Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:31 PM

Quick way to cheer up a bad mood: Lookup "kittens" on Google Image Search. Awww...

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:59 PM

Well, today is the first day of the rest of my life... At about 2:20 PM, I walked out of Lotus, for possibly the last time as an employee. Ian says to think of it as a graduation (to which I reply, with about the same lack of job prospects as I had the last time -- although he points out that I did okay for myself back then).

Anyway, to recount my last day.

I can't believe that it snowed last night. Last week, the temperature was a record high 92 degrees, and this morning I saw a light dusting of snow. Massachusetts weather is weird. I spent my morning before work in a typical manner, browsing the web. I will start listing my favorite links on my website soon, but I found a couple really fun things this morning.

• As seen on the Daily Illuminator, you can buy just about anything on the web.
• For those familiar with the LOTR Very Secret Diaries, this picture shows that some the cast of the movie enjoy them too.
• And, I'm still rather tickled by yesterday's Dilbert. Felt oddly appropriate.

Anyway, I got into work to face a cubicle bare of everything but office supplies and the company computers. Last night, Ian & I took seven boxes of my belongings plus two framed prints back home. We removed everything that made the place mine, leaving only company property behind. I logged into the CommunityBuilders Babble for the last time, and Mike came by to chat and say farewell. I sent a final e-mail to my workgroup with a few interesting links I wanted to share, thanked the denizens of Soapbox for their kind words and support, and logged onto AXLE and added my name to their directory. Then I met with my manager to sign the paperwork. Because my departure coincided with CHI, not many people came to my farewell lunch. Afterwards, Tony & I formatted my computers (I stuck around to remove the boot passwords), I dropped off my badge and was done. I walked downstairs to say goodbye to John, and he walked me to the door. End of chapter.

So, now I am a woman at liberty. A loose woman.

On X-Mas Eve, a friend gave me a tarot reading that I recognized related to my situation at work. It showed my near future as the 8 of Swords, which showed how I had bound myself to IBM for both good and ill. But the final card, showing my ultimate outcome, was 6 of Rods, indicating eventual triumph. I've just got to keep that in mind as I go on. Things will turn out all right.

The walk to the train station was nice. Flowers are blooming all over, and spring is my favorite time of year. I think lilac season is just about to begin. :) And, when I got home, I took a nap while Ian made me brownies just the way I like them -- a thin crust on the top and bottom, sandwiching a gooey chocolate center. And I'm in the midst of another good book. There's a lot of work ahead of me, but right now, life isn't that bad.

To quote Scarlett O'Hara, "Tomorrow is another day."

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:15 AM

Well, this is it. (The chorus of that Huey Lewis & the News song keeps running thru my mind.)

In less than twelve hours, I'll be joining the ranks of the unemployed. I'm meeting with my manager to sign the paperwork at 10:30, going out for lunch with my coworkers, and then... what? I've never been through this before. Will they escort me to the door under guard, once lunch ends? I doubt they'll let me wander about until Ian comes to pick me up, even if I could just sit innocuously and shelve the SF lending library. [And since he's got an appointment from 11 til noon, I won't be able to reach him until after lunch anyway.] Maybe I'll just take the T home. At least today's forecast no longer calls for rain.

Needless to say, I had trouble sleeping last night, and finally gave up and got up a half-hour before my alarm.

On a positive note, last night I finished reading my 60th book of the year. Given that today is the 116th day of the year, my average is better than a book every other day. Unfortunately, I can't remember how to update the website (I'll have to get instructions again from Dad, and pay more attention) so haven't posted it to my official list.

I'm rambling...

Posted by Lis Riba at 3:01 PM

Osmond-riba.org just went live.

Meanwhile, I'm continuing to clean out my cube before my final day tomorrow. It's not easy...

Posted by Lis Riba at 3:59 PM

Welcome to my online journal -- an experiment in progress.

Although I like to write, I find that I mostly do so in response to other people in online discussions. It's much easier to listen to someone else and agree or disagree than it is to come up with original ideas yourself. I'm not sure how long I can or will keep this going, and my concerns run the gamut from it becoming all-consuming to me losing interest, from unintentionally offending people to boring my readers. Maybe nobody'll care and this is a strictly solipsistic exercise, or maybe people'll care too much and I'll acquire stalkers. I really don't know what will happen.

But, I'm going to try anyway.

So, why did I decide to start keeping an online journal?

For one thing, I'm about to join the ranks of the unemployed. After ten and a half years working for IBM (formerly Lotus), I'm losing my job. I've suddenly got a lot more free time than I had, plus I'm losing some of my primary outlets for keeping in touch with people. In addition to this journal, I'm also in the process of launching my personal website, on osmond-riba.org.

Also, many of my friends and people that I read and respect keep online journals. So, chalk this up to a case of emulation or hubris, but if they can do this, so can I.

Anyway, as I said at the beginning, this is an experiment in progress. For the future, I want to move this off Blog*Spot and onto osmond-riba.org. I also hope to get some comment fields up soon so any readers can talk back. And in the meantime, I guess I'll just start writing...