Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:00 AM

In about an hour-and-a-half, I start my first class (The Management of Knowledge in Large Organizations).

When the alarm went off this morning, I was in the middle of a dream that I was on job interview. The woman said that on paper, at least, I was qualified for the job, but I felt woefully unprepared for the interview itself -- my papers were a mess, without having resumes or notepaper ready. I think I have to start brushing up on my interviewing skills some more -- at least to put some of the butterflies to rest.

Anyway, it's been a while (over a year) since I was in a formal classroom situation, and though I know I'll do fine, I'm feeling nervous. If you read this on Saturday between 9:30 and 5:30 (Eastern time zone), wish me luck. I know it sounds silly, but Wil Wheaton has spoken of feeling better when he gets readers' "mojo" so I figure it shouldn't hurt.

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:55 AM

Well, that's somewhat embarrassing. I ask people to post comments, and the site hosting the comment scripts is down. I may have to switch commenting programs if this persists.

I should probably keep things brief to give people time to read my massive trip report. So instead, I've just posted several essays on my Writing page. There's nothing particularly new there; I've mostly cleaned up old Usenet posts for "publication", but if you can't get enough of my writing, that's the place to go.

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:14 PM

Schenectady the dots

Well, we're back from vacation. Quite a fun trip it was too. This will be long. Mind you, I did title my journal Riba Rambles, rather than something like Riba's Short and Succinct. So, if you'd prefer snappy political humor, click here.

We left home at 2 PM on Friday, and even with a stop at a Mass Pike rest area for a nosh (I was pleasantly surprised -- the Boston Market & McDonalds were not overpriced compared to non-prime locations) and a wrong turn just outside Albany, we got to our hotel about 6 PM. For dinner, we found the Van Dyck Restaurant, Brewery & Jazz Club, where we had the best meal of our trip. After that, we drove around historic Schenectady.

Saturday morning, we explored the area. Our hotel was a couple blocks from Union College, where Ian's father once went to school. It's a beautiful campus; I quickly found the library... and web access. 8) [Monday night, we did in fact return to campus to log in.] We also saw a curious building, called the Nott Memorial. We just couldn't figure out what it was a memorial to. Eventually, we discovered that it was a memorial to Mr. Nott, and inside it was a gorgeous study hall. You can see pictures of it here and here

After that, we headed down to Albany to do the touristy thing down there. Unfortunately, the capitol building was closed due to the fear of terrorist attacks. Pretty exterior, though. From there, we walked around the Empire State Plaza. It's somewhat similar to Government Center -- various government buildings all in a central location -- but it was built later than Boston's, meaning they learned from our architectural mistakes. The area has gardens, memorials, a reflecting pool, and sculptures, so during pleasant weather, workers can eat outside and enjoy the day. But, in times when the weather turns foul, there's a massive underground mall connecting the buildings without risking exposure to the elements. We were particularly struck by the Egg, a performing arts center which looks like it landed from another planet. We wanted to see the interior, but a graduation was taking place and we didn't feel like crashing the ceremony.

From there, we headed into the State Museum, which is part of the same complex (and free). As the afternoon wore on and we started getting hungry, we kept saying "we should go" but then saw one more exhibit around the corner that we simply had to see. That's one of the things I love about Ian (and he about me). We can get enthusiastic about the most... mundane things. It may seem simplistic, but why not look for the joy in things? Especially when it brings us so much fun? [Hey, I like Pollyanna -- both the book and the Hayley Mills movie!]

In the evening, we went to Jumpin' Jacks, a hamburger and ice cream joint recommended to us by Ian's father. Not only did it still exist, but there were long lines of couples and families for whom this was clearly a regular fix. This proved to be the second-best meal we had on the trip. In fact, after a second visit for lunch on Tuesday, I came to the decision that theirs was my Platonic ideal cheeseburger. There are many styles of cheeseburgers -- some focusing on high-quality beef or mountains of toppings or interesting cheeses. Jumpin' Jacks is the same style of burger that McDonalds has mass-produced. A simple bun, burger, cheese, and (for ten cents extra) fried onions on top. No one flavor predominates, but it all melds together perfectly, with no need for further condiments, and can easily be eaten one-handed. Yum.

Sunday was the wedding. It was magnificent. Ian and I have realized that every wedding we've attended has been absolutely perfectly suited to the bridal couple, yet no two weddings have been alike. The ceremony itself was held outdoors, and despite on-and-off showers all morning, ten minutes before the ushers started seating, the skies cleared up and didn't rain a drop the rest of the day.

Although we had never met anyone at our table before (hey, aside from the bridal party, we only knew one other guest there), we managed to hit it off quite well. We started out joking about "Wedding: the LARP." Since that would be hard to schedule, we tried to come up with a formal event with better replay potential, and came up with "Junior Prom." I don't want to say anything more that might spoil the game, but even though I've never successfully played a LARP, I may be involved in writing one. After the reception (about 5:30 PM?) we went back to Troy with our new-found friends. I think we hit it off, especially considering we didn't leave until 2:30 AM. :) I had a lot of fun. We never actually got around to planning for the LARP, but talked about just about all kinds of things.

