You ask, we (sometimes) answer. What’s on your mind?
Continued from No. 5.
Patience, Please
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Ask the GAPAs, No. 6
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Watcha reading, GAPAS?
Ooh! A new one!
Why can’t muse be monthly?
(1) War and Peace. Really.
For any history buffs (Paul’s specialty is a couple centuries earlier, but maybe one of the others might know):
en. wikipedia. org /wiki /Congress_of_Vienna #Polish-Saxon_crisis
Is there any chance the situation described in the (un-linked) link above could have escalated into war?
3-Is it good?
While we’re talking about books — what is your favorite Children’s book (or author)?
Q. for the GAPAs at large: At about what point in time did the Muse mag stop saying, “From the Publishers of Cricket and Smithsonian Magazine” and change to, “The Magazine of Life, the Universe, and Pie throwing” ?
-6 I know you were asking the GAPAs, but…
my favorite children’s author is Jan Brett. ever heard of her? I still take out her books and look at them for ideas. she’s a fantastic artist.
4 – Well, this is way too modern for me, but – Yes. Politics can always escalate into something nasty.
I suppose we should acknowedge the wisdom of the participants for at least trying to settle their interminable land squabbles over a table instead of with big guns. They did actually manage to secure a lasting peace, even if the treaty was signed a few days before Waterloo, so the fighting was actually still going on. The result was the usual carve-up, with the big boys agreeing to split the best bits, and cutting out the small fry. It would ony have required someone to insult someone else’s mother to provoke a walkout and another war – especially over the Polish-Saxon question.
Still, it held, and to the average peasant, it didn’t much matter who was in charge, as long as he could get on with the harvest, instead of marching half way across Europe and pointing a gun at someone he’d never met and had no quarrel with.
iŹ√Ҳ! – Yes, I love Jan Brett! Her illustrations are beautiful. We own The Mitten, and I used to love finding the smaller illustrations on the side — they were wonderful!
9- Thanks.
8- Those are Cute!
7- I remember that….
Somewhere on this blog is a thread with various musebloggers’ suggestions. Don’t remember when it was though, sometime before last august.
Do you think the very definition of irony is being redirected to the main page of a forum (Another forum, not MB) while trying to make a post in which you were reporting that very bug?
Is there going to be a 2008 edition of the MB signatures design?
Aha, I love these threads! So, Robert, what is your favorite word?
“Mellifluous,” today. Yesterday it was “Lyriodendron.” New favorite word tomorrow.
What are all the GAPA’s opinions on the word “gardez?” Or on ending sentences with prepositions?
Hey guys, do you know how The Bookworm & Lurline made my name with the a and e connected (post 25, june b-day thread)? Is there special HTML for that?
Alt and apostrophe!
ea just testing…
Can you guess who I am or was if I give yoou these clues?
1. I was on here last summer but stopped in september-ish
2. I have the same birthday as Alice (the one who writes a lot and started public schooling this year)
3. I tryed to come back a few months ago but mentioned makeup and everyone started talking about it and I was worried they would think I was all strange now and got embabarssed and left.
I don’t expect you to remeber or care for that matter, but If your bored its a puzzle.
22-BiblioRose? And that probably belongs on the Alter-Ego thread.
Purple Panda (6): I just re-read The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. I am in awe. So much fun, beauty and truth. So that would be my favorite, at least for now. I haven’t read any of Juster’s other books. I see he’s written quite a few.
Like ZVX, I love Jan Brett’s stories, too. I only discovered them last year.
belle jeune chose (22): I remember the makeup discussion but I’m too lazy to go back and see which musebloggers were involved. But anyway… glad to see you back in your new incarnation, with or without makeup
emmatheduck (18): Gardez is a fine word though I think it’s sneaky to include it in English spelling bees.
KaiYves (14): Yes.
When will there be new MB signatures? I want to buy a new shirt, but I don’t want to buy the old one if the new one is in the works.
(23) emmatheduck — methinks thou quackest aright.
(18) As for “gardez,” I think it’s a fine and useful word if you’re speaking French. If you said during a chess tournament, though, nobody would know what you were talking about. The modern rules of chess do not require you to announce an attack on your opponent’s queen; I’m not sure you’re even required to announce check. (You do have to say “j’adoube” [I adjust] if you want to straighten the position of a piece that you don’t intend to move, but that’s about all.)
(6) Favorite children’s books: When I was three or four, I loved Pussy Willow by Margaret Wise Brown, with pictures by Leonard Weisgard. At five my favorite was One Fish Two Fish by Dr. Seuss. At seven it was The Iliad and the Odyssey, a Big Golden Book illustrated in the style of ancient Greek vase paintings. Then I read all the Oz books over and over. For a while I was deeply devoted to Tom Swift, which my teachers hated, but at 10 I switched to Robert Heinlein’s “juvenile” science-fiction books. At 11, Mutiny on the Bounty and The Lord of the Rings, which I read three times before I started eighth grade.
(25, 25) We’re working on new MB signatures. Rather, we’re talking about working on them. Lady B. is pretty busy right now. But we know that Musery Loves Company needs some attention.
23- Your right. I’ll test out my new name on that thread, even though this isn’t technically an later ego. Thanks!
No one answered the other question that I asked at the same time as the gardez one. What do you think about ending sentences with prepositions?
ae testing….
I made up a signature! It looks cool.
GAPAs, have you ever seen True Stories? And did you like it?
It’s on in the background right now.
(28) As an editor, I think about language a lot and have to make decisions about things like how to end sentences. When I was in school, some of my teachers told us that it was always wrong to end sentences with prepositions and taught us various workarounds to avoid it. Some of those rephrasings seemed to me uglier and more unnatural than the problem they were designed to solve — so it came as a relief, later on, to discover that the “rule” forbidding terminal prepositions wasn’t really a rule at all. Grammarians came up with it in the first place because they knew and admired Latin, in which prepositions are always followed by nouns. But English isn’t a direct descendant of Latin: it’s a Germanic language, and its grammar is very different. You can do things in English that you can’t do in Latin (or Spanish, Italian, or French), and sometimes you should do them.
The bottom line, for me, is that there is nothing wrong with ending sentences with prepositions. You can write an ugly, awkward sentence with a preposition at the end; you can write an ugly, awkward sentence without one; or you can write clear, graceful, nice-sounding sentences either way. It all depends on the sentence.
Winston Churchill is supposed to have said that that terminal prepositions were something “up with which I will not put.” I think that says it all.
25–Question on the signatures seconded.
Gaea
Dang, my try on the ea thing didn’t work….what do you mean by alt apostrophe?
Gaea
How old are all of you?
I know, I’m evil.
I think it might only work on Macs… Gæa! Now you can C+P! æ æ æ æ æ æ æ æ æ æ
Our origins are lost in the mists of prehistory. We knew the Crow Girls before they hatched. (We’ve given a real answer to that question on a previous ATG thread.)
