MuseBlog

That’s role-playing games, for the uninitiated. And for the initiated, a way of life.

Happy to oblige. Though why you’d want to think about school when you don’t have to is beyond us.

Winter officially arrives at 1:35 p.m. U.S. Eastern Standard Time. Mark the occasion appropriately!

Time to close down the Thanksgiving thread and move forward.

MuseBlog bows to the inevitable. Books, the movie, the BBC mini-series–whatever you like.

Quarantine them here, please, before the whole blog grinds to a halt.

Here you go, lilbro777: a hangout for band geeks. (Only please stop saying “pwease.”)

At last, a thread EVERYONE can relate to.

They say no two are alike.

Have you read The Rules?

Ebeth’s idea. Her description: “not just like word origins but accents and slang and all that good stuff…”

Politics, religion, and anything else that might require an extra dose of civility.

By popular demand: a place to compose the first edition of the “Hitchhikers’ Guide to MuseBlog.” Go to it, Musers!

Or maths, if you prefer. Including numbers large, small, positive, negative, real, imaginary, rational, irrational, and transcendental; infinities of all sizes; paradoxes, puzzles, and conundrums; and proofs by demonstration, contradiction, brute force, legerdemain, and intimidation. If you’ve got ’em, post ’em.

We’ve changed our minds. We’re tired of always being so positive. It’s time to let off a little steam.

Wist not, wot not. This month’s random thread: a warm place in a cooling season.

Post at will, but be sure to read The Rules if you’re new in these parts.

Scroll down past the organizational preliminaries to discuss Dickens’s novel. Warning! Probable spoilers starting around comment #50.

There’s an online version of the text at Bibliomania.

Reading schedule as of October 31 (may be revised later):

Tues. Nov 1st: chapters 1 and 2
Wed. Nov 2nd: chapters 3 and 4
Thurs. Nov 3rd: chapters 5 and 6
Frid. Nov 4th: chapters 7 and 8
Sat. Nov 5th: chapters 9 and 10
Sun. Nov 6th: chapters 11 and 12
Mon. Nov. 7th: chapters 13 and 14

First step is to pick Muses. So far the following roles have been filled:
Kokopelli (Ebeth)
Mimi (mutant_hairy_thing)
Urania (MontgomeryGurl)
Aeiou (Phoenix)
Bo (Phoenix Elassë-Adæl)
Chad (Phoebe)
Crraw (Krissy also known as Kricket)
Pwt (Sheep lilbro777)
Feather (KitKat)

Non-Muses who have appeared so far:
Devil (Kokopelli’s puppy; a non-speaking but very active role) (Sheep)
Tenrecs (Lizzie)
Hot-pink bunnies (Neo)
Oog the cave person (Lorelei)
Professor Cosmo Mastiff (random rohan freak)
Blind cave fish (Rabid Pansy)
Star-nosed mole (ChinTsu)

Also possible:
Various editors, cartoonists, and celebrity guests

A forum for practicing archaic English, foreign languages, and other off-the-beaten-track forms of communication.

(Coy woodnesse means “quiet madness” in Middle English, the version of our language spoken about 600 years ago.)

Useful resources (additions welcome!):
“Chaucer’s Middle English” site at the University of California, Santa Barbara
Librarius has another Middle English glossary and a load of information about Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales

People seem to want to talk about them, so here goes.

Some MuseBloggers have complained that it’s getting hard to keep up with the flow of messages here. That’s particularly true for those who aren’t on line every day. So as an experiment, we’re devoting this area to longer messages–say, a good, solid paragraph and up. Anything shorter will be sent to the FMP. (No blocks of hundreds of smiley faces, please!) The idea is to create a space similar to Muse Mail or the pre-blog message area on the dear old Gaboomba. Here goes…

A place to write about music, at Lizzie’s suggestion.

By request of Her Former Majesty, MontgomeryMongtomeryGurl.

The estimable Museblog Controller has pointed out that a plethora of Queens are making appearances on the blog. He ‘s asked me to explain, from my wealth of knowledge of heraldry and matters Royal (ha!), the correct procedure for setting oneself up as a monarch, and the correct form of address by one who hasn’t to one who has.

Right then. Firstly, you need to own a country. Sorry, but that’s pretty obligatory for a monarch. And it can’t be some poxy little rock in the middle of nowhere, either. The practical minimum is something the size of Tonga. I know it doesn’t look that big on the map, but it’s a big map.

Next, you have to get most of your subjects to agree that you own it. There’s always going to be a rebel element, so you’ll need a gang of thugs (sorry, a glorious army) to stop the rebels getting inconvenient. You also need to control religion. That has a habit of getting out of hand.

That’s about it, really. If everyone else reckons you’re Queen (or King), that’s what you are. Now they just need to show a bit of respect and address you correctly.

If they write to you, they should address you as “Your Majesty” throughout the correspondence, and finish with ‘I have the honour to be, Madam, Your Majesty’s humble and obedient servant’. It’s a bit of a mouthful in conversation, so they’ll only have to call you “Your Majesty” the first time they address you. Then, until you throw them out because you’re bored, they can revert to the suitably obsequious “Ma’am” or “Sir”.

Should you have a spouse or immediate progeny, the same rules apply, except that they get called “Your Royal Highness”.

“Your Grace” is reserved for high members of your Church hierarchy. Unless you revert to the early Tudor form, where the monarch was addressed as “Your grace” as head of the Church.

You need to give your most sycophantic cronies some juicy titles to play with. The order of poshness is as follows :

Duke/Duchess, Marquis/Marquess, Earl/Countess, Viscount, Baron, Baronet. Dukes and Duchesses are called “Your Grace” (confusingly). Everyone else is “My Lord” or “My Lady”, which is even more confusing, because there are also Lords of the Manor. This is the only title you can actually buy.

I hope that clarifies the situation. I very much doubt whether it does.

Another month, another meandering one-size-fits-all thread. Lurkers, step into the light! But remember The Rules.