Name; Bre'

Age;18

Location; Ontario

About Me; Well by my age I am young, but by my heart and mind I am mature and well experienced in the world surrounding me. I am an animal lover and people lover. Most times when I have a task ahead of me than I over do it rather than just complete it. I love my family and my friends. I tend to be adventurous when it comes to having the options infront of me.

What I read; Mostly murder mysteries because of the on edge effect and suspense, Some fantasy that spikes my interest, and very few but sometimes love stories.

What I don't read; Stories that have no feeling or emtion involved with the writing. I'm an emtional person there has to be some depth in what i read.

What I write; Some fantasy, and some stories of my life, things that I have seen or been involved with. Poetry also.

What I don't Write; At the momment i'm not writing enough. I need to complete a book soon and I am at a blank, I have no passion to get anything out, I hate the feeling of people relying on me and me not being able to produce anything.

What I'm Looking For; Help, inspiration, and influential knowledge of others experiences in writing that might help me make this book possible.

And when I'm brave enough and find a clever way to kick him out
And I'm so high, not even you and all your love could bring me down...

Oh, Amanda Palmer, your lyrics still do it for me even after years and years...

I felt I should post something because I'm a bit happier. I vomited my feelings about life and its uncertainties to Nick the other day and it really helped. Still, though, I'm having some nights...

I started Physics on Tuesday. I told Nick that I thought Physics was sort of poetic, but he doesn't really get it as he has never taken Physics. This is what I mean:

"Everything pulls on everything else in a beautifully simple way that involves only mass and distance. According to Newton, every body attracts every other body with a force that, for any two bodies, is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance separating them."

Everything pulls on everything else... Something about that is so very beautiful.

Everyone thought I was insane for taking Physics--especially since, to finish my degree, I can take literally whatever I feel like. What can I say? University of Phoenix was offering it for, like, $800 cheaper than most of their other classes...

Though, at this point, there was almost no use in me taking online classes. LFCC would've been way cheaper. I haven't yet relocated, and probably won't until after January. However, the demands on my time for an online class are far less, so whatever.

I don't care: what's done is done.

For a while, I was wondering and worry about "shoulds" or "shouldn'ts" and trying to point myself towards what needed to be. Sometimes, I caught glimpses of it, but I feel so hopelessly bogged down in the confusion of everything that all I can really do is throw up my hands and look around at where I am. I'm just here. I don't care; I'm just going to live for a while.

You can reach in and pull me up if You think I'm sinking. I lost the precise sound of Your voice a while ago...

It's ok, though. I think it's just temporary disorientation.

Name: Rebekah or Becky

Age: 26

About me: I have been a writer for at least 16-18 years. . . I was in young author has a kid, and it was kewl to see a story you create turned into a book. I am a published poet (www.poetry.com) and a publish playwright (I had play done at college.) I love writing as much as I love music and I use both together quite often. I love the creating process, but dread the editting process. I can edit other's works better than my own. I am still working on trying to get my works published professionally.

What I like: Laughter. Inspiration. Hope. Happiness. Conflicts. Chaos. I love it when I have good song, a can of Dr. Pepper and my mind filled with a million ideas jsut wanting to get written. I love horror. . . blood, ghost, vampires. (Not Twilight. . . vampires do not sparkle.)

What I dislike: People who are super thin and call themselves fat. . . people who are mean, rude and bitchy andstill manage to get whatever they want.

Location: Lorain, and North Ridgeville, Ohio

What I read: I really like a good mystery or horror book. I am also into non-fiction: about the paranormal, occult, and new-age beliefs. . .

What I don't read: Anything that has too much politics and religion in it

Favourite authors: Stephen King, Anne Rice (older Work), Edgar Allen Poe, and Agentha Christie

What I write: Horror, romance, epic stories, scripts, and novel and oh yeah poetry

What I don’t write: I don't know yet. . . I am not that big on Sci-fi

Could you edit someone else's work? I can edit other's work better than I can edit my own.

What I’m looking for: Friends, inspiration, motivation, and encouragement

Personal journal: http://Rebekah1213.livejournal.com (This is my everyday journal. . . please feel free to comment, I try to reply as soon as I can.)

Writing journal: http://Rebekah1725.livejournal.com (It most vampires and ghost stories, but I haven't had much time to post there lately. . . )

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. If you sign up to get notifications of the Writer's Block question of the day, you'll now see the daily question in the email notification, so you'll have a little extra time to ponder before you post. You can subscribe to Writers Block notifications here
3. The issue causing random comments to vanish has been fixed!
4. 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)!
5. 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
6. 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!

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Curtains

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

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.

Name: Char

Age: 15

Location: In the us somewhere

About me: I'm a crazed pyscho who enjoys fighting, drawing and writing.

What I read: Mostly manga. I'm not that big of a fan of regular books, but I do enjoy a good romance and action story. I love fantasy but I haven't read a good one lately

What I don't read: Non-fic, realistic.

What I write: I mostly write  fanasty action romance with a bit of comedy. With the occasional sci-fi

What I don’t write: Usually the ending beacuse I get bored with the conspect.

Could you edit someone else's work?: Yeah, but I'm not good with grammer

What I’m looking for: People who like my work and tell me what they really think about it inside of just trying to be nice.

I posted before, but...

Name: Elijah (pseudonym)

Age: Sixteen and some change

Location: Maryland

About me:  I'm lazy and self-deprecating but can make light of any situation. I mostly read novels that are satiric and anti-climatic (like Bret Easton Ellis' works.) I'm a an self-proclaimed artist but can barely draw a 3-D shape and shade correctly. In my journal I write mostly of .... well, me. But I'm very interested in connecting with others who share the same love of literature as I do and understand how a book, just by reading it once, can make you feel so twisted and wrong for a whole week. (Reference to Toni Morrison's works.) I'm not highly motivated in writing a novel or completing a work, I just write whatever comes to mind--no planning, outlining, etc--which causes my "works" to be left incomplete. I'm a strong supporter in human rights, more so in the LGBT community than anything and love conversing with others about this struggle for equality, I guess. Also, I'm very into the 60s' music, culture, etc.

What I read: Mostly Satires, dramas, anti-climatic novels... historical fictions and novels with some homoerotica--ie The Persian Boy, hell even Lord of the Flies. A lot of beat novels(William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Anthony Burgess, etc.) Some biographies.

What I don't read: Fantasies (with the exception of Harry Potter), science fictions, young adult books.

What I write: Sad to say, fanfiction. The fandom, you really don't want to know... Though, recently I've written some original pieces, very few. Most of my stories reflect what I read at the time. example: If I've read a raunchy, explicit, erotica novel, my story will have some aspects of that novel but I would manipulate it to fit whatever I'm writing, etc.

What I don’t write: Gooey love, romance stories. Nearly all of my writings in with a bad ending (probably because I have the inability to successfully end a story on a good note).

Could you edit someone else's work?: Pshh, no. I barely edit my own.

What I’m looking for: Individuals who have the same tastes as I do, I suppose.

As time ticks by, still I try...

The only explanation is that I'm crazy. I cannot sleep. My mind keeps racing around the same little track, and I don't know how it got stuck here. I want to vent so desperately, but I won't. Instead, I'll speak in cryptic phrases and rant about how in the end, I am just insane.

Maybe it's past experience that puts me up to this lunacy. I'm set up to obsess.

All I know is that I want to sleep, I want to shut my brain off and just not think about it.
All I know is: everything is wrong. A part of me wants it to be better, but a part of me wants to keep it that way--slightly askew. Oh no, I do want it fixed, but I want it to stay screwed up just in this one, little way...

Last night, I had a dream that I killed three innocent people because the people who lived across the street from me were gangsters and I got caught up in their world of illicit drugs and crime. No joke. It was one of the most awful dreams I've ever had. In the end, I was faced with having to confess to everything I did and accept the consequences. I had the choice to get away with it, but I couldn't live with the guilt.

So. Much. Significance.

Please, God, just let me sleep.

Why do I come here to vent? I don't know. I tried to journal, but I just vomited out my feelings and felt hollow. Right now, when my loneliness is so that I feel it could grow teeth and swallow me, I think I just really want to know someone is reading this.

Name: Gracie

Age: Nineteen.

Location: Rhode Island.

About me: I'm an overly sarcastic, self-proclaimed nerd with aspirations of being a superhero and/or English teacher. I read the dictionary for fun. I have the most wonderful boyfriend. I'm currently taking a year off before heading to college. I started writing at around nine with Digimon fan fiction. Besides reading and writing, I enjoy about activism (GBLT related, specifically), fairy tales, fantasy, European history, musicals, poetry, psychology, rain, romance, sleeping, the beach, tea, and theatre. I struggle with depression and anxiety problems. I really feel uncomfortable describing myself in a short paragraph. Haha.

What I read: Anything and everything that piques my interest. I enjoy romance, fantasy, and historical fiction. I'm a big Harry Potter fan. Haha. I have a huge list of books I want to read before I become an English teacher, so that I feel prepared. I lovelovelove poetry.

What I don't read: Eh... there's not much I'll just flat-out reject. I'll try almost anything.

What I write: I mostly write romance, but I'm really trying to break out. I've taken a significant break from writing this past year, and I'm trying to expose myself to new styles and genres. I'd really love to write something dystopian. I've also been working on a series of short stories that take fairy tales and bring them into modern times. I took a Creative Writing class my senior year and that really interested me in breaking into different genres.

What I don’t write: Enough of anything.

Could you edit someone else's work?: Definitely. I love to help others with their writing. :]

What I’m looking for: Friends and encouragement/motivation to write more and expand my writing horizons.

Personal journal: aharlequingirl

Name: Oscar

Location: South Eastern Kentucky, United States

About Me: I'm a 23 year old American who has self-published himself twice. I'll soon be moving to Cleveland, Ohio to begin a new life and be closer to my fiance who we just found out is pregnant. It's going to be a strange life being a dad and all, but if anything I'm ready to make a leap of faith with the one I love so true, thusly my journey is our journey.

What I Write: I've been writing for a while now, mostly I favor short stories and compilations. I don't really let myself call myself a romance writer, but that's what I've been told I'm good at. I'm in the process of writing a novel that's dedicated to my fiance.

What I Don't Write: I write just about everything now and again, however I try to stay away from large stories unless they have a deep personal meaning to me. Anything over 100 pages is too long for me unless I can dedicate myself emotionally to it.

What I Read: I read everything, literally. I love reading and always make time for it in my life. So - hit me with your best shot.

What I Don't Read: Nothing really applies here, see above.

Can I critique someone else's work: Well, I'm not saying I can or not, but I will comment and point a few things out. I would love the same kind of attention as well.

My personal Journal: ♥ My Guardian Angel ♥

Others: Although it technically is a writing community, I could never drum up another secondary poster. If you're intrested, Penstrokes if not, well...that's okay too. ^^

I was looking over some of my old LJ posts. Not the really old ones (the angsty, over-emotional Josh ones), I was looking over the ones from school--sparse as they may be. I'm glad that I have them, because I can remember that I was once happy.

I'm not happy like that anymore. I'm stopping and starting and spinning and sinking... still, though, I know that I am just as o.k. as I was in those posts. I don't know how I figure, I just know that I am.

But still, I'm stopping and starting and spinning. And sinking. And I hurt all the time.
Somehow, I know, I've got to get through this. Not over or around, or out the back door; I must go through.

You know what helps? Desert Song by Hillsong. HOLYbajesus. They sing my life.

Have you ever smelled a smell that reminded you of something you couldn't remember? It happens to me all the time, I think because I have a thing with smells. However, I know it happens to other people. Today, I smelled a smell that so strongly reminded me of something that I desperately wanted to remember that I stopped and stood outside in the cold, freezing. I couldn't place the memory, but I knew when it was from, I think. It had to be Ft. Benning, but I'm not sure if it was before or after Molly. I was young, before 11. That's it, that's all I know; that, and it was a happy memory. The smell was toasty and vague, and smelled like it was a part of the autumn wind. It was something organic, like a precise mixture of leaves and humidity and a tinge of pollution. Whatever it was, it reminded me of a day that I had sometime in my childhood around this time of year that was happy. Whatever the memory was, I was happy about it.

Sometimes a similar thing happens with a bad memory. You smell something, and something inside you winces from the memory, though you're not sure why. Usually, though, I figure it out pretty quickly, but the reaction comes before the recognition and for a startled moment I'm left wondering why I'm suddenly in a bad mood. It's like that when I smell Curve--my stomach lurches. I know precisely why I don't like that smell, though; but I won't realize exactly what I'm smelling and disliking unless I think about it for a minute.

If you're a boy and you love me, don't wear Curve.

I feel as if it's time to stop now. I just wanted to share that thought.

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!
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I posted here before, but things have changed and it's been awhile.
Name: Bethany

Age: 21

About me: I'm a Lifehog. I'm bad at taking advice and won't believe the stove's hot even after I've burned myself several times. I don't have any firm plans for my life besides exploring and writing about it, so I will probably be forever poor. I secretly desire to be an exhibitionist but I am too sincere and sensitive. I'm trying to quit Sad, but it's a motherfucker to kick.

What I like: When a musician is playing on the street and you have to pause and close your eyes because you literally feel it in your heart, epiphanies, rereading my journals, being on the road. The cheap watercolor paintings at thrift stores move me in intangible, profound ways. So do a lot of other silly things. Inspiration.

What I dislike: The days I can't get out of bed (like today), Westboro Baptist Church, when you dye your hair and the taste of the smell stays in your mouth for a week. The word "inspiration." That's about it.

Location: I'm self-exiled in Lüneburg, Deutschland currently but my hometown is Moscow, Idaho.

What I read: Strong literature of any kind. Short stories usually have the strongest impact on me, but I forget all their details quickly. My favorite books are The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Catcher in the Rye, The Elephant Vanishes, Dubliners, and Candide. I also tend to reread Little Women every year before Christmas because it makes me feel cozy. The poem "Pale Fire" at the beginning of Nabokov's book of the same title contains about 95% of my favorite quotes but I shamefully haven't made it through the rest of the novel.

What I don't read: Chicklit, fantasy, fanfiction. I have a short attention span with poetry but when it hits home, it hits hard.

Favourite authors: Seems anything Haruki Murakami touches is gold. I have a love/hate thing with Joyce.

What I write: I write about what's important to me. The style changes.

What I don’t write: Chicklit, fantasy, fanfiction.

Could you edit someone else's work?: Depends. If I feel like I understand your vision and am interested, then definitely.

What I’m looking for: Friends and motivation to write more.

Personal journal: hushchild

Writing journal: The same.