MuseBlog

Muse‘s editors need to talk with you about your Q&A question. Please e-mail them at muse@caruspub.com .

Ever since we installed the new blog software, some of you have been afflicted with comment boxes that get smaller and smaller until you can’t see what you’re trying to post.

Good news: a WordPress programmer is on the job and says he expects to solve the problem this week.

Of course, that will require another upgrade… *shudders*

Yes, this is a day early, but Vixen in the Eyes of the Moon sent a card and may not be here on the 17th.

The plot progresses, as seen in the previous installment.

Born 14 March 1879; died 18 April 1955.

Almost belated best wishes to the memory of someone who saw the world in a new, unexpected way that turned out, as far as we can tell so far, to be right.

It’s 3/14 in the United States — any excuse for a party, we say. (We’ll celebrate again on July 22.)

At least, we think so. The blog is back online, mostly, apart from the page tabs (“Who’s Here,” “What’s Here,” etc.), which we’re working on.

Meanwhile, please note the new “Who’s Talking” feature over on the right. We’re hoping that it won’t cause the same sorts of problems that “Recent Comments” did, but it’s too early to say. So keep your fingers crossed, and start blogging!

We’ll be taking the blog offline on Thursday morning (March 13) to try some more tinkering. Anyone visiting the site will see long periods of nothing interspersed with weirdness. In the unlikely event that you are able to post, your comments will be lost. So you’ll be better off doing something else — studying, getting some fresh air and exercise, that sort of thing.

See you before and after.

Even Lady Bunniful isn’t sure what’s hatching here — just as nobody knows what will happen on the March random thread during its second ten-day stretch.

(Users’ Manual: Obey The Rules. Consult The Guide. Have fun!)

These exciting, inexplicable adventures in the Musiverse are continued from Ships’ Logs: Beyond Museica, Part 10.

The good news is that dear old MB is back online. Post away, and let’s hear how you spent your Saturdays!

Now here’s the bad news:

We didn’t manage to upgrade the software. Robert spent his Saturday trying to install three different versions of new WordPress software, each of which proved fatally flawed. As a result,

1. we haven’t been able to revive the “Recent Comments” sidebar; and

2. we’re going to have to go through the upgrade ordeal again in the near future.

The partially offsetting compensatory news is that we’ve stumbled across some new things that we think you like and plan to try them soon.

But not yet! It’s too nice a day here (and here, and here, and here).

*Round Robin ‘Riting Sans Magic And Space-Time Travel

Suggested by Prarilius Canix, who pointed out “that the two sci-fi RRRs we had both had space travel, and the innumerable fantasy RRRs all had magic. I think it’s time to pull a Monty Python and say ‘And now for something completely different.’ I think that the writers on the blog (including me) might enjoy a challenge.”

Continued from Part 1.

For those of you who don’t know, Script Frenzy is NaNoWriMo’s younger sibling, specifically for scripts. This year its auspicious opening day is April 1st. For those of you who don’t know what NaNoWriMo is…that’s National Novel Writing Month.

Continued at long last from version 2007.2.

At the moment, as you’ve undoubtedly noticed, MuseBlog is even weirder than usual.

We’re not sure exactly what’s going on. Apparently the blog’s software started sending too many queries to our Web host’s server, so the host company took us offline. We’re back, but the blog appears to have amnesia — either because we can’t tap into the database, or because the database has been erased.

We’re trying to restore things to what passes for normal around here. Meanwhile, we’ll open some temporary threads so that you all can keep communicating. It will be a little bare around here for a while, but MUCH better than a MB-less universe. [Not as bad as we feared. A little mopping up has solved most of the problem. –Robert]

Keep on Musing — and posting!

–The Administrators

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: Princesses (real, not fictional, and emphatically not Disney; requested by Kokonilly)
Fairy tales and Disney and such
Spelling mistakes (including one in Harry Potter)
Plans for Easter/spring break and Favorite colors

‘Tis the season to be hare-y, rabbitish, and bunniful — and the March random thread is a place where you can be as capricious as March weather.

(Users’ Manual: Obey The Rules. Consult The Guide. Have fun!)

All right, it doesn’t quite rhyme. So sue us. This thread can still be very helpful to newcomers who need a little orientation and a faceful plateful of pie. Come in and say hi!

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.

Help others navigate the blog by signposting your favorite threads here.

(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, Red-tailed HAWK)
Pieceful Pie Planet (Kokonilly)
Chronicles of Museica (Red-tailed HAWK)
Muse Academy (Red-tailed HAWK)

LIFE BEYOND THE VIRTUAL DIVIDE
Romance & Relationships (treble_cone_freeskier!)
Advice (Unintended Pun)

SILLY FUN
You Know You’re Addicted to X, When You Y (treble_cone_freeskier!, Red-tailed HAWK)
The Polling Place (kiwimuncher, Red-tailed HAWK)
Ask the GAPAs (Red-tailed HAWK)
Ble! Newluj — No Fulst (groundhog22)

WRITING – RRRs
The Sea Roc (kiwimuncher)
RRR SMAS-TT (Cat’s Meow)

WRITING – ASSORTED OTHER
Writing Challenge (oxlin)
Muse FanFiction (Cinnamoon)
Poetry (Agrrrfishi)

OTHER THINGS WE LIKE
Music (Kari)
Books & Reading (oxlin)
Cooking & Food (Red-tailed HAWK)
Visual Arts (Red-tailed HAWK)

With the “Recent Comments” sidebar temporarily (we hope) out of commission, here’s a workaround for telling your fellow MBers where you’ve been posting.

Known Muser birthdays this month:*

03-01 Cat’s Meow’s birthday (1995 – orange)
03-04 emmatheduck’s birthday (1993 – purplecarroty)
03-07 Arianhrod of Orkney’s birthday
03-13 Magus’s birthday (1992)
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
03-25 Necromancer’s birthday
03-25 hedgehogboy5’s birthday
03-26 Shadowkat’s birthday (1991 – black, purple, and silver)
03-26 Birthday of Queen Francois the first (1994 – pink)
03-29 Luna the Lovely (formerly Michelle W.)’s birthday (1990 – pink + light blue)
03-30 Pyro’s birthday
03-30 gradster’s birthday (1993)

You turn 5,000 days old this month if you were born between June 24 and and July 24, 1994.
You turn 6,000 days old this month if you were born between September 28 and October 28, 1991.

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

…Just Sailed Under Nine Palace Elephants.”

That’s the prize-winning mnemonic that a 10-year-old girl in Montana came up with for keeping straight the planets and dwarf planets of the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Eris.

The news story doesn’t say whether she’s a Muser, but it seems likely. You can read about it here (spaces have been added to the URL, as usual, to keep spambots from tracing links back to us):

www.space. com/news/ap-080227-planet-mnemonic-contest. html

Of course, we’d be interested in hearing about any other good mnemonics you’ve learned or invented.

February 29 is rarer than a day in June, though less rare than February 30 (which never comes at all). Conservationists are marking the occasion this year by kicking off the Year of the Frog — not to be confused with the Year of the Rat on the Chinese calendar, which, confusingly, this also is.

Leap Day is also the traditional day when women may propose marriage to men (or, presumably, ask them out) — something that maidenly modesty forbids the other 99.9452% of the time.

How was your Leap Day?

It’s been a while since the last time we had a thread on this ever-popular topic.

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 SPOILER MARCH MUSE SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER