So just when I thought I'd have a quiet week, Jerry and Angel both had an adventure of sorts.

Jerry got a tiny lump on her right front leg a couple of weeks ago. I kept an eye on it, but it didn't seem to grow any further, so I decided to just wait and see what would happen, as it didn't seem to bother her at all.

Until last Saturday evening, when I called the dogs inside. It had been reasonable weather, and Jerry loves to be outside, so I had hardly seen her all day. Her entire front leg was swollen, like twice the size of her other leg. ( Read more... )

I took Elmo to the vet two weeks ago for a check-up, as it had been 4 months since the pins went in. The results weren't as good as I had hoped. The vet took new x-rays, and while the fractures did show new bone growth, it wasn't anywhere near dense enough yet. And while Elmo had walked all right with the fractures for a while, a week before my vet appointment he started limping again. And the x-rays showed why. His body was rejecting the pins. The bone around the pins was slowly dissolving. In other words, big infection.

Right. So that was a bit of a problem. The vet couldn't take the pins out yet, because the bone wasn't strong enough yet. One wrong move from Elmo and he'd break his leg again, and then we'd be back on square one. But leaving the pins in was also a problem, since they were weakening the bones in other places.

My vet was rather at a loss of what to do, so he gave me a pile of antibiotics for Elmo (again), and sent the x-rays to a radiologist for a second, more expert opinion. Last Friday I called my vet for the results, and the radiologist had advised to take three pins out and leave two in for the support Elmo still needs. This might also stimulate new bone growth, since the pins were holding his leg together so tightly, the body might think there was no need for more bone growth.

So today I took Elmo back to the vet for the procedure, and thankfully, that all went well. Elmo's doing fine now, though he walks a bit uneasily now that he's got less support on his leg. I also got even more antibiotics to hopefully keep the infection away from the remaining two pins. And I need to give him some physical therapy because his wrist has become rather rusty due to lack of proper use. He can hardly bend it. The vet showed me how to gently manipulate it, to help Elmo regain the use of it.

And now I get to wait for 6-8 weeks. Again. And then, with a bit of luck, the fracture will have healed enough so the remaining two pins can come out as well. By that time Elmo will have had those pins for 6 months, so it's about time.

On top of that my grandmother, who's a whopping 90 years old, suddenly got back problems. She's never had back problems before in her life. A broken hip, minor heart attack, sure, but this is new for her. So there was a lot of worrying about that as well, and since she can hardly get up, some helping out as well.

So between worrying about Elmo and my grandmother, I took a small break from my activities on the net. After the whole LJ fiasco, I seriously needed that. And now I'm carefully going to read my flist again, to see what y'all have been up to.

So LJ comes with a new response.

I'm still not happy. Not one bit. And this is why:

Our process for drawings, cartoons, animation and other non-photographic images is slightly different. An image of this type that obviously violates our policy will be treated the same as a photographic image of child pornography, but in questionable cases involving a non-photographic image we will adopt a "two strikes" process.

And then they fail to explain what is questionable, and what will be seen as an obvious violation of their policy. Meaning that it's still not safe to post any kind of explicit fanart that has characters that might possibly be viewed as underage, because if they feel it obviously violates their policy you'll still get suspended without warning and reported. And since they don't say a word about fiction, we're still not sure if that's safe, either.

Two strikes and out, LJ? Well, let's see...Strikethrough and Boldout...that's two in my book.

Just one more reason InsaneJournal rocks.

Squeaky has raised the friends limit again. Free users now get 1000 friends, and paid and permanent users now get unlimited friends.

Also, he's raised the link limit on S2 styles: free users get 15 links, paid users get 50 and permanent get 100.

*goes to add links to her IJ*

pay_no_more is a community for those of us who are dissatisfied with LJ/6A at the moment.

If you have a paid account, comment here.

If you have a permanent account, comment here.

If you have a free account, comment here.

And then go pimp these links in your journal. This should give us a nice impression of how many people will stop paying LJ/6A from now on.

I'm really excited about Scribblit, just like many of you. But someone just pointed out to me that Scribblit's servers are going to be located in Canada.

Right. Now I'm not Canadian, nor am I a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure that Canada's laws on underage fictional writing and art are a hell of a lot stricter than the US's. I've heard from Canadian friends that Canada's laws are more like the Australian laws: fictional underage characters, anyone under 18, in sexually explicit text or art, are illegal. Period.

And that makes me very uneasy about Scribblit, as you can imagine. I don't want to post work on a site that has its server in a country where it's illegal for sure, unlike in the US where there's a bunch of obscenity laws you have to wade through first before anyone can legally go after you.

So, Canadians on my flist...anyone care to shed some light on this matter? Are those strict laws still in place? How do you feel about this?

Here's a quickie rec: Violent Opposition to Livejournal by beefcake_cop

What if those sweet little boys from South Park got screwed over by Livejournal....

Nuff said. *g*

Thanks to shaggirl, who dug up the link and asked a few questions: GreatestJournal has a history of suspending users over adult content.

In this case it was an adult-rated photograph of two men having sex which was posted unlocked by accident. It wasn't fanart, but given the response from GJ, suspension without question or appeal, I'm not too sure GreatestJournal is the right (temporary) home for fandom. Especially not for all our brilliant fan artists.

That's why I've been doing a bit of research into InsaneJournal. I had some concerns yesterday about the Google ads on the site, but when I asked the owner he gave me a quick and clear answer. A novelty, I must admit, after the months of misinformation from LJ. ;-)

The owner of IJ, known as Squeaky, has been both welcoming and helpful towards fandom. He's already raised the number of friends on free journals from 100 to 250, and he's looking into raising that number even more to match LJ and other LJ clone sites. The appealing point, though, of a free journal is that you get 100 icons (paid gets 250 and permanent 300).

Furthermore, IJ is cheap. A paid account will cost you $10 for 6 months, $20 for a year, and a permanent account costs only $40.

But for me the most important things is that IJ wants us there. Because that is what I am looking for, at least to hold me over until Scribblit or the other new fandom project are running. A place where I can post and rec and link to fic or art as much as it pleases me without having to worry about getting suspended.

And I think it's been made perfectly clear LJ is no longer that place, especially after yesterday's confirmation that linking to certain things can get you suspended on LJ as well. Yes, that goes much further than just fandom content, but honestly, I don't care anymore. I'm done with LJ.

So, for now, you can find me on maeglinyedi.insanejournal.com. No, there isn't much there yet. I've only just friended everyone back, and I'm now uploading some icons. If you have a IJ, feel free to friend me, and I'll friend you back. If you don't have a IJ yet, you can make one for free.

I've seen some concern about the name 'Insane Journal', but I have to say that it doesn't bother me at all. And I say that as someone with a long history of mental illness. If anything, I think the word 'insane' is a perfect way to describe us fandomers. *g*

This means that I will no longer be posting to my GJ account. I will keep it as a backup journal, the way it's functioned for the last 3 years or so. I will continue to post to my LJ for the time being, except for any fics or fandom links (since those can get me suspended). The direct fandom content will be solely posted to my IJ account.

Since I have about a year left of LJ paid time, though, I'll at least keep using LJ to store pictures and to read my flist.

And a big thank you to snapetoy, who was so generous and gave me a very nice IJ prezzie. *smooches*

Current Mood: hopeful