Slow Steps

naturesbeauty
Always on the lookout for compelling images, we were delighted to discover this flourishing community of artists who share a love of nature. Honoring the subject with photographs, paintings, sketches, prose, poetry, and
other creative works, you'll be simultaneously riveted to your monitor and inspired to run helter skelter towards the nearest wooded dale.

Reading comprehension stuff is back~~ this batch might be a little tougher though. :S Regardless, I hope you enjoy them~~~ Onwards!

( college admissions in Korea )

( Talking about the past )

( Gold powder and crime )

( Businessman talks business )

Postcard winners!

We wish to extend our heartfelt gratitude for sending so much joy our way. Frank is still blushing with excitement over the love notes, proposals, propositions, and occasional intimate photos sent from his admirers around the world (China, Norway, Japan, and Poland just this week)! At his request, we blindfolded Justin, one of Frank's BFFs, spun him around in five dozen counterclockwise circles, and asked him to point to ten random postcards/envelopes pasted to the wall. After a brief trip to the bathroom, he chose the following lucky winners, to whom we will give a six-month paid account token (for paid, basic, and plus users) or, for our permanent account holders, a $15 voucher for the LiveJournal gift shop.

So, without further ado, the winners are:

1. seraphene
2. fotog
3. boykitten
4. seshat_6
5. anti_aol
6. lisalees
7. katrinkacat
8. mistyboston
9. _woody_lein
10. another_slender

Bugs, Tweaks, and Enhancements

1. We fixed a bug from the last release that was causing screened comments to become unscreened if they were edited
2. If you happen to be gaming around the corner, check us out on Facebook and be sure to spread the word!
3. We've added new vgifts to celebrate Thanksgiving! Check out our feathered friend, below!

Give more with charitable vgifts

In honor of national adoption month, we're offering a charitable vgift (priced at $2.99) to support Love Without Boundaries, an organization that provides healthcare and adoption to orphans suffering from life-threatening diseases. LiveJournal will donate 100% of gross proceeds from the sale (we'll cover the cost of credit card transaction fees). To learn more about Love Without Boundaries, please visit lj_cares. You can purchase your Love Without Boundaries vgifts in the Virtual Gift shop. We'll keep you posted on how much we raise!

Photos of the week

We're delighted to showcase yet more incredible photos from some of our brilliant LiveJournal photographers around the world. Keep posting (and tagging). And be sure to show some love by commenting on the awesome view at lj_photophile.

Check out this week's photos and more amazing user content after the jump!

( Read more... )

Curtains

Thanks, again, for joining us. See you next week!

This is your mid-week reminder that you have until Saturday, November 21st, at 10:00 AM Central to submit your icons for this week's challenge.

Information regarding this challenge can be found in this [ post ].

I've received 07 amazing icons and more are definitely appreciated, so SUBMIT!

Dear lovely Korean residents,

Do any of you happen to know where I can buy full-spectrum lightbulbs? I can no longer abide life with fluorescent lighting.

I will travel ANYWHERE in the country to get them but I live in Seoul.

Thank you!!

Does anyone know where I can get a Canon camera repaired in Korea? My Powershot SX200 is having problems with its programming I think (flash settings are stuck and it only reads memory cards sporadically). If possible, it'd be great if I could go to an actual Canon store or something... Yongsan is really sketch. I speak Korean kinda so if that's a barrier to certain places it should be fine.

Thanks!

Icon dump again. Previews:



More here at obscuraomen!

givesushope
It's that glorious time of year when we reunite with loved ones (we neglected all year), stuff our faces to excess, and pass out in front of the TV. Perhaps a recalibration of the thanksometer is in order. A spin-off of the popular GivesMeHope.com site, this community invites you to document moments of kindness, generosity, and pure human love.

veggieslackers
Despite its mainstream appeal, Thanksgiving is not for everyone. There are those struggling with food disorders, for whom this day causes endless conflict. There are the cash-challenged, who can't afford the gluttony we've grown to expect. There are the lonely, who don't have loved ones nearby. And let's not forget the vegetarians, who decry the animal cruelty. But there's one more group we often overlook: the terminally lazy! This community of lazy vegetarians offers easy recipes for an animal-friendly feast.

fashin
Just in time for holiday shopping season, this fashionista community brings you the world of haute couture in the form of sumptuous photos, video clips, and candid commentary. There's also a sugary sprinkle of mainstream movie discussions and debates on such pressing social issues as manicure styles and celebrity colonics. If you need a break from the daily grind to indulge your girlie side, this is twinkly pink on steroids.

