aoi_no_ajisai

Tweaks and enhancements

1. In order to improve site security, we've temporarily suspended the ability to change passwords for old email addresses that haven't been used for over six months. For further information and support, please visit our customer care page.
2. We've launched a new mobile site with an enhanced UI at m.livejournal.com. View spotlights, post to your journal, read and post to friends pages, and more, no matter where you roam! Please let us know what you think, since this will eventually replace our existing mobile interface. You can update your mobile preferences on your account page.
3. We've upgraded from Beacon to Facebook Connect to improve dual posting. If you've already signed up for Facebook Beacon, you're good to go. If you wish to update your Facebook Connect setting, visit Account Privacy settings and scroll down to the option labeled: "Send information about my updates to Facebook." You can choose Always or Ask each time. Remember to save (on the bottom left corner of the page). To learn more, check out FAQ 249. While we're on the subject, if you happen to be visiting that side of town, please join our Facebook fan page for a touch of home away from home.
4. You'll now receive the Writer's Block Question of the Day in the body of email notifications. To sign up for Writer's Block notifications, visit writersblock and choose the Watch Community option. Next, update your Writer's Block notification settings by checking the box to the right of "Someone posts a new entry to writersblock."
5. Paid and permanent users can now view, add, and edit Notes of commenters. Notes will appear beside the username of comment posters (instead of stars) on S1-themed comment pages.

Send some lovin' thanks to your friends with our holiday vgifts!

Photos of the week

We're so delighted with the immense talent of our growing, global lj_photophile community that we've decided to introduce a poll. Each week, we'll choose a half-dozen photos (based on user comments and staff feedback) and ask you to select a photo of the week. The winning photo will be announced in the next newsletter. If possible, please limit photo size to 350x350 to ensure that images display properly on friends pages. We want to thank you again (and again!) for sharing your passion.

Check out this week's photo poll and more fantastic user content after the jump!

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Curtains

Thanks for joining us. To our American friends, have a fantastic Thanksgiving. To all of our international neighbors, we'll eat a little extra for you!

Postcard winners!

We wish to extend our heartfelt gratitude for sending so much joy our way. Frank is still blushing with excitement over the love notes, proposals, propositions, and occasional intimate photos sent from his admirers around the world (China, Norway, Japan, and Poland just this week)! At his request, we blindfolded Justin, one of Frank's BFFs, spun him around in five dozen counterclockwise circles, and asked him to point to ten random postcards/envelopes pasted to the wall. After a brief trip to the bathroom, he chose the following lucky winners, to whom we will give a six-month paid account token (for paid, basic, and plus users) or, for our permanent account holders, a $15 voucher for the LiveJournal gift shop.

So, without further ado, the winners are:

1. seraphene
2. fotog
3. boykitten
4. seshat_6
5. anti_aol
6. lisalees
7. katrinkacat
8. mistyboston
9. _woody_lein
10. another_slender

Bugs, Tweaks, and Enhancements

1. We fixed a bug from the last release that was causing screened comments to become unscreened if they were edited
2. If you happen to be gaming around the corner, check us out on Facebook and be sure to spread the word!
3. We've added new vgifts to celebrate Thanksgiving! Check out our feathered friend, below!

Give more with charitable vgifts

In honor of national adoption month, we're offering a charitable vgift (priced at $2.99) to support Love Without Boundaries, an organization that provides healthcare and adoption to orphans suffering from life-threatening diseases. LiveJournal will donate 100% of gross proceeds from the sale (we'll cover the cost of credit card transaction fees). To learn more about Love Without Boundaries, please visit lj_cares. You can purchase your Love Without Boundaries vgifts in the Virtual Gift shop. We'll keep you posted on how much we raise!

Photos of the week

We're delighted to showcase yet more incredible photos from some of our brilliant LiveJournal photographers around the world. Keep posting (and tagging). And be sure to show some love by commenting on the awesome view at lj_photophile.

Check out this week's photos and more amazing user content after the jump!

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Curtains

Thanks, again, for joining us. See you next week!

Dear Rebecca,

There are still some days when I really miss you and reminisce about how much fun we used to have. I haven't seen you in 8 years. You were my best friend in 6th-8th grade, and we were basically inseparable. When I met you in 6th grade, I had no idea there was a bigger social misfit than me, but you, you were it.

