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LJ Makes an Official Announcement In Regards to the Changes at LJ HQ: News at Eleven

As always LJ responds back to the community to debunk all media rumours days AFTER it's already taken place. A bad business move on their part, but needless to say, the post was met with mixed reactions.

Some sympathise with SUP, others are worried about the future of the site, its customers, and treatment of their US employees, and the rest blame the economy.

Still, not an excuse for a poor attempt at arse-coverage though.

(See what I did there?)

Anyway, Facebook has a new application, where you de-friend 10 of your facebook friends and get a free Whopper.

Considering how srz bzns friending can be, and to throw it all away for a sandwich, I predict WANK.

A New Year's Day shooting in which a subway police officer fired a deadly shot into the back of an unarmed man has the San Francisco Bay Area demanding answers as authorities appeal for patience.

Bay Area Rapid Transit spokesman Linton Johnson told CNN affiliate KTVU-TV in Oakland, California, that the officer is presumed innocent and described him as devastated.

Attorney John Burris called the shooting "unconscionable" and said he filed a $25 million claim with BART on Tuesday, alleging wrongful death and violation of civil rights by use of excessive force. BART has 45 days to respond, Burris said.

"It's a clear shooting in the back that should not have taken place," Burris said, characterizing the incident as a case of "overagressiveness by police."

They have two videos of the officers forcing this guy to the ground and shooting him, and they call it 'overagressiveness by the police'? That's the understatement of the year. What really gets me is that further down in the article it says that he was trying to calm everyone down and get them to do what the police said.

Severus and Harry Potter

December Challenge: Snape and Harry

Is LJ being exceptionally robust, or is it just me?  Vandalism by pissed-off ex-employees?

It's probably just me.  But I can't get to LJstatus to find out for sure, so I thought I'd post here.

Sorry to bother everyone (okay, I'm not.  Not really.)

Edited to add:  Okay, not just me, then.  On the one hand, Phew.  On the other hand...I bet this has the potential to become epic.  Even when it turns out to be just a hiccup.

Edited again to add:  Now when LJ comes up it shows the following message:  LiveJournal.com is currently unavailable due to emergency maintenance. Don't worry, this has nothing to do with our recent company layoffs! It's a technical problem, not a lack-of-personnel problem.

Thank you for your patience.

Final edit:  It's baa-ack.  And I'm going to the bookstore.

And GreatestJournal is dead.

http://www.greatestjournal.com

A week in the new year, and two journaling services are already dead? That's harsh. Check out the 403 error.

While gamer sites are doing the "Best/Worst of 2008" awards, Zero Punctuation decides to do one too... but a little bit differently.

Back when Strikethrough was happening, I started using Semagic, and found instructions on how to use it to post to more than one journal at once. Of course, I forgot how to set it up, and the directions I'd bookmarked were on Greatestjournal. I have a new computer and I'd like to be able to simulpost; does anyone know how I can set that up again?

Thanks in advance!

ETA: Copious thanks to whiteserpent and tephra!

Snapedom - Snape as a father

See also the comments to this fanfic by mary_j_59.

Doubtless you saw this in Metafandom, but I thought I'd post it here too.
Portfollies.com poll

"Portfollies will be a social networking website where people can upload their portfolios (text, image, video and audio files), both original and fan works. The website will also offer communities/forums, and a variety of tools to help with creation and communication."

On Anime News Network's Chicks On Anime, this week's topic is censorship/editing in anime and manga. (Gee, this sure isn't going to cause wank at all.) The participants talk about different kinds of editing that North America and Japan do including nudity, violence, sexuality, smoking and alcohol, racism, AIDS, homophobia, loli/shota, and anything editors/publishers force the creators to change because they say so. It doesn't take long for the forum to become unfunny. (Ex-Answerman Zac is in there too. I am so surprised. Really.)