A great voter turnout made for a very competitive contest. Thank you to everyone who submitted, voted, or both. ^__^

( Winners! )

Congratulations!

lightrobber will be doing banners this week unless otherwise stated. All winners from First to Mod’s Choice can receive a banner, so if you won and would like a banner leave a comment saying so.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The submission post for Week 258 has gone up and can be found [ here ].

Welcome to Community Talk - the first (and possibly last!) post where you guys get to say anything you want either behind a veil of mystery (anonymous user), or as yourself (logged into LiveJournal). You can say anything you'd like as long as it's somehow related to music. I will not tolerate fights, though - do not personally attack someone for stating their opinion. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Keep that in mind.

If things get incredibly out of hand (for example, if this turns into a "hate meme"), this will be deleted asap. The purpose is just to have fun in a community setting, and express your love (or... not-so-love) for the vast music world and its subsequent artists. Feel free to link to your favourite songs / videos. :) Maybe your favourite artist(s) will gain fans!

This is the 258th challenge. It’s the same as always -- theme, lyric, and image. You can enter up to 2 icons for this challenge.

Theme

The theme for this challenge is Texture. If you decide to do this theme, you must use this texture: You can edit, color, crop, rotate, resize, etc. the texture, -- be as creative as you want -- but the texture should be somewhat identifiable.
texture by bymusguita.

Lyrics

If you decide to use the lyrics, you must use at least three consecutive words and make sure that the only text used on the icon are from the provided and chosen lyrics.

(  Cold Desert – Kings of Leon )

Image

If you decide to use the image, the only image that should be used on the icon is the one I've provided.

( Ulquiorra )

Your submission must fit LJ's size standards: 100x100 or smaller, 40kb or smaller. Remember, when sending your submission, please include both the img src and the url like this:


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v15/mdoogie/LJ%20Icons%202/Bleach225.png

You'll have until Saturday, November 21st @ 10:00 am Central to submit your entries to this screened post.

Translation help plz

내가 떠나 보낸 것도 아닌데
내가 떠나 온 것도 아닌데

yep it from the song named '서른즈음에' I really can't get these 2 lines~~
thanks for any comment,just the explanation will also be great~ :x:x:x

Does anybody know of any downloadable material, in Korean, that I can use to practise my listening?

I'm not looking for lessons (in the vein of koreanclass101.com), I'm looking for pretty much anything except music ...which I have plenty of :P. I'm after audiobooks, podcasts, audioblogs, radio shows... things like that. Anything recorded by native speakers.

If you can point me somewhere, that'd be great. 감사합니다!

I received 10 phenomenal icons for this challenge, so thank you for participating and good luck to everyone! XD

[ Here ] is a link to the submission post as a reminder of what the themes were.

In order to vote, reply to this screened post with your 3 favorite icons in order of preference. Then choose an icon for the Special Category. The special category for this week is Most Creative. Please make sure that the icon you choose is different than the three you’ve already chosen. Meaning all 4 icons/numbers must be different.

The more votes I get ensures that there are accurate results, so if you can, please vote. Remember DON'T vote for yourself, and DON'T get your friends to vote for you. If you need to recast your vote, then delete your previous comment, and in your new comment let me know you're re-voting. The format could be:

First: 15
Second: 45
Third: 22
Special Category: 30

or if you prefer:

15, 45, 22
30

Remember, you must chose a different icon for each category for your vote to count.

( Get Thee To Voting! )

You'll have until Sunday, November 15th @ 8:00 pm Central, to get your votes in.

center> VOTING IS NOW CLOSED</center>

Notes augmented

We've enhanced and de-bugged Notes. If you haven't tried it yet, now's the time! You can create a private note when you ban multiple users. You can also delete multiple notes at once. Lastly, paid users have the option to add a note (visible only to you) whenever you add or remove a friend (guaranteed to avoid embarrassing social mishaps). If you don't currently have a paid account, you can upgrade now! It only takes a few minutes and costs less than a bad shopping mall haircut (plus, it's way more fashionable)!

