I tossed and turned, unable to sort out why ideas of a lovely thermos, a berry cake, a baby doll, an eggnog tray and a snowman seemed to be swirling around my mind. What could they mean? Continue reading
In The One-Straw Revolution, Masanobu Fukuoka wrote “The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.” Like many people, including our founders, he has this idea that only farmers do noble labor. This is all very nice and romantic, but there is an ugly side to it. We see that same idea when politicians call rural America the heartland or “real America” as though we city dwellers were inferior to them. Thomas Jefferson was even more explicit, saying working for a wage and was corrupting and industry would destroy American, meanwhile those who labor in the earth are the “chosen people of god” and the only people he thought should have political power.
The belief our founders had in the superiority of the agrarian life and agrarian people had profound effects on our Constitution. That belief extends to exaggerating the political power of rural states and rural voters in many ways. One Wyoming voter counts as much as four New York voters when voting for president. It is even more inequitable in the Senate, a Vermont voter getting counting 30 times more than a New York voter. The United States Senate is the least democratic legislative chamber in the developed world. The 38 million people who live in the nation’s 22 smallest states, including Wyoming, are represented by 44 senators. The 38 million residents of California are represented by two senators.
I think about these things when I am hopping about the grid looking for a nice place to shoot a picture.
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The Arcade Gacha even is three days away! THREE! A must have this round for anyone who loves an Advent Calendar will be the Trompe Loeil Advent calendar full of home decor pieces.
I’m decorating for Christmas and am so excited that another holiday season is upon us. There’s presents to buy, and cookies to bake, and good cheer to share. I’m ready!
Now where to put these things…..this cat needs to move.
Featured:
Trompe Loeil Arcade Gacha Items – Advent Calendar Gacha December 2015
Sideboard: Second Spaces – Collabor88 November 2015
House: Dustbunny – Arcade September 2015
I don’t believe in Black Friday. I can’t imagine withholding my need to buy whatever I want for one day a year. I believe firmly in wanton consumerism 365 days a year. I want everything. So I am an anomaly and don’t shop madly on Black Friday. Continue reading
I’m pretty excited as we’re heading right into the holiday season full steam ahead. In the US we have Thanksgiving tomorrow which is in fact THE FIRST DAY OF CHRISTMAS no matter what the scrooges say. It’s that most wonderful time of the year of good cheer and family and friends and WONDERFUL THINGS ABOUND.
I like it, can you tell? Continue reading
New pajamas from Sn@tch and a cute bed loaded with poses for you or friends are just some of the fun items available at MY ATTIC this round. The bed is called the SLEEPOVER bed and so if you’ve got a couple of girlfriends over, it’s perfect for some fun pictures. I also love that it’s got several textures available – you can mix up your decor options. Continue reading
The Instruments monthly showcase is featuring designs inspired by Star Wars this month. Among the designs, you will find this fabulous gown inspired by Padme’s outfit in Episode Three. Padme’s lament, “So this is how liberty dies… with thunderous applause.” seems particularly apt at this time when crowds of people applaud the creation of databases to track people because of their ethnicity and armed vigilance committees march outside mosques and call themselves patriots. I guess those people have not studied history (or watched Star Wars), a tabula rasa of ignorance on which the future of tyranny is being written. Of course, the Force is with us all to resist tyranny by resisting fear. We know what happens when fear inspires hate. It has happened before and if we fail to learn from that, we have only ourselves to blame.
I stopped at Winter Moon for the photos, since the dress is black and white, I thought black and white pictures would be great. By the way, I think the scarf that is part of the Padme dress may work well with other outfits. The Padme outfit includes the dress, scarf and sleeves that I am wearing as well as a crown, earrings and rings that I am not.
Sometimes it’s the revisiting of words you’ve glossed over that reveals nuggets you hadn’t previously divined. You spin the words through your brain, and one time across them is different than the others. What’s changed? Not the words. The words are the same. But something in you caused them to give up a greater meaning than the last time you passed them by. Continue reading
I don’t know who Cali Rae Turner is but Turner once said “The best thing about having a sister was that I always had a friend.” I have three sisters and from my experience that is not completely true. But it’s true enough. I certainly know that one of my best friends in life has always been my middle sister. Her children are my age, but it doesn’t matter. She and I are the ones who are close and always have been.
My earliest memory is of her. I know it is my memory and not a family story because nobody else remembered it, even my sister, until I reminded her. I was 18 months old, had just had my tonsils removed (They grew back!) and was in the hospital in a crib. A nurse came to give me a shot and I kept running away from her, going from one end of the crib to the other. So the nurse had her grab me and hold me still. Betrayal!!! Obviously, I have forgiven her. Since our parents died, she has been my linchpin.
She was sick last year, a tortuous battle with breast cancer and brain tumors, but she got through it and has been back at work full-time for about two months. She just found out on the 8th that she has lung cancer. Don’t worry. She caught it early at Stage 1 and she should be fine, but it threw me for a loop. A bigger one than last year because I thought we were done with all that. It feels so much like being back at Square One. It is not, we know now that she cannot tolerate Doxorubicin and they won’t use it. This means she won’t have to go through the hell of neutropenia for months on end. So she’s ahead of the game. She is strong, a tough, stoic survivor who will do well. But I am still off balance, angry because this is so not fair–as if there is anything fair about cancer–and wishing that she could at least had a few more months before cancer took another run at her.
It’s a beautiful day at Nightfall.
She joined Second Life® about a month or so after I did. I walked her through it. She’s on my friend’s list–Marit Lilliehook, though she has not logged in since 2007. We were going to have adventures in SL together, but she’s one of those computer users who accidentally unfriends her children and has to call my nephew to come over to her house to restore her browsers file menu when she makes it disappear. Second Life just overwhelmed her. She’s been using browsers on the internet for 15 years and I still have to remind her how to do a bookmark, so this time it’s not SL’s fault for being too hard. On the other hand, she has crushed the competition in Candy Crush.
She will be okay, I would bet on it. But I am a bit wobbly and may be a bit more erratic than usual with my blogging. However, it will be all okay in the end. I know my sister and if anyone can beat cancer twice, she can.
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Don’t look at me like that, he’s a guest.
Probably.
I really loved the new release from Erratic but she’s releasing just for the Maitreya Lara body lately, which I do not have. However, since this one isn’t on a layer on the body I was hopeful I could make it work on my slink PHYSIQUE.
WOOOOT I did. She’s also released leggings (it’s really beautiful together) but I didn’t try because I’m guessing they’re on a layer.Instead I paired it with some really cute boots from Pure Poison, it’s all available at Collabor88 this month. I love the colors this month. Continue reading