birdmojo will be in Michigan visiting his gramma (awwwww).

So, we can do stuff or not do stuff (I'll still be in town), but we will not have an evil overlord to battle in our regular campaign.

We would both totally be able to game next Sat the 27th though.

Just putting it out there. Sorry I didn't mention something sooner.

Divine Misdemeanors, by Laurell K. Hamilton
Enh. I read it when my teeth really really really hurt (or actually LACK of teeth, I just had 2 wisdom teeth pulled). So I don't really remember how it was. It did a good job of distracting me and I do still find it amusing that the Merry Gentry series now has less sex and more plot than the Anita Blake series, since they started out precisely the other way around.
(48/200)

The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss
I really liked all of this except for a small chunk in the early middle that felt grafted into the rest of the book. Sadly that small chunk took the book from an OMG AWESOME all the way down to a "yeah, it was pretty good", which is probably completely unfair... one might tend to blame that on my still-sore jaw, rather than on the book itself. Very much of its genre but in a dark, wryly self-aware way that I dug. Looking forward to the second one. (I will describe the tedious chunk in more detail to anyone who is interested, but I think saying it here would constitute a spoiler. So, um, beware potential spoilers in the comments!)
(49/200)

Saffy's Angel, by Hilary McKay
So I accidentally left a bag full of ice on my spouse's side of the bed and at some point one of the cats must have poked a hole in it and by the time I went to bed at 10 pm the entire thing had drained out into the sheets and mattress. OOPS. I needed something short and sweet that would keep me engaged for the HOUR I spent aiming a hairdryer at the wet mattress, and seized upon this middle-grade novel about a large and eccentric family of artists. It was a perfect fit. Just daffy enough to engage my sense of the absurd while still feeling believable - much like I Capture the Castle for the 8-12 set. SO GLAD it's the first of several in the series, SO GLAD I finally got around to reading it. And Rose has totally stolen my heart already so I'm especially psyched that she gets her own book - no, wait, I think she gets TWO. (Thanks for the shiny book, eeyorerin!)
(50/200, 4/100)

We're going to keep this short and sweet (Frank and birthday vgifts will be back next week). You've probably seen the updates to our main menu. Don't be alarmed. You'll find everything you need, just in slightly shifted format. Just so you know, we based these changes on input from both experienced and new users who were not familiar with LiveJournal. Our goal was to reduce barriers to usability and make LiveJournal more accessible and easy to navigate. Please note that this is a work in progress. We welcome your detailed suggestions in feedback. We thank you, in advance, for helping us improve your LiveJournal experience.

We've updated the global navigation menu:

Here's a quick breakdown of what you'll find where:

• Scrapbook can now be found under Profile (thanks for your feedback, btw), along with Settings, Stats, and Edit Profile.
• You'll find all the tools you need to post and update entries under Journal, which includes posting and editing entries, managing comments and tags, and customizing your journal's style.
• Friends contains all of your friend settings, from filtering your Friends page to adding, removing, and finding new and existing friends on LiveJournal.
• Under Communities, you'll find links to manage your communities, accept community invites, and create new communities.
• Explore includes search features, RSS feeds, Question of the Day, and FRNK radio.
• Under Shop, you'll find links to upgrade or give a paid account, buy virtual gifts, purchase LiveJournal merchandise (like T-shirts), and view your payment history.

LiveJournal Mobile update:

We've enhanced LiveJournal's mobile site to improve usability and load times. We've made more of LiveJournal's features accessible via mobile, including posting comments, uploading photos, reading and commenting on friends' posts, finding and messaging friends, and more. We look forward to reviewing your feedback and recommendations for future improvements.

Other important changes:

• You can lock comments to prevent further commenting on a post, while leaving existing comments visible.
• We replaced the "Tell a friend" link with a new "Share This" widget that lets you share LiveJournal posts on other social media sites, including Facebook, Digg, Twitter, etc.
• We changed some of the icons on entries (you can hover over the icons to view descriptions).
• You'll see a Tag count on your Tag management page.
• You'll now see the 10 most recent vgifts on your profile page. To remove vgifts, left-click on the vgift and choose whether you want to remove the vgift from your profile or delete it entirely.
• We've added options to help you control receipt of vgifts, which you'll find in My Stuff under Edit Profile. You can now enable vgifts from friends or everyone and disable anonymous vgifts.

