Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 5:45 PM

And thus my own dessert condemns me.

My brain is awash in trivia.

I sometimes joke that I have a mind like a steel sieve -- because manages to retain the oddest of facts.

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:15 PM

It seems like both blogosphere and LiveJournal are exploding in wank (and not the fun kind).

So I've waved my arm under the writing bug, trying for a quick bite. And in hopes of reminding folks of the positive aspects of the web, have started work on a short story, my first longer than a drabble since the publication of Half-Blood Prince.

The story, titled "A Marked Man," focuses on Percy Weasley, and I've got about 1300 words written so far (maybe a quarter of the total story).

The first 500 words reach a useful breakpoint, so I'm posting those in isolation, to whet people's appetites (and possibly keep the pressure on myself to finish it).

A Marked Man (opening snippet)

PS: An amusing illustration of cultural differences. Ian asked what this story was about, and I replied "Percy gen"

He replied by asking, "Who's Jen?"

^* In fanfiction, "gen" stands for general, and refers to stories which have no romantic or sexual component to them, as opposed to het or slash.

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:50 AM

I've often called myself an info-junkie, but I thought it was a joke. But maybe not, according to new research:

Neuroscientists have proposed a simple explanation for the pleasure of grasping a new concept: The brain is getting its fix. The "click" of comprehension triggers a biochemical cascade that rewards the brain with a shot of natural opium-like substances, said Irving Biederman of the University of Southern California. He presents his theory in an invited article in the latest issue of American Scientist.

"While you're trying to understand a difficult theorem, it's not fun," said Biederman, professor of neuroscience in the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

"But once you get it, you just feel fabulous."

The brain's craving for a fix motivates humans to maximize the rate at which they absorb knowledge, he said.

"I think we're exquisitely tuned to this as if we're junkies, second by second."

Biederman hypothesized that knowledge addiction has strong evolutionary value because mate selection correlates closely with perceived intelligence.

Only more pressing material needs, such as hunger, can suspend the quest for knowledge, he added.

As tamnonlinear commented in WCG's journal, "So education is not my anti-drug, it IS my drug?"

"Hi, my name is Lis, and I'm...

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:50 AM

Amid all the acrimony, let's find common ground to celebrate and educate one another.

What I'm trying to say is:

Last one to the pool buys the next round!

And don't forget the forthcoming Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans...

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:30 AM

And continuing the trend of significant family events (one of the reasons why Ian and I got married on June 13th instead of the 20th), here's a public

wish to my parents.

According to custom, I should be getting you gifts of alabaster, but nowadays that's mostly reserved for lampshades and lighting fixtures, which I'll leave up to your tastes...

^*Images courtesy of GlitterGraphics

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:00 AM

Growing up, I remember various businesses had special offers for birthdays: free ice cream cone on your birthday, or things like that.

Anybody know of businesses nowadays that still do that sort of thing? Preferably those who still offer such treats for people over the age of twelve?

[Don't worry about posting late; consider this a resource for future birthdays -- mine and others'.]

Posted by Lis Riba at 5:54 AM

Today is my 36th birthday. Hooray!

Normally on these occasions,^* I check all the newspapers I can get my hands on for horoscopes, particularly the "your birthday today" listings.

I haven't gotten around to that yet, though if you see an interesting horoscope for Cancers today please share it (and/or the link) in the comments.

Also, how about a reverse of the birthday meme. Here's Wikipedia on June 21. What events or notable people (births or deaths) most catch your eye?

^*Previous birthday blog posts: 2002 (horoscopes), 2003, 2004 (horoscopes) and 2005, if anyone wants to crosscheck the horoscopes with actual history (as I've blogged it)...

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:00 PM

Anybody have a license to edit Wikipedia?

Teresa Nielsen Hayden provided a pointer to List of fictional expletives and while it's awfully thorough, I noticed a couple missing:

Specifically they currently have nothing from Tanith Lee's Don't Bite The Sun and its sequel Drinking Sapphire Wine, both of which come with a convenient glossary, including words like:

farathoom	Bloody, fucking hell.
floop	Cunt. See also thalldrap.
thalldrap	See floop.
Vixaxn	[This is the worst word in the book; in the first volume it's never written in full; the meaning is described as obscure but obviously pretty bad.]

