sugarloaf ♥ express

Dear friendslist,

If you haven't already, do backup your LJ!
Well, in truth, I only read that FAQ link, skipped it, & searched for other methods instead *lol*

I stumbled upon very helpful tutorials and found a couple of nifty tools for backing up LJ.

The great tutorials:
1. Backing up your LJ: a guide for Windows users (thank you brown_betty)
2. How to Back-Up Your LJ (thank you liz_marcs)

The best backup tools:
1. ljArchive (see ljarchive for updates)
2. LJ Backup (see ljbackup_dev for updates)
3. LJ-Sec (see ljsec for updates)
4. LJ Migrate (check out the tutorial)

I only use the first three, because the 4th one uses Python and I'm too lazy to learn it :P
From the three above, my favorite is ljArchive. It lets you archive communities as well (provided you have posting access). How nifty! Oh, and let's not forget the sync ability! I just love it! ♥♥♥

This whole backup awareness all started because of the oh so many computer mishaps in the last two months, and I've become very aware of backing up my online & offline data as a result.

Since I've been isolated at home (meaning, forbidden to go out of my house) since 12 days ago due to chickenpox (or another pox virus which I don't really know for sure, because some of their symptoms resemble chickenpox), I've been browsing endlessly and abusing my internet connection. Imagine how much cost it will be by the end of the month...

Err, that's not what I wanted to say.
I've stumbled upon so many beautiful, wonderful, and entertaining sites during those 12 days. And here is one that I've played with recently: Pentacom, a Japanese site that offers useful softwares & funny things, as the tagline says. I've tried some of their cute tools, and here are the ones that I found most entertaining & useful:

stickypaper
Remember post-it notes? Yup, I can't live without post-it notes or paper pads.
Actually, I keep a stack of papers in front of my monitor, just in case I need to write things, such as what manga chapters are released so I can take notes of what to download. Nifty, eh?

dotcom founder
In case you're stuck in ideas of what to name your company :P According to the site, my company name is AbsoluteStrategicDesigns.com.

1-bit cursors
If you're ever bored with your pointer cursor... there are so many alternatives here.

penta diary
For those of you who love to keep private diaries (offline), but lazy to write on a book, because they're very used to typing. Just like yours truly.

Another cool site that I've played with is Abi-Station. It has a variety of avatar makers, namely:

Otaku Avatar Maker


Picture Diary Maker


Portrait Avatar Maker


Portrait Illustration Maker


Portrait Icon Maker