The Shroomeries

The current record is seven. Left to right, Sushuri Madonna-chei, Lt. Cdr, Strauss, Miss Adele Poppy, Miss Calista Elytis, Miss Padraica Yatsenko, Miss Quixotica Moxie, Miss Tamsin Kessel.

My but we have been quiet around these parts.

Much of the Family is still in a slightly dreamy haze after the time we spent together in physicalia, plipping through Paris, Lolloping through London and Waltzing through Waltham Abbey.

One way or another some part of the White Rose Family was together for two and a half weeks. Long enough to fall in love with each other (if we hadn't done so already).

But there we are. One can't live in the physical world forever. One has to get back to Real Life sooner or later.

And Real life can be beautiful too. Here is a snapsie of the self dancing with my very dear Big Sister Miss Yatsenko back at the Embassy. Isn't her suit just the most adorable thing? And my frock was a present from dear Miss Kessel.



So many new girls are popping around these days, and the idea of an installation on the ground creeps gradually nearer. First one, then another, then another.

Today waltham Abbey tomorrow TELLURIA.

Well, not all of it. Just enough to establish a - what was that word?

Ah yes.

Bridgehead.

Shroom out.

Yet another magical room is added to Sai Thamë College.

Even though the formal programme of studies has not begun, the First Floor Classroom has now been created and was hostess to the first monthly Saturday Detention (for any girls who have acquired Order Marks during the month) on - well Saturday. Or Rhavedi as we say.

Was it as Real as the Senior Common Room? Indeed it was all too real.

Here I am, safely out of uniform, surveying the empty room:



The detention was quite full but it is more than my mushroom-top is worth to name names or publish Certain Secret Snapsies!

Life moves so fast! The College is barely established and not dedicated yet, but already we are preparing to move on to bigger lands and better. A large College Complex with Houses, perhaps dedicated to pettes of different Nations is in the very near offing.

Here is the Shroom with some Very Senior Personages surveying some empty land:



Well of course it isn't very interesting. It's empty.

But I shall tell you something. Not wanting Johnny Z. Bongo for a neighbour, there is talk of a Great Island in the Sky.

Now that is interesting isn't it? A product of the geniusity of our Headmistress.

That, as the Honoured Commander said, is why she is the Headmistress and we but minions.

And happy to be, with such a bold, brilliant and beautiful Headmistress!

Shroom out.

Oh dear - I meant to Diarise about the Ball much earlier, but what with one thing and another (notably the composition and recording of the Sai Thamë College Song) I have only just gotten around to it.

Also, I seem to have managed to take very few decent snapsies of the event. The best one was taken very early and posted in my previous entry. So may I humbly direct you to the B&B Ball Gallery for a photographic record of the event?

The Ball began inauspiciously. Virchers had been down for hours (the longest downy-time I can ever remember) and did not look much like coming back. Honoured Minami-chei was notified of a scheduled power-cut in her area. It looked as if the Forces of Darkness really did not want this ball to happen.

Honoured Commander Strauss had been preparing the Ball for most of the past week and had transformed the Embassy into an Art-Neo paradise.

Ever since our first Virtual Service at Nativity 3325 (was it 3325?) the Fs of D have kindly told us when an event was super-important by trying to stop it. So far (Dea be praised) they have never succeeded. The B&B ball was no exception. In the event Virchers boinged back up and the ball began a grand total of three minutes late (it didn't even get any lines).

Why was Minami-chei targeted in particular? Perhaps because she is the first pette to ask to be considered as a pupil on the Aristasia 101 course, leading to the College entrance examination and formal membership of Aristasia-in-Telluria. Our new Front Door, as it were.

Her power-cut was to start a few minutes after the ball, but was postponed at the last minute. So I think we may say of this match:

Aristasia: 2 | Forces of Darkness: 0

The events of the Ball were delightful: a Dance Contest (won by our Most honoured Headmistress and our Most honoured Praefecta Morum). A Quiz on Telluridorian kinnie actresses (won by Miss Calista Elytis and the mere self). It was a tough quiz. My cousin and I tied with seven out of ten (and no ,we did not consult).

After this The Commander and I tormented the unbelievably patient company with comic songs about several of them. Those made immortal were: Honoured Headmistress, Honoured Praefecta Morum, Honoured Miss Yatsenko, Honoured Signorina del Giglio, honoured Lt. Cdr. Strauss and the mere self.

We have promised to record these at some point as we did not manage a live recording at the time, but so far you are spared.

