Autumn has been painting its palette all across Second Life for the past month. I stopped by Izzie’s because it is always one of the most beautiful seasonal sims and sure enough, Izzie’s portrait of autumn is beautiful. In fact, it’s so lovely, I decided to use a paint filter on one of my snaps to turn it into a painting. If you stop by Izzie’s, don’t touch the kitty, she is shy.
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Normally my answer would be “Hell to the No” but when I was shooting these pictures today, I figured it could not possible get worse and might get better. So when I saw there was a new update, I went for it. I have not been able to save a photo to disk since Monday and was saving raw shots directly from the SL viewer to Flickr. The photos for this post are raw, unedited pictures. They have not even been cropped. I know Flickr has a photo editor, but I don’t like it. Still, it turns out fine. I just like to play with a few little touch ups now and then. I am wearing a fun and adorable sailor sweater and flared skirt from MotiAme that I found at Kustom9 when I dropped by to throw money at Apple Fall, as one does. The sweater comes in gray, brown, blue, black, red and white. The skirt is in black, white and blue. They fit together well and have a lovely early fall feeling – for those days with brisk breezes, a bit of mist in the air and moments of sunshine. October in Oregon.
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So I have been crashing every single time I saved a picture to disk for the last two days, perhaps some new incompatibility arose from upgrading my OS to Yosemite. I will have to figure it out soon, but I didn’t feel like trouble shooting today, so I just save the photos direct to Flickr®. That means these are truly raw photos, not even cropped. I just set the size of the frame inworld and clicked until I got the shot I wanted and so what you see is what you get. As to why it crashes saving to disk but not to Flickr, those are the mysteries of computers and graphics cards and code.
I do not pay a lot of attention to the Hot 100 as most of the songs recently seem to have Idol-itis – overproduced and full of melisma. However, someone on plurk mentioned having All About that Bass stuck in her head so I was curious and listened to it. I was surprised by its retro doo woo sound and was happy that such a positive body image song was leading the charts. Pop music popularity is dominated by the tweens, so the song’s popularity makes me optimistic about “kids today.”
Today I am wearing a versatile dress from Tee*fy. I love that it has options for the bodice. You
can wear the dress with the spaghetti straps alone or, as I did, add the optional harness. There are also lace cap sleeves you can add that slide right under the straps for a touch of romance. It has a fitted bodice with a mesh midriff. Christian Siriano says mesh is “done” but not if it looks as good as this. It is a great take on the Hotel Spoopy theme for October’s Collabor88.
One of the rules I live by comes from Voltaire, who said “The perfect is the enemy of the good.” A similar idea is attributed to Confucius, “Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.” I really took this aphorism to heart when a friend of mine was writing a book on dismantling racism. I was reading, editing and helping him find illustrations. The book was ready to go for a few years before it was published because he kept trying to perfect it, looking for a better example, a more perfect metaphor, a stronger anecdote, a better adjective. I ended up making him a sign on a huge poster board with Voltaire’s quote blown up big and stuck in on the wall by his desk. It still took him another six months to let it out of his perfection-seeking hands.
I was listening to Leonard Cohen’s newest album, Popular Problems. His 80 year old voice is rough, dry and imperfect, but those imperfections give it such an emotional resonance that my skin prickled and raised goosebumps and my eyes became hot with emotion ready to brim over in tears. While listening, that quote from Voltaire came to mind again and I had a small epiphany. The perfect is the enemy of the good in another way – not only does the search for perfection paralyze us, but it also does not move us emotionally. Thinking of another Canadian singer, Celine Dion has perfect pitch. Her voice is flawless and strong and she has never once moved me emotionally. Even singing songs with sentimental lyrics, she leaves me cold and I don’t care for her at all. Perfection is not beautiful, imperfection is.
Baiastice turns on the heat with these too hot to handle caged bra top and colorful belted miniskirt. In several colors and solids, it’s heating up the joint at Collablor88.
The heat is on, on the street
Inside your head, on every beat
And the beat’s so loud, deep inside
The pressure’s high, just to stay alive
‘Cause the heat is on
Collabor88’s theme for the month is Miami Electric – featuring the electric tropical colors that bring to mind that sunny city. I have never been to Miami, so all I know about it is from the media. Those aerial shots in CSI Miami make it look like an architectural center of excellence – beautiful and pristine. Real Housewives made it seem less than perfect,let’s say but, of course, the strongest influence on my impression of Miami is the infamous Florida man. Let’s just say Florida man probably does not shop at Collabor88. Continue reading
Ghee has all sorts of knits and woolens for layering in rich jewel tones and foundation neutrals that make for great cold-weather fashion. I particularly love this tunic with a long cowl sweater. Underneath I am wearing ghee’s thermals that come in great colors and which I would recommend as investment purchases except for one big hurdle – they have no Slink Physique appliers which is becoming a deal breaker for things like tights, leggings and layering sweaters.
When I put on this dress, Half Measures, from Dead Dollz for Penumbra’s Autumn/Winter Fashion Week, I immediately thought of Audrey Hepburn. It has a similar front neckline to the little black dress by Givenchy for Breakfast at Tiffany’s. While the wide circle skirt is a complete opposite to the long, slim pencil skirt of that iconic gown, it is still something she would have worn.
Audrey Hepburn remains one of the great fashion icons achieving a kind of immortality with her legacy – not just in film but in fashion and even more importantly, with her activism. She was far more than a pretty face, but was a wise woman who worked tirelessly on behalf of refugees as Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF, a passionate commitment that may have risen out of her experiences as a teenager in World War II working as a courier for the resistance while one stepbrother went underground and the other was in a labor camp.
