growling mad scientists are lovebrought to you by the isLove GeneratorUMM i dont get how that thing works?????????? does it jsut steal an intrest off yor intrests page??????if gms is love, infected is sex.

The empire strikes back

In recent weeks, we've taken huge steps towards blocking spam accounts on LiveJournal. In fact, we've suspended as many as 30,000 accounts in a single day! We've implemented several pre-emptive measures to prevent the creation of spam accounts, and we've honed our detection of suspicious content. Spam bots are a crafty lot, so we'll continue to refine our tactics and keep up the good fight to keep you safe from spam attacks on LiveJournal.

RSS feeds again

If you're addicted to xkcd_rss, icanhaschzbrgr, or other syndicated feeds, we're pleased to report that we've resolved the update error that was mucking up your RSS feeds. While content was being pulled correctly, it wasn't being posted to the feeds themselves. Late last week, we finally nailed down what we hope was the root problem, so content should post properly. We thank you for your patience.

Wii have killer CSI Deadly Intent contests!

c_s_i

If you're a gamer who loves CSI, have Wii got news for you! c_s_i is sponsoring killer contests. Simply post a question to a member of the CSI crew. The winner will get a free copy of CSI: Deadly Intent for Nintendo Wii (with a retail value of $39.99) and get their question answered by a member of the CSI writing team! There's also a fantastic monthly contest. To enter, join c_s_i, play the online version of CSI: Deadly Intent, and respond to a two-part query for a chance to win a Wii! Entries will be judged on composition and originality. Sorry, but you must be a U.S. resident and over 18 years old to participate. Check out the rules here.

Enveloped in postcards

Last week, we asked you to send in postcards to help us decorate our drab concrete walls. Here's a photo of the results so far! Thank you so much and please keep them coming! You can mail them to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. Be sure to include your username, since we'll be giving ten random users paid account credits.

Photos of the week

If you haven't visited our new LiveJournal photo community, you're in for an amazing visual trip. LiveJournal users from around the world will take you on a scenic journey to everywhere. Post your own pictures or kick back and enjoy at lj_photophile. You can view some of this week's awesome photos after the jump. Please start tagging with geographic location, since we'd like to track all the places around the world represented in this community. Keep on commenting too!
( Read more... )

Haha i tricked you..What color is most reflective of you: Orange What time were you born? 11pmWhat song are you playing now, or wish you were playing? umm.. im not listnin to anything, and my memory has disapeared in the last few days so i cannot even remember song names. Has the death of a celebrity ever made you cry? I cant rememberWhat color underwear are you wearing? black jock strap, red cotton/stretchy boxers, black satin boxers (yeh im wearin them all at the same time) Do you want a baby? well. i'd probly adopt a kid if i wanted one. What does your mom do for a living? works at a child care centreWhat does your dad do for a living? computer programmerWhat is your pet's name? Billy, Peggy, BlueyWhat color are your bedsheets? I havnt been in there since wednesday, i've got no idea (my brain remembers nothing)What are the last 3 digits of your phone number? 545What was the last concert you attended? I cant remember. What was the last movie you saw? Cant remember. Who do you dislike most at this moment? the creepy old lesbian who stalked me at earthcore. What food are you craving right now? crushed ice or a frozen coke or somethingDid you dream last night? No. i didnt sleep last night. What was the last tv show you watched? SOmething on wednesday night, i've got no idea what tho. What is your fave piece of jewelry? my skull earring What is to the left of you? a bag of chick pea chips, a tie, a pile of paper, a set of pick up sticks, a stack of burnt cds, the printer, old school books. What was the last thing you ate? dinner - steamed vegetables. Who is your best friend of the opposite sex? i dont know. Write a song lyric that's in your head: Theres no lyrics in my headWhat song is that from? *pass*Who last IMed you? spencerWhere is your significant other right now? *pass* Do you have a crush? no. What is his/her name? - What shampoo do you use? Umm.. the natures organics one - the green oneWhen was the last time you cut your hair? about 3 weeks agoAre you on any meds? nope Do you have a mental disease? i dont know. What shirt are you wearing? a white tank top. i wore it on thursday, then on saturday, and then im wearing it again tongiht and i havnt washed it. how gross is that.. What time is it? 9.56 pm but the clock is probly wrongWhat color is your razor? its a blue venus razor - i never got aroudn to buying a razor that yor meant to use on yor face, so i just use that one. What is your fave frozen treat? Umm any kind of sorbet. Are you sexy? Whats your favorite shopping store? well, the fruit and vege shop (if that counts) Are you thirsty? yes. i want a frozen coke. Can you imagine yourself ever getting married? my imagination is pretty good, i can imagine anything if i try hard enuf.