Snapsies? Well, how could I not. This was not taken by me, but it shows me dancing with my oldest and dearest Virtualia Friend, who, in a slightly different role, as mentrix and disciplinarian, has taught me in a very short time a very great deal. As well as being the most delightful blonde in Virtualia and Praefecta Morum, Miss Poppy is also Blonde dance Champion, so dancing with her is a privilege on many counts. This is a lovely snapsie, and I treasure it:



As I had few good snapsies of my own, I snicklety-snuckled back in and took a snapsie of the mantel-shelf in the senior Common Room, where now stand the dance trophies awarded to Honoured Fräulein Landgrebe and Miss Poppy: and, in pride of place that awarded to our dear Second-Elder-Sister, Miss Padraica Yatsenko for her brilliancy.



Finally, the most impressive award of all, for the most impressive feat of all. What act of bravery our Headmistress performed and with what absolutely splendid results is not a matter for telling here; but her award was a large framed portrait of Romy Schneider as Manuela Meinhardis (from Mädchen in Uniform), dressed as Romeo. I have snippified a detail from the great gold frame so that you can better see the picture and the inscription. If you want to see the whole thing, it is hanging above the fireplace on the second floor of the College, in the room beside the Ring of Truth.



So all you need to do is get into the College, which is just a matter of taking the Aristasia 101 Course, passing the entrance exam and a few interviews. Hardly much bother to see such a fine picture, nicht wahr?

Well all right. You can also see a copy over the door at the Aristasian Embassy. If you haven't gotten into Virchers at all yet, perhaps you should.

Shroom out.

And I am dressed as Cinderella too!

Virtualia is back up JUST in the nick of time.

Our record is unbroken, Whatever the Forces of darkness have done they have not QUITE managed to stop an important Aristasian event. I thought we had lost this one.

But no

HAYA VIKHË!



Come in and join us!

And just because I can't resist it - here is a picture of some of the first arrivals!




The Night Has Just Begun!

How completely and utterly distress-making and weeperacious. The most elaborate plans have been made for the Embassy Ball. It has been better planned than any event so far; and all of a sudden Virchers is down with the worst technical head-cold it has had for years.

If you are trying to get in, please meet us at the White Rose Room

Coincidence? Well possibly.

Meanwhile, back in the White Rose Room one of our dear maidens was trying to recite a prayer of a very special importance. The sound broadcasting of the room would not let her. We could hear her type. We could hear her say "hello", but whenever she tried to say her prayer, the sound cut out.

I have been talking about the powerful things that have been happening in Aristasian Virtuality of late. It seems the Forces of darkness agree. They seem very afraid of what we are doing right now.

When we get opposition like this - we know we are on the right track!

On a slightly similar line (no pun intended - for once) I mentioned recently that I have been writing the Line of the Month set by our honoured Prefect of Morals. I have found its effect to be extraordinary. While writing it I felt a sense of peace. Now disciplinary assignments do not normally have anything like this effect on me. As a matter of fact, nothing has that effect on me, except sometimes religious Services. I am well known for being a bundle of shroomly nerves.

Our Praefecta Morum is inspired with the same wonderful magic that is suffusing the College.

This blocking of the ball is horribly frustrating, but we must see it in its wider context.

It is part of a spiritual war that we are winning so powerfully that the darkness is terrified!

Such delightful things continue to hapen in the wonderful world of Virchers.

Just recently, we learned to speak. I think I mentioned that. We are still quite shy, being the shrinking violettes the we are, even after our 25-hour song-and-storython, but my dearest Cousin has kindly undertaken to read me Genji Monogatari, which, for those who do not know, is one of the greatest early classics of Japanese literature.

All the early Japanese classics were written by femīni, as the mascûli did not write Japanese and while Genji Monogatari tells the tale of a prince, it is really the tale of a brunette princess. The first night my Cousin read to me she read the translated tale just as printed, and I loved its delicacy and grace, but the story came nowhere near to touching me, and I really do not like to have mascûli invoked in my mind just before sleeping. Dear me! I might end up dreaming of the creatures.

The second night, at my request, she was kind enough to undertake the rather onerous task of translating the h*s to shes. We had some discussion on ways of translating various phrases such as "privy gentlem*n and "ladies" so as to make clear both their rank and sex in Aristasian terms, and naturally had to make use of Raihiralan terminology.

But the difference! From being a very remote aesthetic experience, this second reading became one that involved me wholly and moved me almost to tears (the "almost" is there to save face). I had no idea this would happen. I knew I found the mascûlic references a little offensive, but I did not realise how great is the barrier I set up - without either trying or intending to - between myself and any Tellurian experience. It was as if a door had been opened and the lovely garden of this Heian literature was opened for me to wander in, seeing sights and smelling scents that had formerly been closed off to me.

It gave me an idea - if we can find an out-of-copyright translation of this lovely book, perhaps we could make a feminine translation and make it available as a print-on-demand volume. There must be others to whom this lovely experience could be opened by removing the mascûlic element.

