Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:08 PM

This is a test for the benefit of LiveJournal users to determine what happens when I put LJ-Cuts in my posts.

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:00 PM

It's probably both too late and too obvious to mention this, but when I'm seriously over-tired, I get majorly addled. I feel somewhat sorry for those of you reading this on LiveJournal, which is still only picking up my feed once per day, meaning you're getting hit with several long posts in a big clump. Somewhat sorry, mind you. After all, it's LJ's bug, not mine.

At any rate, a couple silly quizzes for a Friday morning:

1. Check out my Morality! 79% liberal, 21% conservative
   [Check out your Morality!]
   Actually, I find many of the other quizzes on that site to be similarly interesting. Big 5, StarWars and Morality all base part of their test on the same model, with a large chunk of repeated questions, but some of the others are nifty.
2. 
   How evil are you?
3. And I'm still waiting on my results from Car Talk Car-O-Scope (They apparently take a day to "process," whatever that means).

I suppose I should be somewhat more wary of online quizzes given this weeks debacle with the crush meme. [For those of you not on LiveJournal, several weeks back there was a cutesy meme going around allowing users to rank their friends by whom they had crushes on. Then, this week, the same site offered to sell people the names of "who has crushes on you." Given that one of the choices was 'secret crush,' the matter of privacy was a hot topic across the boards.]

By the way, a nifty LJ to read is Daily Soul-Search [XML]. Just a thought-provoking question per day. For example, this one from last week:

If someone offered you a huge sum of cash, say, ten million US dollars or the equivalent, but the catch was that in exchange you would never find true love and/or would have to give up the true love you've already found, would you take the money? What would be the reason for your decision?

After considering for a moment whether it would be possible to give half to Ian, I realized my answer had to be no. Much of the fun of having money would be spending it on or for him, and getting to see his reaction.

Once I made that decision, I looked at the other comments and saw Ian's response was the same.

It's a good feeling to realize just how much we value one another. Of course, we've also used this in arguments already, yelling semi-seriously, "Hey, I gave up ten million dollars for you, so you'd better..." [Have I mentioned recently that we're silly people?]

Anyway, I suppose that's about all for now.

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:55 AM

A week late, and probably shortly before the Globe will make the article vanish into the ether, I just found this piece on the Palestinian-owned restaurant we went for the post-Yom Kippur break-fast. I will quote somewhat liberally before it's removed from the site:

As fast is broken, so are barriers
A temple supports Palestinian's eatery

Sepal Restaurant would be an unlikely place for many Jews to break their Yom Kippur fast, even in a time of peace.

But this weekend's violence -- a Palestinian woman killed 19 in a suicide attack, and Israeli warplanes responded with an attack in Syria -- added resonance to the relationship that has grown between a Jewish congregation in Watertown and a local restaurant run by a Palestinian immigrant.

To the sound of Moroccan and Algerian music, 65 members of B'nai Or, hungry after their 24-hour fast for Yom Kippur, crowded Sepal last night for falafel and hummus.
<snip>
The [Sept. 11] attacks came a year after Walid Masoud, the Palestinian proprietor of Sepal, had moved his restaurant, spending $100,000 to transform a 500-square-foot take-out business to a 2,500-square-foot operation on Nichols Avenue. Business quickly dropped 50 percent, and the 65 cushioned seats frequently lay vacant. Despite good restaurant reviews, familiar faces disappeared from his booths, an exodus Masoud blamed, in part, on anti-Muslim sentiment. ''When his business hit on hard times, that's when we got organized,'' Rabbi Daniel Siegel said. ''We're part of the world that said, `We deeply love and respect you, and we're going to spend as much money in your restaurant as possible.' ''
<snip>
Even with the support from B'nai Or, Sepal is still faltering. On a recent weeknight, only two tables were occupied, and the Palestinian chicken breasts, served with Spanish onions and sumac, overflowed in their tin. Surveying the restaurant, Masoud appeared unsure of his future. ''We're still suffering,'' he said. But members of B'nai Or, who spent $11.95 each on the buffet last night, said they hoped their appetites, as much as their loyalty to Masoud, would help keep the business afloat.

