Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:30 AM

For those of you in the US who are fans of Angel, a new episode will be airing next Wednesday night, January 14th. [There's been so many reruns since sweeps month that folks may have lost track.] That same night, WB will be rerunning the last new episode of Smallville (the cliffhanger -- a good episode, which I recommend if you haven't already seen it), so I suspect the next new episode of that series will air the following week.
Correction: A new Smallville will be airing that night as well. My earlier information was incorrect. I hope this didn't mess anybody up.

Also (related only thematically), today's Piled Higher and Deeper continues the storyline from the previous strip that I mentioned on Wednesday. It's a good strip; I own the collected book and a t-shirt with this image (though since I'm no longer actually in grad school, I haven't worn it in a while).

There's more I'd like to write, including some comments about the book I started last night (The Hidden key to Harry Potter -- yes, yet another library book; but I did finish reading one of the others), but I'd need the book in front of me to do so, and I'm not in a position to do that right now.

Have a good day and a good weekend!

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:20 AM

For those of my readers in the UK: If you don't already have a passport and plan to travel to the United States in the next several years, you may want to get one now, just in case.

Via Atrios, quoting the BBC News:

Currently British travellers can visit the US for up to three months without a visa under the "visa waiver" scheme.

But new passports issued after 26October must hold "biometric" data such as digital images or fingerprints - or a visa will be needed.

The UK authorities will not be able to issue such passports before mid-2005.

British travellers holding a "machine-readable" passport - issued in Britain since November 1991 - can still travel to the US without a visa for the 10-year lifetime of their document.

They will then have their fingerprints and photographs taken on arrival in the US.

But those who get a new passport after October 26, but before biometric ones are available, will have to purchase a visa at a cost of £67.

More than four million Britons a year travel to the US, and hundreds of thousands of them would be affected by the arrangements as they currently stand.

Got that? British passports obtained before this October will be fine for travelling to the United States, but from October until whenever they add the biometric data, travelling to the US will cost extra.

Maybe I should see about getting my own passport soon (along with one for Ian), just in case...

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:30 AM

Had a rather odd dream night before last.

I dreamed that the devil had come for Ian's soul. The only way to save him was to best the devil in a game of my choosing. One game, winner takes all. Problem is, I'm not a terribly good gameplayer, and for most of the dream I was trying to think of some game that I had a better than average chance at winning against an infernal opponent.

At some point, Jadasc showed up. I explained my dilemma and he offered to go off and get help, but I asked him to stick around for moral support. Instead, he used his cell phone and called his housemates at Mystery House to come over as well. [They hadn't arrived by the time I woke up, but they were on their way.] I was somewhat tempted to see whether Teddywolf could stand in for me and play in my stead, since he's much better at finding winning strategies than I am. But since it was my husband's soul on the line, that just didn't seem right.

I didn't think I could beat the devil on sheer strategy-based games, and didn't want to try my hand on a game of chance. That's where the subject line comes in. I started wondering whether Apples to Apples would be a good idea or a bad idea for such high-stakes. On the one hand, it's more random than many other options at my disposal. On the other hand, winning partly depends on knowing the rest of the group well enough to predict how they'd judge, which might give me a leg up. Particularly since I'd invited Mystery House over. And (as Ian pointed out when I described this dream to him), even if I didn't win, the more players there were, the more chance somebody good would win my soul rather than the devil...

At any rate, in case this comes up again, a question for you all. If you had to play the devil for rights to a loved-one's soul, what game would you choose?

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:05 AM

Well, the SelectSmart Presidential Candidate Selector is makiing the rounds again. I saw it most recently at Pen-Elayne and decided to give it whirl.

Interestingly enough, when I first took the quiz, six months ago, I was 90% Kucinich and only 71% Dean.

At that time, I also analyzed the aggregate results of how people responded overall. They reset their counter last month, but even with responses from four-times as many people, the numbers are surprisingly similar. So much so, that after spending a fair chunk of time last night formatting a comparison table between the current figures and those I recorded in June, I've decided not to bother. They really are quite close in most cases.