To make an “æ” on Windows, do the following:
1. Make sure Number Lock is on.
2. Hold down Alt.
3. Press “6 5 7” on the number pad.
4. Release Alt.
5. Voila! An “æ!”
Try different cominations of numbers on the number pad for more fun! █ÄΘ»ƒßêô╢▄≥╬ƒ⌠╙♫ò
To do it on mac is much easier!!! Just press option-apostrophe. æ.
Hold shift to make it up again: Æ
you can do a bunch of stuff like that on mac.
`¡™£¢∞§¶•ªº–≠œ∑´®†¥¨ˆøπ“‘«åß∂ƒ©˙∆˚¬…æΩ≈ç√∫˜µ≤≥÷`â„€‹›ï¬ï¬‚‡°·‚—±Œ„´‰ˇÃ¨ˆØâˆâ€â€™Â»Ã…ÃÃŽÃËÓÔÒÚƸ˛Ç◊ı˜Â¯˘¿
37- Thad doesn’t work on my computer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What are your opinions on the Beatles?

 That’s a private use character. That means it doesn’t have an official symbol and therefore can be used for whatever font designers want it to be. For example on my computer it is the apple symbol.
did it work?
Okay.
Q. Have you ever been in a band
and
Q. What’s your favorite food?
it’s fun watching you guys struggle to make æ. It’s a regular key on danish keyboards. As are ø and Ã¥. æøåæøåæøåæøåæøåæøåæøåæøå!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, GAPAs. Do you speak any languages other than english?
42- do your keyboards look weird then?
43- No, there’s probably some odd combination of keys you press to make the æ. But the Danish keyboard probably looks odd.
44~ Odd to us, I’d imagine. Probably to Vixen, ours would be disorienting.
Umm, a questions for the GAPAs…….
What is your favorite music? Bands, artists, songs, etc. This has probably been asked before, but I’m too lazy to look it up.
Also, one time Robert said that he liked to sing when he’s vacuuming, what songs do you prefer for housework?
Alt 657 gets me this: §∞¶
æ!
What do you all powerful and august administrator humanoids think of audiobooks?
Æ!
æ. Yay!
What do you GAPAs like to do in your spare time? (Besides moderate this, of course.
)
Vixen (42) I’m not fluent in any language other than English. I’ve studied Hebrew (which I knew pretty well for a while but it’s starting to fade), French (faint memories only), Mandarin Chinese (even fainter memories) and German (I’ve got the basics down kinda sorta). I’m actively studying German since my husband’s side of the family speaks German and hardly any English.
Most of the time I’m happy with my brain. As it’s aged, I think it’s gotten better in a lot of ways. But when it comes to learning languages, I REALLY miss my younger brain!
51- I am horrid at french. Of course, it might be because our teacher just keeps yelling at us.
44- Well, some of the keys are in different places, and we have to press Ctrl-Alt-Shift-2 to get @.
22- Biblio! Hiya! *pies*
Vixen (52): My French teacher did a lot of yelling too. I really should’ve taken German instead!
I’m gonna start writing AEIOU as ÆïÖÜ.
146=Æ 139=ï 153=Ö 154=Ü
GAPAs: Mac or Windows?
æøåæøåæøåæøåæøåæøåæøåæøå yæy I got it!
(55) I’m biplatformal: Mac at home, Windows at work.
ÆïÖÜ Cool!
57- what type of mac?
Okay, here’s one: Could you PLEASE do a Lego thread?
} ª{╚•◘○♦╚qσ•♣♠○◘♠♣•æ whee! fun with symbols!! ┘îDxNQPA󧧧§ I like that one best!!! § §☻ε┬§
to get ti I think i
press ALt
hit the whole thirk row of number keys on the pad
hit the whole second row of number keys
hit the whole first row at the same time
{╚§ or just the whole top row E§§§ that worlks better
MORE fun with symbols!!!
60 – Take it to the Suggestion Box.
61 – Would you like a “Tinkering With Special Characters Thread”? I suggested one in the Suggestion Box.
SUPPORT THIS THREAD TOTALLY IF ANYBODY STILL CARES ABOUT IT
am I allowed to make up a new kind of point?
or is that viiolating some kind of sacre law that I dont know about?
62- that might be fun! would it be like the stupid sensless smiley stories? §- that will be my signature from now on!!
*Old person to the rescue*
62-We have that, it’s called HTML Practice and Typographic Tricks. You posted there six days ago, actually…
63-It’s strongly discouraged. There are Piepoints and spdzk points, and others either aren’t in circulation or can’t really have value. It gets confusing with too many types, and they lose their value if there are too may types. People still invent things and put them in their names to feel important I guess, but it really confuses things. However, if you want some points, piepoints, let me know, because I’m trying to get rid of some!
I try to help answer questions when I can, so I hope that was helpful…
Red-tailed HAWK
49- Good for you.
60- We need a NEW suggestion box!!!!!
63- Make up a new kind of point? What exactly do you mean?
…
Ohh, yeah, like Wung Points and Piepoints, etc! Don’t worry, I made myself the proprieter of Swannpoints a little while ago. I was feeling left out. To acquire them, you need to do something totally awesome. You can make new points.
66-Oops, I suppose I shouldn’t be arguing with my Fiancee!
But it is getting confusing now. I thought Wung points were separate but… I don’t know. See, there are too many and it is getting confusing. Piepoints and spdzk points came first, so they should remain. If you feel left out, why aren’t you asking for piepoints?! Many, many times I have offered them and people didn’t respond!
Anyway, sorry to be taking up room on this thread, but this is a somewhat important discussion.
Red-tailed HAWK
ok then… piepoints please! :puppydogface:
Wung points are acquired from Paker.
When will the wedding take place? It’s June already!
68-Sure! How many do you want, 100? 137? More?
Anyone else want any? I am seriously still trying to give away these things.
69-First, that’s what I thought, but I wasn’t sure (I’m not sure what the game is, actually…). Second part, I don’t know, that seems to have died
Red-tailed HAWK
I use a Mac at home and at work. I lead a sheltered life.
22 – I don’t know if I knew you or not before, but hi!
42 – Cool! I tried typing something in English on a Czech keyboard once…it didn’t go very well.
52 – Eep, me too. The grammar is fine and I do okay with the spelling most of the time, but the pronunciation kills me.
65 – I would gladly take some of those pie points off your hands.
Pirates or ninjas?
(7) The last “Smithsonian” issue was July/August 2006. The first “life, the universe, and pie throwing” issue was September 2006. (That was the issue Paul Baker started off by making fun of SUVs. It’s curious how Master Baker always manages to be simultaneously centuries behind and years ahead of his time.)
73- He’s allergic to the present, maybe?
That wouldn’t be much of an inconvenience, would it? The present is infinitesimally brief and always moving. Though I suppose that the future-oriented part of his awareness would have to be careful to stay out of its way…
75- It’s like ragweed: he only has to be in its vicinity to feel the effects.
