Riba Rambles:
MORE Musings of a Mental Magpie

I don't want to spoil the Buffy finale for people who haven't seen it yet, but I do want to write about it. And I'm sure that this won't be the last time I'll want to talk about things that don't quite belong in the regular journal. So, this page will serve as an addendum to my regular journal. Occasionally, journal entries will link here for extended commentary.

Table of contents:

2002:

• The Buffy finale (May 21, 2002)
• Birthday horoscopes (June 21, 2002)
• Hogwarts and history (July 22, 2002)
• Tarot reading (August 3, 2002)
• Reviews of Minority report and 1633 (August 18, 2002)
• My morning routine of online reading (August 25, 2002)
• My fight with Ian (November 17, 2002)
• Harry Potter scene comparison (December 28, 2002)
• 2002 Journal calendar and index (December 31, 2002)

2003:

• Federal budget deficits and surpluses (February 4, 2003)
• On blogging -- a narcissistic self-evaluation (February 6, 2003)
• Mary, Queen of Scots in Alternate History (April 8, 2003)
• Tarot reading for my new job (April 14, 2003)

Tuesday, May 21, 2002

The Buffy finale -- with spoilers

Okay, "Once more with feeling" is playng on the MP3, the episode's barely a half-hour over, and I'm still shaking my head in amazement.

Wow.

• Although I've read a lot of Buffy spoilers, I did not expect to see Giles at the midway point. Woo-hoo! It felt so good to see him. I wonder whether he will stick around for next season. ["Wish he could stay" -- that song is playing right now.]
• The geeks had lots of great lines. I kinda want to rewatch the episode just for their quips. In Peter David's journal (site is down now), he compared the entire season to the Dark Phoenix saga, so I nearly clapped when the characters made the same analogy. Yeah, it's an old plot, but at least Whedon is aware of it and willing to acknowledge his sources.
• All the fans' complaints about Dawn -- Willow verbalized them in the episode, which was worth a smile. And it looks like they're making efforts to give her much less to whine about next season.
• Yeah, the idea that Xander's love would cure Willow was pretty predictable. Especially after he spent so much of the episode beating himself up for his uselessness.
• But I did not expect that resolution for Spike's quest. Both Ian's and my eyes bugged out for a solid minute after that happened. They certainly left Spike's specific request vague, but I really figured he was finally going to get the chip removed and return as a baddie next season. But this...Wow. I'll confess, I'm a huge fan of Spike, largely due to James Marsters' amazing acting ability and physique (yum) and this is going to be such a meaty role for him next season. We've now seen two vampires in the Buffyverse regain souls and suffer for their past evils. But Angel has been dealing with it for centuries, so he's learned to cope, and Darla was re-vamped before too long.
• Now, I've heard from interviews with Joss that next season's theme is "Back to the Beginning" and it's going to harken back to the spirit of the very first season. And although in previous episodes I saw many ways that would happen, from the loss of all outside significant others to the depowering of Willow. Buffy's promise to show Dawn the world seems like Dawn may be assuming the first-season-student-slayer role with Buffy as her instructor. But Spike... Okay, we've now got a vampire with a soul who's in love with Buffy, but whom none of the Scoobies trust. [Because of the attempted rape, he's probably even lost Dawn's friendship.]
  OTOH, since Spike's soul didn't come with a curse, he doesn't have the same limitations as Angel. And, since it's likely that next season will be Buffy's last, there's some hope they could set Buffy & Spike up for a happily-ever-after romance (which both characters deserve). [Another random thought: Spike's got a soul; I hope they manage to bring Drusilla back!]

I guess that's about all for now. Of course, the moment I upload this, I'll probably think of three or four more things that I want to say, but isn't that always the way? I'll just conclude by saying how incredibly excited I am for the next season.

Friday, June 21, 2002

For amusement's sake, here are a few horoscopes I've found on the web for my birthday:

Boston Herald (Joyce Jillson)

TODAY'S BIRTHDAY (June 21).
You have the nesting instinct. The stars will offer you a chance to root yourself, buy a home and become a leader in your community. You have luck with technical, college or high-tech endeavors. In September, you could moonlight as a consultant, and by February, you may leave your current job. A home project in July is featured. Solve a legal problem in August. Your lucky numbers are: 2, 14, 15, 27 and 38.

