Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 4:55 PM

I suppose I should elaborate a little more on my previous statement.

The problem with writing about online communities, is that -- well, I just reread the chapter on that topic in Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone. He seems very thorough, and the only thing I really have to add to that is anecdotal experience. I've got a broad and deep personal background with computer-mediated communications, from my first Usenet account 15 years ago, and including IRC, MUDs, and most other types of CMC. But that just doesn't seem sufficient, and otherwise I feel as if I'm just going to end up parrotting Putnam, and that's not worth my time.

On the other hand, the topic of censorship is both broader and easier to narrow. Internet censorship & filtering is too broad, but I could focus on just child-protection efforts, or narrow it further to just sex, violence, or hate literature.

Besides, in my first paper for the class, on the same page as the paragraph on CMC, I wrote "Palmquist quotes Meyrowitz that shielding children is traditional. That may be so, but there have been many traditions in world history and the 1950s and Victorian eras were hardly typical." When I saw my professor's comments that suggesting a topic for my final paper, it took me a few moments to figure which of the two paragraphs she was referring to.

Especially given the questions the professor asked for this assignment, censorship just seems a more accessible topic than how CMC is affecting interpersonal relationships:

• consider a professional issue that information technology has played a pivotal role in bringing the issue to the attention of your colleagues
• consider how the profession discusses and copes with this problem
• Do you find references that are separated between the utopian/anti-utopian model?
• Is the discussion visionary or delusional?
• How are these issues considered actionable?
• Do the writers acknowledge the ramifications of the issues or do they gloss over them?
• Is this issue professional hand-wringing or a fundamental ethical concern?
• is this a new problem or just an old one wrapped up digitally?

I just went to the library a little bit ago and picked up several books: The way we never were, The disappearance of childhood, Media violence : opposing viewpoints, Not in front of the children, Killing monsters and Medieval children, many of which I've already read portions of.

We also discovered that the Friends of the Melrose Library is selling a calendar to celebrate the library's 100th anniversary in its present location. Beautiful pictures that really capture the heart and soul of the library. It's not the Renaissance library calendar that I mentioned in October, but still very pretty. I like libraries; they relax me.

And I'm procrastinating and rationalizing things to myself. I've now got a whole bunch of texts on both topics; I've got to get to work.

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:56 PM

I'm suddenly wondering whether my paper topic on the "dichotomy between increasing isolation and expanding social networks (often long-distance ones)" is just too much for the paper I have to write. I mean, at IBM, I hung out with folks researching online communities at a PhD level. I know the potential depths and breadths of this topic, so what can I possibly hope to write beyond a basic layman's overview of the subject? I'm feeling woefully inadequate to the task.

I'm being tempted to switch topics to the battles between censorship and protecting children. That's going to be easier to write and easier to cover in-depth. Particularly given the questions the professor posed for us in the assignment.

I just don't know...

Posted by Lis Riba at 5:00 PM

Well, one paper down, one to go. It wasn't my best effort, but it's done. Now one more paper due Wednesday morning and I'm finished with school for the semester. The description of this paper is:

In our final assignment you will consider a professional issue that information technology has played a pivotal role in bringing the issue to the attention of your colleagues. Here you will consider how the profession discusses and copes with this problem. Do you find references that are separated between the utopian/anti-utopian model? Is the discussion visionary or delusional? How are these issues considered actionable? Do the writers acknowledge the ramifications of the issues or do they gloss over them? Is this issue professional hand-wringing or a fundamental ethical concern? Finally is this a new problem or just an old one wrapped up digitally? The paper should be the equivalent of 8-10 pages.

In my first paper for this class, the trend analysis, I wrote: "There's one other common theme that I wish I had room in this paper to discuss. That's the fascinating dichotomy between increasing isolation and expanding social networks (often long-distance ones) and the related questions of space usage and the disputed importance of geographical location. These issues crop up in all five articles. Unfortunately, they don't seem quite relevant to the scope of this paper, however I wanted to mention that these issues do exist." When the professor handed it back, she wrote that I should consider that as my topic for my final paper.