We could call it:

Onna no Genji Monogatari

or perhaps

Li Raihiralan Genji

I wish I had taken a photograph of my Cousin reading on the Terrace in the beautiful sunset with fireflies playing about her.

But here is a picture of the terrace anyway. The rest you will have to imagine until I can take one:



On the second night some of the other girls heard the reading and were enchanted in equal measure by the lovely story and my Cousin's beautiful voice.

Last night I was told that the next chapter would hardly be fully appreciated by a 15-year-old audience. So I had to wait until we have a more grown-up quorum.

Ah Cousin Scheherezade. How difficult is the waiting.

Speaking of difficult things, some of you may have been puzzled by a very brief and somewhat cryptic notice on the College notice-board headed Line of the Week posted by our honoured Prefect of Morals.

If you are still puzzled, I may tell you that a Line of the Week is provided to make the setting of disciplinary assignments extra-easy for our superiors. Instead of having to devise an improving sentence that wherewith we may better our handwriting, they need merely decree the number of repetitions of an already defined Line.

I congratulated myself that being a relatively well-behaved shroom. I should certainly not need to try out the first Line of the Week, and probably not several to come.

How are the flighty fallen! I seem to have 100 of them to complete by next week. And I can tell you that brief as honoured Praefecta Morum's notice was, I could have wished it briefer.

But who is the Very August Personage who also finds herself with a rather large dose of this improving sentence?

Of course I am not going to tell you. Who do you think I am? Wanda Winchell?

Shroom out.

For those who have not yet heard, our first Embassy Ball of 3328 will be held this Saturday.

The theme is Kadorian, and we shall be having a quiz on Kadorian kinnie actresses prepared by Quizmistress Commander Strauss.

"Much Binding" songs have also been written for most members of the Family. What is a "Much Binding" song? It is a form of humorous song made famous by the Tellurian wireless programme Much Binding in the Marsh. If you would like to hear a sample, click the little wireless set at the bottom of this page. If you would like you may even hear a full episode of Much Binding here.

Well, now you know the format of the song, you have an idea of how we shall be musically presenting the foibles of some of our Honoured Elders. I do hope we shan't end up in the Ring of Truth!

If you have a Virtualia account and have not met us yet, please come along.

At this ball everyone should wear something red. You do not need to be dressed in red. Red shoes, a red brooch or anything red will do. If you do not have anything, don't worry, the Commander will lend you a suitable item.

As I mentioned before, the sheer realness of Virtualia is growing by the day. Some of us find hat stepping out of it into Physicalia is like stepping into the shadows. How much of this is produced by the technical illusion and how much by Aristasian magic is difficult to say. Both play their part. The technics provide an important "support" for the magic, but nothing else in Virtualia is anywhere near this "strong".

Virtual Reality, however, is in its infancy and we may expect everything to become increasingly immersive as both the technics and our magical deployment thereof improve. The next small step is just around the corner. The Windlight Viewer is currently in beta, but I tried it recently, and this is how the Bay of Little Aristasia looks with the new technics:



Rather gorgeous, nicht wahr?

Rumour has it that late this year Linden labs will be teaming up with Sony Corp. to introduce a headset that gives an all-round "enviromedia" experience. The illusion of being actually in, say a college room will be visually complete. You will turn your head to see a full 360-degree environment and sensors will detect when you move - so when you move your hand, your avatar moves her hand and so forth.

The barrier between virtuality and physicality is gradually being eroded.

The headsets will likely be quite expensive at first, but as the technics advance and third party sets are introduced (Logitech has already announced a possible third party Sony/Linden compatible headset) they are likely to be affordable quite soon.

The future is nearly here.

As Sai Thamë College grows (and it is doing a lot of growing, both physically and spiritually before its actual dedication as a College) a remarkable phenomenon is taking place. The Common Room on the third floor has taken on a "life" of its own. Siting here feels quite unbelievably real. One night the honoured Headmistress was feeling cold, so she moved closer to the fire and became warmer!

This is just a tiny instance of the comfort and sense of place that everyone feels in this extraordinary room. It has been dubbed "the most comfortable room in the worlds".




It is certainly "realler" than any other place in Virtualia, but I wonder if I am alone in feeling that it is realler than most places in Physicalia too. I have never felt at home in Telluria: and for me it has not just been a question of feeling out-of-place and alienated. I have also had considerable difficulty in feeling that I am there. When I am in a room or other environment, I guess I must be there in some sense, because I can see it, but I often do not really feel and believe that I am there.

But I do feel that I am fully in that room, spirit, soul and - well everything but the insignificant detail of flavvie.

