friends

[	Tags	\|	icons	]
[	mood	\|	silly	]

LOOK AT WHAT

miss_s_b MADE ME.

2 comments|post comment

Icon request

[Nov. 10th, 2009|01:09 pm]

This is a special plea for people who make icons: I would really, really like an animated pic of Boris Johnson saying 'I'd like to be king of all Londinium and wear a shiny hat'.

Also if anyone can point me to more good feminist/political icon sites, that'd be awesome :)

This Blog is Experiencing Technical Difficulties

4 comments|post comment

[Nov. 8th, 2009|11:42 pm]

[

Tags

computer, me, nablopomo09

]

My computer appears to be on the fritz. This means that I may properly fail at NaBloPoMo this year, rather than just posting technically an hour too late.

When I try to boot Windows XP I get a blue screen error. When I try to boot Ubuntu I can only successfully log in to an x-terminal - trying to go direct to GNOME just makes the screen flicker a bit then dump me back at login. Perhaps it is time for a new computer.

Sadly, this means I may not be posting interesting stuff and responses to comments for a while. I'll try to return to daily blogging ASAP!

Just back from helping run a Scout event.

1 comment|post comment

[Nov. 8th, 2009|12:40 am]

[

Tags

cusagc, life, marathon, me, nablopomo09

]

Seeing an event that you help run that started with about 20 participants a few years ago swell to over 100 is nice. It was a fun day. All tired now, especially after transport issues.

1 comment|post comment

(no subject)

[Nov. 8th, 2009|12:26 am]

antoniabaker

i wasted 17 quid on dyes.

After three washes I realised that the dress in question is acetate and therfore has no hope of being dyed.

There go my plans for creating a perfect black cocktail dress from old purple ballgown.

Humph there go my good intentions of 'make do and mend'

1 comment|post comment

argh!

[Nov. 7th, 2009|11:52 pm]

[

mood

upset

]

Dear anyone who was at khalinche 's party tonight: somebody walked off with my coat. It is a big, black, size 18 woolen coat and it has my bank card and oyster card in the pocket. It is very much loved, I'm upset to have lost it, and I'd like it back as soon as possible.

1 comment|post comment

Slight sad news

[Nov. 6th, 2009|11:37 pm]

[

Tags

nablopomo09, politics, sad

]

David Howarth will not be standing for re-election next General Election.

This means I'll actually have to put more thought into voting rather than just voting for the awesome guy who does stuff like stop people passing things that get known as "The Abolition of Parliament Bill"

Who teaches what?

[Nov. 6th, 2009|12:19 am]

[

Tags

education, nablopomo09, skills

]

There were a bunch of interesting suggestions for stuff to be taught at schools following my last blog post (which can be read at http://androidkiller.livejournal.com/28134.html). However one thing that I found myself thinking when reading some of them was "Surely their parents or family should teach them that." This got me wondering, what sort of things should we expect families to teach children, and which should be covered in schools? I think that mostly what I think families should teach are the sorts of things that I feel you should have a basic grip on before school, perhaps at least the ideas of manners for example, and some everyday life things. I was surprised on an Explorer Scout (14 to 18 year olds) camp once when one Explorer messed up the cooking by pouring a huge amount of water on the mince and expecting the vegetables to just cook on their own. I feel that basic cooking skills should be taught by the family, but I can see that at the moment many adults lack these skills and so this is a good candidate for something that schools should teach, as well as classes for adults to help remedy this situation. I feel that the basics of getting public transport is another thing that families should do (as family trips to places could include these), but again some people don't get experiences like this and need schools to help them catch up. I do like the idea of monetary and consumer stuff being taught, as this is where a lot of people get into trouble without really knowing what they are doing. How to deal with bureaucracy is another good one. Practical skills like looking after bikes I can see arguments for both ways. The waters are of course muddied by various youth organisations that do teach some of these things. Of course this also means that people of certain backgrounds are more likely to get taught these skills, which could be a good argument for teaching them in skills, to prevent the inequality this causes.

