Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:50 AM

Oh My...

It's Snowing.

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:40 AM

Made a few more calls yesterday; it's still nervewracking to do so.

In the afternoon, I went down to Boston to join Lilairen for ice cream. Which turned out to be a very good thing.

After that, Ian and I went to Mystery House for Monday night gaming. We arrived just as they were finishing a game of Munchkiin. I had a hugely fun time playing Apples to Apples and Chez Geek (which I won!), but I'm just not interested in Illuminati any more. [I discovered Illuminati back in 1986 when I spent the summer before my senior year of HS at BC. I played the original Illuminati, in the clamshell case with the three expansion sets, and we played it daily. My college friends were really cut-throat Illuminati players, and I guess I lost interest.] At any rate, Ian did play Illuminati, in part because the host is running an Illuminati tournament where the prize is a dinner cooked by him (a very worthy goal), and the game ran much later than I intended to stay out. [I think I'm going to try to lure some of our other friends to game here so I can play the early games and leave early and Ian can play the longer games and stay later.]

At any rate, this means (a) I didn't get all the stuff done last night, (b) I got home past my bedtime, so (c) it's thrown off my plans for today. On the positive side, I did get to get out of the house and away from the computer and see people, which is a good thing.

Lilairen, in this morning's journal entry provided a link to a multiple intelligence inventory. So, I gave it a shot. I don't know how accurate it is, because I zipped through the questions pretty fast, but here's what I came up with:

Meanwhile, we're watching the Audobon channel -- the birdseed bell hanging just outside the living room window. At this point, there's just a golf-ball's worth of seed stuck to the base. Ian and I are waiting to see when the birds' weight overbalances it so the seeds all fall to the driveway below. [We've already got another birdseed bell in reserve for when this one falls off.]

I'm not much of a political blogger, although I read a lot of political news, but I did find Joshua Micah Marshall's latest Talking Points to be funny in an Orwellian kind of way. And this article from the Christian Science Monitor, on how increasing use of "smart" bombs have increased the number of civilian casualties, I find very sad but unsurprising. Frankly, it lines up with things I said shortly after last September 11th as this country first prepared to go to war.

Ah well, enough blather... Back to the grind of finding a job...

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:25 PM

For any Loti or ex-Loti reading this, Mitch Kapor is working on a "Interpersonal Information Manager": open-source, multi-platform, and in the spirit of Lotus Agenda. I wish him the best of luck and regret that he's not developing it on this coast (although I never used Agenda, I remember how beloved Agenda was by its users).

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:20 AM

BTW, don't know if you've heard, but Senator Don Nickles (Republican of Oklahoma) has been blocking any extension of unemployment benefits, even though there is still a large surplus in the account. What this means is that benefits are expiring for people who have been unemployed for long periods of time. It may make for nicer numbers (fewer people will be collecting) but a lot of personal hardships.

Someone from WIND called Sen. Nickles' office to ask him about unemployment benefit extensions, only to be told by an aide that the Senator was "tired of giving people like [him] handouts."

Given that I spent ten-and-a-half years putting money into unemployment insurance when I was employed, this program is hardly a handout. I've seen both statistical evidence and personal experience that in the last several months people are staying unemployed for longer, even when new claims are down. And it's happening to good people.

This probably should be a call your senator moment, particularly if you're represented by a Republican who might have influence on Sen. Nickles. Time is running out.

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:40 AM

Okay, this amused me. Those whacky medieval feasts... The gag about the live chicken made me laugh out loud.

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:15 PM

Well, I didn't get accomplished any of the things I intended to do this weekend, but I did read two books. That brings my total for the year up to 138, which is just shy of one book every other day. Alas, although I did break that barrier earlier in the year, the only way of doing so for the year as a whole would be by reading 45 books in the remaining 72 days, and that just ain't going to happen.

Although I find this news very upsetting, I want to spread the word to other Bostonians (and former Bostonians). The great and wonderful Newbury Street bookstore, Avenue Victor Hugo is closing its doors. Quoting their press release, " Beginning Thursday, October 24th, most of the stock of the store will be sold at half price." That may be good news in the shortterm, but bad news longterm. Another lost Boston landmark. And I can recall so many used bookstores that I used to frequent which have closed in the (my goodness, has it really been) fifteen years I've lived in the area.

Meanwhile, Paul Krugman has an excellent article on the increasing economic divide in America. After you've read that, take a look at Tom Tomorrow's followup which cogently and concisely points out the missing link in Krugman's analysis.

But, how about a couple more entertaining sites to close. I'm perversely amused by Black People Love Us.Com, and find the online clocks here and here impressive... And Slashdot has a cool essay about libraries.

Tomorrow's tasks include continued jobhunting (more calls and hopefully I'll find some openings to apply for) and working on my finances. I'd like to go to the Athenaeum's "Orientation Tours for Members" but I don't think I'll be able to make it. Maybe next week.

Goodnight!

Oh, almost forgot to mention:
Today's Boston Globe Travel section had a whole host of articles about travelling to England. Apparently, it's off-season and the rates are incredibly cheap. Alas. Not having a job means even the bargain fares are out of my price range. But someday, I will get there. Meanwhile, another article talked about efforts to build a replica of the Rose Playhouse in Western Mass. Given that I'm currently reading (yet another) book about Christopher Marlowe, which goes into detail about the archaeological evidence found about the original Rose, I find this fascinating and can't wait for it to open (in another five years or so) for the chance to see plays in more authentic surroundings. Mind you, the original theater held 1,500 patrons and the new one will limit capacity to 600, but I still find the whole thing so incredibly cool.