Below are the most recent 18 friends' journal entries.

Monday, November 9th, 2009
dakegra	11:54p	I've been looking at mp3 players again. I do quite like the iPod nano, but the Sony E-series has also caught my eye (slightly cheaper, better audio quality apparently) as well as my beloved iRiver doing a couple of tempting models. choices, choices. In other news, our programme manager at work is now Change Director, seems to like me, and was talking today about projects next year. Looking promising to get my contract extended then. Hence the shopping for shiny gadgetry. Did actual shopping tonight at Meadowhell for new shoes and trousers. Saw some nice boots in Next, but the staff there were completely useless and absent, so I gave up, bought a pair of trousers and left. Made my way to M&S where I got some more trousers and a pair of ultracomfy shoes, so took the Next trous back. these are the shoes, for those into shoes Wandered into the Apple Store on the way past. OOoh, teh shiny. ok. Hands up. Who amongst you owns an iPod? Is the audio quality any good? I mean, really? Reviews are mixed to say the least. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, November 8th, 2009
dakegra	9:52p	I need to buy a new suit for work. I've only got one and it's getting to be a pain getting it cleaned. I hate suit shopping. Last suit I bought was for my wedding. Which gets me to thinking - I've really enjoyed the past three years of *not* wearing a suit for work. At least ties seem to have gone out of fashion. Hmm. Part of me quite likes what I'm doing (bar the suit) and part of me thinks that I should be off doing something more interesting and exciting. Hmm. Must be sunday. Never could get the hang of sundays. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
dakegra	9:31p	of course, the question is, is it filed under 'anonymous_greg', 'Aranda, Greg', 'Greg Aranda' or 'Various Artists'? Small cute Beanlettes want to know. (Comment on this)
Friday, November 6th, 2009
dakegra	8:59p	clouds clouds, originally uploaded by dakegra. I love clouds. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 5th, 2009
news [ theljstaff ]	1:15p	LiveJournal Major Notes: Spam counter-attack, RSS feeds again, CSI Deadly Intent contest 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... ) (215 Comments |Comment on this)
dakegra	9:13p	bagpipers DSC_5123, originally uploaded by dakegra. that's the trouble with Scotland. Bloody bagpipers everywhere :-) he was actually really good, if a little surprising. Didn't really expect to find a fully kilted-up bloke playing the pipes in a random layby... (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
dakegra	11:12p	LB DSC_4972, originally uploaded by dakegra. the Beans never let a little thing like persistent rain put them off enjoying a good beach. After all, as Billy Connolly once remarked, there's no such thing as bad weather. Only the wrong clothes. Did I mention that Billy used to stay in the lodge that we stayed in, many years ago? (2 Comments |Comment on this)
dakegra	9:36p	oh, and anonymous_greg, you may be interested to hear that young Miss LB specifically requested your 'Everywhere it's Christmas' mix CD to listen to on our holiday. She *adores* 'I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas'. EB's favourite is 'Nuttin' for Christmas' We listened to those two tracks a *lot* last week. ;-) (4 Comments |Comment on this)
dakegra	9:27p	off to Basildon *again* tomorrow. This time they've hired a car for me, as mine is currently sat on our driveway, dripping an oily substance. Which is not good. So, I now have the use of a brand new 2 litre Mondeo Zetec TDCi for the rest of the week. It's very shiny and goes jolly quickly. :-) In other news, I finally got a parcel which turned up last week when we were away - it's a fabulous mug from freyjakj featuring YT in a stern authorial pose as people at work kept nicking *my* mug. It makes me giggle, and is therefore A Good Thing. Album du jour is Scarlett Johansson's 'Anywhere I Lay My Head', a self-funded disc of Tom Waits covers. It really is rather beautiful and melancholy, and you can get it on amazon's mp3 download thingy for £2.99. I had a cunning plan today to use the rest of my Borders gift card towards a shiny ipod nano for me as you can use the cards online, but it turns out you can only use them at borders.co.uk, *not* borders entertainment. Boo and indeed hiss, cos I can't use it for DVDs either, only books. Still, that's a whole heapin' helpin' of books to splash out on. First of which will be City of Thieves by David Benioff, cos nextian said it was dead good, like. :-) erm, that's it for now. Lots of photos from Scotland up on Flickr. I hope you're all well and have been playing nicely without me. I do miss you all when I can't get to LJ during the day, you know. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 2nd, 2009
dakegra	11:29p	YT, inna hat YT, inna hat, originally uploaded by dakegra. yours truly, inna new hat. One should have a new hat for one's adventures, one finds. :-) (4 Comments |Comment on this)
dakegra	11:27p	master of all he surveys master of all he surveys, originally uploaded by dakegra. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
dakegra	11:24p	on the turn on the turn, originally uploaded by dakegra. autumnal leaves just starting to turn brown (Comment on this)
dakegra	11:22p	cairns cairns, originally uploaded by dakegra. we found this fantastic place on the way to Glen Shiel - hundreds and hundreds of little rock cairns. I'd got out of the car to take a photo of the view before I noticed that I was surrounded by them! (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, November 1st, 2009
dakegra	11:30p	Shiel Bridge pano Shiel Bridge pano, originally uploaded by dakegra. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
dakegra	10:52p	somewhere... somewhere..., originally uploaded by dakegra. over the rainbow, in deepest, darkest Scotland. I rather like my new wide-angle lens. :-) (5 Comments |Comment on this)
dakegra	9:02p	home again, with about 800+ photos to sort through on my camera. For the first time, I went through more than one SD card. :-) Don't worry, I won't post them all up here. Maybe one or three, once I've gone through them. Scotland report: wet, with occasional rain. Food report: belt size +1 drink report: hic more later. Should I NaNo this year? (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, October 30th, 2009
lj_maintenance [ dwell ]	5:17p	Network Maintenance - Saturday, October 31, 2009 at 04:00-05:00 GMT/UTC 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 (51 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
news [ theljstaff ]	10:53a	LiveJournal Major Notes: Search super-tweak, postcards, and amazing user content! 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? 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. 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. This happens all of the time. I confront some relatives, but I refuse to if they are drunk or watch Fox News. 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 ... Confront! confront! confront! Politely, but without equivocation. 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. 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. I punch them in the balls. With my mind. 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... 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. (698 Comments |Comment on this)