Posted by Lis Riba at 3:45 PM

So, I stopped by the library again to pick up more books. [I've returned about half of my loot from two weeks ago (some read, some not) and checked out several other titles, making my current total loan 13 books, of which five are holdovers from the previous list.]

Among my latest haul are new books in two series of Elizabethan mysteries that I've been following. And, my familiarity with the period is definitely a boon and a bane.

And reading all that over, I doubt anyone besides me will find it at all interesting...

Here's something you'll hopefully find more amusing:

Which Evil Villain Bad Habit are you?

Posted by Lis Riba at 1:14 PM

On the notion that Jewish == neoconservative, I just found (via Gallimaufry), this online chat transcript with pollster John Zogby. This question and answer spurred me to blog:

Washington, D.C.: Will 2004 be the start of a major realignment of the Jewish community to the Republican party? If not, will Bush get the largest percentage of Jewish votes ever?

John Zogby: That is very interesting. I happen to be going into the field to do another poll of American Jewish voters in the next couple of days, but I have to say that to date I don't see any evidence of any shift at all. Right now in a typical nationwide poll we get a small subsample of Jewish voters - approximately 40 out of 1000 - so it is hard to draw hard conclusions. But on issues of Bush and policy I keep seeing 70 percent to 25 percent Democrat over Republican. There is a notion that Jewish voters are one dimensionally Israel voters. The reality is that Jewish voters are multidimensional and they are still fundamentally liberal voters. Now that can change this week after I get my results, but I do not see anything yet.

So much for that theory...

Incidentally, one of Zogby's other comments really troubles me. He was asked about what his polls show about polarizaton (the red-states/blue-states of Election 2000):

I think we are looking at a 1790's election - Jefferson versus Adams - each side predicting the end of the world if the other side won. We are extremely and intensely polarized. As my colleague John White, Professor at Catholic University, describes the nation today he calls it "E Pluribus Duo." There is a cultural and ideological divide. There is a split on church attendance where the red states different from the blue states, gun ownership, with the red states different from the blue states, etc. what I don't see is a Ronald Reagan, a Jack Kennedy, and FDR or even a Bill Clinton who attempts to build bridges. I think it troubling personally.

I'm also amused by his response to the question immediately following. Somebody proposes a scenario where the Democratic Convention is deadlocked, thus nominating Hillary in a way she bypasses the primaries. The questioner asks what the chances of this are and concludes, "Am I a conspiracy wing nut?" and Zogby begins his answer with "Yes." Then he follows up by adding "But there was a second gunman on the Grassy Knoll."

Anyway, I'm going to try to grab lunch (I missed it yesterday). Later!

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:15 AM

Ever have one of those nights where you just don't feel like going to bed/sleep. It's not necessarily that you're doing something else you're staying up late for or that you're engrossed in a book or story. It's not insomnia per se. It's just that you find yourself doing other things because you really don't want to go to bed/sleep.

That's happened to me the last two nights, and I was also going through it the first two days of last week. I don't know what I feel like I'm avoiding, I just am.

[While trying to find a title for this entry, I came upon this Thornton Wilder quote: "For what human ill does not dawn seem to be an alleviation?" I'd say insomnia might qualify... Those who duelled at dawn and had (understandable) jitters would probably also disagree.]

My new Free Will Astrology horoscope is up, though I have no idea what it might be referring to:

The oldest woman to have a number one pop song was Deborah Harry, born under the sign of Cancer. She conquered the UK charts with "Maria" when she was 53 years old. The world's oldest astronaut was another Crab, John Glenn, who flew on the space shuttle when he was 77. Now you, too, have a chance to make history through success in an activity that most people might regard as impossible or inappropriate for someone your age. Don't let anyone shame you into shrinking from the challenge, whether you're 25 and thinking of entering a bubble-gum blowing contest or 65 and considering the possibility of windsurfing down the Amazon River.

Meanwhile, I really like this morning's Piled Higher and Deeper. I'm looking forward to whether and how they answer that question, as it's one I know that I've spent time discussing.

And a troublemaker in a recent thread thought he was a pedant? Hah! He doesn't know the meaning of the word (or how to punctuate it), unlike some people!