We stuck together because no one really liked us. Do you remember the "class agenda". We were supposed to use it to discuss problems we had with people in the class once a week in class, by writing down notes that we would discuss as a class later. But we knew better. It was just a method to pick on the unpopular kids- you and me being the victims usually. I remember I was always put on the agenda for telling kids to "shut up", and you were put on it for calling someone a "mother-father". I remember the whiny voices clearly in my head. "I'm putting you on the agenda." No one ever put the popular kids on the agenda for calling someone a "mother-father".

But in some ways, we were opposites. I was one of the tallest kids in the class and I was healthy and energetic. You were frail and the smallest, skinniest girl with glasses. While I ran around and could not stay still from being an over-energetic, immature tomboy, you just ran your mouth around and could not keep that still. Back then you could clearly see who was the more creative one. You loved to play pretend and make believe, I liked to just play outside or my video games. You were the best story-teller I'd ever known, and I'm sure you'd have made the most hardcore dungeon master if you ever went that path.

You used to always come up with these make believe RPG games based on those Disney Movies run on tv in the 90s. I remember you trying to get me to go along with one based on this Witch movie. Actually, looking back at it, the movie reminded me of Harry Potter with witches. You were the main witch and I was the sidekick... BUT DUN DUN DUUUNNN. PLOT TWIST. I was the evil little bitch-witch in disguise! Wait... what? I had trouble following you, and I always wanted to just climb on things.I didn't understand pretend games. I was never the kind of girl who liked to play "House".

You got me so into Sailor Moon- my first anime. It was a path that would take me to Pokemon, and then to anime, and then to Japan. I was Sailor Venus, you were Sailor Saturn. You pulled off a pretty mean Sailor Saturn on Halloween in 8th grade. Your father was Jewish, as mine was too, but your family embraced its Jewish heritage more so than mine, and you inspired me to explore Judaism once again. You used to take me to Temple with you sometimes. I really enjoyed singing in Hebrew with your Temple. I wished that my parents would take me too. We spent the night at each other's houses so often. Your family was really kind to me too. Your sister and I were really close too, and your mother once let me share Christmas with your family because mine never celebrated.


In 8th grade, you introduced me to my friend Jennifer, who still manages to be one of my best friends to this day. I wish that you and I were still friends. Jenn and I get along the most poorly out of all my friends. We've just been friends for so long, that we get though all our squabbles and tantrums. Jenn told me that she remembers how you and I used to fight. I remember you threw my keys off my desk in a fit of rage in Mr. Ziemer's History class one day. It was because I didn't want you to go to a different high school than me, but later on, I think I was grateful.

I can forgive a lot of things about you. I could forgive your bouts of drama, I could forgive your excessive chattiness, I could forgive your inconsideration by not trying to include me in activities I was poor at. But I can't forgive liars.

I don't know when I started to realized how much of a liar you were. How you made up lies to get out of trouble regularly. I wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt. I was furious when you told a friend of yours to call me because you considered me a loner and thought I needed more friends. It was a kind of awkward conversation, and when I confronted you about it, you acted like you didn't even know who the girl was. You were a great actress and it was so easy for you to get people to believe you were being genuine.

I remember another time when I asked you to put back my garbage can by the house when my parents and I were on vacation because my parents have always been paranoid about people knowing we were gone from the house. All you had to do was walk 10 minutes to my house, roll the garbage can back up to the gate, and go home. I would have done the same for any friend who had asked. When we found this had not be done, I confronted you on it. I asked why you couldn't do such a simple request, and you looked aghast and said that you were certain that you had done this, and your sister went and put it back just to mess with you. I said that I believed you, but I wasn't so stupid.

I also don't remember exactly when your creativity warped into overexaggerated fake stories which you claimed were true. It's like you took those make believe games that you used to try to get me to play to a completely new level.No one even bothered to tell you you were a liar, I think you really fooled a lot of kids. There was just a few of us who didn't believe you. I do remember some of the content of the countless stories you would make up to try to impress people. You always were a great story teller... There was that one about how you got in a gang fight and beat up 10 guys twice your size. And about how you were just in the hospital for a week after you tried to land a 680 (on a skateboard?) and landed on your head. Then there was the story about how you went to the junior bootcamp and learned how to do 60 pushups. You told that one to my dad, who clearly saw through that. When asked to perform all those pushups, you told him that your arms were injured from some kind of other freak accident.

