What the hell am I doing here? I'm too dumb to be here! The longer I'm here, the more I'm confronted by the gargantuan yawning abyss of the stuff I don't know. I have to give a presentation in a couple of weeks, and I'll be halfway through when somebody will put up their hand and ask me, "haven't you read Such-And-Such?" And 'Such-And-Such' will be something everybody's heard of but me, and will be all about how everything I just talked about is wrong and stupid.

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.

The only thing more annoying to read than Greek philosophy is German philosophy. The Greeks are actually less pompous. And they never use the word 'deconstruction'. And none of them were Nazis.

The worst of both worlds is, of course, German philosophers writing about Greek philosophers.

Meh, I'm gonna go take a shower. Then I'm gonna sew a sweater together. Then I'll have some breakfast. Then I'll see if this crap makes any more sense on a second reading. Then I'll probably say 'fuck' a whole lot and adjourn to knit and watch Hello, Dolly.

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... )

Today's archeology class was fun! We looked at all these reliefs from an old Greek temple at Poisidonia, and tried to figure out what was depicted. I got quite a few of them right. I picked out several labors of Hercules, the Niobids, and even managed to figure out (without ever having come across the idea before) that a centaur with human forefeet is supposed to represent Chiron (because being more civilized than the other centaurs, he naturally has more human in him. The result, however, is even more anatomically unfortunate than ordinary centaurs. I get this horrible feeling that he must have two sets of genetalia.)

Then the prof got to a weird little image of a guy in a pointed hat riding on a large turtle. When we couldn't identify it, he showed us a vase and a signet ring with similar images: guy in pointed hat riding a turtle. The turtle is swimming across the open sea, and the guy riding it is using a leafy branch, dangling-carrot style, to keep it swimming in the direction he wants. That's when I burst out with, "oh, I know this one! It's Jack Sparrow escaping from the Island of the Rumrunners!"

The prof laughed and admitted it was a trick question: based on the pointed hat, the guy riding the turtle has been cautiously identified as Odysseus, but it's plainly from a story that's been lost to us. I still like my answer.

Today my Ancient Science class learned the proper pronunciation of Soranus. The prof told this story about how he always thought it had a short 'a', until he went and heard this lecture on 'The Gynaecology of Soranus' by this very highly respected British guy. The worst part, he said, was that everybody else in the audience knew it was supposed to be pronounced that way, so he was the only guy who was laughing.

My Greek class is currently covering the 'optative' mood. The optative is a special form of a verb which is used to mean something like "I wish X would happen."

This has some interesting consequences. If you use, say, the 3rd person singular optative form of the verb eimi, "to go", you get a word that means "I wish Soenso would go away." One word! It's not even a long word - it's four letters.

You may wonder what those four letters are. Well the 'stem' of eimi is just i. To represent an optative, you tack on a dipthong: in this case, it happens to be oi. And the 3rd person singular ending is h. So the Ancient Greek word for "I wish Soenso would go away" is ioih.

That's four vowels in a row! Stupid Greeks, no wonder they got conquered. You don't see the Romans lining up four vowels and calling it a word. How the hell do you even pronounce that? "ee-oi-yay"? That's not a word, that's the chorus of Old MacDonald.

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.

So, Halloween. First there was the Pirate Party. It went rather well, although only 8 or so people showed up, it was still fun. The next day gets iffy.

Jon. Right now Jon seems to be going through a bit of a time. He was dating Erin. Erin just sort of stopped talking to him. So he started dating Tina. Fine, cool, until Tina has something occur, not all sure what, and for a while, Jon and Tina weren't talking to one another. I was told they were back on, great cool.
So we get told by Erin that she wants to hang out for Halloween. Great. I'm told to pick up Jon, great, no problem.
So I get to the mall entrance expecting to see Jon and Tina. I see Jon and someone else. Turns out her name is Carly.
Again going to point out that we were going to go hang out with Jon's Ex. Already we were expecting some tension or awkwardness, but suddenly having Jon with mystery lady as well just made things outright odd. We got through the evening well enough. No explanation just yet, I'll probably get one on Tuesday. Bloody drama.

