MuseBlog

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.)

Let us know when your issue arrives. NO SPOILERS, please. There’s another thread for discussing the issue.

Rainbowstar, Zinc the sorceress, Hibiscus, and tangerine took over the Discovery Science Center on December 28.

Rainbowstar and Zinc

Hibiscus and tangerine

Hurricane Chamber

MuseBlog Pinwall

The mayhem continues from Part 3. Read more »

Raynpho sent this cheerful reminder that Valentine’s Day is about more than couples and ugly little putti. We all know it’s about HPBs. (And [insert your favorite spelling of cacao-based foodstuffs here].)

Words & names you ♥ or just want to talk about.

Continued from v. 2008.

Part 2 of the monthly Random Thread continues our celebration of the flamablamablous wondrousness of the universe with this exclusive preview of a recent, somewhat disturbing discovery in the fossil record.

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Enter the circle of emoticons and follow the path of randomness. The journey begins anew on our monthly Random Thread.

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Our first Random Thread of 2009 kicks off our Year of Random Celebrations with a salute to that stalwart factotum, the emoticon. They signal our moods, speak for us when words don’t do, provide work for Smiley Gnomes, and illuminate stupid senseless stories that would otherwise be simply stupid senseless text stories.

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

Continued from the v.2007.1.

See it to believe it. The blog can’t accommodate the full tableau, so click through to find a larger version. Since even Photobucket can’t handle a 42-inch wide image, full-size versions of the individual panels are also available. (When you’re in Photobucket, click again to magnify.)

Oxlin’s suggestion, from an idea she found on another website, from which she copied the following rules.

1. Each person tells a true story from their own experience. (Obviously, we can’t tell if you’ve made things up. That is between you and your conscience.)
2. Keep it brief; we’re looking for vignettes and koans, not epics
3. Each story has to be linked to a previous anecdote by some shared concept, some common theme or element.
4. Cite the element you’ve used as a link. Try to go for solid links: physical objects, specific words (punning encouraged).
5. This is a multi-stranded string of pearls. A single story can spawn more than one successor, and an anecdote can combine more than one antecedent.
6. Poetry is, of course, encouraged
7. Do I need to mention that this is a non-political thread? If your story is political, try not to make it partisan.

,,,by the collective wit, wisdom, and transcendent silliness that can be found on the monthly random thread.

[You can click through the graphic to a larger version of the wreath.]

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Whether your medium is traditional, digital, or in a realm of its own, if it’s visual (or you hope it will be one of these days), here’s a place to talk about it, dream about it, or share ideas, no matter if you’re an artist or not.

Continued from Visual Arts, 2008.1.

Share your November creations here.

Cradleflame by Kiki the Great
Windhenge by POSOC

… to know Part 2 of December’s random thread has arrived.

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Celebrating the arrival of winter in the Northern Hemisphere or summer for the Southern Hemisphere.

Gifts for the gift exchange may be dropped off anonymously at the Holiday Party Gift Tree.

The festivities last until the New Year. For more information, please see the Holiday Party Planning Thread.

Place your presents under or on the gift tree for the Secret Gift Exchange.

Note: this thread is only for posting anonymous gifts. All other comments or discussion should be on the Holiday Party thread. When it’s time to reveal the contents, they will be posted here as well.

Post anonymously. (No need for a fancy alias, “Gift” would be sufficient. Items can be referred to elsewhere by comment number. Do make sure you remember which one is yours.)

Describe the outside appearance of your gift. (Wrapping paper, size, general shape, what it sounds like when shaken…however you’d like to describe it.)

Suggestion: for your own reference, find somewhere safe to keep a copy of your posted description along with the comment number when it appears and a description of the actual gift. That way you won’t risk forgetting what you gave.

Attention, MuseBloggers!

I had to make quite a few alterations in order for the signatures to show up properly on a dark background, so I wanted to give everyone a chance to review them before I upload the graphic to CaféPress. Please check out the Sneak Preview to see how yours looks.

Thanks,
Rebecca

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We thought we’d let you take a look at the designs before we upload the final artwork to CaféPress. There are 50 names in all — 46 MBers and 4 GAPAs — the most we’ve had so far. Click on the image to see a larger version.

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NOTE: Some of the signatures needed tweaking for technical reasons, mostly so the names would show up when printed. In most cases the modifications were minor, simply a thickening of letters, but a (very) few required more invasive surgery. If yours is one of those and you’re not happy with the result, please let us know. We’ll see what can be done.

Continued from Books and Reading, 2008, Part 4.

Always a favorite subject.

Continued from version 2008.3.

The madness continues from Part 2.

We’ll kick off this thread with a reprise of Agrrrfishi’s movie trailer:

What better place could there be on a windy autumn day than our own monthly random thread?

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The Holiday Reform discussion has inspired us to declare 2009 The Year of Random Celebrations. The name of each monthly random thread (along with its title graphics) will commemorate a subject worthy of Muserly honor. For example, we expect there will be some form of Pastry Appreciation Month.

Nominations are welcome.