75- the past is gone, the presant never happens, and the future is unknown.
-Theo, Timejumpers(or jumpman)
are you reading War and Peace because they were talking about it on NPR?
(78) Welcome back, cotton! I’ll summon some MBers to pie you with sea foam and redwood bark.
I hadn’t heard anyone discussing W&P on NPR. I’m reading it because it has been on my list for a long time. By the way, I highly recommend the Signet Books translation by Ann Dunnigan.
<50> Spare time!
SPARE Time!
Oh, the very thought of it!
Hahahahahahaha!
79- Okey Dokey. *pies cotton with sea foam and redwood bark pies* welcome back!!
80 – Okay, let me rephrase that.
What do you do to relax?
73, 74 – I’m not present-allergic. I just get bored easily.You may be interested to know that the main reason I haven’t been on the blog much is that I’ve been commissioned to create a large automaton, featuring, among other delights, an escaped lion. It will be controlled by one of the many delicious new microcontroller devices coming onto the market, and I’m currently bringing myself up to speed on PIcMicro assembly language, which has now become an obsession. In between programming microcontrollers and sorting out stepper motor drives, I’m stil playing Tudor music at people in castles. Life’s very exciting, but slightly over-full.
Wait —
Post No. 80 isn’t italicized!!!!!! WEIRD!
Tudor music has the unusual quality of being played “at” rather than “for.”
Aww. Well, it was fun while it lasted.
84-Yes, it is.
83-An escaped lion?
*pies 100% cotton with sea foam and redwood bark pies* *considerately gives towel to wipe off the poky bark*
I went to the beach with my grade today. And I didn’t use sunscreen. *shudder* Please, use sunscreen, my fellow musers.
87 – It wasn’t before.
Your fave movie?
91 – I forgot to italicise it, so one of my fellow GAPAs helpfuly post-italicised it. They’re very good with detail. Unlike me.
88 – Indeed.
(92) Not really. More like we’re good with other people’s details. That’s why there’s four.
(82) What I do to relax: Nap. Not often enough.
Who are some of your favourite musicians/bands? I know vaguely what all of you like, I think, and a few artists but not really anything specific.
*Hands Earthgirl 200 Piepoints*
*Hands Eccentric the Afterthought 200 Piepoints*
Anybody else?
Red-tailed HAWK
97- How about a few for your fiancee?
What is the GAPA opinion on Stephen King?
90- Oooh, that must have hurt.
95- Don’t we all?
97- If there are any left, I’d love some! Oh, and do you keep the Wung points after Paker ends?
99 – Yes.
Do any of you have kids/Nieces/Nephews/Friends with kids that are Musers/muser age/younger then muser age?
what do you define as ‘muser age’ ?
98-Hahah, of course!
*Gives 200 Piepoints*
99-Sure! *Gives 200 Piepoints*
Red-tailed HAWK
102- 8-15
What are you doing right now?
(105) Since you ask…I am eating soup and toast and just getting ready to write a note to POSOC.
POSOC, you sent the movie project file, which is just a set of instructions, without the supporting data. You need to open the project and save it as a movie. (For Version 5 — go to “save movie file” in the menu. On the wizard that pops up, click “the web” as your destination and follow the prompts from there.)
106- *facepalm* This comes of being a Windows Movie Maker neophyte. *goes to follow instructions*
OK. Opening project…
I clicked “Save As,” but the only option was the one I’d already picked. All right, menu…
I can’t find “save movie file.” Am I looking at the wrong menu?
Under the file menu below “save project as” — but your version may be different. Try using the keyboard shortcut control+p and see if anything happens.
Ah! They call it “publish movie,” but it’s “ctrl+p” and it’s in the right place. Would it work?
Wait, there’s no “the web” option.
You should be able to save it as a WMV (windows movie file) somehow or another. It should give you some resolution options. Try what you can find, and see what file sizes you generate.
This is why I use Macromedia Flash MX. *is pied*
110- There’s no WMV option.
Let me try something.
Publishing it to e-mail. Apparently that’ll allow me to attach it.
OK, it’s asking me for a bunch of stuff about my e-mail service provider.
I’m stuck.
How do you use Windows Movie Maker? So far I’m making the still frames, but I have never used it before. *is innocent and clueless*
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!
I followed a hunch and published it to my computer, and there it is, sitting pretty as you please under Videos, as Bunny.WMV.
*dances around the room*
*reflects that only a total nerd would dance around the room following something like this*
*keeps dancing*
Robert (30): Yeah, that’s exactly what I do. I’ve always learned not to end sentences with prepositions (one of my favorite phrases used to be “Never use a preposition to end a sentence with.”), but when I took Journalism our teacher said we didn’t have to do that anymore — when editing articles for the school newspaper, I usually just leave what the author wrote, unless it sounds awkward or is using a strange construction.
(42/45/Danish Keyboards): I asked my Uncle about Danish keyboards, and he said they’re almost identical to US keyboards, with just a few keys added:
(tab) Q W E R T Y U I O P Å, (¨, ~, ^)
(caps lock) A S D F G H J K LÆ Ø, (*)
(shift) (angle brackets, \) Z X C V B N M (; ,) (: .)
Is that what yours is like, Vixen?
Just for future reference for US keyboard-users, Ø is made by doing option/alt-O, and Æ is made by doing option/alt-‘/” (for Macs, anyway).
114- Yea!
(114) Yayness! Any excuse to dance, I say. *joins the dorky happy dance*
*Dances*
Yay! *joins the so-called “dorky happy dance”*
*skips into dorky happy dance party*
103- Thanks!
114- Awesome! I love those moments. *joins dancing because my game is finally starting to work*
*stops dancing* Hit another snag, guys. The file won’t attach. I think it’s too large. Any way to change the resolution or something like that?
I need to shave at least 5.4 megabytes off the size. Any ideas on how to do that? Maybe I could remove the credits… they didn’t come out right anyhow…
It’s down to 22.9… the first image isn’t that important, maybe if I get rid of it…
No, there has to be another way. Let me try something else.
Ah! That worked! The image quality is kind of poor, but all the text except one section is still legible. On to send it in.
83 – Automatons and Tudor music, interesting combination. Now I’m curious about the lion automaton; will there be a Muse article about any of this in the future?
90 – Too late, but I definitely won’t be forgetting my sunscreen again anytime soon. *sunburned*
97 – Thanks! By the way, do points have a purpose other than name embellishment?
*joins dorky dance party*
I second the Stephen King question, with the addition of your opinion on popular reading material in general. When I’m shelving the books people return to my library, I rarely encounter fiction that isn’t a harlequin romance, a mystery, or something by authors other than Danielle Steele, Catherine Coulter, Stephanie Meyer, etc. Are these books actually good, or just popular?
IT WORKED!!!! *dorky happy dance* Should be in the inbox right now.
