A friend tipped me to this mesh piece on the Marketplace; it's attributed by its "creator" (and I use that word very, very loosely) under a "Creative Commons" license.

The problem with that? This is the Witch character from the Left 4 Dead games, in a Santa hat. Even the outfit she's in is directly ripped from the game.

And perusing the rest of his store, I am left with the inescapable conclusion that if there's anything there that hasn't been ripped from a major entertainment or game studio, it's only because it's been ripped from someone else, in world. He's a thief, pure and simple. It's still depressing beyond words that people feel the need to do that for whatever limited gain it gets them.

In other news, a friend of mine came across a 2012 study documenting the amount of virtual exposed skin on avatars in Second Life. What remains most compelling to me is that they excluded nearly all roleplaying sims (more on that later), and excluded all avatars who were over ninety days old.

If you're interested in the breakdown percentages, I highly recommend reading through the study, but I am going to mention the final tabulated results from the captured images (which were captured between 2011 and 2012, respectively). The amount of covered skin, on average, for male humanoid avatars, runs about 71% (with an additional note which indicates that 71% figure relates to a covering of 75% to 100%, excluding head and hands).

Considering that most avatars, from first day in to three months in, are still subsisting on a diet of freebie clothes and shapes, that actually makes sense. Excluding furs (who tend to wear less overall), and most roleplay sims (where more skin might be revealed), that pretty much indicates the standard population of any travel hub.

That female avatars of the same age range do not do the same is expected; but what's interesting (to me, at least), is how that change is demonstrated. There is not one single block of coverage, as is generally seen in the male figures (71% nearly covered, 19% two-thirds covered, 9% half-covered, and a slim 1% nearly naked). Instead, it's split nearly in half--female avatars, on average, waver between exposing up to 74% of their skin (38% of all female avatars observed), to exposing nearly half of their skin (47% of all female avatars observed), and that makes up the bulk of their total percentages. Only 15% remains, with 10% revealing nearly all skin, and a narrow 5% covering up nearly all skin.

We all fall prey to it from time to time, it's just easier in a virtual setting. Women dress how they dress not to impress men, generally, but to feel attractive themselves. Thing is, for most of us, "attractive" defaults to showing cleavage, or long legs; wearing heels instead of more comfortable shoes; wearing makeup instead of just cleaning our face and having done with it.

We do these things not because we necessarily feel they're important, but because we've been socialized to do these things. Our mothers told us how to dress, just as their mothers told them how. Our friends, instructed by their mothers and grandmothers, teach us as we teach them.

Be feminine. Stand up straight. Be coy, shy, inviting. Wear perfume. Wear makeup. Make sure your breath is fresh. Say yes, not no. And throughout all these messages, the one overwhelming one emerges--that women must be pretty at all times, if they hope to "snare a man". It is no surprise, then, that this melange of rules and restrictions seep into the virtual spaces we find ourselves using.

In Second Life, particularly, this is telling--because, while we, ourselves, have choices on the skins we wear, the shapes we wear, the clothing, for the most part we are buying what others have made. Which means we're literally conforming on a basic level to everything we were conditioned to believe before. There are virtually no skins, for child avatars or adult ones, that come without makeup. There are very, very few hairs that don't look like they've had some product, or gel, or mousse, used on them. There are few fashions (that are not specifically designed for roleplay, medieval sims, or neo-Victorian ones) that are not short first, or that don't expose a great deal of cleavage.

So, making these choices, wearing these clothes, wearing these shapes, and eyes, and hair, and adornments--we fall right back into the conditioning patterns. We understand why men dress to wear clothes that do not expose much skin. But most of us don't bother to understand why women dress to expose skin.

(Back to that roleplay sim. The single roleplay sim they did examine was one of the Star Wars roleplay sims, though they do not say which one in the study. There--and there alone--captured images of avatars were compared directly with stills from the Star Wars movies, in particular the "prequel" trilogy, with head and hands excluded from analysis. In this separate observational study, they also excluded furs, but retained their restriction of no one over ninety days old.)

This link will require you to agree to enter a blog with "adult" concepts and themes, but I promise you--this particular entry is completely safe for work. (You're on your own if you backspace to look through the blog itself.)

What you'll be seeing, however, is a collection of gravestones from Romani families in Donetsk, Ukraine. Unless we are Rom ourselves, or allied to the Rom in some way, all we likely understand about them in the Ukraine is how many were shot in mass graves during the Nazi occupation. And while that is important knowledge in itself, those mass graves, if they are marked at all at this point, will have at most a memorial tablet over the entire site.