Sorry this isn't hugely coherent, it's late and I probably haven't thought about this as much as I could have. But I'd be interested to see where people think the line should be. What do you think?

LiveJournal Major Notes: Spam counter-attack, RSS feeds again, CSI Deadly Intent contest

[Nov. 5th, 2009|01:15 pm]

news
[theljstaff]

[

Tags

csi, photos of the week, postcards, rss, spam, writer's block

]

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... )

sometimes people are just horrible

218 comments|post comment

[Nov. 5th, 2009|12:22 am]

countess_rezia

[

mood

shocked

]

At the moment at work we have a Shakespeare schools festival on - each night four schools each perform a different extract.

I had a feeling it was going to be a challenging shift tonight, after seeing it from afar, so to speak, from stage door last night. This was confirmed when the director came and complained to me about other people using the Green room as he claimed he was meant to have it exclusively to use as an overflow changing room, with there being so many groups of kids. (He didn't of course have it exclusively). Then the stage manager disappeared when I needed to open the house and myself, the techncian and the director couldn't find her. She turned up about 2 minutes before the show.

What I wasn't expecting was racism. A customer came up to one of the ushers, who is mixed race, and told him, among other comments about the show that "none of the minority children could act" (the usher was clear that ethnic minority was what was meant). The usher reported this to me after the interval. I don't know how well I dealt with it: The man in question came out half way through the second half and and started playing with his phone, so I approached him, saying that I understood he had some comments about the show and was there a problem I could help with. He said no, but obviously caught my tone/expression, adding that he had been "joking" with an usher. I said, yes, the usher had been unhappy with what was said. I got an apology - at first the "sorry I didn't mean it seriously, sorry if it was misconstued as being offensive" false apology. I said I'd pass the apology on; and stayed where I was. I wasn't satisfied obviously, and if it'd been a non-work situation I would have said so, but at work I was uncertain how to proceed - unfortunately you can't call customers racist c***s. But although I didn't really say much more, the fact that I stayed standing there, and didn't go away, whilst he continued to fiddle with his phone, I think embarrassed him, because he intermiitedly, between fiddling, and attempting a one-sided conversation about how much he liked the theatre, kept apologising. And gradually his apologies moved towards "I'm sorry what I said was offensive" - *almost* a real apology. Not one full enough that I would be personally happy with, still, but getting closer.

On reflection I think I didn't push it enough, And I probably should have made him apologise to the usher in question - at the time I didn't because the usher had asked to swap positions with another usher so he didn't have to see or talk to this man again; but what I should have done was ask him if he would like a personal apology to his face, rather than assuming not and allowing it to be made through me. I've never ever had to deal with a customer saying something like this before. Sometimes angry customers are offensive (although in my experience not in a racist or other prejudiced way - just in a swearing/insulting way), but I've never had someone say something so offensive so casually, in a situation where I had to repsond to it as the manager in charge, rather than as an individual.. So my response wasn't as good as it could have been. I'm mostly just shocked that it happened.

What should be taught in schools?

2 comments|post comment

[Nov. 5th, 2009|12:52 am]

[

Tags

education, logic, mind, nablopomo09

]

Here's an interesting question. What do you think should be taught in schools that isn't currently?

Personally I think people should be taught more about problems with the way that we tend to think. I've stuck some wikipedia links here to try and make what I'm getting at clearer, but I must stress I haven't read them all.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases). For instance, people should be taught about confirmation bias, the way that the human brain tends to pick up evidence that seems to confirm ideas that we already have more than evidence to the contrary. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias). We should explicitly teach people that correlation doesn't imply causation, and in what sort of circumstances we need to remember this. Also about how memory is less reliable than a lot of people think (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_bias). Helping people to spot various logical fallacies would probably be quite useful too.

I think that explaining these sorts of things to children simply will make them much more capable of making well informed decisions in later life. Would people agree with that?

5 comments|post comment

(no subject)

[Nov. 3rd, 2009|08:01 pm]

countess_rezia

[

mood

productive

]

After a couple of comparatively relaxing days, I thought I'd better get back to doing stuff. Unfortunately I can't say no, espceially where work is concerned.

