A Two months recap

Ok, so. Two months happened. Yeah. That happened. I guess I went off the blogging grid. Or fell off. Or possibly got harpooned off, since it took me about two months to find my way back here.

Lets start with a life status: I'm alright. I'm alive. Have a pulse and the whole schibang.

Status on life: I moved out, started on third semester at uni and generally tried to the whirlwind that is survive life.
I seem to be incapable of writing a post with a purpose in mind at this blog, so this post is just to let everyone out there, that I haven't forgotten about this place.

The truth is that Alice and I made this blog in the summer, where we both had more time. But we also made the blog at a time where we both drawn to Stardoll more powerfully than we had been for a while. But as summer ended we both went back to our lives and the site and everything with it got a smaller place in our consciousness and of our time. As it should be. As a person who spent a big part of her teenage years in front of the screen, I've realized the importance of actual human contact and the immense value it has, compared to human contact through dolls. For a period my teenage life was going along before my eyes, but I didn't see it, because I was looking into the screen in front of me. I've missed a lot of experiences that way. There are things I regret. Times I wish I had been a bit braver and dared to be young, bold and stupid. Instead I'm just always so darn sensible, thoughtful and calm. Maybe I'm just an older soul, or maybe I found a safe place and was afraid to leave.

Either way I found my way out. It'll never be the same again. I'm a so-called grown up now. Or a semi-grown up. Kinda grown-up. Growing up.

Please leave me a comment in the comment section, telling me what you have been up to for the past two months. I'd honestly love to know. 

A Letter to Myself

Dear Emma,

I regret to inform you that your immune system has failed you. And it hasn't just failed you once, but twice. In one week. It's like the saying "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me" - except it's all shame on your immune system. I guess that the important thing is that you have not died, you've just become someone who has the mental capacity of a cooked vegetable.

You've been spending the majority of this week in bed, not really being bothered to do anything. The week before that you were in Berlin, where you also had your first exam for this semester. Maybe you picked up something there that knocked you out cold in the first round. And then you could've picked up something here as well.. I don't know really. All I know is, that you were fine on Wednesday and then bam! It's Thursday evening and Emma is feeling kinda not so good once again.

You haven't really seen a lot of people this week. What you have seen a lot of, is your room and everything that's even remotely interesting on TV. You must be kind of depressed at your the zombiefied stage of life right now, which does not surprise me. I, myself, am just writing to keep sane. Ernest Hemingway once said that writing is where you just sit and bleed. I think I have yet to experience that feeling through writing, although I'm sure you think you've experienced something similar in general this week.

In the end, I must have you swear Emma, that you will try to write with a point in hand sometime soon, and not just write because the feeling comes over you. Everyone else's posts seems so much more coherent than yours. I guess you're just the one that just blabs about whatever comes to your mind.

Get over it Emma, and get a better immune system.

Sincerly, Emma.

PS. It's seriously weird that Alice and you always are ill at the same time. It's borderline creepy. No. It is creepy. I don't know who, but someone should look into this phenomenon. If you read this Alice, then stop freaking Emma out by being ill when she is. This *viral infection* (get it? Alice's joke, I just stole it) is creeping everyone out. Get well soon, you crazy person. 

Meet Your Heroes

The title of this post seems contradictory, no?

I'm sure you all are aware of the saying that you should never meet your heroes; under the 'guise that you'll always be bitterly disappointed. And I'm sure that's true for some people.

However,

I met one of my heroes the other day. I was invited to meet with my favourite games developer team, which was not only awesome, but also an experience I will keep with me for life.

It began with a simple conference. Anyone was invited to this, and I and a team of 5 other 'hardcore' fans were all planning to meet up and go together. Before the conference we had a meal (I was late, so when I say 'me' I mean 'everyone else'!) with one of the key team members - he was actually one of the co-founders of the company. A quiet man, though very humble. He acknowledged a conversation we had had on Twitter a few days before about dodgy train toilets - it was so weird to realise he knew me!

At the meal I also met the other fans. I had spoken to three of them online before and they were all outstandingly lovely. I also had the pleasure of meeting another fan and the husband of one that I had already met. They were all so friendly, it felt as if I'd known them for years right off the bat.

