Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:45 AM

Just to keep folks posted on my mood... I think melancholy is the right word.

At Rosh Hashonah, we observed Tashlich -- the ritual casting-off of our sins. I chose to eliminate my avoidance, petulance, selfishness and laziness. I keep trying to remind myself about that resolution to eschew petulance, because I feel that way a lot. I don't wanna be sitting here doing homework. I don't wanna fill out all these picayune details on a job application (everything relevant's on my resume anyway). I don't wanna take this particular medication because it's a pain to apply.
Waaah, waaah, waaah, I sound like such a baby.

I keep being reminded of a friend's comment, which I've mentioned here before. He said: "I once remarked to a friend, "Being an adult sucks, huh?" She said, "No, being a responsible adult sucks."" That's how it feels sometimes. I am proud that I am and have been a responsible adult, but sometimes I just wish I could chuck it all for a while and let somebody else take care of me.

But, that's not going to happen. As much as I enjoy escaping into fantasy, I still live in the real world. So, I've got to try to set aside my petulance and show some resolve. [Now, "We can do it" from The Producers and Bob the Builder's "Can we fix it? Yes we can!" are running thru my head.] So, back to work.

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:00 PM

I'm doing somewhat better now.

Although we decided against going to a movie (Ian had a 7am Samaritans shift, and is tired), we did walk downtown for dinner at the local sushi restaurant. [Blatant plug: Sushi Corner in Melrose Center is really good! If you're in Eastern Massachusetts and like sushi, you should go!]

And you know, a sensual experience, such as really good food, did help lift my mood a bit. They made one of my favorite dishes there -- even though it was no longer on the menu -- salmon salad, which consisted of raw salmon, avocado, tobiko and a spicy mayo, blended together. Great taste and texture. I also had a sweet potato maki, a California handroll and salmon roe nigiri. A really satisfying mix of tastes and textures.

Service was a bit slow, but that was because they were so busy, so I didn't mind so much. A month ago, I worried that they might be having trouble because oftentimes we were the only customers. For quite a while, we were still the only customers dining in, but they were taking and filling a steady stream of takeout orders the entire evening.

Afterwords, Ian and I were stuffed, and the price was quite reasonable.

As I said above, I feel better. Still overwhelmed and dreading some of what I have to do, but better than when I posted this afternoon.

Posted by Lis Riba at 3:40 PM

Okay, I really needed a laugh today. And these (go thru the whole cycle of pictures) helped.

Ian's wondering whether I'm suffering from depression. I'm certainly feeling down. I'll warn you in advance; the rest of this post is mostly petty griping.

I hate job-hunting -- it seems like the skills required for a successful job hunt hit a lot of my weakpoints. I can do the jobs, it's the search process that's the problem

For example, all the job-hunting advice says to network, network, network. Well, it's really hard to network when you're shy and introverted. For the heck of it this morning, I Googled on "networking and shy" and found some useful articles. But it's still a struggle sometimes to pick up the phone and reach out to people I barely know.

Meanwhile, this just drags on and on. I like assignments that are fast-paced and well-defined. But there's no closure in a job hunt until actually getting hired, and everything (and I mean everything) is vague and nebulous until then.

In addition, I'm getting bogged down in my class assignment. The reading is very dense; I'm getting bleary-eyed; I'm wondering whether I'm completely off on the wrong track; and so on and so forth. I'm overtired and want to sleep, but feel like I'm way behind on the assignment and if I don't keep going, that stress is only going to get worse.

I want to treat myself to something nice -- a fine dinner out, or something -- but I've been so worried about finances that I don't want to waste money on "frivolous" things, and thus may not be able to enjoy myself on such "frivolous" pursuits, even if I do splurge.

Boy, this really does sound depressing.

So what am I looking forward to? Well, I really want to see Secretary, which just opened at local movie theaters and is getting great reviews. Maybe tonight, I'll try to lighten my mood by either going to see that or Notorious C.H.O. -- I could use a laugh.

Anyway, I scheduled a depression screening appointment with my doctor for Monday morning. We'll see if that uncovers anything that will help. In the meantime, I'm soldiering on...

So, that's my life. Now you see why I haven't been posting so often?

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:01 AM

I notice that my Journal is getting regular hits, and I feel bad that I haven't been posting more updates, like I'm letting you down or something.

Unfortunately, my life has gotten really busy lately, so (a) other things have taken priority over writing here, and (b) what's going on in my life isn't terribly interesting to write about.

Much of my time has been spent either job hunting (searching for openings and filling out applications (hey, if you know of something I'd be suited for, please drop me a line!)) or working on schoolwork. Computers in Society is a fascinating course. Every class I come up with tons of ideas and inspirations that I want to post about here, but I just don't have the time to give such essays the detail they need. Maybe after the class, once I've got more under my belt.

I'm also working on my first paper for the class, which is incredibly time-consuming in and of itself. We were assigned three chapters from the 1992 Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST). We have to read those pieces and two other articles of our choice from the journal and conduct content and trend analysis on them. If it turns out interesting, I'll post it on my Writing page.

