ouij

For some time, I've considered getting into the area of snarky retellings, in the tradition of Toastyfrog's Thumbnail Theatre, Livejournal's own Movies in 15 Minutes, and Smartania's late, lamented Sarcastic Guides. I've had an idea for a Kingdom Hearts retelling in my head for years (including copious use of the phrase "...the hell?!"), and a few others have come and gone.

Meanwhile, I'd been considering reading Twilight, for the purposes of mocking it more effectively, but run into the problem that this may be the only series of books that Sei won't allow in the house. Due to the circumstances of Christmas gifting, however, a copy has fallen into my lap, and I am strongly considering seizing the opportunity to read with a nice big set of notes to work from for later reference.

Tuesday, 29 December 2009, at 8:00pm

Washington Psychotronic Film Society presents

( Frankenpimp )

Hello,

I would like to change my username however, when I go to Admin>Users and Groups, the username is greyed out. I believe I'll have to use the terminal for this and I'm not well-versed but I believe I can still do it.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

I've collected high quality game supplies, particularly for classic games, for as long as I can remember. I inherited some pretty impressive game pieces from my grandfather, whom I never knew; I'm told he was a lot like me, and I can see it from his taste in gaming supplies. The pride of my collection is an antique Burmese ivory chess set, which I inherited. I also have a pewter-and-bronze Staunton set, a couple of marble sets, and a really nice glass set. I've also collected cribbage boards since I learned how to play at age 7, and again have inherited some from my grandfather.

For a long time, I've wanted a nice mah jong set. I've never learned to play before now, and have always wanted to. And for Christmas this year, my mother got me a really nice set, so I'm learning to play.

Not only is the game itself extremely awesome (and addictive, oh gods), but it's really a joy to play with good pieces. I tried to learn to play on a crappy set once, and it just wasn't the same. It's really rewarding to play with good supplies, at least to me.

Now for a good Chinese checkers set and a high quality go set and a nice shogi set...

Okay, so here's a recurring problem I've had with the audio on Karmic 64-bit Ubuntu for the past month or so:

Basically, when playing some games in Wine, but also when watching video using XBMC and such, my audio will cut out. It'll ramp up to 100% CPU and just sit there churning. The sound becomes popping and crackling, not actually giving any stable sound whatsoever. Originally I figured that I'd have to kill and restart the PulseAudio server to get it to work, but now I've discovered, strangely enough, that going to the Sound Preferences menu, selecting a different hardware output and switching back to to 4.1 surround that I use will clear it right up.

Any idea what happened to PulseAudio to cause that? I've even gone to the PulseAudio repos to ugrade to the latest version today, but nothing works.

It's causing a lot of problems for games in wine. Previously, I'd have no problem alt-tabbing out, or going to my second monitor to do what-have-you, but now doing anything that defocuses from the game will cause the audio to gam up like that. I can't figure it out.

This seems to be happening exclusively with Wine games and XBMC, the former of which are also being really stuttery with graphics. I don't know why.

Anyway, most people's usual advice is "remove pulseaudio," but Karmic seems to have made that a really, really sketchy process and I don't want to go mucking about and ruining the audio that DOES work.

Advice? Logs I can look at/post?

I don't know if this has been asked before, but I searched and didn't see it:

I only know of this on the Ft. Totten metro map, green line, towards Greenbelt side. There's a bit at the top left of the map (around Tuckerman and 13th St NW) that says there's a place called the Megadeath Alchemy Congregation. Google returns nothing (except to helpfully suggest that I meant 'megadeth'). There's one lone blog out there that asks the same question, but no answer. Nothing on Google maps either.

Any ideas? Mystical floating church of awesome? Prank by the map makers?

Also--Thanks to everyone who gave me suggestions for my 'unique' dining experience. I've made a list and we're probably going to work through all of those in the next few months :-)

Unfortunately, that means I need more places to put bookshelves.

Greetings!

This is marketeer, the new maintainer of washington_nats. Earlier this year, I noticed that kerrin_sue, who started this community back in 2004, is no longer very active on LiveJournal. The community's profile page was out of date, with dead photo links and out-of-date players' names listed among the community's interests. I contacted her and asked if she'd be willing to let someone else assist in maintaining the community, so here I am. I'd like to thank her for her work in getting the community up and running.

