im all about loving you.

taste_buds
Holidays provide a built-in excuse for indulgent entertaining. This all-purpose foodie community covers everything from homemade hangover cures to dinner party menus. Need quick advice? Get five-minute snack suggestions, low-fat ingredient substitutes, and even measurement conversions. Delicious recipes garnished with humorous advice. Yum.

naturesbeauty
Always on the lookout for compelling images, we were delighted to discover this flourishing community of artists who share a love of nature. Honoring the subject with photographs, paintings, sketches, prose, poetry, and other creative works, you'll be simultaneously riveted to your monitor and inspired to run helter skelter towards the nearest wooded dale.

Just random things pulled from random sites that made me smile. Seriously i'd like to believe i have some sort of creative bone in me, but i can't even highlight my notes straight, let alone draw anything that doesn't look done by a puppy with a pencil. So by the looks of it, i think i'll stick to being.. inspired. Haha :)

This boy is just way too adorable not to share. I especially love how he jeng-jeng jams at 0:34 and rocks out at 0:57. Check out his other videos where he's singing total gibberish with so much passion! Gotta love him.

what or who am i waiting for?
forget it, the call wouldnt come.

gna pack up &leave for sy's place in a bit
we are flyin' to Kyushu, Japan.
be back in a week's time..

.....for fucking xmas

i FINALLY meet my besties..yay...
went empire state to have dinner.....and i am seriously bloated wth thick chunks of bread...
all the food pictures are with sam...

but agthering are always great with them..
cuz i can really laugh and talk as much as i like...

and we watched a very very terrible movie...
which was overloaded with sound effects and heavy animation graphics....
till halfway through my head was gonna be blasted off...
somemore chunks of it was not understandable...

We came to a conclusion that as we grow older we tend to be more lazy...
sitting around(idling) becomes our best forte...

(pics dun haf von cuz she was at camp)

It sure doesn't feel like almost 3 weeks have passed since my last update! No idea what I've been busy with or where did time go. After my Adelaide tomorrow, I'll be on a few days' leave so hopefully I'll be able to update my sales post then!

Some pictures from the meet-up I had with Xiaoting in Auckland:


Dinner @ The Occidental
I had the same pot of mussels again some few days later ('cause I did Auckland back to back) and almost puked.
So sick of it!




See how she bullies me.




hahahhaha @ her face





Flying is definitely so much more fun when you've friends with you. Sadly she's made the brave decision of leaving and we haven't even flown together... A part of me is so envious because I want to leave as well. But the mature side of me is thinking about $$$ and commitments. 3 more years...just 3 more years. I'll leave when I get my degree.

And because I've promised Xiaoting... Here's the most awkward picture of the century:

HAHAHA

I'll be back soon.
Till then, kisses!

Tweaks and enhancements

• As a number of you reported, a service interruption impaired sending and receiving notifications for a couple of days. This was due to an avalanche of snowflake cookies. We've removed the free snowflake cookie and unclogged the pipeline. Timely notifications should resume shortly. Please note that there's a backlog in our queues, so you'll be getting earlier notifications first. For more details, check out this post at lj_maintenance.
• In anticipation of the new year, we've embarked on a self-improvement kick to boost our backend (pun semi-intended). This will allow us to offer you a holiday promotion in the next few weeks (yes, we're listening and working very hard to make it happen). We sincerely appreciate your continued patience and support.

Holiday vgifts are here!

We've added some fantastic new vgifts to help you spread holiday cheer. We also hope you'll honor AIDS Awareness Month by purchasing virtual red ribbons. Priced at $2.99, we'll donate 100 percent of gross proceeds to IAVI.org (the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative) to support the development and global distribution of an affordable HIV vaccine.

Introducing: LJLimericks

We cordially here do invite you
To craft a fine limerick. Might you?
Each week, a new theme,
Then a poll, that's our dream
Winner posted on news to delight you!

In honor of all the brilliant writers on LiveJournal, we've created a brand new community: ljlimericks! Each week, we'll enter a handful of limericks into a poll (which we'll tuck snugly under an LJ-Cut). The winning poem will be published in the following newsletter. In addition, the author will receive a virtual blue ribbon! If you have the time, come drop us a rhyme. Please keep the "Nantucket" stuff on the downlow, since this is a youth-friendly community. Our first prompt is: Insomnia in winter.

