things things things

• Signed up for Nano! I'm not entirely sure why, what with [redacted] happening in November and not having plot and time and all of that, but. I signed up. Right now I think I'm doing Teen Wolf which, EL OH EL, but theaeblackthorn gave me plot that I might be able to play with. WE WILL SEE I will try to spend this weekend plotting it out.
  
  The PLAN for Nano:
  - 2-hour writing blocks on Monday evening (3000-word goal) -- 12000 max
  - 4-hour writing blocks on Wednesday (6000-word goal) -- 24000 max
  - 1.5-hour writing blocks weekday mornings (2250-word goal) -- 27000 if 3x a week, 45000 if 5x, not counting Thanksgiving
  - at least 2 4-hour blocks on weekends (min 6000-word goal) -- 18000 not counting Thanksgiving
  
  Not entirely sure I'll be able to pull off the daily morning thing and the last time I did the 4-hour writing blocks I came up with a little under 10k SO THIS MIGHT JUST WORK. The problem is, and has always been, plotting. Also focus. I'll honestly need to have legit plot before November though. What do 50k words look like plot-wise? Seriously, this is my problem.
  
  
• Getting a new laptop. Been sitting on this decision for the last year, but I bought my Mac in 2007 and have never updated its OS, which is a problem because I'm four behind and it's hard to install new software now because, you know, BEHIND. <.< >.> I was going to update it, but it turns out it can go as high as the OS Lion, but not the Mountain Lion (which is newer).
  
  The laptop itself is still working, it is, but the memory's catching up to it, I think, and I'd much rather replace it now and move my files over before, you know, having the hard drive crash and fail and I end up losing everything.
  
  But it's still in good working condition at 5 years, I am impressed, so it's not even a question that I'm sticking with Apple. Before I had my Mac I had a shitty Acer laptop that died within 2 years. In that time I have had to take it to random service places and paid out of pocket for things to get fixed. Meanwhile Apple customer service has never done me wrong -- it faltered a few days after my warranty expired and they serviced it for free. I dropped sparkling water in it and fried it WAY past the warranty expiration AND THEY SERVICED IT FOR FREE (IT WOULD HAVE BEEN $850) BECAUSE I ADMITTED IT WAS MY FAULT. Like. What even.
  
  I'm thinking it's just time, too. EXCITED. :D
  
  
• Considering getting this too. I don't tend to be frivolous but ngl bags are kind of a weakness. D: Also I travel a lot and it'd be nice to have a purse that my laptop can easily slot out of when I'm going through security and just in general too, IDK look it looks professional and not a diaper bag I love my Vera Bradley messenger bag but I wouldn't have bought it if a friend hadn't given it to me because diaper bags idk.
  
  
• HOCKEY. Okay maybe not really but HOCKEY. IS. HAPPENING. Going to a charity game this Friday. The 2010 Blackhawks that I like are playing and fasjf;asjfkasl;dflaksj yes I just want to see some goddamn hockey already. I should be going to AHL games but IDK, never get around to looking at ticket prices and stuff. I have a friend who works for the Wolves and can get me free tickets but it's a matter of waiting on her too, because the last time we tried to do that she texted me two days before the game I'd wanted. :|
  
  
• Potted Potter. It is showing in Chicago and I am watching it this November AND I CANNOT WAIT. It's been a long time since I was in a theater urgh. Also considering Kinky Boots because my friend said it was fun and Groupon has 35% off for it IDK. Probably not though already spending so much monies. :|

Sorry, this is just random rambling because I felt the need to update. :|

LiveJournal

Originally posted by twissie. Reposted by slumber at 2012-10-24 19:58:00.



So, after nearly a decade at this site, LJ finally does something that makes me actually rage. No popcorn and laughing as the masses storm to news posts complaining, this time I'm actually worried.

A while back I was invited to help out with BETA testing new LJ services (I got this invite via lj_releases).

They have just announced BETA testing of a new friendslist.

LJ is planning on redoing everyone's friendslists in the style of the new comment page and update page. They want to copy tumblr and make your friendslist into a dashboard-like system page (infinite scrolling and all). It's also been renamed to "feed" (this I don't mind too much, though). In fact the whole dashboard idea with infinite scrolling wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that everyone will be locked to one specific layout. The system style comment pages are bad enough, but now I'll have to strain my eyes reading my flist? That defeats the purpose of this entire site. The font, use of whitespace, oversized boxes and UI elements ... all contribute to making the page difficult to read, on a site where all you do is read. Aaaah. Even just the possibility of adjusting the font (style and size) would make this suggestion easier to swallow, but it's still not something I'd want for my journal. It would not improve my LJ experience in any way (in fact it would most likely make my daily LJ activities more time consuming).

Now, I wasn't able to make the BETA page display my own friendslist, so I apologise to the random users who are featured in the screenshot, but to give everyone an idea, the below image shows you what your friendslist probably will look like in a couple of months.


(Click for big)


I never switched over from Dystopia, so that adds to the weirdness. You're going to have to picture this with the standard LiveJournal drop down navigation + no blue sidebar to the left. Click the screenshots for bigger versions.

Top of page with links to journal, archive, profile


Example of text heavy post as displayed on friendslist


New buttons to the right replace the navigation strip. One tab for filters


One tab for Archive/Calendar, you can filter your feed to display posts from one specific date. These buttons follow along as you scroll down the page (infinite scrolling).



All friendslists will look the same.

Snippet from the locked post at lj_releases:

The friends page has been redesigned as a system page for all users, and is now available for Beta testers. There is a link at the top of your friends page allowing you to switch between the new and old versions, and will later go into public beta testing. You can switch back and forth between both versions throughout beta testing.

PUBLIC POST AT lj_releases ABOUT THE NEW FRIENDSLIST: http://lj-releases.livejournal.com/79480.html.

You can also see the proposed changes for yourself by enabling the BETA on your own journal (instructions from ruljautonews):

It's trivially easy to test beta features.
1) Go to lj_ru_beta and request to join.
2) Wait to get confirmation that you've been accepted into the community (this could take a few hours.)
3) Go to this page and choose Go To under Beta.
4) That's it, you're now testing the beta release. All site-scheme pages should now display a big "BETA BETA BETA BETA BETA BETA" in yellow letters across the top.
5) You could make comments in the lj_ru_beta post, but if you do please keep this in mind: the majority of commenters there don't speak English and if they do it's not their primary language. Machine translation of Russian is lousy. "My hovercraft is full of eels" lousy. While you can engage in basic dialogue and get a feel for what the other person is saying, don't get too hung up on anyone's phrasing.

You can easily switch back to the old version.

Make sure you let LJ know what you think of these proposed changes, I can't be the only one who thinks this is a horrible idea.

ETA: It's nice to see that I'm not the only one worried about the proposed changes, but please direct your feedback through the proper channels. This is a private journal, I have no affiliation with LJ. Please also be respectful when addressing the LJ staff. They are just doing their jobs. Thanks!

ETA2: Russian news post about the BETA test: http://lj-ru-beta.livejournal.com/7013.html

ETA3: Added more screenshots.

ETA4: Additional info at ruljautonews: http://ruljautonews.livejournal.com/27964.html

ETA5: An update on the new site scheme.

ETA6: Public beta has now been announced. Official announcement.

ETA7 (really?): RUSSIAN NEWS POSTS CONFIRM PAGINATION AND ABILITY TO CUSTOMIZE FONT AND BACKGROUND IN THE FUTURE, ruljautonews HAS MORE: http://ruljautonews.livejournal.com/28207.html