I can't guarantee a winning season this coming year, although I do so see some encouraging signs on the horizon, but I'd like to see this be an active community that all can enjoy. I'd appreciate your thoughts on what you'd like to see in the coming year.

Thanks!

I'm hoping you guys will be able to help. I'm using Karmic and decided to try my webcam again(it kept freezing the entire system back in Intrepid). Good news! It worked! System is not freezing, I seem to be getting video.

But my problem. The sound isn't working. When I switch to pulse audio it works. Kinda. In a breaking up I can barely hear anything sort of way. I'm not quite sure what I'm doing wrong. I know the webcam works(I have a dual boot in XP).

Thanks for any help guys! I'd love to be able to get my webcam working in linux.

Webcam is a logitech btw, I think its a quickcam. Is there some other package I should be grabbing from synaptic that will make the audio/mic work?
Thanks again.

Edit: Now for reasons unknown I'm not getting sound at all on skype. And whenever I change the mic's sound preference from low to medium it resets back to low.

What's the dumbest/newbest thing you've ever done to your system?

When I was very new to Linux, I rm -rf'd an important directory tree. I think it was /usr.

More recently, I used usermod -G without -a. On the only account that could sudo. Fortunately, I had a recovery CD handy.

I have an 8 gig USB stick that has suddenly gone into "Read Only" mode and I can't save or copy anything to it currently. This just won't do as it holds all my every day files on it.

What in the world? How did this happen and how do I change it? Just going into properties from the desktop doesn't show anything, so is there something I can do from the command prompt?

I have a feeling it's something ridiculously simple, but I can't figure out just what that is.

Hey everyone, I'm selling a futon. If anyone is looking for one, here's the CL ad, complete with pictures

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/fuo/1524539775.html

It's in great shape and I'm open to reasonable offers!

Thanks!

OK, so I didn't read as many books as last year. I had a lot of false starts and started a bunch of books I didn't finish. C'est la vie. Without any further ado...THE LIST

1. Ha'pennty-Jo Walton ****
2. Rumors: A Luxe Novel- Anna Godbersen ***
3. Ten Cents a Dance- Christine Fletcher ***
4. Bliss-Lauren Myracle **
5. Half a Crown-Jo Walton ****
6. In the Woods- Tana French ****
7. Frank Sinatra & The Lost Art of Living- Bill Zehme****
8. Dooley Takes the Fall-Norah McClintock ****
9. Emily of New Moon-L.M. Montgomery ***
10. Emily Climbs-L.M. Montgomery ***
11. Emily's Quest- L.M. Montgomery ***
12. The Likeness- Tana French ****
13. Songs for the Missing- Stewart O'Nan ***
14. What I saw and How I Lied-Judy Blundell**
15. You Are So Undead to Me- Stacy Jay ****
16. The 19th Wife- David Ebersoff**
17. The Book Thief-Markus Zuzack ****
18. The Hunger Games-Suzanne Collins **** (One of my FAVORITES)
19. The Reader- Bernhard Schlink **
20. Death Was the Other Woman- Linda L. Richards **
21. The Illustrated Jane Eyre- Charlotte Bronte **** (Such a beautiful edition)
22. Pride & Prejudice- Jane Austen ***
23. Unwind- Neal Shusterman **
24. Wishful Drinking- Carrie Fisher **
25. The Song is You- Arthur Phillips (the WORST book I've read all year.)
26. Envy: A Luxe Novel- Anna Godbersen **
27. The Dust of 100 Dogs- A.S. King ***
28. Bloodsucking Fiends-Christopher Moore **
29. You Suck: A Love Story- Christopher Moore**
30. Casino Royale- Ian Fleming **
31. Dead & Gone-Charlaine Harris **
32. A Curse as Dark as Gold- Elizabeth C. Bunce ***
33. American Gods- Neil Gaiman**** (re-read)
34. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian-Sherman Alexie **** (Another favorite)
35. If I Stay- Gayle Foreman ****
36. Dust-Arthur Slade ***
37. Flight- Sherman Alexie **** (LOVE)
38. Diary of a Chav-Grace Dent **** (LOVE!)
39. Anne of Green Gables- L.M. Montgomery **** (re-read)
40. Anne of Avonlea-L.M. Montgomery ***(re-read)
41. King Dork- Frank Portman **** (re-read)
42. Cicero- Anthony Everitt ***
43. The Forgotten Man- Amity Shales ***
44. Bad Girls Don't Die- Kate Alender ***
45. The Last Olympian- Rick Riordan ****
46. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close- Jonathan Safran Foer **** (LOVE)
47. Mythology-Edith Hamilton ***
48. Graceling-Kristin Cashore **** (re-read)
49. Catching Fire-Suzanne Collins ****
50. Meat is Murder- Pernice ***
51. Lady Sings the Blues- Billie Holiday ****
52. Audrey, Wait!-Robin Benway **** (Love!)
53. Fire-Kristin Cashore ***
54. The Butler Did It- P.G. Wodehouse ***
55. The Magician's Nephew- C.S. Lewis ***
56. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe-C.S. Lewis ***
57. Frankly, My Dear: GWTW Revisited- Molly Haskell ***
58. I am the New Black- Tracy Morgan ****
59. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate- Jaqueline Kelly **
60. The Silver Blade- Sally Gardner ***
61. The Hate List- Jennifer Brown **** (LOVE)
62. Soulles-Gail Carriger **** (LOVE)
63. Love is the Higher Law-David Levithian ****
64. A Streetcar Named Desire-Tennessee Williams (re-read)****
65. The Gates-John Connolly ***

