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?”

March 2009 “Happy Birthday!” Thread

Known Muser birthdays and 5K Days this month*:

03-01 Cat’s Meow’s birthday (1995 – orange)
03-04 emmatheduck’s birthday (1993 – carroty)
03-07 Arianhrod of Orkney’s birthday
03-13 Magus’s birthday (1992)
03-19 Logogeo96’s birthday (1996)
03-21 M & M’s birthday (1993 – rainbow)
03-22 Violetfire’s birthday (1994 – violet)
03-23 MontgomeryGurl’s birthday (1991 – blue, sky or light)
03-23 Daisy*chain’s birthday (YEAR? COLOR?)
03-25 Necromancer’s birthday
03-25 hedgehogboy5’s birthday
03-26 Shadowkat’s birthday (1991 – black, purple, and silver)
03-26 Queen Francois the first’s birthday (1994 – pink)
03-26 The Book Thief (1996)
03-27 CTN’s birthday
03-29 Luna the Lovely (formerly Michelle W.)’s birthday (1990 – pink + light blue)
03-30 Pyro’s birthday
03-30 kokopellic (gradster1?)’s birthday (1993)

You turn 5,000 days old this month if you were born between June 24 and July 24, 1995.
You turn 6,000 days old this month if you were born between September 27 and October 27, 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.

Our Windows on the World

Axa brought up the idea: “I always thought it’d be cool if we all took a picture of what the sky looked like outside our respective windows/houses (no scenery for the most part) but I think it’s be too much work for the GAPAs. And maybe boring? I dunno, I like stuff like that.”

Later in the conversation she added, “It sounds like windows are the window to the soul then, huh? haha. It’s definitely interesting to see things that are commonplace for someone else, how they perceive things.”

Why don’t we try it with verbal descriptions? You could even describe what you’d like to see. (But tell us about your real-world view first.)

February 2008 2009 Incredible Morphing Chameleon Thread

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

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

Current topic: The weather

Coming up: Cool places we’ve been to or want to go to

February 2009 “Happy Birthday!” Thread

Known Muser birthdays and 5K Days this month*:

02-02 groundhog22’s birthday (1989 – denim blue)
02-02 Shadow Gallery’s birthday (1993 – psychedelic)
02-04 Tessera Rose’s birthday
02-12 Dot Keet’s birthday (1991 – bright orange)
02-13 The Tominator’s birthday (1996)
02-14 Gingersnap’s birthday (1993 – purple)
02-21 Karrdash’s birthday (2000 – red)
02-22 Shotgun #10’s birthday (1995)
02-24 tralalalolly’s birthday (year? color?)
02-26 Ötzi’s birthday (1993 – cerulean)
02-26 KaiYves’s birthday (1993-purple)

You turn 5,000 days old this month if you were born between May 27 and June 23, 1995.
You turn 6,000 days old this month if you were born between August 30 and September 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.

“Happy” 200th Birthday, Edgar Allan Poe!

Born January 19, 1809; died October 7, 1849; never very happy for very long.

Born January 19, 1809; died October 7, 1849; never very happy for very long.

No rays from the holy heaven come down
On the long night-time of that town;
But light from out the lurid sea
Streams up the turrets silently–
Gleams up the pinnacles far and free–
Up domes–up spires–up kingly halls–
Up fanes–up Babylon-like walls–
Up shadowy long-forgotten bowers
Of sculptured ivy and stone flowers–
Up many and many a marvellous shrine
Whose wreathèd friezes intertwine
The viol, the violet, and the vine.
Resignedly beneath the sky
The melancholy waters lie.
So blend the turrets and shadows there
That all seem pendulous in air,
While from a proud tower in the town
Death looks gigantically down.

–The City in the Sea

Happy 303rd Birthday, Benjamin Franklin!

In 1783 he wrote to Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society:

Furnished as all Europe now is with Academies of Science, with nice instruments and the spirit of experiment, the progress of human knowledge will be rapid and discoveries made of which we have at present no conception. I begin to be almost sorry I was born so soon, since I cannot have the happiness of knowing what will be known a hundred years hence.

We’re sure he would have been even happier to see what had been discovered 200 years thence, and would have felt right at home in the Hare & Hedgepig.

January 2009 Incredible Morphing Chameleon Thread

A new year, a blank slate!

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

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

Current topic: Silly laws

January 2009 “Happy Birthday!” Thread

Known Muser birthdays and 5K Days this month*:

01-01 Jadestone’s birthday (1992 – cerulean or green)
01-01 FrigidSymphony’s birthday (1991 – no color, but loud heavy metal music)
01-03 Kari’s birthday (1995)
01-03 Rebecca Lasley’s birthday
01-04 ZVX’s birthday (year? – black)
01-05 grnqween2011’s birthday (1994 – green)
01-06 Admiral Penguin’s birthday (1994 – gold, red, obsidian)
01-12 Faye Beauchamp’s birthday (1989)
01-13 penguini’s birthday (1993 – light blue-green)
01-13 Wingnut’s birthday (year? color?)
01-15 Kiara’s birthday (1993 – black, blue, purple)
01-16 Cedar’s birthday (1990)
01-17 The Insane Blue Sage’s birthday (1995 – black, silver, green, and red)
01-21 Red Hed Em’s birthday
01-23 Kittymine’s birthday
01-26 Glassboro’s birthday (1995 – black and whatever you like)
01-27 RoseQuartz (formerly LadyGaladriel) is 5,000 days old
01-30 The Skipper Nancy’s birthday (1992 – yellow or sea-green)
01-31 Dandelions Are Wildflowers’ (::DAW::’s) birthday (1992)
01-31 Birthday of greekgurl the Latin speakin geek freak! (1994 – rainbow)

You turn 5,000 days old this month if you were born between April 26 and May 26, 1995.
You turn 6,000 days old this month if you were born between July 30 and August 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.