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Monday, July 7th, 2008
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9:06 pm - June books
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| Sunday, June 22nd, 2008
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10:48 pm - y/y?
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| Saturday, May 10th, 2008
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11:04 pm - What I read this April
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| Thursday, April 24th, 2008
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11:25 pm
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'Ello me lovelies.
This April 25th is the very first World Malaria Day. Pretty much the most exciting celebration on any calender, am I right?
Malaria is preventable and treatable, but it nevertheless infects 350-500 million people every year, and each year over one million people die of it, most of them young children in sub-Saharan Africa.
I don't actually have any experience with malaria, aside from watching with glee as anti-malarial drugs ruined my little sister's complexion. If you do have anything to share, please comment below.
And after you're done reading this entry, maybe you'd like to play the Nothing But Nets game and deliver a free insecticide-treated bed net to a family in Africa. It's like playing freerice.com...but with less vocabulary-building.
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(comment on this)
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| Thursday, April 10th, 2008
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6:10 pm - March08 reads
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| Monday, March 31st, 2008
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4:10 pm
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| Thursday, March 20th, 2008
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11:22 am - LJ Content Strike
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First SUP (the owners of LJ) shut down Basic account creation. It is no longer possible to create a free journal that doesn't have ads. That sucks. They didn't tell anyone about this, of course--just shut down Basic. When users called them on it, they claimed it was because having three journal options was too confusing for users. After no one bought that explanation (who on earth would? 3 is not more confusing than 2.), they came clean and admitted it was a business decision. Fine, except...then Anton Nosik, the leader of SUP, gave an interview.
"In a situation where people are trying to blackmail and intimidate us, threatening to destroy our business, there are business reasons not to reward this sort of behaviour...They constantly, throughout the history of LJ's existence, come forward with loud initiatives whose purpose is to harm LJ and its creators, to bankrupt them, to ruin their reputation." (from this translation by ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) furiosity) Yes, that's right. The people who politely ask why account creation has changed without any warning, the people who volunteer on the support team, even the people who post cat macros--they're all just blackmailers trying to destroy Nosik's reputation.
Then SUP started messing with what popular interests showed up on public pages. Apparently they didn't want would-be advertisers knowing that their users were interested in, among other things depression, bisexuality, faeries, or sex. So they edited those out. Again, sharp-eyed users caught them. And again, SUP gave a bullshit answer. They pretended the popular interests were never edited, then they pretended it was a mistake that just *happened* to effect only those interests.
This is just plain ridiculous. I've been on LJ for seven years. I'm invested in this site, but I don't want to be associated with this conservative bullshit. And to demonstrate that fucktarded business decisions will be noticed and will be opposed, I will be participating in the LJ CONTENT STRIKE tomorrow. From 7pm to 7pm, I won't comment, post, or view LJ. Our combined efforts will undoubtedly be just a blip on the radar, but I hope you'll join us.
Avoid LJ on March 21st. Don't read it, don't write it, and don't click it.
current mood:  hungry
current music: "When the Man Comes Around," Johnny Cash
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(35 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, February 8th, 2008
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7:23 am - january books
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| Friday, January 25th, 2008
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11:25 am
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While walking to work today the binding of my book literally froze. I could not close the book until I had warmed it for a few minutes. Holy crap.
On the same walk, I saw someone wearing fur-lined crocs. Symptom of pollution's debilitating effect on intelligence, or merely an answer to the Ugg-sandal?
current mood:  cold
current music: "Combat Baby," Metric
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(5 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, January 4th, 2008
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7:53 am - The Last Books of the Year
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| Monday, December 3rd, 2007
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5:06 pm - Read your books!
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| Saturday, November 17th, 2007
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3:01 pm - The Scariest Books of the Month
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| Monday, October 1st, 2007
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6:56 pm - Books what I devoured this month
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| Sunday, September 2nd, 2007
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12:55 pm - August reads
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| Tuesday, August 7th, 2007
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7:14 pm - July reads
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| Thursday, August 2nd, 2007
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5:39 pm - June reads
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I've spent a lot of time exploring GoodReads, but little actually writing down my thoughts. A mere month late, I present what I read in June. ( Read more )
current music: "Lepcis Magna," ES Posthumus
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(12 comments | comment on this)
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| Saturday, July 28th, 2007
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10:38 pm
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10:48 am
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(Meme stolen from here.)
Once the shock of reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for the fifth time in a row wears off, some readers may be wondering what they can read next. So why not start a meme of suggestions? So here are the rules:
1. You must copy and paste the directions, rules, and the list so far into your blog and then add three (and only three) books to the list.
2. These three books must NOT already be on the list so far. They must be fantasy or science fictional in nature that those who enjoyed Harry Potter may also enjoy. You must provide your name and a link to your blog and/or website so that people may contact you to ask for more information about the books, if they want. They must be books that you have actually read yourself.
3. You cannot recommend a series; instead, recommend the first book in the series. Terry Pratchett's Discworld would NOT be considered a series; but Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time would. Use your best judgment about whether you're recommending a series or not.
4. You must label the books as either YA (young adult, suitable for the younger fans of Harry Potter) or A (adult, suitable for the not-so-younger fans of Harry Potter). Please be clear about this. It will be understood that anything labeled YA is also recommended for A.
5. If you are an author, you CANNOT recommend your own books. (You can however hound your friends into recommending your books.)
6. Providing a link to information about the books you are recommending is optional.
My three recommendations, all of them YA and the first in a series:
1)So You Want to Be a Wizard, by Diane Duane.
2)Charmed Life, by Diana Wynne Jones
3)The Dark is Rising, by Susan Cooper.
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(11 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, June 21st, 2007
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5:08 pm
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| Saturday, June 9th, 2007
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1:13 am - 2007 Hugos
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I've read the 2007 Hugo nominees, some of which impressed, enthralled and enchanted me, and some of which...didn't. I've only read two of the five "best novel" nominees, so I have no real opinion. Blindsight was a really interesting book, but I love Naomi Novik so much that I want her to win regardless of how "challenging" and "intriguing" the other books doubtless were.
( Here are my thoughts on the other nominees: )
current mood:  awake
current music: "Woman King," Shearwater
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(comment on this)
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intrigued
accomplished
indescribable