Product tweaks and bug kill

1. In another effort to zap spam, comments containing links from domains LiveJournal deems untrustworthy are now automatically screened
2. The issue causing random comments to vanish has been fixed!
3. If you visit a LiveJournal page and get prompted to log in, you'll be returned to the same page after you sign in (Thanks, Dreamwidth)!
4. If you don't edit the timestamp for an entry at all, the entry timestamp will indicate the time the entry was posted instead of the time the Update Journal page was loaded
5. Comments with paddings/backgrounds render correctly within the comment box (and will no longer wrap outside the box and break frames/margins)

New FCK fixes rich text editor!

1. We've updated our RTE (Rich Text Editor) to FCKeditor version 2.6.5
2. When switching from the RTE to HTML editor, links for syndicated feeds are no longer broken
3. RTE now functions properly in Safari 4.0
4. An extra line/space will not be auto-inserted whenever you switch from RTE to HTML editor
5. The insert image link now works correctly in all browsers

LiveJournal Cares

We’re pleased to introduce you to lj_cares, a new LiveJournal community dedicated to raising awareness and funds for U.S. charitable organizations that improve the health and well-being of people around the world. Each month, we’ll spotlight a nonprofit that is making a significant global impact through medical research, public outreach, and/or humanitarian social programs. Charities will be selected in accordance with the U.S. calendar of national health observances based on a high rating (of over 60%) on Charity Navigator and global scope of impact.

In this, our inaugural month of November, we will celebrate national adoption month by offering a charitable virtual gift (priced at $2.99) to support Love Without Boundaries, an organization that saves the lives of orphans with life-threatening diseases and places them in loving homes around the world. LiveJournal will donate 100% of the proceeds from the sale of charitable vgifts (we'll cover the cost of credit card transaction fees). To learn more about Love Without Boundaries, please visit lj_cares and read about how they helped save Baby Kang and the Rainbow Twins from fatal illnesses, who are now thriving in nurturing families. You can purchase your Love Without Boundaries gifts in the Virtual Gift shop.

Papered in postcards

A couple of weeks ago, we asked you to send in postcards to surround us with LiveJournal community. Thanks for coming through! We've received postcards all the way from Germany, Finland, and Canada and from all over the US, including Texas, Florida, Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, Indiana, Hawaii, and Oklahoma just to name just a handful. We're thrilled with our improved decor.

Please keep the love coming for one more week by writing 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 drawing the names of ten random contributors next Thursday to win paid account credits!

Photos of the week

We have more dazzling images posted by talented LiveJournal photographers from around the world. We're hoping to span the entire globe, so please continue posting and tagging. Of course, you can also sit back and enjoy the view at lj_photophile.

You can see a sample of this week's gorgeous photos and check out spotlight communities and awesome user content after the jump!

( Read more... )

Curtains

We thank you, once again, for joining us. See you next week!

This is your mid-week reminder that you have until Saturday, November 14th, at 10:00 AM Central to submit your icons for this week's challenge.

Information regarding this challenge can be found in this [ post ].

I've received 04 phenomenal icons and more are definitely appreciated, so SUBMIT!

EDIT@08:16 UTC/GMT. Wow. That was ugly. I expected it to go for 30 minutes and have maybe 1 minute of broken connectivity. Instead it lasted over 4 hours and we had 10 minutes of downtime directly related to the load balancer upgrades and then another 5-10 minutes of downtime when our primary Pingback database server crashed and the secondary couldn't take over; which could have been indirectly caused by the network upgrade missing a self-VIP.

Anyways, we're up, we're working, the load balancers are barely breaking a sweat right now and I need some food and a shot of whiskey. I don't even *like* whiskey!!

Thanks mhwest and dnewhall for helping out!

---

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.

I'll be sending a thank you card to a Korean professor and would like someone to correct what I've written below. I'm sure it's mega awkward.

Thanks in advance!


권선생님께

저는 Fulbright* 지원 도움에 감사드립니다. 이월에 한국위원회가 지원을 논평하면
알리겠습니다.

What I want to say/write:
Dear Dr. Kwon,

Thank you for helping me with my Fulbright application. I will let you know in February if the Korean committee will be reviewing it/the application.

Fulbright= 플러브라이트 ?? I still have trouble with "Konglish".

Also, what's a good way to end a letter/note?