The New, Improved Stardoll Chats!

After the message Stardoll sent the other day about them starting to change and improve 'Parties' now aimed at being called 'Chat,' and that you can now have up to 15 'peeps' in a room at once from the former 10 as the max.

So I was like, why not see if the chats were any funner to go to, and gosh I have to tell you I had a blast.

Here are some memorable moments of my adventures of the Chat rooms.

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• - Watching the girls rage after they creep out a Stardoll male when they hit on them.

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• - Listening to people fall in love constantly. <3

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• - Watching people embrace other people's virtual love as well!

 

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• - Meeting up with friends and hearing fantastic compliments on how you amaze everyone with your good looks.

(click to enlarge)

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• - Sharing whats wrong and right with Christians.

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• - Becoming friends with the most classiest people ever!

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• - And for my last screenshot, conversation with a group of 'classy women' that are trying to find love to announce to the crowd that I have cancer.

(click to enlarge)

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What a wonderful expiercne I had... just kidding its the same crap more people.

Love, Dei

Scene & Heard Is Back!

I am so happy to be bringing back MDM's one and only scenery competition Scene & Heard! This is a competition that I hold near and dear to my heart because it is how I got my start writing for MDM. The competition started in April 2011, and since then we have seen some fantastic sceneries. To see some past winners and tasks you can go to the "Scene and Heard" page (see side bar), or look at the posts with Scene & Heard in the label (here).

For those who don't know, scene and heard it a weekly competition that anyone can enter! Each week a winner is chosen and awarded 50 STARDOLLARS! All qualifying sceneries are posted on the blog, for viewers to vote for the winner. One week we had a record of 214 votes! Scene & heard is a great way to get yourself and your talent out there, so if you're a pro at making sceneries, or if you've never made one before, give it a shot! You've got nothing to lose, and so much to gain.

This week's task: Be-YOU-tiful

What is beauty to you? Is it how something/someone looks, acts, makes you feel? The possibilities are endless, and I want you to express your answer in a scenery.

To enter simply post a link to your scenery with your stardoll user name in the comments!

Japanese Fashion

Hey everyone! 

Firstly, I would really like to apologize for not posting for so long.

I have a lot of things going on and I have really important exams coming up in a week.

However, I will really try and post as much as I can. 

I know, I know, it's very predictable of me to post about something Japanese related, but hear me out!

Japanese culture and fashion has been something that I have been interested in for a very long time, and whenever I try and discuss it with other people they just dismiss it as "that crazy chinese crap". 

Many trends that we have now are inspired by things trending in Japan, mainly seen by people around the Harajuku district of Tokyo. 

In summer of 2011, a new singer popped up named Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. 

Her debut single "PONPONPON" was a hit in Japan and attracted the attention of many overseas viewers on Youtube. In my opinion, this is what kick started her career as a singer, model and fashion blogger.

Her unique style continues to influence the people of Japan again and again, ranging from eyeball hair bows to bean-shaped teddy bears.

Her motto is "Wear what you think is nice, and wear it with confidence".

She used to bring out her "crazy" clothes in a bag when her mom would bring her places and then change into them in a bathroom stall.

I have also seen a few Kyary inspired people around Stardoll, but one user who stood out to me was Tokyo2040.

She has created a large number of Kyary inspired outfits in many different, creative ways.

 

Looks like Stardoll have also taken a liking to Kyary.

I also found a really cool blog called Tokyo Fashion.

Which is basically all about, well, fashion you see in Tokyo.

If you browse around some of the pictures from a few years back, you can see that some of the clothes displayed are currently trending overseas.

These are some of my favourite looks from the blog.

And, according to HBRealdeal, one of the recent hotbuys is inspired by Tokyo Fashion.

When Lady Gaga came to Japan the craziness of the people's outfits went over the moon.

What I have to admire about these people is their sheer courage to not be afraid to be yourself and dress how you like, not caring what anybody else thinks.

What are your opinions on fashion trends in Japan?

Are you ever inspired in real life by photos you see on the internet?

Want more posts like this, or something different?

Drop a comment! I'd love to hear your opinions.

"It's Just the Internet"

Why is it that we humans find it so much easier to do rude, unjust, and maybe even illegal things online? The answer is simple, really. We know think that there are no consequences. No result, no follow up to any of our wrong doings! This is exactly why many of us go around doing things like this:

And this,

And even this:

Somebody linked me to this Polish blog by a user called BlackPinkdoda. I right away identified the graphic in the banner as Samantha's or Rascal313's spoiler from Breathe Magazine.

