Yes, This is an Expensive Hobby.

My "favorite" mobile RSS reader is iReadG. Now, it's in quotations because I have a love hate relationship with the thing. It does what I need it to do, but I wish I could articulate it to the developers what needs to be done to make that thing POP. But that's not what this blog is about-- it's about the 140+ blog posts I need to catch up on and simply won't just skip over because I'm too stubborn to skimp out on my "obligations!"

Yes, self imposed obligations on things I feel I should be reading. But don't look into that too much- that's just a symptom of my insanity, I'm sure.

Anyway, I also have the good 'ol EGL LiveJournal community added and have been ridiculously avoiding diving in and looking at the nearly 90 posts that need sifting through. Most of the posts are utterly garbage (what are the measurements to...)-- but there are some really interesting ones every once in a while, too.

Now, I will preface this post to say that I've been on-and-off a peruser of that community for 10 years. Yes, let that sink in a little bit. I still remember the first day I tried my first lolita coordinate and posted about it which I will NOT go back to find: don't bother looking, it's hidden behind posts asking about where to find a decent petti! But suffice to say, even though I will freely admit I probably don't put my ~*~*~120% lolita best~*~*~ foot out there anymore, I think I can speak on things more than some. Authority? No way-- not in the least! But I'm not as scared of slander as I used to be, not as worried about what a late-teen girl with money can post, and well, it's my blog so I can weigh in on things when I feel like it.

Image from xylia on Tumblr

With that said, opinions and thoughts on recent posts. Because commenting there is dull sometimes anyway and it gives me a blog excuse + a reason to clean up my RSS feed.

Tea Party Food for the Lolita Who's Watching her Waist Measurement

http://egl.livejournal.com/18962781.html

I actually really loved this post! I think all the ideas are really cute-- but maybe the poster didn't go far enough with more practical ways to eat healthier and have a great menu. It was just the tip of the iceberg. Maybe a full tea menu with some fancy foodie recipes would have made it more of a stellar post... but that's just me. Makes me wonder if there's a blog post series in that... "Healthy Lolita Eats." Who knows?

Discussion: The Future of the International Lolita Community

http://egl.livejournal.com/18979984.html

This was honestly a heart-wrenching post to read. I sifted through the comments and it all makes a lot of sense. The EGL LJ community really is falling apart and it's a tough thing to see because it used to be such a hub for the lolita population. I remember struggling to keep up with reading posts there, even when I was very into the fashion! Now, no more than 10 posts in a day, half of which are really not that great.

Is it that I find that there's nothing left to be said there? No-- but I definitely agree with some of the later comments on that page about how everything is so ridiculously stratified that there's now very little left to post on the main community page. Lolita blogs, Tumblr, even Facebook, have really broken the community apart, essentially cannibalized EGL. It didn't help its cause that LJ is really outdated.

As for the future of the community, there should definitely be a push towards better organization in outside social networks and websites. I want to be able to go to Tumblr and mass add world wide lolitas to see their awesome posts. Or go to Flickr and add a Daily Lolita group without wondering if it's active or not. And Facebook... well, I'll be honest, it's great for local communities, but it's only a matter of time before it's "outdated" and does EGL really need to go through that sort of drama again? Perhaps the EGL comm should just move there and use the old LJ as a "library."

What's Your Lolita New Years Resolution?

http://egl.livejournal.com/18980732.html

I didn't even think about this until I saw it on EGL! A lot of the responses were cute~! For my Lolita New Year's Resolutions:

• Make more fabulous outfits by hand
• Be more persistent in coming up with elaborate coordinates
• Check out some of the SF lolita events 

Lizchen-R on Tumblr.