Happy Birthday LJ!

[dolorous_ett]

Who'd have thought it? Two years and a few days ago I started a livejournal. Doesn't time fly?

I've celebrated my two-year anniversary by treating myself to a year's worth of paid membership. Here's a new icon to celebrate.

So, in honour of this auspicious day (give or take a day or two), I have two questions for you.

1. Now I've got a fancy new paid account, can you point me to some fun things I can do with it?

2. Where were you two years ago? Tell me a nice memory of yours from that time.

Comments

[ignipes.livejournal.com]

Happy LJ Anniversary!

1. You can do POLLS! Okay, possibly not everybody is as excited about this option as I am, but I love polls, whatever the subject. There are also a lot more layout styles available for paid accounts, if you want to try a different look.

2. I just looked back in my journal, and exactly two years and four days ago I passed by comprehensive exam. So that is a happy memory. The passing, not the exam itself.

[zoepaleologa.livejournal.com]

ICONZES!!!! You get more! Polls, too, but the iconzes is the bestest.

You can search the membership directory and get little piccies of people.

Two years ago this week I finished an overlong fic. Today, I read an original contemporary source in my current research project, who has been worrying me by saying certain things that were (I felt pretty sure) factually impossible. Today, I proved not only that he was a liar but how and with reference to timeline and facts. I feel smug, because at least one eminent academic has been taken in by one of the facts. I know it cannot be true.

The today thing makes me far happier than the two years ago thingy, needless to say.

[riibu.livejournal.com]

Polls, extra layouts and extra user pics are my favourite things in a paid account. I've also used ScrapBook for photo hosting.

My life is very similar to what it was two years ago. I looked at my LJ entries during that time and noticed that I wanted to stop writing fan fiction in order to write original fiction. I've still written many fics since then... but I've also started to write original text (again).

[aerama.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, fun layouts and manipulations of code!
Actually I can't remember if you could do all that with a free account anyway. I do know that I am still afraid to change things in CSS (but I do it anyway). Scalping people's hard work via their kind tutorials is a great thing.

And of course, extra iconses space. Think of the owls you could have! Take mine! :)

I looked back 2 years ago and I wasn't here. Oops. I started in Sept 2005 and it was very dull. I tried to remember something that happened anyway two years ago, and I couldn't. I probably forgot something on that date. WTF.


Why am I having trouble figuring out what your icon is? Try as I might I can only see a dog in earmuffs and a sideways nose holding a bird. Yes, my head is feeling woozy; why do you ask? Stupid work-cold trying to get me...

[perosha.livejournal.com]

msavi just asked question 1) today, too, so in the spirit of laziness I will copy-paste my comment in her journal. :P
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Use your newly-expanded userpic limit. It's supah-fun and I highly recommend shoegal_icons. ;)

Do voice posting - it's quite nifty, especially if you drunk dial your LJ and then listen to it the next morning. (I have a "drunk dialing" TAG, actually... :P) When you set up voice posting on your phone, you can specify what security level the posts will be automatically set as.

Find a community or friendly user who will make you a custom layout. ihearttoronto made mine for a fee and I lurves it. ♥ However, if you know CSS, you can probably swipe a template off a template exchange comm and modify it yourself.

Enjoy the lack of ads. Use a custom mood theme (mine is of Pedja Bjelac from a fansite). Create polls in your journal. Read your Friends of Friends list [http://dolorous-ett.livejournal.com/friendsfriends]. Put more pics in your Scrapbook. Create an RSS feed for your favorite site (I created some so I can read my friends' personal Blogger blogs right on my LJ Friends page). And...well, there's lots of stuff. *lol*

Official list of Paid account benefits is HERE.
------

As for the second question...I really have such a terrible memory that I can't answer it. It was the end of my junior year of high school, so I was probably getting ready to take AP tests, but that's not a delightful memory. *lol* Honestly, I don't know.

[ms-wanderlust.livejournal.com]

Definitely the layouts are the best thing for me. I change mine all the time! And having more icons is fun too.
Two years ago I had just returned from Nepal and was in a wheelchair waiting for back surgery. So you'll forgive me for not finding that a particularly great memory....! However, I did make a new friend - her name was Yulerbay and she was in Birmingham studying English. Whilst on holiday in Thailand last week I met up with her and went to her house for pad thai. So there you go...managed to find a good memory after all!

