Just so you all know, the dragon I won in Animal Kingdom has a name.




Sylvester Henri Melichor the Third

^_____________^

I'm just taking this post to say how much I love, love, LOVE Kurt Hummel. Oh my God. Like, I loved him before, but now? NOW HE HAS MADE ME CRY. And believe it or not that's a good thing because I DON'T CRY EASILY AND HE MADE ME DO IT. T^T All right, I actually only teared up because I only really cry when I'm stressed, but this is my first time since I started watching Glee and considering some of the moments they've had (Quinn in Keep Holding On, anyone?), that's saying something.

I already knew Kurt was going to blow Defying Gravity on purpose because of the phone call (I'm a spoiler whore, yes, I know), but it's one thing to read the line and see the screen caps and another to actually watch the actors perform it. And Kurt, when he sang the intentionally sour note after being so proud of himself for hitting the - what was it, high F? - note perfectly when he practiced, the look on his face...it killed me. And then, oh Jesus, and then the talk with his FATHER?

When I saw you right after you got the call and you were so hurt and so upset...it just killed me. I'm not saying I'm going to hide in the closet. I'm proud of who I am. I'm just saying that I love you more than I love being a star.

I teared up. Chris Colfer delivered that line beautifully. And actually, I'm surprised that I love his father so much. At the beginning he seems like the stereotypical Truck Loving Manly Man Mechanic, but you saw it in Preggers and you saw it here. The man is a good, understanding and SUPPORTIVE father. Maybe he's not yet ready to talk to Kurt about guys, but when he marched into Figgins' office to chew Schue out for denying Kurt the solo, I fell in love with the guy right there. And the phone call, afterward ALL he cared about was Kurt, and how he didn't want him to get hurt but by God, son, you get up there and beat Rachel Berry because "no one pushes the Hummel's around".

This is what it's about, people. This is what it's a-BLOODY-bout! *flails with love for the entire Hummel family*

And guys, the version where he did hit the high note? It was very good! Chris has got a lovely soprano voice, it could be mistaken for a girl (if she had a bit deeper voice than normal). You can really tell how the lyrics speak to Kurt. Rachel's just 'singing' it, and I think trying too hard (of course, that's the character, especially considering how she was so sure everyone would pick Kurt because he's more popular), but Kurt's living it. I loved how he looked at Rachel and Schue when he sang, "I'm through accepting limits 'cause someone says they're so".

The rest of the episode was nice, especially for the focus on Artie (and Tina, to an extent), and it's always fantastic to see Sue Sylvester in any way, shape or form. And the food fight with Puck and Quinn? THE CUTENESS SCALES BROKE. I love them so much. I'm so happy Glee has taken what could have been stereotypical antagonists (the bitchy cheerleader, the punk bully, the macho father) and made them lovable, wonderful characters you look forward to seeing no matter how big their scene is.

Next episode I'm not so crazy about. As hilarious as it is to see Rachel crushing on Schue, I'm pretty lukewarm about her. I don't hate her as a character, and I think her voice is beautiful, but she's that personality type that just grates on me. I need her in small doses. But Emma's back, so yay!

Anyway, I just needed to squee over this episode - over Kurt. Aaaah, I love having new fandom loves. Especially when they're not villains! I don't think you guys realize just how RARE that is for me. Hee hee.

EDIT: YOU GUYS. YOU GUYS.

" Chris Colfer, who plays the sharp-tongued and high-pitched Kurt on Glee, may not have had to do much research to identify with his character’s story this week.

“When I was in high school, every year we would have a talent show,” explains Colfer. “Every year I would beg the teachers to let me sing “Defying Gravity” from [the musical] Wicked. And every year they turned me down because I’m a boy and it was ‘a girl’s song.’” Sound familiar? If you watched Wednesday’s show, it probably does. After Chris shared his story with Glee creator Ryan Murphy, the tale was incorporated into the story for the episode. "

Rest of the article is here. http://tvwatch.people.com/2009/11/12/glees-chris-colfer-reveals-real-life-story-behind-kurts-diva-moment/

I think I'm starting to love Chris just as much as I love Kurt. Considering the role was written for him because he's THAT AWESOME, it's understandable.