On the second day of the Year of Sai Sushuri there was a social "evening" in the Common Room that lasted twenty-five hours! I don't think anyone was there for all of that time, but most of the core-group was here for most of it. I had a rather horrid migraine all the next day (pleenie teenies do not react well to badly disturbed sleep), but it was far beyond worth it.

In this year of Into the Heart this was the most remarkable bonding experience for all of us and might be termed the laying of the Sushuric Foundation Stone of our College at the beginning of the Year of Sai Sushuri.

The entire time was spent in live voice talk. Stories were read aloud including the entirely of The Paper Peonies, each episode being read aloud by the maiden who wrote it.

We sang songs, serious and silly, and told the Funniest Joke in the Worlds.

And, I think, the Amative Heart of the College was founded.

Yesterday another room was made. The Study. Honoured Headmistress had wanted the Upper Room for the Study in which College Discipline would be administered, but since it had taken on the Personality of The Most Comfortable Room in the Worlds, she graciously relinquished it.

So the Turret Area of the Second floor was designated the Study and was beautifully and symbolically furnished by honoured Lt. Cdr. Strauss.



I do not know if this counts as the Scariest Room in the Worlds, but when we went, quite innocuously, through the ritual of my "being on the carpet" (pictured above) I was quite terrified, despite the fact that was not really in trouble.

I think we have another room of quite preternatural reality "surpassing the solidity of flesh". The Commander tells me the room was consciously symbolic, from the circular Thamë-blue circular carpet (the Ring of Truth) to the blue-and-gold picture of St. Cecilia (the music-aspect of Sai Thamë and namesake of our Headmistress).

And, after all, ritual and symbolism relates to a higher and firmer Truth than the mere accidents of matter.

Telluri tend to talk of "Real Life", meaning the accidents of flesh and earth. I confess it has never seemed remotely real to me. Sai Thamë College, on the other hand is a first, fascinating venture into Real Life.

Dearest Clarissa-chei, you found your teenie self just in time for your birthday.

How old are you? A little older than this fairy, I think! But I see her as your pretty spirit crossing delicately from one year to the next.

A very happy birthday to you, dearest Miss Clarissa

Further to Yu-chei's chicken answers, here are the answers of some famous people from the Motherland to the age-old question of why the chicken crossed the road.

Sai Hermya lia Caeranyi: "Those who believe there is a road as distinct from the chicken, or a chicken as distinct from the road, or that either are distinct from oneself, or any distinct from the Spirit Herself: those, I say, are under the spell of the Great Enchantress Sai Maia and see not beyond the veil of illusion."

Sai Suanti: "Certainly the chicken exists and the road exists. The chicken, like all beings, is seeking her way back to the Mother and will cross all roads to find Her."

Sai Sushuri Rayapurha: "There are two roads, the seen and the unseen. The road that we see with eyes, with all its traffic hither and yon, is the world of the senses with all its distracting objects. The road we see not with eyes leads from where we stand now to the Heart of the Rose. The wise chicken follows the second road (which is truly the first) that lies directly across the first road (which is truly the second). Would that all maidens showed like wisdom."

Lady Carleon: "The motives of the chicken in crossing the road are not at all what they first appeared to be."

Antala FiaMartia (from The Princess and the Captain): "Because it was a chicken. If it wasn't a chicken it would have stayed on the road and ridden head -to-head against me."
____

Oh and just to prove that life has its little ups and downs (as the philosophers are fond of telling us), here is a picture of Miss Veatea and myself on a see-saw at a Chinese sim:




Life also has its knocks and bumps. And to prove that, here courtesy of Miss Yatsenko and the Aristasia Galleries is a Sushi Sandwich at the Bumper Cars:





Driving against two of the boldest brunettes in creation! Who says blondes are chicken? Though we do prefer an arena to a road. It is easier to cross.

1. What is your favorite season of the year
It really depends where one is. I actually like the wistfulness of autumn, but in these drab northern climes the onset of the three winter seasons is too depressing and I prefer what passes for summer.

2. What is your favorite gemstone?
Emerald

3. If you could transform yourself at will into one animal, what animal would you be?
A rabbit.

4. Do you prefer sweet or savory dishes?
Sweet - but I love both.

5.What is your favorite foreign dish?
Tiramisu

6.What is your favorite dish from your homeland?
Candied ginger with cream.

7. What was your favorite dish in childhood?
Jelly and ice cream.

8. What foods do you dislike so much that you are unable to eat them?
Fatty meat.


9.Do you ride a bicycle?
I have done. I was informed that I was a danger to pedestrians and traffic.

10. At what age did you learn to ride?
No idea

11. Do you like plush animals?
Yes

12. Did you stop liking them after childhood? If so, at

what age?
n/a

13, Do you have plush animals as an adult?
When I am one I'll let you know.