Have I mentioned recently how much I love my husband? A few recent posts in his journal and comments he's made to others keep reminding me of his insight. For example:

• The relative importance of freedom, privacy and safety
• Differentiations between morality and ethics
• On matters he won't argue/debate
• And, heh. [Get a load of apel's response!]

That's about all I have at the moment, just rambling as I try to wake up...
At least posting while asleep isn't considered as dangerous as posting while drunk.

Posted by Lis Riba at 1:00 AM

For folks who read my blog through an aggregator, please note that I've updated my previous post on library job searching with a few addenda on other aspects of the process.

Anyone linking to that post hereon-in will see it as part of that post, but if your aggregator already grabbed the feed, you might miss it. Thus this little announcement.

And now I'm going to bed.

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:20 PM

I've noticed that several of my LiveJournal Friends have mentioned jobhunting recently, so I thought I'd lend a hand by sharing some of the vast experience I picked up during my year of unemployment (4/2001 - 4/2002).

This comes from something I posted this time last year and is primarily concerned with library jobhunting sites for the Boston area (though there are some national sites, too).

Finally, if things really start to get you down and you're in need of a pick-me-up or a good laugh, Unshelved is a daily comic strip about librarianship, Librarian.net is a blog with fun and intersting news links, Librarian Avengers and the Ode to librarians are good morale boosters, as is (IMO) this list of librarian-power quotes I posted when I got my degree.

Hope this helps and I wish you all luck in finding good jobs soon.
[Oh, and let me know which advice above does and doesn't help, and further useful links and advice are welcome. I have a feeling this kind of post could become a semi-regular thing as more librarians graduate and need jobs each year.]

Addenda: Since I just got a nice link & plug from Library Stuff, and while I've got your attention, a couple more important points about jobhunting:

1. Deveraux and Deloitte have placed listings for Writer/Researchers on numerous sites. I know very little about them: it could be a good freelancing opportunity for some quick cash; it could be a more upscale version of Google Answers, and I've read articles on why that wasn't such a great deal for the participating researchers. I just want to let folks know they're out there, and I'd be interested in any further information others may have about them.
2. Resumes: If you create your resume in MSWord, be sure to go through the Document Properties and clear out any metadata that might appear unflattering. If your resume runs to multiple pages, make sure to put a cont'd at the bottom of the first page, and number all subsequent pages prominently. [I left a stack of resumes on the giveaway table at last year's LITA National Forum; later on I discovered all the Page 1's were gone, but there were still loads of Page 2's.]
   Adobe Acrobat is the best possible format for being preserving your formatting and pagination. And at the standard printer resolution (300-600dpi), the file size is actually smaller than MS Word docs. Personally, I prefer my Acrobat resume to my MS Word one.
   Finally, create yourself one plain ASCII copy of your resume -- unformatted, monospaced, using only spaces (no tabs) for alignment, and with a right margin no greater than about 75 characters. It takes a little bit of time and tweaking to get it looking right (can't just save it direct from the word processor), but it's well worth the effort to prepare it in advance. Some job sites only accept ASCII resumes in their web-based forms. It's also useful for email (I provide both a PDF attachment and the full ASCII text in the body).
3. As far as cover letters are concerned, save them all. Many jobs ask for similar qualifications, and it's much easier to cut and paste from older letters than starting over from scratch every time. Make sure to personalize them if at all possible (try to find the name of the hiring manager, instead of just sending it to HR). And this may be pure superstition, but given all the spam nowadays, I worry that emailed applications will get lost in the inbox. I prefer sending things by mail or fax, where the recipient has an actual tangible physical object, which I think is more likely to get noticed and read.
4. If you blog, be very careful what you write about your job search. Everybody writes about how employers handle their employees' blogs, but few mention the risks during the job hunt. For openings that require HTML or writing, it's very easy and tempting to give hiring managers your URL and let them look for themselves. But look around your site before handing them the URL so they don't see things you might regret.
   Early on in my job hunt, I applied for a low-paying job and then agonized over whether to take it. The next day, I noticed several hits to my journal from that employer, and they never called me back. I have no way of knowing for certain, but I suspect my blog post may have cost me that job. Take that as a lesson and be discreet. If you really feel you need to share with your friends, for advice or just to kvell, LiveJournal's security levels are a useful way to keep strangers out. I don't know of similar solutions for Blogger, Typepad or other blogging tools (though I've considered locking part of my site password-protected for such private entries).