aiyatheydidnt
The Chinese version of ONTD, AIYA is a dynamic international community that welcomes users who share a love of contemporary Chinese pop culture. Dedicated to celebrity gossip and entertainment news, you'll enjoy gorgeous photos and breaking stories featuring the glitterati of mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

wendylady2
Designed to rescue fashion victims everywhere, this Brit-based community reads like a rag-ezine. Published once or twice weekly, you'll view bizarre highlights of the global fashion scene through captivating photos and delightfully snarky editorial. Sit tight for a virtual fashion tour from the runways of New York to Milan to Paris and back home again to London in homage to the adage: you can't buy good taste.

soldiers_heart
A passionate community for veterans of all ages (mostly American), plus families, friends, and supporters. View poignant snapshots detailing life in combat and back on civilian soil in the form of original artwork, personal narratives, poetry, and photos. Be forewarned that members don't shy away from describing their disappointments, disabilities, and struggles.

ahhsdr...well, now i am back. its hard to write about how good of a weekend it was, when right now i feel fucked. Hmmm. I have a small problem. My little sister asked me (about a week ago) if i could get her a bottle of vodka to go on her school camp. I said i probly could. Her camp is tomorrow, and i havnt got it yet, its 6.30 pm. I dont feel up to walking to the bottl o at all. (my feet hurt cuz i havnt worn shoes since friday morning) I feel bad about it. But i dont really want her to take vodka on her camp anyway. I dont know what the fuck i should do. She will think im mean if i dont get it for her. ANyway. WEll. Earthcore was pretty good. This year, me, mel and sarah had a plan that we would stay together (instead of losing each other for most of the night, like we do at almost every other event). Mostly we hung out with some guys from frankston who were pretty fun. GMS didnt really impress me at all. They were good tho.... Salmonella dub were good. UmmMMmm.. This morning i was standing up the back of the main stage dance floor, and i was fair wrecked. Every time i'd open my mouth my jaw would shake. ANyway, this lady noticed and she started talkin to me and tellin me i needed a lolly pop stick to bite on. I didnt like this lady at all. i said i'd go try to find the lolly pop vending machine, and this guy that the lady was with said he would come with me. ANyway, this story is dragging on. The point is i was trying to get away from these poeple because they kind of creeped me out. THe lady told me to sit down and kept laying on me and shit. It pissed me off. She kept tryin to hold my hand. If it was meant to be a sexual thing, then i'm fucking repulsed and will go throw up now. (this woman was -definatly- over 40, not that i have anything against ppl older than me, but i thought it was creepy) She started sayign shit like she liked my haircut and then asked me in a really weird way if my haircut was meant to reflect my personality or who i wanted to be percieved as (she said it in a much dumber and less clear way than that). This really pissed me off. All this fucking bitch really wanted to know is if i was a dyke. I said 'i dont like hair'. When it comes to hair, i think that people jsut feel as if they are sposed to have a kind of hair. I felt wrong when i had long hair, as if there was no other choise than to have short hair. I didnt analyse it at all, and i dont think i should have to.. i dont think someones haricut means shit. I didnt say that to the lady tho. She was still laying on me, and i was sayign things like 'im gunna go to my tent and get a jacket' and stuff like that (because i wanted to get away), but she would keep saying other things and fuckign looking at me and tellin me not to go to my tent.It made me feel sick. So anyway, she kept pretty much trying to make me say that i have short hair because 'i am a dyke'. In the end, i just said 'well i woudlnt want to have a feminine haircut' then she goes 'are you a lesbian' ... i said 'im queer'. she said 'so your a lesbian' .. i said 'no'. she said 'well what are you.' i said 'i dont wanna explain'. she said 'no, you should explain'. So i explained really quickly. then she said something about sexuality (not gender) being a continuom (i dunno how to spell it). She was sayign stuff like that i can be masculine and be a lesbian, and tellign me about the lesbian scene and these spectrum crap. I didnt really care to say 'Um..sexuality and gender are different things'. Soon after this i kind of pushed her head off my leg, and said i was going to my tent and left. THe rest of the day i tried to avoid her by walking ridiculously long and difficult ways to main stage, to my tent, to the toilets. She came up to me when i was sitting with the frankston guys and gave me hug. I said 'thanx; and didnt look at her anymore. Then when i was at the toilets she comes up to me and goes 'this fell outta your pocket' and handed me a few dollars. I said 'thanx' and walked away. Then she came up and stood next to me whaen i was tryign to get food.. she kept appearign beside me everywhere and smiling and tryign to hug me. If she was much younger, i probly woudl have said 'can you please fuck off, i dont like you.' I dunno why i didnt say that, i felt like i couldnt. At stuff like earthcore i never talk to women really (except for ones that i know). Any regular, decent, half brained person catches on when a person is rude to them, tries hard not to talk to them, avoids them.. and realises that the person doesnt like them, so they shoudl probly go away. My sister is annoying me. I said to her that i am NOt walking to the bottle o, and that if she can find a way to get me there, without me havign to walk, then i will go. I'm usually up for walking.. but like i said before, i havnt worn shoes since friday morning, and i've been running around and dancing for the last 2 days. I asked her if she really needs vodka to go on school camp and she made this 'its the end of the world' face and goes 'yess i do.' Now shes crying and shit. She comes in and goes 'its more the fact that i've told everyoen else that i can egt it.. and i do everything for you...' and then started crying. FUck, i feel mean. She does heaps of shit for me. But every other time she askes me to get her alcohol or ciggarettes, i get it for her. I know i shoulda got this vodka for her earlier, but i didnt and im sorry that i didnt, but today its sunday and i'm in the shittest mood, and i think my body would collapse and die if i tried to go to walk there. If the bottle o was closer i would go, but its about 2 k's away and there are many hills. I dont get why she cant just be normal about it and say 'ok, well that kinda sux but alcohol isnt really that important' . My sister never bought me alcohol for any reason... no one would go to the trouble (or trust me with) 2 bottles of vodka on a school camp. dehieufrhyeuiwhfnirushfuihsdai

