HOLIDAY CARD POST!!!!!

Please leave a comment if you would like one - and if I have your address, no need to add it. But if I don't, please do - and comments are screened of course. I think I'm going to make my own cards this year. Hmmm, I might want to get on that...

I'm also doing a random mix cd this year too as long as I can get my iTunes to be nice. Lately it's been fighting me a bit but I shall win this one. :)

Thanks guys!

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!

In the methodology of TESL class I'm taking, we have group presentations, where each group has to demonstrate a different teaching method. Yesterday was the second or third time a group decided to read off utterances in Japanese or Korean or another foreign language and have the class echo the utterances, which are each about 20 syllables long, after having heard them pronounced at fluent native speaker speed two or three times.

It's gotten to the point where I'm refusing on principle to do this. At least yesterday we had the utterances written down on the handout, albeit in weirdly spaced, tiny, superscripted font that was really hard to read. The previous time they expected us to memorize them.

What is so hard about first having us echo one word at a time and then combining them into an utterance? Where is the common sense here?

Even if your teaching method necessarily involves students mindlessly echoing things they don't understand, and even if your teaching method insists that you pronounce at native speaker speed and never slow down or exaggerate for the learner, no non-prodigy human being can memorize 20 syllables in one go. We end up echoing the first few and the last few, and subsiding into mumbling in the middle, which is kind of exactly what cognitive science predicts.

I have a love-hate relationship with this class. On the one hand, I get to observe a teaching English pronunciation class in action, and I got to put together an annotated bibliography on a subject of my choice, and I chose dyslexia and foreign language learning because it really interests me. Some of you may remember that I was the one who finally identified my mother's dyslexia a couple of years ago, it having gone undiagnosed her entire life. So I have a kind of personal and possessive interest in dyslexia. There's also some interesting and/or useful stuff in the day-to-day readings and lectures.

On the other hand, if I hadn't come into this class with no expectations, having been warned about the experiences of other linguistics grad students, the parts I dislike would have led me to drop in the third week.

I'm a rockstar (I'm a rockstar in disguise)

Fandom: rpfic (figure skating)
Pairing: Adam/Stephen
Rating: hard R? going on light NC-17?

Word Count: ~ 5.500
Feedback: Is always appreciated. Especially concrit. Thanks for taking the time! <3


Read here


~*~

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!