Unfortunately, it's turning out to be a far broader subject than it might appear upon first glance, and it's proving somewhat daunting. I mean, Robert Putnam wrote an entire book on how communities have changed in Bowling Alone, and there are plenty of other first-person narratives about how computer-mediated communication has benefitted their lives. Trying to bridge the gap between these extremes without merely rehashing what's already out there... I need to break the topic down into something smaller.

It'll be an busy weekend.

Meanwhile, for those in the Boston area, the Brattle Theatre is showing movies from the 1980s on Tuesdays through the end of the year. This upcoming Tuesday is Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles (neither of which I've ever seen on the big screen). Unfortunately, my paper will probably get in the way of that. However, next Tuesday, December 17th, they're playing Weird Science and Real Genius. We caught Real Genius on the big screen last year at the Coolidge, and it is so much better on the big screen than on TV/video, with squashed credits and pan&scan. Anybody interested in getting a group together to see this (or both)?? I'm also still shilling to see who's interested in seeing Singin' in the rain at the Regent Theatre in Arlington between December 18th and 25th. Anybody else interested in seeing either movie with us? Please let me know, so we can plan...

Anyway, Ian's been baking (pies and cheesecakes) all day, and we're going out to his folks for dinner. Later!

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:00 PM

Tonight I saw a friend who I haven't seen in a long time. I asked him how he was doing and what he'd been up to:

     Him: "Got any jobs?"
     Me: "Go fish."

C'est la economy...

Posted by Lis Riba at 5:25 PM

An amusing conversation last night. I was complaining about how slowly the chapters of some of the Harry Potter fanfic were coming out (about one a month). One of my friends said that was nothing; this other author came out with a book a decade -- and wrote in trilogies. To which, Ian replied that he's still waiting on E.B.White's promised sequel to Stuart Little, which ended on an open note over fifty years ago. I rebutted that Shakespeare promised Love's Labour's Lost which is nearly 400 years overdue, and won the argument.

Meanwhile, I found another graduate program that I'd be interested in taking. I just discovered that Simmons offers a Master's in Children's Literature. Ooh, there's a subject that could be fun to study academically. Of course, logically I know it's not likely to happen -- it's even less likely than my ideas of studying law or Talmud, but it's still fun to dream...

Politically speaking, Ian made a good point this morning that I wish he'd put in his journal, but since he hasn't, I may as well say it. In this morning's news, I read that:

• Bush administration regulations on the FDA have inhibited their ability to stop inaccurate claims in pharmeceutical ads.
• The Bush administration has decided to give bonuses which were formerly reserved to civil servants to political appointees, after reducing federal workers annual salary increase from Congress's request.
• Republicans are pouring into Louisiana to influence their run-off election.
• Despite running away from the term during the election, the GOP is resuming plans to privatize Social Security.

Add to this the news in recent weeks including plans for Total Information Awareness, all the corporate giveaways tucked into the Homeland Security Act, suggestions that the poor don't pay enough taxes, appointing Henry Kissinger to investigate lapses in our national security and John Poindexter to protect our privacy, John DiIulio's insider info about how politics trump good policy, and all the other shenanigans that have been going on in Washington since last January.

Where's the outrage? At what point do the American people stand up and say we're not going to take any more? The country is turning away from its traditional values, giving away our Gd-given rights to corporate big money. After each new policy revelation, I expect to see somebody cry "Dayenu!" (enough) but it never happens. Is nobody listening? Does nobody care? Or are others silently railing against these moves but just feeling too powerless to do anything about it? [I'll confess, I often feel like that; it's getting so I don't like reading the newspapers for fear of the latest bad news.] Or is it just me, making a mountain out of a molehill, and things aren't as irrevocably bad as I'm making them seem? I read other political blogs, but I'd love to hear from others reading this about your opinion on the political mess. Should I talk more about them because you don't feel these things are being reported enough? Or are you getting this news from enough other places that I'd just sound like a paranoid parrot? Comments would be most appreciated.

