Look at this wonderful photo manipulation roxxychan did for me as sort of an early Christmas present! Eee! It's already become my new background image at work.

Just a quick update to let everyone know I am working through the list of volunteers. I am trying to get a feel for each person by reading their journal. However, the majority are friends-locked. So, those of you who volunteered, could you please temporarily add me as a friend?

I promise I am discreet and do not have the time to read every entry you've ever made. I just need to be able to read more than "This journal is friends-only".

Also, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the U.S.! And Happy Thursday to everyone else!

Jonathan K of St Peters
Mobile: 0411 289 369
Email: leonid.massage@iinet.net.au

Comments about this home - Big 3 story, 4 bedroom, modern townhouse with massive kitchen, 2.5 bathrooms and decent yard. All windows are double glazed, and the house has good air conditioning. Existing housemates have all major appliances including dishwasher, combined washer dryer, massive fridge, multiple TVs, etc. as well as a fast internet connection with wireless network. House is 8 minutes from St Peters station, 8-10 minutes from Marrickville Metro, and less than 100m from city and bondi buses. The room is on the middle floor facing the back yard, and has a balcony big enough for a table and chairs.

Home sharing considerations - Rent per week is $155, with 4 weeks bond. Bills are split equally, including Gas, Electricity and Internet.

Lifestyle & interests of householders - I'm Jon, age 28. I'm a massage therapist (rated Best of Sydney 2008) and a pyrotechnician. I run my practice from home. I'm actively involved in queer community events, and I enjoy trashy sci-fi. I also like to cook for the house.

Description of other flatmates - The other two housemates are a couple, Alex and Glen. They work out at North Ryde in the big corporate developments there. They're early and late 20s respectively, and have similar interests.

Important personal qualities - We're looking for someone friendly, not too messy, and hopefully someone fun. Queer-friendly or queer is essential. Someone who doesn't mind occasional geekery would be nice, too. Also, occasional partying would be nice.

Description of pets - Nipper, a black labrador-cross (ie medium dog). He's adorable, but an absolute attention queen. He will call upon you to pat him, and hug him, and throw a ball for him. Or he will pout.

I know this has been asked several times before by different people, but now I am starting to ask myself the same thing. "How long is too long to wait for an art trade?" I do not want to name the other person just yet because I would really much rather hear what people have to say, given the situation. This is what has been going on:

Some time at the end of August, I made a journal on FA asking if anyone wanted to do a badge trade. I specifically said that they must be willing and able to mail me their half. I agreed to trade with someone who commented on my journal. I finished her badge and posted it. She approved it, so I laminated it and mailed it out to her at the end of August (around the 25th, roughly). She verified that she received it.

Now here's the confusing part. A little over a month went by and I heard nothing. I sent her a note asking what was going on. She responded a day later (October 8th), saying that "the address was wrong, it got returned in the mail and damaged," then continued to say she has bills and car insurance to pay off.

I've got a few red flags going up as a result.
1. If you had completed the first one, why didn't you show it to me first before attempting to mail it out? I would have liked to approve of it and make sure it didn't need alterations. (If ANYTHING, it would at least prove that you legitimately did your half.)
2. I have never, ever had someone get a returned letter from the post office for my address. Either this is an extremely bad fluke, she wrote the address wrong, or she is a liar and never sent it. (The badge would be sent within the US. This is nothing international.)

So it is approaching 4 months and I haven't seen so much as a sketch from her (whether she did the "first one" or not). That one note was the only note that I ever sent her. I am NOT one to harass people daily, weekly, or even monthly. Maybe she needs a reminder, but I don't know. I understand that life happens and that bills and other things DO get in the way.. But I feel like this is getting a bit too ridiculous for me. It's just a badge!

With that said.. Should I release her name and advise others not to trade with her? Or do I sit on it for another few months and just hope she decides to send it? It's possible that she just needs a firm reminder, but I don't know.