There are plenty of other words which might serve as expletives (it's been a while since I read them) but these are the most obvious for additions to the Wikipedia page.

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:15 PM

Well, it's finally almost here.

London's National Portrait Gallery exhibit Searching for Shakespeare opens at the Yale Center for British Art end of this week.

I've been waiting to see this for nearly two years, and now, hopefully, we'll go down sometime this weekend.

I know I've mentioned making a big group outing, but I'm in a somewhat solitary mood at the moment. For now, I'm not sure I want the hassle of trying to coordinate with lots of people.* It's a three hour drive from here to New Haven, so we may just visit the museum Saturday day, rather than making a longer trip of it. I suppose we could take the train, but it's about the same amount of time for less convenience and more money.

* Though, a small number of people could be okay. Bear, I do have a book to return to you; and if anyone else in the New Haven area wants to get together, let me know so we can plan...

Darn, it looks like a bunch of cool lectures are scheduled for weekdays when I can't attend:

• Thursday 5:30pm: Shakespeare's London: The Tourists' Perspective by James Shapiro (author of 1599: a year in the life of William Shakespeare, a book I loved!)
• Friday 12:30pm: Shakespeare's Faces: Likeness, Myth, and Technical Evidence by exhibit curator Tarnya Cooper
  I've wanted to ask her about the Grafton portrait since she made the news with it last November (even sent an email, but never got a response).

Anybody planning to attend either of these willing to blog about it afterwards? [And in the latter case, willing to ask a question on my behalf?]

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:05 PM

It was twenty years ago this week -- I believe twenty years ago today -- that I first came to Boston.

1986 was the summer between my junior and senior years of high school.

I had never gone to overnight camp as a kid, and my parents were concerned about making sure I was prepared for college. They knew some freshmen from their own schooldays who couldn't hack living in the dorms, flaked out and fled for commuter colleges. Given modern tuition costs, they didn't want something like that to happen to me, so we found the Boston College Experience program. Six weeks, two classes for college credit, plus lectures and other resources to prepare high school students for college life.

Also that summer, some relatives from Israel were visiting the States. So my folks decided to combine the two and we took a roadtrip up the coast from Florida to Boston, seeing the sights along the way. I seem to recall I was finally reading Frank Herbert's Dune during that drive.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure we got into Boston on June 20th. I seem to recall staying at the Lenox Hotel by the BPL (or maybe we just had a dinner there or something? I just have memories of that particular hotel). I remember walking along Newbury Street with my folks, probably had lobster dinner somewhere (Legal's?). I got my birthday presents in the hotel room the following evening, including the brand new Terry Brooks hardcover, Magic kingdom for sale -- sold!

And then I went to BC for six weeks, and had an utter blast. I'll try to tell more stories about that summer later, but looking at it in hindsight, it really was one of those life-changing experiences. Over the summer, I roamed all around Boston, and fell in love with the city. Decided that I really wanted to return to the area for college. And it was my last day before the flight home when I caught the train out to Waltham and took a walking tour of Brandeis, and knew by the end of the day that I'd be applying there early decision...

So there you have it. Twenty years ago.

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:10 PM

For any fans of alternate browsers, Opera version 9 is out and available for immediate and free download!

Be sure to back up your files and settings first (see here and here) before installing over an existing version; I almost lost my custom search.ini here at work...

[Ian, if you want, I can help you with this when I get home tonight.]

PS: Features, Screenshots, Changelog

Postscript/Added later:

Best new feature so far: site-specific preferences. My office uses Outlook for mail, and remote access is through Outlook Web Access, a web app which gives errors if one tries to access it through any browser but IE.
I can not only configure my browser to identify itself as IE when visiting that site, but I can also automatically accept all popups from it (it's caused problems when trying to compose messages). Previously, I'd have to change the browser preferences before viewing the OWA site, and then remember to change them back again after I was done with mail, meanwhile messing up site statistics for other pages I was viewing.
Likewise, there are certain pages which always seem to evade the popup blockers. I can set those sites to have stronger popup protection.