Boston Globe (Eugenia Last)

Happy Birthday: Your desire to help those less fortunate this year will bring you great admiration and popularity. Romantic opportunities will develop through the friendships you form. You'll be sensitive in your response to others and will get the support you need in order to be successful. You may find yourself becoming introspective, shy and reclusive this year if things don't go the way you want. Your numbers are 5, 18, 20, 27, 33, 39

New York Post (Sally Brompton)

IF TODAY IS YOUR BIRTHDAY
You'll push yourself hard this year and accomplish a great deal, but you'll need to take time out to recharge your batteries. No matter how tough you think you are, you have your limits, like everyone else, and you must make sure you stay within them. You can't afford to be sick.

Free Will Astrology (Rob Brezsny)

CANCER (June 21-July 22)
Join me now in a moment of silence, my fellow Cancerian, as we commemorate our recently deceased nightmares. In their prime, they were sour and sickly, yet somehow also breathtaking in their capacity to awaken us. Generous in ways we couldn't understand till now, they exuded a scary beauty that exposed our crudest ignorance and provoked our greatest resourcefulness. Now, in death, those nightmares will serve us anew, as they decay into lush compost that will fertilize an eruption of wickedly tender brainstorms in the coming weeks.

Boston Metro (Stella Wilder)

Today's birthday
Friday, June 21 You enjoy poking fun at others, but fortunately you have a way of doing so that is actually quite endearing, rather than irritating -- and, what is most important, you are constantly to be found poking fun at yourself. The paradox, of course, is that you actually take yourself quite seriously -- but not so seriously that you are stuck in your ways and unable to accept advice, guidance, or criticism from those whom you respect. It is important for you to do things on your own as much as possible. You don't like to feel you are in any way dependent upon others for anything.

The Onion (Lloyd Schumner)

Cancer: (June 22--July 22)
Remember: When using a chisel gouge, use the bevel and not the shank to make your cuts, go perpendicular to the grain, and strap the nurse down tight.

Monday, July 22, 2002

A few weeks ago, a friend phoned me up to talk about the system of sorting people into Hogwarts houses from the Harry Potter books. More specifically, she was looking at figures in Elizabethan history and wondering where they might fit.

Here's what we came up with:

Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, clearly attended Beauxbatons, and I'm not sure where to put Robert Dudley.

In short, it seems like early in life (before her coronation), Elizabeth surrounded herself with Hufflepuffs, because, well, she had to for survival. Once she was in power, she surrounded herself with other Gryffindors and enough Slytherins to outwit her enemies.

This exercise was so much fun, that (since I was in the middle of reading John Adams at the time) we decided to try applying these divisions to Revolutionary War figures.

• George Washington: Gryffindor -- he epitomizes Gryffindor.
• John Adams: Hufflepuff
• Ben Franklin: Ravenclaw? He's a little hard to classify, though definitely not Hufflepuff.
• Thomas Jefferson: Slytherin
  Keep in mind Slytherin does not equal "evil." It simply refers to deviousness and an ability to disguise one's motives -- traits Jefferson has clearly shown throughout his life.
• King George III: Hufflepuff

From there, I've gone on to apply the Sorting Hat to other figures in history and fiction:

• Kirk, Spock and McCoy are respectively Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff.
• Luke, Leia and Han are all Gryffindors. George Lucas is a Ravenclaw.
• Scarlett O'Hara is Slytherin, as are most of the characters in Casablanca.
• Oddly enough, while many Slytherins are devotees of Machiavelli, Machiavelli himself may have been a Hufflepuff (he did it all as a way of demonstrating his loyalty).
• Lawrence of Arabia is a Gryffindor in his own mind, but I'm not sure whether that's what he actually is.
• John F. Kennedy was Gryffindor, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon were Slytherin. Jimmy Carter was Hufflepuff, Ronald Reagan another Gryffindor. Former President Bush is a Hufflepuff; Bill Clinton, Slytherin. John McCain is a Gryffindor; Al Gore, a Ravenclaw. Dick Cheney is a Slytherin and George W. Bush is a Slytherin mascot (he's certainly been "adopted" by many powerful Slytherins, but it's often hard to judge those who haven't accomplished much on their own).

