Friends

Alright, here's the dealio. I went to Київ, Україна (Kiev, Ukraine) last weekend. Starting October 31, there were reports of a swine flu outbreak there. I brushed it off. Swine flu is everywhere, after all. The Wednesday before we left, our travel group of 6 dwindled to 3. Public schools had been closed in Ukraine for 3 weeks. In western Ukraine, theaters, clubs, and Sunday services were closed in order to minimize large gatherings of people. The Ukraine-Slovakia land border was sealed. Rumors of martial law and airplanes spraying antibiotics over the cities were floating around. Our program director required us to meet her and sign a waiver form saying we wouldn't sue the everloving crap out of our program if something happened to us.

Needless to say, I started to become a little concerned. So I called the hostel owner to tell him that 3 people in our reservation backed out, and also to ask him how were things. He said everything was peachy. Of course, he's trying to make a buck, so I turned to Couch Surfing. (btw, if anyone has an account there, please friend me!) After contacting a couple of Ukrainian girls around my age (thinking they would have the same amount of judgment as me) I got this as a reply:

I wouldnt advice u to come here in nearest 3 weeks cuz
we have really tough situation right now .... yes, we
have a swine flu epidemy here, but only like 17 people
out of 84 died from swine flu .... what we are scared
of is actually abdominal typhus and pneumonic plague:
it is officially registered that we have it here ( my
classmates Dad works at a hospital where they do all
these analyses, thats how i know) ... people say that
in Ternopil region they were doing some constructions
and they digged out the old cemetery where people with
this terrible diseases were barried, and as u know its
bacterias can live for hundred years, even severe cold
doesnt destroy it .... so it just got spread out ....
and our politicians prefer to keep it kinda secret cuz
countries might just cross the borders, and then we
would be fucked :)))

... Uh what the shit. I shared the news with my remaining 2 travel buddies. They were still in. So I was in.

( And so started my adventure into Ukraine~ )

Just like the last time I got a haircut, I've had the urge dress slighly more manly-ly. This pretty much just involves collared shirts and pants.



Except, no wait, I'm not wearing a collared shirt here. Anyways, I usually don't post on certain days of the week because on those certain days, I only have one morning class and... don't really feel like thinking of what to wear. *gasp* On those days, I'm pretty much wearing something simple like this.



I like the look of puffy/furry vests over up top of blazers (as Gap usually does so prodigiously with their runway styling). This one is a bit bulky though.

Z-Burger: Best burger&shakes place in DC, or best burger&shakes place ever???

Who here has not experienced the magic of this? You are a heathen and must get your ass over there immediately. Vegetarians are not exempt, they have a veggie burger too.

Hello All!

I wanted to let you all know about a magazine I just started publishing...its called Zelda : The Magazine of the Vintage Nouveau, and we specialize in features/interests from 1900-1940! There are pieces on historical topics of the era as well as highlights of what's going on in vintage style culture today!

Our cover story is on Madame Yevonde, an amazing photographer who excels in the 1930s with a lot of gorgeous color portraiture- with AMAZING fashion of the era...

Thought you might enjoy! You can see more about Zelda/order a copy at http://www.zeldamag.com !

xo

Notes augmented

We've enhanced and de-bugged Notes. If you haven't tried it yet, now's the time! You can create a private note when you ban multiple users. You can also delete multiple notes at once. Lastly, paid users have the option to add a note (visible only to you) whenever you add or remove a friend (guaranteed to avoid embarrassing social mishaps). If you don't currently have a paid account, you can upgrade now! It only takes a few minutes and costs less than a bad shopping mall haircut (plus, it's way more fashionable)!

Product tweaks and bug kill

1. In another effort to zap spam, comments containing links from domains LiveJournal deems untrustworthy are now automatically screened
2. If you sign up to get notifications of the Writer's Block question of the day, you'll now see the daily question in the email notification, so you'll have a little extra time to ponder before you post. You can subscribe to Writers Block notifications here
3. The issue causing random comments to vanish has been fixed!
4. If you visit a LiveJournal page and get prompted to log in, you'll be returned to the same page after you sign in (Thanks, Dreamwidth)!
5. If you don't edit the timestamp for an entry at all, the entry timestamp will indicate the time the entry was posted instead of the time the Update Journal page was loaded
6. Comments with paddings/backgrounds render correctly within the comment box (and will no longer wrap outside the box and break frames/margins)

New FCK fixes rich text editor!

1. We've updated our RTE (Rich Text Editor) to FCKeditor version 2.6.5
2. When switching from the RTE to HTML editor, links for syndicated feeds are no longer broken
3. RTE now functions properly in Safari 4.0
4. An extra line/space will not be auto-inserted whenever you switch from RTE to HTML editor
5. The insert image link now works correctly in all browsers

LiveJournal Cares

We’re pleased to introduce you to lj_cares, a new LiveJournal community dedicated to raising awareness and funds for U.S. charitable organizations that improve the health and well-being of people around the world. Each month, we’ll spotlight a nonprofit that is making a significant global impact through medical research, public outreach, and/or humanitarian social programs. Charities will be selected in accordance with the U.S. calendar of national health observances based on a high rating (of over 60%) on Charity Navigator and global scope of impact.

In this, our inaugural month of November, we will celebrate national adoption month by offering a charitable virtual gift (priced at $2.99) to support Love Without Boundaries, an organization that saves the lives of orphans with life-threatening diseases and places them in loving homes around the world. LiveJournal will donate 100% of the proceeds from the sale of charitable vgifts (we'll cover the cost of credit card transaction fees). To learn more about Love Without Boundaries, please visit lj_cares and read about how they helped save Baby Kang and the Rainbow Twins from fatal illnesses, who are now thriving in nurturing families. You can purchase your Love Without Boundaries gifts in the Virtual Gift shop.

Papered in postcards

A couple of weeks ago, we asked you to send in postcards to surround us with LiveJournal community. Thanks for coming through! We've received postcards all the way from Germany, Finland, and Canada and from all over the US, including Texas, Florida, Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, Indiana, Hawaii, and Oklahoma just to name just a handful. We're thrilled with our improved decor.

Please keep the love coming for one more week by writing to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. Be sure to include your username, since we'll be drawing the names of ten random contributors next Thursday to win paid account credits!

Photos of the week

We have more dazzling images posted by talented LiveJournal photographers from around the world. We're hoping to span the entire globe, so please continue posting and tagging. Of course, you can also sit back and enjoy the view at lj_photophile.

You can see a sample of this week's gorgeous photos and check out spotlight communities and awesome user content after the jump!

( Read more... )

Curtains

We thank you, once again, for joining us. See you next week!

I looked through the memories but there wasn't a specific entry for this question: I am looking for a craft or yarn store in DC that has embroidery materials, specifically one that has a large variety of colors of embroidery floss, and possibly some interesting yarn as well.

I live in Mt Pleasant and am trying to find something as close-in as possible, though I also spend a bit of time in the Takoma Park area.

Thanks,

A.

Hi,

I'm looking for a good jeweler. I have a sapphire I need set into a semi-mount setting. Does anyone know of any business or place in the area that has a good reputation? I am willing to go on the pricey side.

Thanks.