{http://breathemagazinesd.blogspot.com/}

Being a graphic designer myself, I can understand how it feels to have your work be claimed by someone else as their own... I also know how it feels to see amazing work be made by others and yours not turning out that way (but I still manage to restrain from actually stealing others' graphics).

Now, this girl is Polish so she probably doesn't think anyone will ever go on her blog and find their graphics on it, which I probably wouldn't have unless the link was sent to me... But, there are consequences. She has to live with the fact that this is now public and she will be known as somebody who stole graphics. She can also blame herself because she clearly doesn't have the patience to make her own blog banners. Not only that, but she could, potentially, get sued if the artist were to have copyrighted everything on their blog.

She also used one of my graphics as her profile picture for blogger. I find this quite funny, actually. This is definitely not the first time that I've seen my crappy work being used by somebody without permission... I've found that most times, it's always people from foreign countries who aren't very active around 'dollywood', which is expected. 

Upon entering her name in to the Stardoll search bar, I was surprised to have found a nice doll with a beautifully decorated suite. I wonder how she'd react if I decided to copy one of her rooms.

Before people say this post is unnecessary, I did leave her a guestbook message concerning her stunning blog banner, which she deleted. This post isn't even made to shame her, or annoy her, or anything of that sort. Alright, maybe partially, but she is just one of the many examples of people thinking they can get away with anything they do online.

What people don't realize is that they may just have to deal with the aftermath of whatever they it was that they did... Just maybe. Personally, I think the worst part of doing something like this is having to deal with the embarrassment of your actions.

What do you think?

Have you ever felt as though hurting someone is okay because it's over the internet?

What's your opinion on people who steal graphics?

I'd love to know!

I would like to credit Beg For More (pretty much the only gossip blog that still has some of our Stardoll history packed inside) for most of the images displayed in this post.

I Want Trial Writers

Well even though we have hired new writers, we hired them in October. Our issues with our updating delayed the opening of the full makeover since we opted to wait until EVERYTHING was done. And now I am just bummed.

Why? Because though the blog reopened back in April, since its the most busiest time of the year for some and the emptiest or others, I just happen to have writers who are all busy at this point. Some are studying for finals, some busy with college/university, while others are on vacations of their own. While in a couple of weeks I will be going back to school as well. So I don't think I can be mad at someone for not posting when I will most likely not post as well, though I am not upset with any of the writers, just upset with myself.

So I want to hire trial writers! (About 5 people max.)

The perks is that you get to freely write when you want and what you want and have 1-2 months each to prove yourselves for the possibly to permanently write!

But please, if you apply, I don't care how you talk, just please don't use smiley over-loads, say 'alot' or write I like 'i', and please capitalize sentences.

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If you'd want to apply, just list these things down in the comments please.

• Username - 

• Do you have experience?  -

• If yes, link(s) to experience -

• Favorite thing to write about - 

And I will contact you about any further questions I have.

Though I doubt many people will want to apply I still just want to bring a little bit more life to this blog than one post a week.

Love, Dei

Mémoirs Couture - Designed by YOU!

Introducing - Mémoirs Couture

(Pose by Lana(ForeverGorgeous.)

At first you may read this in a puzzled manner, let me explain.

A project passed down from our MDM mother Noelle and MDM big sister Lolita, I was granted the ownership to this innovative and exciting project I called Mémoirs Couture.

Basically its a fashion line made by you, the readers! How does this work?

Starting today, readers can enter in one or multiple design sketches to us through email (so no one can copy!) and we will have it put to life in a graphic and shown off in our runway show event where each will be introduced and credited for the amazing design you give us.

BUT! I must add, for our first show we wanted to show it off with a bang and have the theme be evening gowns! Meaning even nice formal dress or wear of your creation. It can be haute, bold, wild, whatever!

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Rules and Guidelines

• - ONLY send the photo(s) as links to either Tinypic or Imgur. Attachments will be ignored.

• - Please send a clear photo, if you didn't digitally draw or scanned the drawing, then try your best to take a clear and un-blurry photograph.

• - Only the top 15 designs will be the ones used in this upcoming line.

• - You can send in more than one design but to be fair only one design will be used from each person chosen.

• - Your design doesn't HAVE to be a dress, it can be a suit, shoes, accessories, or all of the above! But if you just send in accessories and shoes, you can be an addition to the top 15 designs and featured with some of the others.