Okay. Seriously done now. *goes to finish psych homework*

PS - I need a Kurt icon. Now. Wave bye bye to the crazy schedule icon, kids! Minute I find the perfect icon of soprano notes, superior fashion and ultimate awesome, it's going down.

PPS - I have one~!

OKAY. I HAD a whole post typed out, but because my dad's laptop sucks (even he admits it; there's a reason we only bring this thing out when we have to) it ate the post up. Ugh. So I'm putting the highlights in bullet form.

* Epcot was on Friday. Much more crowded than before, but still bearable. I love Japan. Got a giant box of pocky in their gift store. Morocco was beautiful, zomg. Mom loved France and its pastries (I just loved hearing them talk) and Dad was nuts over Germany. Stayed for the fireworks show on the water. Very pretty.

* MGM (I STILL CALL IT THIS, SCREW THIS "HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS") was last yesterday. I think this is my least favorite. Went on Rock 'n Roller Coaster for the first time. I kept expecting a drop, but there was none. I really enjoyed it because of this, though I think I was the only one. The stunt show bored me. I dunno, I think anything related to cars bores me. Not good for motivating me to drive. We left early.

* And went to Downtown Disney for dinner at Rainforest Cafe. Very good, I love that place. Chocolate Volcano was ordered. Devoured. Conquered.

So now I'm back home, and am very happy to be so. As amazing as Disney is, it's nice to be back in my own room with a working computer. I now have a huge pile of make up work to tackle, but hey, it's the price you pay.

Buuuut....first I'm watching that Glee episode I missed. Defying Gravity! X3

You guys.

YOU GUYS.

It happened again.

NO LINES.

Everest, Expedition FREAKIN' Everest, had a wait time of LESS THAN 5 MINUTES.

People, I rode that ride eight times. You heard me! EIGHT TIMES IN ONE DAY. Four times straight when I got in, and four times straight right before I left. My sister did the last four with me, and Dad made it three times. But dude. This ride. I wasn't even that crazy about it before there was NO WAIT TIME. AAAAHHHHHH!

The rest of the day was pretty cool, but that was the highlight. Oh yeah, and they've got these carnival type games in Dinosuar USA (or something) and there must have been aliens interfering with the lunar waves or something because I won the extra large prize. So now I've got this nearly six feet long (if stretched) green serpent-dragon thingie on my bed. I need to think of a name...

....EIGHT TIMES.

Notes augmented

We've enhanced and de-bugged Notes. If you haven't tried it yet, now's the time! You can create a private note when you ban multiple users. You can also delete multiple notes at once. Lastly, paid users have the option to add a note (visible only to you) whenever you add or remove a friend (guaranteed to avoid embarrassing social mishaps). If you don't currently have a paid account, you can upgrade now! It only takes a few minutes and costs less than a bad shopping mall haircut (plus, it's way more fashionable)!

Product tweaks and bug kill

1. In another effort to zap spam, comments containing links from domains LiveJournal deems untrustworthy are now automatically screened
2. If you sign up to get notifications of the Writer's Block question of the day, you'll now see the daily question in the email notification, so you'll have a little extra time to ponder before you post. You can subscribe to Writers Block notifications here
3. The issue causing random comments to vanish has been fixed!
4. If you visit a LiveJournal page and get prompted to log in, you'll be returned to the same page after you sign in (Thanks, Dreamwidth)!
5. If you don't edit the timestamp for an entry at all, the entry timestamp will indicate the time the entry was posted instead of the time the Update Journal page was loaded
6. Comments with paddings/backgrounds render correctly within the comment box (and will no longer wrap outside the box and break frames/margins)

New FCK fixes rich text editor!

1. We've updated our RTE (Rich Text Editor) to FCKeditor version 2.6.5
2. When switching from the RTE to HTML editor, links for syndicated feeds are no longer broken
3. RTE now functions properly in Safari 4.0
4. An extra line/space will not be auto-inserted whenever you switch from RTE to HTML editor
5. The insert image link now works correctly in all browsers

LiveJournal Cares

We’re pleased to introduce you to lj_cares, a new LiveJournal community dedicated to raising awareness and funds for U.S. charitable organizations that improve the health and well-being of people around the world. Each month, we’ll spotlight a nonprofit that is making a significant global impact through medical research, public outreach, and/or humanitarian social programs. Charities will be selected in accordance with the U.S. calendar of national health observances based on a high rating (of over 60%) on Charity Navigator and global scope of impact.