''We'll break bread together and behave like brothers, and we believe that the effect will multiply,'' said Marc H. Bloom of Newton, adding, ''We also believe, by far, that he has the best falafel in town.''

That last bit is true. Their felafel was featured in the PBS special Sandwiches You Will Like.

Sepal in Watertown has amazingly excellent cuisine. They make a lentil soup that Ian says is almost as good as his mother's. [Yes, that is high praise. And he actually started to say it was as good or better, but the owner forbid him from saying such a thing in front of her.] My favorite dish is lamb maklouba, which consists of lamb, golden cauliflower, eggplant and rice, sealed in a crock, baked to order and served upside-down so the juices run all the way through. My mouth is watering just writing about it, and it's not even 10 AM. The break-fast buffet included the vegetarian version (with tofu instead of lamb) and impressively enough, it still managed to be good without the meat.

If you live in the Boston area and like good food (or are just visiting), by all means have a meal there. It's too good of a restaurant to be in financial trouble.

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:05 AM

I can't believe I posted that last night. And I don't even have the excuse of having been drunk at the time. Ian says he really likes the story (and I let him read all the rest, but then again, he's my husband so is somewhat obligated to say such things), but I'm having a serious case of morning after poster's remorse.

I'm also utterly exhausted. A certain four-legged feline, who shall remain nameless, decided that she didn't want to sleep last night -- she wanted attention, and was using the noisiest means possible to get that from us. I was able to finally get her to sit down and shut up by picking her up, putting her at the foot of the bed and petting her until she purred. That made her decide to sit on the bed and sleep with us. The problem was, she chose to lie across the lower third of my side of the bed -- leaving no room for my legs. Trying to move her would've probably made her leave the bed and start the whole racket up again. And locking her out of the bedroom is not an option. She's already stripped at least a square foot of paint off the bottom corner of our bedroom door from trying to get in. Ian says he'd been thinking of refinishing the door sometime anyhow, so we would've had to take the finish off anyway, but Boopsie is not quiet about it, so that's not a help.

At any rate, I got so little sleep last night, I was sorely tempted to call in sick. I didn't. I'm here. But I'm far from my peak.

Meanwhile, Ian's been asked to work a double-shift today. He has to be in at 10:30 AM and won't be out until sometime late tonight. And he's doing something similar tomorrow (though he doesn't have to be in until 1pm, I believe). They do well by their workers in such situations -- overtime pay and (as a food establishment) they will feed him, but it looks like I've got much of the weekend to myself.

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:02 PM

Yeah, I've got NaNoWriMo on my mind.

I've been going through and organizing my notes and trying to do prepwork before things start in two weeks. Being typical me, though, and spending more time tinkering with tools than the dealing with the actual content... [Maybe if I format all my comments regarding previously written work in one color and future stuff in another, and use different fonts for changes implemented and discarded...]

I keep questioning myself over why I'm bothering to participate in NaNoWriMo. It's a stupid story, just a piece of fanfic that's been rendered obsolete (or at least alternate universe) by the publication of Book 5 back in June. I gave up my pretentions of becoming a "Writer" after college; this will never amount to anything, so why am I going through all this?

I honestly don't know, but I'm going to try.

At any rate, for no good reason, I started thinking about a piece I wrote in my senior year in high school. I was taking an elective creative writing class, and the teacher assigned us to write ahead and predict our ten year reunion. Every assignment, the teacher allowed students to volunteer to read their work aloud. I remember lots of glamour and wish-fulfillment in the other stories. [I believe one "alum" arrived at the reunion in his limo, as others exclaimed, "Wow! It's the lead pitcher for the Yankees!"]

This is the start of my story -- most of the rest requires too much knowledge of the popular kids in my class -- but I do find it interesting how I percieved myself, even back then.