Photos of the week

We're back with more incredible images from our global photography community. Congratulations to sempre_marseeya, who has been awarded a virtual blue ribbon as the winner of our second lj_photophile poll.

We hate to squelch your creativity, but, as a courtesy to other users, please post only one photo at a time and keep the main photo no larger than 350x350 (so images display properly via mobile and on friends pages). You can link to a larger image and/or post photos under a cut. Just so you know, we select photos for the poll blindly, based on user comments and staff feedback. Please continue to vote, comment, and, of course, enjoy. You can check out the week in pictures and view more awesome user content after the jump!

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Curtains

Thanks, again, for joining us. Stay warm and safe out there!

backpacking
Want to embrace your wanderlust on the cheap? If you're tall on adventurous spirit, but short on funds, this community can help you plan a trip to anywhere. Offering plentiful tips on how to travel light, you can post about bargain hotels and hostels if you're into urban exploration or discuss camping gear and mosquito netting for the great outdoors. Hitch your backpack, pitch your tent, and carpe diem!

After all these, I have learnt that its best not to put in your heart into anything at all.
Whether its love or friendship.
Its true to say that the more you expect, the more disappointment you will get.
Whatever you intend to send across to another party, things get twisted and misunderstood.
I used to believe in showing love and concern to people I really love and care about. Whether or not it means sending smses or calling to check on them when I sense something is wrong or buying a little something when that something reminds me of a certain person.
But I guess nobody really needs it.

I have learnt that the more we show our affection, the more it gets taken for granted. I miss you, I care about you, I treasure you, the more they are said the more people get sick of them and then these words start to lose their real meaning. But what happens when we really mean them when they are said? Its not really the same if the other party doesn't feel the same. If you really get what I mean.

I have learnt that people like to hang out with happy people. This sounds stupid and funny but I feel its true. Few can really talk about their deepest fears or feelings with people in fear of getting ostracized. Sometimes we tell ourselves that we should learn to solve problems ourselves because we've grown up and should be mature enough not to trouble others. But its through all these sharing we learn to know more about each other isn't it. This is why I like to have heart to heart talks with people I care about. If given a choice I would rather listen to sad stories rather than happy ones. This gives me a chance to understand the real person he/she is, not just the one I have always known or seen. But it is not the same if the other party feels that it is not necessary. Also many at times we are too busy for all these. So when we have that little time to spent with each other of cos we choose to share happy thoughts. So do we still blame it on time? Or do we blame it on growing up?

How much do we really know about each other then? There are so many things happening in everyone's lives, too many to really share with anyone at all. At one moment when you really feel like sharing with someone you don't know who to turn to. At another when you really share it with someone you think can understand the other party doesn't. When this happens you tell yourself, "see isn't it better to solve it yourself and not bother others about it?"

I have learnt that crying alone at the end of the day is the most helpless feeling one can ever feel. Sadly, I think this happens to everyone out there too.
Everybody needs a guardian angel.

**FINAL EDIT Thu Dec 10 02:15:47 UTC 2009**

So there is the final update... Over the past day we have processed around 11 million jobs out of the 12 million that were in queue at that time. Please bear in mind that over this past day, more jobs for notifications are also created. So while the queue has been dropping, we are still not fully caught up at this point, due to backlog and new jobs. We have roughly 3 million jobs still pending that involve the notification system in some manner. We had hoped we could have fully cleared the queue in a day, but unfortunately we can't clear it too quickly, since we need the rest of the site to operate normally. From our current perspective on the amount of jobs that are left in queue, and how many it has processed thus far, we believe it will take around another 8 - 12 hours to process everything.

And finally some answers to some questions:

( Read More and Get Some Answers... )

Sometimes, all you need to do is just be yourself and all your worries will be gone ;)

freeskiers
While some of us long to escape the cold, dark stretch of winter for hot tropical beaches, for others, there's nothing quite like whoooooshing down those shimmering sugar alps. If you're fond of freestyle skiing, get ready to slide down the slippery slopes in good company. This passionate, international community shares travel/gear tips, anecdotes, photos, and videos for those who can't get enough of the sweet stuff.