Heads of families are very honored in Romani culture, however. They are frequently gifted, feted, and when they are dying--or dead, if death occurs suddenly--the call will go out for every relative to come to the bedside, and in general, this is exactly what happens. Money will be pooled to honor the fallen one, so--even if their lives were lived invisibly, for most of us--these etched stone portraits will remain.

While it is far, far beyond the reach of most of us, I remain comforted that there's at least one prosthetic limb studio who strives to move beyond standard replacement limbs that simply replace what's missing, and into actual prosthetics that not only suit the client's support needs, but their artistic, psychological and emotional needs, as well.

In other news, did you know that bumblebees see electrical fields? I know I didn't, and I'm utterly fascinated by the precision their reading of these electrical fields is. They can tell the difference between a high-pollen flower and a low-pollen one, or even whether another bee has already gathered the nectar and pollen from a flower. That's incredible.

In other science news, Duke University researchers have made an unprecedented discovery: by implanting a sensor chip near the tactile center of their brains, the brains of their test subjects gained the ability to 'touch' infrared light, and even to see it to a certain extent. If this technology proves out, it potentially could be implanted in the brains of the blind, so they will have an additional sense they can draw on to inform them of where they are.

And given another year, the FBI in the US will begin monitoring all all online chats. Well, I shouldn't say all, I doubt there are enough people in the world to monitor all chatrooms out there, but they will be targeting "suspicious" feeds. The problem is, for most of us (again), we won't know what's considered a "suspicious" feed, so we'll never know when we're being monitored.

Of course, this all goes back to online privacy in the first place--nothing posted online is private. If it is, then it hasn't been posted online.

And, if anyone needs a hovering mesh pig with inexplicable flatulence issues...there's one free on the Marketplace.

Some of this year's Twisted hunt.

(from the scavenging album)

I would like to assert I am not a Petite in this image.

(from the scavenging album)

I am actually standing 5'7", including the (admittedly low) heels, yet I cannot make it up the steps to AD Creations without flying.

(from the scavenging album)

Shame on you, AD Creations. Fix your stairs!

(from the scavenging album)

Seen at LoveCats: giant follower cubes. Cute and creepy. They don't actually go into the store, but they do come close.

(from the scavenging album)

Seen at CatniP underneath the Carnival. I'm fairly sure the Carnival goes away at the end of the month, though I could be wrong--either way, it's likely you should check it out now before it's gone! (Though a word of warning: if you don't like the sight of random dead bodies, don't go.)

(from the scavenging album)

Seen (briefly) in Steelhead Harborside. A stunning center build.

Found in the description of a random group along the way:

I am a cat; we dare to sit on the Thrones of Kings and in the laps of Gods. If you want to collar something get a Dog. Dogs have Masters. Cats have staff.

Indeed. Amusingly, the avatar who put this in her profile was in human skin for her SL pic, and as actually encountered in the store. This, of course, does not mean she doesn't sprout cat ears and a fluffy tail at other times; just that she, as seen, wasn't feline.

(from the scavenging album)

Seen at Post: the very practical 'house rules' list. Also, do check out the store in general--the texturing and shading work is breathtakingly good, from the store itself to the products on offer. And for that excellence of texturing, the prices are eminently reasonable.

(from the scavenging album)

Finally, seen at REDRUM: Preservation, and again, impressively detailed. I have no way of knowing most days if something is actually mesh, or not, because I have a mesh-enabled viewer. But I'd suspect it is, because that many tiny prims assembled together would be ruinous on sim performance. But it's well worth a visit for the macabre set.

God still surprises me sometimes.

yog soggoth's a cutie: So for an online dating thing, it asked what is the first thing people notice about you? I guess first, there's normally the screaming of children, as though from a distance. Birds suddenly drop dead en masse. The sky turns red, raining blood. I appear, covered in a thick black oily substance. My tentacles spread and multiply all over the ground, attaching to any surface strong enough to withstand the pressure from the writhing miasma of flesh. Seven of my nine mouths open in unison and send forth the klaxon that ends the coming of days and summons the dead.
Emilly: .....
Emilly: Y'know, normally, that would just be odd, but since I've spent the last three hours watching Slender vlogs, that's certifiably creepy. 
yog soggoth's a cutie: Thanks
Emilly: You're welcome!
yog soggoth's a cutie: its on my okcupid profile now
Emilly: HEE
yog soggoth's a cutie: Get at me ladies
Emilly: Well, anyone who gets that is either going to be someone you run from, or someone who really gets who you are. Either way, it'll be interesting.

