Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 3:50 PM

You ever get the sense that British actors fail to take themselves seriously?

If you haven't yet seen it, this is Dan Radcliffe, Warwick Davis and Diana Rigg playing themselves -- sort of -- in a scene from Extras:

In case it's slow to load, here's the link.

Another blogger posted a transcript

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:15 PM

Just got a call from John Kerry's exploratory committee asking if they still had my support.

Since there seems to be question over whether Kerry will run again, I thought I'd share that experience.

FWIW, I replied honestly -- there are so many candidates in the race right now that I haven't decided.

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:02 PM

I don't even play Warhammer 40000, but I just found out they have Space Marine Librarians!

They have both regular Space Marine Librarians (subdivided into Epistolaries, Codiciers, and Lexicaniums) and Space Marine Terminator Librarians! Their leader appears to be Ultramarines Chief Librarian Tigurius.

Oooh!

Jokes about Conan the Librarian have been around at least as long as the Schwarzenegger movie. [I remember this Mother Goose and Grimm strip way back from my high-school media center.]

But this is yet more proof (as if any were needed) that librarians are not to be messed with.

Games Workshop has an essay on Space Marines Librarianship, and the UK site includes a section on Librarian Familiars.

Covet

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:59 PM

Last night's episode of Smallville was the long-anticipated "Justice"

Even though I normally don't watch the show, I made sure to catch this one.

Did you?

Open note to the producers: bring these characters back! But next time, try to find some females for the team, ok?

Heck, try to find some female heroes, period.

Looking at the Wikipedia entry for the show, section on Appearances by other DC Comics characters, I see one or two female supporting characters brought over from the comics, but not one female hero.

You can do better than that!

Clark seems the chivalrous sort; making him deal with a woman capable of rescuing him could make for some interesting dynamics.

Furthermore, all incarnations of the Justice League have included at least one female among the founding members -- it's inconceivable that fifty-year-old comics would show greater sensitivity to equality than your 21st century version.

Okay, Wonder Woman may be tied up with the forthcoming movie, but Birds of Prey is off the air. Black Canary is one of the canonical founders of the League. How about Power Girl or Hawkwoman, who have also been members?

Come on, guys -- give us something!

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:23 PM

As seen this morning on Boing Boing:

Wegman's bakery received an online order for a cake with a message in Italian and English, but couldn't process the accent characters in the Italian passage -- instead, the printer barfed out a ton of error messages in angle-brackets:

I'll confess, my first reaction was "how nifty!"

Then I decided I wanted a cake frosted to resemble the Blue Screen of Death.

After having so much fun at our company's Festivus potluck party, I tried to think of other events that lack the cultural baggage that can make more traditional holidays such stressors.

I want to have an April Fool's potluck with a theme of fun or misleading foods.

Serve dishes such as meatloaf that looks like cake, and cake that looks like meatloaf, ice cream cone cupcakes, gelatin brains, maybe even kitty litter cake (though Ian refuses to acknowledge such a thing could exist, much less condone me making one).

What do you think?

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:36 PM

According to Wikipedia, the Bunker Hill Monument in Boston has 294 steps -- the same number of steps as the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Hm. The Eiffel Tower is "360 to the first level, another 359 to the second" and elevators are required beyond the second platform -- no public access via the stairs to anything higher.

Any other fun benchmarks folks can suggest as I go for the distance?

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:10 PM

Oodles of bloggers are linking to this New York Times piece about four guys sharing an apartment in downtown Washington (DC).

But fewer have noticed Alex Beam's Boston Globe piece, which has further telling details about the living arrangements:

Even though the house has been straightened up for visitors, many telling details remain on display. There is the drinks cooler in the fireplace. The empty picture frames stacked on top of the oven hood. The overturned rattrap behind the stove. The wicker chairs, whose broken seats have been replaced with ceiling tiles. ... A pair of boxer shorts -- a souvenir of a fund-raiser for Senator Barbara Boxer of California -- lies on top of a pile of what Delahunt calls "communal clothing." Inexplicably, a cluster of male toiletries stands next to the downstairs phone. "We share those," explains Delahunt, who, for understandable reasons, prefers to shower and shave at the House gym.

That would be Massachusetts Rep. Bill Delahunt, who rooms with fellow Democrats Rep. George Miller (CA), Sen. Richard Durbin (IL), and Sen. Charles Schumer (NY) -- living in conditions more expected among college kids, rather than responsible adults.

