Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:36 PM

You know, I am really sick and tired of science fiction stories set in the far-off future which still portray childbirth as a sweaty woman screaming in pain.

In all this time, at the very least somebody will have invented better analgesics which won't risk the newborn.

This is a universe which has transporter technology, for frink's sake! Given it's ability to lock onto individual lifeforms, the applications seem obvious once a fetus is viable.

It's sloppy worldbuilding, and feels like the guys in charge couldn't be bothered to expend the slightest effort in extrapolating about girly stuff.

[I seem to recall a similar point made regarding the attitudes towards artificial uteri in David Weber's Honorverse as compared with Lois Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga.]

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:45 PM

A few weeks ago, NPR brought a credit-card expert in for some Q&A.

And I learned something new, worth knowing by anybody planning a trip to Canada:

Credit card companies have almost universally charged 3 percent on transactions that were made outside the United States in another currency.

They've recently changed their policy so that any transaction made in another country -- even if it's made in dollars -- also incurs that same charge.

Capital One is actually the only major credit card company that doesn't have a surcharge, and most of the credit unions only charge a 1 percent fee.

More on this from Consumerist.

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:35 AM

Given all the talk of writing requirements in the form of user stories, I started wondering about other narrative forms.

How about limericks, or haiku, or even zen koans?

So I tried writing a few of my requirements as limericks.

Not sure I can share them, since they are about ongoing projects, but they worked disturbingly well, and the rhyme makes them more memorable than prose.

Maybe I can write this technique up and get it published for next April 1st...

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:15 PM

This morning, I successfully put my hair up into a French twist, and it stayed up the entire workday.

For me, that's a major triumph.