Below are the most recent 14 friends' journal entries.

Saturday, May 17th, 2008
wixenstyx	7:29p	Prince Caspian Lots of spoilers. Fair warning. ( Read more... ) Current Mood: disappointed (1 Comment |Comment on this)
wixenstyx	5:27p	No More Monkeys Jumping on the Wix! May is always wroght with hoops to jump through, I swear. ( Read more... ) Current Mood: overwhelmed (Comment on this)
2_gryphon	1:59a	10.0 on the slaptor scale. You know, I was going to hold off on bitching about this and just wait until the next 2 Sense, but I changed my mind. I want to say something about it now. Generally, I want to slap... people. Groups of people. I'm more fond of blanket slaps than just backhanding individuals. However, now and then, a particular person will step into the "please slap me personally" spotlight and I often have to flood my mind with thoughts of jail to keep myself from reconstructing the fucker's face. Not long ago, I was sitting in the Department of Human Services. "Why were you at the DHS, 2?" Well, to put this questions behind me, I was there to apply for food stamps. I'm an exceedingly impoverished gryphon and that puts a big dent in some of my fondest activities... like eating. So, here I sit, waiting to be seen by a social worker. It's 9am, and the room looks like the DMV for the cast of The Road Warrior. It's filled with people who haven't had showered in weeks. Mothers with too many kids who have little to no clothing on. Bums wrapped in layers of greasy sweat shirts. Mexican farm workers who didn't realize they'd be out of a job come winter. The people are waiting in lines and filling out government forms thicker than War And Peace. Some of them have already been there for an hour and will be there for hours more, waiting and hoping they don't miss the tiniest detail in the gauntlet of government hoops you have to jump through to get assistance, lest they be sent all the way back to the beginning to do it again. Now, enter the prissy bitch. She is one of the social workers there, apparently coming in to go to work. Most of the social workers who've already come in hustled quickly through the waiting room and in through a combination locked door in the back so they wouldn't have to look at the dregs of society for too long. But this woman walks into the middle of the room. She stops and looks around for a moment. "Good morning," she says. No response from anyone. Now the woman puts her hands high on her hips and, speaking as though she's an actor on a child's educational program, she says, "I didn't hear many good mornings in here!" Her tone was downright jolly. Now, am I wrong in wanting to slap this bitch through the wall? She was talking to homeless people who haven't had a meal in days. Mothers with children who don't have heat or electricity. College students who are supporting themselves on paper routes. People who've been sent around and around in circles, from one office to another to another, riding buses, walking in the cold with no shoes, eating out of garbage cans just to wind up in this waiting room at 9 o'clock in the fucking morning. And this cunt with her coffee mug, cozy office and nice government job with benefits is gonna get condescending because the people in this room didn't smile and send her back a chipper "good morning!" I just wanted to yell at the bitch, "These people are not HAVING a good morning, you shitwit! They probably can't even remember the last good morning they had! They're not HERE to have a good morning. They don't CARE if you wish them a good morning. They're here because they're fucking STARVING! All they want is for you to do your fucking job and help them get food so they can get out of this God forsaken place and back to whatever little cozy cardboard box they've found to sleep in as soon as possible and forget that you ever fucking existed!" I dunno. Maybe it's just me. But that's how I felt. (89 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
wixenstyx	12:43p	Dinah Bleu Feeling a little conflicted. :( ( Read more... ) Current Mood: sad (11 Comments |Comment on this)
smittygirl	9:48a	Because It Never Gets Old Stupid Benadryl is STILL in my system.  I feel dumber than ever. ANYROAD.  Rare public post!  OOOOOO.... Just for giggles for the new folks, here's the infamous OLD ART POST.  Please do enjoy it.  And feel free to laugh at it cos I certainly have, repeatedly. *back to it* (Comment on this)
Sunday, May 11th, 2008
wixenstyx	11:59a	Handbells in the Dark What a way to end the Handbell season! ( Read more... ) Current Mood: amused (2 Comments |Comment on this)