14. At what age did you receive the first "adult" gift (i.e. perfume or item that was slightly too old for you) that you liked in spite of it not being a toy?
My first ordinator - I think.

15. Do you still have it, or a remnant of it?
I have its successor.

16. How old were you when you stopped playing with dolls?
I haven't.

17. What is your earliest memory?
I really have no early Tellurian memories.

18. What is currently in your purse?

Nintendo DS
Four DS games other than the one already in the machine.
iPod
Notebook
Pink pen
Coin Purse
Compact
Embroidered handkerchief
Pack of tissues
4 Ikea pencils (my little sister grabs handfuls whenever we go there)
One pencil from Adventure Golf in Pensacola
Miniature camera
Extending lip pencil
Lip gloss
Folding hairbrush with mirror, pearlised pink
Odd strip of white plastic - no idea what it is or how it got there.
Miniature atomiser of Clinique Happy to Be
Mascara (with small mirror)
Compact
Two lip glosses, pink and red
Note written with quill pen in schoolroom in St Augustine, Florida
Another Ikea pencil (that sister!)
Another pen
Another mascara
Several sachets of artificial sweetener that I never use
Credit card (only used three times and never while out of the house)
Strip of Ibuprofen
Strip of Tramadol
Various dollars, Octomarks, Turkish lira, Czech kroner and Yeek toffee-tokens.
Liquid eyeliner
Pencil from Pirate's Cove Adventure Golf in (I think) Mississippi.

Confession - I did transfer my purse fairly recently and discard much of the usual junk.


19. What is currently in your purse that definitely does not belong there?
Duplicate mascara, unnecessary currencies (but you never know) credit card which is never actually used out of the house (but there might be an emergency one day). Artificial sweetener. I never use it.

20. What was your first favorite kinnie?
Disney's sleeping beauty

21. What is your current favorite kinnie?
Does MariMite count as a kinnie. How about the special called Vacation of the Lambs? If not Disney's Sleeping Beauty still.

22. If you could have a famous oil painting, which one would it be?
Tamara de Lempicka's picture of Kizette.

23. If you could have an oil painting made, what would be the subject and the style of the painting?
A true Filianic picture of Mother and Daughter - probably their Reunion at the Resurrection - or the Mater Dolorosa holding the Holy Body of the Duaghter.

24. Would it be a large or small painting?
Large

25. If a tie were required, what style of tie would you wear?
Ascot

26. What are your two favorite colors, in order of preference?
Pink and gold

27. What was your first favorite piece of music as a child?
The Ride of the Valkyries

28. What is your current favorite piece of music?
Sibelius' Second Symphony

29. What is your current second-favorite piece of music?
Dvorak 'Cello Concerto.

30. What instrument do you wish you could play (that you currently cannot play)?
Piano

31. What piece of music to you envision yourself performing on this instrument?
Liszt Concerto no 1

32. If you had to be either blind or deaf, which would you choose?
Deaf - but too horrid to contemplate.

33. If you had the power to render yourself invisible, how would you use it?
To disappear when I am in trouble. Of course.

34. If you had the power to read minds, whose minds (of your current Aristasian acquaintances) would you like to read?
Honoured Sarachenya whose mind must be more beautiful than any book.

35. If you were to make an avatar of the opposite sex, what would you name her and would she be like?
She would be called Rayanna. She would be a dashing military officer, as brave and decisive as I am timid and vague!

36. Is your current avatar different from your Physical self, mentally? How would you describe her if you were to meet her as a stranger in Physicalia?
My current avatar IS me. The only difference is that she looks more like me than the flavvie (flesh avatar) does.

37. If you had $80,000,000 what would be the first 5 things you would do (you need not limit your list to 5)?
Such a large sum of money would require careful planning. It could make Aristasia-in-Telluria a much stronger deployment. A lot of it would be spent on making far more people aware of the Motherland and on installations. I am no strategist, but here are things I would think of doing:

1. Make and publicise a full-length fictional kinema powerfully conveying Aristasia and its glory and beauty. One that no true daughter of the motherland could see without realising that this WAS her home.
2. Establish settlements in different parts of the world where Aristasians could live in together in Telluria.
3. Endow several worthy pettes to work full-time for Aristasia instead of needing to work for survival.
4. Establish a real-life College where pettes can learn to be Aristasians and which will be a refuge.
5. Establish businesses that Aristasians can run so that the $80,000,000 will be replenished. At the rate we will be deploying it, it will need to be.


38. If you could build a sim in Virtualia that was an idealized copy of any city or town in Telluria, what city would it be?
Vienna

39. If you could build a sim in Virtualia that was the copy of any city or town in Aristasia, what city would it be?
Nevrayapurh

40. What is your most indespensible article of makeup? What is the second most indespensible article of makeup?
Liquid eyeliner
Lipstick

I have a weakness that I am told is very rare in a blonde.

