MuseBlog

Today begins the Year of the Rat on the Chinese lunar calendar. How do you plan to celebrate the noble rodent?

Continued from the 2007 edition.

The List:

Muslim: FantasyFan?!?!

Jewish: Sphinx, Quintessentia, hypermoocow, FairyDragon
Reform: yellowsharpiemarker, Sobriquet, Cliff Eagle Teh Pwnage
Reconstructionist: Kiki The Great, Anata~ChinTsu
Conservative: Copper Bigfoot, Brave Sir Robin, Zyviva, The Insane Blue Sage, RainbowFish
Orthodox: Phoenix, Jessie, groundhog22
Jewish Atheist: Lizzie, emmatheduck, speller73

Christian: Vendaval, Donaldo, MontgomeryGurl, Ninja For Christ, Eccentric the Afterthought, Lady Cinnamon Moon, IBCF, muselover
Lutheran: Queen-o-random, Capricious
Catholic: Kiara, Romana2, Ebeth, davidude, Piggy the Proud Catholic, Tumsymonster
Eastern Orthodox: Sunrunner Bramblewood, Dotty ‘Kay
Quaker: Zallie, Red Tailed HAWK, Liesolotte, Purple Panda, Taiwan Hippo Fan
Protestant: book_addict, VanZepplin, Otzi, Kagcomix
Mormon (LDS): Skwerl Overlord, Veralidaine, Zyka
Methodist: grnqween2011, bibliorose
Presbyterian: Elizabeth, gimanator, Kari
Baptist: jammin j
UCC:The Man For Aeiou
Catholic by birth, unsure now: Beavo, Kokonilly
Catholic plus Jewish holidays: Gaea

Hindu: ♥ shriya siolashrwa jeffica ♥

Buddhist: 100% cotton

Agnostic: Sweet Melpomene, curious and questioning, SupremeMuser2000, Lady Visala of Reverie, Gwendolyn, Alice (?), POSOC

Wiccan: emogrl, FairyDragon

Mixed Bag of Random Beliefs: Pentatonikk, Unintended Pun, Gwendolyn of the Eastern Seas, Otzi, Axa, elassë~adael, curious and questioning, Musketeer Number, Sweet Melpomene, Drops of Jupiter

Druid Reconstructionist: Millie

Atheist: Skipper Nancy, johnkerry, Purple Panda, Taiwan Hippo Fan, Darth Yoda, Lizzie, penguini, violindino, Yup, Bobbyjkl, First Sorceress, Shadowkat, curious and questioning, Potato Chip, Cat’s Meow, C++darkmage, Drops of Jupiter, La Mort, nerdz_r00l, The Bookworm
Spiritual Atheist: The Bev, Harmony with short red hair
Radical Atheist: Queenie J, Drops of Jupiter, dark duke of darkness, agagabagabag
Happy Atheist: philosophical.bunny

Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM): Necromancer, Vixen in the Eyes of the Moon

Asatruar: Frigid Symphony

Green Cow: curious and questioning

The Church of the Carrot: emmatheduck, Unintended Pun, NerdAndProudOf It, Beatlesrockr

Very Confused: lifewithoutsuffering

Graeco-agnosticism: /gradster(1)/

Non-practicing Believer of Subwayism: Faye Beauchamp

Dumr-Sirism/Jedi (on Earth): KaiYves

Unitarian Universalist: Logogeo96

Tasting colors, seeing musical tones — in general, perceiving anything through the “wrong” sensory channel — has fascinated scientists since they first identified it in the 19th century. Several MuseBloggers appear to have experienced it firsthand. Here’s a thread for discussing it, by special request of Faye Beauchamp.

Unlike the random thread, this discussion thread stays on topic until the topic changes.

Newcomers should read The Rules and The Guide before plunging in.

Current topic: Favorite superhero
Makeup
Supernatural stuff
Larry Gonick

Grant took advantage of a strong wind to get some photos of the Union Jack rippling in full glory. The flagpole, which he is making, is not yet finished.

And here we see Midnight Fiddler in her natural habitat.

Random fact: we haven’t had one of these since last June.

The birthday is today, January 27, 1756. It’s a bit late in the day to start a thread, but there’s still time for a little night music.

It’s been more than a year since we started the last one of these. Here’s how we described it then:

Chokoholics, video-game addicts, manga fiends — tell us how you know when you’ve crossed the line.

‘In that direction,’ the Cat said, waving its right paw round, ‘lives a Hatter: and in that direction,’ waving the other paw, ‘lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they’re both mad.’
‘But I don’t want to go among mad people,’ Alice remarked.
‘Oh, you can’t help that,’ said the Cat: ‘we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.’
‘How do you know I’m mad?’ said Alice.
‘You must be,’ said the Cat, ‘or you wouldn’t have come here.’

The Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, logician, fantasy novelist, stutterer, High Victorian, and nonsense versifier supreme, was born on January 27, 1832. He concocted his famous pseudonym by Latinizing his first and middle names (to Carolus Ludovicius), reversing their order, and de-Latinizing them. Though he died 100 years before Muse came along, we daresay he would have approved. Thanks to lifewithoutacellphone for reminding us that today is his day.

As Gingersnap has just pointed out, today, January 23, is National Pie Day.

It’s true! You can read all about it on the website of the National Pie Council at www. piecouncil.org/national.htm . The Council’s list of “Random Acts of Pieness,” however, seems woefully incomplete…

Unintended Pun says, “Not everyones’ names are on there, but it’s for the entire MB, including the newbies who come after it.”

Full-size editions of the valentines may be viewed by clicking on them individually, or you can browse the whole album.

MBers can’t seem to get enough of them.

Hear the splatting of the pies,
Apple pies!
What a world of misery their crusted warmth belies.

Yes, on the whole it’s a good thing that Mr. Poe didn’t write about Muse. He was an unhappy soul, but his poems and stories have given us many hours of diversion. So we hope that he’ll be of good cheer (in a foetid, sepulchral way) wherever he is (which we shudder to think about).

“The only president of the United States who was never president of the United States,” as the Firesign Theater once called him, was born 302 years ago today (January 17). Hail to one of the most fascinating, down-to-earth, and likable Americans to have trodden the continent in recorded history.

Including winter sports; requested by treble_cone_freeeskier!

It’s hard to believe we’ve never had a thread on this topic.

Latin is a dead language,
It’s dead as it can be.
It killed the ancient Romans,
And now it’s killing me.
Those are dead who wrote it;
Those are dead who spoke it;
Those will die who learn it;
And, blessed death, they earn it.
–Poem that Robert’s father (who knew Latin) taught him

Crusto volanti noli obstare, y’all!

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. By special request of Purple Panda. The last Visual Arts thread appeared in July, 2007.

Astronomers say this year’s Quadrantid meteors could be unusually good. A late moonrise could make it possible to see 30 to 60 meteors per hour in the United States and twice that many in Europe.

When to look: the morning of January 4, after midnight blog time (1 a.m. U.S. Eastern time, or before dawn in Europe) — not ideal for a school night, alas. Let us know if you look and what you see.

Continued from Books and Reading, Part 7.

All new for the new year! Continued from version 2007.5.

In which Musers research the habits, tendencies, proclivities, inclinations, preferences, and predilections of other Musers.

Continued from version 2007.3.

Unlike the random thread, this discussion thread stays on topic until the topic changes.

Newcomers should read The Rules and The Guide before plunging in.

Current topic: Tech class
Web design
Publishing

We’re glad to be here and to have you all with us. Have a Mostly Harmless New Year, everybody!

Some MBers like them very much.