Thank you for reading this. I know it got a bit long winded, but I wanted to try to make the situation as clear as I could. Thanks again. :)
-Obsidian

Some years ago(2005),I commissioned a certian furry artist to draw a pick of my character Cindy.I recieved the image via jpg. file,but never the original.At the time,I thought that it was either lost in the mail or this commission was for an image file.I do recall sending the artist an email about it back then,but never got a reply.Well, a few days ago,I was looking though Furbuy and I came upon this: http://www.furbuy.com/auctions/1013018.html I sent the artist an email a day or so ago asking them to either cancel the auction and send me the pick(to which I would pay s/h) or if that were not possible,do draw another pick of Cindy in a simmiar pose for a price that would be negotiated.To date I have recieved no reply.This leaves me frustrated.Should I place a bid on a pick that I already paid for long ago? or just let the whole thing drop and chaulk it up to my own stupidity for not having checked back with this artist over the years.I just don't know what to do here. Note: since I wrote this,at the advice of a friend I have contacted Furbuy administrators to ask to have the auction pulled until I can work this out between the artist and myself.I am awaitng their response or a reply from the artist in question. Edit : Since this post was made,I have come to a resolution with the artist in question.I will be getting my art for a price that was negotiated fairly between us.Thanks for everyone's comments and suggestions concerning this matter.It is now closed as far as I am concerned.

Tweaks and enhancements

1. In order to improve site security, we've temporarily suspended the ability to change passwords for old email addresses that haven't been used for over six months. For further information and support, please visit our customer care page.
2. We've launched a new mobile site with an enhanced UI at m.livejournal.com. View spotlights, post to your journal, read and post to friends pages, and more, no matter where you roam! Please let us know what you think, since this will eventually replace our existing mobile interface. You can update your mobile preferences on your account page.
3. We've upgraded from Beacon to Facebook Connect to improve dual posting. If you've already signed up for Facebook Beacon, you're good to go. If you wish to update your Facebook Connect setting, visit Account Privacy settings and scroll down to the option labeled: "Send information about my updates to Facebook." You can choose Always or Ask each time. Remember to save (on the bottom left corner of the page). To learn more, check out FAQ 249. While we're on the subject, if you happen to be visiting that side of town, please join our Facebook fan page for a touch of home away from home.
4. You'll now receive the Writer's Block Question of the Day in the body of email notifications. To sign up for Writer's Block notifications, visit writersblock and choose the Watch Community option. Next, update your Writer's Block notification settings by checking the box to the right of "Someone posts a new entry to writersblock."
5. Paid and permanent users can now view, add, and edit Notes of commenters. Notes will appear beside the username of comment posters (instead of stars) on S1-themed comment pages.

Send some lovin' thanks to your friends with our holiday vgifts!

Photos of the week

We're so delighted with the immense talent of our growing, global lj_photophile community that we've decided to introduce a poll. Each week, we'll choose a half-dozen photos (based on user comments and staff feedback) and ask you to select a photo of the week. The winning photo will be announced in the next newsletter. If possible, please limit photo size to 350x350 to ensure that images display properly on friends pages. We want to thank you again (and again!) for sharing your passion.

Check out this week's photo poll and more fantastic user content after the jump!

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Curtains

Thanks for joining us. To our American friends, have a fantastic Thanksgiving. To all of our international neighbors, we'll eat a little extra for you!

Afternoon furries, how are you all doing. Just thought I would write a quick journal seeing as I haven't had a serious one in the past while, just to let anyone interested whats going on in the life of Stripes :)

Work is chugging along nicely, getting some decent hours, working 11am-10pm with Thur, Fri, Sat off usually. Decent hours and decent times, the extra day off in the week gives me time to relax, do housework, laundry, cooking, whatever, so makes it worth it. Shift will be changing as of Jan 3rd, looking for something similar if not starting at possibly an earlier start time.

Unforutnatly I was not able to make MFF this past week due to circumstances arising from an incident last year....which we wont go into :) ... I hope everyone who did go enjoyed themselves. I hope to attend in 2010 as the con is in a new hotel now, I will still be formally asking the board of MFF to allow me back to the con, so I hope they can grant me this.