So now we move on to my mom. Here's the developments. She married Adel, guy from Cuba. I found out tonight that she spent about 20 grand bringing him to Canada. He split on Thanksgiving day. Ran out of money called her a few days ago. I find out from my grandparents that they were kinda sorta back together. So I went over today expecting him to be there. We were making Risotto for my mom and brother and Adel. Or so I thought.
My brother took a shift because of what had been going on. I don't blame him, even though tonight was supposed to be his birthday party. Mom has a friend of hers over from work, no biggie.
No Adel.
So Mokko and I start making Risotto, with no explanation just yet. I eventually blurt out (no, not rudely, I didn't upset anyone) that I was expecting to make Risotto for more people, that is why we had two pans going, and so much of the ingredients prepared. That kind of did it, my mom casually explains that he's gone again. About this time my grandparents call to try and warn me about everything, about 10 minutes too late. But it was no big deal at this point.
So mom's friend goes home, and Adel starts phoning. Mom refuses to answer the phone of course. She gave me a better explanation at the time, followed by a bit of a rant, well deserved I may add. He kept calling, she kept hanging up on him. To make a long story short, the explanation goes something like this. Mom's friends (mostly from work) all kind of dragged Adel out to party constantly. He wasn't working much, so here's my mom providing for him, keeping house and the like, while he's out having a good time with her friends. Her female friends... I'm not sure if my mom was implying any funny business, but you have to wonder. Top it off, all her friends from work are talking about it, even managers are discussing it. So basically right now, in her own words, she doesn't trust too many of her friends, can't trust anyone she works with (both due to general anxieties and the situation involving Adel), and Miles (my brother) barely wants to be in the house. Suffice to say, my mom got a seriously short end of the stick here.
My mom was quite happy to have me and Mokko make Risotto for her. Made her day. Next week, I have to make steak AND Risotto for Oma and Opa and Mom and Miles. I have to go between 2 pots and a BBQ.

Loads of awkward, this weekend.

At least something went right this weekend.

... has anybody else ever noticed that in the Mr. Brightside video, Brandon Flowers looks a hell of a lot like Robert Pattinson? Thank heavens he got old enough to grow facial hair.

Kinda changes the tone of the video, really. I mean, Han Solo or Edward Cullen? GEE, WHICHEVER SHALL I CHOOSE.

One of Ontario's fabulous gigantic spiders is building his web right outside my window!


I have named him Rowsdower.

Somebody decided to ring in Hallowe'en by pulling the fire alarm at 3:26 AM.

The worst possible curse I can think of for this person is that their name become quickly known to all. I refer them to Euripedes for an example of the kind of pissed-off we're talking about here. King Pentheus just annoyed the fucking Bacchae.

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

The other day I had a fascinating conversation with some fellow grad students in which we all agreed that if we had a time machine, we wouldn't actually try to talk to anybody or change anything - we'd just go book shopping. Ovid's Medea. Claudius' Etruscan Grammar. The complete Satyricon, the Sybilline Books, Empedocles' On Nature, the works of Sappho, and the other 116 plays of Sophocles.

We've made a pact. If anybody ever invents time travel, we're going to go make some bookseller in Pompeii very happy for the two days he's got left before the volcano.

In response to user comments from last week, we want to let you know that we'll remain LJ cut-free for the next month in order to get more eyeballs on our evolving newsletter. As for product coverage, that continues to be our top priority. For more granular detail, however, we recommend you join lj_releases.

Super-tweak for Yandex search

Some of our beta testers expressed privacy concerns using the Yandex search engine. Here's why: Last week, when you ran a search, you could see the usernames (and only the usernames) of everyone who commented on an entry, even if that entry was switched to Private or Friends Only after it was originally indexed. You could NOT see the actual comments from Friends Only or Private posts. In response to your input, we've implemented a fix to keep all user activity currently marked Friends Only or Private completely hidden. If you'd prefer your public content not to be indexed by Yandex, click here and use the settings labeled Search Inclusion (this covers your entire journal) and/or Comment Search Inclusion (which covers comments only). To test drive Yandex search now, click here.

Postcards from the edge

Several years ago, we asked LiveJournal users to send postcards to help us decorate our dull, white-washed offices. Since a good idea warrants repetition, we're at it again (same issue, new address). We hope you'll surround us with LiveJournal love by sending your postcards to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. We'll post snapshots right here. Be sure to include your username, since we'll randomly pick 10 lucky recipients to win free paid account time.

Conquer Writer's Block

Here are some excerpts from this week's most popular question of the day:

If a friend or relative makes a racist or homophobic remark, do you tend to confront them or let it slide? Are you more likely to confront them if it offends you directly or someone else who seems reluctant to speak up?

