ninja_chihuahua

It's 11:00. Time for the news.

( News you may or may not use )

-Stove

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... )

How the fuck can you have a REJECT R-71 Party?

How can you throw a fucking party to TAKE AWAY rights that people ALREADY have?
People disgust me.

I don't care what your bible says, I'm not going to deny someone a basic right as a taxpaying citizen.  That's bullshit.

Hey guys, I played through Uncharted 2 and that's all I've been doing this past week and it was so great and amazing and I loved it and more news at 11:00.

-Stove

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

Thank you to anyone who took time out of their day to call, text, message, comment, whatever, their condolences.
It means a lot to me to know that my baby and I are so loved.
Thankyouthankyouthankyou, your love is helping me heal and I am ever so thankful for all of it.

One leg out, another leg in, overcomed by sorrow.  Repeat.
The fluidity, it covers my skin.  Two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen.
You are loved.  You've always been loved.

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.

My baby died yesterday.  I say that she died, because that's what happened.  She didn't pass away, she wasn't euthanized, she died.  She died a calm, quiet one with me at her side at home.  I knew this day would come.  I knew this day would be sooner, rather than later.  I feared that there would be more suffering, a prolonging that wasn't needed, or maybe the ultimate decision of putting her down.  I thought for sure that's how it was going to go.  Instead, she was taken earlier but at home, on my bed, being pet behind her ears, her favorite place.  Not on a cold table in an unfamiliar place with people she didn't know.  I'm so glad that this is how it went, but I'm so sad that it has already passed.

I couldn't find her all afternoon after I got home from school, I finally found her under my bed when she started crying around 3:30.  She never cries.  I tried cleaning her mouth, thinking she was in pain over that, but her mouth looked ok.  She kept howling, and she wouldn't get up.  She wouldn't eat, she wouldn't drink water, and her body felt lifeless.  I knew it was her time.  I called my mom, thinking that she would know what to do, and she just told me to take her to the vet.  I called around to a few, but they were all closing or couldn't see us before they closed, so I got a hold of a 24-hour emergency clinic.  It was around 5 when I got off the phone with them, and I called Kaz to tell him that I was taking her to the vet because I thought she was dying.  He asked me to wait until he could get there so he could come with us in case something happened, so I did.  Chelsea came home and heard her crying and told me to get in the car and she'd drive us to the vet, not to worry about money because she had her savings. (FYI - Chelsea is the best ever and I love her.)  I needed to find her paperwork because I knew I was taking her to a new place and they would want records of her shots and information before we left.  Before I could find it, her body started to stiffen out.  I picked her up and laid her next to me, seeing that she had urinated on my bed.  I pet her as she began to seize for a few seconds until she stopped breathing.  The moment I realized that she had stopped breathing is when I heard the front door open and Kaz walk in, and I fell to the ground trying to hear anything, any murmur, or see any movement.  Nothing.  My baby had died.  

She's always been sick with an auto-immune deficiency, and with the medicines and surgeries or not, her life wouldn't have lasted long anyways.  I figured that as long as I tried to love her as much as I could, that I wouldn't feel bad when this day came.  And it's true, I don't.  She was loved until the end, by everybody.  Chelsea is one of the only people I know that would've put up with her slime and her bad behavior when she would leave us presents because of whatever problem she developed before I adopted her.  Even Chicken and Tater would go and clean her ears and face when she couldn't.  Everybody who came over to visit loved letting her sit on their lap, and they would pet her and let her drool on them because that's who she was.  She was Bacon Cheeseburger.

I feel so torn up inside.  I stayed in bed until 2:15 today.  I tried going back to sleep so I wouldn't be sad, but I was too awake.  I cried myself asleep last night, because being in bed and realizing that she's not around to cuddle with every night anymore was too hard.  Coming home and having her not be at the door to greet me made me break down in tears.  And I have a feeling that it's going to take me a long time.  I feel so depressed, and want to let myself be sad over this, because there is no possible way I can get through this without bawling my eyes out whenever I feel like it.  I feel like I needed that cat just as much as she needed me.  We braved through some tough times in life together, and she was always there to love me when I needed it.  I want my baby back.

I don't know what it is about this time of the year, but it's just the absolute worst to me.  Two years ago, I was heartbroken.  A year ago, my car was stolen, I was laid off, I had to go to court, and I found out the house we were renting was foreclosed.  And now there's this.  Hey world, if you could get off my shoulders for a little bit, that'd be great.   Oh, the things I've learned.  About the world and about myself.  Not everything bad stays bad, you know?  I'm sure that little B. Cheezy is partying it up, where ever she is.  Maybe she'll be reborn into something, or somebody.  Something beautiful, somebody wonderful.  



I took this picture last week, when she and I were napping together.  It was one of the best naps I've ever had, and she stayed in my arms the whole time.

I love you, baby Cheeseburger.

The green trees waved "goodbye" to us as we zipped past them on our climb up the mountain.
Slow down, maybe we're taking life too fast.  "Are you sure you're happy?"
I love it.  I love them.  I love you.

You've learned all of this, and for what?
Quit giving me your speech from your platform, get down and stand right here next to me.
Let's learn together, let's learn how to make tomorrow better than today.

I fell asleep. It was hot and sticky outside. Light yellow, my favorite color.
"Lay your naked body between the sheets."
You know I would do anything for you.