Welcome to "Ask Frank", the new weekly column appearing in Community News Lifestyles. I am Jesse, Frank's trusted keeper and translator of all things goat. One night as I was leaving the office Frank communicated to me "Jesse, I have a gift, and I must help all the peoples of the world". Not having access to all the peoples of the world, Frank is trying the next best thing: LiveJournal!

Here's the call to you, devoted reader: Frank wants to hear your questions, your concerns, your inner-most deepest and darkest memories thought so horrible you've already tried to forget them.

Here now we have our very first writer. A concerned patron from Minnesota asks:

Dear Frank,

cAn ~u~ hl3p m3 2 st0p tYp1ng li3k th1s?!

Jay, MN

First of all, Frank wants to know who the other person is that lives in Minnesota? He is of the opinion that there are only two people in that lonely, lonely state.

After reading your letter Jay, Frank has become a little riled up. As I type this Frank has already chewed through my monitor cable. I am effectively blind and alone in the dark. I can only hope that Frank doesn't wish you to permanently damage your own monitor cable in such a way as to render your computer completely worthless.

Let me take over for Frank for a moment (as I strain to remember my touch-typing and hope I don't make a mistake). I imagine it takes some effort to intersperse your letter typing with your number typing, because most likely you're using a an american-english keyboard with a number row up at the top. What I recommend is a new keyboard, one totally devoid of number keys. I mean really, who needs easy access to just ten numbers when you can write them all out? Writing out numbers is cool. In fact, you know what else is cool? Pirates. Pirates have really cool keyboards. You should get one!

That's all for this week, folks! Time to find another monitor cable.

Frank's opinions are only opinions, wholly unresearched and most likely not correct. Frank and I are not responsible for any actions you may take as a result of reading this column.

You've read your friends page, you've written an entry, posted comments, and you're beginning to wonder, "What now?". So, you refresh your friends page. Maybe someone commented back on one of the entries. So, you read through and wait a bit. Whole minutes pass. You refresh again.

If this describes you, then you are addicted to LiveJournal. And you're a refresh-addict. Fortunately, as addictions go, this one isn't terribly bad. Sure, if you overdo it maybe one night dormando will show up at your door with a giant knife, but on the whole it could be worse.

But why are you addicted to that refresh button? Surely no normal force could drive otherwise sane people to click and click, mindlessly hitting the little button in hopes of something new. There must be something sinister at work, something driving you to do it, even though your better judgement tells you to wait at least fifteen minutes between refreshes.

Well, here at comm_news we strive to enlighten the masses. So, yes, there is a sinister force at work. It has to do with patterns of reinforcement. Now, let's say you have a pet rat. You want to teach your rat to push a button, because you're really bored and watching a rat push a button is slightly more interesting than watching grass grow. You can reward the rat every time it pushes the button. If you do this, the rat will push the button.

But will it push it as much as you want? Maybe. You can not reward the rat at all, but that won't work very well. Or you can reward the rat inconsistently. Sometimes you give it a treat when it pushes the button, sometimes you're busy watching television, umm that is, deliberately not rewarding it for valid scientific reasons that have nothing to do with slacking off. This will often lead to the rat pushing the button a lot, because it can't be guaranteed a pay off whenever it wants one, so it needs to get those payoffs, but it knows it will sometimes get lucky.

This is the same theory behind why people play slot machines or do other things with irregular pay-offs. And an inconsistent reward pattern is the most addicting. So, if you taught a rat to read and
created cool rat-oriented LiveJournals, you would probably have rats clicking refresh all the time. Fortunately, we humans are far more advanced than a rat and can understand why constant refreshing is silly. We'd never do that. Oh no, we're way too clever. Oops, got to go now, fifteen minutes have passed and I can refresh without guilt.

Contributed by leora

The holiday season is upon us and there are many holidays celebrated around this time of year including Yule, Chanukkah, Christmas, Winter Solstice, Kwanzaa, and others. In the spirit of the holidays in general, I decided to do some interest searches and see what I could see. The result are some links for you with a holiday theme!