• - You have until the 18th of June to sign up! Every other friday and the friday before then I will post a remind post for those who want to give it a shot but may forget.

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Want to do it? Then send it THIS form in an email to - mdmcouture@yahoo.com

• Name(First and Last): 

• Username:

• Links to design(s):

• Description of design(s):

Don't want to email? Then add me, To_Royal, on Stardoll, in the friend request stating APPLICATION, and I will accept you and message you telling you to send it in, same form as above.

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Any questions? Ask below! And it would be lovely if you could spread the word a bit, maybe tell a friend or two.

Love, Dei

We're Helpless, We're Hopeless

We roll in like waves; crashing onto the shore and eventually retreating into the ocean. Maybe one day we'll muster the courage to resurface. Only we might appear differently; unrecognizable to those who once sailed so closely to us.

Our will alone sends us barreling in; undeniably powerful. We're unstoppable. Only we're not unstoppable. We dealt the sands a heavy blow, but that was only the battle. The war we rage will be ultimately lost. 

Back into the ocean we go. Building ourselves up once more, attempting to win a losing game. We're helpless, we're hopeless. When will we learn?

For Or Against: Parental Controls

Sorry for not posting recently, I've been preoccupied! But I am back with another 'For Or Against!'

The topic being, parental controls for teens and children for television, cellular, internet, and for other real life instances.

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Basically from my expierence, parental controls are made to block out or ban/limit things for children that parents don't want to allow them to do.

Here is a more complex description from Wikipedia:

To minimize the paragraph, it basically says either parents can limit the time you use something, the amount you can do on something, limit the amount of mature content you see, or just for watching everything you do.

Though at first when I was younger my father who has raised me by himself for most of my life had restrictions on my laptop when I was 11, I knew how to get on the adminstrative account and edit it so I could download and change anything I wanted without having to run to him to ask for permission.

And another instance from my younger years, maybe about 12 year old me, my friend introduced me to online chat rooms, where she would talk to all of these people daily and made it like it was the coolest thing ever, so I decided to try it on my laptop at home. Eventually (and sadly) I got hooked as well to chatting it up with people who only went by a easily  username, one where they could change their age and gender easily as well. But one day my dad came to me showing me previous conversations I've had with people (that shows a few swear words here and there).

You could just imagine the face I made, my eyes the shapes of dinner plates, and at first when he asked me was it me, I lied, but then I owned up to it and apoligized.

He told me that it was very unsafe to talk to strangers and how some grubby pervert could be trying to take me from my bed! And basically I was terrified to speak to people for a while after that. Scared everyone just wanted to hurt me.

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Though my experience of parental monitoring was comical and was harmless, some may not be so.

One main reason why parent's want to view what their kids do is because they don't want them getting into things that are terrible.

Things such as:

- Being Hacked (Internet)

The last thing your parent or guardians want is for their information to be stolen because you went on a website, opened an email, or clicked on a link that lead you into an e-trap.

- Violent Movies/Shows (Television)

Even though its common for parents to allow their young ones access to brutal or aggressive movies and tv show, its better to not give children the idea that that type of behavior is right.

- Sex/Sexual Language (Internet/Television/Cell Phones)

Though most parents avoid the sex talk at all costs, that doesn't mean they want you to look up things about sex, like porn. Nor would they favor you to talk about it, but most kids now-a-days do it anyway.

- Bullying (Internet/Cell Phones)

Not many parents understand e-bullies, but I am sure they don't want you be picked on everyday. This is why most websites make it so you can't talk to people or use the site if you aren't at least 13+.

- Perverts/Rapists (Internet/Cell Phones)

Obviously your folks do not want you getting dirty or too friendly with creepy older men and women, no matter how nice they are.

 

- Swearing (All of the above.)

Now I bet this is for everyone, 9 out of 10 times, adults do not favor when children or teens use excessive curse words, though they do it anyway via Facebook, cellphone, etc. And other times they don't want you to listen to swearing as well, but its clear most do anyway.

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Though it limits the child's ability to do certain things, its to prevent things either the parent doesn't favor/doesn't want to have happen or to stop you from digging into things they think you shouldn't look into. Many on the things we do (or in my case did since I am legal) can be very dangerous!

Even with these restrictions limit some things, minors tend to flock to not doing as told on either electronical products listed above.

But is that okay for kids to be able to do whatever they like via internet, television, and cellphones? Or is it just plain wrong?

Are you FOR or AGAINST parents allowing and disallowing their children full freedom over digital devices?

Tell me why in the comments!

Love, Dei