The four houses of Hogwarts map easily to the classical four elements, and thus to the suits of Tarot:

So, if anyone wants to build a Harry Potter tarot deck, here's a starting place. [Ian thinks Hagrid should be the Chariot, pulled along by Fang and Norbert.]

If they ever come out with a Harry Potter role-playing game, it would certainly be interesting to eliminate the traditional D&D alignment system and just use Houses to describe the innate traits. There's not quite a direct mapping between the two. For example, a Slytherin like Lucius Malfoy is clearly Lawful Evil -- he wants the laws rewritten to his favor and is always quite cognizant of which laws he may choose disobey. On the other hand, Gryffindor Albus Dumbledore is not Lawful -- probably Neutral Good -- because he often maintains a willing ignorance of the laws so he can do his own thing.

Here's how I would rate the characters in Ian's Elizabethan GURPS campaign (though it probably won't be of much interest to anyone who isn't a part of it):

• Eduardo: Gryffindor
• Jedrick: Slytherin
• Edwyn: Hufflepuff
• Rafael: Ravenclaw
• Father Porfirio: Ravenclaw
• Lady Natasha: Slytherin
• Nestor: Ravenclaw
• Lord Summerisle: Gryffindor (yes, he's a cold-blooded murderer, but he's completely upfront about that. He's direct, not devious, and thus proves that Gryffindor != good)
• Goodfellow: Disturbingly enough, he's a Hufflepuff who's feigning at being Slytherin. [Titania and her court are entirely Slytherin.]
• Queen Elizabeth: As she's portrayed in this game, she's as much Slytherin as Gryffindor

I'll just conclude this by noting that I'm a Ravenclaw, my husband's a Hufflepuff.

And if you wish to make any corrections or additions, go back to the journal entry and add them to the comments box.

Saturday, August 3, 2002

Okay, so I've just finished a surprisingly grueling summer session of classes. With no more classes for over a month, I'm refocusing my energies on the job hunt.

Just for the heck of it, I decided to try my hand at a Tarot reading to see if it provided any insight. I don't believe that there's anything supernatural about the Tarot, but rather (as Robin Wood writes):

"I think it's a focus, that lets your own subconscious come up with answers and insights. ... [I]f you look at the cards, and let them trigger your insights and emotional wisdom, if you interpret the visceral reactions that you have to them, and translate them into words, then you will be reading the cards!"

I prefer the Robin Wood Tarot deck and decided to try it with the modified Celtic Cross described in Robin Wood's book (and more briefly on her website). This is what I came up with:

In the words of Arte Johnson, "Verry interesting!" Here's my interpretation (although I'd welcome comments from more experienced Tarot readers):

1. Okay, so in this situation I'm the Chariot; the book elaborates by saying "This card means harmony, balance, triumph, leaving your problems behind." Well, that perfectly describes how I feel now that I've finally finished classes.
2. The Question as Wheel of Fortune is completely spot on. "Change... Moving on, for better or worse." If that doesn't describe my job hunt, I don't know what would.
3. I find the block to be somewhat puzzling. I think it expresses concern that I'm moving too fast in too many different directions, feeling somewhat scattershot in my approach, but I'm still not sure about that.
4. This one also confuses me a bit. I suppose I have been "wait[ing] before plans bear fruit" and the card description of "A well-balanced, creative person" also sounds like me (or how I see myself). The patience expressed by this card seems antithetical to the cross. Since this position could recognize past situations in my life, it may parallel my last job hunt (right after college) where I eventually developed a pretty decent schedule/system.
5. Oh, this doesn't look good. I stress about money on-and-off. I tend to flip-flop between feeling okay with my financial standing and getting very worried about it. I'm not sure what my actual financial situation will be, but this doesn't seem to bode well for my emotional state around it.
6. Conformity in my past? Easy. Big Blue, where I worked for the last ten years.
7. Well, that sounds nice. I'm not sure whether it describes me, some woman who will be helping me, or a combination of the two. FWIW, when I first started learning Tarot, I went through the deck looking for a significator -- a card which I felt represented me. Eventually, I recognized myself in the 9 of Pentacles. However, this card was one of the runners-up.
8. How immediate is the reference to "right now"? Since classes ended yesterday, I stopped at two libraries and checked out about a dozen books for pleasure reading (I don't plan on reading all of them, but I want to at least flip thru many of them. Starting about eight hours before I did the reading, and hopefully through the entire weekend, I'm enjoying peaceful rest before resuming heavy-duty job-hunting on Monday.
9. My first thought upon reading the meaning of this card was of Ian. Not all the descriptors in the book apply to him, but he's definitely "solid and honorable." And I've surrounded myself with a good group of friends (and family) who have offered needed support that this card seems to describe.
10. Maybe this is supposed to be more hopes than fears, but this card gives me negative vibes. I think this reflects my worries that I'm enjoying this time off TOO much, so I won't be sufficiently diligent in finding a job and that I'll be careless with my cash and later suffer from insufficient funds.
11. What can I say about this. My father and I are very similar people; I admire him and what he's done with his life. He's overcome job loss several times in my life and has not only landed on his feet, but found a better position than he was in before. I can think of far worse fates than winding up like my dad.

