Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:15 PM

I'm wavering back and forth with my Harry Potter fanfic. Since my previous Beta reader was local, I was able to just tell her my story ideas in person. I probably won't be so lucky with future Beta readers, so I decided to write a plot summary of where I want the whole thing to go. I started with first half of Chapter 4 (the scene that hasn't been working) rather than trying recap that. Early in the process (back in January), I wrote out three scenes that don't take place late in the story. I threw those in rather than summing them up. And I added a few paragraphs on my general goals for the story and some description of how I see the main characters. Twenty-four pages. And that's just my summary.

But it all flowed so easily. There are a few areas in the middle that are still muddled, but for the most part I simply know how it's supposed to work, and it's just a matter of getting it all on paper.

Reading over the outline, there are some parts that feel so inspired that I'm in awe. And some points (occasionally overlapping) fill me with dread. I don't feel I'm a skilled enough writer to express what I envision. I feel utterly inadequate to some of the more nuanced scenes, particularly after reading the latest work by one of the people who's offered to beta for me. That feeling of incompetence is one of the reasons I stopped fiction-writing after my thesis. On the other hand this is fanfic we're talking about. Think Sturgeon's Law. There's a lot of bad fanfic out there; I think mine will be above average. But it's one thing to read bad fanfic and another to have my name attached to one. I feel torn. A large cowardly portion of myself would rather not write at all than put out something that's going to embarrass me. And yet I want to tell this story. I feel torn. [Advice from other writers reading this would be appreciated.]

In the real world, work continues to go well. Although it feels a bit like greatest hits week as so many of the callers I get seem to be considered notorious by my coworkers. [The advantage of a small company with a small customer base. Lotus (where I last worked telephone support) was too large and had too many customers to give any of them reputations.] Unfortunately, it seems to take me an hour or so to decompress after my phone shift ends, which isn't great. Means I haven't had as much time for anything else outside work.

For fun and amusement, have you seen the photos of a polar bear eating a U.S. submarine? Did you know that "You need to dress a cat"? And how does the Escher-esque fountain at the Chelsea Flower Show work? [Seen on the journals of AGrumer, AGrumer, and Neil Gaiman]

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:35 PM

Now that I'm done with classes, I'm trying to get back on track with the Harry Potter fanfic I started writing back in February. It looks like I'm going to need a new beta reader, so if you're interested, here's a description of what I'm looking for. For those unfamiliar with the term, here's an explanation of what a Beta is/does and tips for Betas.

PS: I know it's been a while, but after I had the hubris to post the first three chapters, I immediately got stuck on the next scene and then life events intervened. I have given up my goal to complete the fiction before Book Five is released, but I hope I can finish it before the end of the year, or better, by October 31st so I could possibly participate in NaNoWriMo.

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:45 PM

Apparently a regional branch of the Royal Canadian Mounties regularly conducts their riot control training with volunteers from the local barony of the SCA! It makes sense; both sides need to practice melee combat, so why not do it against each other. This LiveJournal post provides the fascinating details.
[seen in a rasff post by Tyg.]

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:29 PM

At about 12:55, my coworker Chris (who's been my mentor and was going to sit in with me for the first hour of my shift) put a small sign in my cube:

And, at the appropriate intervals, he'd run back and cross each timespan off, until the end when his pen just whipped across the page marking my final seconds. Isn't that sweet and considerate of him?

Anyway, I just got home (I didn't actually leave until 1/2 hour after the phone shift and regular day are supposed to end) and feel completely brain-frotzed at the moment. It's been a while since I was answering calls regularly, and I've lost some of my skills in controlling the call while under fire. And no matter how well you learn a program, I don't think you can ever say you know everything until you've handled tech support calls on it. 'I'm trying to do an install, but I want this piece on one server and that piece on another and now it's not working.' 'How is the sort order on this screen determined?' I didn't take that many calls during today's shift, but it felt like every one was a doozy. After my last call (which took an hour on the phones and is still unresolved), I had about a half-dozen people in my cube throwing suggestions at me. Oy.

On the positive side, though, calls seem to arrive at a more leisurely pace than at Lotus, and with a smaller staff and smaller customer base, everybody knows everybody else and is willing to help out.

Anyway, tonight I'll be watching the series finale of Buffy followed by the season finale of Smallville, trying to relax and settle my mind before my next phone shift begins tomorrow morning at 8:30.

Posted by Lis Riba at 1:08 PM

Well, I've just started my first phone shift. It's only been five minutes and no calls yet. My fingers are crossed for calm callers and easy questions. (Or better yet, no calls at all!) Wish me luck! [The quote above comes from Ernestine, Lily Tomlin's telephone operator character.]

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:35 AM

Still no sign of the letter I wrote the Globe about USAPAT, but it looks like not everybody enjoyed Amy Tan's commencement address as much as we did. Get a load of this letter to the editor! To excerpt:

She used obscenities and also used jokes referring to her Chinese mother that did not belong in a speech to 850 graduates of a top institution such as Simmons. The graduates today need speeches that inspire; they do not need crude language and offensive jokes.

Here's the letter I'm writing in response:

I'm not sure where this woman was sitting, but I found Amy Tan's speech incredibly inspiring, especially the notion that greatness is within everybody's reach. She showed us it's possible to ascend to that pedestal and still remain down-to-earth. Even somebody who used Cliff's Notes in college can someday write works worthy of their own Cliff's Notes.

I never heard any disrespect towards Ms. Tan's mother nor did I find anything obscene in her remarks, and while the fart jokes may have been crude, they made her point succinctly and made us all laugh. Aside from the few infants and toddlers accompanying their graduating parents (one woman carried her daughter in a backpack in lieu of wearing a hood), everyone honored that day was an adult. I think we have the maturity to handle a little adult language.

My sympathies if anything put a damper on your daughter's celebration, but for me Amy Tan's speech hit all the right notes and was one of the highlights of my day.

For what it's worth, here are Ian's observations on the speech.

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:35 PM

Trying to write all this out quickly:

• Friday night Ian & I had dinner with his parents, my parents, and Tobin, a Brandeis doctoral student my age who Ian's parents have "adopted." Great conversation. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. Suffice it to say, I'm very similar to my parents in many ways, including sense of humor. Picture me multiplied by three with quips bouncing from one to another and you'll still have no idea what we can be like when we're together.
  • One of the better laugh lines (maybe you had to be there to appreciate this): Tobin began a tangent by mentioning that she had been watching Oprah and... Dad and Ian simultaneously interrupted with some variation of "I'm sorry." I leaned over to Ian and replied, "I always wanted a man like dear old Dad." Everybody cracked up at that.
  • I found it interesting that before dinner, Ian and both fathers were chatting about one topic in the kitchen; both mothers and Tobin were talking in the living room, and I was much more drawn towards the conversation in the kitchen (among "the guys").
  • Also, while I've known Tobin for years, somehow this evening was the first time I felt we really really clicked. We just went off on a tear about movies, ranging from Hayley Mills to Grease II to Jeff Goldblum, and just really hit it off. We're planning on getting together more often for videos before she leaves for her postdoc in August.
• Saturday day we bopped around Boston looking at various crafts stores, partly as market research for my parents' business. We lunched at a dim sum place at Chinatown. I heard that Chinatown business was down due to (needless) SARS fears, but the crowds didn't look any smaller than normal to me. Hopefully that means that Bostonians are demonstrating a little more sense and less hysteria.
• Saturday evening, we had dinner with both sets of parents and all of Ian's grandparents (Ian's mother's parents couldn't attend my graduation since an aunt was graduating from another college up in Maine at the same time. No hard feelings -- I understand perfectly well that daughter-in-law trumps granddaughter-in-law. I told them to send her my best wishes.) But they wanted to spend some time with my parents, so we had a big dinner gettogether. Oh, and Dalya's in Bedford serves some really delicious food.
• Sunday morning was graduation. Ian and I got there early for breakfast, deciding we didn't need the hassle of trying to coordinate our families' arrivals. We also picked up my final paper with the professor's comments. She suggested I revise my paper and submit it to The Indexer, a magazine published jointly by American, British, Canadian, and Australian societies of indexers. Wow. Between that compliment to my abilities and the general triumph of the day, I was bouncing around and squee-ing and glee-ing and poinging all morning long.
  • Eventually, the graduates had to line up and Ian joined our family in the audience. For librarians, we were much more interested in chatting with our friends than staying in alphabetical order, but we were all lined up properly for the procession. As we marched out, Simmons did something brilliant -- they handed us each a bottle of water to drink during the ceremony. For anybody graduating in the near future, please keep in mind that the gowns are warmer than they appear -- the black traps the heat! I also wound up with a serious case of cap-hair, so you may wish to take photos beforehand.
  • Observation during the ceremony: the graduation costume of cap, gown and hood is inspired by medieval academic garb. I think the mortarboard must've been designed to prevent cheating, because every time my neighbor and I would try to read the program together our hats would clunk.
  • I think I may choose my next degree based on the color of hoods and style of the gowns. I mean, I like library science, but lemon-yellow just isn't my shade. Maybe a nice purple -- which would be law. [Or I could go to Northwestern or Washington which have purple robes.] We were also joking that I bet the engineering students have pockets in their robes (although the sleeves of Masters' robes can be used for small item storage). Then I went to the E.C. Moore site and both MIT and RPI do have pockets!]
  • Amy Tan gave a marvelous speech. Really funny, with just enough life lessons to feel virtuous and worthwhile. You can get a hint of it from the Globe article, but trust me, it was hysterical.
  • After that, we marched up, they called each of our names, and the president of the university gave us these impressive looking papers which were actually coupons to pick up our real diplomas after the ceremony was over. They pronounced my name correctly, I didn't trip, and then sat back down to wait for an interminable number of undergrads to get their Bachelors'.
  • After the ceremony ended, I picked up my real diploma, went into an empty classroom to log in and publish my previous post and then used the web and projector to give the family directions to the picnic site.
  • Unfortunately, I only packed three full rolls of film, thinking that would be more than enough. I forgot that Ian spent his formative years hanging around with artist-photographers, and thus runs through film at a rate you wouldn't believe (I'm not in the mood to hunt for the appropriate analogy) so by the end of the ceremony had maybe five shots left for family and the picnic afterwards. Oh well.
• Instead of going out to eat, we had decided to picnic by Jamaica Pond. Given the number of graduations in Boston yesterday plus the Red Sox home game that afternoon, I didn't want to fight the traffic or crowds. Good food -- particularly Ian's homemade garlic mayo and homemade bialys. Nice weather, a beautiful view, great company and a wonderful event -- who could ask for more? Afterwards we went over to the arboretum and looked (and sniffed) at the lilacs. <contented sigh>
• In the evening, we took my parents out for pho and then over to Mystery house for gaming. Introduced Mom to Apples to Apples, and she won her first game. Thought Dad might enjoy Illuminati, and from what I heard (I left before the game ended) he made quite a respectable showing.
• Today, I returned to work and the real world. Discovered I was slightly sunburned on my face and hands. Met my parents for lunch, but unfortunately the sushi place I wanted to go to didn't serve lunch on Mondays, so we had Chinese buffet. My fortune amused me: Now is the time to try something new. I suppose we'll just have to see. I mean, I actually managed to earn a Master's Degree.