Windows Movie Maker is always hard to use the first time, isn’t it?
I have a question: how is it that I was “Fallen Angel [:Kagz:]” for several weeks and it did not make it onto the who’s here page but I was Potassium Silver for about three posts (by accident) and it immediately makes it onto the who’s here page? just wondering. It’s not that important. you don’t have to answer.
126- they show the world how much cooler you are. (naw, I’m kidding) they’re just for fun I suppose. Have 7 KAG points.
(129) Alas, some things never make sense no matter how much you find out about them.
Can I have some KAG points, Captain O’Malley?
uhhh, stupid question:
Why’d you choose WordPress for the blog?
(132) Because it was free.
Hmmm, let’s see… What’s your favorite place to visit?
131- sure! have 42 KAG points!
Can I have some KAG points, Captain?
Question: What is your favorite season?
GAPA’s, I doubt it, but were any of you homeschooled?
GAPAs, will you answer the questions I asked in post 45 please? *cute puppy dog eyes*
Hey, MF, that takes some thought. FAVORITE music. Hmmm. I have to eat dinner now. Will think about it and answer soooooon.
138 – My current favourites – Handel, Jacob Clemens, Guillaume de Machaut, Shostakovich, Benjamin Britten, Wagner, Bismillah Khan, Abba.
Housework music – that comes under background music. I don’t use music as background, and I avoid places that do. I think it fogs the brain, reduces concentration and causes low-level stress by forcing the brain to multitask. It’s just my theory, of course, but I have a few friends who leave radios and even televisions playing when they’re not actively listening. They all have persistent angst. Whether the background music is a cause or a therapy, I’m not sure, but it drives me potty.
To not make my parents worry, I should ask this, Has there ever been instances of creepy people on MuseBlog?
“creepy” meaning Cyberbullies, “we should meet in the mall!-ish Sociopathic people” or anything mean like that.
This will be greatly appreciated by my parents.
141- No creepy people. Maybe some strangeness, but we’re harmless. Mostly.
131-Thank you!
140-Yay! Handel!
140- I like background music, actually. Sometimes it increases stress, but most of the time it actually decreases it. Besides, I get fidgety if I just sit there listening to music.
141- Maybe. It depends on who you ask.
(141) BTSW/FF,
MuseBlog has mercifully free of such annoyances. We try to keep a low profile on the Web, and the Administrators read and approve every message that goes up. Our rules forbid exchange of specific geographic information, and we’re hard on anything that looks like bullying. Long-time MBers will concur, I think.
145- *CoughFS’sBanCough*
145- A-yup.
145- Yes, I suppose so.
Everything comes back to one event. Funny that it can still have such a strong effect on me nearly a year after it occurred. I hate being distrusted by people that I like. I think I will leave now.
I’ll try to answer a few of them:
(134) My favorite place to visit: probably the San Francisco and Santa Cruz Bay areas. Many of my old friends live there, the hills to the west of Route 280 are beautiful and smell wonderful, and then you pass through the redwood forests and come to those long, sweeping beaches. I lived in San Diego until I was 12 and still need to wade in the Pacific Ocean once in a while.
(136) My favorite season: autumn. October is beautiful here in the Washington area, and the cool weather makes me hungry, and there are always such good things to eat.
(137) Homeschooling: not I. Very few people my age were homeschooled. But I learned at least as much from my parents and their books as I did in school.
(138 > 45) Favorite music: That’s a hard one to answer. I like many sorts of music, and my favorite at any moment is likely to be something I haven’t heard lately. When vacuuming, I usually find myself singing either something by Stan Rogers or some long, mournful sea shanty or ballad (“I’ll Go to Sea No More” and “The House Carpenter” are always good for a dismal stretch of housework).
Midnight Fiddler, I’ve been thinking about how to answer your “favorite music” question and read Paul’s answer and realize that lately my mode of listening is exactly what drives him nuts. I usually listen to music in the background while I’m working at the computer — writing or editing. And my favorite thing to do lately is to go to the classical department of Amazon’s music store and run a search with a musical instrument that suits my fancy. Then I select an album and listen to the 30 second samples all running together. Harpsichord is my latest fave. It puts me in a good mood. Or at least I think I’m in a good mood…
146 – Frigid Symphony got banned???????? :gasp: when???
144, 150 – You’re not alone. Most people, it seems, do like background music. I was out till midnight last night in Bolton playing the stuff live. Got home at 3:30.
I think it’s just me. Fair enough. Live and let live. What I do object to, though, is having background music imposed on me in shops and malls. It’s invariably music I loathe – generally bland, middle-of-the-road pap that’s defined as safe and inoffensive by some vacuous marketing parasite at head office. It’s played through tinny speakers which insult music of any sort, and I find it deeply offensive. I often say so, to whatever passes for Customer Relations. I don’t think they like me much.
The real social issue, which has been noted by various academics, is that we’re getting scared of silence. It’s a shame, because silence is valuable. if you ever want to totally de-stress, pick a nice, sunny day, find somewhere pretty and devoid of people (It should be much easier in the States because you’re not crammed into a tiny island), turn off your mobile phone, iPod and anything else that might disturb you. Don’t even take a book, because it’s information input again. Sit and watch things – clouds, trees, a river, any stray birds that might be passing. It takes an hour at least for your brain to adjust to the fact that it doesn’t have to process information. After that, it’s idyllic. It’s not silent, of course – there are thousands of little sounds you’ll start to notice, but they’re the sounds that we’ve been programmed to notice by a few million years of evolution. Provided none of the sounds you hear implies “bear” or “snake”, you’ll have a very restful time.
-103 hey! can I have a COUPLE points? not 200 if you don’t want to give me that much, but a few?
152- Silence is nice.
103:
Can I have a few too?
if so, thanks!
if not, Thanks anyway.
-155 you can have some brain points…7 I want to conserve mine though…
Could you make a suggestion box which doesn’t involve e-mailing you guys? My parents don’t let me e-mail anyone but my friends.
Do brain points mean you’re smart? If so, I have like a billion.
(157) The Suggestion Box doesn’t involve e-mailing us. It’s a thread. Come to think of it, though, we’re overdue to launch a new one.
I didn’t know that!
151- I think he was banned for two weeks or something after a spat on the religions thread, and his presence has gradually dissipated to nothing. If you really want to talk to him, he might hear about it.
140- Huh, for me the background music is defiantly therapy. It is much better for me to shove my headphones in and just listen to a song to calm myself down instead of looking for a crossbow to hunt people with.
Music has seriously saved my mind several times the last two months, esspecally when I was still in school. And yesterday. Yeah.
144- I get fidgety without music, in the rare instances I don’t have any playing. Like school and stuff. No matter where I am/what I’m doing there is a song in my head.
152- Ah, this I concur with, though. I can’t stand a lot of that type of music they play in malls and such, it’s good I never really go. If I had to be in one that was playing music I really dislike for a long time, I might abandon all good taste and listen to my iPod inside.
