I haven't read the Twilight books, and I honestly don't think I ever will, what with that whole "life-being-too-short" thing and all, but I have to ask ... is the heroine named Bella as an homage to Bela Lugosi?

Trick Concepts sells a lovely color-changing LED hoop for only $99. I usually order my hoops from Superhooper and I'm all about brand loyalty, but the $95 LED hoops sold there only come in one color, have fewer lights, and are not color-changing. And, when it comes to lights, more is good and blinky is better.



Here's the rub, though: the Trick Concepts hoop only comes in one size: 38". Now, I usually use a 42", and I maybe could go down to a 40" if it's weighted just right and I'm wearing very comfortable clothes, but 38" is right out. Perhaps eventually, after much work and practice, I will be able to effectively use a 38" inch hoop, but it won't be tomorrow, or the day after that.



I could order a lovely color-changing LED hoop from Trick Concepts in a more realistic size, but that will cost me $175. Which, BTW, is the same price as an eight-color Supermorph from Superhooper, which I can order in any size I want and I know will be perfect right out of the bubble-wrap.



And I can't help but think of times I've seen dresses on sale that are a size or two too small, like when Oh! Said Rose used to have its Sue Wong size 8 sample sales, and I have thought "well I can just lose the weight to fit the dress" and I buy the dress and of course it never fits and I never wear it and hangs in the closet for years, taunting me and my fat and my failure, until I harvest it for fabric or cart it off to Goodwill with the tags still attached. Sometimes I give it to a friend who puts it on and it fits her perfectly and sometimes, if it's a very dear friend, I don't seethe with resentment that it does. But still. There's a pun to be made here about "waist" and "waste" but hopefully I've made my point without trying to find it.



So, yeah, if you can rock a 38" hoop, if you can wear a size 8 dress, more power to ya ... the world is your oyster and lucky you, it's all on sale. The rest of us, well, maybe we have to pay extra for something that fits, but saving $76 on something that's too small isn't worth the hit our self-esteem takes over realizing we've squandered $99 on a delusion.

My friend at work who wants to visit Istanbul left a copy of the DK Eyewitness Travel guide on my desk and asked me to put stickies on the places that really stirred my soul. The problem was, none of those places were in the book. They devoted way too much space to the Grand Bazaar and the Topkapi Palace, while Kadikoy and the Prince's Islands were barely mentioned. The Ayasofya Hotel wasn't in the index, nor was Cesme restaurant, or the rooftop bar at the Sultan's Palace Hotel. It didn't say a word about the feral cats, or the purple poppies, or the street vendors selling roasted chestnuts and ears of corn, or the women in burqas knitting baby booties outside the Aya Sofya. There was nothing about the glasses of apple tea on the ferry, or the outrageous gridlock around the airport, or the vast quantities of yarn in the Bazaar District, or the channel that showed Hollywood action movies dubbed in Turkish. And I guess it goes without saying it doesn't give tips on sneaking into mosques during 4 o'clock prayers, or the etiquette of throwing down with carpet merchants in moonlit stairways, or what to ask the woman reading your coffee grounds who doesn't speak a word of English.



I mean yes, the Blue Mosque is beautiful, but it's not the most beautiful mosque in town. Not even. And there's so much more to see than museums and bazaars. The best souvenirs are the stories you can tell when you get back home.

Sometimes you get a phishing attempt that's so bad it has to be shared ...



--- On Thu, 11/12/09, Online Renew Account wrote:



> From: Online Renew Account

> Subject: Renew now you'r online account.

> To:

> Date: Thursday, November 12, 2009, 12:12 PM

>

> #yiv814929328 .style1 {font-family:Verdana;font-size:12px;}

> #yiv814929328 .style3 {color:#000066;}

> #yiv814929328 .style5 {font-family:Verdana;font-size:10px;}

> #yiv814929328 .style6 {color:#FF0000;}

>

>

>

> Dear Bank Of America Customer,

> This is an official notification

> from paypal that the service listed below will be

> deactivated and deleted if not renewed immediately. Previous

> notifications have been sent to Billing Contact assigned to

> this account. As the primary contact, you must renew the

> service listed below or it will be deactivated and deleted.

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

> https://www.bankofamerica.com/

>

>

>

> We are dedicated to providing you

> with exceptional service and to ensuring your trust. If you

> have any questions regarding our services, please check the

> website or call our customer service.

> Thank you, sincerely,

>

> Bank Of America Customer Support

>

>

> ©

> Copyright © 1999-2009 Bank Of America. All rights

> reserved.

>

>

>

>

>

Something like 4 million people visit Arlington National Cemetery every year. I wonder how many of them walk past my dad's grave, or even notice it's there.

"Dulce Et Decorum Est"



Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,

Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs

And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots

But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots

Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.



GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,

Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;

But someone still was yelling out and stumbling

And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--

Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light

As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.



In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,

He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.



If in some smothering dreams you too could pace

Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,

His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,

Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory,

The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est

Pro patria mori.



--1917, published posthumously in 1920

Do me a favor, would you?



Go to the Timeless Trends website (NSFW) and look at the overbust corsets and tell me which you like better: the red silk, or the black lace over the red?



(there's a hyphen between the words "timeless" and "trends" in the URL)



thanks ever so :-)



ETA: this is for costuming purposes, rather than intimate ones

Yesterday at Fairie Con I commissioned a portrait of myself, which is perhaps the most completely ridiculous extravagance I have ever indulged in, and I could probably attempt to justify it nineteen ways till next payday, but the bottom line is I did it because I was knocked out by the artist's smile.



I also bought another corset, which was also an extravagance but not really because my underbust is a RED dragon brocade and this is an overbust with GREEN dragons. Also it made me look like a can-can dancer.

THEY won.



YOU watched.



kthxbye!

The Turkish word for full moon is "Dolunay." It would be a good playa name, only I'm not quite sure how to pronounce it.