Posted by Lis Riba at 5:05 PM

Via Ed Brill, the Are you a blogohoic? quiz:

My score? 76/100

76 points is in the 51 through 80 precent
You are a dedicated weblogger. You post frequently because you enjoy weblogging a lot, yet you still manage to have a social life. You're the best kind of weblogger. Way to go!
[So far, 10239 people have taken the quiz, with an average score of 43.2%.]

Posted by Lis Riba at 2:05 PM

• The New York Post prints an oped piece calling supporters of Howard Dean "Internet Gestapo," "Hitler's Brownshirts," and "Goebbels."
• Major conservative political operative Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform and the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project equates the estate tax to the Holocaust.
• A grassroots political organization holds an open contest to produce the best political ad. One of the contestants (out of over 1500) compares President Bush with Hitler.

Guess which one of these is getting the most media attention? Here's a hint:

"This is the worst and most vile form of political hate speech," Ed Gillespie, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in one of several statements he issued.

[Via Hesiod @ Counterspin, who also points out the numerous news programs currently booking Gillespie to discuss the issue without giving equal time to representatives on the other side.]

Oh, by the way, a conservative PAC has announced producing the following television ads which they plan to air in Iowa before the caucuses:

In the ad, a farmer says he thinks that "Howard Dean should take his tax-hiking, government-expanding, latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading ..." before the farmer's wife then finishes the sentence: "... Hollywood-loving, left-wing freak show back to Vermont, where it belongs."

[Via Janis Cortese first]

As Atrios points out, if someone ran a reverse ad about George W. Bush, they'd be slammed! with protests.

But a current search of Google News on the language in the anti-Dean ad turns up only one result -- the original Washington Times article which caught everybody's attention. On the other hand, searching on terms related to the Nazi rhetoric above turns up 110 articles and counting.

Meanwhile, today's Talking Points Memo shows how some people are disingenuously trying to tarnish any criticism of neoconservatives as antisemitism. While many neoconservitives may be Jewish, I also know many Jews (myself included) who consider neocon ideology to be antithetical to our own views of Judaism. So if opposition to neocons is antisemitism, what does that make us? Chopped liver?

Remind me again, which side is accusing the other of hate speech (sic)?
I'd make some quip about paging Orwell, but I just found an article describing how the CIA bankrolled the 1950s film of Animal Farm, to ensure a more favorable ending than in the book. [More here]

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:35 AM

As seen in Peter David's Journal:

Which Lord of the Rings character and personality problem are you?


Congratulations! You're Gandalf!

brought to you by Quizilla

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:40 PM

I hope I won't blow this for the rest of the world by sharing the secret.

Sometimes, I really want to find a book ASAP, and want to find out whether any of the local libraries have a copy available. But here in the Boston area, we have several library networks (Metro-Boston, Minuteman, Noblenet, plus all the colleges and universities). So here's a quick trick to find out which libraries close to you have the book you're searching for.

1. Search ABEBooks (the best used-book search site on the web; do not buy used books via Amazon; they're usually the same listings as ABEBooks but higher priced with an Amazon overhead! Though it's somewhat outdated, see Chapter 5 in Warmly inscribed for details) for a title that doesn't exist. If you get search results, refine the search until it can't find anything.
2. Underneath the notice that No books match the given criteria, click the link Find it at a local library. This will take you to an OCLC search page
3. You can then correct your search terms on this page so it will find the book you want
4. After that, it should ask your location (zip code is best) and will then list libraries which claim ownership of the book.

There you have it. You should now have a list of which libraries nearby have the book you're looking for, without having to search dozens of separate library sites.

Can I just add that it really sucks to find out that the nearest holding of a book I desperately want to read is two states away...

I'm not shilling for gifts, but I really want to read The Edwardian Country House/Manor House (same book, UK vs. US editions) based upon the PBS/Channel4 reality series for the story I'm writing. The nearest libraries with copies are in Connecticut and upstate New York... Oh well. And I'd like to read through it before buying, if at all possible.

Of course, that's not half as annoying as what's happened to King James and the History of Homosexuality, which I can get through local libraries and have read that way enough times that I want to own it. Only problem is, I waited a little too long and now nobody has copies for less than $100. I've contacted the publisher and author, and even they don't have any spare copies. And this after I've been praising the book high and low to all and sundry. Sigh... I desperately want to own this book, but it's not worth twice cover price. So I keep watching and waiting... Maybe the BPL will have a sale and weed one of its copies...

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:10 PM

Meant to post about this yesterday morning when I got the paper. Sunday's Boston Globe included an article Job blogs hold perils, opportunities: Bloggers walk a fine line when writing about jobs. No real surprises or new information, but if folks want an article from a "respectable" publication to share around, here you go.

Posted by Lis Riba at 3:35 PM

I feel like Rodney Dangerfield...

So, last Monday as I was skimming through all my posts of 2003 for a Year in Review post, I came across this amusing little video of clumsy cats which I blogged back in June. It made me laugh enough that I blogged it again last Monday.

The following day, ampersand posted about it to his blog, Alas, a blog.

According to the Truth Laid Bear Blogosphere Ecosystem, Alas, a Blog is currently ranked #63, whereas my rank is #1214.

Now I see lots of other sites in my blogroll are now linking to that same video, but those who do give credit link to amptoons rather than my site...

I like to think that cream will float to the top and good material will get me noticed, but sigh... It feels like a self-fulfilling prophecy that those in power have better means to stay in power. Even if they're not doing anything consciously, they've still got a certain mindshare that persists with readers and perpetuates itself.

I really do want to increase my readership in 2004. And I'm really wondering what I should do about this: Register a new easier-to-remember domain? Buy advertising on other blogs? I can't figure out why blogs who have been around far less long than mine have risen so much higher. I've added a blogroll, which people supposedly reciprocate -- but that hasn't done much for my rankings. Is it just a popularity contest related to whom you know in RL? TTLB Ecosystem shows I got a slight boost right after BloggerCon, but that seems to have evaporated... Anybody in the know care to let me in on the secret?

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:20 AM

Just for the fun of it, I picked up the January Cosmopolitan Magazine solely for the "Cosmo Bedside Astrologer." I first discovered this back in high school through one of my friends, and I still enjoy it for pure fantasy entertainment value.

A few highlights from its comments about me and other Cancers:

And a few highlights from the Your best and worst love matches section (Ian's a Pisces, if you didn't already know):

Not that I take any of this seriously, but it's a fun romp. Even the advertisers get into the act, such as this blurb from an automotive ad:

All relatively meaningless, of course, (I still haven't gotten that jetset trip to Europe I was promised several years back!) but still amusing.

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:40 AM

A long time ago, I took the What Kind of Fanfiction Writer Are You? Quiz and received the following result:

You write angst, angst, and more angst. For you, a story isn't a story unless someone gets molested/tortured/humiliated/abused. That's okay, though; nobody writes angst better than you! Not only that, but your plotlines, however dark, are quite often very original. Those who can stomach what you dish out will gladly attest to your greatness and brilliance. Some might even call you a god! A rather cruel god, but a god nonetheless. Your writing is probably hauntingly beautiful, and someone who's read your stuff will never forget it.

Considering that over the weekend I started looking up prison suicide watch policies (this PDF by the DOJ is useful) solely for a bit of backstory which the character in question would never willingly mention... Maybe I'm carrying this research thing a bit too far?

PS: I just transferred slightly over 30 comments posted to my LiveJournal feed into my YACCS comment system in the past week. Just wish to remind folks that I do this, and that it would be much easier on me if you posted your comments in YACCS in the first place... <pleading> At the very least, can you refrain from any more LJ comments to entries from 2003 so I can stop checking that page? Thanks.

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:09 AM

or does the phrase "wintry mix" sound more appropriate for a snack food than for the morning's weather forecast?