WBUR spoke to Congressman Delahunt to get a more intimate picture.

The Globe says the residence in question is located at "127 D Street" but checking the online mapping sites, the New York Times photo doesn't look like the aerial views of 127 D St SE, 127 D St NE, or 127 D St NW. The Times describes it as "bout a quarter-mile southeast of the Capitol," but I'm just not seeing it. Anybody more knowledgeable about the area care to offer some pointers?

At any rate, if you've ever regretted not living "the high life", just read (and listen to) these stories for a glimpse at what the seat of power and influence is really like.

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:21 PM

Good News: I think I've got preliminary approval to attend Computers in Libraries in mid-April near DC.

I don't think I can justify extending my stay through Shakespeare's birthday for the Shakespeare Theatre Co's panels on Cardenio (Evidence of Authorship & ReDiscovery Series), but I'm hoping to take an extra day or two beforehand to see some of the Shakespeare in Washington Festival events, including:

Because of the Patriots' Day holiday, Ian doesn't have Sunday school on April 15th, so hopefully he can join me for the weekend.

PS: I recently found out about Penguicon, the following weekend. It's a bastard halfbreed of computer conference and SF con. Somehow, I don't think I can convince my bosses that it's sufficiently work-related... I'm not even going to try.
Cool concept, though.

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:02 PM

Okay, I'm more physically pffft than remotely physically fit.

However, we're going to Italy over the summer. Since I recently read Brunelleschi's Dome, the opportunity of seeing the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence sounds exhilarating.

But that's a climb of 463 steps.

And the elevator problems at Arisia taught me that I'm going to need to work up to that.

I figure it's going to take a lot of practice with a StairMaster (or just stairs in general).

But, I'm not sure what's actually reasonable.
I don't want to push myself too far too fast and cause an injury.

So, could somebody please sanity check me?

Just running the numbers in a spreadsheet, I see two ways of hitting my goal by the first of June:

1. Linearly: twice a week, increase the number of steps by 12
2. I could also increment by a percentage: 7% twice a week should do it.

I'm not sure which method would be better.

The percentage approach has the advantage of being less arduous when I'm just starting out, but later on, the intervals get much steeper. Maybe too steep?

I also looked at a combined approach, starting off linear, and then switching to the percentage growth after I reach the halfway point, giving me a much more gradual slope.

But then, this is just number crunching; I have no idea if this is remotely realistic. Physical education was one of my worst subjects.

Any advice would be most appreciated.

PS: Yes, I am aware that there are other exercises I should be doing. However, since my goal is specifically to climb a certain number of steps, that's my sole focus for now. I will probably, hopefully add more to my workout as I get more in the habit of going regularly to the gym.

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:03 PM

Last night, Ian and I stopped for dinner at a Chinese restaurant.

Here are the messages we got in our fortune cookies:

You're not a failure because you don't make it, you're a success because you tried.

and

Cleverness is serviceable for every- thing, sufficient in nothing.

I got the former; Ian, the latter.

But somehow they almost seem more appropriate the other way around.

What do you think?

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:08 PM

Various random thoughts and comments I wished to make about my experience at Arisia.

First of all, for everybody who admired my shirt this weekend (right), here's the link where you can buy it yourself. It was a Hannukah gift from Ian, and I have never seen such a positive reaction to any article of clothing in my wardrobe. [The last time I wore it while going to an actual library (I have the degree but work for a vendor), every staffer who saw it grinned -- and the clerk working circulation asked me to go over to the Reference Desk to show them.]

• Clever button, seen on several people: "Available introvert. Say hi." - source
• Funniest t-shirt seen for sale: Two strategically placed D20s with the saying "Yes, they're natural" - source
• Funniest t-shirt seen on a person: "I blogged your mom"

For the Ferrett, I found the d6 rings (shown to the left) @ Individual Icons. And the D20 pendant from ThinkGeek. No, I don't own either (yet), but think they're cool. [And yes, I also left this as a comment in his journal.] For anybody who's curious, Ferrett's even cuter than his (dated) userpic.

You can get a great sense of how a con is going by using Google Blog Search (or Technorati, LJSeek, or other blog-specific search engines), and searching for the convention name with chronological results.

First panel I attended was Eric M. Van's Theories of Depression. Fascinating look at (normal, non-clinical) depression both from an evolutionary psychology standpoint and the neurochemistry of clinical depression that might support the hypothesis. I may write more about this later, but I want to be careful not to jeopardize his plans for publication. [He's working towards a PhD.] Still, nifty concept.

