you.

renaissance2010
Turning to photography as a creative outlet during a valiant fight with breast cancer at age 34, renaissance10 survived and set up a photo contest to help raise funds for the Lavender Trust, a nonprofit that provides information and support to younger women with breast cancer. In the first two years, the competition brought in over £65,000 (that's $107,260.73 U.S.!), with entries from 130 countries last year. Renaissance10 recently joined LiveJournal to meet other passionate photographers and find supportive friends.

Tags: cancer, renaissance2010

curiouscupcakes
Holy buttercream frosting! If you have a sweet tooth for sugary goodness or a wandering eye for whimsical confection, this is pure ecstasy iced in deliciousness. Hailing the beloved cupcake as the artisinal canvas of choice, you'll enjoy recipes, photos, and bountiful tips to bake up a batch, whether your taste leans toward French classics or funky and flavorful.

Tags: cupcakes, curiouscupcakes, desserts

mission101
With New Years in the offing, it's an ideal time to reflect on past accomplishments, make peace with disappointments, and refocus the lens on future goals. This community welcomes you to create a bucket list of 101 things you plan to accomplish in the next 1,001 days. Offering support, guidance, and inspiration, this is a great way to jumpstart those pesky resolutions.

Tags: bucket list, mission101

It's snowing! A lot!
And if it wasn't dark I'd take a picture and show you guys!

I can't tell if I'm feeling lazy or depressed.
I'm really happy I'm going to Georgia tomorrow. I get to hang out with my six month old cousin and my cute-as-fuck grandma who will beat the shit out of you with her pocketbook if you make fun of Obama.
Oh, and chocolate pie.
I FUCKING LOVE CHOCOLATE PIE.

Justin's roommate, Nate, called me today because he heard about my seizure on facebook and wanted to make sure I was alright. As soon as he hung up, I started crying. Nate and I aren't close at all. I don't think he and I have ever had a one-on-one conversation (except when I ask to borrow his baby, because, well, his baby is a badass).

I honestly feel like my dad and brother couldn't care less about my health.
Either that, or they're just really good at hiding all concern.
and emotion in general.

Woodstock > Blairsville. Too bad I don't get to use my "Shucks, I have a doctor's appointment" excuse. I was planning on it.

There are three people that always come through for me.
Thankyou, three people. Jesus Christ.

I DO NOT WANT TO PAINT THIS BIRDHOUSE.

Holiday debuggery

We know there were a few kinks with the holiday promotion. We've been working very hard to get them ironed out. If you have a paid/permanent account, keep on sending those coupons. Here's an update:

• If you were unable to send out multiple coupons at a time, please perform a hard refresh, and you should be good to go.
• If you redeemed a coupon to upgrade your account and the balance at checkout was $0 instead of $9.95 or $15, this means your upgrade did not go through (nor were you charged). We've straightened this out, so you can now apply your holiday coupon toward the purchase of an annual paid account.
• If you tried to redeem a holiday coupon and had trouble using a gift certificate to cover the balance of an annual paid account, we identified the root problem. If this happened to you, you can now use your holiday coupon together with your gift certificate.
• If the number of holiday coupons you have available suddenly goes up (instead of down), this might be due to recipients declining the coupons, at which point your pool of available coupons will be replenished and, therefore, increase.
• If you need assistance with holiday coupons or pretty much anything else (well, LiveJournal related), please open a support request and we'll be more than happy to help!

Tweaks

• There were some initial glitches displaying results on My Guests, but we've worked them out. We hope you'll check out who's been checking you out!
• Some of you reported formatting issues using the Rich Text Editor (i.e., line breaks were being removed incorrectly). We've implemented a fix! Thanks so much for your patience.

Give a little extra!

We're pleased to report that we've already sold over 100 virtual red ribbons in honor of National AIDS Awareness month. Remember, for each charitable vgift you purchase for $2.99, we'll donate 100 percent of gross proceeds to IAVI.org (the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative) to fund the development of an HIV vaccine. Once again, we thank you for your generosity.

Celebrate with holiday vGifts!

Stop by the Virtual Gift Shop and share some holiday magic with your LiveJournal friends.

Photos of the week

We're back with more dazzling pictures from around the world. Congrats to marlenemcc, who has been awarded a virtual blue ribbon as the winner of our fourth photo contest. We hope you'll click over to LJ_Photophile poll and tell us your picks in pics!

For more fantastic user content, we'll meet you under the cut. ( Read more... )

Curtains

Thanks, again, for reading. Here's wishing you the very merriest of holidays. We'll see you next year!

Tags: holiday coupons, lj_photophile, ljlimericks, my guests, red ribbon vgift

I don't know what to do with myself right now.
I think I'm good and calm until I try to close my eyes, but then the anxiety comes, and then the restlessness comes, and then I get up and try to distract myself until I think I'm tired enough to pass out upon impact with my giant fucking chicken pillow.
It's weird how you can consciously feel perfectly content and subconsciously be a nervous wreck.
Not just about my health. About everything. Everyone.
You. you too. That lady at Burger King with the amputee family member.
Ashton Kutcher.
The woman in Dr. Hammad's office with the oxygen tank.
Broken pelvis.
Small children who can identify hospital bracelets without hesitation.
And smaller, much more menial things. Like how I didn't think about how my Christmas present to my grandparents was going to get to them before the 25th, and now it's not going to be.
And how I don't know what goddamn color to paint the birdhouse for my grandma.
How every single person is getting a big seasonal slap in the face from me this year because I haven't been able to find a job.
And how am I supposed to get a job now?
12 dollar an hour government job that I will probably get offered to me because I got a perfect score?
Nah, sorry, can't.
I'm very, very thankful for my pell grant at this point. At least I won't feel guilty when my medical bills come rollin' in.

I'm fine, but right now I just feel like the world isn't.

And, holy shit, I'm 20.

Paul wrote me a letter and mailed it to me in Kansas City.


H-He's perfect!

Every waking minute. The stress and confusion.
The adrenalin, my reactions, my failure.
I try and protect the ones close to heart...
sometimes I get it right, other times create beautiful memories.

Katie and I walked on the streets of downtown sharing talks.
In getting lost we decide to eat at McDonalds.
Dressed in fabric to keep the cold out. Nothing to attract attention.
I sat facing the crowed to keep an eye on people, study them, as I always do.
An old black man with 6 kids, all different ages, winked at me.
I shake my head at the man and with Katie with me quickly got offensive.
She turned to see what was going on and he then winked at her.
I started going off on him about how he was hitting on minors.
Yelling to attract attention to the pervert and make him feel ashamed.
Which he did. Taking off with all 6 kids staring at me like I was the crazy one.

I tried to teach you the same. Standing up in a way that gave you respect..
Still feeling the need to protect you... doesn't that sound crazy.
Pictures support the memories so I locked them away.
I cannot bring myself to destroy these.

Christmas makes you become broke very quickly. lol.
I like all this money coming in but I also love spending it.
Friday please, come as fast as possible.