Needless to say, we decided to sleep late on Memorial Day Monday. We decided to head back into Troy to take a look around the RPI campus. [I guess we're ready for teenagers, given how much we enjoy visiting college campuses.] A lovely-looking campus, with scores of ivy-covered red brick buildings, though they were all locked. I took a photo of Ian in front of a door labelled "Pedants Roost" -- about which Ian commented that the phrase is missing an apostrophe. In the middle of campus, we walked past a building that looked exactly like a Gothic cathedral (sans steeple) -- stained-glass windows and everything. Jokingly, I scoffed, "Well, that building's function is obvious." Talking it over later on, we discovered the same joke occured to both of us -- something about RPI students worshipping computers -- but we dismissed that as too obvious. [Instead, we quipped something about the life sciences department, and how their finals are doozies, but students get seven days to complete them.] Then we got closer to the building and saw its name: Voorhees Computing Center That's right. The university converted an old chapel into their computer center. It's incredible. We took lots of photos, which I'll post after developing them.

We spent the afternoon walking and driving around downtown Troy. Nice looking town. Lots of signs announcing it as "the home of Uncle Sam." We found the statue, which acknowledged Arlington, Mass, as his birthplace, but for some reason Congress declared Troy to be his official "home." The statue also had a great quote by Sam Wilson, which I'll have to look up sometime. Due to the holiday, most of the restaurants we wanted to try were closed (I still wish we could've eaten at Holmes & Watson, a Sherlock-themed pub, but our eventual destination was quite good)

Finally, on Tuesday morning, we wandered back onto the Union College campus one last time, primarily to pick up some nice books of the campus for Ian's father. In the process, we discovered the Jackson garden -- landscaped by a mathematician! I got dangerous ideas from the Thyme clock -- a circular plot divided into twleve wedges, each planted with a different variety of thyme. A vertical wrought iron sculpture turns the whole thing into a sundial. Real cool! When/if we finally get around to landscaping our garden, I want something similar.

From there, we strolled around the GE Realty Plot -- a neighborhood from the turn-of-the-last-century designed for GE's president, scientists and engineers. Ian had read recently about Charles Proteus Steinmetz, and regaled me with stories as we walked. By the time we returned to the car, we had worked up quite an appetite, so returned to Jumpin' Jacks (we had intended to get dinner there the previous night, but got there a little too late, so vowed to get lunch there today). Then, we drove to Albany to walk inside the capitol building, which had been closed on our previous visit. Gorgeous architecture, but I still prefer Wisconsin's.

Once we were finished, about 3 PM, we got on the highway and headed for home. I'm actually writing this on the Mass Pike, while we listen to MP3s on my laptop. Then we stopped off at Ian's parents, and got home at 7:30 PM -- just over 101 hours after we left.

They say that travel broadens the mind, and I've certainly found it to be so. Getting away from the familiar -- locales and habits -- helps us to differentiate the universal from what's specific... ...to Boston or to our friends, and so on. These may be blindingly obvious, but here are a few observations that really sunk in this trip:

• Rejecting something out-of-hand merely because it is popular is just as limiting as rejecting something out-of-hand because it is not.
• More annoyingly, I've noticed that many people find it insufficient to merely say that they don't like something. Instead, they have to denigrate it, thereby not only somehow "proving" their own taste is correct, but insulting anyone else who happens to like that particular item. This came up during our late-night conversation, when somebody mentioned Lilo & Stitch, this summer's Disney movie. We were all highly enthusiastic about the film, based on the trailers, and I had seen some highly positive reviews on AICN which I told them about. I realized later what a tremendous relief it was to be able to talk about Disney movies without having to go all defensive. And I also realized how many other topics I feel a need to self-censor myself about, because discussing them isn't worth the response. I also recognized areas in which I do this myself (such as country music), and I'm going to endeavor to improve my attitude.
• Besides visiting the places described above, we also spent a lot of time this weekend in our hotel room, watching TV. As I've said previously, we don't have cable TV at home, so this was a vacation of sorts. It was fun, and I saw ads for many upcoming shows that I'll regret missing, but it also reinforces my feelings that I'm right to do without. Even with only sixty channels in the hotel, it's too easy to find some excuse to keep the TV on -- you can always find something to watch. I do miss Daria and Powerpuff Girls and Farscape, and I wish I could see Founding Brothers on the History Channel and Justice League and and and... But on the whole, I think I'm better off without.
• Ian's made the comment that I don't exactly have a "can-do" attitude. Instead, I simply refuse to accept someone else's say-so that something is impossible. Once you eliminate the question "can I do this?", even hypothetically, it allows you to really consider about whether you want to do it or not, which I think is a far more interesting matter. And even though the end result may look identical, it's better, in my opinion, to decide not to do something than to merely give up on it. As Ian puts it, I call people's bluffs, force them to put up or shut up, generally with positive results.

Finally, I didn't realize just how close the Albany area was from Boston (only three hours), so maybe we'll come back to the area more often. [Mostly to see people, partly since I picked up a brochure for this summer's Shakespeare & Company program in Lenox, and I'm sorely tempted by several events they're hosting later this year.]

We took lots of photos on this trip; after they're developed, I'll post them on the website and announce it here. Otherwise, I think that's about it for now. [Isn't it enough!?] Once again, I encourage folks to post comments, particularly if any of my new friends from Troy are reading. Hello!