As I wandered off on my search for holiday cheer around LiveJournal I first did some interest searching and came up with the following numbers!

534 people listed "holidays" as an interest.

Amongst those are the card_freak, xmas_ornaments, holidays and christmaslovers communities.

There you can find people talking about all things Christmas and getting ready for the holidays as well as a card exchange going on in card_freak.

5 people listed Hanukkah as an interest and one Chanukkah.

Included there was the greetingcardfun community, another greeting card exchange.

5 people listed Kwanzaa as an interest.

Amongst them was the holiday_recipes community where some featured recipes included Spiced Peach-Nut Conserve and Butternut Squash Chowder! Other recipes include cookies, shortbread, baked brie, and more.

13 matches were found for Yule and 10 for Winter Solstice

There were no specific holiday communities for either of those searches.

1000 matches for those who listed Christmas!

Amongst the Christmas loving communities out there I found christmasljbash where you can join other fellow Live Journalers in an AIM chat room for a little holiday fun around the holidays,

If you'd like your user icon to get in the festive spirit, immorak has created the holidayhats community where you can place your request and he will put a bright red cheery santa hat on your favorite LJ usericon. Get in the spirit!

In secret_santa you can be matched up to exchange secret santa gifts! Sign up soon as Christmas is less than two weeks away!

Hope that helps you get into the holiday spirit. I hung a wreath and sprinkled some snow in my own journal, complete with a new set of mood icons just for the season. Want to share your holiday decorated journal? Drop a note in comm_news_subs with your username and next week we'll link your journal here.

Ever wonder what other LiveJournal users are linking to? Now you can find out using the LiveJournal Meme Tracker!

The Meme Tracker finds the 40 most common links that LiveJournals are making from their LiveJournals. And it certainly seems that LiveJournal users like to take Online Tests!

What is the fascination with taking these online tests? What causes LiveJournal users to have a burning desire to find out what horrible affliction or type of robot they might be, or just how much of an internet addict they are? Perhaps it is morbid curiosity akin to watching a giant train wreck, or the ever-present need for the competition of compare and contrast that marks the search for others who are most like, or different, from one's self.

But what else are LiveJournal users linking to?

Perhaps they are part of the counter-meme group attempting to push this particular post up the list of memes which makes an interesting point, that the number of memes that are anything other than quiz sites or quiz results are amazingly small save for this particular post which is inching its way up the list and is pushed even higher (along with the others) by this post as well.

On the whole, however, LiveJournal seems to be fascinated with self-analysis. Interestingly enough, that's part of what a journal is all about, writing about one's own thoughts and experiences, and perhaps trying to figure out exactly what one is all about. So why not, in this search for self, take a few dozen tests to figure out if one were a strange creature from an animated series, just which creature one would be. Perhaps in our search for definition, we will begin to figure out what we're all about in an odd mix of what percentage of raver/goth/geek/addict/whore we are combined with our robot/monster-rancher-monster/penis-size.

In the meantime, if you are interested in more of these tests, either to find them, or to post your results, check out the Meme Tracker and check out some of the communities that have been created for posting results with others (sometimes helpful in sparing your friends' lists from a constant inundation of quiz results).

Communities :

labrats for posting tests/results.
excessjunk for posting links to quiz results so they don't clutter your journal.
surveying for posting and taking surveys.
quiz_junkies for those addicted to taking online quizzes.

I regret to say that the LiveJournal T-Shirt contest was cancelled due to lack of response. Thank you to those couple of people who did send me pictures. Hold onto those links as they may be good for future contests down the line.

There are a few reasons that this contest failed. First, if one had the money to buy a T-Shirt, they probably already had a paid account. Even though winning a year would extend your subscription for a second year, I don't think people were that interested in winning it. Those without the money for a paid account probably did not have the money for a t-shirt to enter the contest.