And that's my basic interpretation. Nothing terribly good or bad predicted, but it seems to verbalize my mindset pretty well.

Incidentally, on December 24, 2001, a friend gave me a Tarot reading using the Hanson-Roberts deck. The spread read as follows:

At the time, I quickly found relevance between the cards and my job situation, particularly in the 8 of Swords, which seemed to describe how I had tied myself to IBM. I think that one of the reasons I haven't gotten too panicked by my job loss was because this showed my final outcome as triumph, and I've tried to keep that positive outlook in mind.

If you wish to comment on any of this, go back to the journal entry and add them to the comments box.

Sunday, August 18, 2002

Minority report: a review

So... Ian and I saw Minority report last weekend. Excellent film! It presents a very plausible portrayal of the future. Apparently, Spielberg convened a private think tank of futurists, tech experts, and others to construct Washington 2054.

But the story is also good. I'd have to watch it again to be certain, but it appears to be an actual playfair mystery (not easy to do in SF). It's also a noir thriller. The central conceit is "how can one commit murder when psychics can see visions of future murders?" And the answers they come up with are quite thought-provoking.

Next year's Hugo voting should be interesting: Minority report vs. LOTR: Two towers. I think it's a good thing that MR wasn't released this year, because it's a foregone conclusion that LOTR: Fellowship of the ring will win in a landslide. But after the LOTR team has already won a Hugo, next year's race should be more competitive.

Ian and I spent a lot of time discussing the ending, whether it's suitable, what it says about predestination and free will, etcetera, but it's taken me so long to finally write this down that I've forgotten much of the discussion.

1633: a review

Aw, heck. As long as we're discussing predestination and free will, I may as well review 1633 as well, which also covers that theme. 1633 is the sequel to a very fun book, titled 1632 (full text available online for free). In that book, an unexplained phenomenon known as the "Ring of Fire" transports a modern West Virginia mining town into the middle of 1632 Germany. The Americans have to figure out how to survive and thrive in their new surroundings.

This book continues the tale, but nowhere near as well. There are so many characters (from the first book, historical figures, and new ones) and so many simultaneous stories he wants to tell, that everything gets short shrift. It reads like an outline rather than a fleshed out novel.

There's too much lecturing in this book; too much telling rather than showing. A large portion of the book is told in flashback. For example, in Chapter 28 (16 pages), the only action is someone delivering a message to someone else -- without even revealing the content of the message. Most of the chapter involves the messenger reminiscing about ship and weapon design meetings as he passes a ship and armed men. And that's typical of the kind of backstory they keep throwing at the reader.

One character, who undergoes a fascinating transformation in the first book, is sent to Scotland. She appears three or four times, each scene about ten chapters apart, and you get the beginning, middle, and end of what sounds like a dramatic, emotional story. But instead of telling us that story, the authors provide just enough of the plotline to make it impossible for others to cover this ground, yet not enough to provide any characterization. That's true for many characters -- and there's so much going on, that it's hard to remember who people are when their appearances are that far apart. Plus, it's wasted potential.

