The lovely ladies of Midnight City have a "City Girls-New Designer Contest" open for entries now. An intent of it is to promote up-and-coming clothesmaking talent in SL, and since Umber has an excellent tradition of birthing such fashions, it only stands to reason that the creativity keeps flowing like a wonderful river of watermelon icecream. Mmm. These are the choices for prizes:

A. 20,000 L$!!
B. Featured New Designer store hosted in Midnight City for one month!!
C. One free copy of each new item created by these 4 designers for 6 months following the contest!! (*note that this means items sold to public and not custom)

All necessary details are in thar yonder thread of course. I've heard some new designers frustrated in a shortage of opportunities to promote themselves and spread the word. Well, here's a big opportunity!

Went on a little jaunt yesterday — as much as I've been fond of my Torley's Cap-tain hat (which I've worn constantly over the last many weeks), I decided it was time for a change. This decision came to me in a dream. I went looking for hats and came across an place @ Welsh (44, 25)?called The Hat Tree. I found a basic top hat inside for the nice price of L$13, and proceeded to Torleyfy it and add my logo. I decided it still was not complete, however, so with the help of my friend Fallingwater Cellardoor (dressed for the occasion as a big yellow bird), I attached a Fox Lily to it. Like a feather in my cap, except not a feather, and not a cap. Ah… satisfaction.

Ever seen this many XyObjects in a single place at a single time? It had to happen — Xy, Del, Strife and I were giving them a good lookover. Me, taking the Torrest Torgump approach to things, klutzed up and kept hitting Clear when my XO began to spew balls in many directions. SHOCK SHOCK PANIC! I also had a vision concerning these: in some parallel timeline, there were adept primweavers, masters of advanced technological magic such as the XyObject. They could fluidly control the devices as to produce amazing chains of shapes;?sequences of complex geometries?bundling themselves together in the?night sky;?amazing a rapt audience as they looked on. Now that's an Event I'd like to see!

Clipped notes: I took a jaunt down to Meins, formerly Kexland and now the home of a new Gigas residential project masterminded by Nexus Nash and Adam Zaius. It's looking nice, for what it is — the street lamps automatically turn on and off according to the time of day, and last I was there, Adam set up a spinning piece of art over a pool of water. I'm getting some vibes not necessarily cyberpunk, but sort of a reminiscent that echoes back to cyberpunk MUDs like Iconoclast, which I wanted to get into more but it was wholly text-based. *sighs* (Now I can live my dreams though, so it's all good.)

Business straightlining ahead, I think there is an obvious lack of good multinational corporate HQs and consistently zoned communities in SL. As much as I enjoy the craziness, I like my FLW houses and white picket fences too, ya know? I think of a financial great like Donald Trump and then it conjures up images of these towering skyscrapers and people bustling all about, and maybe some residential quarters too. I'd like to see more of that in SL: shades of Sim Tower, a past fave of mine.

Imagine this: ascending a smooth-moving elevator (not herky-jerky oxenunfree) to the mellow pulsating strains of Global Communication's "8:07 (Maiden Voyage)" (itself inspired on Tangerine Dream's "Love on a Real Train"… so many giants's shoulders to stand on!). You're positioned in close formation with friends, backs stiffened straightly yet arms loosely dangling, crisp suits wrapped on — including neckties if that's your sort of thing — and many-primmed briefcases in hand. A day of productivity is about to begin.

Can you smell the coffee?

"It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness." -a Chinese proverb

BEDAZZLE's U:SL is closing and Chinatown's big finale awaits at 8 PM PST . . . just a few minutes away! Please come.