[lyras.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday to your LJ! I have nothing to add to everyone else's suggestions, although the only bit I really make use of is the icon space.

Two years ago, apparently, I was working on my one and only Snape/Hermione story, which eventually won third prize in the Spring Faire competition at Sycophant Hex. My one and only writing prize, so that's a nice memory!

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

OMG POLLS! Must try that.

And slightly belated congratulations for passing your exam!

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

Yes - icons are fun, aren't they *shows off new extra one*

I can see why you're more proud of your more recent acheivements, but don't knock the old ones either! Finishing that fic is also something to be very proud about!

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

I'm enjoying all the extra icons - and must play with the layout - sounds like fun!

It sounds like you must be in a place in your life you're pretty happy with! Not all change is good.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

You may not have been on LJ that long, but I'm pretty sure you were starting to be a presence on Fiction Alley.

And the icon is by a British graffiti artist called Banksy - when I took it on I thought it was a person in a spacesuit with a perky cartoon bird perched on his finger, but now I look more closely I see it's an old-fashioned diving suit.

I've spruced up the icon which was a wonky shape - it may be that it now looks a bit better to you...

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a lot of fun things to do - thank you! Now I just have to find the time ... *sigh*

I've taken on a few new icons - the rest I'll do in spare moments. And I think the friends-of-friends list will be fascinating!

Cheers - that's my weekend taken care of!

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

Gosh, I'm sorry about that. I didn't mean to rake unhappy memories - I've been repatriated from an overseas post because of illness, and even though I wasn't in anything like your position it was still horrible.

I had no idea, which shows at least, I suppose, that things have looked up since then...

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

I've just realised I missed your birthday! Many belated happy returns of the day!

Your prize story? Sounds great? Care to send a link?

[ms-wanderlust.livejournal.com]

You didn't rake unhappy memories at all...at least, they're always there but you made me see a good memory from that time too. So that's a great thing! Where had you been working? Doing what? I'm very nosy so feel free not to give details if you prefer :)

[lyras.livejournal.com]

On further research, it was second prize, not third! The link is here - but be warned, it's pre HBP, so Snape is a lot nicer than I now perceive him to be.

(Sorry for my crap html skillz!)

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

I was a VSO teacher in China. Ask me again in a non-locked post - for obvious reasons, I'm rather reluctant to put too much personal information in public-access posts.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

It's been ages since I read one of those stories! I see what you mean about pre-HBP, but why not? It reads well, it's charming and it's not the cliche'd stuff you often find over there.

My favourite parts were when Harry sees sense and does the logical thing with grace and tact, and this line:

After that, I learned to be more circumspect with these quivering romantics, who believed that my cynical manner concealed a Mr Darcy screaming for release. Nevertheless, I had become reacquainted with my own body and its desires, a matter of some pleasure to me.

which is made of win.

[dolabellae.livejournal.com]

I've coughed up for two years of paid LJ on the trot solely for the icons. I do love them. Keep meaning to do polls, as they're fun, but can never think of things to ask!

Happy slightly late 2 year LJ birthday! This time two years ago was definitely not the best time of my life. But there are definitely still nice memories - I was taking a very sweet girl for Ovid tutorials then, and the first week (due to me messing up booking a teaching room) we ended up having to go to a quiet museum cafe for a discussion over tea and ginger cake. She was bright and very enthusiastic and the tutorial ran over quite a bit.

I miss teaching sometimes.

[lyras.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked it! I had fun writing it (especially the Snape-Harry dynamic), and it was fun to revisit it today - the writing isn't great in patches, but it's a better story than I remember it being!

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I am amazed to see I did have an LJ two years ago, albeit with nothing actually in it. Checking my real diary reveals only several pages of disquisition on "Unnatural Death", so it doesn't look like anything especially exciting was happening in my life, although I was about to go up to Leeds for May Bank Holiday, where I went on a hike and got absolutely drenched. So there you go.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry - seem to be causing a lot of horrid flashbacks rather than the nice memories I had in mind!

Still at least you aren't /there/ any more!

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

Oh well - could be worse! I seem to be triggering a lot of bad memories, so I suppose a nothing-much memory is at least a step up from that.