Indeed so. I'll have to ask him how a hook holding such bait fares in the wide online dating sea. Cthulhu fhtagn.

Seen at the House of ACCentaury:

(from the scavenging album)

I don't know what it does beyond this.

(from the scavenging album)

What I do know is that it took me so many individual pictures to snap, to catch the entire movement cycle, that I had to make two gifs, not one.

Seen at the pub in Naseby Field: their...bar wench?

(from the scavenging album)

Now, I get it. Most roleplay sims are barely funded, if they're funded at all. They all have to cut corners where they can, and in the pre-pathfinding days, there weren't any NPC figures people could rez out to walk around and interact with roleplayers in the sim. Hells, even in the post-pathfinding days, a lot of folks haven't figured that out. It's challenging, to say the least.

And I also understand that not everyone crawls out of the rez box knowing all the ins and outs of texturing in SL. It's a mix of factors, but I don't automatically turn up my nose when someone's flipped out a single-prim textured object--even if that alpha texture has that bright white rim around it.

(from the scavenging album)

No, what made me port out of the sim without even bothering to find the Steam 8 hunt prize was the attire and the color text over this particular bartender's head. It started with "hey baby", and went downhill from there. And keep in mind--Naseby Field is supposed to be a medieval roleplay sim. Since when did "medieval roleplay" mean "fake boobs worn with a spandex mini"?

I realize this is SL, yes, but really, people. Have some standards. Ugh.

(from the media album)

Happy Feast of Pádraig! Don't drive under the influence.

Now, then. While I'm late on this, I figure I can at least help people for next year, who may want such help, as I'm very sure I'm not the only one stressed on time to cook. So here's a few links to (relatively) easy meals for the 17th--or any time you might want corned beef.

This year we went for simple, and scaled back as much as we knew how (because seriously, we usually cook to feed twenty and there's only three of us). I scouted around and found this recipe which seemed to suit. We made some alterations, though, along the way.

Crockpot Corned Beef
1 corned beef roast (trimmed lean)
3 red potatoes (scrubbed and quartered)
1 Yukon Gold potato (scrubbed and quartered)
1 large carrot (scrubbed and chopped into rough chunks)
1 onion (cleaned and quartered--we used a yellow Vidalia onion, but yellow or white onions would work)
1 bottle Guinness (or preferred dark stout)
1 head green cabbage
1 Tablespoon pickling spice
1/2 teaspoon ground garlic (or, if you have fresh garlic, two cloves sliced thin)
1 bay leaf

1. Scrub the potatoes and quarter them, only peeling if you can't stand potato peel (it's where most of the nutrition of the potato is, after all). Place in crockpot.
2. Wash corned beef and place on the potatoes.
3. Chop carrot and onion, and place (along with any remaining potato sections) on top.
4. Liberally shake pickling spices, garlic, and bay leaf atop the corned beef.
5. Open bottle of Guinness. Pour over corned beef. Fill bottle and empty three times until all but the fat cap of the corned beef is covered.
6. Turn crock pot to high, set the lid on, and check every hour or so until done (generally, about thirty minutes to one hour for each pound of the corned beef).
7. If there's enough room after the corned beef is done, wash and quarter the cabbage and place on top the last half hour of cooking. If not, remove the corned beef and the vegetables, and set the cabbage quarters in the cooking broth to cook for twenty minutes to half an hour.

Now, for this, we're not oiling the crockpot beforehand, and we're using three times the volume of fluid this recipe recommends (with our twelve-ounce bottles, we're using forty-eight ounces, total). If you just want to use the beer, you can do that too, but keep in mind, we have a six-quart crockpot. If you have a four-quart crockpot, obviously, it's going to be a tighter fit.

We're making a more "traditional" (AKA, traditional to us), soda bread tomorrow (this year we went with dried tart cherries and dried cranberries, but in the past, we've used golden Sultanas and stewed apples, homemade candied orange peel with fresh rosemary, dried blueberries and fresh basil, dried apricots and thin-sliced dates...some have been successes--in particular, the orange peel with rosemary sprigs, we HAVE to try that again some year--and some less so, but we like experimenting). For a closer-to-Ireland version, though, try this one, and keep in mind that "real" Irish soda bread didn't include eggs, buttermilk, or dried fruit, because in general, those were luxuries most families couldn't afford. (We like the fruit additions, but we've also done savory breads; both are good).