Charles signing comics

After the meal we all headed off to the conference. Charles (the 'big cheese' of the company) came and said hello to some of the fans he had met before, and the developer who had a meal with us slinked into the background and 'pretended' he wasn't a part of the team; all the while making sly, amusing comments as Charles spoke to the audience.
The conference lasted for about an hour. We recieved comic books and had them signed by key members of the team before we all headed off once more to go to an after party that we had been specially invited to attend.

This was where the magic really happened.

As we made our way from the conference to the BAFTA house (yes, the BAFTA house!) we all discussed how nervous and excited we were. Some of my new friends had already met the team, and others had not. All were equally thrilled to be meeting them. As we entered the building we immediately felt out of place. We were *not* in formal dress, nor were we celebrities. As we neared the reception we were unsure as to whether we would even be let in....

Smiling like a lunatic!

.... Before the lovely man behind the desk said 'Ah, you must be the fans' and pointed us in the direction of a small function room with an open bar.

As we congregated in a small circle, not really knowing how welcome we were, a small woman we all knew to be Charles' wife came over and greeted us warmly. She asked us to get ourselves a drink, make ourselves comfortable and generally made us all feel like we belonged there. Eventually we were introduced to almost all the team members we already knew.

I was recognised by a couple for being active on the forums and submitting fan art. Everyone was truly wonderful; they were all lovely people.


And it is for that reason I implore you to take opportunities like this. I almost didn't go due to having to travel to London alone, but I am so pleased I took that risk. My cheeks hurt as I travelled home because I had been smiling so much that day.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and it makes me feel warm inside knowing that not only have I met my heroes, I have also befriended them.



So who are your heroes? And given the chance would you meet them? Let me know in the comments!

 - Alice x x x


*pictures taken by Barry Banks. I'm wearing a Vibe (brand from Topshop) leather jacket and Gucci scarf if anyone's wondering ;)

Mortality

Names have been changed for confidentiality reasons

I have a part-time job in a nursing home. I work alternately as a housekeeper and supper chef on Saturdays and Sundays. This August will mark the second year I've been working there, and I really do thoroughly enjoy my job.

You're probably thinking "why is she talking about her dumb job on here?" but bear with me. I have a point.

In room 12 we had a resident called Victor. He was 99, although due to how sprightly and 'with it' he was I could never quite believe that. He had scruffy gray hair and wore a lot of beige. He reminded me of my uncle with his laid back, nonchalant attitude. He wouldn't care if I made his coffee wrong, he'd drink it anyway. All in all he was a wonderful, humble old man with a big heart.

On occasion, when I was in the adjacent room 11 cleaning, I would hear him sing 'you are my sunshine' to himself. It was - for lack of better words - adorable; and to this day I have difficulty even thinking of the tune without being haunted in some way.

On Christmas day in 2013, Victor passed away suddenly at about 11am - two hours before my shift started that day. When I was told the news I was heartbroken. We all were. As someone who's main job is to cater for dying people, we aren't usually so affected by death, but for Victor we all grieved. He made a mark on me that will probably remain for a lifetime.



And while I was at work today preparing the suppers, a dark thought came to my mind. What if I don't make my mark like Victor did? What if I'm not the kind of person that leaves such a presence behind? Sure, I've worked hard to get where I am. I'm a decent artist (though still learning) and I've established myself a good reputation online. I've met with my favourite games developer, and I still have a long stretch (hopefully) of life ahead of me to achieve even more.

But I never knew about Victor's achievements. All I knew was that he was 99, he had a little wife from some eastern European country and that he liked beige. It was just the way he was that made such an impact on me. He had a specific way of being. Of viewing the world.

Mortality seems irrelevant when one considers how people live on even through death. Look at Marilyn Monroe; she died long before any of us were even born and yet we know exactly who she is, what she did and why she was just so charming. Maybe in the future we'll hear about Justin Beiber and Kristen Stewart in a similar way; though I somewhat doubt that. I think Marilyn had a charm that made her memorable. Just look at how fun she is; her wide, girlish grin and flirty attitude. It's magnetic.

