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| I'm in the midst of National Novel Writing Month and working constantly day in and day out to keep my word count up to snuff. Okay, that's a wee little lie. I'm actually about five days ahead due to some strategic planning and a well-placed vacation day, despite being unable to work on my writing yesterday. The novel is titled "13th Past Midnight" and it explores a shared world concept created in private by the Were_Cabbages. A few other cabbages are also hard at work on stories integrating the concept, though none of the others are doing so specifically for Nano. I'm happy, mostly, with the story so far. That means it's either very, very good... or that I'm completely off my gourd. I'm not really sure which. My little brother has also decided to participate in noveling, a pleasant surprise and I hope he's able to follow through with it. As frustrating as Nano can be sometimes, it's also among the most rewarding things that I do for myself, and really only for myself, every year. I'm doing my best to keep balanced... to eat lunch even in the face of the need to write on workdays, to spend time with my husband (for us this means playing some Dungeons & Dragons together), and try not to obsess about whether the novel is perfect. My inner editor has been banging on my door all week and finally broke through yesterday... not incoincidentally my worst writing day so far... to convince me the book so far sucks. I'm ignoring it as best I can and keeping going. At 18039 words I'm a mere 300 words from being officially five days ahead of the expected word count, and I still have some writing time this evening to work on it. The story is still flowing and making some progress, so I'm curious to see where it leads me. [EDIT: PS - I'm perfectly aware that I'm paradoxically saying that I'm happy with the story and convinced it sucks. This is nano and in my experience, perfectly normal.] | |
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|  The empire strikes backIn 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 againIf you're addicted to , ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif) 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! ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) c_s_iIf 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 postcardsLast 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 weekIf 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... ) | |
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| My mother has a place to live and I need help to unload two of the largest uhaul trucks. Help is needed beginning Nov 5 and will continue to be needed until the trucks are empty.
Location is Federal Way, WA 98001
Please email me if you're interested: justinpsluder@gmail.com
Able bodied persons only please. - Mood:excited
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| Detroit Pistons' Basketball! I love a team that accurately reflects the sentiment of the home city (or in the case of the Pistons the home metropolitan area). You're struggling for a new identity, to find yourself and your style of play. You've lost your last two games against teams that you would ordinarily beat. You're down two key players and facing one of the elite teams of the NBA - and what do you do you? You take the pieces you have (because you have so many good pieces) and you do something unexpected. That's what I like about most good Pistons teams - there's very rarely any one guy you can point to and say that the guy it all hangs on that's our Kobe, our LeBron, our Shaq. We don't ever expect one guy to be the guy. We expect them to contribute to the team and play unselfishly (unlike Iverson - that's another post).
Right now the team's about as deep as it has ever been. You have quality starters and solid second line (many of whom could be or were starters on another team). The next step is gelling all that talent into something special a complete team. Because no lone superstar can stand against a good team. | |
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| It was ok. Good enough, or perhaps a bit better. I was very lukewarm (but patient) with it, but I think it took a slight turn for the better with the big fight scene and the, um, betrayal at the end. I also liked the juxtaposition of some of the scenes.
Sometimes I felt like the words the script put into the mouths of the characters were not all that well chosen, but the structure of the script was relatively tight.
Lastly, I felt the whole thing didn't have anywhere near as "heavy" a feel as the original mini-series. Part of that was because the original V (though cheezy by today's metrics) was groundbreaking. By comparison, this seemed "light".
I think it's the difference between an hour-long show and an 80s miniseries. I remember feeling some of the same things when I watched the first new season of Doctor Who, but I felt that new series grew into the format with just a few episodes. Or rather, it took me a few episodes to acclimate to the shorter, more rapidly paced format. I suspect this show will be the same.
I haven't added it as a season pass yet, but I plan to watch the next few episodes. | |
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| Hey, Paizo posted a cover mockup for From Shore to Sea, the adventure that Brandon Hodge and the Open Design studio is doing. The cover is.... More piratey than I expected, since there are no actual pirates in the adventure. | |
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| Originally published at Highmoon's Ponderings. You can comment here or there. I love November. I honestly don’t know exactly why, but I do. And especially this year since we rolled back the clock right at the start of the month.Granted, it’s hot as heck in Miami still, so none of the awesome autumn cool breeze to speak of. But hey, November!
My November will be spent moving from our current apartment to the new one in South Beach. We already have the lease signed and the keys so we’ve been working on getting the new one ready for the stuff we bought and whatever will come with us. Tomorrow I’m painting the dining room and waiting for a delivery from Ikea and in the week of the 16th we’ll move once and for all! I’ve had little teases of what it is to live in South Beach and so far I’m loving it.