If there is one aspect of my character I value, it was my honesty. Yes, I am often blunt and disrespectful, but I just can't imagine living life lying about everything all the time. After you and I separated after Junior High, I really didn't want anything to do with you. I told my mom how I felt about you when she asked why she rarely saw you anymore. I told her about your lies, and she said that it made complete sense.

Your dad yelled... a lot. At everything. He didn't beat you, but every little thing you did wrong caused him to yell. He yelled at you putting the sweater on the dog when he was shivering in the morning because the weather was "too warm for that", he yelled at you for clacking on the keyboard too loudly. I can't imagine how it would be like to have a father like that. He was terrible at showing affection, and while I could really tell you thought the world of him, he did not show this, he just yelled.

My mom said that since you were the oldest child, you felt responsible to protect your little sister and yourself from your father's hurtful(and loud) words. Lying was how you protected yourself, and protected her. Naomi was not a liar. She was quite "normal" by most standards, especially compared to you. By being the oldest sibling, you took the brunt of the abuse, and the lying just developed into a coping mechanism. Some point while we were in high school, your mother decided she could not take all the yelling and they were divorced. I remember you mentioning(lying) something about you being legally emancipated and your parents having a custody battle over your little sister.

The last time I saw you was on a bus. You said that you wanted to hang out again, and asked for my phone number as I was getting off the bus. I told it to you quickly, as to diminish any chance of you calling me. I knew that your lies would just get worse, and while I felt bad for your situation, I could not try to salvage a relationship with a girl who not only lied to me constantly, but thought it was fun to make shit up on a daily basis and then pretend it was true.

When I think about you, I try to remember the camaraderie we had in 6th and 7th grade. While we had a fair share of drama, we did so much together and had so much fun. When I think about why I didn't want to be your friend anymore, it makes me somewhat melancholy as I wish that things would have been different. At the same time, it makes me angry because your family situation isn't an excuse to me. We could have remained close, like me and Jenn. Jenn was also the oldest, of four, not two siblings, and she had more family drama than you could ever imagine. She was always the mediator, she was always responsible. Your dad yelled? Jenn's dad tried to kill himself because her crazy mom got a restraining order put on him just because of her paranoid/vindictive nature, and these days, he's not interested in seeing any of the kids he helped raise. She was never a liar, and she was always a great friend to me. She has been the most consistent friend I have ever had.

I'm not sure if I will ever hear about you again. I have never found any leads about you or your sister online. I hope that wherever you are now, you are doing better. I miss you, and I hope that you have learned to stop lying. You just can't keep friends like that.

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This has been an entry for therealljidol. Any criticism is welcome. I will add something to this entry about voting information later on if you feel inclined to vote for me. Thanks for reading!

You can vote for me right HERE Thank you!

I mentioned how I was spending 3 weeks in November in my hometown to watch over the dog (since the PRECIOUS cannot be kenneled) and I wasn't looking forward to it because I was going to be really bored?

Well a couple days before I came, Justin gave me an announcement. Right now, he's snoring away on my bed as I study *cough*doljidolvoting*cough*. It was really sweet of him to come visit and keep me company. I was super busy with school work up until last night, but now I don't have much to do, so hopefully I can think of some fun things to do with him.

I went on a tour of the university archives where my Archives Professor works in UC Berkeley. The stupid thing was that I parked in a 2 hour parking spot about 2 miles from the campus, so I was really lucky to make it to my tour and just miss a little of it. I've never seen an archives so focused on manuscripts before. It's unlike any of the archives I've worked at. The extent of the financial crisis was really going to hit them hard next year. It's pretty sad, considering they have a huge backlog and it costs at least 6000 dollars to process a collection.

After the tour, some classmates from the program who I knew, and me and Justin went out for lunch. I was very happy to get milk tea, but I wanted a second milk tea, so I got the pudding one, which is really disgusting : (. I think I tried Wei-Chen's pudding milk tea one day, and I remember being disgusted, so I don't know why I didn't recall that. Trying a new milk tea isn't always a great thing.

