Los doce sirvientes habían despertado por fin, las 6 magistrales habitaciones para cada pareja estaban listas para ser ocupadas. Poco a poco la abandonada casucha se transformaba en la mansión propia del hechicero de plata. Su hijo esperaba con una sádica y  a la vez suave sonrisa mientras su padre caminaba en calles desoladas disfrazado de mortal. El día parecía noche, de tan desiertas que estaban esas calles, nadie vería toda la magia consumada en esos lugares.
Los pasos del mago platinado resonaban por la calle, mientras se aproximaba a su destino. De repente, algo llamó su atención. El fétido aroma de la muerte llenó sus fosas nasales. En una de las abandonadas esquinas se encontraba el cadaver de un perro. Un chucho de color negro, de pelaje sucio y cuyos afilados colmillos seguron no pudieron rasgar la carne del culpable que lo atropelló. El brujo de la esperanza de repente dibujó una sonrisa agradable en su rostro. Un montón de mariposas blancas revolotearon alrededor del animal, las cuáles se introdujeron como picos de buitres al cadaver.
"Despierta y levántate"
Del olvidado cuerpo, una neblina blancuzca comenzó a salir. Poco a poco tomando forma: patas, orejas, uñas, pelaje, hocico... y ahi, frente a él, se encontraba moviendo la cola el perro. Su cuerpo seguía tirado en el piso, pero su esencia ahora tenía un nuevo envase. El hechicero de la esperanza sonrió una vez más...
"Te llamarás, cancerbero... y cuidarás de las puertas de mi paraiso" El perro sólo respondió con un alegre ladrido

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!
( Read more... )

 
Saludos a todos ustedes, personas que ni idea tienen de la fuerza que tienen las palabras sobre su miserable o bendita vida. Es extraño que me quiera adentrar en estos temas en mi blog, pero siendo mio es necesario que toque un tema cómo este. Magia.
Es una palabra extraña no es así... mucha gente lo definiría de muchas formas. Dejaré lo que nuestra real academia tiene en palabras para este acto.
1. f. Arte o ciencia oculta con que se pretende producir, valiéndose de ciertos actos o palabras, o con la intervención de seres imaginables, resultados contrarios a las leyes naturales.
2. f. Encanto, hechizo o atractivo de alguien o algo.
3. f. La que por medios naturales obra efectos que parecen sobrenaturales.

Nótese que dentro de la primera, las palabras "pretende" e "imaginables" ya está dando por sentado que son actos imposibles, increíbles y no puedo decir más que es risible seguir viendo a gente incrédula de las pruebas que la "brujería" y la "magia" ha llegado a demostrar. La alquimia y las antiguas pociones de brujas que fueron entonces llamados actos del demonio, ahora fueron la base de la medicina actual.

Existen cosas que aún tienen ciertos tintes de increible, y debo admitir que hacer ciertos hechizos y embrujos me hacen sentir torpe, pero a la vez con una confianza que no puede encontrarse en ningún otro lado. Posiblemente formando a una magia placeba se despierta la verdadera ciencia y capacidad dentro del ser humano, el ya no sentir el dolor, el curarse más rápido, el lograr cosas que creíamos imposibles. Creer o no ya depende de cada uno y creo en mis alucinaciones infantiles, creo en mis visiones poco comúnes, creo en mis sueños premonitorios y más que nada creo en ese mundo que se ha esforzado por entrar dentro de mi y en las personas que han depositado en mi su confianza y a las cuales les he demostrado pequeños milagros.

También tengo miedo... de manera inexplicable de perder todo lo que tengo o todas las posibilidades futuras por un sencillo error... no puedo rendirme y esa es mi magia.

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.

EDIT: 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.

---

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.

( tech details )

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

bt

In response to user comments from last week, we want to let you know that we'll remain LJ cut-free for the next month in order to get more eyeballs on our evolving newsletter. As for product coverage, that continues to be our top priority. For more granular detail, however, we recommend you join lj_releases.

Super-tweak for Yandex search

Some of our beta testers expressed privacy concerns using the Yandex search engine. Here's why: Last week, when you ran a search, you could see the usernames (and only the usernames) of everyone who commented on an entry, even if that entry was switched to Private or Friends Only after it was originally indexed. You could NOT see the actual comments from Friends Only or Private posts. In response to your input, we've implemented a fix to keep all user activity currently marked Friends Only or Private completely hidden. If you'd prefer your public content not to be indexed by Yandex, click here and use the settings labeled Search Inclusion (this covers your entire journal) and/or Comment Search Inclusion (which covers comments only). To test drive Yandex search now, click here.

Postcards from the edge

Several years ago, we asked LiveJournal users to send postcards to help us decorate our dull, white-washed offices. Since a good idea warrants repetition, we're at it again (same issue, new address). We hope you'll surround us with LiveJournal love by sending your postcards to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. We'll post snapshots right here. Be sure to include your username, since we'll randomly pick 10 lucky recipients to win free paid account time.

Conquer Writer's Block

Here are some excerpts from this week's most popular question of the day:

If a friend or relative makes a racist or homophobic remark, do you tend to confront them or let it slide? Are you more likely to confront them if it offends you directly or someone else who seems reluctant to speak up?

