Here's my first theme post for Bibliotheca since my extended absence.
I'm not too keen on the theme of baggage, really-- I like being playful and creative with my interpretations, and the allegorical meaning of baggage is far from cheery. I also don't vacation much: my trip to The Great Lace was the furthest from home I'd been in ages. But I'm no coward, so here's a post about what to carry. Since I don't travel much, I'll focus on everyday items.
Hello!
Reports of my demise have been slightly exaggerated. I've just been in a bad place (the Washington DC metropolitan area) and not in a great mental space to post.
Anyway, here's a recap of major stuff I missed writing about.
The past couple of weeks have been rough. As a trans person in the thick of U.S. politics, I haven't felt this concerned about domestic policy and its immediate ramifications for my friends and family in a long while. Fashion is a solace in this trying time-- moreover, it has given us all important skills for the future.
I'm late for this, but it's time for Bibliotheca, with the theme of femininity.
I've been getting ready for a move and dealing with a series of large work events, but I'll be able to blog more after! With that in mind, this post will be shorter and less well-cited than most of my posts, but I hope it's up to snuff anyhow.
Anyway, this is a great time for me to expound on one of my favorite topics: I am not a woman but I respect women a lot.
It's Halloween, it's Bibliotheca, and like the shriveled monkey's paw of a human being that I am, I have to put an unexpected, cursed twist on every wish and prompt unfortunate enough to come my way. More specifically, the prompt of the month is Horror. I'm pretty good with typical horror-- I don't scare easy, though I do startle at loud noises and fascism. But what really scares me in my lolita life is visibility.
The end of the month approaches, so it must be Bibliotheca time. September's theme is "Fruits of Fall". Normally, I'd tortuously transform this into an ode to pumpkins and gourds, but it's not the month for that. Both Jewish High Holy Days fell in September, so I'm feeling a little bit more earnest than usual, and the (currently upcoming) federal government shutdown has the entire D.C. area on edge. As such, I'll talk about my feelings on the two fall fruits in my wardrobe and one I would love to see.
It's Bibliotheca time and also the beginning of the school year. This month's prompt (lounging around) doesn't really mesh with my current lifestyle, so I've decided to regale the internet with a school-style essay instead, because it really does feel like I missed the summer homework assignment until the last minute.
Bibliotheca's month of florals is almost over, and I am personally 100% on board with this theme for April. Although I try to keep my posts relatable to people outside of my geographical area, I've lived my entire life (except for undergrad) in the D.C. metro area, and so April + florals = cherry blossoms. Cherry blossoms shape the local culture and provide a D.C.-Japan connection, so I'm excited to explore this topic.
I've been experiencing post-con crash after Katsucon (more on that in another post), but I still wanted to squeeze in a Bibliotheca post for the prompt "living spaces", because the spaces in which I live are an important and difficult-to-navigate topic. This gets very personal and touches on mental health, so it may not be worth reading for everyone.
This month's Bibliotheca theme, unless I messed up, is challenges. Not Big Challenges (the unlaunched Sanrio mascot) specifically, just challenges in general. However, if there's ever a Big Challenges print, sign me the heck up.
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| the man himself |
This month's Bibliotheca prompt, in honor of Obon and summer camp, is about scary stories in the summer heat.
This month I'm skipping out on my tutorial themed Bibliotheca post. I've been hella busy, so I won't be teaching much of anything. Instead, I'll talk purely about myself.
This post, once again, is brought to you by Bibliotheca, aka the only thing that gets me to write when I'm under the weather. It's been a rough month in tourism and in my life, so I'm glad to have an excuse to write! This month's theme is growth, so it's a perfect chance to tackle a sensitive topic: /cgl/ on 4chan and why I (and most lolitas I know) outgrew it and the illusion of anonymity it offered.
It's the most wonderful time of the year: January, when all the lolitas (and Bibliotheca writers)reenact a LiveJournal theme and post our updated wardrobes. I, however, am a grade-A lazybones, and I have a burning lack of desire to put forth my abysmal photography skills once again, so here's an update comprised of listing images from the items I bought this year, arranged by item type. Most of them have dubious or nonexistent release dates and official names, so I simply won't bother listing a year.
Happy 2022! Time is only as real as you make it, so I'm making this my first foray into the wild world of posting in 2022. For this year, I can't be bothered to do a full wardrobe post, so it's going to be a series of short updates. This is somewhat in keeping of the traditional theme of wardrobe posts.
I sold a few of my main pieces last year, finally! I keep them memorialized in a desktop folder called "Gone But Not Forgotten". Without further ado, here are the important pieces I no longer own (and why).
That's right, it's most of the way through the month and I haven't been hit with the metaphorical paintball gun of inspiration, so it's time for the Bibliotheca theme: the future.
Land Acknowledgement: This blog is written on the traditional lands of the Doeg people, who were exterminated after years of sustained genocidal endeavors by colonizers of European descent.
Ita, for lolitas, is a word laden with fear, making it perfect for the spooky season! As most lolitas know, ita comes from both the second half of the word lolita and the Japanese exclamation "itai", meaning "ouch"! Accordingly, lolitas use the term ita to describe coordinates so ugly that they find them painful; it's generally expected that a new lolita will have a brief ita phase before they grow into their coordination skills. The idea of being bad at a fashion is a complex topic, so I will probably expand on the idea of ita-ness through more posts.
Several mutations of this term have developed in the English-speaking community, including perma-ita, or permanent ita. As the name implies, a perma-ita begins with an ita phase but never grows out of it. I don't claim to be perfect, despite my comedic self-aggrandizement. But, horror of horrors, am I stuck being an ita? I can't really judge my own bad taste, but I will definitely try.
This month's Bibliotheca theme is Fall! It can also be autumn, if you prefer. Fall doesn't happen everywhere, but in temperate forested climates (like my area), it's very literal: one by one, all the leaves of certain trees shed, not in death, but just discarded for the season.
The Bibliotheca theme for August 2021 is self-care, which makes the perfect chance for me to talk about myself. J-fashion wasn't always my priority; in fact, like many lolitas my age, I only learned about it through anime conventions.