So my question to you is this: what immortal mark will you leave on the world? Will you use your kindness to touch the lives of others, or equip a specific talent to leave your own personal stamp behind? Let me know in the comments section, I'd like to know

 - Alice x x x

Write Damnit

I don't really know what went wrong. I won't make an excuse. I hate it when people give the old "I'm so sorry that I haven't written in a while. I've been like super busy!". How many times have you, honestly, read something along those lines? Honestly. I couldn't answer the question myself, because I've never counted (how sad would that even be?) and I'm sure the number would be depressingly high.

It's the easter holidays though, and I should have had plenty of time to write something. But I have no clever topic for us to discuss. Maybe it'll come to me. I'm mostly just writing this out of frustration. Running your own blog is very much a love/hate relationship. So is running any project though. I refuse to let myself slip on this one. I will write. I'll write myself out of writers block or whatever this is.

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In the Boreads club there has been a lot of suggestions to what we could write about. All of them great and inspirational. And whilst Alice and I will try to use them as best as we can, I couldn't help to glimpse a tendency that this blog may be encouraging. We talk about the golden days. Heck, my last post was mostly about those old times. Where we were all just a bunch of kids, causing drama and trying to find ourselves. But do we really want those days back? Do we even really know what was so special about them? Isn't it really just like when you were a kid and the summer was always sunny and christmas was white? Looking back at the past, don't we tend to forget all the bad things, and just remember the good?

I know this all sounds so very Carrie Bradshaw of me, but it seems to me that more and more people are openly talking about how they want the so called golden days back. I guess for a very long time, you could have included me on that list. There's this whole new community out there (primarily on Facebook Alice tells me) of blogs and magazines. And I can't even be bothered to look into it. It would be so much easier if we just didn't have to address this whole new community, but if things just went back to drama-gossip blogs and there's-a-new-hot-buys-dress posts. And I guess it would be fun and exciting for a while, if Perez started the blog again and if Style posted a new issue. But, what I've really been thinking about is, is it really what we want?

For a while I thought it was what I wanted. But I don't think so anymore. I have more faith in us than that. The whole reason that people started blogging and then making magazines in the first place, is because we are creative people who are looking for new artistic areas to explore and boundaries to push. After all, most of us were teenagers. But taking two steps back is no way to move forward. Let the new members dabble with blogs posts and try their luck with magazines. I'm a veteran, I'm not going back to that war. I'm moving forward and making writing posts that have more to them than the shallow things that used to fill blogs in the golden days my new project. We have to keep moving forward. This can be the Stardoll renaissance, as long as we don't strive backwards, but take what we learned back then to help us move forward.

PS. Happy easter everyone!

PPS. Alice and I are working on some brand new ideas (get excited) and some posts which we are going to co-write. 

6 Years and Counting

I have been a member of Stardoll since November '07. That's 6 and a half years. I was 13 when I joined and recently turned 20. So basically, I have been a member of Stardoll all of the years that I have been a teenager. When I could be out rebelling against my parents by sneaking out to hang out with my friends, I was mostly at home. In front of my computer on Skype. Giggling, even though I was the only person in the room. In the so called "golden days" of Stardoll (around '08-'10), I would mostly be in at least one group chat and be talking to at least a couple of people on the side as well. Now-a-days the only people I talk to on Skype are family members and Alice. I still have over a 100 contacts, a reminder of the days where Skype was a blaze with Stardoll members. Days where I was often "invisble", simply because too many people would contact me if they knew I was online. 

Behind Skype, my internet browser would be open, and on it, would be Stardoll. The website itself and most likely several Stardoll related blogs would be open in different windows. I would check for the news, I would check for the gossip, and I would check to see if there was something with my name in it. Yes, I did that. Remember guys, I was like 15. And 15 year-olds want to be popular. Even if it's on a virtual site. So being mentioned on blogs like Perez Hilton of Stardoll was huge for me. And something you'd freak out about with your online friends.