Then, I decided to follow my friend to this comic book shop because I thought Justin would like it. I managed to settle down with some emo Fruits Basket Comic (well, which one isn't emo? BEST SERIES EVER.) while Justin wandered around the store. While it was the biggest comic book store I'd ever been in, he complained because the store is organized poorly or something like that.

Also, I watched Audrey Hepburn's first movie: Roman Holiday. I saw the very end of it several months ago. Mom likes to watch old movies sometimes, but it was nice to see the whole thing. The movie was very rare for its time because it was filmed completely in Rome. I'm using dad's Netflicks account for it.

I hope I can see "Where the Wild Things Are." with Justin before it leaves theaters! He also demanded to see that Star Trek exhibit going on in San Jose. He saw a commercial about it, and I was going to go with dad when he came back from Australia, originally, but I guess we can make our own Trek up to San Jose to see it.

You guys wouldn't believe how spoiled Burns is. He gets away with everything. My parents don't kennel him because he's too "fragile" so anytime they go anywhere, they expect me to look after him. I have to prepare his meals- which involves cooking veggies and other carbs like rice and oatmeal for him, as well as cutting up his raw meat. My parents check on me regularly to make sure I do all that and take him on a walk daily. Not to mention that he gets bored and starts giving me bruises.

I was also commanded to take him to his German Shepard socialization class. Here is a status report I e-mailed my dad yesterday.

I took him to his dog class today. I finally met Baron and Harley. Harley was very nice and good-tempered. Baron was actually very friendly with me, but mean to other dogs. Baron kept picking a fight with this new dog (Tray). His owner, Dick, made everyone walk around and around the tennis net , every single time Tray and Baron passed each other, Baron kept trying to attack Tray.

At some point Gloria interjected and said that everything is wrong and she wants to hire a special trainer to work with the dogs because the dogs keep getting all this negative attention from trying to attack each other all the time and it's counter productive. She doesn't even want to invite new dogs to your class because she said they'll learn bad behaviors from the aggressive dogs. She also said that she's not going to breed Baron's mother any more because of what bad dogs his litter turned out. She pissed Dick off, and I guess Dick doesn't like that guy, Patrick because he said that Baron had a screw loose (he does, though... ). I said that Burns has a screw loose too, but Patrick really helped to tighten it. What's funny is that I was surprised how Baron was such a small dog... Anyway, for the next several Saturday mornings, there is going to be a trainer coming in (Lissa or Patrick?) to work with the dogs. Gloria said that Burns was the most improved dog. I'm not sure if the training will really affect Burns, but I'll try to learn something from it.


Gloria is Burns' breeder and actually he was mean to her when she was like "WHO ARE YOU." because she was surprised my dad wasn't there, I guess, and I wasn't my dad. I'm surprised no one recognized him, except for my parents' friend. That friend said, btw, not to mention to my dad that Burns was mean to her, because I guess he's never done that before! That dog Baron is the smallest male and he's SO aggressive. Every time I've went to the socialization class, he wasn't there, so this time I got to see for myself. Burns is really good in the class. He is no longer aggressive with any dog there, but at the same time, he wants nothing to do with any of the dogs. He just doesn't like to play with his peers. Dad said that Burns reminds him of a little loner kid at the playground who no one wants to play with. lol. He likes to only play with his family.

Burns also acts really bad in the car. My parents had to get this special restraint for him because he literally jumps at your head, over the seat while driving. He tried to do that to me twice, but since he was restrained, I only got scratched. At least my hair covers the ugly bruises that would have made D:.

Yeah, so it's been a lot of work with Burns, but he's also super cute and when he's in a calmer mood, I love to hug and kiss him!

Oh, and one more random thing, Justin went and got this computer certification! I'm really proud of him, though I wish he'd done in sooner. It's great that he got it done. he says he wants two more certifications. I hope he gets both of them, the last one he wants to get, the Cisco one (my dad works for them : ) ) is apparently really hard so he needs to take a class for it. I'm really happy he's more serious about his career path. That was always a sticking point in our relationship.