And if you're still wondering about how to use up the rest of the Guinness (if you bought a six-pack, like we did), you can always make a cheddar and beer soda bread.

We're finishing with a simple Guinness chocolate cake. There's a lot of versions out there; the one we're adapting is this. I say "adapted" not because that's not a good version, but because we're out of Bailey's, so we're doing a simpler chocolate ganache frosting instead. (That recipe, by the way, doesn't have anything to do with the 17th, but I liked the ganache from it, so I nicked it earlier this month.)

(Though if you're sold on the concept of stout and chocolate, there's a vegan version if you prefer, and a low-carb, no-sugar-added variant if your concerns drift that way. And a cheesecake version if you're feeling decadent.)

Enjoy! Beannacht Lá Fhéile Pádraig!

Do you have thirty bucks? Do you want an all-in-one tailored men's suit pack? Damien Fate has you covered. It'll cost a pretty penny--or at the least, a pretty mesh collection of Lindens--but that's pretty much menswear in a box, and nary a stretched-over-muscles tank or razor-torn, stained pair of jeans in sight.

From another, wholly different direction--did you ever wonder what a pair of bleeding human hearts would look like worn as ear muffs? Me neither, but if you did answer in the affirmative, here you go.

"Burn flaming logs, screaming robots, credit cards, batteries, exploding fish, unstable nuclear devices, and tiny galaxies." Does that sound interesting in a game? Pay just five dollars through tomorrow, and get it downloadable on Steam. Or wait until the sale stops, and pay ten later. I'm fairly sure it's worth it at either price.

New friends occasionally stand in, when God is not around to overflow my blessings of bizarre. To wit, the following conversation:

[9:32:57 PM] bxxxxxxxxxxx: hello Emi ...hope your doing well.
[9:34:52 PM] Emilly Orr: It comes and goes. How's you?
[9:35:46 PM] bxxxxxxxxxxx: Feeling better...I just got in my iron nails to go with my jar and broken glass. things are looking up.
[9:36:06 PM] Emilly Orr: ...Cool
[9:36:48 PM] bxxxxxxxxxxx: It's amazing what you can purchase on the internets.
[9:37:01 PM] Emilly Orr: Indeed so.
I have no idea what he means. And I admit, I'm kind of afraid to ask.

According to the Smithsonian, medicine in the so-called "Dark Ages" was more advanced than previously thought. While most autopsies of the time were done under the auspices of the Holy Roman See, to establish proof of sainthood, some were done to advance early medical and scientific practice.

Most surprisingly, according to Dr. Philippe Charlier, a physician and forensic scientist at Raymond Poincaré University Hospital, states the mummified head was filled with a mixture of lime, cinnabar mercury, and beeswax to preserve it for study. This mixture is thought to have preserved the remains, as well as stain the circulatory system (because of cinnabar mercury's reddish tint).

The hospital also has the preserved heart of Richard the Lionhearted, which their team states was preserved with myrtle, mint, daisies, frankincense and mercury, in addition to other compounds, before being wrapped with linen and placed within a lead box.

Turning to art news, in 2005, the Chinese government destroyed the thriving artists' village of Suo Jia Cun, and the one hundred individual artists' studios, and homes, along with it. Artist Liu Bolin's studio was among them. With one strike, more than one hundred artists were displaced, with their art, their homes, and all supplies destroyed--and all because of improper permissions being granted up the chain of government.

Artist Liu Bolin was one of them, and was moved to create the "Hiding in the City series of photographs, that features the artist blending in nearly seamlessly with his surroundings. Utilizing a boxy canvas suit (reminiscent of government fashion under Chairman Mao) to layer paint on, and a series of reference photographs for exact comparison, he and his team spend several hours painting him to match the background, then snapping several shots from different angles until the best one is achieved. It is a lengthy, likely draining process, but Bolin knows it speaks, and speaks powerfully, both as art and as protest.

There's also video of several photographs in process. It's an incredible undertaking.

Finally, while there are several iterations on the same theme, XDModo's solar charger for mobile devices is both functional and beautiful. While it has a higher price tag (about $66 US), it's a simple, modern design that could blend in with any setting.

Plus, the concept of solar-charging gadgets means no more power loss camping! (Or even out over the course of a standard day.)

"True to myself until the end", this tattoo says, and I'm not quite sure they caught the significance--or the likely unintended hilarity--of the placement, methinks...(May have to have Adult listings enabled on the Marketplace to see it; it is a tattoo, after all.)

