Author: Robert Coontz (Administrator)

Welcome, Neophytes! (August 2008)

“Neophyte” comes from Greek roots meaning “newly planted.” If you’ve landed on the blog and think you might want to put down roots here, stop in for a friendly welcome and some helpful tips from those already here.

Please read The Rules. You might also glance at The HG2MB (Hitchhiker’s Guide to MuseBlog), which contains helpful hints regarding local customs, lingo, and other peculiarities of the blog; smiley information included.

Attention, non-neophytes! Please don’t fill this thread with non-neophytic chatter. If there’s no one around to welcome, there are plenty of other places where you can post.

Don’t Forget These Threads (August 2008 edition)

Help others navigate the blog by signposting your favorite threads here. As always, we start this thread anew from scratch every month.

(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.)

Current categories:

ADVENTURES IN THE MUSIVERSE
Ships’ Logs (kiwimuncher)
Muse Scouts (AvalonGirl)
Pie Isle (TNÖ)
Incredible Beasts of Museica (Beatlesrockr)

LIFE BEYOND THE VIRTUAL DIVIDE
Vegetarians, Vegetarianism, Vegetables, and Vegemite (Purple Panda)
Mostly Harmless (kiwimuncher)

SILLY FUN
The Polling Place (kiwimuncher)
Alter Egos(kiwimuncher, AvalonGirl)
Stupid Senseless Smiley Stories (Midnight Fiddler)
World of Piecraft (kiwimuncher)

WRITING – RRRs
Sea Roc (kiwimuncher
Alchemy RRR (kiwimuncher)
Etheterre (kiwimuncher)

WRITING – ASSORTED OTHER

OTHER THINGS WE LIKE
Coy Woodnesse (kiwimuncher)
Visual Arts (Purple Panda)
MuseBlog Chess (Purple Panda)
Music (Midnight Fiddler)
Books and Reading (Midnight Fiddler)
History (Midnight Fiddler)
Calvin and Hobbes (ZVX)

USEFUL ITEMS
HG2MB v.2008.1
Last Month’s DFTT
Ranting and Spazzing with Abundant Spoilers

August 2008 “Happy Birthday” Thread

Known Muser birthdays this month:*

08-01 MuseBlog’s birthday (2005) = GAPA Appreciation Day
08-04 Capricious’s birthday (1994 – green and blue; rainbow)
08-04 Brendan The Science Whiz’s birthday (1995 – nothing)
08-04 Random Kokopelli’s birthday (1997 – rainbow)
08-09 RAWR’s birthday (1993 – deep red)
08-08 QueenOfAces’s birthday (1997)
08-11 Sobriquet’s birthday (1992)
08-11 Lawrence of Antarctica’s birthday (1994 – black)
08-13 Sora’s birthday (1992 – all shades of blue)
08-14 bulletproofmarshmallow’s birthday (1993)
08-15 Morbid’s birthday (1991)
08-16 The Bev’s birthday (1992 – green or blue)
08-16 rabbity24’s birthday (1994 – green)
08-21 Adeia’s birthday (1996 – green or purple)
08-21 Alice’s birthday (1993 – blue)
08-21 biblioRose’s belle jeune chose’s birthday (1995 – blue and yellow)
08-27 Nthanda the Laugher’s birthday (1991)
08-26 Gwendolyn of the Eastern Seas’ birthday (1994 – purple pizzazz)
08-28 Sunrunner Bramblewood’s (=Dragonsrock828’s) birthday (1993)
08-29 Turquoise’s birthday (1995 – turquoise)
08-29 gnash’s birthday (1996 – green or blue)
08-30 Serafina/AvalonGirl’s birthday (1998 – Teal, bright purple, ethereal purple, pale misty blue, pumpkin orange)
08-31 Quintessentia’s birthday (1992 – golden)

You turn 5,000 days old this month if you were born between November 24 and December 24, 1994.
You turn 6,000 days old this month if you were born between February 28 and March 29, 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.

