When real things happen to imaginary people

cleolinda has a big long post about the convoluted mess that is going on with LJ and FB here: http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/902653.html. I really, REALLY suggest that you go read it.

The part from her post that I'm quoting here? Is very resonant for me. Because yes, Gothic Charm School is separate from LJ, and this LJ started out as a purely personal indulgence for me. But it has become more than that, so I'm looking at this whole mess as someone who is concerned about privacy and a writer who uses social networking sites for cross-promotion.

So what's upset me the most about all of this is the idea of
people getting pissed off and leaving Livejournal. I mean, they
should, if LJ is going to screw around like this, and I'm going to keep
telling you everything I find out; I'm upset about people having
to leave. I can get pissed off and storm off to
Dreamwidth, but if no one's there, that doesn't help me in terms of what
this journal is for in the first place. But if I stay here and a
significant number of people leave, that's no good either. I've been
fretting about this for months--every time LJ does some new stupid
thing--but I'm finally just to the point where the best answer seems to
stay here and establish a mirror site on Dreamwidth. Because
it's clear to me now that I'm going to have to set up camp on
Dreamwidth--there are a lot of people who are not going to be able to
ignore this. On the other hand: "we will get twice maybe 3 times as
many people joining because of that." That settled it for me. I have
to stay here for that. Meaning, "fandom" as fandom knows itself may leave
Livejournal, but Livejournal is not going to turn into a ghost town,
which is what I was most afraid of. If you're going to stay, I'm still
going to be here. If you're going to leave, I'm also going to be over
there. Maybe this makes me a terrible person for not flying the
colors and Taking a Stand, but I had to give follower counts and page hit
numbers in a publisher query the other week. These numbers actually mean
something for me. It is not in my best interest to pick either
Livejournal or Dreamwidth; it is in my best interest to stay on
both of them. Kind of like taking a second job to back up a
really crappy one, I guess.

By now you've all seen the news about the LJ lay-offs. Backing up/archiving one's LJ seems like a very good idea, so I have a couple of questions about such things:

- What backup/archiving tool works best with Macs?

- Is there a way to save the icons on posts, too?

I suspect that LJ is NOT going to die or go away. Maybe it will be sold to another company. Anyway, I'm not panicking, but I do want to archive what I've got here.

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I am not at the office today. I am home sick. And I tell you what, that's the last time I'm going to eat at that particular sushi place on the Eastside. (The sushi restaurant that is part of Uwajimaya in Redmond, for those who want to know.)

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In addition to feeling physically unwell, I am having a bit of a low day. No, I have no idea why, and there's no real reason for it. Tell me cheering things or link to interesting and fun diversions?

Yes, I am going to change my username. After some talks with stroppy_baggage, I realized it's time for a name change.

I'm going to take advantage of the forwarding options of the name change, so people who linked to stuff using the prncsmoonbeam username won't end up with broken links on their hands.

Why the name change? One reason is because the prncsmoonbeam username started out as a joke. It was never terribly representative of who I am. Whereas I've been described as a cupcake by various people for years. (A black and pink cupcake with sugared bats is still a cupcake.)

So yes. Name change. stroppy_baggage thinks I should even make a short GCS post about the arrival of cupcake-goth. Partially so I can lay claim to the term (yes, his mind works like that), partially so I can talk about how cupcake-goth is subtly different from, say, what perkygoth means.

I'll probably make a couple of posts over the next couple of weeks that remind people of the name change, just so it starts to stick in people's heads. So goodbye to prncsmoonbeam, and hello to cupcake_goth