And now I'm exhausted. So much more happened that I can't capture here, but this should give you the gist.

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:45 PM

As the immortal words of James Earl Jones, Roger Delgado and Anthony Ainley attest, after years of hard work, through two employers, a year of unemployment, and countless sleepless nights, I now have a Master's degree in Library and Information Science.

Lis, Master LIS -- doesn't that sound like a rap artist? Anyway, long ago I discovered that you can't write about librarians without Lis Riba (just spell it out!), and now that's true professionally as well.

I really haven't anything more to say at the moment. Besides, I wrote and uploaded this well before the commencement ceremony, to make it as easy as possible to share this news with the world as quickly as possible.

I know that many of my friends have advanced degrees, and a Master's may not seem like that much of an achievement to some. But right now, I'm feeling pretty good about myself. I'll come back down to earth in a bit, but I hope y'all will humor me if I first indulge myself a little bit.

A few great quotes about librarians (now that I am one):

[She] is one of the secret masters of the world: a librarian. They control information. Don't ever piss one off.
          -- Spider Robinson

I really didn't realize the librarians were, you know, such a dangerous group. They are subversive. You think they're just sitting there at the desk, all quiet and everything. They're like plotting the revolution, man. I wouldn't mess with them.
           -- Michael Moore

I don't think it's overstating things to suggest [librarians] are the thin grey line between literacy and barbarism.
          -- Neil Gaiman

Our whole American way of life is a great war of ideas, and librarians are the arms dealers selling weapons to both sides.
          -- James Quinn

Ok, sure. We've all got our little preconceived notions about what librarians are and what they do. Many people think of them as diminutive civil servants, scuttling about "Sssh-ing" people and stamping things. Well, think again buster.
   Librarians have degrees. They go to graduate school for Information Science and become masters of data systems and human/computer interaction. Librarians can catalog anything from an onion to a dog's ear. They could catalog you. Librarians wield unfathomable power. With a flip of the wrist they can hide your dissertation behind piles of old Field and Stream magazines. They can find data for your term paper that you never knew existed. They may even point you toward new and appropriate subject headings.
   People become librarians because they know too much. Their knowledge extends beyond mere categories. They cannot be confined to disciplines. Librarians are all-knowing and all-seeing. They bring order to chaos. They bring wisdom and culture to the masses. They preserve every aspect of human knowledge. Librarians rule. And they will kick the crap out of anyone who says otherwise.
           -- Erica Olsen, Librarian Avengers

What can I say? Librarians rule.
          -- Regis Philbin

And most important to remember, from this day forth: