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... )

*Le Sigh*....... Canada is looking great right about now. It's quite tiring how obsessed America is with money and power. It is forgetting about the quality of life for its people. Canada has the highest quality of life in the world, and one of the best health care systems. I'd rather have a nice society, peace-loving and non-bigoted lifestyle, than a war-mongering "Christian nation" most so claim. We have the most Christians here, out of every country in the world, yet we are far from happy. Canada is the 6th happiest in the world and they support equality and promote peace for its citizens. I am worried for America's future. Canada will never be far from my mind, at least not until I become a dual citizen, or possibly a Canadian for good. I don't see myself returning to America, at least not to live. A lot of Americans would have a problem with someone wanting to leave the country, because of it not being that great of a country. If this were anywhere else, they would pay no mind. That's because America is obsessed with being "the best country in the world".


I can't stand it. I want out. And the only thing keeping me here is my boyfriend. Watch, and this will be the one in which I will keep.

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.

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

or low bandwidth...


Ancilla Tilia

Took a long time to get to it but worth the wait - Ancilla melts my lens off again : )

..from an unplanned shoot in SF last year - thanks Conan for the great location and thanks Ancilla for being amazing... (and patient) more shots and sets from this afternoon on the way...

I can't just crank stuff out I really like to spend time with the sets and have the right head space and spend a lot of time with every image. (Not like that hah) - that's for you guys, I'm dead inside : )

Preview from an upcoming set on our sites...

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.

From Kelly Baczkowski:

We are sorry to announce that the CombiChrist, Gen-XX, Blackcentr, Die Brucke & DJ Bockhacker show in Denver has been cancelled due to the weather. Please go to point of purchase for refund on tix. Keep warm and drive safe today!

Lalo + Soma
Hussar's Glory Hole Confessional (detail)
Los Angeles June 2008


shot with available light + Lumix Tz5 handheld w/ Leica lens

notes: the heart in the back of the confessional was a pulsing heart that changed colors from red to yellow and varied in intensity between shots, creating a special magic - embracing the slow shutter speed and blur also created a crazy "no idea what you're gunna get" factor that was as random as it was spectacular...

fun fact: Lalo and I had just met when we shot this

Collide - "These Eyes Before" CD Release Party - Denver!!!

Details Here: http://www.pharoahmoan.tk

Flyer Under the Cut: ( Read more... )

Friday, October 30, 2009
9:00 PM - 2:00 AM
21+

Sugar House
1395 W. Alameda Ave.
Denver, CO 80223

This is a super sexy party being held in one of Denver's classiest clubs! We feature Veronica Valentine, Domina Elle, Tarena, Christina Ferranti and the Girls on Gaylord, and Master Goliath, with DJ's that include Kaya, Lexi Fey, Vanish, Joman, Rex, and J-Sin on 2 floors plus many sexy dancers and performers including euphoria, Anastasia, Camala, Vixen, Wild Bill and more!! We have many giveaways for the best costumes including a trip to MEXICO! Come out and play! I hope to see you there!!

COMBICHRIST w/ special guests Gen-XX (feat. Gen of Genitorturers), Blackcentr, and Die Brucke will be performing this wednesday, October 28th, at Cervantes in Denver. DJ Bockhacker will be the Deejay spinning music before and between sets. It's an all ages show, doors are at 7pm and tickets are $20 in advance and $22 day of show. Advance tickets can be purchased online by clicking here or save the service charge and buy the tickets at the Wax Trax Records store.

This show in Denver is one of only five shows that COMBICHRIST are doing for this mini-Halloween tour. They will have exclusive merchandise that will only be sold at the show. After these 5 shows COMBICHRIST are heading over to Europe to tour with for RAMMSTEIN on their European tour. Also, the Denver show is the only show to feature Gen-XX !!! and BLACKCENTR are flying in from Los Angeles just for this show. Denver's own DIE BRUCKE are also performing.

This show is brought to you by Vendetta Music, Dark Lattice Productions, and The Skinny, all independent, non-corporate promoters and is at one of the last independent, non-corporate venues left in Denver, Cervantes.