Speaking of censoring, ANN also posted about Kodomo no Jikan's second season promo being streamed. (Zac, the one blamed for KnJ being canceled for release in NA, in this one too.)

Edit: For anyone who wonders whether KnJ is pedo or not, all you have to do is look at the official merchandise. (Warning: Keep Brain and Eye Bleach near you, you'll need it. Oh God...)

Transformers comic book fandom wank.. Early this morning, it was about pedophilia.

My doppelgänger from the IDW fan forum Skwege learned that he had been accused of having sex with children by the IDW forum fantards on Transfans.net. Sprunkner is a real internet tough guy. Unfortunately, he made it quite easy to find his dox.

Skwege was not happy to find he'd been slandered as a pedo. So he calls (yes, as in calls Sprunkner's landline) to tell him to take it down. No yelling, just something along the lines of "call me whatever you want but accusing me of child fucking is not cool."

What does Spencer (Sprunkner's IRL name) do? He freaks out and hangs up!

That's right-he's a coward. So Skwege leaves him a voicemail:

"Hi Spencer :

You like to make libelous accusations about people having sex with kids? That is really grown up of you. Oh wow, you live in Washington State as well? What a coincidence! Bellingham is only an hour from here.

It's not funny! I know little punks like you think they can run around all anonymous on the internet and think nothing can bite them in their ass. However let me tell you little man, you are going to retract your statement, and then apologize. Talking shit about someone is one thing, but making a disgusting and FOUL comment like that is libelous. I have the time, money, resources, and most importantly the fucking patience to see this through so don't toy with me little man."

Then Sprunkner has his wife (yes, someone actually agreed to marry him) respond. He doesn't have the balls to answer Skwege himself-he makes his wife call him back and tell him not to call. Unfortunately, Spencer posted her phone number and email as his contact information.

Some PMs get exchanged on the IDW forum and Sprunkner accuses Skwege of threatening him (although I doubt the police consider being asked to take down a post or telling someone you're suing them for slander are violations of any particular laws). He makes an announcement on Transfans.net, crying that Skwege is harassing his family and that he called the po-po on him.

Sprunkner did call the police and they in turn contact Skwege.

The result? The police are highly pissed off-at Sprunkner. Because this is much ado about comic books.

All this name calling and wank is over whether or not the comic book series All Hail Megatron is in continuity.

The police were not too happy about being called to mediate a dispute over Starscream's alt mode.

They lecture Sprunkner and felt Skwege was somewhat justified. Skwege apologizes for dragging the wife into the mess because being accused of fucking children is serious business that involves the IRL banhammer.

The wank continues on Tranfan.net where Sprunkner whines some more (I guess his wife made him sleep on the couch) and Skwege threatens to post a scan of the police report.

These fine examples of male adulthood continue to fight about giant robots. I believe Sprunkner's wife summed it up succinctly in an email to Skwege: "This is a fight over made up robots-let it go."

Unfortunately, everyone ignores her.

Edit: I accept this is total fail. Need more recipes and fail macros, please.

2.1-Meter-Tall Pine-Cone Totoro Unveiled in Japan.

If only that had been in the Rose Bowl Parade, I might have watched.

The bubble in social networking has burst, decisively. LiveJournal, the San Francisco-based arm of Sup, a Russian Internet startup, has cut about 20 of 28 employees — and offered them no severance, we're told.

The company's product managers and engineers were laid off, leaving only a handful of finance and operations workers — which speaks to a website to be left on life support. Matt Berardo, a Yahoo executive hired on last summer, is also believed to be gone.

Source

Can you imagine the amazing bitchfest wankery that would go on if anything happened to LJ??? The internet would implode...

Note: This rant and the linked article refer to the upcoming Astro Boy CGI movie. If you are at all familiar with the source material, you will probably be offended by this article. Also, I hope none of you out there are big on Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, as Imagi promises that since "it is not as well known as Astro Boy, the project, about five super-powered teens fighting monsters, is open to interpretation. 'We’re kind of making up our own version based on the original 1970s cartoon.' "

http://www.star-ecentral.com/news/story.asp?file=/2009/1/4/movies/2871865&sec=movies

At the risk of pushing this into i_wank territory, WHAT THE FUCK. I mean, seriously. WHAT THE FUCK are you people thinking?

