Stylish with Substance

"All those old skanks in these tabloids all wear bikinis. Don't you want to be different? Don't you want to look more fabulous and glamorous? Aren't you sick of the bikini?" - Simon Doonan

I couldn't agree more, and yet I couldn't pinpoint it before this bold, genius gay said it in this perfect way.

I still wonder what will be in next year, which will likely mark my return to bikini-ready-dom. (My decision on what to wear vs. trends or personal style combined with how often I go to the beach merely to show off, when I hate the beach, should say a lot about me, no? Who cares - fun fun it will be.)

So what about you, if you've got it to flaunt, is the one-piece good enough still?

So, continuing my nerdy adventures, a guy from Chemistry.com contacted me. No, not through Chemistry, but YouTube. (My YouTube account link, in case you want to check it out.) Scary? No, not to me - impressive! A guy so computer geeky he needs not to pay for dating sites. This really inspired me.

We've gone out a couple of times, but our nerdiness and awkwardness really slowed things down. Right now it's like a snail in hibernation, but that's alright.

I went on to practice my own Googling skills because I feel i should really fulfill my Internet Superpower potential, don't you think?

So every time someone says something I want to learn more about, I now Google it. I don't take things for granted anymore. No faulty argument can fool me!

This Googling-everything thing can get one into trouble, if one isn't careful, like with the micro-trend of being a DIY Doctor via Google. One night I was crying and my lip swelled and I ended up thinking I was allergic to my own tears (they got on my lip). I thought this was such a romantic fantasy for being an uber nerd - so many allergies including to something from my own body. I'm such a loser - lol. But my friend and I determined it was just my allergy to dust (dust on my pillow, face in pillow). Oh that's all. It's 'k, that's nerdy, too, right? ;-)

I also searched for people via Google, and I realized the secret to actually finding people is to continue clicking on links on the results pages. Like a user has links to other pages, and also gives hints, like a username can be then put into Google, etc. So my big success is that I found a High School friend I'd been searching for for, literally, years! I found her blog, then her e-mail address, and confirmed her photo on Facebook. Even though I have her e-mail address, I'm nervous about writing, so I just friended her. I still haven't heard back ... but on the plus side I also transferred my college friend from just MySpace into being the newest Facebook user! (And I was her first friend.) Go me.

Then pondering how it seems no one does pay for online dating sites, when another computery guy winked at me on Match.com, I decided to try out this approach. I followed him on Twitter, etc. I now understand this can be a "mistake" with some people, but if they're scared off, it's due to their own issues, and I don't need that! See even though this guy's Twitter bio simply reads, "hacker", he doesn't seem to appreciate women who posess those skills. I did read on his Match profile his turn-off is aggression/assertiveness, but I thought I'd pass because I'm very shy in person - I forgot that my lack of shy online might matter, too! Oh well, moving on. You know he has about 500 (probably no exaggeration) FEMALE friends on Facebook, anyway - shady.

Anyway, as it's obvious I'm able to blog (slash *work*) again, I've needed to slow way down on my Second Life usage. I barely sign in anymore except to pay my weekly land tier, which seems a bit ridiculous, but c'est la vie deux. Before I paused I managed to get as far as to mostly finish my first t-shirt! I'm a fast learner, no?

And now that I've pretty much told my downtime story, I need to get on to working, and stop this chatting. Except for on Twitter. (My Twitter link.) Can't help that. ;-)

My Twitter has become something very dear, and very personal for me; an outlet for deep thoughts. This has also led to me using the service so much I thought I'd plant seeds now to hope grow a Twitter section of our financial business. (Search Google if you don't think Twitter can be monetized, that's off-topic here.)

Up and pretty-much running is our fashion Tweet for Kiss Me Stace; located at: http://twitter.com/FashionBytes

I'll update with a full list of our coming Twitter accounts when they're all running. I will also set up a FriendFeed to "hub" them all.

Note, if your own Twitter messages are unrelated to fashion, I may still follow you, however from my personal username: laurelbyanyname.

Hope to see you @round! (Get it?!)

According to WWD, most magazines are selling fewer ad pages for their upcoming issues. This comes after years(?) of ads taking over magazines to the extreme points of there being more ad pages than content; huge, heavy books even bigger some months with no extra articles; and even Vogue, in my humble opinion, holds half its appeal in the beauty of ad photography and eye candy of the fashion accessories (handbags do it for me).

