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
New year, new try. And if you’re new here, we’re happy to have you aboard. Make this thread your first stop to meet the locals, ask any questions you might have, and get initiated into the Ways of the Blog.
Please read The Rules. You might also glance at The HG2MB (Hitchhiker’s Guide to MuseBlog), which contains helpful hints regarding local customs, lingo, and other peculiarities of the blog; smiley information included.
MuseBlog Veterans: Please use this thread only for its stated purpose.
Help others navigate the blog by signposting your favorite threads here, when they’ve scrolled off the main page. In the first DFTT thread of the year, we’re particularly interested in hearing about old, dormant threads that you’d like to revive.
(Note: Please include the URL (Web address) with your requests. It also helps if you limit your requests to a few at a time, four or five at the most.)
Current categories:
ADVENTURES IN THE MUSIVERSE
Ships’ Logs (kiwimuncher)
Pie Isle (Cinnamoon)
LIFE BEYOND THE VIRTUAL DIVIDE
College/University/Higher Education (Purple Panda)
Vegetarians, Vegetarianism, Vegetables, Vegemite (MARFwarrior, Midnight Fiddler)
Urban Legends (MARFwarrior)
SILLY FUN
Coy Woodnesse (kiwimuncher)
World of Piecraft (kiwimuncher)
Polling Place (kiwimuncher)
Let’s Get Physiognomical (Armada)
Off with their Heads! (kiwimuncher)
You Know You’re Addicted to X When You Y (Syllabub)
Stupid Senseless Smiley Stories (Midnight Fiddler)
Quick Reads (Midnight Fiddler)
Round Robin Smileys (Cello-Playing Mathematician)
Ble! Newluj-No Fulst (Daisy*chain)
DAYDREAMS
ROLE-PLAYING GAMES
Bunny Apocalypse: the Next Generation (Armada)
RRRs and Writing
Sea Roc (kiwimuncher)
Etheterre (kiwimuncher)
Alchemy (kiwimuncher)
Books in Progress (kiwimuncher)
OTHER THINGS WE LIKE
History (Purple Panda, Midnight Fiddler)
Computer and Video Games (I-Man)
Song Lyrics (Midnight Fiddler)
Visual Arts (kiwimuncher)
USEFUL ITEMS
Suggestion Box
Last Month’s DFTT
HG2MB v.2008.1
Comment or cast your vote on the Letter to Muse in progress on the October 2008 Muse Discussion 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.
Continued from the v.2007.1.
See it to believe it. The blog can’t accommodate the full tableau, so click through to find a larger version. Since even Photobucket can’t handle a 42-inch wide image, full-size versions of the individual panels are also available. (When you’re in Photobucket, click again to magnify.)
At this point, there’s no way to explain this thread except to say that it’s continued from Part 3.
Oxlin’s suggestion, from an idea she found on another website, from which she copied the following rules.
1. Each person tells a true story from their own experience. (Obviously, we can’t tell if you’ve made things up. That is between you and your conscience.)
2. Keep it brief; we’re looking for vignettes and koans, not epics
3. Each story has to be linked to a previous anecdote by some shared concept, some common theme or element.
4. Cite the element you’ve used as a link. Try to go for solid links: physical objects, specific words (punning encouraged).
5. This is a multi-stranded string of pearls. A single story can spawn more than one successor, and an anecdote can combine more than one antecedent.
6. Poetry is, of course, encouraged
7. Do I need to mention that this is a non-political thread? If your story is political, try not to make it partisan.
All issues, all topics — including discussions started on the October 2008 Discussion thread.

Robert, age 13 (yearbook photo)
Long before Museica and the PeacefulPieceful Pie Planet — before NationStates and World of Warcraft — even before Dungeons and Dragons had been invented, then-Muser-aged Robert (see photo, above) and about half a dozen of his friends invented an imaginary country of their own and used it as a setting for role-playing and storytelling. Unfortunately, any original maps and manuscripts that still exist remain buried in the Coontz archives. Robert will scan and post them as they come to light. Meanwhile, this description will have to suffice for any MBers curious about their GAPA’s disreputable history. Read on… Continue reading
WARNING! Will definitely contain spoilers!
To spare MBers reading the “Recent Comments” columns, please paste the following message in at the beginning of your posts:
SPOILER JANUARY MUSE SPOILER SPOILER.
Let us know when your issue arrives. NO SPOILERS, please. There’s another thread for discussing the issue.
,,,by the collective wit, wisdom, and transcendent silliness that can be found on the monthly random thread.
[You can click through the graphic to a larger version of the wreath.]
(Users’ Manual: Obey The Rules. Consult The Guide. Have fun!)
It’s the solstice, the official beginning of winter in the Northern Hemisphere (and of summer down below the equator). ‘Tis the season(s)!
A thread dedicated to the use and preservation of Ble, the extremely economical (if not equally comprehensible) language that Nancy Kangas unveiled in the November/December 2003 issue of Muse.
Several dialects of Ble appeared in Part 1, and no doubt many others lie ahead.
Threadyay? (How do you like the new thread?)
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.
Share your November creations here.
… to know Part 2 of December’s random thread has arrived.
(Users’ Manual: Obey The Rules. Consult The Guide. Have fun!)
In one of her letters she wrote:
If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?
You pretty much have to celebrate the birthday of someone who feels like that.
Ultracondensed versions of books, stories, songs, etc. — perhaps in “Smiley Story” format, perhaps not.
Midnight Fiddler requested this thread, which is a sort of spinoff of Muser Parodies.
WARNING: WILL CERTAINLY CONTAIN MANY SPOILERS.
Lady Bunniful’s latest creations. Check ’em out!
It’s amazing that we’ve never had a thread on this topic before. Requested by Syllabub.
Celebrating the arrival of winter in the Northern Hemisphere or summer for the Southern Hemisphere.
Gifts for the gift exchange may be dropped off anonymously at the Holiday Party Gift Tree.
The festivities last until the New Year. For more information, please see the Holiday Party Planning Thread.
Place your presents under or on the gift tree for the Secret Gift Exchange.
Note: this thread is only for posting anonymous gifts. All other comments or discussion should be on the Holiday Party thread. When it’s time to reveal the contents, they will be posted here as well.
Post anonymously. (No need for a fancy alias, “Gift” would be sufficient. Items can be referred to elsewhere by comment number. Do make sure you remember which one is yours.)
Describe the outside appearance of your gift. (Wrapping paper, size, general shape, what it sounds like when shaken…however you’d like to describe it.)
Suggestion: for your own reference, find somewhere safe to keep a copy of your posted description along with the comment number when it appears and a description of the actual gift. That way you won’t risk forgetting what you gave.
Attention, MuseBloggers!
I had to make quite a few alterations in order for the signatures to show up properly on a dark background, so I wanted to give everyone a chance to review them before I upload the graphic to CaféPress. Please check out the Sneak Preview to see how yours looks.
Thanks,
Rebecca