In this, our inaugural month of November, we will celebrate national adoption month by offering a charitable virtual gift (priced at $2.99) to support Love Without Boundaries, an organization that saves the lives of orphans with life-threatening diseases and places them in loving homes around the world. LiveJournal will donate 100% of the proceeds from the sale of charitable vgifts (we'll cover the cost of credit card transaction fees). To learn more about Love Without Boundaries, please visit lj_cares and read about how they helped save Baby Kang and the Rainbow Twins from fatal illnesses, who are now thriving in nurturing families. You can purchase your Love Without Boundaries gifts in the Virtual Gift shop.

Papered in postcards

A couple of weeks ago, we asked you to send in postcards to surround us with LiveJournal community. Thanks for coming through! We've received postcards all the way from Germany, Finland, and Canada and from all over the US, including Texas, Florida, Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, Indiana, Hawaii, and Oklahoma just to name just a handful. We're thrilled with our improved decor.

Please keep the love coming for one more week by writing 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 drawing the names of ten random contributors next Thursday to win paid account credits!

Photos of the week

We have more dazzling images posted by talented LiveJournal photographers from around the world. We're hoping to span the entire globe, so please continue posting and tagging. Of course, you can also sit back and enjoy the view at lj_photophile.

You can see a sample of this week's gorgeous photos and check out spotlight communities and awesome user content after the jump!

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Curtains

We thank you, once again, for joining us. See you next week!

Awesome day was awesome. We went to Magic Kingdom first, which was great because that's my favorite park. The weather was gorgeous. Very gray skies because of Ida, but it miraculously didn't rain and so it was only shady, windy, and cool all day. *squees* Oh my God, and the lines.

THE LINES.

There were none.

I don't know whether it was the weather or the day or both, but the longest line I waited in was thirty minutes. Everything else? 5 minute wait. 10 minute wait. 20 minute wait that was really only around 14. We got to the park a little after 8. By 3 p.m. we'd done EVERYTHING. And then there was even time to do Thunder Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean and Buzz Lightyear a second time. With the same wait times! 'Cept for the second Thunder, that was my 30 minute wait. But so worth it, I love that ride.

So remember how I said Space Mountain's closed for renovations? Well the People Mover/Tram-thingie was still going. For those who don't know it's just this little train that takes you around Tomorrowland to show you all the stuff you can do. Really great if you want to rest your legs. Well, it always goes inside Space Mountain. Usually the place is dark and you watch flashes of light as the people ride the thing. This time, because of the construction, it was brightly lit, and I got to see Space Mountain actually lit up. Oh my God, it was WEIRD. It just looks like a bunch of metal twisted all over and into itself. Madness! XD

Zomg, though, the drive UP. Because of where we are and the time change, we drove the entire way at night, and it WOULD NOT STOP RAINING. which isn't so bad, but we're on the freeway, right? So we're driving along and suddenly my mom lets out this horrified, drawn out gasp, like she's bracing herself. It was too dark for me to see, but my dad made a similar noise a few seconds later. Turns out a car lost control on the wet road, spun out, and was heading right for us. The guard rail between the lanes stopped him.

Fast forward only 15 minutes later.

ANOTHER CAR spins out of control, heading in our direction. This time I HEAR it hide the guard rail and slide down, spinning wildly. Even my dad got a bit spooked, because seriously, FIFTEEN MINUTES had gone by since the first car. Yikes.

Animal Kingdom tomorrow, and then my sister and I come back to the condo (which is free, *squee* I love my dad) while Mom and Dad go have their anniversary dinner at the Gaylord Palms resort. Guys, I was in there for dinner on Tuesday, you WILL NOT find a more beautiful hotel. Nope. Never. I know you're thinking of a pretty one you've gone to. Trash it. It's NOTHING compared to this. This thing is a live ATRIUM. And decorated for the holidays. So uh uh. Sorry. Our hotel beats yours. XP (Well, technically not OURS, we only ate there, but still.)