We've got your fix:

• UPDATE: Rolling several updates into one listing here -- 1) Scrapbook should be back and working again. 2) The problem with the Update Journal page in IE6 and IE7 should be fixed now. 3) The problem with the userpic add-on package pricing has been fixed and refunds issued to anyone who was overcharged while the erroneous prices were in place.
• Non-conforming images will now be automatically resized for custom mood themes.
• Line breaks no longer count as two characters against your entry's character limit.
• We fixed a bug on the Manage Tags page so you can clear all tags and add new tags.
• We corrected the UI for the update.bml page so it displays properly in IE8.

Thanks again for joining us. Frank and company will be back next week!

wordy_icons
Searching for words to the wise? Come celebrate the joy of witty userpics in this creative, sharing community. A great place to strut your stuff or hunt down the perfect turn of phrase to complement your mood du jour. If you love the art of snark, you'll find inspiration, admiration, and entertaining jubilation.

corrupted_wish
Ever dream you'd find a genie in a bottle to grant your fondest wish? Granted!! Simply post your ardent desire and an alternative reality will materialize before your weary eyes. Quirky, creative, and oddly cathartic, a place where fantasies come true, but never in quite the manner you imagined. Shooting star meets Murphy's Law.

cookingfailures
Whether you're a wizard or a passionate novice in the kitchen, we've all had our share of recipe disasters. From the fallen souffle to the runny chocolate mousse to the lasagna that looks (and/or tastes) like it's been eaten before, come embrace your epic fails through photos and stories. Help others learn from your cooking calamities or simply revel in the fun of failure.

We're finishing up a few odds and ends before our next major release. Our mighty Ops guys continue to slay spambots and balance load times on a highwire without a safety net (which is kind of tough dressed in full ninja gear). Down on solid ground, we're celebrating this week's virtual birthday party with a warm toast to pants. If you can rearrange the letters of your favorite city, state, and/or country (feel free to combine these elements) to spell one of Frank's favorite treats (e.g., pants, wire, paper, etc.), he'll send you over a can of whipped cream to top it all off (provided you return the empty can for his midnight snack)! And, with that, let the word scrambling commence!

Stuff you should know:

We're still working on the delayed/missing notifications issue. Sorry, we're frustrated too. We'll keep you posted. Last week, we became aware that a recently-implemented script was overwriting affiliate referral fees for some of our users. Once we confirmed this, our Ops team quickly removed the script. Please be aware that, while we may beta-test other affiliate scripts down the line, we will take greater measures to ensure that no existing user-referral arrangements are impacted in any way. While we plan to stick to a weekly news schedule, if we have a release in between regular newsletters, we'll post here to keep you informed. You can also check lj_releases for current release information.

To our paid users, we send squirrels in love!

If you have a paid or permanent account, you can send five free Squirrels in love vgifts through Monday, March 15th at 4pm, PST! You'll see both the free and the $0.99 squirrels displayed until they've scurried off to their new homes. Please send only one vgift at a time. In other words, you'll need to complete check-out and start a new order for each vgift you send. If you're not receiving vgifts (from friends and/or Frank), you may have disabled them. To enable vgifts, visit Edit profile (under Profile), scroll down to the bottom of the page, and select 'Do not disable' from the drop-down menu. Have fun!

Help is on the way!

We're pleased to announce the winner of our first charitable vgift poll, Doctors without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières, which provides critical medical care to under-served populations around the world. Priced at $2.99, we'll donate 100 percent of the proceeds we raise from the sale of this vgift (we'll cover credit card fees). We invite you to start recommending nonprofits for our next fundraising drive at ljnewscontests. We'll take suggestions through the month and post a poll in the news during the first week of April to let you choose the recipient. We thank you, again, for your passion and generosity.