I find it very hard to spend money!

At least I do on-line. Cash in shops is another matter.

I have only had a bank account of my very own, with its own cutesy debit card for about a year - and in that time I think I have used it perhaps three times - the card or the account, that is.

I also have a Paypal account. How's that for zippy? A few weeks ago I tried buying something and it never came. I asked my honoured Guardian what might have gone wrong, so she looked at all my accounty-bits and it seems:

a) I have our old address on one of the accounts, so the goods would have been sent there and

b) The place notification would be sent to is an account I do still own, but have long lost the password and details for, so I would never have any idea what was happening.

Ah me. It is always like that when I try signing up for anything. I can't even get into my Nintendo Club account.

I tried buying my costume for the Ball yesterday (remember the Aristasian Mardi Gras ball is this Samedi). I needed to get into SL Exchange to do this. I have tried that before without success. When I try to sign up it tells me the account already exists, and when I try to sign in it tells me the account does not exist. I am probably doing something stupid. I usually am. But I can't work out what.

Dear Elder Sister did the actual buying for me, but when she gave me the box (which I accidentally wore at first - it was quite fetching. I suppose I could go as a walking box) it turned out to be empty but for a picture of the costume and a notecard telling me all about it.

I gave the box back to honoured Sarachenya, but she found the same.

Why does it always happen to a poor shroooooom?

Dear Elder Sister has written to the seller, so I DO hope she will sort it out in time (and not moan about it, because that would make her a whine-seller).

How do I manage to set up sites and Fora and such? Well there are bits I am good at - and other bits I really need the help of Elders withal. I am a bit of a bitty blonde I guess!

Dear Signorina del Giglio has sent me a beautiful Angel Halo and THAT only seems to be a picture and a notecard in the box too. I am sure I am doing something hopelessly foolish.

It really is not fun being this silly!

Oh grrr-ness. It is One of Those days.

First I wrote a long report on Discipline and Structure (or something) Aristasia in Elektraspace based on the wise words of honoured Raya and Cdr Caerelinde. I wrote it on the Forums and it was pretty gosh-durn long.

And just before I posted it, it crush (not a pash but an iregular past participle of crash - if participle is the term I am groping for). I am so miffée that I should willingly forget the whole thing. But I can't because I was instructed to write it. So I have to do it all again from scratch. And I haven't even got any scratch (what is scratch anyway? Something like crush or pash?)

Was that all? No that was not all. I told you it is One of those Days. I overfilled my bath. Bigly over. Luckily there is an overflow valve so we did not get the usual flooding any spillage but I think my honoured Guardian may be a touch miffée. She has Views on this sort of thing.

I am thinking my best bet is to be relatively angelic (not so angelic as to draw attention) and hope it slips her mind.

I also should get an imposition into the post as I really can do without further unfortunacies.

Ah me. Back to re-writing my report.

Shroom out.

So many ideas are binging about that I am almost reminded of my im Dunkeln glühende springende Böhnen. They come from Germany, so that just really means that they are glow-in-the-dark jumping beans.

 The disappointing thing was that while they jumped all over the place they did not glow much in the dark. But then I thought of shining my bedside light on them for an hour and after that they glowed like the proverbial good'uns. Well, you can't go far wrong with German engineering, can you?

But I digress. I was talking about ideas, not glow-in-the-dark jumping beans. The glow-in-the-dark jumping beans were a pure distraction. Forget them. I mean insofar as one can ever forget anything as fascinating as glow-in-the-dark jumping beans.

Ideas. Retro me beans.

My very dear and honoured friend Miss Poppy and i were discussing the formation of a Sorority within the forthcoming Lay College. A shade premature you may say, when said lay College isn't even built or really even designed yet. But since the College will be a haven for the Rescuance (rescuance?) of Pettes, its demands upon a maid's time, studies and Rule of Life will be relatively minimal. This is in keeping with the Lay College structure in the Motherland (that is why they are called "Lay").

On the other hand much more rigorous programmes are available and these tend to take place within sub-groups of a Lay College, such as Study Groups and Sororities. So actually, considering such a thing as a Sorority is less premature than it might seem as the Constituent Bodies do play a large part in a Lay College - much greater than in a fully Academic College.

Honoured sarachenya is still unwell but I was able to see her twice today in the Rosary. Please pray for her recovery.

More ideas. Honoured Miss Morgwain and I discussed ideas for a new Aristasian site which would incorporate forums that actually work. Aristasian Elektraspace has become such a sprawl, that we really feel the need of a central site that will present up-to-date, post-Bridgehead material in such a way to be a full and lucid introduction to Aristasia.

