i_hope_that
For many of us, the holidays can be kind of rough. If you're searching for a network of understanding friends, this ultra-nurturing community encourages you to express your heartfelt wishes and offer other members encouragement and acceptance. Not for the terminally snarky or emotionally-challenged, this is a good-spirited place to lend comfort and support.

diygifts
Feeling crafty? If you've got a few last folks on your holiday gift list, this is a great place to seed your creativity and generosity. You'll also discover wonderful DIY tips to decorate your home and entertain guests. Offering a no-frills-no-skills attitude that welcomes the cash-challenged and arts-phobic, you're sure to get ideas and make friends in the process.

cooking_club
A fun and friendly community dedicated to those who love to cook, whether you're a meat-and-potatoes type, an aspiring gourmand, and/or a vegan. In search of a brilliant dish to use up those weekly leftovers? Post your ingredients and you'll be whipping up a feast by dinner. You can also share favorite recipes. For Type A chefs, you can spice up your culinary repertoire with exciting cooking challenges.

Because what holiday needs a devil more than Christmas? Forget Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph, all hail KRAMPUS!

Worst. Greenscreen. Ever! (stolen from horosha





This is pretty cool... excellent choice of music.

No modern gaming for me on the new desktop :-(   I could not figure out why the Dirt 2 demo would not work, and kept trying a lot of things, and ultimately discovered that it is because of some performance score for the system which Windows 7 compiles.  In short, my computer does not score high enough - the graphics capabilities is only 2.9, and major/modern games will not run less the computer hits at least a 4.5 score.  So I would need to upgrade the graphics capabilities, although that is certainly not in the plans anytime soon given how much I've dropped already on this computer and also on the keyboard I bought in late November.  Oh well...  Probably a good thing overall that I don't have another "gaming console" to play with very often ;-)   

Some interesting video game news: 

* CNN interview with the guy who married a video game character: http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/12/21/love-plus-wedding-man-on-cnn/
* Japanese RPGs "stagnant:" http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/12/21/bioware-jrpgs-are-stagnant/

Marrying a video game character sounds somewhat like a real-life Idoru - perhaps William Gibson was not too far off..... 

stepstomarrow
When granddaughter, Jada, was born with leukemia, a donor-match was located and Jada made a miraculous recovery. In honor of her grandaughter's health, Jeanna has decided to walk across the country (in the dead of winter) to raise awareness and build support for the bone marrow registry (all that's required is a cheek swab). Follow Jeanna's remarkable journey as she travels the United States by foot.

Srsly, Pandora, would you stop conspiring to kill me today? WTF. It's just been one sad and/or meaningful song after the other. Letters to Elise... Wish You Were Here... Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime.... I'm actually not in a sad mood, but jeez.

It's like that old Richard Jeni routine about the radio playing nothing but love songs after your break-up... 186 hours of Love Songs! Nothing but slit-your-wrist LOVE SONGS!

I might as well just put on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and break out the Kleenex. :P

A stroll through my Facebook photos just made me all misty-eyed over the time I spent in Bloomington.

Damn, I miss you guys.

You know who you are.

Back to studying... two more exams to go, and I'll be done for the semester on Friday.

Get to know My Guests. Want to know who's checking you out? You can now view the 100 most recent, logged-in users who visited your journal during the past 30-day period with My Guests. For those who prefer to fly under the radar, you can update your My Guests privacy setting here.

Introducing My Stats. If you have a Paid or Permanent account, you can now see detailed reports on how many people are visiting your journal, friends pages, and entries (wherever they're posted on LiveJournal). You can also view data on comments and RSS requests. My Stats is only available to Paid and Permanent account holders, but you can upgrade anytime. (FYI, an annual subscription costs less than a large pizza with everything on it, PLUS it's rumored to make you lose weight in your sleep!) For additional details on this feature, read this article in paidmembers.

Get ready to check your vital statistics!. To begin, mouse over Journal in the upper nav bar and select My Stats from the dropdown menu (Horizon) or select My Stats under Journal in the side bar (Vertigo). If you're using another design scheme, you can visit My Stats directly. You'll find My Guests on the My Stats tool bar.

Happy holiday promotion!

We're delighted to tell you about our holiday coupons, which will help you share the love with your LiveJournal friends! If you have a Paid or Permanent account, you can send up to 10 LiveJournal Basic/Plus users a $10 coupon for an annual paid subscription now through January 15th, 2010. Recipients can upgrade for $9.95 (instead of $19.95) for one year by enrolling in our automatic payment plan or make a manual payment of $15 (instead of $25). Please note that these coupons are not transferable and cannot be used to renew existing paid accounts. If you're a Paid/Permanent user, you can send out your holiday coupons now!

Tweaks and Enhancements

1. The search is on: We've replaced our default search tool with one from Yandex, a leader in search engine technology. This means you'll get smarter, more granular results! To get started, enter your search terms and click the Go button to the left of the Find box on the upper right of the LiveJournal header. This will take you to the search landing page where you can further refine by Entries, Comments, People & communities, and FAQs. You can also access the search page directly.
2. Whitelisting: We've released a new option to help you moderate your busy communities more efficiently. If an entry contains a link to a whitelisted (i.e., trusted) site, it will be posted automatically without need for moderator approval. If a post contains a link that is not on the whitelist, you'll be prompted to approve. To access this option, please visit settings for any community you maintain and select the third option in the Community Moderation box (located in the lower left-hand corner). Click the enable link to custom-edit your community's whitelist, which has been prepopulated with trusted domains. You can manually add or delete URLs in the text box. Please note: If you're the maintainer of an unmoderated community, you may see the radio button for this setting checked, even though it's not active. This is a known issue. Please select whichever option you prefer and click Save Changes at the bottom of the page. If you're happy with your current settings, then no need to do anything!
3. TMI, dude: We've added some fun FREE sponsored vgifts! You can send up to 50 TMI vgifts to mutual friends (btw, you cannot send free vgifts to communities). If you're a Paid/Permanent user and you want to view sponsored gifts, click Show sponsored gifts on your homepage or visit the sponsored gift page. These vgifts will only be available through Wednesday, December 23rd.