You did not just seriously say that you want to make Astro 'less feminine' because he has large eyes and, oh no, EYELASHES? He's a FREAKING 6-year-old-analogue ROBOT. What, are you worried about robo-pedophiles or something? It's not like he has tiny little robot-boy nipples to put pasties over, or a tiny little robot e-peen to cover up.

You did not just seriously argue with the goddamn Tezuka estate about the size of his ASS.

You did not just seriously say that you didn't MEAN to make a legendary Japanese iconic character look "American" but that it just kinda happened.

Just plain fucking NO. A huge bag of no.

(edit to fix URL)

This one is for my mom - she just finished reading Phantom of the Opera (book, obviously) and wants to know where the fandom is - or at least where the fanfiction is: if anyone could rec me some good bookverse fic* I would be very, very much obliged. Good mimickry of Gaston Leroux's style (in the puffin classics translation) is a gigantic bonus.

Also one from/for myself - now that I've exhausted Yuletide's offerings and am already in the middle of the Dragonchoice duology (it's good!) - is there any other good Dragonriders of Pern fic on the net? I'll read most anything, although I really like metay fic.

* (gen or het, ideally; I think she would freak if I linked her slash. Also, non-porny, since I would freak at sending links to porn to my mom)

http://kfyi.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=118695&article=4779321

"Police Arrest Man Seeking to Have Sex with 10-year-old Girl

Tip to police came from a known pimp who was 'outraged' at the suspect's request

A recent Phoenix resident is under arrest in California for allegedly trying to solicit sex with a prostitute and a 10-year-old girl. Phoenix police were notified by a pimp that one of the prostitutes working for him had received the request, and that the pimp was "infuriated" by it."

Here's how you make a Penrose triangle.

Reports of a domestic disturbance brought police to an apartment at 638 North Spaulding Saturday. Once inside, they found a home with no food, heat or running water. The house also was filled with roaches and rats. Two baby boys were lying on the floor. It was only during another check of the home that assisting officers heard noises coming from a bedroom. That's where they found a 4-month-old girl hidden between a mattress and a wall. 

Check out the comments on this one.  No story is ever complete without some moron attempting to play devil's advocate and just pissing everyone off.

An update to the story can be found here: http://www.myfoxchicago.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=8190827&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1

Dear Fansubbers,

I appreciate all the hard work that you put into subbing anime and other international titles not available in the English language.

But for the love of god! Please use common sense when you decide to get creative and place text on random spots of the fucking screen. While I don't have a problem with a line of text appearing occasionally on top to translate signs or to briefly explain certain phrases unique to that language, I don't however want a whole freaken paragraph that covers up half of the characters' faces, while at the same time translating their dialogue at the bottom of the screen.

If you must write a full explanation for a particular idiom, or a particular event in the story, please DO so at the beginning of the episode before the actual opening credits start. Do you have ANY idea how it annoying it is to see a paragraph of text over a character's face JUST to be able explain a reference that you noticed early on? It's not only distracting, but if I'm reading a paragraph of text on the screen, I'm not seeing the action that's taking place, nor reading the dialogue that's being said. I can notice events for myself without you having to point them out to me, and if I missed a reference to something, it's very unlikely that I'll give a damn. I just want to watch the damned show.

Another thing bothers me: please, please, PLEASE! Keep the subtitles at the bottom of the screen? I don't think it's asking too much to not want my eyes to have to follow a trail of text appearing on different sides of the screen at random times. That's also really annoying and really distracting. I'd like to be able to focus as much on the action as possible rather than the actual text thank you.

Sincerely,

A Lover of Foreign Entertainment