And if you ever have a need for two dead mesh goats, I can now help you with that. I have no idea why anyone would need that, but hey, just in case, there you go.

Did I mention God has this odd habit of popping back into my life on occasion?

Oh no not me I won't stand it no: FROM THE HELLS I RETURNED
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: TWICE
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: IN A ROW
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: WOOOOOOOO
Emilly: Yay? And which hells?

This is a legitimate question. For God, there's a lot of hells. Not quite as many as Big Trouble in Little China, but close.

Oh no not me I won't stand it no: just won a game of dota 2
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: so hard
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: i fought 3 people
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: they killed me when i got one
Emilly: Dota 2?

Dota 2 seems to be, from my understanding (after looking it up) to be sort of a formal, official sequel to a few informal, non-official mods for other released games.

Oh no not me I won't stand it no: so my guy auto rez'd
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: and then i killed another and they killed me again
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: AND I CAME BACK AGAIN
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: AND KILLED THE THIRD
Emilly: Woot!
Emilly: TRIUMPH

Figured it was appropriate. Still wasn't sure what was going on--the looking-up phase hadn't happened yet.

Oh no not me I won't stand it no: ALL HAIL THE SKELETON KING

Hey, that was appropriate too. Not that I knew what God meant (though that's a fair point, also--sometimes, it's really hard to tell what God means in any given conversation).

Oh no not me I won't stand it no: yeah dota 2
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: its like nerd sports
Emilly laughs
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: the international nerd sports
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: wish i took a screen of that guy asking why wont you die

I mentioned my watching of back-to-back Let's Play videos of Final Fantasy (begun with FFXIII, and now nearing the end of FFXIII-2). God mentioned another game I'd never heard of:

Emilly: Also, up to part 55 of an insanely long YouTube series on Final Fantasy XIII-2
Emilly: I think it's nomming on my brain
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: Hahahah
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: Its a lp?
Emilly: Yep
Emilly: Kung Fu Jesus and PokeCap'n, Medibot, MyNameIsKaz, some others
Emilly: Just a big room of guys playing Final Fantasy, eating cookies, and going crazy on occasion from the stress of playing the game
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: I think I know kung fu jesus
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: he started on SA I think?
Emilly: Yep
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: Hes in their lparchive
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: OH You should see GODHAND if you want a hilarious one
Emilly: It's weird, I now have LPers I recognize.
Emilly: Godhand?

Still a valid question.

Oh no not me I won't stand it no: Its
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: like
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: a beat-em-up
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: but
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: uh
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: you have the arm of a god
Emilly: Just the one?

Apparently, yes. Just the one.

Oh no not me I won't stand it no: and go after demons
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: and
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: its in the old west
Emilly: So you're Hellboy, then

Because seriously, that's how it sounds.

Oh no not me I won't stand it no: and you fight a mexican elvis demon
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: well
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: hmm
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: theres a poison chihuahua
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: uh
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: you fight 2 gay luchadores and one doesnt have a dick
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: man
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: theres like
Emilly: 0.0
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: a ton of crazy shit

I don't even. There's so much that's so deeply odd in that section. (Since having this conversation, by the way, I've watched part of a run through the game by the same group, and...yeah. It really IS that odd.)

Oh no not me I won't stand it no: and yet, its a more reasonable game than Anarchy Reigns, which is new for 30$ tell all your friends
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: Anarchy Reigns is a fighting game. With 16 people at once. Over 5 city blocks.
Emilly laughs
Emilly: Advertising!
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: AIRPLAINS FALL
Emilly: Snakes were probably on them
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: YOU CAN PILEDRIVE HELICOPTERS
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: CATCH MISSILES
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: TITS
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: MUTANTS
Emilly: Wait, you catch missiles with your tits, what?

Still trying to understand it all.

Oh no not me I won't stand it no: BUTTZ
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: ROCKET HAMMERS
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: AZN TRIPLETS WHO ARE SEXY ASSASSINS
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: ROBOTS
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: ROBOT NINJAS
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: NINJAS
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: THE BLACKEST MAN ON THE PLANET, THE BLACKER BARON
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: HIS ROBOT HOOKER
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: CHAINSAW ARMS
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: its pretty sweet

Uh...

