LiveJournal Major Notes: OhNoTheyDidnt, ONTD_AI, Puppy love!
While we prepare for a major release, we want to take a moment to extend a warm welcome to ohnotheydidnt, who recently joined the official LiveJournal family. Long-time maintainer, brenden, will serve as ONTD's Staff Editor. In order to ensure that you never miss a beat of late night star-gazing, we'll be rebalancing our server loads to improve speed and performance, beginning this Friday night (details below). Elsewhere on LiveJournal, we'd like to extend a royal shout out to the benevolent "benches" over at ONTD_AI, who hope to raise $100,000 through Idol Gives Back! Frank is so moved by your generosity that he'd like to honor all of you superstars who donate your passion to support vital social causes. Tell us how you've made a difference, and Frank will celebrate your virtual birthday with a pair of glam shades.
Important stuff to know:
- Just a reminder that we'll soon be purging accounts that have been suspended for more than six months to bring you faster, more reliable service.
- We receive so many clever Writer's Block questions that are too edgy to post on our homepage that we've decided to introduce an adult-friendly version of Writer's Block: wb_unplugged. If you wish to submit questions to Unplugged, you can join and post to the community or use the existing Writer's Block suggestion box. We look forward to reading your questions and answers!
- ohnotheydidnt will be spending a quiet evening in read-only mode starting tomorrow, Friday, April 9th, at 9PM, PST, which will last anywhere from 12 to 24 hours. During this time, you won't be able to post or comment, although you're welcome to catch up on back reading. Once we're done, ohnotheydidnt should do a better job of keeping up with all of your celebrity gossip needs!
The generous benches at ontd_ai are gearing up for their anniversary on LiveJournal (mark your calendars for May 15th), by ramping up their charitable giving! Having already raised tens of thousands of dollars for Haiti and Chile, they've embarked on a mission to raise $100,000 to help provide food, clothing, and shelter for needy children and families around the world in association with Idol Gives Back. They're asking all of us to support their fundraising goal by promoting their efforts on LiveJournal.
April header design contest poll!
We want to thank you for helping us select five finalists for our April Header Design contest! There were so many amazing entries that we couldn't have done it without you! We hope you'll vote for the design you want to appear at the top of LiveJournal from mid-April through mid-May. You can start submitting headers for the May contest at ljnewscontests now through the end of the month! In addition to fame and glory, the winner will receive a $25 gift certificate. Finalists will be awarded $10 gift certificates, while all other contributors will receive $5 gift certificates (one per user)! We can't wait to see your work!
We've got Puppy Love for our paid users!
If you have a paid or permanent account, you can send five free cuddly puppies through Monday, April 12th at 4pm, PST! You'll see both the free and the $0.99 puppies displayed until they've scampered off to your friends. Please send only one at a time. In other words, you'll need to complete check-out and start a new order for each fetching puppy. If you're not receiving vgifts (from friends and/or Frank), you may have disabled them. To enable vgifts, visit Edit profile (under Profile), scroll down to the bottom of the page, and check your settings. We wish you oodles of puppy love!
For our featured photo and more fun with Frank & Meme, we'll catch you under the cut!
Photos of the week
Congrats to gairid, who won our 17th LJ_photophile poll. Click here to vote for next week's photo of the week!
Frank & Stein!
When we last joined our dramatic duo, Meme was driving Frank home while he rambled on about Dr. Fox's deceit and his irksome photo with Dr. Nan. This led Meme to ask whether Frank was distressed by betrayal or jealousy. Buoyed by your advice, Frank honestly confessed: "I am actually disturbed by both." Thunderstruck by Frank's admission, Meme jerked the car to an abrupt halt at a yellow traffic light, whereupon the blue Beetle was throttled from behind by a siren-red Prius. The air bags deployed, thwacking Frank's cast against his hind legs. Jolted by the blow, Meme bonked her head against the steering wheel. "Oh my goodness, are you okay?" Frank asked, kissing Meme's sinewy horns.
"What? Why do you even care?" Meme bleated, causing Frank to suffer more pain from her sharp words than his injured limbs. Gazing blankly into the rearview mirror, Frank caught a glimpse of the other driver, who was shrugging nonchalantly and pointing down at his ostensibly faulty brake. Frank gasped at the grisly apparition. Dr. Fox smirked in return.
An ambulance pulled up, closely tailed by a well-coiffed pomeranian in red, three-inch stilettos. The door opened and out sashayed Dr. Nan, still dressed in her sheered white lab coat. Meme sneered, while Frank felt his cheeks grow hot. "Nice to see you, Frank. It seems fate has destined you to be under my care again." Dr. Nan stroked Frank's goatee. "What an unfortunate accident! I will see that you're back in top physical form in no time!"
And what about me? Who will take care of me?" Meme whimpered.
"Zeeing az you experienced zhe blow to zhe head, and I am a head doctor, I vill take care of you!" Dr. Fox licked his chops, casting a sidelong grin at Dr. Nan. "I am just zo glad I had zhe forezight to follow you here in order to gauge your pathological emotional reaction," Dr. Fox continued, inciting Frank to jump up, lunge at Dr. Fox, and stumble into Dr. Nan's open arms. Meme attempted to stomp away, but Dr. Fox grabbed her shoulder, holding her still. "I can tell Frank upzet you deeply, zhus cauzing zhis car accident."
"Get your dirty paws off my clients," the feisty pomeranian barked at Dr. Fox and Dr. Nan. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ms. Alpha D. Stein, and I wish to offer my legal services to the driver and passenger of this blue Beetle," she cooed at Meme, alone, who gushed at the lawyer's firm tone.
"Why, thank you very much," Meme smiled, admiring the attorney's strong handshake. "Well, Frank?" Meme demanded, "Don't you think it's about time you told Dr. Fox and Dr. Nan to bug off?"
Frank would like your advice on whether he should accompany Dr. Nan to the hospital or agree to hire Alpha Stein to represent them. Let him know what you think, and he'll slip you a coconut cocktail to show his appreciation.
Thanks, again, for spending time with us. We'll see you next week!