As to silence, it doesn’t really bother me, but I can lay for hours listening to a playlist and thinking about the songs, how they make me feel, the hidden meanings in them, certain phrases that just taste good to say–I love it. Modest Mouse especially is good for this, lately, their songs all seem to have layers and layers. Unless I just think to much.
But I ♥ music.
-158 brain points originated with smarts, but they’re just adding now. They’re very small little creatures that look similar to lightbulbs and float around. That’s the creature, which awards points to those who can answer a riddle it creates spontaneously. If you answer the riddle, they give you points. They can be found lurking around {a href=â€https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1375″ title=â€Free Brain Points!″>Bunny Apocalypse.
oops!
that should have been:
Bunny Apocalypse.
157-That’s odd. But technically it makes sense.
158-No bragging…
But I’m not! I get, like, straight A’s!
166 – A lot of people here do. It’s not something to brag about on a blog with a ton of smart people.
It’s like going to the Olympics and proudly announcing you ran a marathon without dying.
Nearly everybody there has done it before and, frankly, they don’t care.
I didn’t know that. Sorry if I offended anyone.
168 – That’s okay. I was just saying.
166 – Wheee I get straight C’s and B’s and D’s and F’s and once in a while A’s and in NZ Achieved and Merit’s. No excellences
Oohh beat my amazing report
I play nice with others and I am cooperative.
I need to lay of the cold medicine I think
Wait, Were there most post here yeasterday, or is it just me?
Are the Colors going to change ever season from now on?
162 – Ah, now there’s the distinction. Lying down for hours listening is just that – listening. I do that. It’s what music is for. What I can’t do without getting stressed is half-listening to music while I’m trying to do something else. I can’t concentrate properly on either, and it does me ‘ed in, John.
Not that your name’s John.
168- Although that probably offended me more than it did anyone else…
Thanks 156!
GAPAs — do you look forward to each month so that you can come up with an interesting idea for the random thread?
(175) Yesno. Depends on when you ask. [insert smiley face here]
Where is your favorite place to vacation, GAPAs? The beach? The city? The Sahara Desert?
(177) On my sofa, the most comfortable one in the world, alternately reading and napping.
Hey GAPAs-go over to the Muser Profiles thread and see what I asked you on post 4.
172- Not that it’s not
Kokonilly (177): A perfect vacation for me is plenty of time on a beach where the weather’s warm and the surf is great for bodyboarding. Also crucial is the presence of a few lovable people and a stack of juicy reading matter. Oh yes, and delicious food within walking distance. Even better would be all of the above plus super snorkeling.
My family’s vacations on Maryland’s eastern shore come close, despite the lackluster snorkeling.
129 – Wow I haven’t checked this thread in awhile….thanks, belatedly!
152 – Are you by any chance an introvert? I feel the same way about background music as you do, but my extrovert friends all love it.
It’s a shame people are afraid of silence! I relish it, but that might just be because I live in a heavily trafficked area where it’s a rarity. When I want peace and quiet, I usually end up visiting the cemetery.
GAPAs, have you ever taken the Myers-Briggs test? If so, what were your personality types?
OEADs, when you were children, what did you want to be when you grew up?
How do you publish a web site on Microsoft Publisher?
184- Ask someone on the Computers thread.
Do the GAPAs sleep in coffins under their desks?
(186) I wish! A nap sounds very good to me right now. Unfortunately, I still have miles of editing to do before I sleep.
186- That’s a weird question. Do they seem like vampires to you?
188- Well, they spend just about all day moderating; where else would they sleep?
187- Sorry to double post, but was that a tweaking of a certain Robert Frost poem?
He’s Robert Coontz-Frost! Oh, GAPAs, who are your favorite Poets?
We need a thread devoted to video games. Seriously.
Generally, what are the character traits of a MBer?
funny, nerdy(slightly) a insane to various degees, at least a little intellegent, a weeee bit violent ((see bunny apoclase)) and totally random ((see teh abundance of random threads)) oh! and usually not average at anything, from style to CMT scores, for we are the elite of tween-teen-post-college-graduate society, the unique!
oh, and occasionally a bit bossy, but only becuase everyone likes their own ideas…untill a better one comes along
in some cases, overloads of sarcasm (why are you all looking at me?) and in pretty much all cases exceptional observation
It’s kind of obvious- we’re all insane.
I don’t know if this has been asked before, I’m too lazy to read all of these questions.
GAPAs-how many hours a day do you spend on MB?
I don’t know about the average thing
I’m average at a lot of things: sports for example
well actually, that would probably be considered worse than average….
(198) I usually moderate in little snippets of time, maybe a minute or two each. I don’t know what they add up to, but probably less than an hour a day in total, except at the end of the month when we create several new threads.
Oaky, here’s another-what time zone are the times on the posts set to? Because it doesn’t match up to my time here in NH.
201 – Central. I am on blog time.
Why is it that, at the end of the credits for movies, there’s something that says produced by Blankyed blank prodution for the purpose of copyright law in the United Kingdom?
202-how many hours difference is that from eastern time? 1 hour? 2? It’s not even 7:30 this morning for me so my brain isn’t working.
204-One hour earlier. For example, in your comment you said it wasn’t quite 7:30. Your comment registered as 6:20.
The GAPAs have it set for central time because Muse is in Chicago.
Red-tailed HAWK
Ohhh….figures. I’m on Eastern Time, too, and the post I posted was an hour earlier.
205-Thanks!!
206-what state do you live in?
I don’t know if this is even true, but I seem to remember one of you saying in a former ATG thread that none of you had ever met Paul personally (meeting yourself doesn’t count). If so, how did he get to be a GAPA?
208- That is a good question.
(208) Oh, I don’t know. Grant and Zoe (then Treble_Cone_Freeskier) lived on opposite sides of the world and had never met, yet they collaborated very effectively on that film strip. I think it’s perfectly possible to like, admire, and work with someone you’ve never been near. I’m sure we’ll get around to meeting Paul one of these days.
210- and then we can find out how crazy he really is.
(211) Are we ready for that?
210- Oh, definitely. I was just wondering.
212- we’ll never be.
212~ Probably not.
What gets me though is one time after returning from WI, and reading a post from him, saying how he was just back…..from WI. *smacks head* Drat.
(No, you don’t see this post, it’s a figment of your imagination. I’m actually packing to leave for Wisconsin tomorrow.)
*oblivious to Midnight Fiddler*
Would it be possible to increase the pressure in an aquarium so that you could keep fish from the very deep ocean in it?
how long till you get on the whos here thread?
218- If the GAPAs had a nickel for every time they heard that question, then why would they be running a blog full of adolescents when they could be relaxing in their million acre beach mansion in Beverly Hills?
But anyways, sorry for my sarcastic comment? Are you possibly new? If so, please take a moment to enjoy the key lime pie I have just thrown in your face.