EDIT: If you're reading this, our maintenance is OVER! The problem was not found on our equipment, which means we'll have to work with our ISP to fix this small problem -- which also means another maintenance window in the future -- but at least we have eliminated our side.

Thank you everyone, and a special shout out to rekoil for giving me a great suggestion AND also the opportunity to feel like I've just called in to a local radio station.

Have a great day, night or afternoon wherever you may be.

---

Hi everyone, sorry for the late notice but I'm going to have to do some testing on 1 of our 4 internet circuits TONIGHT; Friday night or Saturday morning depending on which time zone you're in.

Most of us shouldn't notice any impact, though there may be some slowness or lag when I switch traffic on to our other ISP circuits and then another hit when I stop the tests. If a page won't load or times out, try hitting refresh 1 or 2 times and it should load then. If it doesn't work at all... trust me, I'll be typing really really really fast to try to undo whatever I just did. Hopefully you'll have some Halloween candy (if you're in the USA and celebrate that kind of thing) nearby to take away the bitterness of a small site outage. :(

Here's the handy-dandy Website That I Always Use to get a feel for when the maintenance will start in your area. Our site traffic historically dips on Friday afternoons until Saturday morning which is why we tend to pick this time for maintenance work.

( tech details )

status.livejournal.org will, of course be updated before and after the maintenance window. Or else marta will get mad at me. :D

bt

In response to user comments from last week, we want to let you know that we'll remain LJ cut-free for the next month in order to get more eyeballs on our evolving newsletter. As for product coverage, that continues to be our top priority. For more granular detail, however, we recommend you join lj_releases.

Super-tweak for Yandex search

Some of our beta testers expressed privacy concerns using the Yandex search engine. Here's why: Last week, when you ran a search, you could see the usernames (and only the usernames) of everyone who commented on an entry, even if that entry was switched to Private or Friends Only after it was originally indexed. You could NOT see the actual comments from Friends Only or Private posts. In response to your input, we've implemented a fix to keep all user activity currently marked Friends Only or Private completely hidden. If you'd prefer your public content not to be indexed by Yandex, click here and use the settings labeled Search Inclusion (this covers your entire journal) and/or Comment Search Inclusion (which covers comments only). To test drive Yandex search now, click here.

Postcards from the edge

Several years ago, we asked LiveJournal users to send postcards to help us decorate our dull, white-washed offices. Since a good idea warrants repetition, we're at it again (same issue, new address). We hope you'll surround us with LiveJournal love by sending your postcards to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. We'll post snapshots right here. Be sure to include your username, since we'll randomly pick 10 lucky recipients to win free paid account time.

Conquer Writer's Block

Here are some excerpts from this week's most popular question of the day:

If a friend or relative makes a racist or homophobic remark, do you tend to confront them or let it slide? Are you more likely to confront them if it offends you directly or someone else who seems reluctant to speak up?

