Just renewed my paid membership for the...I wanna say 10th time? I have definitely paid more at this point than a permanent account would have cost me if I had just bitten the bullet way the heck back when they were last offered in 2007 or 2008. But, in my defense, at that time it represented more than half a month's wages with my student job and I had only been actively using LJ since January of 2007. Having a paid account at all was A Novelty And An Expense to me, and I had absolutely no way of knowing that I would be one of the few Last Proud People Standing.

I mean, I probably should have had some inkling, given how resistant I am to change and how long I used Xanga. But then again, Xanga offered a similar thing, and Xanga collapsed on itself like a dying star a few years ago, on top of the fact that I stopped updating mine in 2009 or 2010.

Anyway, I STILL think it is worth having a paid account, because...I just do! Even though I am updating less, and probably don't use more than 25 icons on a regular basis, I like knowing that I can have 100+. The guilt-free AdBlock is nice too. Less than $3 a month seems fair for all the fun I have here, even if all the free days over the years have, somewhat annoyingly, pushed the payment date forward until it's right around the time of boyfriend's birthday.