Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:15 PM

Well, today was uneventful.

Wanted to go out to Harvard Square this evening, but couldn't get the car out of the driveway. So, instead I decided to walk down the street for pizza. A question for fellow-Bostonians reading this. Any of you like anchovy & black olive pizza? Or am I the only one sick enough to like the taste of the "salt special"? I know Ian can't stand it (possibly one of the reasons I order it is so Ian won't eat my leftovers), but I can't eat more than a couple slices in one sitting, and wouldn't mind company if I could find someone willing to share a pizza with those toppings with me.

Meanwhile, there's lots of interesting political news out there among the blogs, but I'm just not in a mood to post about them. Sad to say, not much of it is good news, if you get my drift.

Oh, and in case you missed my e-mail, Jadasc, I won our little bet -- Richard O'Brien was in the 1980 Flash Gordon. You owe me a quarter! :)

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:15 PM

BTW, before I go to bed I have to point this out, because I haven't seen anybody else mention it yet. In the American date format, today is/was 1/2/3. We're not going to get a progression like that again for just over a year -- until 1/23/4. Just wanted to make note of it...

Goodnight, everybody.

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:55 PM

Sorry if anybody got their hopes up about that PBS Marlowe documentary on my say so. I was quite disappointed in it, and was sorely tempted to turn it off many times. Frankly, I found it rather disappointing -- embarassing, even. In many cases, it felt like the blind leading the blind, especially as Rubbo tried to get theories from people on the street. I found too much conjecture compared to solid information, and what information the filmmaker had was poorly presented. I may not have studied Marlowe academically, but I've done quite a bit of reading on Marlowe and Shakespeare in the last year. I could do a better job, both at describing Marlowe's life and explaining the controversies, mysteries and conspiracies therein.

I like Marlowe; I've enjoyed the plays by him that I've read. I find his biography and some of the speculation to be fascinating, and he makes a great fictionalized character. I've conversed with some of Rubbo's experts in the humanities.lit.authors.shakespeare newsgroup and it was nice to put faces to names. I also do respect Peter Farey's scholarship; though I don't always agree with him, he's demonstrated preference to proof over conjecture to the extent that he's definitively debunked some of the weirder Marlovian theories. However, I'm sorry to say that John Baker gives a bit of whiff of netkook in his posts (which seemed to carry over into his televised persona). And, I did read Dolly Wraight's famed biography of Marlowe (before she came out as a Marlovian), and it came off too much like a hagiography for my tastes. I was intrigued by those hints of an Italian connection at the end, but it was too little, too late.

While Salon's review of this documentary may have sparked much of my Marlowe-fascination, the documentary itself was a major let-down. Don't waste your time. If you want to learn more about Marlowe, ask me and I'll either tell you myself or can point you towards some good and interesting sources.

Added later:

I found Peter Farey's comments on the types of Marlovians to be very worthwhile in explaining why I found the program so dissatisfying. "[T]he more interesting items for a TV programme on this subject [are] also (imho) possibly the rather less factually reliable." As I said, I rather like Farey's research and his personal style. He's made some good points uncovering flaws in other people's research, including some of the speculation in The Reckoning and in the new Kuriyama biography of Marlowe. But I'm rambling here. Suffice it to say, nothing I've seen or read has convinced me that Marlowe survived or that anyone other than Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare. They're certainly fun speculation, but I prefer solid proofs.

Posted by Lis Riba at 5:30 PM

Woo-hoo! Marlowe documentary on Frontline tonight!

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:45 PM

Okay, here's a news story that worries me. States Worry New Law Sets Schools Up to Fail: Use of Test Scores Would Label Most Poor Performers. In brief, it sounds like the statistical shenanigans required by the new federal law will fail most schools, thus qualifying most students for vouchers and setting up most schools for restructuring.

I don't think this is accidental. I know better than to attribute to malice what could be incompetence, but I've seen this kind of subtle takeover planned for schools before.

While the MCAS (Massachusetts' aptitude tests) was still being written, then-Board of Education Chairman John Silber (Boo! Hiss!) proposed making all high school seniors take the GED in order to graduate. He said that any school in which more than 10% fail should be put under state control. [State control would've put him in charge.]

However, he neglected to mention that the GED is scored so that a passing grade is the 33rd percentile of all graduating seniors in the region. I repeat -- Silber wanted to takeover schools where more than 10% failed a test which guarantees a third will fail.