Though I blogged the call-for-submissions, I never actually got around to writing anything for She's such a geek. I just found out they got over 200 submissions, far more than they could possibly print, even if they release sequel volumes.

So I met the editors, attended their reading, bought my own copy of the book, and had it signed. I am enough of a geek that I caught two errors in the description of Real Genius: (1) it's set at the fictitious Pacific Tech, not Caltech, and (2) characters may have been threatened with arrest, but no actual arrests took place at the conclusion of the film.

Interesting statistic from Annalee Newitz: the readership of Wired magazine is 90% male -- a higher percentage than Playboy or Penthouse.

It's Not Fanfic If You Can Make Money At It inspired so many thoughts and comments that I'm going to devote a separate entry to my conclusions.

By the way, the Pocket Program was a design masterpiece. As Joe Ross pointed out in the "Gripe" session, different people access info in different ways -- so the pocket program accommodated them all. They included (1) a pull-out timeslot grid, (2) a list of panels grouped by subject/track, and (3) a consolidated listing by time. The Program Guide insert to Souvenir Book included #2 and a panels grouped by participant, so if you wanted to follow a particular person (or were that person) you could know where they were supposed to be.

The best innovation, IMO, was that each program item had a little "code" identifying (a) the track/type, (b) date, (c) time, (d) floor, and (e) room -- all in about 8-10 characters. The key was printed on the back cover. It wasn't quite perfect (I saw some confusion between date+time and room numbers), but close enough. I think other conrunners should look at these (see http://2007.arisia.org/Publications) and adapt them.

Bravo!

Artist GoH Hilary Scott makes some astonishing art. Bear, I wish you could've seen his contract between the devil and Faustus. The parchment alone covered one wall. And once you read that, you noticed this giant hand and pen... :)

Every attendee and their confidants have mentioned the lack of elevators by now. I personally didn't mind it all that much. See, I hadn't planned on blogging it yet, but there's going to be a family trip to Italy next summer. I already made notes that climbing the Leaning Tower of Pisa involves 294 stairs, and Brunelleschi's Dome in Florence requires 463 steps. So I was planning on some kind of workout routine with a Stairmaster -- I just got an earlier start than I expected.

I could just ramble on and on... Since I heard that the business was off for vendors in the dealer room, I'm somewhat tempted to blog a free plug for them. Saw some really neat stuff for sale; bought only a few items... But I think I'll go into that later; this post is long enough for now.

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:07 PM

“I don't scoff at the law, but I may snicker at silly ones.”

— button seen at Arisia (approximate, from memory)

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:12 AM

Well, Ian blogged this, so I guess I don't have to.

Far as I'm concerned, you can EITHER have an invite-only party OR you can advertise your party.

But it's FUCKING RUDE to advertise your invite-only party.

Don't mind invite-only parties. Don't even mind invite-only parties who, apparently, were going around handing out invites only to women who were dressed slutty. Heck, if someone took that to the extreme, and walked around the con handing out slips of paper which said, "You're sexy. Come to my room at 11 pm," that wouldn't bother me. And if he or she got people to show up, more power to him or her.

DO mind people who do that and also put posters up in the stairwells advertising their party. It's fucking RUDE to do that, then set up a velvet rope outside, and do the "club" thing. Dunno about you, but I go to cons to get away from that kind of dynamic.

Yes, I'm pissed off at not being pretty enough to get into that party.

Hell, I apparently *was* pretty enough -- or could've been.

But heading over to the party I'd seen advertised all over the con and being told at the door: "Sorry, invite only. Unless <leer> you want to come back dressed in something sluttier..."

It wasn't just the club dynamic, but offensively sexist to boot. They didn't tell Ian that he could come back under such circumstances -- though if I dressed up, I could bring Ian as my "guest"

That's just not the kind of thing I expect from a con.

I did mention it at the Gripe Session. As for what concom can do about such situations? Yes, anybody who gets a hotel room can throw whatever party they choose. But the con doesn't have to allow invite-only parties to put up posters in the public areas.

If you're postering for your party, it should be open to everybody.

Fair enough?

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:15 PM

And will now fall down.

Home from Arisia. Have things I want to blog, but possibly not tonight.

*Hey, I'm doing better now that I've had dinner. This post could've been titled "Riba Trembles"