219 – Badrang’s not a ‘phyte, as far as I know.
Hallo GAPAs! What are your fave colors??? *random*
219- his just very ‘phyte like.
Favorite colors? That’s a dangerous question to ask Lady Bunniful. She knows colors I haven’t even heard of.
As for me, I’m partial to blue — most shades, particularly the eye and sky kind.
222 – I also like blue. Light blue. And lime green.
(219) Cliff Eagle,
I don’t think there are any beach mansions in Beverly Hills — Santa Monica is in the way — but even if we had one (or four), we’d still keep moderating MuseBlog. Priorities are priorities.
219 —i}*pied* I think I ‘m oldish…..(a year) but is not one a “phyte” till they get on the whos here thread? *goes off to search for anser given to other musers* &* gives gapa nickel*
Appearance on the “Who’s Here” page has nothing to with a MBer’s status as neophyte or veteran. In fact, as far as we GAPAs are concerned, phytehood is an all-but-meaningless concept. Once you’ve received your welcome pies and settled into blogging, you’re the same as anyone else. We’re all Musers here. What’s the point in drawing finer distinctions?
226- AAAARGH! UUH! OOF!
*recovering from a direct blow from the Phrase that must Not be Named*
It’s actually the Phrase That Is So Self-Evident That It Usually Need Not Be Named, but That Isn’t Formally Forbidden.
228–and here I thought it was “the dread phrase”.
226- *Pies Robert for saying the dread phrase.”
We should have nicknames for you and Roseanne!
Hmm…. Dread Pirate Roberts, Anyone?
I’m pretty sure you have a googol (or, to be even more specific, 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) questions about this, but, just to clear things up, is “Mostly Harmless” (relating to the Kokonspiracy) a reference to the article on Earth in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy?
(231) Only Duncan_Quagmire can say for sure, but my working hypothesis is “undoubtedly.”
230 – Good idea. Especially after he said the “Dread Phrase.”
We may all be Musers, but the point in drawing finer distinctions is so that we may better help the newcomers.
Is Muse Academy Island near Surtsey?
234- I think its in Vestmannejar. Which is relatively near surtsey.
230- Yes, but it should be Dread Pie-rate Roberts instead.
233, 236- do eaither of you know where the DPR comes from *Hint: it’s be willium Goldman*
Here’s a question: a while ago (I don’t remember when) there was a thread where the muses came and answered questions. Is that going to ever happen again?
thank you gapa! my name is on the W.H.T.! why do a lot of the names not have the ♂ symbol but we do? 230 236 the romping robber Robert?
237-Uh, yeah, The Princess Bride?
Ahhh!!! We have a problem. We just took the Muse Academy Placement Quiz and our answers don’t match up with any of the houses!!!!!!!! Help?????
Someone? Help? Please?
Syllabub: When that happens, you get to pick.
(Actually, MBers are perfectly free to skip the quiz and choose a house for themselves, but, being dyed-in-the-wool nerds, most prefer the imprimatur of a test result.)
I took the test, and it was a toss up between Baker and Spector Houses. I chose Baker because writing isn’t really my thing. T_T
243-Thank you!! I’ll tell MissSwann.
Am I allowed to post daily entries from my journal if I want to? They’re from a year ago, and I’ll —— out names and anything to do with my hometown.
(246) Kyra: Posting journal entries isn’t so different from posting anything else on the blog. Go right ahead.
247- Sweet! Thanks.
This is an important question! (I’m not saying that all the other questions aren’t but…)
I would like to try and post pictures of my characters in BA/BA:TNG (these are animated pictures). Where, if at all, would I be able to do that and How?
Could you post a picture of yourself, Robert? I want to do you in the caricature contest, but I don’t have a good photo.
(250) There are quite a few pictures of Robert scattered about the blog. I think the most recent (not including the Time Capsule) were from the Pie-eating event in August.
Thanks.
One question: When will the sig shirts come out? You’ve been ignoring the signature thread. I need to put it on my Christmas list. Thanks!
we should have a thread on military tactics….but what I came here for how do you get a thread on to the “current category’s” place with the big lettering in green? the easily accessible place? when I put the Chronicles of museica in the don’t forget these threads thread I had hoped it would go there so all may look upon the mighty and fantastic glory of museica and muserland we repeat glory glory glory *singing*I post this now as we near the end of the month the time when the blog is redone ~hint hint~ oh wonderful and beautifully GAPA please PLEASE PUT THE Chronicles of Museica, Part the Ninth
August 29th, 2008
on the important place please! *grovel* if you don’t I will send a large army of sylphs to rip up your papers and make general mischief… sinisterly love and choklit ~badrang~
So, GAPAs. If it’s not too rude, where do y’all stand on politics?
249-OH, YEAH!
Sorry, that was kind of random….. Bleah, I’ve been so weird lately…..
If its not to personal (which it probably is) how much do yourget paid?
(255) I support politics. As a means of choosing leaders and settling disputes, it’s vastly preferable to coercion, intimidation, chaos, paralysis, hereditary privilege, or war.
(257) You mean, paid for being GAPAs? The sheer inconceivability of that notion makes the mind reel.
258–nice evasion of the question there, Robert.
259-
I know, right?
GAPAs, what is your favorite music?
257- GAPAs are like House Elves. Paying them is out of the question. And did someone accidentally give Master Baker a sock?
Favorite music: Anything that’s beautiful, soothing or happy without being boring or annoying. It’s a fine distinction and varies from day to day. Example: ABBA songs usually annoy but on rare occasions are the perfect treat. And Bach’s Goldberg Variations are almost always welcome — except when I’m really sick of them.
Lately the music I listen to most is bossa nova.
This was already asked much earlier in the thread, but do you guys have kids?
Also: How does one pronounce “GAPA”?
264- I, for one, pronounce each letter separately.
I’ve always assumed it rhymed with “Zappa.”
266- When I pronounce it like that, it sounds too much like “kappa”, which reminds me of some sort of fraternity or sorority. Like “GAPA GAPA Phi”, or something. Say, does MA have a college as well? That could be an elite fraternity.
264–I pronounce it Gap-uh
264- I always assumed it was pronounced “gahpah” but to each is own.
266- that’s how I say it.
I found a thread called “Special yay4hotpinkbunnies! First Post Thread” (Here, if the link works.) It appears to be a thread on which only one person can post (there’s not even a comment box). Why did you make the thread? Can anyone have a First-Post Thread? And if not, who can?
(271) That was a special case. The blogger formerly known as yay4hotpinkbunnies kept being disappointed in her attempts to attain a first post. The one time she managed to be the first MBer to post, she still came in second because Robert used his GAPA powers to take the spot. In recompense, he created the special thread for her.
271~ Anyone who nags, apparently. I don’t now though, GAPAs? I second this question.