Today:

Number of new shifts I've agreed to work next week (on top of existing shifts): 4

Number of days I will have to get up before 6am next week for early shifts: 5

Number of political pettions signed: 2

Number of white peace poppies bought: 1

Number of 350 page documents edited: 1

Bon.

Where does the money come from?

1 comment|post comment

[Nov. 3rd, 2009|07:56 pm]

[

Tags

improv, london, money, youspenthowmuch?

]

Oxford Circus X-crossing: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8337341.stm

This seems sensible. In fact, I've done this at some crossings before when all of the lights are on red at the same time. But £5 million for the privilege? Surely it should be gold-plated at that price!

In other news, the short updates brought to you by "Tales of the Unanticipated", tonight at 11pm at the ADC.
http://www.adctheatre.com/showsmall.asp?code=575&event=1801

Good Thing, Bad Thing

[Nov. 2nd, 2009|10:54 pm]

[

Tags

nablopomo09, ubuntu

]

Today, a quick game of "Bad Thing, Good Thing"

Bad Thing: Updating Ubuntu to Karmic Koala breaking a large number of programs running on it for no apparent reason.

Good Thing: Googling turning up an answer which was easy to implement and required no touching of the command line, but still gave a sense of a difficulty overcome.

I thought this sort of thing wasn't supposed to happen with Ubuntu. Turned out one package that I had installed was causing problems for some of the new ones. I've yet to find out if removing it has broken anything else. And there are still another few wrinkles I haven't managed to sort out yet.

On the other hand, I'm not sure if I can run Windows 7 on this computer (my graphics chipset doesn't like Aero, according to the Update Advisor), and my Windows XP install is very very slow, so Ubuntu is still top dog. For now...

National Blog Posting Month 2009

[Nov. 1st, 2009|11:12 pm]

[

Tags

life, me, nablopomo09

]

The Revenge of/The Return of

NaBloPoMo

Strikes Back/Take Two/2.0

So, I got into a good habit of posting on my blog last year, then I got out of it. Let's see if I can get back into it again.

On privilege [specifically: my class privilege]

[Nov. 1st, 2009|06:44 pm]

[	Tags	\|	class, education, journalism, thinking too much	]
[	mood	\|	busy	]

So it's Sunday night at the end of a day of work, and I'm stuck for a quote on MPs and family life because the one I'd lined up, the one I pushed for a deadline extension for, has pulled out at the last cocking minute. One of those things that happens. I could end up looking like a right twazzock over this, but instead, what do I do?

I call my old headmaster and former history teacher, of course, who just happens to be a leading national voice on political and social conundrums. We say hello, enquire politely after each other's families, I explain what I need, he gives me a quote. Bish bash bosh. Done.

But it's still Sunday night and I still have conservatively 4 hours, given my mental health, to write this feature that should have gotten past the research stage days ago. What do I do?

I make coffee, clear my desk, sit down and write 1,500 words in 45 minutes, taking in all the quotes I'd prepared and interview material I'd done. Because I went to Oxford, and if there's one thing an Oxford arts degree teaches you apart from which glass is the port glass, it's how to manage in essay crisis mode [up to and including taking little breaks to tell LJ how it's going].

I am struck this evening by awareness of the privilege that my class, specifically my expensive (on an 80% scholarship, but still expensive) education and Oxbridge background, gives me. I think this is something that, in our discussions of privilege and identity, we don't talk about enough. I do not feel guilty for the advantages that my background has given me, but at the same time I ought to bloody well be able to acknowledge that those advantages affect every facet of my life. I'll always be a bit weird, a bit jumped up - I'll never benefit from the finesse and social polish that some of my educational contemporaries have, and I'll never feel like I fit in. But that doesn't mean that I don't have class privilege, because I do, and this is one of those nights where if I don't look at it I'll end up falling over it.

16 comments|post comment

Half Term - Woo

[Oct. 31st, 2009|08:15 pm]

ohajiki

[	Tags	\|	con, fuyucon, half term	]
[	mood	\|	amused	]
[	music	\|	Axis Powers Hetalia - Pub n Go	]

Actually had had something of a social life this half term ... it's been quite shocking.

