Category Archives: Showcases & Discount Rooms

Hold Fast to Dreams

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Langston Hughes, one of America’s greatest poets, wrote that we must “hold fast to dreams” for if they die, life is like a bird who has broken wings and cannot fly. When dreams go, he wrote, “Life is a barren field frozen with snow.” I think this is an important truth that we must all hold onto. Dreams animate us. They keep us from drifting into a stagnant contentment. Chuck Palahniuk wrote “Let me never be content.”

Sometimes people stop seeking happiness, settling for contentment. I think contentment is a trap. It is a yield sign on life’s highway. That’s where dreams come in. Unlike goals, they need not be realistic, they can be far-fetched, but they can set a framework for realistic goals that guide us toward self-fulfillment and happiness.

It is more important to have dreams than to achieve them. Hope is more powerful than success and hope is what dreams are made of.
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That shirt

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That shirt! You know the one I mean. We all have one. The shirt we have owned since forever, that repeated washings and years of wear have softened the fabric to a perfect level of comfort. It is the adult equivalent of a blankie. A shirt that ends up in every load of laundry because after a hard day, we put it on the minute we get home, as though putting on a hug. We have forgotten to turn it inside out a few hundred times and the fabric is pilling and snags are visible here and there, but we don’t care. It is our favorite shirt and we will keep it until it falls apart on our body.

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Whatever sizing and substance the fabric once held is gone. It conforms to our body like a second skin, a cozy, comfy, second skin that says “You’re good enough. You’re smart enough. And doggone it, people like you.” We have that shirt in our first lives, but now we can have it in our second as well, thanks to Vinyl’s Little Toast (sukoshitosuto) and any doubts whether this distress and well-worn look was not deliberate can be dispelled with a look at some of the other options on the texture hud.

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Yup, that’s deliberate.
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Daydream Believer

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There is a lot of speculation about what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. They used to say it was our ability to use tools, but I had a dog who used a stick as a lever to snap the boards in the fence. There’s a marvelous video of a crow using tools to get food. Some used to say it was language, but the more we learn of animals, the more we learn about their languages and realize that we made assumptions because we did not speak their language. There are those who say it is our consciousness that we will die that makes us human, but can someone see animals mourning and presume they have no sense of their own mortality? Others say it is how well we cooperate, but will we ever cooperate as well as bees and ants? Anyone who thinks about the size of an elephant or whale brain knows it cannot be brain size. Scientists spend a lot of time on this question and are coming to the conclusion it’s not just one thing that makes us human, but it is all about how we think. One of the key differences is our ability to imagine multiple scenarios,  to build complex imagined constructions. Daydreams are part of this – not dreams – but the conscious self-aware wonder of daydreams.
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Bring Green to Life

Helena Stringer - IOF - Bring Green to Life - 1
In a world set far apart from ours, a land is plagued by something that is sucking all the joy, colour and life out of the various realms.

They people prayed to their gods,  but it seemed after years of of no answer, the people of the land have had enough.

A forest witch was tasked with summoning from the earth, the last remaining seed of life, into a solid form, humanoid form.

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Same Damn Dress

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Gidge and I popped over to Nº21 because she had seen a dress in the EloquenceSL Shopping Guide she had to have. When I saw it, I had to have it too, so we decided to do a “Same Damn Thing” challenge, or in this case, Same Damn Dress. I love the same damn challenges because it gets at the heart of what makes fashion exciting and creative. We are all individuals who make decisions about styling so that even when we wear the same damn dress, we look different. So, if any of you want to style this same damn dress, post your links below for the giggles.
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Read Any Good Books Lately?

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Foxes has released this beautifully fitted and textured dress in a mind-numbing 24 different versions from sparked to ombres to solids with standard sizing and sizing for specific mesh bodies. Obviously, the Foxes creator has given up on sleep.

The long list for the  Man Booker prize was announced yesterday and I have only read one of them. That is one reason it is my favorite book list. It goes beyond bestseller lists and borders, elevating excellent fiction from all over the world. Usually by the time the next list is out, I have read my way through the list. It is changing, though, until 2013, the authors had to come from the Commonwealth and now it is open to authors from any country so long as they write in English and their books are published in the UK. For the first time there are five American writers on the list. Will this change the complexion of the list? I don’t know. I hope not.

I have been on a lucky streak lately, reading several good books in a row. Right now I am reading The Sellout by Paul Beatty, an hilarious satire of post-racial America. The protagonist’s father is killed by the police in what is supposed to be a ridiculously senseless and satirical example of police violence. Unfortunately, reality has surpassed satire on that score.

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Hair Fair Designers — Alice Demonia

I wore my first Alice Project hair three years ago this month. Alice Project holds a special place in my heart for scaring me the first time I put on an all white hair that I applied a texture to. I am certain there was an involuntary squeak or two before I realized I had not broken it and just had to add the hud and click. We are friends on Plurk and I don’t think I will be telling any deep, dark secrets if I tell you she has a wicked, sardonic sense of humor. And as you can see from her favorite photo, “Nobody parties like Alice Demonia.”

Hair Fair may be closed, but you will be able to find these styles in the stores. I have some remaining profiles to do, so on we go.

Alice Demonia by Vanity Mirror 2013

Nobody Parties Like Alice Demonia by Vanity Mirror – 2013

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Alice Project Strawberry

It’s Only Fashion: What’s the craziest thing you ever did in Second Life? Most exciting? Silliest? Is there a story you can share that captures your Second Life experience?

Alice Demonia: My Second Life has been pretty boring, I think, hahah. When I first started, I did the standard exploring and trolling and laughing at various sex related sims. That’s probably the most excitement I’ve had. Nowadays, I’m notorious for AFKing at my friends’ platforms or sims for days. I tend to just sort of set up wherever I am, if they’re open to that. The Flickr photo I’ve included is the product of one day where I logged in at a friend’s and everyone just decided to start throwing down things around me, lol. Continue reading

Seraseeya, Watcher of the River of Souls

Helena Stringer - IOF - Seraseeya - 1

Seraseeya was an unusual creature. With a foot in both worlds, she was neither human, nor fully a beast. Her mother was a harpy who had the unfortunate accident of picking a human male as a mate. We wont go into details, but the result was Seraseeya, and her 3 other sisters.

Things were not too bad to start. The Harpy Broodmothers could tell there was something a bit different about them, they had funny feet and they lacked claws on their hands. There was not a feather on their head, nor much hair to speak of.  They let them be, thinking they would grow into their features.

As the years passed, it became apparent that there was indeed something wrong, they looked more human, than harpy. This would not do.

More story and credits below the cut.

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Siren Song

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This is the one song everyone
would like to learn: the song
that is irresistible:
the song that forces men
to leap overboard in squadrons
even though they see the beached skulls

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Hair Fair Profiles: Oblivion by Albakruna

This is the first in a series of profiles of some of the designers at Hair Fair 2015. Albakruna designs fantasy and role play hair, with a strong emphasis on historically accurate hair designs. Her store is named Oblivion.

Hair Designer Albakruna – photo by Albakruna, used with permission.

It’s Only Fashion: What’s the craziest thing you ever did in Second Life? Most exciting? Silliest? Is there a story you can share that captures your Second Life experience?

Albakruna: Actually I consider every day of my days in Second Life the craziest, silliest, funniest ever because let’s face it, even just hovering over a cloud in the sky while building is not that usual. What chained me to this world and still keep me thrilled about is the fact you virtually can do whatever as the imagination is the only limit and, we know, imagination has no limits 🙂
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