MuseBlog

 
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For planning, explicating, writing about, and/or role-playing in Muse Academies other than the one near Iceland where the GAPAs teach.

Continued from Part One.

One nice thing about this new chess software is that it can handle non-standard layouts like these: Read more »

We’ve found some software that lets you enter moves with your mouse, directly on the board. Just click on the piece you want to move, and then on the square to which you want to move it. Easy, no? Try it!
 
 

 
This board won’t save your moves for other people to see. (At least, the documentation says it won’t. We can’t tell.) To make it do that, you need a MuseBlog chessplayer’s account with a password. Then you could log in and play your opponent without having to post your moves for an Administrator to enter. We can make those accounts if there’s enough interest. Note that a valid email address is required.

What do you think? Comments, please:

Larry Gonick fans will know (and lament) that Larry’s non-Muse Web comic came to a standstill after discovery.com stopped publishing it. But be of good cheer: “Raw Materials” is now back in business at www . simple-talk .com/author/larry-gonick/

Continued from Part 3 (which, we are astonished to note, started in October 2007).

The title of the June Random Thread (from the Greek words logos, “word,” and mania, “madness,” used as a suffix meaning “an infatuation with or passion for something”) celebrates words and language in all their giddy vertiginous kaleidoscopic splendiferous wonderfulness. Read more »

Are you new to MuseBlog? Make this your first stop. We’ve got some pie fresh out of the oven, and friendly locals ready to answer your questions and help you feel at home.
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Help others navigate the blog by signposting your favorite threads here, when they’ve scrolled off the main page. (Making you re-request these every month helps to weed out the no-longer-fit.)

(Note: Please include the URL (Web address) with your requests. It also helps if you limit your requests to a few at a time, four or five at the most.) Read more »

Known MBer birthdays this month:*

06-04 Donaldo the supercoolio awesome nerd’s birthday (1994)
06-05 Potato Chip’s birthday (1994)
06-09 taekwondogirl’s birthday (1996)
06-09 Eli Romley’s birthday (1996)
06-11 yesterdays_kinked_moose’s birthday (1992)
06-13 muselover’s birthday (1997 – green)
06-14 Grant O. turns 7,000 days old
06-19 Raynpho’s birthday (1994)
06-19 Elwing (formerly Sam)’s birthday (1994)
06-20 Kricket’s birthday (1993 – royal purple, gold, and anything sparkly)
06-27 oxlin turns 7,000 days old
06-29 Bluefyre27’s birthday

You turn 5,000 days old this month if you were born between September 24 and October 23, 1995.
You turn 6,000 days old this month if you were born between December 28, 1992, and January 26, 1993.
You turn 7,000 days old this month if you were born between April 4 and May 3, 1990.

*Note: Listed MBers who have been inactive for several months won’t appear on next year’s birthday calendar unless they show up again.

POSOC’s idea: “Not another RPG (we have, what, over a dozen now?), just a thread where we can discuss various role-playing games, both those on the blog and off.”

We’re not sure exactly what he has in mind, but he groveled so abjectly that we had no choice but to accede to his demands. Righto, MBers, it’s all yours.

The 82nd Scripps National Spelling Bee is in full swing in Washington, D.C., just a block and a half from Robert’s office. We don’t know whether any Musers are in it, but At least one Muser is competing this year, and there may be more; it’s the kind of place where they hang out (witness emmatheduck and speller73 of yore). So warm wishes to all contestants, and good luck to any orthographoMusers in the pack.

Requested by IBCF. Any other enthusiasts out there?

We’ve reinstalled the chess plug-in, so games on the old chess threads (such as Chess 4) will be visible again.

Don’t get too attached to them, though: we’ve found another program with some very useful features, if we can make it work. Stay tuned…

We’ve added something new to your comment forms: a “preview” button that lets you see in advance approximately what the comment will look like. If you don’t like it, don’t post it — just change it and preview it again.

The button should help you avoid typos, avatar slip-ups on the Alter Ego thread, and other bloggish “oops!” moments. Let us know how you like it and if it causes any problems. Otherwise, enjoy!

Here’s our policy about meeting other MBers offline:

• MuseBlog’s administrators do not encourage you to do it.
• We won’t help you plan to do it.
• If you insist on holding a real-world meeting, your parents must plan it and supervise it.
• To assure us that they are involved, your parents should e-mail us at gapa @ musefanpage.com. We will help them exchange e-mail addresses, and they can take it from there.
• Any details about meetings (exact time and place, what you’ll be wearing, etc.) must stay off the blog. Please don’t try to post them. We won’t let you.
• After a Kokonvention, we will post photographs of Kokonvening MBers with parental permission.
• That’s all we will do.

Your friends,
The GAPAs

As graduation nears, pranks proliferate. Here’s a place to discuss them: ones you’ve been involved in, ones you’ve heard about, ones you’ve been involved in but want to pretend you only heard about. Consider it a Kokopellian korrective to the earnestness of the IlluMimiNati.

(Thanks to Kokopelli52 for recommending this topic.)

Back during the old days (before April 2009), MBers added their posts to the bottom of the comments page. They had no choice; it was all the blog software offered.

When they revived the blog after the Great Hacking Incident, the Administrators added a feature that allowed nested, threaded comments. Now MBers had the option of replying directly to others’ comments, in a hierarchical, outline-like form. They could also reply the old way, with a new comment, if they chose.

Nested comments have several advantages but one big disadvantage: you can’t read them in chronological order. That’s hard for people who don’t check the blog every hour, or even every day.

Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages? Should we scrap the nesting? Keep it for some purposes but not for others? Let’s talk about it.

For centuries, people have spoken of them in whispers. They are the covert-action wing of the Kokonspiracy: a shadowy cabal devoted to committing anonymous acts — some simple, some spectacular — in the spirit of the Muse known as Mimi. They are the WD-40 that keeps the gears of civilization turning, or at any rate loosens the lug nuts of civilization when they get stuck. Who reshelved that beautiful astronomy book that some idiot had stuck in the middle of the football section, where neither the librarians nor anybody else would ever have found it? They did that, and much, much more besides. Make no mistake about it: Unlike a similarly named supersecret organization depicted in certain popular books, movies, and video games, these are GOOD guys.

They are

And they want you.

No membership fee if you sign up now!

Here are the 10 most active MBers, as reckoned by the number of comments they’ve posted so far.*

# Alice (10,843)
# the man for aeiou (5,314)
# Jadestone (4,487)
# Purple Panda (3,792)
# Cat’s Meow (3,426)
# Prarilius Canix (3,319)
# Kokonilly (3,234)
# E2MB (2,871)
# KaiYves (2,578)
# Red-tailed HAWK (2,353)

*Our statistics count different names as independent entries, so you’re at a disadvantage in the rankings if you’ve changed your name, added points to it, or anything along those lines. Alas, we Administrators don’t have time to add comments from everyone’s aliases to get a true tally. (And we refuse to think about the Alter Ego threads.)

Continued from Books and Reading, 2009, Part 1.

Even now, your Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson seem realer than many people we see every day.

Requested by kokopelli52, who adds: “And the different precautions countries are putting into place.”

What is your name? The Kokonspiracy.
What is your quest? World domination.
What is your plan? Mostly Harmless.

Is MuseBlog really a plot to take over the world? What else could it be?

Continued from TK2K8P3.