International Month for Commemorating Comestibles

Food, that is. And when better than November to celebrate it, in all its many-splendored savory glory? And what could be more appropriate than to begin than with tea time at the H&H? Continue reading “International Month for Commemorating Comestibles”

November 2009 “Happy Birthday!” Thread

Known Muser birthdays this month*:

11-14 Mango’s birthday (1998 – green and blue and goldish-yellow)
11-16 Kiwimuncher’s birthday (1992 – green)
11-18 Cello-Playing Mathematician’s birthday (1993 – violet)
11-18 Enceladus’s birthday (1996 – purple, blue, and black)
11-24 peary moppins’s birthday (1997 – blue)
11-26 soccer starr’s birthday (1996 – purple, pink, and silver)
11-27 Purple Panda’s birthday (1991 – purple)
11-27 Birthday of Vixen in the Eyes of the Moon (1992 – ruby red)
11-27 Dodecahedron’s birthday (1993 – green)
11-27 Cinnamoon’s birthday (1994 – yellow)

You turn 5,000 days old this month if you were born between February 24 and March 24, 1996.
You turn 6,000 days old this month if you were born between May 30 and June 28, 1993.
You turn 7,000 days old this month if you were born between September 3 and October 2, 1990.

*Note: Listed MBers who have been inactive for several months won’t appear on next year’s birthday calendar unless they show up again.

Chess Game Concludes! Results

The Chess Eterna-ment deserves its name, but once in a while a game does end.

So far, six games of normal chess (as opposed to Capablanca or Turbo chess) have been played to completion on the blog. The results so far:

Regular Chess
bookgirl_me > mason
Ducky > Kiga
Purple Panda > TMFA
Piggy > RoseQuartz
Jakob Wonkychair > Tesseract

Capablanca Chess
bookgirl_me > POSOC
cromwell > Enceladus

Turbo Chess
bookgirl > Jakob Wonkychair

Conjugation Game, v. 2009

Is anyone familiar with this kind of joke? Sometimes called “prejudiced triples,” it takes an an activity or trait and shows how one’s perception of it changes depending on distance from the speaker.

Showing is better than telling:

I am firm. You are stubborn. He is pig-headed.

(That’s the classic example, which we’ve seen attributed to Bertrand Russell, George Bernard Shaw, and someone called K. J. Stavronides.)

On MuseBlog, of course, the gender-specific “he” can be replaced with the gender-noncommital “en”:

I am thrifty. You are cheap. En is a tightwad.

I am eloquent. You are loquacious. En is a blabbermouthed bore.

And so on. Anyone want to add some?

Muse / Harry Potter Fanfiction, Part 3

Ages ago, Robert started inserting the Muses into the action of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. First, the whole gang burst into Chapter One. Then, in a scene unlike anything in the book, Feather met Fleur Delacour and discovered her poetic side.

Robert planned some other scenes that he never got around to posting. This one is from Chapter 24, “Sectumsempra.” Looking for the girls’ bathroom, Mimi accidentally walks into the boys’ loo a few minutes before Harry Potter arrives for his fateful encounter with Draco Malfoy…. Continue reading “Muse / Harry Potter Fanfiction, Part 3”

International Darkness Appreciation Month, Part 2

Fireworks, neon, strings of decorative lights at holidays…they need the darkness to make their colors glow to their fullest splendor. Part 2 of the October Random Thread continues our salute to the brighter side of darkness. Continue reading “International Darkness Appreciation Month, Part 2”

Chess Lesson 2 — with Tesseract

Robert is going crazy with this chess software. Tesseract, Lovely Lunegood, Adeia, Pseudonym, SudoRandom, and mas0n have all expressed interest in a lesson, in approximately that order.

Tesseract — ready to roll?
 
(Note: “Lesson” games are played in public. Players may comment on their own or each other’s moves; observers may ask questions, which the players may or may not answer. It’s all highly experimental.)
 
Continue reading “Chess Lesson 2 — with Tesseract”

Pumpkin Drop Coming Up!

Attention, MBers within driving distance of Morgantown, West Virginia: West Virginia University will hold its 22nd annual Pumpkin Drop on Friday, October 30.

What’s a Pumpkin Drop? Nancy Kangas and her son Aaron can tell you. So can Purple Panda and her family. They’ve all dropped pumpkins in previous years.

You can find more information at www . mae.cemr.wvu . edu/news/news-details.php?item=1272 .

And you can see how Pan & Co. did it right here on the blog.

Chess Lesson, with bookgirl_me

Robert has an idea for a new way to use the chess software: He’ll play a game with one MBer (at a time), trying to create interesting positions for his opponent to exploit. He’ll make comments on the action as it unfolds and will answer questions from anybody on the blog. Sound interesting? Continue reading “Chess Lesson, with bookgirl_me”