Ok you caught me I’ve been out all night and I’m just heading to bed. Ok fine. Look I’m a grown up girl and I CAN stay out all night if I like and I don’t actually have to answer to you, do I? Nope. Continue reading
When I was a little girl a friend and I found her uncle’s stash of Playboys. We were mesmerized by them. Both of us had open minded mother’s that hadn’t taught us our bodies were dirty, so beautiful pictures of glamorous women, who also happened to be mostly or completely naked weren’t something shocking. We thought they were glamorous.
Also, if you ever saw 70s Playboy, there were usually strewn with jewelry and what not, furs etc. It wasn’t truly a sexual thing, not directly anyway. There certainly wasn’t any peen. So to us, we thought they were beautiful ladies who also happened to be naked. We’d giggle and drape ourselves over the bed, mimicking the poses they were in.
That’s right about when we got caught, and in massive trouble. At least our clothes were on. Continue reading
“Don’t tell me the moon is shining, show me the glint of light on broken glass,” is great advice for writers. It is attributed to Anton Chekhov who did write something pretty close to that. It remains good advice whether it is apocryphal or not. It basically tells writers to show, don’t tell. Of course, some writers go overboard and describe every single thing in such detail that they have left themselves no room for emotional honesty or plot, but in general, as a reader, I prefer showing to telling. It’s much easier with a picture, though, and in this one you can see the glint of moonlight on the waves.
Of course, what you really want is the perfect blend of show and tell. You don’t want authors telling you what every person is thinking, you want them to trust you to figure it out from their actions and their words. Writers who tell too much insult our intelligence, assuming we cannot get the point without it being spelled out. Fashion blogs often just show, with pictures and very little else. I like to add a bit of telling to explain things like why I fell in love with the Moon Lounge from {anc} at The Arcade. No one loves props more than bloggers and I was afraid I would spend a fortune trying to get it from the gacha machine, but I got it on the first pull.
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My work has begun, my joy has started – I get to bring to life the amazing creations from THE ARCADE and make them part of my own world. The creators have worked and worked making amazing things to contribute to the story of our lives, and now it’s our turn to give them life. Continue reading
Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind,
But as for me, hélas, I may no more.
The vain travail hath wearied me so sore,
I am of them that farthest cometh behind.
Yet may I by no means my wearied mind
Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore
Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore,
Sithens in a net I seek to hold the wind.
Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt,
As well as I may spend his time in vain.
And graven with diamonds in letters plain
There is written, her fair neck round about:
Noli me tangere, for Caesar’s I am,
And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.
Sir Thomas Wyatt
Lea8 is home to the stunning Love, Henry, an installation that celebrates one of the most consequential love affairs of history, that between Henry VII and Anne Boleyn. But Henry was not the first man to fall in love with Anne. Before him was Harry Percy and Sir Thomas Wyatt who wrote that poem about her after he had been warned off. He went off to Italy for a while, though he came back in time to be caught up in the contrived ruse to eliminate Anne to make way for the third wife who finally gave Henry the son he so desperately needed. 
Henry and Anne are a popular subject because love matches are rare in royal history and their story is so very rich with passion and drama. However, their story is also important because the world would be very different if Henry had not fallen so desperately in love with Anne. This led to his rupture with the Catholic Church and with Spain. It’s possible without passion urging him forward, he would have waited for Catherine, who was not well, to die before seeking a new, young and fertile wife. Spain did not have Salic law and he may have looked to their example and pushed for a change in English law so Mary could inherit. He definitely would have married her off before menopause so she would have been able to have children. Henry would never have raided the wealth of the church and England would never have had the funds to build its great navy.
While it is possible Mary could have married her cousin James V and united Scotland and England, I doubt Henry would want a son-in-law in waiting on his northern border. It is too bad, we could have been spared Mary Queen of Scots and the countless books making a heroine of a relentlessly stupid woman. It is more likely Mary would have married her Spanish cousin Charles V (father of her eventual husband) and, if Henry had no son, he would have ruled when Mary took the throne. Without the war with Spain, the British would not have defeated the Spanish at sea and both North and South America would have been Spanish colonies. England would have remained a Catholic country and there would never have been a Glorious Revolution to rid her of a Catholic king which means John Locke may have never written his treatises on government that were the foundation for the American, French, Vietnamese and many other revolutions
The Arborea gown from The Annex is a stunning ecru silk taffeta gown worthy of a queen. It has lovely leaf print panniers.
Protestantism might have still spread throughout Europe, though, and brought with it The Enlightenment and democracy, but it would have been slower and later and it is possible it would have been suppressed far, far longer. Religious wars and persecutions probably would have continued even beyond the 40 Years War because Spain, and with it, the Holy Roman Empire, would have not lost so much power and money to England and would have had more resources to wage war against Protestantism. The British might never have become a worldwide Empire without its great navy, the direct result of its war with Spain when the Spanish King tried to overthrown Anne and Henry’s daughter Elizabeth. Since Spain’s method of colonization was very different from England’s model, the entire world would be vastly different. Continue reading
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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But when I awoke I was drifting at sea, surrounded by little creatures, dancing through the air. Continue reading
I hadn’t ever heard of The Trace Too until Cajsa linked to Ziki Quest’s blog. I feel a bit sad that I’ve probably missed out on something all this time, and now it will be leaving us. I am sadder, however, that it seems another SLer is struggling with health issues.
I don’t know the person who’s sim this is, nor the people doing a little fundraiser. But what I do know is what it’s like to feel helpless while someone you care about is ill across the globe, to watch and worry about the worst, and how it feels when the worst happens. All of that I’ve got in spades. So I went over to shoot some pics and promote their effort to remember their friend.
In SL sometimes that’s the best we can do for our friends, and I’m glad to support that. Continue reading
In the past week I’ve had three deaths around the edges of my life, 2 in SL and 1 in the RL. I’ve had it.
Cajsa nailed it. It’s not a game if it makes you cry. Both of the people who died this week were not my besties. We didn’t talk “all the time”, we didn’t share secrets. But they were people who I took for granted, so my rage and grief is based in ego because I’m feeling sorry for myself that I didn’t value these people more. It’s causing me to evaluate myself, and wish I could do more for those who truly lost something, for those whose grief isn’t based in ego but in loss – some of whom are people I care about so very much in both lives. Continue reading
Kavar Clearnslate – self portrait 2015
Kavar Cleanslate is the highly popular and much-loved stylist behind the Exile brand. While he turns his hand to every style from short cuts to romantic updos, he is best known for his lovely long flowing styles and he innovations in texturing, tinting and streaking hair with HUDS that allow wearers to go wild with color.
Exile Siren’s Call can be found at Hair Fair. The lingerie is from Luxuria.
Exile In the Shade
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?
Kavar Clearslate: I think the silliest was a few years ago (after a Hair Fair set up in fact) I set up this race track with friends in the sky with buildings that had those break apart scripts in them and we spend 2 hours wrecking the place with cars and prims flying everywhere, it was a blast.
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