OK, so I didn't read as many books as last year. I had a lot of false starts and started a bunch of books I didn't finish. C'est la vie. Without any further ado...THE LIST

1. Ha'pennty-Jo Walton ****
2. Rumors: A Luxe Novel- Anna Godbersen ***
3. Ten Cents a Dance- Christine Fletcher ***
4. Bliss-Lauren Myracle **
5. Half a Crown-Jo Walton ****
6. In the Woods- Tana French ****
7. Frank Sinatra & The Lost Art of Living- Bill Zehme****
8. Dooley Takes the Fall-Norah McClintock ****
9. Emily of New Moon-L.M. Montgomery ***
10. Emily Climbs-L.M. Montgomery ***
11. Emily's Quest- L.M. Montgomery ***
12. The Likeness- Tana French ****
13. Songs for the Missing- Stewart O'Nan ***
14. What I saw and How I Lied-Judy Blundell**
15. You Are So Undead to Me- Stacy Jay ****
16. The 19th Wife- David Ebersoff**
17. The Book Thief-Markus Zuzack ****
18. The Hunger Games-Suzanne Collins **** (One of my FAVORITES)
19. The Reader- Bernhard Schlink **
20. Death Was the Other Woman- Linda L. Richards **
21. The Illustrated Jane Eyre- Charlotte Bronte **** (Such a beautiful edition)
22. Pride & Prejudice- Jane Austen ***
23. Unwind- Neal Shusterman **
24. Wishful Drinking- Carrie Fisher **
25. The Song is You- Arthur Phillips (the WORST book I've read all year.)
26. Envy: A Luxe Novel- Anna Godbersen **
27. The Dust of 100 Dogs- A.S. King ***
28. Bloodsucking Fiends-Christopher Moore **
29. You Suck: A Love Story- Christopher Moore**
30. Casino Royale- Ian Fleming **
31. Dead & Gone-Charlaine Harris **
32. A Curse as Dark as Gold- Elizabeth C. Bunce ***
33. American Gods- Neil Gaiman**** (re-read)
34. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian-Sherman Alexie **** (Another favorite)
35. If I Stay- Gayle Foreman ****
36. Dust-Arthur Slade ***
37. Flight- Sherman Alexie **** (LOVE)
38. Diary of a Chav-Grace Dent **** (LOVE!)
39. Anne of Green Gables- L.M. Montgomery **** (re-read)
40. Anne of Avonlea-L.M. Montgomery ***(re-read)
41. King Dork- Frank Portman **** (re-read)
42. Cicero- Anthony Everitt ***
43. The Forgotten Man- Amity Shales ***
44. Bad Girls Don't Die- Kate Alender ***
45. The Last Olympian- Rick Riordan ****
46. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close- Jonathan Safran Foer **** (LOVE)
47. Mythology-Edith Hamilton ***
48. Graceling-Kristin Cashore **** (re-read)
49. Catching Fire-Suzanne Collins ****
50. Meat is Murder- Pernice ***
51. Lady Sings the Blues- Billie Holiday ****
52. Audrey, Wait!-Robin Benway **** (Love!)
53. Fire-Kristin Cashore ***
54. The Butler Did It- P.G. Wodehouse ***
55. The Magician's Nephew- C.S. Lewis ***
56. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe-C.S. Lewis ***
57. Frankly, My Dear: GWTW Revisited- Molly Haskell ***
58. I am the New Black- Tracy Morgan ****
59. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate- Jaqueline Kelly **
60. The Silver Blade- Sally Gardner ***
61. The Hate List- Jennifer Brown **** (LOVE)
62. Soulles-Gail Carriger **** (LOVE)
63. Love is the Higher Law-David Levithian ****
64. A Streetcar Named Desire-Tennessee Williams (re-read)****
65. The Gates-John Connolly ***