Oh, I stand corrected. Robert, how could you flaunt your special powers and take away a Muser’s first post? cruel and unusual punishment!
(273) I think he was just overcome with eagerness to do the first-post dance.
If you spit in a centrifuge, will the spit fly back in your face and hurt?
I have a 3 1/2 foot long illustration to send in. How would I do this?
277- I would recomend making it into section. Or scaaning it in sections and then piecing it together. I have no idea how to do that but whoever does “Minus” ( a webcomic thiny) did that (I think).
(277, 278) Yes, you can scan it in sections. The most important points to keep in mind are to keep the original lined up as straight as possible as you change sections and to allow plenty of overlap (an inch and a half or so is probably sufficient). The reason for the overlap is that the lid probably won’t completely close, so the edges may come out a different color and require trimming.
Five questions I am dying to have answered:
-At what temperature does diamond evaporate?
-Who invented the rubber duckie?
-When was it invented?
-What broadleaf trees occr naturally in the pacific northwest?
-How do you spell the word I just mutilated?
If a solid turns straight into a gas, is it called sublimation?
281- yes. A gas into a solid is also sublimation.
280- According to Wikipedia, nobody knows who invented the rubber ducky or when.
How does your name get to be on ‘Who’s Here?’
(284) Um, catch the attention of GAPAs when they’re alert…we do try to add new bloggers as they arrive, but what with one thing and another, we sometimes miss. You’re on there now.
yay!
Dearest GAPAs,
I have a burning question. How does one properly use the punctuation “:” and “;”? I have no idea and would really like to know. Please? Thank-you.
Sincerely,
Kagcomix
287- If the GAPAs don’t mind, I could answer that question. Use a semicolon to separate two thought or clauses; the thoughts are like separate sentences, but related. You, by which I mean Kagy, can also use “;”, the semicolon, to separate two long, but still related thoughts; but you use a conjunction, like “but”, “and”, or “or” after it. The “:”, or colon, is used for a plethora of situations. It can: introduce a list, separate hour from minute (4:06), or, especially in semi-formal writing, introduce: a single item.
If I’m wrong on any of these definitions, I’m sure Robert will be here to correct me. He loves doing that. As do most, nay, all Musers.
Mr or Mrs. GAPAperson,
One of you lives in North Carolina. I would like to know your standing on Duke vs. UNC vs. NC State. I would like an honest answer and if the answer is “UNC”, you can choose to plead the fifth.
Much Obliged,
Cliff Eagle
Is there a thread someghere called ‘So long, and thanks for all the pie”?
290- No, although it may have been a subtitle somewhere. If you use the “What’s Here” button (also at the top of the page) and press Ctrl + F, your web browser should give you a “Find” box. This works well for the “Who’s Here” page too.
What happened to Paul Palnik?
(293) He’s still in business. You can see many of his non-Muse cartoons at his website, www . thegodofcreativity.org .
(291) No, but gimanator used the phrase in its H2G2-paraphrastic sense last March on the Hare-athon thread.
What, may I ask, is our valiant GAPA doing awake at this ghastly hour?! it’s 11:40! Go to sleep! Heavens, are you trying to encourage us innocent young MBers to stay up late because of the super fast moderation?
Just about to sign off and go to bed. Rosanne will probably check in later (though earlier in her time zone). ‘Night, Fiddler!
Um, hello?
I just want to know how the GAPAs know people’s b-days? also, how do you become an official MBer with your name on the “who’s Here” and the signature thingy (can’t think of the name right now)
We’ll know your birthday if you tell us your birthday; otherwise we won’t. People send us their signatures, which Rebecca adds to the products at Musery Loves Company whenever enough new ones have piled up. MBers’ names appear on the “Who’s Here” page whenever we get around to adding them — in your case, today. Sorry that it took so long!
is there an address to send signatures to?
P.S. 6/9/96
298–sweet. You’re b-day is the same backswards and forwards. very nice.
thank you. maybe that’s why 6 and 9 are some of my favorite numbers
Our e-mail address is gapa @ musefanpage.com .
thanks!
Dear GAPA,
I have a pressing question. The fate of the entire world depends on it, and humanity will fall if the question isn’t answered.
What is your favorite kind of cheese?
Only one? That’s almost as difficult as choosing my favorite color, and we all know the quicksand into which that leads….
i like chedder
(303-305) That’s a tough question, all right. Lately I’ve been eating a lot of smoked Gouda (e.g., with soup, on rice crackers), so I suppose that’s my favorite “workhorse” cheese for daily consumption, at the moment anyway.
Here’s one: Since bunnies are an available symbol on the MB, why can’t the new red-letter “splat” be one?
*stands in to answer question*
307- Because A. We wouldn’t use that symbol, and B. MuseBlog’s software only allows a certain number of emoticons. If we wanted to add the splat, we’d need to dump an existing symbol.
When is the next signatures page going to be made? I’d like to know so I can be on it…
309- Probably not for a while. We just made a signature shirt a few months ago.
309- It’ll be a while, there’s generally a long break between signature renewal. You could look at the What’s Here page to get a better idea of how long that is, but the best thing would to do would to make a signature now, save it somewhere memorable, and then iterate it whenever you remember.
310, 311- Thank you very much.
Cliff Eagle (303) – Current favorite cheese: Grassfed New Zealand Cheddar. That’s what the label says, but I’m assuming it’s actually cows that are grassfed, not the cheese. (An image of cheese wedges roaming verdant New Zealand hillsides flits through my mind.)
Do the GAPAs have a preference of dark, milk or white chocolate?
I know it sounds more sophisticated to prefer dark chocolate, but good milk chocolate really hits the spot sometimes, too. White chocolate isn’t chocolate, as far as I’m concerned.
(315) I’m pretty sure white chocolate doesn’t contain any actual chocolate, so you would be correct. I actually like it, but I almost never eat it anymore, since its nutritional profile is purely bad news. There are other ways I’d rather use my saturated-fat calories.
(314) I do prefer dark chocolate, probably because it’s not as sweet. It seems more satisfying, too, somehow. But I’m happy to eat milk chocolate.
did museblog appear before or after the bunny wars?
(317) Which bunny wars?
Okay, what in the world does THIS mean???
Warning: fclose(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/gapa/musefanpage.com/blog/wp-includes/class-template.php on line 27
It’s in the top right corner, where the alleged advertisements were supposed to be.
(319) It means that on February 25, some evil non-MBer hacked MuseBlog’s WordPress code to show advertisements in that space, and now the inserted code is malfunctioning and causing slowdowns and other problems. I’ve tried to track down the problem, but the commands are well disguised and seem to be spread out among the files in a way that will break other parts of the blog if I simply start deleting them. I’m going to reinstall our software tonight. (I tried to do it last night but had to go to bed before I could finish the job.)
That’s the story. I think I’ll make it into a blog announcement so everyone will know.
Thanks, Robert!
