I recently joined Coathangr, a social network for fashion. Not elitist fashion, as far as I can tell - I would kick that mess to the curb. It's very laid back and a lot like Twitter, except that instead of asking you what you're up to, it asks what you're wearing. It's a local startup, so I'm happy to be a fashionable guinea pig as they refine the site.

To quote the site itself, users are encouraged to "stream the contents of your closet and fitting room to your friends." That means brief status updates about style, both personal and aspirational. People upload pics of what they're wearing or thinking of buying and their followers reply.

Sample entry:

I like it so far, though I confess I haven't updated as much as I should. I'm not as sartorially adventurous as some of the other users - if you've met me, you've probably noticed that I tend to favor a handful of outfits in varying shades of black, grey or olive green.

I think one of the biggest pluses of the site is the willingness of its users to dispense advice and constructive critiques of people's ensembles. I prefer to turn to my friends for clothing queries - not an overpriced glossy mag. Coathangr makes that pretty easy to do.

Give it a shot. You can check out my scant profile under pugofwar. If you join, perhaps you can help me dress better. Or at least have a few laughs at my expense.

I'm currently taking part in Startup Weekend, a three-day community event where you "get together with local developers, marketers, designers, enthusiasts and do what you do best. Start projects, start companies. No talk, all action."

In our case, that means about 40 people eating pizza, riffing on startup ideas, forming small groups and working toward a goal of having something developed by Sunday night. Maybe a plan, maybe a working demo, maybe something else entirely.

It's my first time, so I'm trying to absorb as much of the energy as possible.

The event's founder, the luminous Andrew Hyde, has stressed the importance of community from the start. Consider this quote: "This is about meeting people, this is about community. If you're not into making friends, you're not going to have a good time here."

I've met some really smart folks so far - developers and programmers, which is quite a change from the PR/mktg folks I normally hang out with. I confess to being intimidated by their ability to actually build the things we are brainstorming, but PR/social media will also play a role - so I'm eager to contribute.

But at the same time, I wish I had their app-building skillz. It's something that I've toyed with but never committed to - learning the languages necessary to build stuff. My career focus thus far has been describing and communicating - it'd be a thrill to construct something from scratch for a change. I'm hoping to pick up some great perspective this weekend.

I'm returning to the fray for Day 2 shortly...