While an overabundance of visual stimulation when there are quality photographs in the ads, like with the case of Vogue, is perfect for fashion magazines and possibly other visually-centric entertainment, this "trend" is usually ridiculous. For months I didn't even notice Vogue contained good content because those candy-licious designer ads were so shiny and distracting. I could probably continue subscribing only to those, but that's me - I'm visual.

Even with targeted and artistically visually appealing adverts, ads competing with content space is a bad thing to most readers, and when it's not, it speaks of a sad time in our society's development.

Sure, the magazines may be in a rough spot initially as companies withhold their sponsorships, but there's an equalizing factor when it comes to paying customers versus advertisers. Isn't it true that customers are happier with a service displaying fewer ads, and shouldn't that increase actual circulation? I do happen to have inside experience that printing magazines is costly, and therefore the profit in this product doesn't come directly from selling the product, itself ... but shouldn't a higher subscription base attract advertisers again? This business, like others, has a built-in check and balance factor.

Also, this could inspire more magazines to offer subscriptions to their issues via the web, which is a much more cost effective means of distribution. So in the end, it won't mean disaster, or even moot as things settle through their cycle, it could open more opportunities for both businesses and those of us who prefer the web or wish to save trees. Wow, so ... this "crisis" could help the planet?

Perhaps everything does happen for a reason.

We're starting an anti blog of sorts, related to (too) expensive and fugly handbags. My friend and I will be working on it, but we can't decide on its name (two minds can be slower than one). Please take this poll and feel free to leave comments. (Note you can add your own idea as a poll response.) Thanks!

Update: Poll is closed.

I came up with a third, and perfect, name. However the exact domain is taken by a spam page, and I have to make the final decisions with my co-blogger in the morning. I should sleep now, but I'm feeling sick and was anxious. Now that I had a good brain-storming session, my anxiety should go away, but name creativity was not my only issue I suppose...

This double-color cardigan by Marc by Marc Jacobs is pretty cute, but my eye can't decide whether or not this halvsie effect is slimming or widening, and I don't believe there's been a set rule on this matter either.

What do you think?

n

 

Please leave more detailed comments, too!

I was forced to take a break from blogging soon after my last post on here because suddenly my eyesight drastically worsened overnight. I went from avoiding my chic glasses (that I barely needed) because my long eyelashes fog them up---to them not even working at all for me while I squinted at any words smaller than H1 with eyes an inch away from my laptop screen, then increasing the font size in Firefox at least twice.

I was nearly blind, but only when it came to reading, for a few days before I was able to borrow a pair of those generic magnifying eyeglasses from a friend. I've decided these work really great for me, and plan to go shopping for fashionable pairs, but haven't yet.

So what to do while I obviously couldn't write (no proofreading) and couldn't craft either (I look while I knit and sewing - forget it) - well........

I decided to start up that web comic I'd been thinking about, but I wanted to use avatars (originally thought from meez.com) as characters to save me time. I don't have time for more hobbies, especially ones with no wish for real money-making, so I didn't want to spend a lot of time vectoring each scene myself....

So even though I'm virtually (no pun intended this time, I swear) banned from Second Life because I'd probably most definitely become addicted to it, I found myself trying it out again (first time I surprisingly didn't like it - but to be fair I gave up on it quickly because after all, it was contraban, tehe).

And well. I ended up forgetting all about (for the time being) the web comic.

Because I've realized SL is actually an amazing outlet for me to produce fashion designs for. So I spent some time (I said some, ok? just some) learning how to get around, tweaking my avatar (because that's absolutely necessary no matter what, doi) and um preparing for starting to learn, and eventually diving into, building in Second Life.

Um, yes, I have bought a home, and pay weekly "tier" but it's all to help me learn to build and get by in the world. And it hasn't been all that time consuming.

It's not like I started having surreal dreams. Or seeing live humans and thinking they look like computer avatars, not vice versa. No no. No. No. No, ok? Well that's the official story.

It's all to help me in my career, you see. I'm not playing. Perish the thought!

Now I'm getting antsy with all this work and proofreading, so far, so I'm going to pause my tales for now. But I'll be "working", "not" "wasting time on the Internet".