Leslie

So, casting notices haven't gone out yet, so I have no idea whether, or as what if so, I've been cast in Dracula. But I auditioned, and got called back, and was pretty happy with my performance. Which, as those of you who have been following along at home know, is still something of a recovery milestone for me these days, albeit not as much as it once was (for which relief, much thanks). So I figured I'd take advantage of the pre-decision-announcement window to say "Yay, me!" for showing up for auditions and stuff.

Plus, y'know, it'd be cool to be cast.

Patrick Stewart speaks out against domestic violence and shares his personal experience with it.

jason237 and dietrich (among others, but especially them) be sure to check it out for the Winter's Tale bit.

LiveJournal: The First Decade

Just in time for holiday shopping, we're thrilled to announce the release of our ten-year anniversary anthology. Published by Blurb.com, the book showcases a decade of extraordinary talent drawn from LiveJournal users around the world. This must-read compilation features stories, memes, photos, comics, editorials, graphic content, and more, including:

1. Excerpts from Oh No They Didn't (a/k/a ohnotheydidnt), the largest community on LiveJournal, covering celebrity gossip, entertainment news, and pop culture
2. A look at post-Katrina New Orleans from the journal of Poppy Z. Brite
3. Gripping narratives, including a poignant reverie on a blind date
4. Photography that spans the globe, ranging from old-fashioned Polaroids to underwater photography
5. Mouthwatering dishes from food_porn

What began as a late-night inspiration back in Brad Fitzpatrick's college dorm in 1999 has grown to encompass nearly 25 million users worldwide, with journals and communities covering every conceivable hobby, passion, and topic. To get your copy, please visit the Blurb Bookstore. For updates and entries from book contributors, please join lj_turns10.

Tweaks and enhancements

• You can now ban a user from all of your communities and journals at once. To access this feature, hover over the person's userpic and choose Ban user everywhere from the drop-down menu.
• Follow LiveJournal on Twitter!

Give a little to help a lot!

In honor of National AIDS Awareness month, we've added a new charitable vgift. For each red ribbon you purchase for $2.99, we'll donate 100 percent of gross proceeds to IAVI.org (the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative) to support the development and global distribution of an affordable HIV vaccine (we'll cover credit card fees). You can read more about IAVI at lj_cares. While we're on the subject, we raised $740 from our November fundraiser for Love Without Boundaries, which supports emergency healthcare and adoption of Chinese orphans. We thank you for helping us help others.

Photos of the week

We're back with more incredible pictures from our super-talented LiveJournal photographers. Congratulations to ilya_gorokhov, who is the winner of our very first lj_photophile poll.

We hope you'll continue to post, vote, and comment! A gentle request: Please post only one photo at a time and limit size to 350x350 (so images display properly on friends pages). And now, without further ado, get ready to cast your ballot and view more awesome user content after the jump!

( Read more... )

Curtains

Thanks, again, for joining us. Stay safe and snug out there!

What am I having for lunch?

Well, um... carrots, and mango, and red peppers... and orzo, and almonds, and apricots, and raisins... and artichoke tapanade... and navy beans, and split peas, and corn. In a cup.

No, it isn't for everyone. But I'm happy about it.

From Time magazine, talking about Obama's Afghanistan speech: "Ronald Reagan would have done it differently. He would have told a story. It might not have been a true story, but it would have had resonance. He might have found, or created, a grieving spouse — a young investment banker whose wife had died in the World Trade Center — who enlisted immediately after the attacks ... and then gave his life, heroically, defending a school for girls in Kandahar. Reagan would have inspired tears, outrage, passion, a rush to recruiting centers across the nation."

In case it's not obvious, this is part of a criticism of Obama's speech, albeit a mild one.

Because, you know, making shit up is clearly a better way to lead.

Seeking ascension through partisan tension,
Intently invoking ineffable visions,
Surging insurgents, surfeited with certainty,
Urging their herds into reckless collisions.

The all-female a capella group in which I sing is beginning its holiday performances. The first one, in Lexington, is this Saturday evening! See below for details, and I hope to see some of you there.

***
It's the start of December, which means there's a passel of holiday gigs in our future! In fact, the first of many is this Saturday at the Acoustic Showcase at the Starbucks in Lexington. We'll be performing with 3 other groups to give you a wide variety of music, both holidayish and not. Come grab a cup of coffee and a scone or two and relax this Saturday evening with us!

WHAT: Acoustic Showcase
WHEN: 5-8pm, Saturday, 12/5
5pm Chris Eastburn and Mike Barrett
6pm Alyssa Zahka
6:30pm Random Chants
7pm Robert Cedrone
COST: Free!
WHERE: Starbucks, 60 Bedford Rd, Lexington
http://acousticshowcaselexington.blogspot.com/

-----------

We've got two other public gigs lined up for the holiday season, so get them on your calendars now! We'll be doing our traditional performance at the Holly Fair in Harvard Square on Saturday the 12th, so you can listen to music and do your holiday shopping at the same time. And if you need to track down still more presents, come join us the next day at the Newburyport Farmer's Market.