1. I find it easier to stand up for other people, and i wouldn't let it slide if they made a rude or hurtful comment.
2. Usually if a friend makes a racist or homophobic remark, I tend to let it slide. I think that while i would not say such things myself, I have no right to censor those around me.
3. This happens all of the time. I confront some relatives, but I refuse to if they are drunk or watch Fox News.
4. I'd let it slide if it was just a private remark... As much as I despise bigotry and intolerance, I know that you can't change people-they have to change themselves ...
5. Confront! confront! confront! Politely, but without equivocation.
6. SPEAK UP. Always, always, always speak up. Letting something slide lets ignorance win. No matter if it offends me directly, or someone else, I will confront the speaker and let them know that's not ok.
7. I don't get offended personally. As an immigrant, woman, gay and person of color if I took every single potentially offensive remark seriously I wouldn't get anything done.
8. I punch them in the balls. With my mind.
9. I do speak up, but often very timidly because I feel that I'm white and therefore I don't really have any authority to lecture someone on what's racist and what isn't...
10. Generally speaking, I do not let this shit fly, because it reduces me as a person, to this non-person and it replicates the destructive discourse that makes sure that sexual minorities, racial minorities, women, people with disabilities, trans people and every intersection thereof into something other than human... And sometimes... I'm just too tired to deal with it, so I roll my eyes, make a sarcastic remark and hope the conversation moves on quickly.

For more daily questions and user comments, join writersblock. FYI, we don't want to invade your privacy, so we haven't credited individual users for their responses. We'd appreciate your feedback on this!

Spotlight community of the week

We can't resist making one last midnight trip to the ol' pumpkin patch. If you adore crazy costumes, fiendish festivities, and bottomless candy consumption as much as we do, this community has just what it takes to light up your jack-o-lantern.


halloween_fan

Photos of the week

We received so many incredible photos, we had to close our eyes and point. We uploaded a selection of awesome images at our new lj_photophile community. Please join and start posting (try to keep the width at around 625 for the sake of consistency)! We'd love for you to tell us more about your photos! You can help us select spotlight photos by commenting on your favorites. Once again, we thank you for making our online world more beautiful!

shutter	pancetta	ilya_gorokhov

Curtains

Thanks, again, for tuning in. We look forward to seeing you next week.

Last night was ok. I didnt get any exciting awards tho. I got certificates for 'dilligence in art' and for 'most improved in food tech'. . . . . I was on the validictory video twice, both times i was doing a stupid dance. Afterwards most of us went to Walks (a crappy bar in Eltham - the place u go when the pub shuts) and had a few beers, then went to a mates place and drank a little more. I dunno wut to do about NBO day.. i will send some text msgs a bit later. I still havnt changed my message alert tone, its still as loud and ear peircing as a fire alarm. hehe it scares me. Schoolies has been organised. The plan is, i am goin to E-core this w/end and will be back sometime on sunday. Then on Monday am leaving for schoolies in Lorne (i only found out about this last night, Mel is like 'You gotta bring the blue tent to schoolies on monday, and i was liek wtf?? we have a tendancy to organise stuff at the very last minute) We're also meant to be goign to Torquay. I think we've been invited to stay at other peoples places - in their backyards, or on their camping sites. I'm not sure what day i'll get back, probably when me, mel and sarah have all run outta money. Ahh my scary msg alert is about to go off*hides in the corner*

halloween_fan
Here at LiveJournal, we never balk at an opportunity for high drama, wicked costumes, and gluttonous sugar consumption. But this community takes it one step further: Here, everyday is Halloween. Of course, the hallowed eve is particularly sacred to this spirited crowd. If you're looking for last-minute costume ideas for your black cat, faux eyeball candy, or stand-out haunted houses, dive in for a splash of pagan merriment.

picturing_food
Designing gourmet? Feast your eyes on these pixel perfect dishes with an accent on presentation. A visual smorgasbord of eclectic cuisine, ranging from fusion to down-home comfort foods. If the way to your heart is through your stomach and the way to your stomach is through your eyes, you're sure to leave with a good taste in your mouth.

bookish
Passionate readers share well-penned reviews on a broad sweep of genres, including fiction, YA, sci-fi, paranormal, fantasy, and good ol' pot-boiling suspense. Those of a lit crit persuasion are invited to introduce themselves before posting. And for the silent majority who prefer to bask in our neighbors' labors, there are thoughtful reviews, book list suggestions, and even great gift ideas to keep your library card and dowtime filled.