Other favorite new feature: Ability to add search engines on the fly so I can access them from the address bar. Maybe one of these days I'll share my search.ini with y'all. I use address-bar command-line "searching" for such varied tools as the Wayback Machine and New York Times Link Generator.

Cool stuff!

Oh yeah, and Opera does use the Mozilla-originated feed icon, so I've restored my own site's design.

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:05 PM

I saw this first on Steve Gilliard's and have been just too appalled to blog it until now:

NASA managers on Saturday picked July 1 to launch the first space shuttle in almost a year, despite recommendations against a liftoff attempt by the space agency's chief engineer and safety offices.

The decision to launch Discovery on a trip to the international space station was made after two days of meetings by NASA's top managers and engineers at the Kennedy Space Center. The flight would be only the second shuttle mission since the Columbia disaster in 2003.

During a poll of top managers, representatives from NASA's Office of Safety and Mission Assurance and the Office of the Chief Engineer recommended against flying until further design changes are made to the external fuel tank. Despite their recommendations, the dissenting managers didn't object to making a launch, NASA officials said.

The ultimate decision to fly was made by NASA administrator Michael Griffin, who said he would shut down the space shuttle program if there was another vehicle lost like space shuttles Challenger and Columbia.

Punkass Marc has further details:

NASA decided Saturday to schedule the launch of the shuttle Discovery for July 1, despite the concerns of some top safety officials that the space agency has not solved the problem with flaky insulating foam, which brought down the shuttle Columbia in 2003.

[... A]t the end of the two-day Flight Readiness Review, [the Chief Engineer and Head Safety Officer] were outvoted by the rest of the management team. The team thought that even if foam comes off, it would not endanger the seven-person crew.

Sadly, No! pinpoints the political appointee as final arbiter:

The head of the US space agency, Dr Michael Griffin, overruled warnings that there was a "relatively high" chance the shuttle's external fuel tank could shed some of its solid foam coating when it launches on 1 July, carrying seven crew

Isn't this precisely how the shuttle got into trouble the last two explosions?

The Challenger was pushed to launch so it could be highlighted for Reagan's State of the Union address. And both shuttle disasters happened when advance safety warnings were ignored. Only difference is this time the general public has been let in on the predictions.

"We have elected to take the risk," [Dr Griffin] said.

Were the astronauts involved in the decision? If not, who's this "we" he's speaking of? The only risk he's personally facing is bad PR and getting to wield the budget axe on shuttle and space station programs.

I'm afraid we're looking at a disaster waiting to happen.

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:50 AM

We have a tiny spider living by our bathroom sink. Small, harmless, and rather cute. Since it's summer and we're opening windows, which has given some flying insects entry, we've decided to let it stay. [Judy, if you ever come over, we'll keep it out of your way!]

At any rate, watching the spider as I brushed my teeth, shades of Charlotte's Web flashed through my mind.

"Ian," I said, "I don't mind the spider living here, but if it shows any signs of laying eggs or giving birth, they're outta here."

Ian's reply?

"Got it. Eight legs good, Eight-million legs bad!"

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:15 AM

Which Western feminist icon are you? You are Virginia Woolf! You were openly bisexual and had public affairs, but you never liked sex. You wrote a seminal feminist work, long before feminists knew that they were feminists. In this vein, you never really considered yourself a feminist. You were a tragic figure, but a damn genius. Take this quiz! Quizilla | Join | Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Don't know if I agree with these results, but interesting nonetheless. How do you do?

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:12 PM

Two news stories seen over the weekend:

"I think most kids get their favorite show for their birthday party theme," Jennifer Schally said.

[...Three-year-old] Henry Schally picked "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer".

His mother, Jennifer Schally, designed party hats complete with pictures of the PBS news program's regular contributors....