2_gryphon	2:11a	2 Sense Segments Many of you have been very helpful in submitting auditions for 2 Sense segments lately. I wanted to say thank you to you all for that. We are still taking on new segments when we find the right ones, and some of the ideas we've gotten have been very... interesting. I want to give a few guidelines for those of you who are interested in creating a segment for the show. Over the last month, I've gotten probably two dozen auditions... all of segments that we're not looking for. So, to help focus the efforts of those who are interested, here are some tips... 1.) We don't want any more review segments. Nine out of ten people who submit an audition send in a review segment. We've gotten everything. Movie reviews, video games, books, restaurants, web sites, music, electronics -- the list goes on. Review segments are fun and easy to make, but boring as shit to listen to (unless you have a strong comedic flair, like Spazfox). So those are off our list. 2). We don't want any more news segments. We already do the news on the show. We don't really need a segment that covers more news, especially if it's just to pull up a web site and read it into a microphone. The listeners can read the same web sites if they want to. 3). We don't want any more opinion/rant segments. Expressing opinions is fun. But it's very difficult to make it fun to listen to. Besides, the show is already one big opinion/rant segment, so we don't really need any more of that. 4). What we DO need is creative, original material. A good guideline to go by is some of the segments we already have. Edsel's horoscopes is a perfect example. It's original, character based and funny. That's the kind of stuff we like to hear. Poink, Spazfox and Uncle Kage's segments are also right along those lines. Remember, we're a cartoon news show. We like to hear characters. And since it's a comedy show, funny is always a bonus. So, in short -- character driven, original, and funny. That's what we're looking for. Make up a character, decide what his personality will be and what he'll talk about and go from there. Try not to do repeats of anything we already have. And unless there's something crazy-special about it, if you find yourself reading something from a web site into the microphone, we're probably going to say no. That's about it. Follow these guidelines and you'll have a much better chance of getting a segment onto the show. Good luck, and most importantly, have fun! That's what the show's about! (45 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, May 9th, 2008
wixenstyx	8:34a	They came to ME! Well, yesterday was exciting.... ( Read more... ) Current Mood: emotional (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, May 8th, 2008
2_gryphon	8:10p	Return of the Furry Fifteen Minutes. To all you 2 Sense listeners out there... We want to bring back the Furry Fifteen minutes on the show. For those who don't remember the old days of 2 Sense, we used to go onto the MUCKs and the forums and pick out a random furry and interview him or her. We ask them about themselves, who they were, what they liked best about the furry fandom... things like that. It was a way for the show to give other furries a place in the spotlight for a few minutes and to introduce the fandom to some of its members. But this time, we want to do it a little differently. We've recently rigged a way to be able to record phone calls, and instead of doing a text interview, we'd like to interview furries over the phone for their 15 minutes on the show (which will actually probably be less than 15 minutes. It's an Andy Warhol thing.) The thing is, we need phone numbers! We can't just look in the furry section of the phone book (maybe one day though). If you would like to be a candidate for being interviewed by Jibba and myself for the Furry Fifteen Minutes, e-mail 2@ranting-gryphon.com with these things... 1). Your phone number. 2). Your furry name. 3.) Your REAL name, in case someone else answers and we have to ask for you. 4.) The best time to give you a call. We will e-mail you when you're chosen to be interviewed to let you know ahead of time that we'll be calling. We hope that this will be a segment that will be fun for the show, so send us those numbers! ***UPDATE*** Something I forgot to mention... This segment is only extended to folks in the US or Canada. It's not that we're forgetting about our listeners overseas. We would love to be able to interview them as well. However, we can only make flat rate calls to people on this particular continent. Anything else would cost loads of money. We'll work on a way to record international calls through Skype, and if we can, then we'll see if we can do some interviews with our listeners in Europe and beyond. (48 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 7th, 2008
