Author: Robert Coontz (Administrator)

Happy 445th Birthday, William Shakespeare!

Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold.
There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins.
Such harmony is in immortal souls;
But, whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.

In celebration of this fateful birth,
Herein the GAPAs will communicate
In lines ten syllables in length apiece
(Or thereabouts). You’ve heard of it before:
Iambic (yes) pentameter–i.e.,
Five two-beat feet, one stressed, one unstressed. All
MuseBloggers may, of course, write that way too.
It’s easy once you get the hang of it
(Well, not exactly easy, but still fun.)

Commenting on Pages

ATTENTION, ALL MBERS!

The comments sections now available on some pages are NOT normal MB threads. They are for posting information only. (“Pages” in WordPress nomenclature are the information posts accessed through the menu below the MuseBlog title banner: Who’s Here, What’s Here, etcetera.)

On the HTML page, for example, please don’t post questions asking “How to do I do such-and-such?” or experiments along the lines of “Will such-and-such work? Whee, it did!” That’s what the HTML Practice and Typographic Tricks thread is for. If you feel like telling others how to do something, however, go right ahead. We’ll transfer the information to the page and delete your comment to keep that section clear.

Thanks,

The Management

Blog Slowdowns — What’s Up

Here is the story, as far as we’ve been able to determine:

Apparently on February 25, some evil non-MBer hacked MuseBlog’s WordPress code to show advertisements at the top of the lefthand sidebar. Now the inserted code is malfunctioning and causing slowdowns and other problems. Robert has been trying to track down the problem, but the commands are well disguised and seem to be spread out among the files in a way that will break other parts of the blog if he simply starts deleting them. He’s going to reinstall our software tonight. (He tried to do it last night but had to go to bed before he could finish the job.)

That’s our tale of woe, so far. With luck, it will have a happy ending soon.

April 2009 “Happy Birthday!” Thread

04-02 Taiwan Hippo Fan’s birthday (1995 – black, purple, blue)
04-08 Beavo the Great (1995 – neon green or jet black)
04-09 POSOC’s birthday (1994 – “grurple” [=green+purple])
04-10 Vendaval’s birthday (1992)
04-17 Grant O.’s birthday (1990 – blue)
04-17 bookgirl_me’s birthday (1995 – indigo)
04-18 trust kokopelli’s birthday (1998 – olive)
04-22 Piggy’s birthday (1994 – red or orange)
04-24 speller73’s birthday (1995)
04-27 Em’s birthday (1992 – octarine or black)
04-27 Zoe’s birthday (1994 – pink and plaid)
04-28 AthenianPsycho’s birthday
04-29 Cliff Eagle’s birthday (1994 – gold and blue)
04-30 oxlin’s birthday (1990 – chartreuse)

You turn 5,000 days old this month if you were born between July 25 and August 23, 1995.
You turn 6,000 days old this month if you were born between October 28 and November 26, 1992.

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

MuseBlog Job Applications

Errata proposed this thread, to popular acclaim. We GAPAs don’t really understand it don’t understand it at all, but that has never kept threads from working in the past. Here’s the description:

You think of creative reasons that wasting time is actually constructive, and type them all out! If we wanted to, we could also expand it into actually getting the jobs, as in people create mock jobs, others apply for them, and then the creator gets to chose one, based on their application. Then… Oh! Maybe we could have ‘Job Points’ or something similar, that you get when you get a job! Okay, that’s my idea. *beams*

April 2009 Muse D-i-s-c-u-s-s-i-o-n*

WARNING! Will definitely contain spoilers!

To spare MBers reading the “Recent Comments” columns, please paste the following message in at the beginning of your posts:

SPOILER MUSE SPOILER SPOILER.

(Remember the period at the end. Otherwise the warning won’t conceal the comment.)

*The hyphens are an experiment to try to fool spambots into ignoring this thread.

Random Thread: IMADSAD, Part 2

Second verse, same as the first: The March Random Thread celebrates our own invention, the International Month of Anachronism Detection and Scrupulous Attention to Detail. As always, of course, you’re free to talk about anything you like.

Continued from Part One.

(Users’ Manual: Obey The Rules. Consult The Guide. Have fun!)

Second verse, same as the first: The March Random Thread celebrates our own invention, the International Month of Anachronism Detection and Scrupulous Attention to Detail. As always, of course, you’re free to talk about anything you like.

Continued from Part One.

(Users’ Manual: Obey The Rules. Consult The Guide. Have fun!)

Happy 130th Birthday, Albert Einstein!

He was born on Pi Day, and he said:

“It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.”

“One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life. The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result, and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community.”

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day.”

“A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?”