Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:24 PM

Regarding my cryptic comment Wednesday morning...

I applied for a managerial opening in my department.

They actually want someone with more experience, but I'd the fact that I was interested enough to apply... it's something I'd never imagined for myself before.

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:12 PM

Frank Miller has gone past the point of self-parody.

Frank Miller has become a bad parody of Ben Edlund's parody of Frank Miller.

Teaser trailer for Miller's adaptation of The Spirit via Ragnell. [The commentts (at least those so far) are definitely worth reading.]

Come to think of it, I'd be much more interested if Ben Edlund were writing this flick.

As the aptly named Wrye points out:

The Spirit is, well, supposed to be fun. I'm not sure I'm getting that vibe here.

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:50 AM

I've found myself contemplating assuming a role I'd previously stenuously rejected.

And since then, Benedick's quote from Much Ado About Nothing keeps running thru my mind:

When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married.

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:10 PM

Since other matters have kept me too busy to blog, it's probably time to post another Lol!Sox.

I was terribly undecided which image to post until I heard the final score, at which point the choice was obvious:

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:10 PM

I was quite struck by a recent observation of Jeff Fecke's:

Privilege is inextricably woven with a blindness to one's privilege. To be privileged is to be blissfully unaware of the many ways in which privilege helps one to advance through society.

Ian and I started discussing this quote on tonight's drive home, and Ian made some really interesting points.

Thankfully, Ian just blogged on the matter, which means that I no longer have to.

White male privilege is simply the condition of being treated the way that people are supposed to be treated, by default.

The reason that so many people with it don't see it is because there's nothing to see. It's the condition of LACKING the problems of NOT having it.

Continued >>

Also, two cartoons by Barry Deutsch which seem relevant:

• Denial: It's a White thing (March 2008)
• Nonspecial Privileges (May 2000)

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:30 PM

To convince students that their databases are better than Google Image Search, DePauw University Library's Visual Resource Center has created a series of short videos -- based on the Mac vs. PC ads.

Rather cute. They're each about one minute long, and I've listed them in order.

1. Introduction
2. Librarian
3. Better Results
4. Spring Break

Via The Shifted Librarian

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:35 PM

Most of it was consumed playing about in Photoshop Elements, um... photoshopping pictures. [Clicking the image will enlarge them to full-size.]

First off, allow me to present:

Seemed so obvious that I can't believe nobody's done this before.

Once I realized that vision, I took on another preoccupation -- this one inspired by a radio sportscaster.

I now have over thirty such images, combining various players and captions (I think I've found relevant pictures for most of the major macro tropes).

Far too many to post all at once.

So, consider this an introduction to a new blog feature:

“I Can Has Fenway Franks?”

Are you looking forward to these? I know I am.

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:35 PM

A (short) film I'd like to see:

Wallace and Chametz

It's a claymation comedy about an absent-minded inventor who tries to create a device to cleanse his house of crumbs before Pesach, and the chaos which ensues as the machine goes about its task.

Mind you, the logical conclusion I leap to would result in the utter destruction of the house (burning the chametz seems particularly fraught), but that seems a bit darker than these stories usually end.

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:15 PM

Three NPR pieces worth a listen:

1. An interview with David Hajdu on the history of comics and early anti-comics activism (in association with his new book, The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America, which I've been meaning to read).
   I've often read the excerpts of William Gaines' Senate testimony, but it's even more delightful to hear the audio.

2. As we spend an increasing portion of our time online and in virtual worlds, Stanford researchers are investigating how your avatar's appearance can affect your mental state and behavior -- even after you've logged off.
    
3. In light of recent news that President Bush has the highest disapproval rating ever measured by Gallup, Allan Lichtman talked about the least popular presidents before the age of polling.
   In a promising note, he comments that these levels of public distaste usually signify the end of an era for their ideology.

Cool stuff.

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:30 PM

Heard the Corey Hart song on the radio a little while ago.

She's deceiving me...
It cuts my security.
Has she got control of me?
I turn to her and say...

Without looking it up, does anybody know what it is he turns to her and says?

And anybody care to share other examples of unintelligible lyrics in popular music?

[Preempting one of Ian's favorites: "Night to night, give me the otter; give me the otter..."]