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.

Wow, I never thought I'd see this happen. I just read the recently posted sticky in the zOMG forum. Did anyone see this coming? I'm just in shock.

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... )

Hi there. let's say you're a mod and  just helped someone regain access to their lost account good for you

now let's say this person suddenly has to go out of town before even useing the account for anything except posting in the MP and setting up her fish tank.

What do you do?

A) MYOB

B) nothing you're done you did your job

C) accuse her of trolling when she's over 5000 miles away and not near a computer due to family death then tell her to fuck off when she comes home contests the ban and offers PROOF of her innocence Then accuse her of REPORTING YOU for doing your job when she has no access what so over because you banned her. For good measure you call her now dead mother the B word as well.


if you picked C then your the mod or admin I'm dealing with

My questions to the users here is is choice C the choice 'my' mod or min picked standard is is there an eight year old mod or admin out there working for gaia when he should be doing his homework or figuring out if pikachu is a good trade for bulbasaur

A picture I forgot about...the quality is low because I was a little self-conscious about taking a photo here and tried to do so quickly and discreetly. See, I had to drive a friend to a check-up at a Gynecologist. Note their choice in Halloween decor:



Hilariously inappropriate, or inappropriately hilarious? I especially love the contrast between happy cartoon ghost and blood-splattered tools.

First, a roundup of my Internet Halloween:

Bogleech Halloween Fan-Art Gallery - artwork sent in by readers of my website! Every portrait was inspired by something from my Halloween collecting blog. Speaking of which...

Bogleech Halloween Collecting Blog - October - Devilish mollusks, defecating pumpkins and dangling corpses!
September - The most Awesome Paper Bag in the World.
August - GIANT latex bugs and mutant gummi candies!

Halloween Biology - My article on organisms that ought to be Halloween mascots (already posted about this, but I'm doing a roundup here!)

Boogeymen around the world - My Cracked.com article (mature language) on various mythical creatures concocted to terrify children!

Vampires around the world - another article I wrote for Cracked!

The Fear Hole - Episode Eight - a brand new episode of my Flash cartoon series (written, drawn, animated, and voiced entirely by myself) ...not particularly Halloween themed, but the whole series is about monsters and mad science. Specifically, it's about monsters that emerge from a mysterious hole. Speaking of which...

The Creatures of the Trap Door - a five page guide I assembled to all the monsters from "The Trap Door," a wonderful monster-themed children's series from the UK!

Bogleech comics - Very Very Hungry - alright, so my webcomic is ALWAYS sorta Halloweeny, but this is one of only two I had time to draw during October. Sort of a zombie apocalypse from a different perspective.

Wrong Party - my other October comic!

Now, for my for-real-world Halloween


My Pumpkin this year is a Surinam Toad or "Pipa Pipa," with froglets sculpted out of Play-Doh!


My friend Jesse carved a nice Haunter (Pokemon)


Jesse's best friend Dylan carved an amazing Slimer after I drew him on the pumpkin in pen!


Everyone's pumpkins! I also carved the vertical mouth with lots of eyes, which was kinda lazy and random. You can only see the mouth of my frog, on the far left.




My mother surprised me by making really thoughtful things for my birthday. I usually just get cash or something. The lamp was just a plain white one, but she dyed and painted and decorated it!


She also made this completely out of paper mache for me, she calls it a Day of the Dead Angel Mummy.


My cake! I turned 26 this Halloween.

Finally, costumes!

Believe it or not, I have almost never made my own costume or found anything to actually DO for Halloween. It was usually a matter of having no friends, so the most I'd ever do is put on a store-bought mask and go trick or treating. This year I wanted to finally be creative, so I spent two days wiring together a plastic hat, some window screen and over 70 rubber bugs! I also fashioned a sort of "tie" out of other bugs and wore insect puppets on my hands; just a giant swarm of arthropods wearing people clothes.



Jesse put just as much work into a scarecrow costume, sewing a burlap bag into a head and hands and stuffing all his clothes with straw, suffering horrible itchiness and allergies to get the "authentic" scarecrow experience.

Dylan, on the other hand, spent what must have been at least 20 hours on his costume, even with several people helping out. They collected bark from paper trees (the lightest bark available) and tons of spanish moss which they hot-glued to a sweater, overalls and a wire frame for the head. You probably can't tell, but he also had tiny red LED's for the eyes, taken from a light-up rubber ball. His joints could not bend (he had to lie flat in the car), he could barely see, he could only walk at half normal speed and he nearly passed out from the heat...but the constant screams of children and the parents stopping us for photos were all worth it.

Yes, despite our ages we went out trick or treating...or attempted to, anyway. Less than one in five houses were giving out candy...not for lack of Halloween spirit, but EXCESS. I have never, ever in my entire life seen so many people of all ages walking the streets of an ordinary suburb. It wasn't part of an event, there was no party or parade or anything, they were ALL out trick or treating or escorting trick or treaters, to the point that almost nobody was left to hand OUT the treats! No big complaints really, since this made it more like a massive outdoor Halloween convention with plenty of people to see our outfits :)

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.

Is anyone looking for fish, trash, bugs, inks, tokens/tickets, flowers...? I'm not setting prices, if you feel like giving me gold for them that's cool but it's whatever you want and I don't really care. My username on Gaia is MyOwnSatellite. Tell me what you want in here, and then tell me your username so I can send the trade.

( Quantities I have )

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

http://www.gaiaonline.com/demonbusters?sub=followers&user_id=16429438 Follow me if you are in S.I.N!

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.