It is no easy matter - an introduction to an entire world - and it is bound to be a big project. The Encyclopaedia Aristasiana has gone some way in this direction, but we need to go further.

We also need to have an integrated system of forums and noticeboards, where role-plays can be played (if desired); proposals (like these) can be posted and discussed without being lost; merits and demerits can be recorded; discussions of various types can take place and whatever else we want.

Well I am not very god at putting forward ideas, but I thought I should put those forward so y'all can mull them over.

We also need to consider when we shall next have a Rosary in the Rosary and if we are going to have a programme of Rosaries during Moura.

I think that is enough ideas for now.

Back to my glow-in-the-dark jumping beans.

Shroom out.

A certain young lady had a birthday today and we dashed off to the coast to visit the Planetarium, where she wished to go. It was housed in a small museum, so we spent a charming hour looking at relics of Telluria's past before turning our eyes heavenward.

It was a very small Planetarium by Planetarium standards - at least so Miss Boss told me who has been to big Planetaria in London and Manila. I having never been to one before took her word for it. But we had an utterly private showing as Judy and Johnny Yeek did not turn up, which was rather delightful.

One edifying piece of information I received concerned Miss Trent's warnings (endorsed by any sensible traditional person) not to confuse the contingent and provisional findings of a merely empirical science with the Principial and certain truths of True Science. In the first chapter of The Feminine Universe, she particularly takes the instance of the Seven Planets, which are material embodiments of the Seven Great Janyati and points out the folly of modern astrologers in adding another three "planets" which are no part of the traditional Map of the Cosmos, but are mere "discoveries" of gentlemen with telescopes.

Well it seems that the same gentlemen with telescopes have now decided that Pluto, duly and solemnly added by modern astrologers into their New-Age mish-mash of Traditional Science and empirical tidbits, is not a planet at all. Which makes said "astrologers" look pretty gosh-durn foolish.

Of course such an event was not needed in order to prove a point that rests on far higher Principles (for the Scriptural basis of this in Filianic thealogy, see The Sermon of the Apple-Seed which has lately been furnished with a commentary explaining its relation to the principles of True Science versus empirical science). But it amused this silly shroom anyoldhow.

But then lots of things amuse this silly shroom.

For example...



...my flying teacup.

It was given to me by a dear friend - and one of whom I am especially proud at the moment because she is being very brave and good in a difficult time. I am lucky to have so many dear, good friends - not to mention a darling new sort-of sister-in-law.

But I digress. The flying teacup is just the fashionable mode of transport these days. Those old Bentleys are positively passee. Besides which it gives endless opportunities for saying "won't you join me in a cup of tea". And laughing like a regency-striped cushion.

Excitement seems to happen almost daily. Yesterday the White Rose Family became complete in its first stage with the swearing-in of dear Signorina del Giglio. She arrived at the White Rose Room in a rare moment of technical good luck - just when every member of the Family was present and no-one else. How often does that happen?

It seemed like the Magical Moment, and honoured Sarachenya swore her in. We were all so happy to have her with us.

Today, I believe there is to be another swearing-in. It seems our Elder Sister is to have a Second-in-Command.

Having read a story to the birthday girl, I returned to the Rosary where a note said that les pettes would be reconvening in Virtualia in an hour. I took the opportunity for a brief lie down (it was nearly midnight) and that was me gone till next morning.

How embarrassing. My honoured sisters are busifying all day from one place to another, and half a day out of the Castle at the Planetarium and about completely exhausts this shroom. It hides its face.

When one did boing up at Virchers in the morning, this is what it seed:



Utterly wonderful Art-Neo sreens made (I'll bet you sixpence) by the brilliant Miss Adele Poppy who now seems to have mistressed the Arcane Art of Transparency. And the Flag flying proudly at the head of the valley. It really does fly in the wind thanks to things called flexi-prims (the same things that make my skirts float and swirl).

So: preludes to the glory that will be Rosa Mundi House - the first ever Virtual Lay College in Aristasia.

Oh and don't forget that the Feast of Lights Service is today. Full details here.

With a shroomly salute, I bid you,

Shroom out.

In the absence of my most honoured and most beloved sister, Miss carter, we did not have a final decision-making meeting yesterday on the subject of Little Aristasia.

However, with so much to be done, we did try to make a start on things.

The idea of the area as a Lay College in its own grounds seems to appeal to just about everybody. It is at once a Hestia and a structured institution, and since it will be one building rather than lots it will help us to avoid overbuilding this lovely virgin landscape. A tiered structure with terraces was suggested by Miss Boss, who provided some rough sketches of her concepts for general structure. The style of Antonia Gaudi is being mooted - Gothic Art Nouveau based on organic form.