Shrinking-Comment-Box Saga

Robert just tweaked the code in a way that might have solved the comment-box problem. Or, as often happens in cases like this, it might have made things worse. Let us know anything you notice.

(If you’re using a browser other than Internet Explorer 7, you probably won’t notice anything at all. But you might. That’s how it is with computers.)

MuseBlog Chess, v. 2

We tried team chess the first time around, and it eventually turned into one-on-one games. This time, let’s start with two-player games.

Results so far:
Purple Panda vs. TMFA: 2-0
Midnight Fiddler vs. Agrrrfishi: …
Adeia vs. Red-tailed HAWK: …
Taiwan Hippo Fan Raynpho vs. ZVX: …
Eragon vs. Logogeo96

Board 1: Midnight Fiddler (White) vs. Agrrrfishi (Black)
###pgn###
1. a4 f5
2. c4 h5
3. Nc3 Rh6
4. b3 g5
5. a5 Nf6
6. e3 Bg7
7. a3
%%%pgn%%%

——————————

Board 2: The Man for Aeiou (White) vs. Purple Panda (Black)
Game over — Black won.
###pgn###
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. d4 e5xd4
4. Bb5 Qf6
5. O-O Bd6
6. Na3 a6
7. Bd3 Ne5
8. Re1 Nh6
9. Nxd4 Bc5
10. Nb5 a6xb5
11. Nxb5 O-O
12. Re3 Bxe3
13. f2xe3 c6
14. Nd6 Qxd6
15. Bd2 Ne5g4
16. h3 Qh2+
17. Kf1 Qh1+
18. Ke2 Qxg2+
19. Ke1 Qf2++
%%%pgn%%%

——————————

Board 3: Adeia (White) vs. Red-tailed HAWK (Black)
###pgn###
1. a4 e5
2. b3 d5
3. h3 Be7
4. d3 Nc6
5. g4 Bh4
6. Rh2 Bf6
7. f3 Bh4+
%%%pgn%%%

——————————

Board 4: Raynpho (White) vs. ZVX (Black)
###pgn###
1. e4 Nf6
2. Nc3 e5
3. d3 Bd6
4. Nf3 O-O
5. Nb5 Nc6
6. h3 a6
7. c4 Nb4
8. Bd2 c5
9. Nxd6 Nh5
10. a3 Qf6
11. Nf5 g6
12. Nh6+ Kh8
13. a3xb4 Nf4
14. b4xc5 d6
15. Ng4 d6xc5
16. g4xf6
%%%pgn%%%

——————————

Board 5: Eragon (White) vs. Logogeo96 (Black)
###pgn###
1. e4 b5
2. Nf3 Ba6
3. Qe2 b4
4. b3
%%%pgn%%%

—————————–

(For reference, the squares are coded like this:)


BLACK

a8 b8 c8 d8 e8 f8 g8 h8
a7 b7 c7 d7 e7 f7 g7 h7
a6 b6 c6 c6 e6 f6 g6 h6
a5 b5 c5 d5 e5 f5 g5 h5
a4 b4 c4 d4 e4 f4 g4 h4
a3 b3 c3 d3 e3 f3 g3 h3
a2 b2 c2 d2 e2 f2 g2 h2
a1 b1 c1 d1 e1 f1 g1 h1

WHITE

Help Needed! All Done! Thanks, Everybody!

As you may know, the Muse Fan Page (MuseBlog’s parent site) keeps a list of contents of every issue of Muse. Well, most issues, anyway: we’ve fallen down on the job since April 2007.

This is an area in which MBers can be of inestimable assistance. (Translation: HELP!!!) Please get out your back issues, record what’s in them, and post the results here. We’ll most gratefully add them to the list.

Thanks,

The Administrators

Still Needed: Topics of “Dear Muse Reader” Pages for the Following Issues

May/June 2007
July/August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November/December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May/June 2008
July/August 2008