Anyway, I'm working on my final papers for this semester's classes, so this journal may be quieter than usual for the next week.

Posted by Lis Riba at 2:25 PM

Okay, I have to post this one:

What if LotR had been written by someone else?

The answers range from the funny to the frightening, and more keep getting posted all the time. And some people have w-a-a-y too much time, such as the guy who made the Humphrey Bogart movie version, which has to be seen to be believed.

[In the manner of online journals and blogs, I got this from firecat, who got this from elisem, who got this from stakebait, who got it from dotsomething, who got it from the Malibu list, which doesn't provide any further antecedents. And I got the movie from rmjwell, who doesn't credit anybody else, but has both firecat and elisem on his friends list. Interesting how these things spread.]

Meanwhile, for anyone with any interest (including just curiousity) about Harry Potter fan fic, take a look at The Tough guide to Harry Potter. A takeoff of Diana Wynne Jones' Tough Guide to Fantasyland, this very wittily exposes the cliches and characters common to Harry Potter fanfic. For example:

Broomsticks are believed to come in a variety of models, but the observant tourist will be given cause for doubt.  Broomsticks appear to fall into two categories:  the old temperamental variety that will throw their rider off in such a way that the rider?s romantic interest can save them and the innovative variety that have just hit the market and cost a vault full of galleons.  You will be gratified to know that your love interest will purchase you one of the latter variety when your broom of the former kind breaks.

Common rooms have unusual acoustics.  Conversations about Voldemort or death eaters are always overheard.  However, those of a romantic nature can be held without fear of eavesdropping.  They are also apparently oddly shaped as they exhibit far too many corners (for the purposes of kissing) to be a simple square or rectangular room.  But then tourists know that several deranged architects designed Hogwarts.  See privacy

How's the saying go? It's funny because it's true.

PS: A big happy birthday to my friend Undauntra!

Posted by Lis Riba at 2:00 PM

Nyargh! Based on a comment in a friend's LiveJournal, I read a piece of rather entertaining Harry Potter fanfic. Then I read several more stories. They were all quite fun reads, but they're also all novel-length and none of them have been finished by the authors, meaning they time-consuming, they don't count towards my list of books read (since they're incomplete), and I've now got three cliffhangers stuck in my head. Argh!

But, this also got me to thinking about why I like Harry Potter fanfic.

One big part of it is frustration with J.K. Rowling herself. As glad as I am that she's gotten kids reading again and has done very positive things for the field of children's books, I also get the feeling that she's gotten herself in over her head. Let's face it, there were some serious problems with Book Four -- the nonsensical Rube Goldberg nature of the villain's plan, plot-threads that just vanish midway through the book with no resolution, and a major mistake in the climactic scene (which was silently corrected in later editions). The book needed a good editing, and I worry that Rowling has grown too powerful (or too rushed) for editors to have much clout with her. And now, it's been nearly two-and-a-half years since Goblet of Fire, and after several delays we're still waiting on the fifth book. Amazon.co.uk simply says "We have no news on when the fifth Harry Potter book will be released from the publisher."

Like I said, I get the feeling she's bitten off more than she can chew and has gotten in over her head. A seven book series is an ambitious undertaking for a first time author. Especially as I compare it to the similarly unfinished Lemony Snicket's Series of unfortunate events. Both series start by establishing patterns to the protagonists' lives -- Harry Potter's school years at Hogwarts, the Baudelaire orphans' tenure with various adoptive parents. Then, in the middle of the series, both authors upset the applecart and take the characters down startlingly unpleasant paths. But even at their worst and most convoluted, I have a feeling that Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket) is still in firm control of the storyline. And I don't get that feeling from J.K. Rowling.