We've crowned a header

Congratulations to ohterlus for submitting the winning header, which will go live next week and keep us leafy through mid-April! You can submit designs for our next header contest at ljnewscontests now until March 31st. We'll post a poll in the news to let you decide which header will sit at the top of LiveJournal from mid-April to mid-May. All artistic interpretations are welcome. The winner will get a $25 LiveJournal gift certificate. All other contributors will receive $5 gift certificates. Our heartfelt appreciation for sharing your talent and creativity!

For this week's winning photo and more adventures with Frank & Meme, we'll catch you under the cut!

( Read more... )

I know we are not doing anything formal, but for those that would still like to get together, let me know. We can play other games like Chaos in the Old World, Last Night On Earth, or Richadr can OverLord a basic Descent (and try the new Characters), or whatever. Just post here if you would like to do something.

Sorry about the length of time on this one. I am having trouble finishing the book (bad sign) and I am having second thoughts about trying to run it. Please stay patient and hopefully something can happen with it.

:(

The Palace, by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (reread, I think)
I didn't remember the plot of this novel at all but the ambience felt really familiar, hence my hesitation over whether it's a reread or not. Think it *might* just have been the book that turned me on to vampire novels, back as a wee lass of 14 or so. Hm. Anyway, I enjoyed it. Want to read the rest of the series VERY BADLY. This may help me stick to my book buying/borrowing rules so I can get to the point where I can acquire the next several in the series and go on a binge - or it may be the thing that knocks me off the wagon;).
(41/200)

The Monkey Wrench Gang, by Edward Abbey (reread)
I had conflated MWG with its sequel, Hayduke Lives!, and also, perhaps relatedly, forgotten (or not noticed when I read it 15 years ago) the casual sexism/racism that is particularly apparent in the first few chapters. The book is very 1975 in some irritating ways. Bah. Still, there is something very freeing and cathartic in this comedy of ecosabotage.... just because I'm not about to start burning down billboards and blowing up bridges doesn't mean I don't get oddly wistful when I read about imaginary people doing it.
(42/200)

Tinsel, by Hank Stuever
This is mostly a book about what Christmas is like for most Americans these days, as exemplified by selected residents of Frisco, Texas, and I think it does a pretty good job of that. The reason I liked it so much, though, is that it does a bloody great job of enumerating almost ALL the reasons why I suffered severe culture shock when moving here from Montreal in 1998, and many of the reasons why I still feel somewhat alienated from some of our family here in the States. Stuever excels, IMO, at explaining mainstream American consumer culture without simply ragging on it, mocking it, or hitting the easy targets. And I adored the thread about the husband, wife, and brother-in-law with the biggest light show in Frisco. I only wish this book had been around for Christmas 1998! The effects of the current recession on the people he chronicles do lend a particular poignancy to the stories though.
(43/200)

Shortcomings, by Adrian Tomine
Dude, I do not even know how to explain this book properly. It's a graphic novel about some 20-somethings in Oakland and NYC who are mostly Asian-Americans. It's short and sharp and mean and funny and compassionate and I liked it.
(44/200)

The Best American Science Writing 2009, edited by Natalie Angier and Jesse Cohen
So much love for this series. And a particularly satisfying iteration of it though the last couple of essays did not do as much for me as the rest of the book did. Still, I LOVE IT. If you like science essays, GO READ IT. (Heck, if you just like essays, go read it - unlike some of its sistren, this Best of series goes for *writing first*, then content a solid second.) But if you read Atul Gawande's brilliant essay The Itch and then you are itchy every time you think about it for DAYS AFTERWARD, well, don't say I didn't warn you.
(45/200)

Angel: After the Fall, vol. 3 and 4, by Brian Lynch et al.
Fun! And very prettily inked/colored, something I really appreciate in my fairly-mindless-but-full-of-beloved-characters adventure comics:). Some of the gallery drawings were amaaazing. Am saving up the last one for when I have my wisdom teeth out next weekend. 4 was more smoothly done than 2 or 3, which gives me good hopes for 5 (and future vols.)
(46/200, 47/200; 2/100, 3/100)