Do you see the no-win situation he tried to set up there? I think that this federal program is exactly the same thing. As Bill Weinberg, who quit the Kentucky Board of Education in November in protest of the federal law, put it: "At worst, it is a cynical attempt by the Bush administration to build in failure and use that as an argument for vouchers."

Meanwhile, the new year opens with lots of good stuff in the other news blogs, although most of them are just shedding light on further bad news:

• Patrick Nielsen Hayden writes about the continuing entertainment industry copyright overreach.
• Joshua Micah Marshall is 'Unraveling the Administration Korea Mumbo-Jumbo, Part I'
• Avedon Carol points to this Washington Post story, wondering whether the piece is really intended as humor.
• And, as usual, Atrios is chock full of goodies.

Posted by Lis Riba at 4:25 AM

Well, I wasn't necessarily planning on doing a year in retrospective thingy, but I guess there are a few things I have to say.

2002 wasn't the best of years, given that I started it employed in a pretty darn good job in a pretty darn good company, and ended the year unemployed in a very tough economy. On the other hand, this has given me the chance to do a lot of learning -- both academically and self-exploration. I feel like a much deeper and wiser person for the experience. I know I have a long journey ahead of me, but I wonder somewhat how much of the change shows in my journal.

I suppose if I were to give the year a name, I'd call it my Year of living bookishly. I read a total of 173 books over the year: averaging 1 book every 2.1 days. And those figures don't include the number of books that I started but didn't complete. While it's a really impressive achievement, I don't think I will ever achieve this amount again, nor should I try. Much of it is due to my job loss, and as much fun as I had, I don't think it was entirely healthy for me to become so captivated in books -- at times, I think it approached the level of addiction, as I escaped into fantasy as a way of avoiding dealing with some very real problems.

Even without a job, I've managed to give something back to the broader community. My report on Libraries and the USA PATRIOT Act has garnered hundreds of hits, and was used as training material in at least one library system. I hope it helps.

In daily news, Ian and I spent a quiet New Year's Eve at home. We finally watched the episode of Buffy we had missed (thanks, Admiral!). We intended to eat popcorn with it, but our popcorn popper exploded (no fireworks for NYE, but a lot of smoke). We also found some untouched Peeps from Easter-time, only to discover that Peeps actually can go too stale to eat. Pretty lame, but at least we stayed up until midnight to kiss. We moved into this house on NYE of Y2K, and the move was so arduous that we just fell asleep well before midnight and it wasn't until morning that we turned on the TV to see if the world had survived "Time Bomb 2000" (As Yourdon portentously put it)

New Year's Day was uneventful, and sadly fairly unproductive. Unfortunately, I came down with a bad case of cramps in the morning, so slept most of the day away in misery while Ian got together on a prearranged evening with friends. Oh well. I did get most of the year-end finances done at least, plus three full steno-pad pages of my fanfic. And I think I've got a plan to get back on track today.

Right now, I can't sleep (probably because I spent so much of yesterday in bed, but also because I wanted to write down some turns of phrase for my story before they escaped again). I've been up for about a half-hour, and completed four paragraphs. I'll probably go back to bed in another half-hour or so, but thought that while I'm awake, I'd get this posted as well.

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:00 PM

2002 Journal index

Just for the heck of it (and as an exercise of my html/spreadsheet abilities) I have created a calendar view of all my journal entries in the year 2002. This is similar to my Calendar view of books read. Poke around, if you're interested. It may be somewhat easier to follow than my main Journal archive, since you can select entries granularly by date and time.

Part of the reason for this is that I had been thinking of going thru my journal entries to evaluate how I've changed over the year (well, eight-plus months) since I began keeping a journal. I'm really not in a mood for that kind of introspection right now, but don't want the work to go to waste.

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Added later (6:25 PM):

Well, I've been looking at the calendar and notice a couple interesting things. Since I began keeping this online journal, a week has never gone by without me making some post. On three days this year, I have made five journal entries: November 12, December 11, and December 19.

Oh, and I planned to post earlier how wonderful my husband is, because he made Chi-Chi's fried ice creams for us, but now I'm mad at him for eating most of my tortilla without asking me. :( Pout!

Anyway, Happy New Years for anyone who cares about this odometer event. And here's hoping for a 2003 that's much better than the current one.

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:50 PM

Oh, cool. A month ago, Ian and I attended a lecture on the history of board games at the Boston Athenaeum. Well, I went looking at the website of the Connection radio show after hearing an interesting interview with John McCain, talking mostly about literature (particularly Hemingway and Orwell) rather than politics. And, what should I find, but an Irving Finkel interview on the Connection, including some of the same slides he showed us. I'm listening to the audio with Ian, and it's well worth hearing.