Please be kind -- I wrote this when I was sixteen, and I'm resisting all my impulses to clean it up as I retype it now.

These are the times to remember

     "Tell me," the reporter stuck his microphone, one of many, in my face, "how does it feel to be the first person to have all five books in the New York Times best-seller list?"
     "Well, I..."
     "Ms. Riba! Over here!!" Blinding light flashed in my eyes for several minutes. A horrible clangor, like a fire alarm, sounded, stopping the reporters. I could still hear clicking in the background, although no more bulbs popped. There was only one light now, and that one too bright. I struggled with my surroundings. Everything blurred and swayed. When I was sure the background had settled, I carefully peeled open one eye, and found myself in bed, the alarms blaring.
     Blearily I sat up, turned off the alarms and looked around. I fell asleep in my clothes again, lying atop a pile of old laundry. The clock's oversize red numbers showed only :03, but I knew that a six was hiding under the torn nylons. I dragged myself out of bed and splashed water on my face. Another work day had begun.
     Finally I staggered into the kitchen. Now, don't think I was drunk; I wasn't. It's just that any floor that might exist in my home was buried under a carpeting of garbage, making the footing difficult. The tea had turned itself on at six, along with the lights. I drank my first cup black. My brood would be up soon and I needed to be awake.
     Even as I was thinking this, Tom and Chris bounded in. I poured them each some milk, which brought Tami, Kim and sleepy-eyed Abigail. They got milk too, and some bacon from my breakfast, in addition to their own. I cuddled each in turn before throwing the dishes in the sink and returning to my room.
     It took a half-hour to get ready, most of that time hunting for a matching pair of shoes and some hose without runs. As I was about to leave, I looked at myself in the mirror and made a face. This is not how twenty-six is supposed to be. I grimaced again and left to catch the train.
     I got home around six. I threw the mail on the table and went to prepare dinner. I shooed the kittens out of the bill drawer (you don't think I'd be crazy enough to have five kids, do you?), pulled out a microwave dinner and settled down with the mail. It was the usual garbage -- bills, unordered catalogs, two SF magazines that had yet to accept any of my work, another rejection slip, and a fancy formal invitation. I opened it carefully and began to eat.

<snip, as Lis doesn't feel like trying to recreate the formatting in HTML. Suffice it to say, it's an invitation to a tenth HS reunion, scheduled for my birthday>

     Enclosed inside was a response card and envelope, all in the same fancy script. My fork hit the floor with a resounding clink, giving the kittens something new to play with, but I was not there. I was in the bathroom, staring at mysellf in the mirror. "Ten years..." I whispered, "It's been ten whole years..." I couldn't believe it. It wasn't supposed to happen like this. Ten years from graduation I was supposed to be rich and famous, not a hack writer who has to work a cheap desk job at day to survive, still owing $10,000 to the government from college. It wasn't possible, it couldn't be ten years already!
     I looked at my reflection. I'd turn twenty-seven at the reunion; this isn't how I'm supposed to be at twenty-seven! The future had held so much promise, what had happened to it all. I got to Brandeis like I had wanted, and my grades were all good ones, but nothing ever came of it. My personal life turned out horribly after <guy's name> left, and my finances were also in bad shape. I couldn't go to the reunion like this.

The story goes on for another page and a half. Boy I could get maudlin back then, but it ends with a nice bittersweet note, and the teacher gave me a perfect grade (well, okay -- 100 on content, but only 96 on mechanics).

My comments upon rereading (retyping):

Did I really think writing was ever a glamorous business, or was I being sarcastic? Even at the highest echelons, how many writers really have papparazzi chasing them?

And five simultaneous bestsellers? Whooee! I must've been presciently dreaming of J.K. Rowling (has anyone besides her managed that?)

I was pretty realistic about my housecleaning habits; fortunately I married a man who likes to clean.

Fortunately, I've never had a job that required me to wear skirts, because I really hate pantyhose.