The party was over Memorial Day weekend, and the Schallys made all their guests wear the hats Jennifer Schally designed. They got a cake with the photo of the show's correspondents and Jennifer Schally arranged for Jim Lehrer to send an autographed photo for a birthday present.

It read, "To my youngest fan" and was signed, "Jimmy Jimmy BoBo", which is the nickname Henry gave Lehrer.

You can read the story here, but you simply must watch the video -- it is so adorable!

Three years old and he can even recognize the names of our nation's leaders -- as good or better than the average voter in a Gallup poll!

Meanwhile, Peg Kerr pointed out a different kind of newsmaker in Idaho:

Aubrey Matthews, aka "Star," woke up Friday morning to a phone call that a villain named Black had stolen a golden star from the Idaho Historical Museum. A Life Flight helicopter and police escort vehicles took her to the crime scene to talk to investigators. Aubrey found a clue, and the chase was on. Before capturing Black, Star rescued people from a "smoke"-filled building on Front Street, someone from drowning in ParkCenter Pond, and ferrets at Zoo Boise who had been framed for stealing the golden star.

The Idaho Statesman explains that the six-year-old wanted to be a superhero, and her day was orchestrated by the Make-A-Wish Foundation, with a lot of help from others in the commmunity:

Aubrey, aka "Star," has optic glioma, a brain tumor behind her eyes. But it didn't stop her as she foiled crimes and chased her arch-nemesis, Black (named for the character on Neighborhood Watch signs), through the city of Boise, followed by a cavalcade of police cars.

With a determined look on her face, Aubrey used her super powers of X-ray vision, super strength, fast speed and blowing power to rescue a hostage from Black's grip and tie the villain to the replica Liberty Bell in front of the Statehouse at about noon.

Hundreds of fans cheered her on.

"I'd like to thank you for your extreme bravery in capturing Black," Mayor David Bieter said on the Statehouse steps after Black's arrest.

"You have shown extraordinary crime-fighting skills," Boise Police Chief Mike Masterson said before presenting her with a custom-made police uniform, badge and all.

I can't help wondering who scripted her adventures, because that sounds like one heck of a day.

Her adventures were filmed, and besides being turned into a movie, "local artist Kelly Knopp is creating a comic book for Aubrey."

And what day would be complete without a phone call from Adam West?

My own inner comic geek feels obligated to point out that one of these names is not like the others:

Aubrey made up other superheroes to help her fight crimes in scripted scenes on her special day. She equipped Lion Lady, Frog Lady, Dog Man, House Lifter, Sky Girl, Martian Manhunter and Tree Girl with their own superpowers.

Still, two great kids, two unique but great days.

Posted by Lis Riba at 5:40 PM

One exchange that amused me at the party...

While eating some grilled zucchini (yum), I found a seat near this tremendous flirt.

As one gal he knew passed by, he called after her that she was beautiful. The specific word he used was Ineffable!

After she was out of earshot, I quipped: "What, you don't think you can F--- her?"

Thank you. Thenk yew. I'll be here all week!

Posted by Lis Riba at 2:10 PM

Avalon High by Meg Cabot (of Princess Diaries fame)

Avalon seems like your typical high school with typical high school hierarchies. Top of the class includes Will, the class president and quarterback of the Excaliburs. His girlfriend, Jennifer, is head cheerleader, and they're best friends with Lance, Will's guard on the team. Will's life isn't all roses, though. Are Lance and Jen a little too close, perhaps? And what about Will's troubled stepbrother, Marco? And how does the new girl, Elaine, fit into all this?

Sound at all familiar?

Fortunately, the protagonist is the daughter of two medievalists, and in fact was named for the Lady of Shallot. And instead of just being cutesy about resonances that any moderately literate reader can see through, Cabot permits the characters to notice them as well.

And, of course, all is not what it seems.

Quick read. Fun story.

Big party last night. Not at our place, but nearby. Ian stayed late enough after the T stopped running that he let a friend spend the night. Now he's off driving her home.

We'll call relatives for Father's Day after he gets back...

Bubbe, Zayde, if you read this before I call, your package did arrive in the mail; I'm waiting to open it until my birthday proper.