Oh no not me I won't stand it no: So in summary, Godhand is cray and Anarchy Reigns made it look normal
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: http://youtu.be/0eQSSwmCUks 20 sec video on how hype i get about anarchy reigns
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: http://youtu.be/G6U12dQPykI the actual reasons to get this game
Emilly: Yeah, we watch a lot of Achievement Hunter/Roosterteeth, because at times they play games SO badly (Minecraft, generally)
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: Hahaha
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: You watch the one of them playing Clouds?
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: the minecraft map they made?
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: I loved that one
Emilly: Oh man, that one just COLLAPSED me
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: Hahaha
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: But yeah, anarchy reigns
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: im gonna go play that right now
Emilly: hee!
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: laterrrrrr
Emilly: Ta!

"We're all doodlers by nature," says Brandon Griggs, but what if we had the ability to make our doodles real objects? About two weeks back, parent company WobbleWorks launched what they thought was a modest enough proposal--$30,000 to get their proof of concept into mass production. Now, still with half a month to go, they've topped one million dollars in donations.

I guess more people really want to give their sketches shape than they thought.

Sadly, gadget canes are not as popular anymore--and most of the ones that are still made involve swords or alcohol--but on occasion, a vintage one surfaces that can, if nothing else, be appreciated from a distance. This is one such cane. An ornately carved ivory knob over the metal collar (complete with monogram initial), it hides a metal pick, a small dagger, and a fine ivory tool that resembles a bodkin to my eyes, but then, I sew; everything starts to look like a needle after a while.

In a prime example of cultural differences, this struck me as just odd: Minami Minegishi, one of the young singers in the idoru group AKB48, was caught leaving her boyfriend's home by press. Her reaction to this news? She shaved her head and offered a seemingly heartfelt apology--complete with wracked sobs and genuflections. But here's where it gets really odd:

[6:30:35 PM] Emilly Orr: Apparently, she's been demoted to "trainee" status, which means she'll only appear in the back of the group on tours, and not be shown outside of small clips in music videos.
[6:31:23 PM] Emilly Orr: The weird thing is that the management company for these girls forced her to wear a wig after the head-shaving vid went viral and garnered eight million views in two days. And fans reacted--but in a wholly unanticipated way: they were angry.
[6:31:49 PM] Emilly Orr: They flooded fan boards and chat rooms saying the wig told them she wasn't sorry at all, and now it's a PR nightmare.

I never thought I'd say this, but I am dying to know what this vegan, fat-free, chocolate pudding tastes like...but I'll admit, I don't think I'm brave enough to try it on my own. Why? Two reasons: half of its base is zucchini; the other half is sweet potatoes.

But hey, feel free, experiment and share the joy. Or something.

The Real Tuesday Weld have returned from their Russian tour, and have now set up a dedicated domain for their various natterings. The Blogspot for the Clerkenwell Kid is still active, as is their Facebook and Twitter feed, and the Antique Beat email service. But this will now be the spot where all new updates are sent first. Wonderful.

Finally, Google Glass gets a test run, and looks damn fine doing it. Wave of the future? Pretty much.

So, normally I'd be covering this over on Topping Out, since it's implant-related, but...yeah, I kind of have to talk about it here, because...well.

Bewbapalooza has started for another go-round, and while I'm all for implant-related events (both because it makes it easier to find new stores, and because said stores usually offer limited-edition items or sale-event pricing), I'm having a problem coping with one particular offering.

(from the fashion album; Nazi-influenced outfits from Awear at the current Bewbapalooza.)

This particular offering.

Awear calls this their "PVC Police Officer" look, but...that is pretty close to an exact reproduction of an SS officer's hat. And while I realize Nazi memorabilia and Nazi fashion still influence modern culture, both domestically and globally, for me this goes too far.

There are two outfits called "Kinky Latex", one in black:

(from the fashion album; Nazi-influenced outfits from Awear at the current Bewbapalooza.)

and one in pink:

(from the fashion album; Nazi-influenced outfits from Awear at the current Bewbapalooza.)

but they still have the same hat.

I know I'm sensitive on this issue. Having friends, having people I consider family who had family in the camps, some who made out out, most who didn't...it leaves an indelible mark. As indelible as the string of numbers tattooed on their arms, a daily reminder of the chilling horror humanity is truly capable of. Because make no mistake about it--until the tide turned, the people who captured them, forcibly transported them, guarded them, tortured them, dehumanized them, killed them--had been friends, neighbors, even countrymen. That, also, leaves a mark, and in this case, that mark is on several cultures, not just one.

(from the fashion album; Nazi-influenced outfits from Awear at the current Bewbapalooza.)

A closer look at the main outfit.

Yeah, I...I'm pretty sure I can't attend this round of Bewbapalooza until that's gone. And I'm sure Awear's off the list of implant fashions to buy, ever. Some things are just not cool.