1. I find it easier to stand up for other people, and i wouldn't let it slide if they made a rude or hurtful comment.
2. Usually if a friend makes a racist or homophobic remark, I tend to let it slide. I think that while i would not say such things myself, I have no right to censor those around me.
3. This happens all of the time. I confront some relatives, but I refuse to if they are drunk or watch Fox News.
4. I'd let it slide if it was just a private remark... As much as I despise bigotry and intolerance, I know that you can't change people-they have to change themselves ...
5. Confront! confront! confront! Politely, but without equivocation.
6. SPEAK UP. Always, always, always speak up. Letting something slide lets ignorance win. No matter if it offends me directly, or someone else, I will confront the speaker and let them know that's not ok.
7. I don't get offended personally. As an immigrant, woman, gay and person of color if I took every single potentially offensive remark seriously I wouldn't get anything done.
8. I punch them in the balls. With my mind.
9. I do speak up, but often very timidly because I feel that I'm white and therefore I don't really have any authority to lecture someone on what's racist and what isn't...
10. Generally speaking, I do not let this shit fly, because it reduces me as a person, to this non-person and it replicates the destructive discourse that makes sure that sexual minorities, racial minorities, women, people with disabilities, trans people and every intersection thereof into something other than human... And sometimes... I'm just too tired to deal with it, so I roll my eyes, make a sarcastic remark and hope the conversation moves on quickly.

For more daily questions and user comments, join writersblock. FYI, we don't want to invade your privacy, so we haven't credited individual users for their responses. We'd appreciate your feedback on this!

Spotlight community of the week

We can't resist making one last midnight trip to the ol' pumpkin patch. If you adore crazy costumes, fiendish festivities, and bottomless candy consumption as much as we do, this community has just what it takes to light up your jack-o-lantern.


halloween_fan

Photos of the week

We received so many incredible photos, we had to close our eyes and point. We uploaded a selection of awesome images at our new lj_photophile community. Please join and start posting (try to keep the width at around 625 for the sake of consistency)! We'd love for you to tell us more about your photos! You can help us select spotlight photos by commenting on your favorites. Once again, we thank you for making our online world more beautiful!

shutter	pancetta	ilya_gorokhov

Curtains

Thanks, again, for tuning in. We look forward to seeing you next week.

Dear Students:

SWINE FLU IS NOT A
'GET OUT OF MIDTERM
FREE' CARD.

That is all.

Today I was witness to some fascinating phenomena. The class I TA for had its midterm today. My job during the test was to 'supervise', meaning I walk up and down the aisles and make sure everybody's looking at their own paper. And as I did this, I noticed a curious thing: the temperature in the room was rising. It was fine when the test began, but by the time half an hour had elapsed, sweat was rolling down my back. Unless something was wrong with the thermostat, I can only conclude that the students taking a test were actually generating enough heat through their stress-heightened metabolic activity to raise the temperature of a big, well-ventilated room several degrees.

With the test taken, I now have to mark it. This is going to be an adventure. Allow me to give some examples from the first page:

1. Name one of the reformers of Athens. (1 mark)
Answers we got include 'Alexander the Great', 'Isoceles', and 'Prince Phillip'.

2. Name the legendary person after whom the Greeks called themselves Hellenes. (1 mark)
The correct answer is simply 'Hellen'. Answers we got include: 'Hellekthion', 'Helen of Troy', 'Helen of Dallas' (!?), 'the goddess Hellena', 'Helios', 'Heraclitus', 'Heracles', 'Helleny wife of Zeus', 'Hellas', and for some reason, 'Dorian'.

3. Which Athenian magistrate was in charge of the religious affairs? (1 mark)
While this one is somewhat obscure, if I had to make a stab-in-the-dark guess, I would not say 'the Parthenon'.

5. What was the role of the Spartan kings? (1 mark)
Answers here range from the incomplete ('to rule Sparta') to the bizarre ('to conquer Athens').

6. Name the Greek aristocratic ideal lifestyle which is much celebrated in archaic lyric poetry. (1 mark)
This is another obscure one - the correct answer is 'habrosyne'. A lot of people spelled it 'hasbrosyne'. A lot of people also simply described it as 'luxury and leisure', which I have been told deserves a mark. And then there were a number of other suggestions. The best include 'aristocracy', 'Hyperion', 'tyrrany', 'Homer's Iliad', 'symposium', 'love between two men', 'democracy', and my favourite, 'all-consuming fire and wintry torrent'.

And dude, that's just the first page.

The test concluded, the other TA and I were invited to adjourn to the Grad Club for the Classics Department's 'Beer With Profs' night. I hate going to things like that... I always feel unwelcome there. I ended up sitting and doing Greek homework while people took away all the other chairs at my table so that nobody could have sat with me even if they wanted. It was very hot in the room and everybody was shouting, and I had to leave because I was getting a headache and starting to feel sick. I'm going back to the dorm to go to bed now.