Thus, the contest was poorly planned and at least I can say that I learned something from it, and that's to think about all these factors in the future ahead of time.

Hopefully our next contest will be a lot better designed and there will be more participation.

There does seem to be interest in the contests from the poll that we ran a while back, so never fear, this does not mean the end of contests for good! I am working on a new idea for the holiday season as we speak that will hopefully be more accessible to all. Stay tuned!

This is just an announcement to let you know that the "Show us your Ts" contest is in grave danger of being cancelled. If we cannot get sufficient responses to merit running the contest, it will be cancelled and we will hold another different contest at another time in the future.

Please send in your pictures, even if you hvae to spray paint a shirt yourself because you can't afford to buy one.

Hell, get creative and wear a plain black T-shirt and photoshop it in.

If more responses aren't received by 12pm Pacific time on Saturday, October 27th, the contest will be cancelled and an update will be posted here.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

No, not your... your T-Shirts!

We want to see you in your LiveJournal T-shirts. (or your pets, your dad, your cousins, whoever you can get to wear one). Post a picture of yourself or someone close to you wearing an LJ T-shirt and email the link to thren@livejournal.com and we will post up the links here in LiveJournal's community news not next week, but the week after.

So you have until November 1st (14 days) to get out there and get your pictures and post them in your journal and email the links.

We will judge the pictures that we receive and choose one for each of the following categories. It will then be up to the users of LiveJournal to vote in the following week's poll for the Reader's Choice award for the best of the best. This lucky winner will receive a year's paid membership to LiveJournal. If the winner already has a Permanent Account, some other arrangements will be made or a prize of equal value.

The categories are :

Urban Journal
Wear your shirt out into the urban jungle. Show us your T out on the town.

Nature Journal
Wear your shirt while camping, playing frisbee, or digging for buried treasure in the neighbor's lawn. Show us your T out in the wild.

Sexy Journal (keep it PG rated please)
LJers are hot! Show us your best pouty look and how much you love your LJ, but no naked parts, that's a whole other community!

Geeky Journal
It's time for all night coding sprees, lots of caffeine, and far too much knowledge about all things geek. Show us your webcam shots of your T while you're online.

Drama Journal
Lights, camera, ACTION! Give us your cheesiest grin, your darkest deepest poetic gothic soul wrenching pose, or your most extravagant display of LJ pride!

Sleepy Journal
It's time for caffeine, and to remember to take off your shoes before you crawl into bed. Show us your T after a long day of LJ, whether you fell asleep in the hall on the way to bed, or are face down on your keyboard. We love your dedicatoin!

CONTEST RULES

You must take your own pictures though you can take them of family members/friends. The winner of the prize will be the user whose journal the picture is posted in!

You may enter one picture into each category but you may only be selected to win in one category.

Your pictures must be posted in your journal in a public post and the link must be emailed by Midnight on Halloween!

One winner in each category will be selected by comm_news staff.

The winners will be announced and put on display in the November 1st Issue.

The Reader's Choice poll will run from November 1st through Midnight, November 6th.

The winner of one year's LJ paid membership (or an equivalent value prize if the winner is the holder of a Permanent Account) will be named in the November 7th issue of comm_news

Current comm_news writers : thren, opiummmm, jrust, and musikurt may not participate in the contest. Former writers not included on this list are elligible.

GOOD LUCK!

I was actually going to do this on someone else, but because they didn't respond to my emails and I did promise a "Behind the Journal" this week, I'm going to do it on myself, since I can pretty much be assured that I am not going to run away or refuse to answer my own questions.



Following chiabrit's general style I have started with a picture which is of my two kitties, Nia (right) and Voodoo (left).

And now for multiple personality theatre.

LiveJournal : Feel free to say something about yourself for the readers, thren.

Thren : I am exhausted. I really don't know why I don't get around to doing comm_news until 3am on the weekends. I think it's because I want to make sure I don't step on anyone's toes when I write these articles. I'm sure people would much rather read something by someone else once in a while than hear from me all the time.

