sixwordstories
Whether you're in the mood for a creative challenge or you're short on time or attention span, this semi-addictive community is perfect for those who find flash fiction way long. Once you get the hang of it, you won't be able to stop. The prince turned into a frog. The girl ran home to mother. Tough to write. Easy to read. It's a double threesome of fun.

dailyfoodie
Delicious, ambitious, and occasionally nutritious dishes make for an eclectic, all-you-can-eat feast. Whether you're searching for recipes for your next dinner party or you're jonesing for a late-night brownie fix, your cravings are sure to be well sated. A warm and inclusive community that welcomes all orientations, from carnivores to vegans, from gourmands to junk-food junkies. Guaranteed bias-free, food-positive, and pan-epicurian.

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... )

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.

 I'm waiting for Kyle XY to load, so whee. So yeah, I think I've mentioned that I've been watching Kyle XY this break and I love Matt Dallas.



I saw this other picture from sexy beast's tumblr. I love it. I love the song, I love the video, I love Matt Dallas (Okay, that was just recently.) It made me so happy, so repost! And you see, I'm slowly starting to learn that I love old-fashioned stuff. It was first pointed out by my hairdresser, because she said the hairstyles I prefer (for my 4th year prom and Grad Ball) were both old school. And yup, I guess she was right. I just love the Old Hollywood look and all that. I like pin ups too. So Cool. My dream birthday party actually is the 50s theme, like in Gossip Girl. [ I think it was mentioned that was 80s, but I think it looked like the 50s, but whatever, that theme, whatever era that was.] So yeah, just sharing. 

I've been trying to blog since the start of sembreak. As you can see, I only blog er, monthly? (If I'm lucky. :)) ) Anyways, I'm making this list of Things to do before I turn 18. So far, I can only think of some. Hopefully, I can make a real list by December. Um, travelling through MRT-LRT (with the whole changing trains thingy included) is part of it, eating shrimp/seafood again, riding a bike again, playing Flight of the Bumblebee again. So yeah. :) So yeah, if I come up with the new stuff, I'll make sure to add it in my posts so that when I look back on my posts, I won't miss anything. :D

So random stuff on my mind. 

I love Kyle XY. I can't believe I didn't watch it before. I got the chance to watch it in Star World some time last last week and I've been watching everyday since. I love Matt Dallas. I know he's cute and all, especially in the Katy Perry video, but he's in a whole different level of cute in Kyle XY! :)) Seriously. Since he plays some superdude with "amnesia", he always has this puzzled look on his face and that's what I love. It's incredible. His confused face is awesome! Anyways, yeah. I'm in Season 2 now, I hope I don't get disappointed. :)

I tried reading Pride and Prejudice before the end of sembreak. I got to finish Book 1. I love it. I saved a few quotes in my laptop, which I reformatted. :| I totally forgot about those quotes I saved there, so gone. Ohwell, it's fine, I'll try to borrow it again so I can finish Book 2. I wanna read Classics, you see. There was this survey/quiz thing in Facebook where you check the books you've read and the average person supposedly reads less than 18? or some small number. Well, for the record, I passed that number but when I compared my number with the people commenting on the quiz, it's so small. :| It made me realize I'm missing a lot on classics. So yeah. Plus I realized it's my first time to be in a school with a huge library. I get overwhelmed in Rizal actually. I still have to remind myself that I can actually find books I'd actually want to read for fun there.

So this is in Maldives. They held a cabinet meeting underwater. I think (emphasize think because I didn't read the text) they were trying to make a statement about climate change. So apparently, their country will sink if predictions are true about climate change. Anyways, yeah. I think this is a pretty cool statement. Interesting and hopefully effective.

Um, I've been trying to decide if I should make a tumblr or not. I LOVE browsing through tumblrs of different people, so I'm thinking if I should make one. Well I decided not to because well after this break I'd prolly leave it like my other sites. You see, I'm desperately trying to keep this blog somewhat alive. :)) At least I have something to look back to and stuff. Plus, I thought I can post pictures here anyways too. I've been doing that last summer. So yeah. But I love the fact that more and more people are creating tumblrs, now I have more tumblrs too look at. :)

Um, I got to watch Sex and the City, and 500 Days of Summer, I think within the same weekend. So first of all, Sex and the City. I've never watched an episode before, but I loved the movie. So yeah, there was this scene where Carrie typed:
Love.
Love...

Amazing. I was planning to start my post with that. (That plan was around the same weekend when I thought I'd blog about it. :)) ) Anyways, Jennifer Hudson said she moved to NY to fall in love. Etc. Etc. Love was all over the movie. Just the way I want it. :)) Anyways, even if 500 days of Summer is supposedly about a break up, it's still about love and stuff. I loooove the movie. :) It went beyond my expectations. Anyways, I love the dancing part and all that when the guy was all in love and stuff. I wish I'd feel that way soon. I hope I will. Soon. So I was planning to talk a lot about the movie, especially with the whole confusion about, does destiny exist or not, stuff like that. I didn't exactly get that part in the movie. Well, E said that the narrator said that destiny didn't exist, stuff are just coincidences, but the dude still believed in it. So I'm with the dude. Yeah. :) DESTINY EXISTS. I'm just saying, there are so many things you can think about that, when you didn't do this then this probably won't happen and stuff like that. Well, it's true. If people just look more closely at their lives, then more people will believe. Yeah. It was also mentioned in the movie that if people didn't believe in destiny, life would be much easier. Well duh. A lot of things can be easier if you want it to be, but people don't do that because well it's not fun. It's not the point. Plus, almost all great love stories have super huge conflicts and stuff. I seriously believe it's part of what makes it great.

Anyways, another thing. I got to watch the last minutes of The Sweetest Thing. I know I've watched it before, and I sorta remember the plot but I didn't really know that Cameron Diaz plays a character who's afraid of love, and afraid of taking risks. So yeah. :)) Then I remember again, how sucky I am at taking risks. I just have this feeling that I know how things will turn out if I did something, so why will I do it, if I'm 90% sure it will end badly. I'm not someone who's convinced by a 10% chance. Ohwell, it sucks but whatever. I shall include that in my list: Take Risks. :) So yeah, I've had this picture in my desktop for weeks. Now, I can finally post it. Whee.




I saw this other picture in tumblr, it's a quote, something like "I gave my heart to someone and he won't give it back." When I read that, (I know this'll sound cheesy.) I understood. I realized I was dying for that someone to give me my heart back for an entire year. I felt that I gave so much and got nothing, and I felt sooo bad. I mean really bad. When he finally returned it, yes he did, it felt great, and it was of perfect timing. :)

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.