On DayPop, I found a fascinating story on what can be found by dumpster divers which is worth reading just as a cautionary tale. Reminds me of some of the lessons in my competitive intelligence class. And if you're at all concerned about protecting your privacy -- personally or your company -- you should read about the information trails you're unconsciously leaving behind.

I'm continuing to think about the whole animal totem thing. As much as I like raptors, I'm also extremely cat-like. Not big cats, but yer basic felis domesticus. And I've been pondering some attributes of cats that I do, can or should emulate:

• Cats usually land on their feet (I refuse to say always; I've seen Boopsie fall of the bathroom sink and land sideways in her litterbox) Still, they recover from downfalls quickly and easily and with their dignity intact.
• Cats succeed without expending too much effort. They don't worry unnecessarily, and don't exert themselves too much except in play.
• Cats are experts at getting what they want. Dogs beg; cats demand.

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:00 PM

Shudder. Read this article from the New Republic (free registration required) to see how the Bush administration is selling our country to the highest bidder. (Source: the Sideshow) A couple quotes:

On a better note, I rather like this article by Philip Pullman on writers' responsibilities. [From Arts & Letters Daily]

Oh, mega-cool! (Or, mega-geeky, but cool to my tastes) Amygdala links to an article from the Economist about the lives of fifteenth century ambassadors, down to their daily allowances and cost of living figures for 1490s London. So cool! I'm posting about it partly as a means of bookmarking it for later, more detailed, perusal.

Somehow, I'm not overly surprised with the results of What is Your Native American Totem?

brought to you by Quizilla

Given the number of raptor sightings I've had lately, from the bald eagle this week, to getting out of my car to admire a red-tailed hawk in August, a family friend suggested I had an affinity for them. It was something about the way they seemingly soar above everything, floating and drifting along the air-currents almost randomly, but can then pinpoint on prey with a laserlike focus and astonishing speed. A bit like what I do intellectually.

In some respects, it's an odd choice as a totem because I'm such a cat person. [To the extent that Ian's told me that it often works for him to treat me and the cat similarly in terms of how we need attention and physical contact.] Mind you, I know how hokey these quiz results can be. I tried changing one answer (what I do at parties) and came out with Raven. And the description of Hummingbird also sounds quite apt (and I do like hummingbirds). And when I flipped through somebody else's medicine cards, I chose Otter ("Laugh at your antics. Balance work & play. Reclaim vulnerability.") as my favorite. Anyway, when I have time for further pleasure reading, I'll have to look at this page, which goes into detail on totems and see if there's anything worth taking away from all this.

Posted by Lis Riba at 4:20 PM

Because I'm feeling too lazy to come up with my own New Year's Resolutions, I decided to take the easy way out and take the latest quiz spreading its way across LiveJournal:

Take the What Should Your New Year's Resolution Be? Quiz

As Chanaleh said, "I'll take it under consideration."

Another meme that's going around is related to the recent lottery news, asking a variety of questions related to what you'd do if you won such riches. [See Jadasc for the latest version of this.] Over the summer, I wrote up in general what I'd do with my life if I didn't have to worry about money (page down about one screen). These newer questions are thought-provoking, and maybe I'll answer them further at another time, but not now.

"Finally, a solution to the DMCA and copyright fascism! It turns out there's an exemption to the DMCA for the exercise of religious freedom. So ..." Hi, my name's Lis and I'm a Librarian. I believe in fair use and sharing information.[First seen on the Sideshow]

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:55 AM

I feel so much better. This morning, Ian went to get a haircut and I asked him to check on the pigeon so I wouldn't have to see the corpse (if there was one). Amazingly enough, he called up to me in the window, the bird was still alive and it looked like it had eaten of the bread we left it last night.

Since it survived the night, I tried calling the local animal clinic. They told me to call the humane society, whose recording said that for injured birds, call the health department in case of West Nile virus. So, I called the health department, and the nice lady there told me (a) it's not WNV (doesn't affect pigeons, and the mosquitos are dead by now anyway) and (b) how to dispose of dead birds should the need arise. While talking, I looked up "pigeon care" in Google, and saw that pigeons need water at a depth of at least 1 1/2" to drink from. So, I cut up a paper cup and walked over to give the pigeon something to drink. And it was gone! The corner where it had been staying had breadcrumbs (but only about a quarter of what we dropped for it last night) and a lot of pigeon poop -- but no pigeon! And I looked around the rest of the yard, but didn't see it anywhere there, either. I think we just saved a pigeon's life.

