Running Down a Dream

A friend has lost everything, including an extensive library, in the Queensland floods in Australia.

A book drive is being organized to help her replace as many as the books as we can. She's having other needs (for herself and her kitties) taken care of at the moment, but her books meant a lot to her.

I know I have a lot of book lovers on my flist, so if you have some you were considering getting rid of, or if you know where you can pick up some used books and are willing to donate them, please check out the link and see if you can find any on her list.

This day is called the Feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a-tiptoe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall see this day and live t'old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say "To-morrow is Saint Crispian":
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars
And say "These wounds I had on Crispin's day."
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now abed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

-- Shakespeare, King Henry V, Act IV, Scene III

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Banner by magic_art

Also, check out APoD. Guh.

For those who don't know:

Some people have affiliate codes for Amazon and other similar sites. This means when they link to an item on Amazon, if you buy it, they get a tiny portion of the cost. I don't believe it's much, but it can put a little change in your pocket.

So LJ has decided this is cool for THEM, so they've added a script to their code that adds their affiliate code to Amazon/eBay/etc links you post, so THEY get the reward. It won't strip your affiliate code if you happen to have one (supposedly), but it will check all your outbound links and tack on their affiliate code so they can profit. So if you've noticed "outboundlink.me" running on your LJ pages, that's what that is. (Please note their first run of this fucked things up and stripped users' affiliate codes AND messed up all sorts of links, and their latest update has apparently screwed up people's ability to ctrl-click to open a link in a new tab.)

If you're like me and run Firefox and NoScript (so much safer than Internet Explorer), then you may have noticed that the script is completely screwing with all links. If you click, they don't do anything. You have to right click | open in new tab, or if you click several times in a row, the link will eventually open.

There's a better explanation here (and here), but the jist is if you don't want LJ hijacking your links and redirecting them, you should do this:

* go to the admin console
* enter "set opt_exclude_stats 1" (without the quotes)
* hit execute

This will put an end to LJ's fuckery. (It puts an end to a lot of the crap LJ tries to slip in, actually.) This little known command is actually their official response to complaints. They won't comment on how this is extremely bad form on LJ's part. Not only is it a huge security risk, it's a terrible policy to go modifying your users' content (and altering links is modifying content) without telling them you're doing it, and while trying your best to hide the fact that you're doing it. It's even worse to make that policy, screw it up, take the script down, then go right back to your old tricks. I am extremely uncomfortable with LJ sending my links to a third party, particularly one that has a very sketchy reputation. LJ, I am disappointed.

My baby boy Tristan is gone. He only had one working kidney, and it was failing fast. The best thing I could do for him was to let him go peacefully and painlessly. I'm a bit of a wreck right now, so please bear with me if my mood is erratic for the next few days. I'm going to be doing my best to distract myself and shower Galahad with love. Goodbye, my sweet boy. I love you so much. Mornings are never going to be the same without you tapping my face to wake me up. I will miss you walking across my keyboard or giving me a 20lb headbutt in the boob when you want my attention.

We had 13 happy years together, and now he's waiting for me with Scamper and Missy and Morris and Raven and Dito and Xena and Mordred and Sunny and Rico and Sheba. He lived with me from New England to Atlanta and back again, through relationships and breakups and roommates. He was obnoxious, he was a brat, he was a downright dick sometimes, but he was also one of the most loving cats I have ever known. Every time he was at the vet the doctors and nurses and techs would tell me how handsome he was and how much of an attention whore he was. I used to joke that if anyone every broke into my apartment, he would wander over to say "Hey, put the TV down and pet me!"

I love you, Tristan. I'll see you again, promise.

I think I'm coming down with the flu. My body is aching and I'm coughing and sneezing. So I am taking a nap. But before I do, I must share this picture from Entertainment Weekly magazine:

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That is all.

'Cuz half my flist did it.

Because I've been threatened with violence if I don't post this....

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Because not_from_stars requested them, icons from the Petite Ninja Warrior photo shoot of ANTM Cycle 13:

Examples


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One day I'll remember to start posting here again regularly. ;)