Bacon for breakfast? I know all the Jews reading this are asking what was I thinking. I'm wondering that myself.

Surprisingly enough, I didn't end up as an old woman with too many cats, primarily because Boopsie is a jealous mistress and vehemently loathes other felines.

Noticing some bad repetition of phrases, also some punctuation that feels off to me today. Like I said, I resisted cleaning this up any, but it was hard.

Student loans are all paid off.

My actual tenth reunion went off pretty well. I was engaged to Ian and working at IBM in a job I enjoyed -- I felt successful, and others seemed impressed with what I'd achieved. Maybe some other time I'll describe the reunion in more detail; suffice it to say, it exorcised a lot of old demons and probably saved me a fortune in future psychiatrist bills. And I have no real need to or interest in attending future reunions.

I don't know; maybe if I hadn't ended up with Ian, my life might've been similar to this description. It's certainly an accurate description of what my apartment looked like before he moved in. [BTW, when I talk about garbage on the floor, I mean papers -- nothing that would smell or rot.]

I gave up writing fiction after a traumatic event my senior year in college. [I was accepted into the Creative Writing track of the English department, which included a thesis requirement of 50-75 pages of original fiction. And the moment I got in, I suddenly saw nothing but flaws in my existing work, and no new ideas would come. Add to that switching advisors in mid-year to someone with very different tastes, because most of the department was on sabbatical, and I'm just pleased that they gave me a passing grade on it. My writing page includes three of those stories that I still feel relatively good about, if you want to see how my writing developed.] But I haven't really written anything in the twelve years since.

And wow, I'm rambling.

And having written all this, I wonder whether I want to expose myself (and my teenage angst and lousy writing) to everyone like this.

Oh, what the hey...

Postscript: I just want to point out, for those of you who mock me for my packrattish ways, when I went looking for this story, written almost half my life ago, I found it -- exactly where I thought it would be. So there.

Posted by Lis Riba at 4:30 PM

I've seen multifunction pens that allow writers to switch among different colors of ink (the red/blue/green/black ones popular as kids) or among pen/pencil/stylus.

What I want is something along those lines that alternates between a pen or pencil, a red pencil, and a highlighter, so I don't have to juggle when I'm editing...

Added later: Well, ask and ye shall receive.
After years of fruitless searching, I've discovered that Staedtler model STD91179CS combines black and red medium tip ballpoints, 0.5mm automatic pencil and a fluorescent orange highlighter. Cool.

Posted by Lis Riba at 2:12 PM

Now that we have the added room, we're planning to move our fiction books downstairs, leaving the nonfiction on our current shelves upstairs (convenient to the computer for reference purposes). We haven't yet built the shelves downstairs, so are just boxing things up for now, but my husband raised an interesting question

How much do books and paper weigh, in general? I mean, although we occasionally covet compact shelving, we know that the floors of our century-old house probably can't support the weight. But if we were to stack boxes of books to the same height, wouldn't that produce a comparable load? We can measure the volume of each box, but weighing them would be difficult. If we had the figures of weight per a certain volume (volume as in cubic measurement, not per book), we could calculate the rest ourselves. But I don't yet have that information.

I'm going to try to find the info myself, but there are enough librarians reading this that perhaps somebody else has the ready numbers on-hand.

If I find the information soon, I'll just update this post directly, so check back.
Thanks!

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:49 AM

I've been hearing a lot of praise for Michael Moore's new book. However, his previous outings have been -- shall we say, factually challenged -- so I've been somewhat wary of the new one. Fortunately, Spinsanity's on the case, with examples of where Moore is distorting the truth. ["Moore attacks the Patriot Act with an array of examples that have nothing to do with it"]

I'm not saying to avoid Moore, but if you do read the book, keep this list handy. There are enough real outrages worth getting worked up over, that it doesn't pay to waste your energy being distracted by exaggerations or urban myths. [via BT!]