LJ : How often do you find yourself updating your LiveJournal or checking in on your friends?

T : Oh, almost daily. Sometimes multiple times a day depending on how boring work is, or if I'm away from the computer for a while.

LJ : How did you find LiveJournal?

T : Actually, it was chiabrit and monkeygirluk who first introduced me to LiveJournal when we met via a mailing list/MUSH called The Nook. I'd been looking for something like this for a long time and swiftly became a hopeless addict.

LJ : How does LiveJournal integrate with your life on a daily basis?

T : LiveJournal is a source of entertainment, news, a means of keeping up with my friends, a means of sorting out what goes on in my own head, of telling stories, being goofy, and dealing with some of the day to day stuff. I use it for everything from storing information I want to remember to finding friends I haven't talked to in a very long time.

LJ : Why are you using all of chiabrit's questions?

T : Because it's bizarre enough writing an interview with myself, I think making up the questions would be even more bizarre.

LJ : How has LiveJournal positively affected your life?

T : I've been able to find some old friends who I haven't talked to in a very long time who have stumbled on my journal, or I have found theirs by chance. People so often drift in and out of our lives, and it's always interesting to me to catch up with them again and find out how they have changed, how I have changed, and how we interact together now that time has passed. I've also met a lot of very cool new people that I wouldn't have met otherwise.

LJ : Has LiveJournal negatively affected your life, and if so, how?

T : I spend a lot of time on LJ. Maybe, too much sometimes. But no, I don't think it's had a negative impact at all.



LJ : Do you have any advice for people creating new journals?

T : Don't be afraid to say whatever is on your mind about what you think and feel about things. Occasionally I find myself falling into the trap of writing something that I'm thinking and then thinking about not posting it because I'm afraid it will sound stupid. Whenever I think that, I think especially when I think that.. I go ahead and post it anyway. No feelings are invalid. How you feel about something, someone, whether it be world events or about something going on in your own head, those feelings are yours, and you should be able to go ahead and just write them and get them out there. I tend to post angry thoughts as friends-only and then go back and make them public later, when I've cooled off. I don't delete anything, though. I made myself a promise that if I write it, it stays. I might not feel that way anymore, but I did at the time. So my biggest advice is, it's your journal. Say whatever it is you want to say.

LJ : Any last words before I finally make you shut up and post this?

T : Yeah.......... Look! It's all sticky! It's covered in jam!

LJ : Hmm okay.. time for bed for you.

T : Yes.. excellent idea.

Links :

Who is Thren?
Thren's Journal

Next time on "Behind the Journal", thren actually interviews someone other than herself. Stay tuned!

Note : All images used with permission from www.threnody.net and may not be reproduced without permission. All images are © Copyright Cheryl A. Dowling, 2001. (Dunno why you'd want my cats anyway)

Due to the lack of response to last week's questions, we will not be having a follow-up to last week's article.

Please check back next week for the long-missed "Behind the Journal" column to resurface!

One of the things that sets LiveJournal apart from a number of other online journall sites is the fact that LiveJournal has such a sense of community. We are not just individuals each writing our own thoughts and leaving them out there in the aether. We also can form communities based on just about any topic under the sun, and when the world around us affects us, we can bond together to support one another, listen to one another, and share our opinions and thoughts.

As a community of individuals, however, we all have very different feelings, methods of expressing ourselves, and different ways for coping with tragedies that occur during our lives.

For this week I would like to pose the following questions, and I will post some of the answers that I receive (please send your answers to thren or thren@livejournal.com) next week in this column.

1. Has LiveJournal helped you to cope with the events of September 11th? If so, how?

2. Have there been other events in your life that you have found LiveJournal to be helpful in coping with? If so, what, and how did it help?

3. Have you ever found LiveJournal to be detrimental to your coping with events in your life?

Please send in your answers to any or all of the questions and I will post some of the responses that I get next week.