I doubt many folks on my flist are aware of this -- unless you read the LJ News posts or use My LJ, or are in fandom, you probably haven't noticed, but, there's an election going on, hereabouts.

http://community.livejournal.com/lj_election_en/25463.html

Friends -- and I don't just mean fannish friends, I mean all y'all who believe in freedom of speech and expression, and who have found things like the breastfeeding default icon debacle, strikethrough, boldthrough, the change of management, and the state of customer service hereabouts, to be a wee bit concerning at the very least -- please go there and vote! However:

Please vote wisely.

Here's some posts that might be helpful in that process:

http://sasha-davidovna.livejournal.com/293958.html

http://icarusancalion.livejournal.com/758270.html

http://rydra-wong.livejournal.com/87501.html

http://news.livejournal.com/108365.html

http://bethbethbeth.livejournal.com/514386.html

http://bookshop.livejournal.com/891673.html

I don't expect that getting one friendly face on the advisory board will result in dramatic change. But, it's something.

(Crossposted to my IJ.)

Wow.

That makes the whole situation even more disturbing and angering. And, as the author notes, it's doubtful we've seen the end of this... :(

(ETA: the link above now points to her longer article at GJ, as -- you'll have noticed -- posting on LJ can be problematic of late. The GJ link has been updated and clarified.)

Between wank and deletion panic (and hey, panic away, I don't blame ya), it's like LJ went nuts.

I have deleted ALL of my interests and replaced them with "Freedom of speech."

Any of you who ship Dawn with anyone, or are into Supernatural at all, should probably watch your backs.

Man, this is stupid.

ETA: I do in fact know what's going on. I'm just pissed off about it, is all.

Now there's only one birthday in the window on my LJ portal. And there's at least four between now and that one.

*ClintSquint*

Anyone else noticed people's birthdays suddenly absent from your own My LJ portal? At least three folks' birthdays have disappeared from my little birthday window dealie (and their birthdays are still listed in their profiles). Another bit of LJ weirdness, I suppose. I just don't want to forget. :(

In any event: Happy birthday, orbiste! *twirls you*

*looks around* Okay, so... I've been tinkering again. The purple is too... sharp. I need some other purple. Why purple? Why not!

Look, pretentious titles! Bet you haven't seen those before!

I think maybe I should get someone else to do this. Or try again on a less crazy-making day. Which will be sometime in 2010, at this rate.

I don't like this.

Go ahead, click on update journal, I'll wait.

...See?

I know I'm a fuddy duddy, but can we just leave well enough alone, for once, please?