sprezzaturaronDo you remember when a group of obese people sued McDonald's for making them fat? Fortunately the jurors had a sense of self responsibility and made swiss cheese of that lawsuit. Well, it looks like our hungry friends going to sue again. That's right, they're going back for seconds.

Is it McDonald's fault for being so lip smacking, finger lickin' tasty? And motivatingly so! I know some very large people who could be outpaced by snails. Yet, when these people see a Micky D's, it's like afterburners (well, may be more like fat burners) kick in and launch them into the restaurant. Those ropes around the counter aren't just for routing people, they also act as tail hooks to catch those coming in on maximum hunger thrust. If it wasn't for the use of these ropes, there would probably even more useless lawsuits...

sprezzaturaron

Posted via email from Ron's posterous

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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!
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sprezzaturaronThieves have gotten bolder in my neighbor and not because it's an election year. The crooks that aren't running for office are waiting until the middle of the night to key-bump a lock, sneak into the house and stealthily relieve the owner of their possessions -- all without the permission of a voter majority. Not a problem because I think I have a deterrent.

Under every home lives a world of creepy, crawling creatures. I don't know very many people who would purposely rub elbows with large, fuzzy spiders, slimy snails, and a variety of multi-legged critters. Probably because none of those insects have elbows to begin with. But that's beside the point. My idea is to replace the floors in my home with glass tiles. Imagine breaking into my home and as you begin to take your first step, your flashlight shines down into what seems to be an abyss full of creatures anxiously waiting to crawl their way all over your goose-bumped flesh. Since my belongs don't amount to much, I can't imagine any thief wanting to stay and explore my home of terror.

I think this might be a great way to keep other unwanted guests such as mooching brother-in-laws, moody mother-in-laws, and people just dying to get you in their church. The only problem is that lawyers and those from tax collection agencies are probably on a first name based with your first line of defense. You may end up with bigger problems than cockroaches ...

sprezzaturaronThey say the each person brings some unwelcome baggage into an otherwise good relationship. In fact, the older you are, the baggage you have. Where did it come from? Speaking for myself, I'm not sure. Yet, once I crossed that half century mark, I seemed to have acquired a nap-snack on my stomach, an overnight luggage on my butt, and bags under my eyes. The eye bags are the worse. But I'm not the only one. Apparently, sheep have this same problem with their eyes. Is it from lack of sleep while counting their family members? Again, I don't know. But I do think this common facial trait between man and animal is where that sing-song expression comes from: "Eye cream, ewe cream, we all cream for the best eye cream." Am I right about this? Does this post show that I have the answers or am I just trying to pull the wool over my eyes to hide those unsightly bags?

dwell
lj_maintenanceEDIT: 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.

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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.

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status.livejournal.org will, of course be updated before and after the maintenance window. Or else marta will get mad at me. :D

bt