news [ theljstaff ]	5:49p	May News V-Gift for Charity This month is Mental Health Awareness Month, so the LiveJournal team is offering users a chance to support the Depression and Bipolar Alliance, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping improve the lives of those suffering from mood disorders. Proceeds from purchases of the Emerging Sun v-gift during May will be donated to the DBSA, so feel free to buy one. Or, if you really want to rack up some good karma points, get a bunch! And don't forget: Mother's Day is this Sunday. Be a dear and check out the v-gifts shop. Send something that'll make her smile. L to R: Emerging Sun, #1 Mom, Gift Basket, Chocolates, A Dozen Red Roses Brand-Spanking New, Contest-Winning Themes We know how you salivate over the prospect of new themes, especially when they're designed by users with a unique handle on both form and function. L to R: Shiny, River at Night, Live and Learn, Vector Drips. ( Winners of the HP 'What Do You Have to Say?' Theme Design Contest ) Advisory Board Nominations We'd like to remind you that the nomination process for LiveJournal Advisory Board user-representatives has begun. If you think you're fit for the job, now's the time to nominate yourself! After all, you're the only who can do it. In two weeks, on the 22nd, the voting process will begin; we'll remind you about it again here. If you're interested in keeping up with the nominations, watch lj_election_en. We'll post the results and announce the winner by the end of the day on May 30th. The new user-representatives will be seated on June 1st. Further details can also be found in lj_2008. (289 Comments |Comment on this)
2_gryphon	8:43p	2 Sense #128 (55 Comments |Comment on this)
smittygirl	12:02p	Open Request on Behalf of Lotsa Beatle Buddies RARE PUBLIC POST IS RARE. We're all curious as to what's going on in these comics. They certainly LOOK entertaining (and pretty) and fairly interesting (and pretty) and of course pretty (and pretty). :3 Can anyone translate for us please? I'd be more than willing to edit the images with the English dialogue so we can pass them around and giggle.  I just need to know what the devil they're saying. (I know there are those of you who do this for a living--You are NOT required to cater to this request. That would be imposing and I don't want to do that to you. Those of you who do this kinda thing for fun, though? PLEASE HAVE AT IT. Maybe some first year language students might need the practice, who knows? *shot*) ( WMM - Japanese Beatles comics! ) We ALL thank you in advance. Not knowing this stuff is driving us all nutters. (Kat, I linked the photos from your WMM bucket. Hope that's okay.) (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 6th, 2008
wixenstyx	10:50a	Tulip Time and Stuff Well, we're back from Tulip Time. For the experience I am richer by one very clean house and one new delft windmill for my kitchen shelf. Such bounteous wonders as these, one could scarce predict! ( Read more... ) Current Mood: tired (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, May 5th, 2008
news [ theljstaff ]	10:56a	Advisory Board Nominations Open Advisory Board Nominations Begin This morning we are opening the nomination process for the user-representative positions on the LiveJournal Advisory Board. A full description of the process can be found here. To get you started, here are the basic things you should know: - You may only nominate yourself - Each nominee will need 100 motions of support in order to be eligible to be a candidate - We ask that you keep your comments on the nomination posts to "I support this nomination" or something to that effect; be kind to those who will need to count the "supports", please. - Although the nominations and election poll will take place in lj_election_en, you do not need to watch the community in order to keep up with the election; we'll announce everything here as well. Everyone here at LiveJournal is looking forward to this first-ever User-Representative election! We'd like to thank everyone who is participating. Some words from our current Advisory Board members: danah boyd: “LiveJournal is filled with very passionate users. These users have helped shaped LJ's various communities over the last decade and it gives me great joy that LJ is recognizing and incorporating users' voices into the decision-making processes. Having user representatives from different parts of LJ on the Advisory Board will help make sure that the company is meeting the needs of its diverse constituents.” Esther Dyson: "I'm sure we'll learn a lot from the process, and later on from the two users selected as well. Especially, I hope that the discussions before the voting will be more meaningful and more focused on policy than those in some offline campaigns." Brad Fitzpatrick: "It's cool that SUP is getting users involved with the LiveJournal decision-making process. I look forward to seeing who the community elects and the results of our efforts working together." Professor Lawrence Lessig: “The user elections will provide a critical check on LJ's process of maintaining a valuable and trustworthy environment for the LJ community. The mandate of the elections will give the user representatives pride of place among the members of the Advisory Board. Each of us will look to them to guide us in our judgment about how best to make LJ the community we all aspire that it will be. I look forward to welcoming the user representatives, and learning a great deal from them.” chasethestars has also made some banners for you to use, if you'd like to show your support for the candidate of your choice! ( Banners + code for you to use! ) Current Mood: chipper (318 Comments |Comment on this)