There can be so many people out there, who likes to criticize the fraction of the Stardoll members who became known as Elites, but to be completely honest with you guys, it was awesome. I know, I know, putting other members down, making other people feel like their worth less and yada yada. I get it. But like everything in life, things are just not that black and white. For me, personally, it was amazing. Simply because I just wasn't the most popular person in real life at that time. Stardoll gave me a chance to feel what it's like to be popular, to have people knowing your name everywhere (I loved this) and wanting you to be a part of their projects (wasn't always the biggest fan of this, but it was flattering). I know that some people weren't proud to be called an elite (honestly, I just think that everyone was just saying this publicly. I think, deep down, they liked it.). And you may frown at me and call me stuck up. And maybe, I am out of line. But the truth is, that I honestly don't know what it was like being on the outside looking in at that time. I only know what it was like for me at that time, and so my views on certain things will be different from the norm.

The subject of this post was mainly suppose to be about what it is that keeps us coming back to Stardoll, but I guess I've strayed a bit off topic. That happens, please bare with me.

The reason I kept coming back to Stardoll, besides this feeling of popularity it gave me for a few years, is not Stardoll. By this I mean, it is not the site itself. I honestly never cared that much about the dress-ups, and changing my medoll's outfit is not the reason I keep logging on. What makes me keep coming back to Stardoll are all these amazing projects that people make about this site. And of course the amazing people in themselves is a good enough reason. It's the friends and it's the projects. Those are the things that inspire me and keeps me coming back for more. Stardoll is not just a site for "fame, fashion and friends", it's a site of creativity. I know that a lot of people that join Stardoll as teenagers, and the site and its members helps them find who they really are. Through the site, we become aware of our own personal style, and its outside projects pushes us to find and nourish our own creative streaks. I don't think I would have found out how much I like writing things like this, if it wasn't for Stardoll. The projects and the friends that we make down the line helps us grow and evolve. They make us more creative and they give us a free space to have a bit of fun and just be teenage girls. We grow as persons through Stardoll and in that process, Stardoll becomes a part of who we are. We keep coming back to this site because we've gotten used to this free creative space, where we can hang out with people who shares our interests. Or at least, that's why I think we keep coming back.

What do you think? Am I out of line? Why do you come back? 

Ps. Shot-out to EMILYmileyrocks for the idea behind this post! If you have any of your own suggestions as to what we could write about, click here. 

Paris

It's a clear evening, the air feels crisp outside and you would probably be able to see the stars, if it wasn't for the fact that this is Paris. A city dealing with smog like never before. Nevertheless it is a beautiful, borderline romantic evening, as Alice and I stroll down Rue du Temple. This isn't a romantic escape. Alice and I are not dating, despite want some people may or may not think. This trip stands a cultural pilgrimage. Paris is more than just the epicenter of romance. It's culture, art and cheese. Three things Alice and I both really, really appreciate.

It's been a long day. We've spent the majority of it wondering around the Louvre, hustling and bustling to get a glimpse of Mona Lisa and adoring both Monet and Manet. After leaving the old palace, we dragged our sore feet to Forum des Halles, for some much needed window shopping. With a café au lait in hand, we headed up Rue de Turbigo to  Rue du Temple where we now found ourselves. At the end of the street lies Place de la République, which is where we're heading.

Sitting down in a quaint cafe by the square, Alice and I each order a tomato soup and a glass of lemonade. As we eat and talk, people walk past us outside. Chic Parisians in wool coats and Chanel bags. A city in constant movement. The Eiffel Tower is glittering in the crisp air somewhere not far away. At Montmartre the artists are packing up their little stores and the tourists are on their way back to their hotels. Alice and I sit still and wonder. Modern life on the Boulevards, red wine and cheese. Paris moves and glitters.

Four Years

Four years ago from today the S/S issue of Fierce Magazine was published. Giving it a shout-out, cause these things are like milestones for Alice and I. Don't worry, the next couple of posts will be a bit more thought through than this. But for now, this is all I got time for because, oh yeah, it also happens to be my 20th birthday today. So, I'm off to behave like I didn't just turn 20 (!) and are all grown up.

Have a great Friday! 

Welcome

 Welcome ye faithful ones!

You have now entered the crazy world of Boreads, run by the mystical Alice and Emma.
In our magical universe you shall get an insight into our thoughts, experiments and projects.

May the gods be ever in your favor.