Oh, and regarding the LITA Forum, I chose option #3 -- I'm skipping Sunday's conference events to catch a 5:50 AM flight back to Boston for the famliy photo shoot. Now, my next challenge is sending in my preferences for concurrent sessions. Isn't it always the way that there's nothing really compelling at some timeslots, whereas other timeslots have multiple conflicting must-sees? I mean, I really really want to attend Usability Issues of Electric Books and Electronic Library Interfaces and How to Design and Implement Adaptive Technology Workstations for Disabled Users and The Next Generation of OPACs: XML, the Wireless Web, and the Voice Internet -- all of which are spot-on for my interests and expertise (usability, accessibility & OPAC design^{* *}). Adaptive Technology Workstations for Disabled Users and The Next Generation of OPACs are both on at another timeslot (again conflicting) but that timeslot also has What Faculty and Student Really Want: Results of the Outsell Inc./Digital Library Federation Study of Users' Behaviors and Preferences in the Academic Information Environment and I've been researching search behavior informally, so this too is important to me.

So, <grin> how many of you actually read that entire paragraph? I'm boring you aren't I? That's the a problem with my life right now. My issues aren't terribly interesting.

I'm trying to think of something witty and amusing to end this entry on, but the best I can do is this article and a term from the Librarians for Peace website: Books: Weapons of Mass Instruction. Neither is terribly funny, but they're the best I can do under the circumstances.

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:05 PM

Yay! New Buffy goodness

Boo! Looks like my TV is having problems.

It's an old set, since college graduation. Everything's coming across too dark and too red. Many scenes (night fighting -- or about a third of the episode) the only thing I could actually make out clearly was the UPN bug. I think it might be fixable by adjusting the brightness and tint, but those settings can only be adjusted thru the remote, and I can't find it! We've been using a universal remote for ages; I remember seeing the proprietary remote within the last few months, but just can't find it now. And, given how old the set is, I'm worried that it may not actually resolve the problem. [We had a similar brightness problem before; I can't recall, but it may already be at maximum brightness.]

Ah well. New episodes of Buffy have returned. I am happy.

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:30 AM

I need advice ASAP:

So, for months now, I've been planning to go to the LITA National Forum -- primarily because I think it'll be a good way and place to network. The types of companies represented there (library software) are exactly the work environments I'd be suited for.

Meanwhile, my in-laws have been planning a big family get-together for one set of grandparents' 55th wedding anniversary. They want to get the whole family together for photos, in part because Nana has the early stages of Alzheimer's, so this may be the last chance for the whole family to get together.

I just checked the calendar, and -- you probably guessed it -- they conflict.

The family party is going to be a Sunday brunch on Columbus Day weekend, with the photographer starting at 1:30 pm. The date and time can't be changed.

This is really annoying. I couldn't fully enjoy myself at the other gathering for my grandparents' anniversary, to the Balsams, because that was the weekend before classes ended and I had two papers and a presentation due. And we're already having some problems with conflicts at this event, because Ian got his Sunday school job after reservations were made. He'll miss the brunch, but be there for the photos.

I haven't booked my flights yet (I was going to use a free trip earned from Southwest that expires soon) so I just checked the schedules. The earliest flight on their itinerary arrives in Providence at 2:35 pm -- no good. The next earlier flights leave at 4:40 pm Saturday and get into Providence or Manchester after 11pm. Checking Travelocity, I see a Delta flight that leaves Houston at 5am and gets into Logan at noon, otherwise it looks like the latest flights Saturday evening leave Houston about 6pm -- and Saturday night is when the conference has scheduled its "Networking Dinners."

I've got a day or so to decide what I'm going to do. As I see it, my options are:

• Skip the family gathering -- really not doable due to family politics. [On Monday, Lindsay has midterms in NY and Leila has an 8am class in Florida, and they're jumping thru hoops to attend. Mine isn't as good an excuse.]
• Skip half the conference to fly out Saturday afternoon via Southwest Airlines.
• Spend an arm and a leg and skip Sunday's conference events to fly another airline at an ungodly early hour to reach Boston in time for the photographers (missing the brunch)
• Cancel out of the conference altogether, trying to get my registration money back, and apologizing profusely to the woman with whom I'm sharing a hotel room.

Or maybe there's another alternative I haven't thought of yet? I could really use some advice here. Please post your suggestions in the comments field or e-mail me. And do so rather soon; I need to have an answer by the end of the week at latest.

Non-sequitur fun stuff:

By the way, here are a few amusing links I found last week, that I've been meaning to share:

• Why do I think that this is funny?
• SF author David Brin has written some interesting commentary on the Star Wars movies, including a plot twist for Episode III that could really redeem the series. Read all four articles on that site (three on Phantom Menace are linked in the opening paragraph), and if you want more, read Slashdot's response.
• I agree with Kayleigh: I want one!

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:46 AM

I'm mentioned in today's Boston Globe!

Read the article for yourself!