lake is frozen over, trees are white with snow

Ghost urns! I really, really like these.

Fawkes: QUILTBAG as a term scares me.
me: bwuh?
Fawkes: Queer, Undecided, Intersexed, Lesbian, Transexual, Bisexual, Asexual, Gay.
me: Oh, that.
Yeah, that's an extraordinarily stupid contraction. And what gets me--'queer'
It fits
Like, EVERYONE
Fawkes: Apparently there's also QUILTBAGPIPE.
me: ...pipe?
Fawkes: Pansexual, Indefinite, Polysexual, Everyone.
Emilly sighs
Look, if we're going to include everyone? Then we can just say EVERYONE
Fawkes: Why would we ever do that, then we can't have Quilt Bagpipe patches.
me: Hmm
You make a serious point.

It's true. Now I'm imagining, in addition to little triangles, little gender signs, little flamingoes, and little rainbows--we can have little quilted bagpipes to demonstrate our open-mindedness on the whole gender issue! We're so damned inclusive as a community, why, we'll let in STRAIGHT people, because they're just as gay as we are!

I'm getting too old for this.

But I do want a quilted bagpipe now. Just a little one. Something I can pin on a fabulous hat.

There's a great description on the intersexed side of things on Tumblr; but for the most part, when your acronym is longer than most actual words? Find a new goddamn word.

This may be the first ever casual coat for the triple-J set. And it's quite reasonably priced. If you are one of said damsels so plentifully endowed--or, mayhap, you know one who is--there you go. Simple, attractive, casual--and built for all body types.

About a week ago, I started hearing from friends who follow the SL blog more closely than I do, these days. There was an entry, a week or so back, just packed with typical Torley advice, set in Stepford. What I got from a couple friends was (paraphrasing): "This can't be the same Stepford, right? Torley has to be kidding. Do the Lindens know about Stepford?"

So I checked it out. This isn't the same one. This Stepford seems to be almost excruciatingly "family-friendly", which makes my head spin for a couple reasons:

1. Stepford as a township name cannot be divorced from the 1972 novel by Ira Levin, which--to date--has spawned six sequels or retellings of the source work, as well as becoming a divisive term for any woman who seems to be caving to societal pressure overly much; and

2. Part of the reason "The Stepford Wives" hit such a deep horrific chord in American culture, at least, if not world, was that it was entirely fixed on the struggle of the time--a struggle which persists to this day: what price independence? At what point does social balancing become intolerable conformity? And is what men want, against what women want, in relationships really that different, gender to gender?

But put all of that to the side; there's already a town of Stepford on the grid, and has been for some time--the only abiding change, in fact, seems to be that they've upgraded from a mainland Mature sim to an Adult estate sim. That town of Stepford can be found in Porten Hill, and--before you ask--yes, they still practice gynophagia, or the fine art of whole-female barbecue. (No, I'm not a fan. I just know it's out there.)

So--no, people, the Lindens are not suddenly endorsing wholesale female slaughter, don't freak out. It does make me headtilt a bit to consider they'd pick out a town named Stepford--for any reason--though, to heartily endorse as a winter must-see wonderland. (Especially as it's not, so much, a winter sim).

But then, they seemed to have no problem rabidly partnering with Ozimals, which--as much as I genuinely like the founders--are beset with dramatic, theatrical problems mostly of their own making. Maybe they were thinking like follows like--Ozimals has absolutely abysmal customer service, the Labs have stunningly inept customer service, it's like they were separated at birth. So, y'know, Bad Decision Theatre rages on.

(And I will admit, trying to track down that post a week later, I kept running into other Torley-related things, instead of the winter-festival-in-Stepford-post. Those things are worth mentioning, so are a general how-to-get-winter-sky video post, and how to use the coming depth-of-field setting.)

"Come on Linden Lab, we are your customers... the people who pay your salaries... do something to make our lives better." She's not wrong. And maybe that's the best line to come out of all of this--how many bad decisions, small and large, are we going to put up with before we leave for somewhere--anywhere--else?