Red Headed Femme

Oh good. The Twitter crossposting issue is fixed, apparently.

Is it just me, or does this new bunch running Livejournal seem to be a lot more responsive to their customers?

At any rate, thank you to our new LJ overlords.
_____

...And so we change yet again.

Actually, I looked into changing my username, but I don't want to pay fifteen dollars; besides the fact that "writerchick" was already taken. So I figured I'd just change the name of the journal and leave it at that.

The new "Expressive Seasonal" themes are rather attractive. God knows I'm not into snowboarding--not in the least--but this one does have a nice font, and it also has the option of two right sidebars. I don't see that  particular layout much, and I like it. Hopefully, you'll be seeing this template for a while.

As you can see, I've switched layouts. I went through all the new ones, and finally settled on "Poe" (in "Expressive"). I'm probably too picky, but it met all my criteria.

First of all, I absolutely hate a sans serif font (like Arial). I know they're very popular--almost all the new layouts use them. But they always look unfinished to me, and distract me from what the person is trying to write. A serif font, like this one (I don't know what it is, but I prefer Garamond) seems soothing and complete--all the i's dotted and the t's crossed, and with everything about the typeface in place, I can pay more attention to what the person is saying.

I also like a layout that uses up most of the page. With my previous layout, Flexible Squares, I expanded it to 80% of the screen. A narrow layout just seems wasteful to me. I keep wanting to reach through the screen, grab the edges, and physically pull the page until it fills my monitor.

When going through the new layouts, it came down to a choice between this one and Style Contest's Newsline. I did like Newsline's cute little bullets (actually diamonds) for the sidebar, but I did not like the Feeling, Listening to, and Tags lines being at the top of the entry instead of the bottom. "Poe" was the only one with this setup.

The theme is also very appropriate, in my opinion--there's nothing better than a little Edgar Allan Poe for a writer. Not to mention that I like vampires and things that go snarl in the night.

Heh heh.

Here's the Friends survey, if anyone wants to take it.



Frankly, some of the questions puzzled me. I've always thought that the f-list is a way of getting feeds for blogs you like to read (the LJ version of Bloglines, in other words). I don't quite understand all the emotional undercurrents attached to it, especially all the issues involved in "defriending." Why would you be upset if someone "defriended" you? I know a lot of you know your friends outside of cyberspace, but I don't (or at least not yet). So it wouldn't bother me in the least if someone defriended me. Not that I want y'all to--I'm flattered that you think these natterings are interesting enough to read. Nevertheless, if anyone gets tired of reading me for any reason, it won't upset me if you kick me off your list. People's tastes change, you know.

If there's some etiquette involved in friending someone (i.e., asking permission), I will admit I have fallen down in that. Whenever I see an LJ that looks interesting, I just pop it on my f-list. My main criteria is that the writer have personality, and something in the person's philosophy speaks to me. Not that I necessarily agree with everything they say, but they have to put forth their ideas in an engaging manner. Sorry, I don't respond to rants about boyfriends and school; I'm a bit too old for that to hold my attention. I think all the friends I have are interesting people, and I like to hear what they have to say.

So: what's the benchmark for friending? Anyone can answer.

So. I've gone through all the S2 layouts, and customized each one I like. This means I have eleven complete stylesheets to pick from.

The interesting stylesheet is the new Bloggish one. A lot of those styles are imported straight from Typepad. The only thing about that layout is, you can't change a lot of details about it yet, such as column widths and entry names (by that, I mean the names for Links, Tags, Comments and the like). I suppose this does prevent me from getting too cutesy, however.

Childfree readers will find it curious that I picked the Bloggish "Baby" layout. The only reason I did that is I liked the colors and the stripes (also the rubber ducky). But as soon as I can customize it more, I'll get rid of the "mood" and "music" things at the top that interfere with the text.

Also, who on earth came up with the style names for "Haven"? Those names wouldn't even make good Tolkien rejects.

This is kind of interesting, actually.

Please forgive me if I seem to be a bit behind the times. I never really played with LiveJournal's customization and stylesheets before. For that matter, I suppose I've been slow on the uptake all the way around--I always thought LJ was just for angsty teens who natter on about nothing. This isn't true, as I'm finding out.

I'm also learning to appreciate the possibilities of customizing three or four layouts and stylesheets, and switching between each according to my whim.

Of course, this is only possible since I became a paid member. Yes, Virginia, I parted with some hard-earned cash and put another notch on my credit card. But hey, if you pay a year at a time, it's less than two dollars a month. I spend more than that on snacks at work, so I think I can afford some blog-meistering.

Anyway, it's been fun.

Why am I annoying?

You tell me!


I post weird poetic stuff no one understands


why is YOUR livejournal annoying?
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Well, I'll try to make the inscrutable messages a little longer.

Heh.

Heh. I've been tweaking this here page. Font sizes, colors, etc, and trying to make it big enough for not-quite-young eyes to read. I went through several of the other S2 layouts and themes, but I ended up coming back to "Smooth Sailing." I suppose LJ will get some of Typepad's layouts eventually, and vice versa, I'm sure.

A few days ago, I tried to join Childfree Feminist and was turned down. I'm not quite sure of the criteria for joining these closed communities. If it's simply the fact that I haven't been around very long, well, that's okay. I'll just have to keep nagging them till they give in. ;)

This business about communities is really interesting. I hadn't realized there was such an interchange of opinions here, especially within specific communities. (I've joined several already--see "Friends" for details.) I never paid all that much attention to Livejournal before--it just seemed to be a refuge for angsty teenage girls, and I'm definitely not into that. Now that I've had a chance to explore it some more, I can see my original impression is flat-out wrong.

One question, though. Anyone can answer (or not): Why are some communities' membership closed? I'm thinking in particular of the Feminist community. I applied to join a bit ago and was declined. (I plan to try again, every month if necessary.) I realize they're probably worried about trolls--goodness knows Ginmar gets plenty of the little creeps--but it seems to me they need some fresh blood over there. I suppose I could always start my own, but I really don't have time.

Anyway, any tips and opinions about "Feminist" are welcome.

As you can see, the layout's changed once again. This is the "Smooth Sailing" layout on the S2 system, and the "Toxic Teal" theme. (Although it's not 'toxic' at all--I like the sidebar boxes, and I think the colors are rather soothing.)

I'm glad LJ is getting some different styles in, and I appreciate their ability to change themes with a couple of clicks. I used to be on Typepad, and one of the reasons I left there is because I couldn't tweak the layouts as much as I wanted. Of course, your choices are still restricted here, especially for free accounts, but I can see they're trying to make it better.

Of course, the irony is that LiveJournal is now owned by the same people who own Typepad. ;P