WHAT: CCAE's Holly Fair
WHEN: 12 Noon, Saturday 12/12
COST: Free!
WHERE: Cambridge Center for Adult Education (CCAE)
Brattle House, 42 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA
http://www.ccae.org/hollyfair.html

WHAT: Newburyport Fall Farmer's Market
WHEN: 10:30am - 12:30pm, Sunday, 12/13
COST: Free!
WHERE: Market Lounge, Tannery Marketplace (indoors)
50 Water St, Newburyport
http://thenewburyportfarmersmarket.org/

In harmony,
Random Chants

Sop 1: Kris Bruneau, Laurie Isaacson
Sop 2: Anne Marie Reardon, Courtney Walsh
Alto 1: Kristen Child, Maura Gallagher
Alto 2: Kamela Dolinova, Alix Fox, Sara Grady

__._,_.___

**EDIT Thu Dec 3 23:24:15 UTC 2009 **

Hey Everyone, we are about to run the last alter job that we need to on our database servers. This will effect userpics / scrapbook / vgift images for the next few hours. Have no fear, your images aren't lost, there is just a really intensive process running on the servers which store the information for mogilefs. Thank you for your understanding and all the LJ love...

Hey LJers,

I just wanted to let you all know that we are going to be performing some mogilefs maintenance over the next few days. We will be upgrading our current version to latest stable as well as changing some db config information to better handle the amount of files we are currently hosting. This shouldn't cause a big impact on site stability, but you may see some minor delays with userpic / scrapbook images appearing or other requests associated with our mogilefs. We would love to not have that happen, but unfortunately with some of the steps we need to take we have to cause a delay with images. I figured this was a better solution than taking down all of LiveJournal because well lets face it, we all need our daily LJ fix ;)

Thanks,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_qdZB9iGhU - Demo of big one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6drMZqmyXQc - How to make little one.

Electric: Power company has been out, said the open neutral isn't on their end but replaced connections anyway. Haven't gotten an electrician out yet.

Just what it says on the tin. I'm looking for some good jokes, suitable for a general audience.

James's Lipton's beard has a series of commercials trying to get you to think before you text.

Y'know what's really nice? When you show someone your work and they say "I see what you're doing there." That's really nice.

I sat in on tonight's auditions for T@F's production of Dracula that goes up in February. At one point, I got roped into playing a horrified Johnathan Harker as he was menaced by the three Vampire Brides. Well, perhaps "menaced" isn't quite what I mean. More like... "seduced menacingly". Yeah. that's it. "Seduced menacingly".

I had to endure the physical advances and seductive taunts of three very hot Vampire Brides - one complete with really believable fangs - TWICE. Man, what I have to go through for this theater company...

;-)

backpacking
Want to embrace your wanderlust on the cheap? If you're high on adventurous spirit, but low on funds, this community can help you plan a trip to anywhere. Offering plentiful tips on how to travel light, you can post about inexpensive hotels and youth hostels if you're into urban exploration or discuss camping gear and mosquito netting for the great outdoors. Hitch your backpack, pitch your tent, and carpe diem!

Howdy! The smaller room in my house (in Quincy, a 15min walk from the Quincy Center T station and walking distance from the shops and restaurants on Hancock and Washington Streets) is available starting immediately. Here’s the text of the ad I just posted to Craigslist:

( Craigslist ad )

Feel free to disseminate far and wide, either by pointing people at this post or by pointing them at the Craigslist post (although that will expire in a few days).

I'm not auditioning for Dracula this week (I read it but there weren't any roles I liked, except perhaps the eldest vampire bride, but it's also a bad time for me due to other commitments), but I wanted to wish good luck to all who are auditioning! I'm really looking forward to seeing who the cast ends up being, as well as seeing the performance and probably house volunteering. Break a leg, all!


Here's some info about the show. My roomie is the Producer.

Keeping my feet in the darkness
Keeping my soul in a song
Sowing and growing apart in a carton
The seedlings received as I slept.

Keeping my head above water
Keeping a secret too long
Knowing I'm throwing eternity's learning
Away when I burn what I've kept.

I have been meaning to write this rant for years now. I think of it every time I'm driving in the rain, but never when I'm sitting--safe and snug with no oncoming traffic--in front of my computer.

When you turn on your wipers, turn on your lights.

Your lights are only secondarily on your vehicle to illuminate your path. They are there to make you visible to other drivers. When you are driving up Route 2 on a dark, rainy day without your lights on, you are as close to invisible as makes no nevermind. This is especially true for the very popular silver and taupe cars on the road, but I've nearly creamed more than one big black SUV that couldn't imagine how I might not have seen it. Visibility is low, people. Turn on your lights.

This applies to all conditions of precipitation, fog and twilight. It doesn't matter that you can see fine--if I can't see you, we're all doomed. Turn on your lights.

...I hereby establish two reference units.

The first is a Work Unit (WU). A milliWU (10e-3 WU), and represents the amount of work I can get done in 1 second. 1 WU therefore represents the amount of work I can get done in about half an hour.

The second is a Lameness Unit (LU). A milliLU represents 1 WU postponed by 1 second, during which I don't do any other work; therefore 1 LU represents the lameness associated with putting about half an hour's worth of work by about half an hour.

Why, yes, I have in fact just done a very small task I've been putting off for a very long time, why do you ask?

bookfails
Planning to do your part to help boost the declining publishing industry this holiday? Better check here first. Sure, there are plenty of folks who post glowing reviews of their favorite books. But what about the epic fails? Compose and/or discuss snarky, incisive critiques on the books you despise most.