A "white Christmas" -- as defined as snow falling on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day -- in Washington DC has occurred only 9 times in recorded history.

1892 (0.5")
1902 (1.0")
1909 (4.5")
1935 (1.1")
1962 (5.4")
1969 (4.3")
1970 (0.3")
1993 (0.2")
2002 (1.0")

A "white Christmas" as defined as snow being on the ground on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day from a previous snowfall has occurred only 9 times MORE.

By either definition, DC has had a "white Christmas" only three times in the past 20 years -- 2002, 1993, and 1989. 1993 only counts by technicality, as the snowfall lasted only 30 minutes. Most snow melted on contact with the ground, so the "white" was only a light dusting on grass in suburban areas.

Ladies and gentlemen of the District and surrounding areas, enjoy the record obviously set this year, and in the spirit of the Solstice, Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year's, or any other seasonal celebration including the dependable and regular occurrence of a Friday where a Friday ought to be, may you all be safe and loved and lucky tomorrow, this week, for the remainder of this year, and every year.


And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us - listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!

--Susan Cooper

It feels good to be making things with my hands again. I don't have time most of the time when school is in session. It's one of the things I'm hopeful will change once I'm no longer teaching at the university level.

And I've been going crazy collecting crochet patterns recently, both purchased and free ones.

Some people are good at just about whatever craft they lay their hands to. I am not one of those people. I have one craft I'm really competent at, and crocheting is it.

I'm glad to be doing it again.

Only two more errands to go...

Holiday debuggery

We know there were a few kinks with the holiday promotion. We've been working very hard to get them ironed out. If you have a paid/permanent account, keep on sending those coupons. Here's an update:

• If you were unable to send out multiple coupons at a time, please perform a hard refresh, and you should be good to go.
• If you redeemed a coupon to upgrade your account and the balance at checkout was $0 instead of $9.95 or $15, this means your upgrade did not go through (nor were you charged). We've straightened this out, so you can now apply your holiday coupon toward the purchase of an annual paid account.
• If you tried to redeem a holiday coupon and had trouble using a gift certificate to cover the balance of an annual paid account, we identified the root problem. If this happened to you, you can now use your holiday coupon together with your gift certificate.
• If the number of holiday coupons you have available suddenly goes up (instead of down), this might be due to recipients declining the coupons, at which point your pool of available coupons will be replenished and, therefore, increase.
• If you need assistance with holiday coupons or pretty much anything else (well, LiveJournal related), please open a support request and we'll be more than happy to help!

Tweaks

• There were some initial glitches displaying results on My Guests, but we've worked them out. We hope you'll check out who's been checking you out!
• Some of you reported formatting issues using the Rich Text Editor (i.e., line breaks were being removed incorrectly). We've implemented a fix! Thanks so much for your patience.

Give a little extra!

We're pleased to report that we've already sold over 100 virtual red ribbons in honor of National AIDS Awareness month. Remember, for each charitable vgift you purchase for $2.99, we'll donate 100 percent of gross proceeds to IAVI.org (the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative) to fund the development of an HIV vaccine. Once again, we thank you for your generosity.

Celebrate with holiday vGifts!

Stop by the Virtual Gift Shop and share some holiday magic with your LiveJournal friends.

Photos of the week

We're back with more dazzling pictures from around the world. Congrats to marlenemcc, who has been awarded a virtual blue ribbon as the winner of our fourth photo contest. We hope you'll click over to LJ_Photophile poll and tell us your picks in pics!

For more fantastic user content, we'll meet you under the cut. ( Read more... )

Curtains

Thanks, again, for reading. Here's wishing you the very merriest of holidays. We'll see you next year!