Random question that Peace* made me ask:
Have you ever been to Liverpool? (Kudos to you if you know why Peace* wanted to know this.)
(322) I don’t suppose that would have anything to do with some band that used to play there in the ’60s?
Oh of course not.
I’m making a WordPress blog (Blix theme, like MB used to be), and I’d like to know two things:
How do you change the blog colors?
How do you make it so avatars don’t show up in the Recent Comments bar?
Is your blog on WordPress.com?
Yup. The URL is this format: http:// nameofblog. wordpress.com
Whoops, sorry. Didn’t realize there was an actual blog ccalled Name Of Blog.
Rainbow*Star, you probably can’t change the colors. We used a version of the theme called Blixkrieg that allowed for customization. It’s not available in WordPress.com.
To remove the avatars, look in the lefthand column for widgets. On the widgets page, click on Recent Comments to get the drop-down window. Next to “avatar size” is a drop-down list that lets you choose “no avatar” or the size you’d prefer. Remember to save your options.
I (and Armada) want to start a fanfic RPG, taking place, oh, sometime far enough in the future to have invented some type of time travel. Ok, GAPAs? Call it “Fanfic time travel RPG”
“Fanfic” means you’re writing about somebody else’s well-known characters, doesn’t it? Is that what you have in mind?
Well, then RRR, with MuseBloggers and Muses and HG2G peoples.
I think so…..I’m not too sure. Enceladus, we were having it be something like the MB fanfic but with more technology, right?
Ok, then. But with the ‘realizer’ and ‘derealizer’ it would be easier to make the Muses and HG2G characters.
It’s your idea, you make the rules. I was just asking you, because I wasn’t quite sure.
Waaaaiiitttt…..There are going to be H2G2 characters involved? Oh, gods. This is going to be crazy. But good. Awesomely awesome, in fact.
Just imagine….
Zaphod Beeblebrox vs. Kokopelli
funfunfunfunfunfufunfunfunfunfunfunfunfunfunfun!!!!!!
No kidding. I want to RP Random!
So, GAPAs, when are ya gonna make the thread for us? Hmm….?
We may need more than two votes for this. I suggest we go to the Suggestion Box.
Please! GAPAS, makee a thread!!!!!!
Enceladus, did you read Robert’s comment? Have you found some more recruits?
SFTDP
GAPAs, this is completely off topic, but on the recent comments bar, random symbols are being imported in, without being in the original message. Why? Is it another…. virus? *cowers*
I’ve been seeing this too, although sometimes with me there are just letters missing. Mine weren’t symbols, just misspellings of names and such.
Oh, you mean all the random numbers and spaces and symbols and stuff? I’ve been seeing those for the past week, maybe, though more frequently today. I sure hope it’s not anything sinister.
The ones I’ve seen look like the HTML numbers for punctuation, such as & #8217 ; (without spaces) for the closing single quotation mark or apostrophe.
Oh, yeah. That’s okay, then. I’ve been seeing similar stuff to that. Why does it do that, though? I mean, it does smileys, why wouldn’t it do punctuation?
What are you guys reading at the moment?
(328) Apart from MBers’ posts, you mean? I’m reading Birds Without Wings, by Louis de Bernières.
(327.2.1) Mysterious are the ways of the Blog.
(326) We’re always cautious about launching a new RRR (etc.) until we are sure there’s a real demand for it. Two people, however enthusiastic, aren’t enough to sustain one.
(328) I’m sort of between books right now. I just finished Joseph M. Williams’ Style: Toward Clarity and Grace. I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to think about how they might improve their writing. It’s what Strunk and White should have been.
Intermittently, I’ve also been poking around in Robert Browning’s The Ring and the Book a novel-length poem about a murder in Renaissance Italy as well as a couple of books about algebra.
Sadly, though, I haven’t had much time for any sustained reading lately. My shelf of library borrowings has dwindled down to almost empty.
Do the GAPAs like maths? And did they like maths when they were, say, 13ish?
SFMPA (Sorry For Multiple Posting AGAIN) but someone asked on the Muser Profiles thread that if you moved from a city with a <1 000 000, can you say where you moved from (or something to that effect)? So, can you?
(331) Let’s see… 13 years old… “advanced algebra.” I liked the mathematics books on my father’s shelf (probability, permutations and combinations, that sort of thing) more than the boring stuff they were teaching us in school at that point. I majored in math(s) in college and tutor kids in it nowadays, so yes, I do like it.
(332) Rather not.
Um…A while ago I tried to get a diplomacy thread. I gave up the idea because it seemed too hard for you (collective) to do. But if there were (or was?) seven people, do you think you could find something like the new chess application? In other words, may I renew the search for diplomacy players? Or would it be a burden to have such a thread?
I’ll join. What’s it for?
It’s for diplomacy.
333- Yes!!! Someone who liked maths (one of my friends likes maths because she’s in a lower maths class and therefore doesn’t get a lot of work, but that wasn’t quite what I had in mind) !!! *faints with joy* *celebrates with choclate pies*
(331) Insane MLDM, age 13 was the beginning of my mathematical downfall. My 9th grade math teacher was marking time till retirement and had no idea how to control a classroom. A bunch of older jocks sat in the back shooting spitwads all day. The teacher droned on. I couldn’t imagine asking him for help on the confusing parts, and my mathematically trained father only confused me more.
My other math teachers were more of the same, except for one. She was a fiend. Even my dad agreed and let me drop the class. By then, I was convinced I was hopelessly stupid. It wasn’t until about twenty years later that I began to realize (a) that I was not hopelessly stupid and (b) that I had really missed out on an essential (and fascinating) experience.
Every few years since then I make another attempt to learn more math. It’s slow and I still make a lot of the same mistakes I did in my teens, except now I better understand why I make them. Plus I’m much more patient with myself now that I know that my stupidity wasn’t the issue.
I don’t know how far I’ll get, but I love trying. And I love what I’m able to glimpse of the structure of mathematics. I have this crazy idea that I want to paint equations though as yet I haven’t figured out exactly what I mean by that….
As an aside, I also love counting things. I’m not sure why, but it’s very soothing to tot up columns of numbers and work out patterns.
What happens if a kid MBer has an adult friend they’d like to invite to MB? Should the adult use ens full name at the risk of exposing information about the kid, or break the full-name rule and use a pseudonym?
GAPAs, is it possible for you to zap all of my posts with the purple triangular frowny-face avatar (including this one) please? Thank you.
Sorry, Silver Lining. That’s a dozen comments over a week and a half, and some of them have replies attached; plus removing them would throw off all the numbers, which could also cause problems.
Could you zap the ones without replies? It’s fine if you can’t…
Never mind.
Hey, uh, GAPAs? 337? P*ease?
RQ, could you email us a little more information, please? Such as, who this person is and why you want en on the blog. Thanks.
Could we have a new thread for this? This one’s old and full. P*ease?
[Good idea. –Admin.]