Friends

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.

Fleur de Tease girls adorned Sean Yseult's and Louis St. Lewis's collaborative art opening on Saturday.

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.

This is, hands down, the darkest comedy sketch I've ever seen.

And I love it, even though I'm going to hell for laughing.

First Saturday art show throughout the Warehouse Dist.

Paul helps Rhiannon with her Noisician drum kit.

Ben left this morning for the weekend. Gone till Monday. To Shreve-fucking-port, pobrecito. We're hardly attached at the hip or anything like that when he's home, but when he's gone I feel it acutely. And he feels my absence, so he reports, when he's away. It was an almost tearful farewell this morning when he left.

I had no plans for this evening except that whatever plans I made I wanted no or very-little alcohol to be involved.

Kristin tweeted about a folksy show Uptown — a performance by the Oakland-based Moore Brothers. After listening to some music on their website, I deemed them harmonically competent and opted in for the show. I was, after all, craving music with actual real live harmony.

Ben took the car to Shreve-fucking-port, so I took the streetcar for the first time in I-can't-remember-how-long. Been years, I'm sure. I used to like the streetcar. The rickety rattles, harsh lurches, clinks, clanks and clunks.

I forgot that getting a streetcar on a Friday at 9 at Canal St. is a thing of not to be of the doing. Boisterous woo-hoo'age a-go-go. No seats. Girls Gone Mild frotting me with no subtlety to speak of. The car was late, and the moment everyone piled onto it, an empty one showed up right behind us. Too late to switch.

At Louisiana Ave., ours stopped for 20 minutes, then we were all told to board the one behind us. Another 15 minutes later we were on our merry way again.

I got to the venue and the boys tuning their guitars were not the Moore Brothers. "Oh well," I thought, "I'm here. A cup of coffee and some singing might be nice."

They didn't entirely suck, but harmonics was beyond their musical realm. Tonic, dom, sub-dom, repeat, seemed to be as far as they got in music school.

The Moore Brothers ended up play Baton Rouge instead, it seems. I could have gotten there and back quicker (if I had a car, that is).

I left after playing my anagram game on my iPhone on a sofa, walked back to St. Charles and waited about an hour for another streetcar.

A nice, filthy-mouthed dishwasher from one of the Uptown Bluehair restaurants waited with me for the last 15 minutes, leavening my mood a bit with his vituperative jeremiads re: N.O. public transit. Sing it, sistah!

An incredibly stinky ride home. "It's called Speed Stick. It's not es'pensive…"

A walk down Bourbon wherein I stepped in a)vomit, b)piss, c)what I hope was dog excrement. I "washed" my boots off in pissy, vomity, daiquiri-hued gutter water and went to see Micha at Monaghan's for a soul-booster.

Home now, still wanting music with actual well-thought-out harmony, so I'm listening to Beethoven.

Maybe a glass of red wine, some backlogged Mad Men, and an early bed.

Reading of docbrite's Amsterdam travels on LJ and her Twatterings is making me jealous for a little Eurojaunt.

I keep having to remind myself that on Tuesday we leave for Madrid. Why Madrid? Because the tix were too cheap to pass up. And I need one more semi-long flight this year to get platinum status on AA, which is very valuable in that you earn double miles, better chances at upgrades, and other perks. It was from being platinum last year that scored us free first class tix to Thailand and, in March of '10, free first class to Australia.

Plus, hello, Madrid? MUCH? Ben found us a cheap hotel in the gayborhood. All the yummy Spanish eye candy you can eat. And there is no candy sweeter than the Spanish.

That should be brightening up my mood, but I remain sullen and blue. I just want my husband-elect back. Now.

Au Petit Théâtre, Vieux Carré, where we saw "25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" last night, then dragged a bunch of theatre people home to get wasted chez Manderley.

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... )

Just 'cos Halloween is over is no reason that Halloween should be over.

This Thursday evening, Paul and I are going out to revive the Art of Costume and Role Playing.

We're going to do something neither of us has ever done: dress and act like douchebag frat boys and tour the crap daiquiri bars, jazz venues and karaoke spots of Bourbon Street.

Anyone want to join us?

Or, barring that, can I borrow your pastel-striped polo shirt, khaki cargo shorts, or out-of-town football jersey? Wigger caps, I can do already.

Of all the sparkly, glamorous, gory, themed oddities in my closet, I actually don't have this particular costume available.

Going to rummage through the attic for bags of Mardi Gras beads, plastic hand grenade vessels on lanyards and other touristy shite.

We need some Girls Gone Mild. Not-blonde-Liz? Gwen? C'mon bitches! Come out and woo-hoop it up!

WØØT!

I couldn't sleep last night, despite being run down, run over, and run through.

I deftly chose to watch Polanski's "Repulsion" at 3am — a film I had never seen nor knew anything about.

Oh my god.

Was that ever the wrong choice.

I can't remember the last time a film got under my skin — stuck in my head like a splinter.

As I expected, dreams last night were many, and very disturbing.

Something about eschewing all of life's responsibilities and going on a destinationless roadtrip. The roadtrip turned out to be me on the lam, finding people to take me in in this or that strange city, doing something accidentally horrible to them, then beating a frenetic retreat before they could track me down.

In my dream, Texas's slogan was not "Don't Mess With Texas," but this rather more ominous warning: "Kill A Texan; Die In Texas."

I awoke several times last night absolutely sure someone uninvited was creeping through the house. Ben's wee-hour wake-up screaming and waking-sleep urgent question, "What's going on in this house RIGHT NOW?!" didn't exactly help matters. Thought of sleeping with the gun under my pillow.

So, yah, thanks Roman Polanski and Catherine Deneuve. Thanks so much.

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.

No place — no place in the world I've ever seen — does Halloween quite as well as New Orleans.

Back in my jetset days when Ben and I were on the road more than off it, we would always schedule to be home on Halloween weekend, no matter the cost.

Having said that, no place but New Orleans on Halloween will leave one with the distinct feeling of having been run over by a convoy of eighteen-wheelers. She is a cruel mistress, Miss 31^st Oct. in New Orleans. A bitch goddess: she giveth, and she taketh away.

A coherent narrative of last night would have been impossible had I not saddled myself with my good camera. I knew the low-light atmosphere of wherever-the-night-would-lead-me would confound my poor little iPhone's lens, so while it was cumbersome to tote a big ole camera bag, I'm glad I did.

( Stories and pix here. )