Hooray! I think Brad could really use a break so he could pay attention to his studies-- after graduation he can think about what to do with LiveJournal. In the meantime, let's let the thing get the full-time devotion it needs.
I don't think this has to be a link in the chain towards dot-com wackiness. All involved here (short of the wacky desire to make LiveJournal No.1... why why why???) show no signs of the silliness that brought the entire web software revolution crashing around it's customer-less knees.
May I be so presumptuous as to urge caution in the number of accounts that may be sold? I would like to think about getting one, but I will wait until the last minute. I like it that I get 'saved' by the expiring clock. Just sell as many as will satisfy a 6 month or so chunk of the new-guys reasonable (competitive) salary.
LiveJournal is cool to me for a few reasons. From a functionality standpoint, I like the syndication used in 'friends' pages. It works perfectly for reading interesting information from a variety of monitored services. The application is interesting, because the journal is at once a private model emotionally, but one left open on the table in a crowded room. That appeals to me much more than methods of communication where one must subscribe to a single-overarching source for data, especially those that are pushed. I prefer to pull my data, but to use the LJ model for establishing known sources. From a health standpoint, the lack of commercials and something to sell provides a place for me to be at peace to think and listen. Finally, from a social-ethos model, I support open-source, non-commercial, non-structured efforts. Open-source is the key to any sustained and useful effort.