Put down the deposit on Brandon, my new Snow Leopard. Hoping to have him possibly before MFF. He will be made by Kitty (www.furaffinity.net/user/kutekittykatt) - I have no doubt she will do a fantastic job and I look forward to seeing how he will turn out :) There is some concept art in my gallary if anyone fancies taking a peak.

With xmas coming up, I dont really have any major plans, my family will be returning to the UK for 2 weeks, but I shall not be joining them. Instead I shall be working as much as I can to get more money, perhaps going to visit some friends in Oshawa for a few days.

Also, to end this, as some of you may already know, me and Madius are no longer together. Dont want to get into the reasons why, but all I will say is that we are still on good terms and still currently living together.

Thanks for reading, Stay Frisky Folks :3

Sammy

Made it here safely! In room 1103.

Postcard winners!

We wish to extend our heartfelt gratitude for sending so much joy our way. Frank is still blushing with excitement over the love notes, proposals, propositions, and occasional intimate photos sent from his admirers around the world (China, Norway, Japan, and Poland just this week)! At his request, we blindfolded Justin, one of Frank's BFFs, spun him around in five dozen counterclockwise circles, and asked him to point to ten random postcards/envelopes pasted to the wall. After a brief trip to the bathroom, he chose the following lucky winners, to whom we will give a six-month paid account token (for paid, basic, and plus users) or, for our permanent account holders, a $15 voucher for the LiveJournal gift shop.

So, without further ado, the winners are:

1. seraphene
2. fotog
3. boykitten
4. seshat_6
5. anti_aol
6. lisalees
7. katrinkacat
8. mistyboston
9. _woody_lein
10. another_slender

Bugs, Tweaks, and Enhancements

1. We fixed a bug from the last release that was causing screened comments to become unscreened if they were edited
2. If you happen to be gaming around the corner, check us out on Facebook and be sure to spread the word!
3. We've added new vgifts to celebrate Thanksgiving! Check out our feathered friend, below!

Give more with charitable vgifts

In honor of national adoption month, we're offering a charitable vgift (priced at $2.99) to support Love Without Boundaries, an organization that provides healthcare and adoption to orphans suffering from life-threatening diseases. LiveJournal will donate 100% of gross proceeds from the sale (we'll cover the cost of credit card transaction fees). To learn more about Love Without Boundaries, please visit lj_cares. You can purchase your Love Without Boundaries vgifts in the Virtual Gift shop. We'll keep you posted on how much we raise!

Photos of the week

We're delighted to showcase yet more incredible photos from some of our brilliant LiveJournal photographers around the world. Keep posting (and tagging). And be sure to show some love by commenting on the awesome view at lj_photophile.

Check out this week's photos and more amazing user content after the jump!

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Curtains

Thanks, again, for joining us. See you next week!

Well, folks, we are down to one moderator. To really keep this community running smoothly, we should have at least 3. So, I am opening up for applications.

I feel Artists_Beware provides a great service to our artistic community. If you feel the same way and would like to contribute some of your time to help moderate, please comment here.

I will also be doing a little updating the community info this coming weekend. It's been a long time since the last revisions, and that was just an addition to the rules about screening posts. If anyone has suggestions, you can comment here, as well. Rest assured, there will be no major changes to the purpose of the community.

An octopus about to dine on a turtle:

From Street Art

I found this one in a relatively secluded spot that had managed to escape the predations of the less art-loving members of the Brisbane community. This is the last image I've seen of the current batch so unless the artist makes a fresh batch I think that will be it for now.

As many of you already know, I am intending to be at FC 2010 next year. (If anyone is looking for a cute rat for a skit for FNL, let me know. And, yes, of course I'm bringing both Rattus and Ziggy with me!)

I am getting sick of getting a disposable prepaid mobile phone plan every year, meaning I have a different phone number I have to distribute every time I go to America. Does anyone know of a prepaid mobile phone plan (or any plan that I don't have to pay monthly fees on while I'm not using it for most of the year) that I can keep alive for over a year, thus saving me the trouble of getting a new number every year?

Don't miss me too much

<3

:P