Hope you all are enjoying your day. <3

EDIT@08:16 UTC/GMT. Wow. That was ugly. I expected it to go for 30 minutes and have maybe 1 minute of broken connectivity. Instead it lasted over 4 hours and we had 10 minutes of downtime directly related to the load balancer upgrades and then another 5-10 minutes of downtime when our primary Pingback database server crashed and the secondary couldn't take over; which could have been indirectly caused by the network upgrade missing a self-VIP.

Anyways, we're up, we're working, the load balancers are barely breaking a sweat right now and I need some food and a shot of whiskey. I don't even *like* whiskey!!

Thanks mhwest and dnewhall for helping out!

---

On Saturday the 14th at 4AM UTC/GMT we will be upgrading the operating system of our network load balancers to a newer version, one that will allow us to use both CPUs! Nifty, because multiprocessing is nice.

Since we have 2 load balancers, the plan is to upgrade 1 at a time, and there really should be very little impact to our website. Hopefully you won't notice a thing and I'll get to go back to the hotel and watch some wonderful late night infomercials.

We've got a lot of exciting projects coming up for 2010 and we're hoping that we'll be able to deliver them all to you, that you will find it useful/cool/lovely and then you will use the site even more. Behind-the-scenes work like this will give us the capacity to handle the anticipated traffic, so expect a few more maintenance windows especially in the beginning of next year as we've got some neat ideas to improve performance around here! We had the recent 30-45 minute outage yesterday due to one of our logging databases filling up disk space -- not so great design coupled with my human error in handling the initial problem -- and it looks like we're going to finally have some resources to eliminate stuff like that. I can't wait!

As usual, I will be updating status.livejournal.org before and after, just in case you are not able to reach our main website during the work.

I'm off tomorrow! X3 Hee, I go through school as normal and then I come home, help my dad pack the car, and then we all head up to Disney World for FIVE DAYS. *flails* I haven't been in years, I'm so excited. Still sad that Space Mountain will be down the entire time (okay, secretly bawling eyes out, but sssshh!), and Mom's worried because Ida's making the forecast look rainy/stormy, but come on. DISNEY WORLD. It'll be worth all the make up work due when I get back.

Like in Pensacola, Dad's bringin' the laptop, so I'll keep y'all posted while I'm there, and still hop on Meebo to chat and RP.

So excited! *squee*

sixwordstories
Whether you're in the mood for a creative challenge or you're short on time or attention span, this semi-addictive community is perfect for those who find flash fiction way long. Once you get the hang of it, you won't be able to stop. The prince turned into a frog. The girl ran home to mother. Tough to write. Easy to read. It's a double threesome of fun.

dailyfoodie
Delicious, ambitious, and occasionally nutritious dishes make for an eclectic, all-you-can-eat feast. Whether you're searching for recipes for your next dinner party or you're jonesing for a late-night brownie fix, your cravings are sure to be well sated. A warm and inclusive community that welcomes all orientations, from carnivores to vegans, from gourmands to junk-food junkies. Guaranteed bias-free, food-positive, and pan-epicurian.

My TMJ's acting up for the first time in a while. My jaw feels tense and sore, especially high up by my ears, and I keep opening and flexing my jaw to try and relieve it, even though I know I'm not supposed to. And to make things worse, I've lost the cream I put in my ears, so now they are messing with me too, itching and stinging.

TT^TT

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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aiyatheydidnt
The Chinese version of ONTD, AIYA is a dynamic international community that welcomes users who share a love of contemporary Chinese pop culture. Dedicated to celebrity gossip and entertainment news, you'll enjoy gorgeous photos and breaking stories featuring the glitterati of mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

wendylady2
Designed to rescue fashion victims everywhere, this Brit-based community reads like a rag-ezine. Published once or twice weekly, you'll view bizarre highlights of the global fashion scene through captivating photos and delightfully snarky editorial. Sit tight for a virtual fashion tour from the runways of New York to Milan to Paris and back home again to London in homage to the adage: you can't buy good taste.

soldiers_heart
A passionate community for veterans of all ages (mostly American), plus families, friends, and supporters. View poignant snapshots detailing life in combat and back on civilian soil in the form of original artwork, personal narratives, poetry, and photos. Be forewarned that members don't shy away from describing their disappointments, disabilities, and struggles.