On Saturday the 14th at 4AM UTC/GMT we will be upgrading the operating system of our network load balancers to a newer version, one that will allow us to use both CPUs! Nifty, because multiprocessing is nice.

Since we have 2 load balancers, the plan is to upgrade 1 at a time, and there really should be very little impact to our website. Hopefully you won't notice a thing and I'll get to go back to the hotel and watch some wonderful late night infomercials.

We've got a lot of exciting projects coming up for 2010 and we're hoping that we'll be able to deliver them all to you, that you will find it useful/cool/lovely and then you will use the site even more. Behind-the-scenes work like this will give us the capacity to handle the anticipated traffic, so expect a few more maintenance windows especially in the beginning of next year as we've got some neat ideas to improve performance around here! We had the recent 30-45 minute outage yesterday due to one of our logging databases filling up disk space -- not so great design coupled with my human error in handling the initial problem -- and it looks like we're going to finally have some resources to eliminate stuff like that. I can't wait!

As usual, I will be updating status.livejournal.org before and after, just in case you are not able to reach our main website during the work.

Trying to plan a trip to Japan in the spring (early-mid April), and I'd like to go with a tour group. Could anyone recommend a good group or operator to go with? Airfare and hotels are a must. Meals would be nice, and I'd like a group that centers around temples and onsen. Sakura-viewing would be lovely, too.

In other words, which group is the most trustworthy, and gets me the best deal?

Hi everyone,

I've got a question to ask, and would be very grateful for any responses I receive! I am currently writing a presentation for a Japanese Pop Culture class, in which I focus on food in pop culture. I've focused on Japan's food theme parks, and how food is presented in manga/dramas/ anime, etc. I've also talked about what makes Japanese food "Japanese" and the traditional foods that are still very popular in Japan.

Yet ultimately, my professor wants me to answer the question, "Why do the Japanese care about food as much as they do?" Despite all of my research, I haven't come across anything that helps me answer this question. So, does anyone have any ideas about why the Japanese care about food so much? Thank you so much in advance for any ideas you guys have!!

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.

It should be no surprise to any of you that I love a good(?) pun. The more groan-worthy, the better. Ones that make my mom shout up the stairs to see if I'm dying are naturally of the best sort, then.

I shall now introduce you to one of the aforementioned "Are you DYING up there?!" puns. (You should probably know a bit of German.)

Q: According to Sigmund Freud, what comes between fear and sex?
A: Fünf.

*rimshot*

I will now be over here running from the tomatoes and hoping no one decides to play catch-up. 8D *ruuuuns~*

So different and so similar....

Morticia Addams and Lucius Malfoy, magic love

( Cara mia.... )

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... )

from Vanity Fair...the cast of the musical

For those of you who don't follow my Twitter, I shall now consolidate my morning's tweets for you. I shall also say that g'ddamn, even emulators of a console one already owns can be fucking handy. And no, I didn't find a working DS one. (I wish I could. Balls.)

And hence, I tweet as I ignore my cramps. I hate being female.

- oh dear god I'm emulating The After Years
- thoughts so far: I want to smack Ceodore, Biggs is an asshole, I want to smack Ceodore, and I really want to smack Ceodore
- goddammit *smacks Ceodore*
- *continues smacking Ceodore, wonders why that one white mage has a thing for Kain, generally adores this game*
- "This specially protected zone allows you to pitch tents, rest in cottages, and save your progress." o rly
- if this game eats my soul any more, I swear I'm gonna...do something...uh...yeah. goddammit. I'm going back to bed.
- (fuckdammit I love this game)

*thud* *snore*

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 do believe I'm not going to do NaNoWriMo this year. Every year I say I'm gonna do it, then I get up to ~5000 words and I start going "oh god no why" and "why am I even doing this" and "augh noooooo" and I never end up finishing it, or getting anything even CLOSE to a decent word count. And while I know it's not about the word count, I burn out so damn fast and it spoils my writing for a good long while afterward, so...yeah. Skipping out this year.

Of course, having decided that, I've already been assaulted by an FF4 plotamari, written a prompt fic for the porn battle over on IJ (and am considering another), debated adding on to the really old unfinished stuff sitting in my writing folder, and come up with a plot twist for me and Xero's PSO RP.

I hate you, November.

こんにちは。いまだかつて海外に行ったことが無いような鎖国状態の日本人です。
みなさん日本語お上手ですね。
しかも、書き込みを見ていると母国語や日本語だけでなく、他の言語を話せる方も多いようですね。
尊敬します。

さて、さっそくですが、インターネット上で使われている英語の略語を教えていただけないでしょうか。
どんなものがありますか？？

略語というのは、たとえば　lol とか　OMG　などです。

↑のふたつはわかるのですが、ほかにもたくさん略語があって、
身近にネイティブの方が居ないので、なかなか正式な名称がわかりません；；

OTPやMEME、FSTなども、なんとなく意味はわかるのですが、何の略なのか教えて欲しいです。

皆さんは他にどんな略語を使いますか？

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

...I did not know it was possible for an 8-bit sprite to look thoroughly embarrassed.

Read: I stumbled across the dancing girls in Troia. XD Poor, poor Cecil. I think the only way he could have gotten even more embarrassed was if any of the girls had jumped right into his lap, like I kept expecting them to do. Oh, my my my...

Next up, I shall find the Magazine and humiliate him again! I'm such an evil woman. ♥

(If you're wondering why I'm only like six seven hours into the game and it's been six DAYS, the controls make me go arg so I haven't been playing much. Just enough to sate my appetite till I get the DS version.)

みなはハロウィーンに何かしますか？

俺はさ、
ちょっと恥ずかしいけど、実家に帰って、弟達と遊んだり、母に掃除してあげたり、子供達にキャンディを渡したりすることになったんだ！
コスチュームをアメリカのアニメーションキャラフラップジャックという海賊にした

面白い予定やコスチュームがあったら、教えてね！

よろしく〜