You can view more awesome user content after the jump!

( Read more... )

Curtains

Thanks, again, for joining us. Until next time, stay snug!

I finally got the all clear for my job!
I'm good to go!

(waited for a registration number to come through!)

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

The new PowerSpec B307 is working :-)

I did have a major hiccup, however: I opened the box and discovered that there was no power cord inside :-| So I called the store, was informed I needed to bring everything back and exchange for a new system... but all the lady at the desk did was hand me a power cord. Oh well - at least I now have a new desktop and it works :-)

I specifically wanted a desktop this time, in large part because it is so much easier to add new capabilities to a desktop. With 4 empty slots in the back, I can add a number of different cards, such as a video editing card. It is awkward using a desktop's keyboard again - I've used only laptops for more than 2-1/2 years.

Still not 100% certain if I like Windows 7, but the startup and shutdown times simply cannot be beat. It will definitely take a long time to get this set up like the laptop was in terms of the programs I was using and all the customizations to Firefox and Thunderbird. I also have a bit of data from the laptop which I want to transfer to the desktop.

I also ended up buying a computer desk at IKEA. I had originally planned to just get a CPU cart, but since it was the same price as an inexpensive but nice-looking computer desk, the decision was extremely easy.

Sleep calls.....

...at least in France: French minister to Muslims: Speak properly

I am just waiting for Le Pen to make a statement about this.....

Yesterday, after I read a few posts, I went out on the lanai to clean the pool and spa. I kept seeing a reflection of light across the lake. I grabbed my binoculars and directed my sight to the flashing light. Much to my delight I caught my neighbor peering through her eye pieces spying on me. I gave her a wave then put down my glasses. I continued to see the reflection sparking on and off so I knew she was still gazing in my direction. I didn't want to disappoint my neighbor. I removed my swimming trunks so she could see my think long cock swing side to side and to and fro while I swept the pool. Thinking about her voyeurism while I swept made me quite horny and my cock became somewhat rigid. How could I resist. I hung the broom on its hooks then turned so the front of my torso was directly facing my spying neiighbor. I wrapped my right hand around my thickening long shaft and began to slide my hand along its entire length. I stroked my cock for her.Within 5 minutes or so I was as hard as a rock. The reflection disappeared shortly after my full was realized. No matter I just laid back on the oversized chaise and fondled with my manhood with images of my spying neighbor swirling in my head.
I was a bit surprised to see her at my screen door but not totally. She was wearing a white robe. "May I" she asked as she placed her hand on the handle of the screen door. "Certainly" I replied as I stood to invite her in. My cock was hanging about 30 degrees down from parallel. Even when I am erect the weight of my huge meat cant defy the pulling wight of gravity. Her petite hand wrapped around my thick shaft. I undid her sashe. Her robe opened and her body was revealed. "Do you like " she purred. "I do" I responded as I leaned forward to kiss her neck. Her nipples pushed against the sweaty flesh of my chest. Both her hands were now wrapped around my hard shaft. I grabbed her by the back of her red hair, pulling downwards, forcing her to her knees. I didnt have to say anything but I did. "Suck my cock" was my command. er mouth opened. Her tongue slightly extended.
I don't know if it's too gentlemanly to kiss and tell. However if your interested I will make an exception

Last night: spinach, mushrooms and pine nuts sauteed with fresh garlic in olive oil, over rice rotini. Mmmm.

Tonight: First spinach salad, with gorgonzola and dried cranberries, and cranberry-walnut-gorgonzola dressing from Trader joes. Then mushrooms, red bell pepper and red onion sauteed with fresh garlic in olive oil, then cooked in Hunt's canned marinara, over rice rotini. I threw in some rosemary, thyme and basil from my spice rack I have (they're ancient, I mean they're probably as old as my kid, seriously, and I really need to buy new spices, but they still tasted good) as well as enough black pepper to give it a little bit of a kick.

I'm poor, and I had mushrooms and spinach that needed eating up. It's the same crap I always make, but boy is it good, and my kid's happy. I love the way sauteed red pepper and tomato sauce taste together. Yum!

New desktop acquired: PowerSpec B307, with Windows 7. Time to go back to a desktop (I already have a monitor, so that is not an issue), and I love the ability to expand its capabilities internally as needed: 4 PCI slots currently available, 6 total USB ports, several internal hard drive slots available, and I can also add another 2GB RAM at some point in time.

I will not be opening the box tonight, however - I need to wait until I get a CPU cart, and I did not have enough space in the car to do that tonight, so it will need to wait until tomorrow after work (fighting traffic to IKEA, then fighting the crowds in the store).

This is admittedly an off-brand computer. However, our company bought another PowerSpec computer in July/August, and everyone who uses it loves it. It has been the most problem-free computer in the office - other than Microsoft Updates, I have had to do absolutely nothing with it - so it was a no-brainer to me, especially since it was $100 off today :-)