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:01 AM

I've been poking around at the various tools out there, and so far haven't found one that quite hits what I need to do. I can visualize in my head a whole mess of scenes that have to take place. Some scenes are anchored to particular points in time -- X must happen on the full moon. Other scenes are connected to other scenes. A must happen before B which must happen before C.

My problem comes from blending the two: A, E and G must happen before Q. E must happen at this time and F must happen before G. But as long as all these scenes take place before Q, it doesn't entirely matter in which order they occur.

It's not a straight linear outline. Rather, I have parallel tracks that intersect, interspersed with nebulous clouds. And I have a calendar.

Very frustrating...

Posted by Lis Riba at 1:25 PM

Crazy question, but I know there are some novelists reading this journal. What format/tools do you use to create your outlines? Any chance I could see a snippet?

Also, I think I loaned my old copy of How to write a romance novel to someone; if you have it, could I get that back?
No, I'm not writing a romance, but I think some of the characterization tips might be helpful.

Thanks.

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:20 PM

As Ian's been moving his/our gaming stuff downstairs, I just found my copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them after about a year of fruitless searching.

Friday night, I finally gave up on the thing and bought myself another copy before NaNoWriMo. [For my earlier attempt, I just used one from the library.]

And, then, tonight, we found our original copy.

Fortunately, list price for the thing is only $4...

Still, Murphy strikes again.

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:54 PM

You are North Quad. You're new here, but still
fairly normal, unlike the weirdos over in
Massell.

what brandeis location are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Posted by Lis Riba at 3:15 PM

I started thinking at BloggerCon that this blog has a very long URL. http://www.osmond-riba.org/lis/journal/ is a lot to write down, particularly in casual conversation. Moreso since I often have to spell "osmond", "riba" and sometimes "lis" before people get it correct. And, I wonder whether that complexity might be deterring potential readers.

I'm considering just registering either ribarambles.com or ribarambles.org (or maybe, ribarambles.net) and pointing it directly to this folder. I would still keep all my existing pointers, so nobody currently reading this journal would have to change any settings or pre-existing links. But this could be a new shorter URL pointing to the same place.

Survey:

1. Do you think the current URL is too long or complex?
2. Rank these in order of preference (listed alphabetically, to try to reduce bias):
   1. ribarambles.com
   2. ribarambles.net
   3. ribarambles.org
3. Given a choice, would you use the URL from #2 in preference to the current URL?

Explanations with your answers are highly desirable, particularly if you've got anecdotes, or strong preferences for or against one of the options. Also, if you've got other suggestions, such as different spellings (riba_rambles?), please share that too.

[Personally, I'm partial to .org, given the original TLD breakdown, but I notice that most weblog URLs end in .com. Since I'm doing this partly to improve my readership, a choice that is technically proper but feels less expected/instinctive/intuitive to readers might not be the best option.]

Two other technical questions:

First, for those of you who reported problems accessing osmond-riba.org a few months ago, how is it working for you now? I know some of you could only access from home but not work, others couldn't connect at all. Could you please let me know how it's working for you? And if you're viewing this through an aggregator (including LiveJournal Friends pages), can you see the following image? [If not, it means you're still having trouble seeing things hosted on osmond-riba.org]

Second, I think I've got the nameservers correct for osmond-riba.org, but when I try to set those same nameservers to one of my other domains, I get errors like:

 "Unable to add nameserver: Nameserver doesn't exist"
or (on a different management site)
 "Unable to add nameservers: Command failed: unable to verify existence of nameserver dybbuk.jadetek.com"

And yet, osmond-riba.org accepted that nameserver without a problem and is now up and running using it.

Can anybody explain what's going on and how I can fix it? Either from the site, the nameserver, the registrar/manager, or somewhere else entirely? Thanks.

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:00 PM

Okay, by now, everything should have been moved to the new hosting site. If you're having any problems reaching anything on osmond-riba.org, including e-mail, please let me know through comments so I can track them down ASAP.

Thank you