Alright, I was tagged to post screenshots of my desktop so here we go :O  The first screenshot is what it looks like without any fullscreen apps, and the second is what it more often looks like.   In the first screenshot you can see my minimalist blue background.  My IM clients are open on the vertical monitor on the left, as is Firefox.  On the right side are my instances of Visual Studios containing secret Xanga codez.

A few weeks ago, the Xanga crew was eating at HK in Hell's Kitchen.  At the end of our meal, our waiter told us about a club around the corner that was having belly dancers that night, and he gave us some flyers for it in case we were interested.  The flyers were interesting enough due to the attractive female torso gracing them (though our waiter warned us that this was a gross misrepresentation of the actual dancers), but the flyers also contained something even more interesting and mysterious.  At the bottom of the flyer it said "Orientation: Mixed Grill." 

We were confused and intrigued, and we spent the next ten minutes trying to figure out exactly what this meant.  Due to the context of the flyer, we suspected that it was referring in some way to sexual orientation, but we couldn't be certain.  I've tried googling it since then, but that proved futile.  If you happen to know what it means, please share your enlightenment.  Otherwise, feel free to make wild, unfounded guesses as I know you will ;p

Mary and I have just released weblog tags into the xangan wilderness!  If you didn't know, we've already released tags for photos and videos, and soon to be audio as well.  Right now, only the user-level tag pages are available for weblogs, but the global pages will be coming soon!  You can add tags to your posts in the editor (if you don't see a tags field, you may need to switch to a different version of the editor).  You can view the tags on a given weblog on the left-hand side of the page, and you can view all of a user's tags at a url structured like http://www.xanga.com/patrick/tags. Tags are meant as a way of organizing your own content (which you can start doing now) and of discovering other people's content that is of interest to you (once the global pages are available).  So, start tagging away!

edit: Global weblog tag pages are now available!  Check out http://www.xanga.com/tags

If you have Premium, check out the new beta for Video Xanga (courtesy of Dave)!
If you don't have Premium, you'll be able to use it shortly. In
the meantime, check out this video about what goes on at the Xanga
office.

Bonus video: Deborah on the front lines in the war against birdkind

Edit: in case you haven't heard, videos are now open to anyone, so post away!

Interested in being one of the first to try out the beta version of our new (and much improved) way of choosing what makes it to featured content?  Just check out these posts by Matt and Jeff and leave them a comment, and you may be able to do just that!

Edit: Matt and Jeff just had to go and change their user names, so I fixed the links to their posts
Also, boost is now open to everyone!  so go check it out at boost.xanga.com

Adam has been working on a desktop application that makes it easier to upload a bunch of photos to Xanga.  There are working beta versions for Windows 2k and XP, so head on over to this post he wrote about it if you want to try out the uploader and give him some feedback.

It is a constant source of wonderment to me how people in NYC can be
so ignorant when it comes to a rather simple concept: intersections.
The city’s streets are home to a never-ending war between two opposing
forces... vehicles and pedestrians. Both sides employ a variety of dirty
tactics in order to gain any kind of temporary advantage.

The Pedestrians

What they lack in size and momentum, they make up for in tenacity.

These warriors of the sidewalks often step several feet out from the
curb in an effort to intimidate oncoming traffic. If a car is foolish
enough to slow down in order to avoid hitting them, they seize upon
this moment of weakness as justification to walk right in front of the
vehicle, forcing it to stop completely. The most elite pedestrians
don't bother with these kinds of newbie tactics and just start walking
across the road regardless of any vehicular deterrence.

The brave men and women on the front lines pave the way to victory
for their comrades. Seeing that cars must slow down anyway so as to not
obliterate these zealots, the rest of the troops take the opportunity
to cross as well. A steady stream of foot traffic continues the barrage
until the walk signal is illuminated, at which point the more timid troops
who remained on the curb during this ordeal scurry across.

The Vehicles

These road warriors are at somewhat of a disadvantage in this
perpetual battle. Since their collisions with pedestrians invariably
end up harming the pedestrians far more severely, they are given most
of the responsibility of avoiding such occurrences.

However, the bolder among them are still inclined to play chicken
with the pedestrian zealots and curb-steppers, daring them to try
stepping further out onto the street. The most reckless simply speed up
as they approach the intersection, determined to frighten
pedestrians back onto the relative safety of the curb and give their
vehicle brethren a brief respite.

Another favorite tactic is the barricade. During this maneuver, a convoy
of vehicles enters the intersection as the light turns red, even though
the traffic on the other side is already backed up into the crosswalk.
Pedestrians are then forced
to weave their way between cars in a Frogger-like fashion as the
traffic starts to move again. In some cases, a truck or bus will
time things such that the middle of it ends up squarely in the middle
of the crosswalk, forcing pedestrians to walk far and wide out of their
way to get around it, or else stand there waiting until it eventually
moves again.

It's 6:66 on 6/6/6... do you know where your hellspawn are?

John gave most of the pertinent info in his post, but if you have a question about the ratings system let me know!

On
a somewhat related note, isn't it interesting how Fox News decided to
air a special about sexual predators on Xanga now that Fox and Myspace
are owned by the same company?  And here I thought Fox News'
credibility couldn't sink any lower...