It's a small accomplishment, sure -- and some might even wonder that it's worth crowing about at all, given that it's just a pigeon and pigeons are pests -- but we saved a life!

I feel so much better.

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:10 PM

There's an injured and probably dying pigeon in my neighbor's front yard. And it bothers me tremendously.

I noticed it this afternoon, because Boopsie had perched herself in the living room window and was staring rather attentively out. I went over to pet her, and noticed the pigeon walking around, sometimes flapping one wing (but never flying away) and twisting its head to the side until it was nearly upside-down.

After 3, I walked down to the donut shop for an afternoon snack (2 for the price of 1 after 2pm) and went over to the chain-link fence to take a closer look. It was definitely holding its head oddly and backed away from me, but still didn't fly away. I noticed that other people walking past seemed to be pointedly ignoring it.

About 7 PM, when I went out to pick Ian up, I checked on it again. It had moved to a corner of the yard up against the stairs and seemed to be huddling for warmth. I threw it a few bread crumbs, but it seemed to ignore them.

When we got home, around 8, I took Ian to see it. We ran upstairs and grabbed a slice of bread and a rye cracker, which Ian crumbled and put before it.

I'm glad we fed it, but I'm pretty sure it's going to die overnight in the cold. And tomorrow, I'm not going to be able to resist checking in their yard one more time, and I entirely expect to see its corpse. Part of me wants to bring it indoors to warm up, part of me wants to break its neck so it has a quick, clean death, part of me wants to call animal control. I know it's just a stupid dirty pigeon, but I feel so sad for it. I don't want it to suffer, you know?

Meanwhile, it seems like most everything in today's Atrios is bad or depressing news. How the Bush administration has blown it with North Korea, Republicans eliminating citizens' abilities to sue in cases of negligence or misconduct, the growing fiscal crises among the states, continuing wrongful incarceration of innocent Afghanis in Guantanamo, more on the asbestos coverup... And Talking Points is pointing out increasing worldwide political clout of anti-Americanism. Tapped points out more Bush administration censorship of solid science when it conflicts with their ideology, again risking American lives/health/safety. I look at DayPop, and see that at least six Middle Eastern students have been jailed in the past 10 days for failing to take enough college classes and the New York Times reports that the best way to get research money for diseases is to find a celebrity spokesman. And more icks at Altercation, with links showing how little compassion for the poor Bush has demonstrated in his conservatism, and the quote from a U.S. official supervising the capture and transfer of accused terrorists: “If you don’t violate someone’s human rights some of the time, you probably aren’t doing your job.” How many of those stories have you heard in the mainstream news? This video might amuse or disgust you.

I think that's one reason why I've started reading the Christian Science Monitor in the last year. Not only do they give thoughtful analysis, but they often try to find the positive side to the news... and that's definitely needed in these dark times.

But, dammit, right now I want something actually happy and uplifting, that isn't fluff or escapist, but acutally important.

Comments on this entry would be greatly appreciated.

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:00 PM

Three tidbits for a Sunday afternoon:

Oh wow! Beautiful astronomy photos that have to be seen to be believed. Thanks so much to elynne for pointing this out.

Meanwhile, outrage is spreading around LiveJournal over plans to build a warship out of WTC steel. I got this from Griffen and Clairaide (Griff's source). Clairaide got it from Luzmaria who got it from Undone. I rather like Undone's way of stating her objections -- beating a plowshare into another sword is not the answer to the hatred that led to 9/11. Clairaide provided contact information for Governor Pataki in case any of his constituents (or friends/relatives of victims) wish to call and object. [Added later: this thread by Clairaide also does a good job at clearly stating the objections to this news.]

Finally, Samuel Pepys has been in the news lately, with a new biography being reviewed all over. He really sounds like a fascinating guy. So, for those who don't feel like following my links (and for the benefit of my own memory), allow me to be a little less cryptic than yesterday's entry ("[A]n IASAG "So cool!" goes to this announcement."). An enterprising blogger has decided to transcribe Pepys' diary -- day-by-day starting on January 1st -- in a weblog format. Pretty cool, hunh?

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:55 AM

Ew. Ew. Ew. I really dislike the current administration. From this morning's Globe: the White House conducts a permanent campaign, despite decrying Clinton for doing something similar. [Bush, however, is much more efficient and ruthless about it. See also link.] And how about this story: the White House hushed up an asbestos health alert. No explanation why, but American lives are endangered and the Bush administration is trying to keep a lid on the (completed!) report.

