(no subject)

[cblj_backup]

Apparently LJ's new Weirdly Spiritual Banner may be to mark Judgment Day, which I guess is scheduled for May 21st this year, according to a lot of billboards in California (this is the kind of information having a big readership nets you).

iamshadow suggested that "Judgment Day" is that time of the year that you go out of your way to be nice to your local magistrate -- send them flowers, make them feel appreciated.

I prefer to believe it's a day in which everyone just dedicates themselves to showing really good decision-making skills.

ON MAY 21ST: EAT HEALTHY AND DON'T JAYWALK!

Comments

[calliope-jones.livejournal.com]

I say again, bust out the party hats.

But... Why is LJ involved? Like, why the banner? I don't get it. Is LJ suddenly Christian?

[madripoor-rose.livejournal.com]

There seems to be some kind of design contest for the banners. This one won.

[iamshadow.livejournal.com]

I think it's someone trying to catch a luminous jellyfish with their bare hands.

[madripoor-rose.livejournal.com]

I still think it looks like a magickkkk! fx from a bad 80s fantasy novel.

[iamshadow.livejournal.com]

I love it that in your brain, fantasy novels have bad special effects. Like they couldn't afford the budget for the full scope of your imagination.

[madripoor-rose.livejournal.com]

Heh. Well, it's kind of the same thing. "Okay, on the cover we have our teen witch casting a spell. How do we show that?" "I dunno. Some kind of glowy laser ribbons swirling around her hands?" "Genius!"

[iamshadow.livejournal.com]

Hehehe.

I feel really sorry for authors who end up with crappy covers. I know Jane Lindskold in particular loathes some of her early covers, because the artist/designer didn't bother to read the book and produced something that entirely misrepresents the characters and the story (http://www.janelindskold.com/about-marks.html). So, anyone judging HER book by its cover would find it was something vastly different from what they thought they were getting.

Also, there's the embarrassment factor for a reader, if you're trying to read a serious historical novel, like Persia Woolley's Guinevere trilogy, which has some of the most ridiculous romance-y covers, and people just think you have a fetish for bodice-ripping and swooning heroines, which really isn't the case.

[thette.livejournal.com]

Mother of Demons (http://www.baen.com/library/067187800x/067187800x.htm), available for free at the link, has a cover that accurately depicts a scene from the book. And yet, it's completely misleading about what kind of book it is. (The perversion mentioned in the text? Heterosexuality.)

[ysabet.livejournal.com]

I've been mentally subtitling it as "HOLY SHIT THE BIRTHDAY-CAKE JUST EXPLODED" myself. I mean, the glowy lines like like contrails made by rocketing candles and the upheld hands could be either protecting the person's face or maybe trying to catch a good piece of cake...or... uh, something. Yeah.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

While the uplifted hands and glowy ribbons do look vaguely spiritual, it really doesn't say 'Judgment Day' to me. Maybe they just couldn't get the rights to any Heironymous Bosch. :)

As for LJ being suddenly Christian ... maybe they just want to cover their backside? I mean, these people are only probably wrong!

[calliope-jones.livejournal.com]

LOL. Probably.

[musikologie.livejournal.com]

The hands look almost exactly the same as the billboards -- at least, they look the same as the ones in my town.

[cacahuate.livejournal.com]

It was chosen because the theme for this month was medicine and healing, or something like that—to promote Sim Hospital, of course!—and the other options were pills and needles and bandages. (http://remixed.livejournal.com/332179.html?style=mine)

People were not so pleased, and there was wank about it in the comments.

[calliope-jones.livejournal.com]

AH. Yes... because those hands say medicine and healing... not so much.

[cacahuate.livejournal.com]

No kidding. But that was the draw according to a lot of the commenters, who didn’t want the medical theme in the first place.