1. I find it easier to stand up for other people, and i wouldn't let it slide if they made a rude or hurtful comment.
2. Usually if a friend makes a racist or homophobic remark, I tend to let it slide. I think that while i would not say such things myself, I have no right to censor those around me.
3. This happens all of the time. I confront some relatives, but I refuse to if they are drunk or watch Fox News.
4. I'd let it slide if it was just a private remark... As much as I despise bigotry and intolerance, I know that you can't change people-they have to change themselves ...
5. Confront! confront! confront! Politely, but without equivocation.
6. SPEAK UP. Always, always, always speak up. Letting something slide lets ignorance win. No matter if it offends me directly, or someone else, I will confront the speaker and let them know that's not ok.
7. I don't get offended personally. As an immigrant, woman, gay and person of color if I took every single potentially offensive remark seriously I wouldn't get anything done.
8. I punch them in the balls. With my mind.
9. I do speak up, but often very timidly because I feel that I'm white and therefore I don't really have any authority to lecture someone on what's racist and what isn't...
10. Generally speaking, I do not let this shit fly, because it reduces me as a person, to this non-person and it replicates the destructive discourse that makes sure that sexual minorities, racial minorities, women, people with disabilities, trans people and every intersection thereof into something other than human... And sometimes... I'm just too tired to deal with it, so I roll my eyes, make a sarcastic remark and hope the conversation moves on quickly.

For more daily questions and user comments, join writersblock. FYI, we don't want to invade your privacy, so we haven't credited individual users for their responses. We'd appreciate your feedback on this!

Spotlight community of the week

We can't resist making one last midnight trip to the ol' pumpkin patch. If you adore crazy costumes, fiendish festivities, and bottomless candy consumption as much as we do, this community has just what it takes to light up your jack-o-lantern.


halloween_fan

Photos of the week

We received so many incredible photos, we had to close our eyes and point. We uploaded a selection of awesome images at our new lj_photophile community. Please join and start posting (try to keep the width at around 625 for the sake of consistency)! We'd love for you to tell us more about your photos! You can help us select spotlight photos by commenting on your favorites. Once again, we thank you for making our online world more beautiful!

shutter	pancetta	ilya_gorokhov

Curtains

Thanks, again, for tuning in. We look forward to seeing you next week.

Acabamos de terminar una etapa de convenciones. El tour de la concomics estuvo genial. Fuera de todas las maravillosas personas que conocimos, todas las experiencias que cosechamos y lo bien que nos fue en las ventas. Realmente espero continuar viajando de esta manera, vendiendo, conociendo gente, puliendome como persona, pero por lo pronto también sería bueno descansar un poco.

Lamento un poco si mi escritura esta un poco más caotica de lo acostumbrado... estoy apenas levantandome y me siento cansado pero sin deseos de volver a dormir. La mañana es fría y he olvidado ponerme calcetines, por lo que siento el desquicio del clima tapatio en mis pies. Enfin además de hablarles sobre  lo bien que nos fue y agradecerles profundamente a los de Gamex, Concomics. Rookies, Ñoño Team, Zombie Studios y demás por toda esta experiencia quería comentarles sobre uno de los juegos más transtornadamente psicológicos que me ha tocado jugar.


 Yume Nikki, o el diario de los sueños, es el caos puesto en un juego que podría o no tener trama. Han escuchado que los humanos somos buenos poniendo historias dónde no las hay, pues Yume Nikki me parece ser de esos casos. 
En un año indefinido, en una torre de departamentos indefinida, en un contexto indefinido vive una niña encerrada en el departamento más alto. Empiezas en un cuarto de lo más minimal con un escritorio, una tele con un sistema de videojuegos, una cama y un balcón. Existe una puerta pero por algo que jamás se explica nuestra pequeña niña no puede salir por ahi. La única manera de hacerlo es ir a su cama a dormir. En su mundo de sueños ella puede levantarse, salir por su puerta y adentrarse en mundos de lo más bizarros. El juego puede llegar a no ser nada divertido si no le buscas un sentido, caminar a lo estupido buscando objetos que a primera vista parecen inútiles en mapas MUY abiertos. Los objetos lo que hacen es transformarte a ti o a tu entorno para que ocurran cosas.

Dentro de sus sueños nuestra protagonista también llega a conocer un gran grupo de personajes extraños, de entre ellos llega la primera cuestión del juego. ¿Es cierto que los conoce en sus sueños... o los conoce en su vida real?  Además que fuera de eso, todos son asesinables una vez que encuentras el cuchillo, lo que nos hace pensar que la chica también tiene serios problemas mentales al estar abierta a matar a sus conocido o amigos.

Spoiler Sin embargo creo que lo posiblemente más traumático de este juego sea el final, una vez que consigues recuperar todos los objetos desperdigados en las puertas y encontrar varios de los secretos escondidos en la psique de esta niña, ella se despierta... se dirige al balcón y .... salta... Ahi es dónde entra la cuestión... ¿Por qué? ¿El peso de sus sueños fue demasiado para ella? ¿Quería permanecer todo el tiempo dormida? ¿Se siente culpable por todo lo que pasa dentro de sus sueños? ¿De su vida real? Spoiler

halloween_fan
Here at LiveJournal, we never balk at an opportunity for high drama, wicked costumes, and gluttonous sugar consumption. But this community takes it one step further: Here, everyday is Halloween. Of course, the hallowed eve is particularly sacred to this spirited crowd. If you're looking for last-minute costume ideas for your black cat, faux eyeball candy, or stand-out haunted houses, dive in for a splash of pagan merriment.

picturing_food
Designing gourmet? Feast your eyes on these pixel perfect dishes with an accent on presentation. A visual smorgasbord of eclectic cuisine, ranging from fusion to down-home comfort foods. If the way to your heart is through your stomach and the way to your stomach is through your eyes, you're sure to leave with a good taste in your mouth.

bookish
Passionate readers share well-penned reviews on a broad sweep of genres, including fiction, YA, sci-fi, paranormal, fantasy, and good ol' pot-boiling suspense. Those of a lit crit persuasion are invited to introduce themselves before posting. And for the silent majority who prefer to bask in our neighbors' labors, there are thoughtful reviews, book list suggestions, and even great gift ideas to keep your library card and dowtime filled.