The Boston Globe Magazine has another article on why adults are reading Harry Potter which is really more a paeon to reading truly escapist fiction (such as fantsy) rather than traditional "mainstream" adult fare which is too close to reality to distract one from the real world. Um, well, duh? Unfortunately, the article I'd like to share isn't up on the website, but their architecture page has some truly envy-inspiring bookcases, which Ian says our flooring probably isn't strong enough to support.

I also forgot to mention one of the other weird news stories that caught our attention last night. Harpo Marx worked for the FBI. Hard to believe, isn't it. I'm finding DayPop's top blog links to be an extremely useful resource for finding interesting tidbits of information.

Finally, you may have guessed by the number of references made to Harry Potter fanfic that I'm actually enjoying the genre. And, I've actually come up with an original story idea of my own, so I might begin inflicting (writing seems too tame a word) my own Harry Potter fanfic in the not-too-distant future. [I've already tried my hand at one scene to see if I can make it work.] I honestly haven't written fiction since I graduated college over ten years ago. For those unaware of that part of my past, I majored in Creative Writing, which required fifty to seventy-five pages of original fiction in place of a thesis. The moment I was accepted into the program (at the end of my junior year), every new idea I had went Pfft!. I managed to eke out enough to graduate, but it forced me to come to terms with my limitations and gave me a grand mal case of writer's block. You can read the few pieces of fiction I'm comfortable enough to share on my Writing page. They're not bad. Last year, I made a few abortive attempts to write about my RPG character (I know, gaming war stories are among the most-reviled genres, and rightly so). It didn't go anywhere, but it was a start. And I've been tempted by this idea for a fairy tale, but I'm nervous about ruining it. So I thought I'd work my way up to it with fanfic. Don't worry, despite my opening to this paragraph, I'm not actually likely to inflict it on too many people besides Ian (who's married to me, so has to suffer). I still feel somewhat abashed both about my writing skills and the genre to want to spread it around too widely. So, I don't know why I'm actually posting here about it, other than one purpose of this journal is to open myself up and this has become a part of my life.

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:30 AM

Yawn! The denizens of Mystery house threw a surprise birthday party for one of our friends. A lot of fun was had by all.

A few interesting tidbits of conversation.

• Others at the party didn't believe me when I described the "reality show" Extreme Makeover. Then, we looked at the application and laughed ourselves silly. Questions like: "E-Mail Address (If you don't have one, tell us why you don't)" A whole mess of questions checking whether you're using this show to hide from the law. Questions about how you hate your body. All kinds of mental health questions. ("Tell us about your relationship with your mother") And some which are just plain prurient or weird. ["Do you have any sexually transmitted diseases? If so, please describe"] The kicker is the final question: "Is there anyone else you would like to nominate for an extreme Makeover?" In other words, who don't you like the looks of.
  As I said earlier, I found the show as presented rather repugnant, catering to superficialities and self-loathing. But last night I realized who might be the ideal target contestant. A class of people who really could benefit from professional plastic surgery: Preoperative transsexuals. I mean, here are people who need breast jobs (one way or the other) and other reconstructive surgery. If we could get the networks to pay for such transformations... I may start spreading this suggestion to subvert their program into something actually worthwhile.
• Speaking of reality TV, late in the evening (or very early morning, depending how you count it), we started talking about the planned FOX reality show, American Candidate. Sadly, I'm five months too young for 2004, but I hereby urge my friend Wolf to consider a reality-TV financed run for President. More links on the show are available at SirLinksAlot, and (although there's no content there yet) here's FX's official page for the show.
• As I mentioned earlier, Ian (and I, to a lesser extent -- probably because I haven't thought about it as much) has a big problem with the idea of corporate citizenship. Well, this review of Thom Hartmann's new book on the subject reveals that the emperor has no clothes, and might (we hope) lead to the abolishment of these corporate privileges. To wit:
  The Supreme Court did NOT establish corporate personhood in Santa Clara County [v. the Southern Pacific Railroad]. ... [C]orporate personhood was ?provided? -- in the headnote, instead of the formal written decision of the Supreme Court. ... [The headnote] is the summary description of a court decision, written into the casebook by the court reporter. It is similar to an editor?s ?abstract? in a scientific journal. Because they are not products of the court itself, however, headnotes carry no legal weight; they can establish no precedent in law. Corporate personhood, Mr. Hartmann discovered, is simply and unequivocally illegitimate.