blazer from scratch, no set designs) and usually this is enough of a foresight into a realm of inefficiencies for the factory owner so that he runs scared like a little girl. Not so, he was persistent. He asked me more about my business, and I told him, cautiously. Eventually, I told him to just email me, I was occupied and couldn't deal with trying to explain (in Chinese...) to him every gear in our business plan. So, a week passed, and thankfully I heard nothing from him. Then, I got another call just yesterday asking me yet again about my business, and I had to go through the same exact lecture, testing the limits of my Chinese to the maximum. I again insisted that he email me, so that I might have an easier time forgetting I ever knew this guy by marking his email as Spam.

Finally, he emailed me this morning and here's the weird part. He wants me to invest in a factory to make custom clothes and other items! What the hell is wrong with China? What makes you think you can automatically just have one awkward conversation with someone and then expect them to become your best friend and business partner? Maybe next he'll offer me his daughter or maybe 1,000 Guanxi points. I don't even know how to respond to this email. I'm starting out my own business after quitting a full time job, eating Chinese food day and night, can barely afford to pay bills, and this guy wants me to invest in a factory with him. And they call Americans blut...

There was a front page article in the LA Times the other day about a beautiful resource for small business owners and entrepreneurs called SCORE. SCORE is a non-profit association affiliated with the SBA that employs an army of volunteer purveyors of information eager to share years wisdom and experiences as corporate executives and industry leaders to rookies like us, all at no cost. NO COST, as in, it's entirely FREE (of course you'll have to pay for the workshops and seminars, but it's still cheap, about $65 for full-day events). I recommend checking out their website and contacting your local rep. office to learn about ways to take your small business -- or even simply your idea if you haven't started a business -- to the next level.

I'm already doing it; DressMonkey is now the beneficiary of advisory emails from trade professionals and "how-to" article downlads that talk about the necessary steps for setting up import operations. All extremely helpful, and like I said before, all extremely free.

Wear one of these T-Shirts. I promise that if DressMonkey ever puts out a t-shirt line, we won't be spitting out this message. Though we like to remain quasi-political in the fashion world and consider ourselves moderates, I don't think we'll be seeing any "Viva La Reagan Revolucion" blazers while I remain co-God of custom clothing.

As I have mentioned in earlier posts, my daily office attire for DressMonkey pretty much consists of boxer shorts, old T-Shirts, and the occasional cup of coffee (which makes for a pretty interesting conversation with the seemingly hundreds of delivery guys dropping off samples each day). A lot of my online work has been done while in bed, even though I just got a sweet desk from Ikea. In one of my moments of procrastination, I came across an article that further describes the bedside entrepreneur. In the future, I plan on doing all work from my bed. I can currently control the music in my apartment from my bed, write emails, and talk using skype. I'm waiting for the days when I can open the front door, turn on or off lights, or even cook an English Muffin Pizza using my Wireless network.

I have also noticed that the laptop has become an important part of my nighttime ritual, and has almost completely replaced cuddling. Though, Digg.com can't show affection the way that Germans can. If Web 1.0 was retail to customer, and 2.0 was customer to customer, then 3.0 must be computer to spooning. Ok, enough random thoughts for the morning, enjoy that article and if you have Wireless and a laptop, it'll be hard for you not to identify with it.

With Coley taking a clear stance against political messaging in apparel, I thought I'd take the opportunity to tone it down a tad and tell you about a new designer label of mens accessories called Ulterior Motive. UMotive is Swedish, which all but guarantees far less conspicuous political overtures in their clothing than used by the dizzy of polarized Americans designing our T-shirts these days.

I dig this label for their anti-brand approach and mentality -- they speak the DressMonkey language in terms of fashion industry indecency and the true nature of man's personal style. They are passionate about a cause and committed to a particular product.

We at DressMonkey feel strongly that a blazer is a piece of transformational clothing, a rite of passage that marks the transition from the tees and hoodies of college into the seersucker of manhood. This simple and passionate belief lives at our core and is constantly being fueled by the industry's limited choice and high prices.

UMotive's Summer Collection of neckties and cufflinks is worth checking out. Being their first collection ever and without an established presence in the United States yet, buying this young company's products may prove difficult. But pairing a Skull White with a white-hemmed, silk-lined black wool blazer from DressMonkey would more than justify the extra effort.

Its time to Meet My Monkey again, but this time we're going to be a bit more careful. Sizing has been re-done and now we're operating a little bit closer to launch. Our blazers will have tags, crests and even some new features that we didn't offer in the first one, hopefully completely simulating the actual finished products. Its still a little un-nerving, I really hope this works but won't know for a few days if it has or hasn't. I've got to truck out to Pudong in the morning, very far away but hopefully I'll be greeted again with a PJ wearing, Sprite offering factory owner. Pray for an effective MMM, I'm thinking this could be it if we get this sizing right. The Monkey smell is hopefully dissipating.

When it's not this, it's that. When it's not that, it's either these or those or them. Rarely ever is it us, or so I like to tell myself. So goes it with our most recent round of delays surrounding our launch date. Fingerpointing is counterproductive and rarely a healthy alternative for peacemaking, so instead I'll sieze this moment and attempt to turn negativity on its head to find something positive that may come of this.

Perhaps it's best to equate the overdue launch of DressMonkey.com (tentatively set for Dec. 2006) to a baby born past his expected due date: normally with only just a touch of good fortune will everything turn out as expected in the long run.

It's a stretch. But a stretch is what I need desperately to fall asleep tonight.

Zurigo, Italian for Zurich, or so says my girlfriend. I say, it has become the new hotbed of internet retail, no matter what it really stands for. I stumbled upon this little godsend of a mobile-office/starbucks-crusher only 4 days ago, but I've been back every day since. In fact, I went twice today, once for a 2.5 hour meeting with our web designers, and once to catch up with an old colleague. The place is perfect, and has everything my "office" in the guest bedroom doesn't. Pizza, iced mocas, meeting rooms, wireless internet, other dudes buried in their laptops, and best of all the random Chinese passer-by who feels the need to stand in front of the window and stare at me for 20 mins. Some might find that annoying, I just find it interesting, as my office doesn't usually get such passer-bys being on the 16th floor. I've decided that Zurigo will now be my default meeting place, and the picture's below should indicate why:

Soft leather couches and desks and better coffee than starbucks. I sure hope that this place doesn't get too popular, otherwise DressMonkey's outward excursion will have to be permanently based in the guest room. My work towards DressMonkey's eventual launch is in good hands with the coffee and fresh air this place provides. Oh, and the best part is its only a 30 second walk from my apartment. Good life get grander? Well, maybe a real office would be nice, but that will just require all of you reading this to buy a blazer, which won't be in the too distant future the way things are shaping out!