This means, however, that I won’t be doing NaNoWriMo, as much as I wanted to. It’s just not realistic, so I’ll save myself the headache and the guilty feelings.
Now, if only the temperature would go down to at least the 70s during the day.
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| I've recently started re-playing the Dawn of War II campaign because, well, it's fun. However, DoW2 has four difficulty levels: Recruit (Easy), Sergeant (Normal), Captain (Hard), and Primarch (Uber-hard). The first time I played through the campaign, I went straight for Sergeant difficulty because I like to think I'm decently good at these kind of games and don't really need to resort to "Easy mode." I plowed through it and beat it on my first run-through with relative ease probably about a year ago. This time, I'm playing on Captain difficulty... and oh my god... I'm practically killing myself over ever inch of ground I take. It's really hard, especially the defensive missions where your objective is to hold a certain strategic point while a seemingly endless tide of enemies rushes your base.
Why don't game developers believe in a "gradual" difficulty increase? Why does one step up in difficulty mean the difference between "relative cakewalk" and "grueling masochism?" I dread to think of Primarch difficulty now. Even more terrifying is the very notion that there are people out there who probably think Primarch is too easy. And Dawn of War is not the only game with this particular issue. I find that most real-time strategy games follow this trend. I never play against any AI harder than "Normal" in Company of Heroes or StarCraft either.... or WarCraft III for that matter. I have played against a "Hard" AI in StarCraft a few times. I've even won on a few rare occassions. But the amount of aggravation is just not worth it for me. Perhaps some people enjoy having their asses handed to them time and time again as a means of improving their strategy or something. Me? I just want to blow shit up and kill people.
I'm committed to the task now, though. I'm going to beat this campaign on Hard if it takes months. And once I finally succeed, fuck trying it on Primarch difficulty. - Mood:annoyed
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| aiyatheydidntThe 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. | |
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| ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) wendylady2Designed 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. | |
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| soldiers_heartA 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. | |
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| I should get some. Okay, probably not really, but the description is hilarious. I came across this after having come back from a visit to the doctor's office in which they took probably a half pint or so of my vital fluid for "analysis." I'll get the results in a week or so, which will tell me if my cholesterol is too high or if I'm diabetic or anything. - Mood:amused
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| Just in case you had forgotten how bad this movie was, here's a long edited clip of crap, crap, crap from the movie Batman and Robin:
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| What: Making an after-dark stopover in a local graveyard on All Hallows Eve.  Why: I'd like you to meet a friend of mine. She just turned 121 this month. In 1880, her father, John C. Monster, secured a donation claim in the Renton Valley, down the hill from my home. He and his brother Frank Jr. raised some 50 head of cattle along the railroad that cuts the lowlands, down past the Four Cows Wide underpass. Never did the Monsters lose a single cow to the coal cars that rocketed through the valley, quite a proud accomplishment. Sadly, John's family fortunes were not so pleasant. In late October of 1888, as the sky turned that comforting shade of grey it would not relinquish for six moons, John's wife Louisa gave birth to a baby girl. Within four months, before seeing the clouds part, the child was dead. No pastor ever came to christen her, and so she never gained a proper Christian name. Thus, in a forgotten cemetery occluded by the Winco overlooking Highway 167, Baby Monster lies buried with her father, the namesake of Renton's famed Monster Road. I have just returned from a past-dusk visit to Baby Monster's gravesite, where I patted her headstone and promised her that her friends would think of her this Halloween. Impact: If there is any one action that defines "human," it's caring where our dead lie. Animals note another's passing, suffer disorientation, and move on. Humans rarely surrender our dead to the elements without a fight. We cluster them in cabinets as we clutched them in life, walking among them when they can walk no more. In our waking dreams, we see them caught between here and our various not-heres. One night a year, some of us even dress like them, perhaps to tell them we'll be along soon. Personal Connection: Some of you have chosen, in your mind's eye, to vanish. You will be cremated, perhaps, and kept in a jar or scattered in the air. For you expect that you will either be someplace, and thus not need your remnants in this mortal realm, or noplace, and thus need nothing at all. But I shall not be among you. I will tear a chunk from this earth, and claim it as mine. I will proudly display for all who are willing to know: I was here. If I beat you out of this temporal world, come visit my tombstone. You never know, I might just say hello. Other Contenders: go to a kickin' costume party; crank Oingo Boingo's "Dead Man's Party" till your speakers bleed; curl up under a heavy couch blanket and watch the greatest tale of faith ever, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown; sit by the door and wait for trick or treaters to beg for candy; eat most of said candy. | |
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| 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 | |
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