At any rate, part of the appeal of the HP fanfic is that it fills the gap while waiting for Book Five. It also serves to flesh out situations and characters that Rowling herself gives short shrift to. And, to her credit, she has created a very rich and appealing world; it's no surprise that folks want to further furnish it. Fanfic may be easier to write than fiction in original settings, because much of the work of character creation and setting has already been done, but it has the added complication of keeping characters true to pre-existing expectations. [And doesn't the same issue exist with historical fiction, too?] And many noted authors, particularly in the SF genre, have gotten their start writing fanfic -- particularly when you consider how much of the SF section of bookstores is now occupied by media tie-ins.

I guess one thing that I'm worried about is that J.K. Rowling's next official Harry Potter book may not measure up to her fanfic. Although I waited in line to buy Harry Potter IV the first midnight it went on sale (and we even dressed up for the event), I don't feel as driven over Book Five. Book 4 had a feel of being rushed; I hope she's used the extra time for Book 5 wisely.

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:45 AM

A heartfelt ramble:

Today is World AIDS Day and I'm participating in Link and Think as a way of raising awareness about AIDS.

Although I had a period of being an incredible fag hag (most of my friends were gay men), I am blessed that as far as I know, I can't think of anyone I know personally who died from AIDS.

That's not to say that I'm blase about this fact -- I think AIDS is a terrible tragedy that cut far too many people down before they reached their potential. What further masterpieces might Freddie Mercury or Howard Ashman have created had they survived? We can only wonder... and regret their tragic loss.

Although I can't share much in the way of personal experience, I can recommend some books. And the band played on by Randy Shilts (someone else whose life was tragically cut short) remains the book on the early history of the epidemic. Elinor Burkett's The Gravest show on earth continues the story where Shilts left off. Also worth looking at (and getting angry about) is C. Everett Koop's autobiography, Koop, in which he talks about how the Reagan administration muzzled him from talking about the disease.

I feel somewhat bad that most of what I'm talking about is historic and American-centric. I know that the heart of the AIDS epidemic is now in Asia and Africa, and there are some real horror stories out there that need to be covered and addressed, but I don't know whether I can do that subject justice. Just be aware that it's out there.

If you want something to get angry and activist about in this country, read about what happened to Peter McWilliams in this eulogy by William F. Buckley, Jr. He died because our judicial system forbid him to use marijuana, even though that was the only medicine that effectively suppressed the nausea caused by his other medications. He choked to death in his own vomit because of the stupidities of our government's current War on Drugs. Unfortunately, Peter McWilliams' site is down right now (hopefully only temporarily) because I'd really like to point people to his book Ain't nobody's business if you do: the absurdity of consensual crimes in our free country, the entire text of which was available for free at http://www.mcwilliams.com/books/books/aint/.

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:00 AM

Had fun last night. Friends came over here for gaming -- Pirateer, Star Munchkin and a couple hands of Fluxx. Much fun was had by all.

Unfortunately, my cramps resumed in the evening, so after our guests left, I took my other surefire cure -- a couple shots of sake (Gekkeikan Silver) -- and went to bed.

I had another intense and memorable dream last night. I was at some event also attended by many of my former coworkers at Lotus. I chatted with a few of them, when one mentioned that there was an opening in my old department and she thought I was a likely candidate. I asked her to please put my name forward, when my former manager came up. Though she had intended to surprise me and tell me about this later, she had actually already earmarked me for the position. The job (my old one) was mine if I wanted it -- and I could retain my old salary, seniority and benefits. And when she said this, a huge cheer arose among all my former coworkers. I hope this one is prophetic...

Incidentally, as I've been immersing myself in the competitive intelligence literature and the nature of trade secrets, I'm realizing that this journal may radically change once I'm employed again. It's really amazing how little leaks of seemingly trivial importance can be put together to expose a company's direction to competitors. Now that I understand that, I'm going to have to be much more guarded in whatever I say about whereever I work. Who knows, at that point, maybe I'll change focus from being so intensely personal to being a newsy blog like so many of the ones I read and admire.