We attended Fuyucon that was awesome, despite the fire alarm going off through the rock night, then again on Sunday at midnight, then Monday at 4am, earning the convention the name of FIRECON. Although my only disappoint was that I had zero time to make - and no money to buy - a costume at all which meant boring t-shirts. I also inadvertently ended up doing all the AMVs for the AMV disco and Kerry and I did such a good job, we've been invited onto the vent time to run it again at Fuyu/Fire/Phoenix/Fiddy Con which rules.

We then had the wonder of parents visiting with the brother (with little bro on the blow up bed that starts the night inflated then steadily deflates through the night).

We then journeyed to Wokingham in order to attend Keith's friend's I-has-job party. Unfortunately it was in a random place called Fleet which meant the following journey: 30mins walk to Wokingham station - train to Farnborough North - 30 mins walk to Farnborough Main - train to Fleet - 20 mins walk to the pub to spend two and a half hours there before going back and doing the whole journey again.

However the highlight of visiting the future in-laws is that we often get fed delicious food and wine, and get taken out for lunch in a village pub with grilled swordfish with caper butter makes a happy Chibi

We have also carved the pumpkin - pictures will follow at some point. Due to our flat being tucked away down a road that shouldn't exist we don't get trick or treaters, although we were ready for them sadly. Boo.

I don't want to go back to school on Monday - enjoying a social life

Network Maintenance - Saturday, October 31, 2009 at 04:00-05:00 GMT/UTC

1 comment|post comment

[Oct. 30th, 2009|05:17 pm]

lj_maintenance
[dwell]

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

52 comments|post comment

Anti hate vigil

[Oct. 30th, 2009|11:08 pm]

countess_rezia

[	mood	\|	good	]
[	music	\|	seasons of love	]

There were some small moments this afternoon, where, because I was feeling rubbish and upset wih myself about Stuff, and because I didn't know anyone else who was going to be there, I considered not going to the No to hate crime candle-lit vigil in Trafalger Square this evening. I'm glad I didn't pay any attention to these moments and went. It felt well worth it as I stood and clutched my purple scented candle (a gift from

perdrix- it seemed like a good use for it), among hundreds of others: A two hour vigil directly in response to the murder of Ian Baynham, and against all hate crime, there were speeches and music and just a lot of solidarity.

Being me I was especially pleased that one of the speeches was given by someone from Inclusive Church - a priest at St Martin in the Field - Clare Herbert. It got me fired again about everything there. I have vaguely wondered before whether there were any lesbian priests in London - yes, yes there are. That's got to be a hard position to be in - although since there is probably at least a 90% overlap between those against women priests and those against gay priests it may be that it's not significantly harder being both than being one or the other? But I think it could be.

Overall, the mood was - I think inspiring could be the right word- it was a hugely positive way of responding. But there was the very sobering (and very important) reading out of the names of those who have died in the last 10 years dues to homophobic hate crime, predominantly in London. And I had the very cliched shock response to this - you think "This doesn't happen here and now, anymore. It can't do." And I'm completely aware of the shallowness of that response. Because, of course, it makes no difference where deaths occur, where prejudice occurs. It doesn't matter if something happens 50 or 50,000 miles away - human rights are human rights, and death is death. But, there is a bit of me that is shocked that this happens under my nose, in this city I live in and love.

The vigil ended with all the candles being passed to the front and laid out in in sea of light. I hope

perdrixwon't mind my loss of the candle to this. It felt right.

And then some dude from the Guardian came and asked me some questions for a piece he's writing on it. Glad it's being covered :)

Can I also add - Sandi Toksvig and Sue Perkins both rock.

LiveJournal Major Notes: Search super-tweak, postcards, and amazing user content!

3 comments|post comment

[Oct. 29th, 2009|10:53 am]

news
[theljstaff]

[

Tags

lj_photophile, photos, postcards, qotd, spotlight, writer's block, yandex

]

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.