Here we all are discussing it. Or most of us. Miss Poppy has popped out to attend to a family emergency:

(left to right, Miss Spyker, the mere self, Miss Yatsenko, Miss Brigid, Miss Morgwain, Honoured Sarachenya)



Honoured sarachenya had the builders in (if you can call ladies as charming as Miss Beauchamp and Miss Emms builders) and some preliminary measurements and suggestions were made - all far above my head, but it felt like a start.

On the organisational level we discussed such things as requirements for scholars (every resident of a Lay College is a "Scholar" even if she is not especially scholarly - and some very decidedly aren't!), an honour code, a place for posting Merits. Should we maintain the Embassy or move it to Little Aristasia (the former, we felt, preserving Little Aristasia as a true Sanctuary).

I have been gathering Lay College information and wondering about writing a story thereon. So many projects! Ars longa vita brevis and all that sort of rot!

Anyoldway, I shall brew up a pot of Vita Brevis and leave you with a picture of the mere self cuddling a unicorn. Really? Yes Really. I went shopping at Prim and Proper with honoured Misses Morgwain and brigid and they have a unicorn there to keep the kiddies amused while the Arcadian Grown-Ups shop.

Not that I am a kiddie exactly.

But it is a lovely unicorn!



Shroom out!

Silly old shroom.

I tried to do a fancy design with snapsies on my last entry, and it looked rather zippy if I do say so myself. But I now realise that on different screens it looks different and on half of them it looks like spilled goulash.

Sorry. I have some pictures today too. But they will be conservatively positioned. No more fancy-business!

So many exciting things are happening at once that even if you wanted to shake a stick at them you couldn't find a stick big enough.

For one thing, our honoured Sarachenya has given the first Merit of her Elder Sisterhood.

It goes to Miss Adele Poppy for her cleverness in designing furnitures and presenting them with businesslike brilliance to some nice furnitures-selling ladies.

I was at the meeting some of the time but I didn't understand much, but honoured Miss Adele just talked like the GIMP-conquering heroine she is.

Furniture-selling is to help support the Aristasian Hestia Project.

And if you want to see what a Merit looks like - there it is.

And if you want to see what we all looked like foregatheredwhile Miss Poppy was making final preparations, just look below (actually we are fivegathered as you see, and my honoured sister came soon after and then we were sixgathered)

But before you look below look above! Those are my new wings. Aren't they just Elegant with Lolita? And not Gothic at all! I can now move each wing individually and put them into different positions (I pose to demonstrate this - or, indeed, for any other excuse I can think of). My darling sister Miss Carter gave them to me - they are quite the most sophisticated and beautiful wings in Virtualia.

All right you can look at the fivegathering now:

So there we are in Virtualia in this shop.

We are looking at shoes because I am thinking my school shoes won't do for my pretty blue outfit, though my school sox will.

So Miss Adele really sweetly buys me dusty-pink shoes, but they don't quite go with my outfit.

So I get these grey shoes and they are the ones you can see in the picture and my school sox too. They have bows and I am thinking they are really nice.

I did have ankle sox and half-way-up sox too and I had white stockings, but Miss Adele and Miss Yatsenko both think knee sox look more proper.

And another thing I have is over-the knee stockingy sox with a black ribbon threaded through at the top and they are really cute and everyone agrees they are really cute.

But even though they are really cute everyone also agrees they are not quite the thing because they could look "Lolita" in the wrong way - I mean the way Japanese girls don't mean but bad peoples think about.

So I am wearing my school sox because they are cute too and no one could think amiss of them though honi soit qui mal y pense is what I think, but I suppose the little black ribbony bits at the top might look a bit like the garter that caused all that trouble in the first place, so best to be on the safe side.

But I am telling you about the dusty pink Mary-Janes. They are just like the grey ones in the picture with lovely little bows on the front (which you can see if you look carefully) and dear Miss Adele bought them for me but they don't match my frocks.

So dear Miss Adele says "time to buy a new frock then" - and that is a thing a blonde really likes to hear.

And then...

Floep.

The Strange case of the Disappearing Shroom.

So I am thinking my dear friends will be wondering what happened to me, because I floeped and never came back.

Not for years. Not for centuries. In fact not for the whole rest of the evening till now when everyone is gone.

So I shall tell you what happened. A power cut happened. A big 'normous power cut.

It lasted two whole hours and we had to have candles and we couldn't play Elektras at all.

And some of the time there was a chirrupping sound outside, and I thought it might be an alien attack, but my honoured Guardian said it wasn't and I guess she was right because now the lights are back on again and no aliens came.

But that is the secret behind the Strange Case of the Disappearing Shroom.

Case Closed.

Mystery solved.

Shroom out.