Since "our world's" history books have gotten out, people spend chapters explaining who they were in our history and what they did, before taking actions that ensure those events never happen as described. Bo-ring. I really don't care who Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp was -- certainly not enough to have to wade through an entire chapter about him -- just get on with the story. It's like explaining a joke: those who get it, will just be annoyed at the repetition, and it doesn't add that much to those who didn't. Those who recognize the historical characters can go "oh, cool! it's so-and-so" and won't need the explanation. Those who don't will be more interested in the plot anyway.

Finally, I don't think Mike (the lead character) has made any mistakes where it counts. Nor has his wife. Nor has the doctor. Nor has the head of the Navy (once he switched from bad guy in the last book to good guy in this). Nor has King Gustav. You get the idea. While the challenges they face are intersting, the sheer perfection of the protagonists makes this boring, too.

I can't help comparing this book to Melissa Scott's Armor of Light, a book I love and have reread many times. It too involves an alternate history and includes many actual historical figures. It doesn't provide much explanation of who people are. It can be confusing, and I know people who have given up on the book for that reason. But the more I've studied the Elizabethan period, the more I discover each rereading. Most recently I discovered that Madox, a minor character who is Philip Sidney's steward in the book, really was Philip Sidney's steward historically. But she doesn't hit readers over the head with her research the way this does. Comparing this with van Tromp in 1633, lacking that historic knowledge of Sidney didn't detract from my enjoyment when I first read the book (in fact, this book was an impetus for me to learn more about the figures within), but as I've learned more, it's enriched each subsequent rereading.

At the end of the book, Flint announces that he's 'open sourcing' the setting and inviting other writers into this playground. And that may be the reason why this book is so flawed. An important message of this book (and I know it's important, because it's said at least twice by different characters in different settings) is to believe in character, not predestination. In other words, the historical record of any person isn't so relevant. That makes it very important for the Eric Flint to preemptively define as many historical characters as he can. Which is precicely what happens here.

In short, a very disappointing sequel to a pretty good first book. This reads more like it should be a GURPS supplement than a novel. And I think it would make a fine RPG setting. I'll still keep an eye out for future books in the series (I forgot to mention that it ends unresolved) but I don't recommend it except hardcore historical "what-if" wargamers.

Sunday, August 25, 2002

My morning routine of online reading

While it's quiet for a few minutes, I thought I'd share my standard morning computer routine. Through Opera, I've managed to set up several folders on my personal bar that I enable me to open up numerous web pages in a single click. I start with what I call my Morning Funnies, which includes some online comics, as well as newspaper strips that aren't available in the Boston Globe. They are (in order):

• Get Fuzzy
• Kevin & Kell
• Overdue
• 9 Chickweed Lane
• Frazz
• Luann
• Pearls Before Swine
• Bizarro
• Sluggy Freelance
• User Friendly
• Shirley And Son
• Steve Jackson Games Daily Illuminator

Every day but Sunday (when I get the local paper), these are followed by my list of Globe comics (in order):

• Adam@Home
• Arlo & Janis
• The Boondocks
• Cornered
• Dilbert
• Doonesbury Daily Dose
• For Better or For Worse
• FoxTrot
• Heart of the City
• Jump Start
• Mister Boffo
• Monty
• Mother Goose & Grimm
• Non Sequitur
• Rhymes with Orange
• Rose Is Rose
• Stone Soup
• That's Life
• Zits

After the humor is out of the way, I see what's going on with my LiveJournal Friends, whether anyone's posted comments in my journal, and then turn to the news. Most days, I check (in no particular order):

• Jim Romenesko's Media News (weekdays only)
• Talking Points Memo
• Salon Magazine
• The New York Times
• The Washington Post
• Washington Post: Politics
• Slate Magazine
• The Boston Globe (except Sundays)
• The Christian Science Monitor (weekdays only)
• CNN Interactive

After that, it depends.

Thursdays, I catch the new columns by Cringely, Molly Ivins and Free Will Astrology. On Fridays and Sundays, I read Roger Ebert and Miss Manners.

Some mornings I check the tech news on Slashdot, ZDNet and Wired. I may check the entertainment news on Ain't It Cool News. I sometimes check less frequently updated blogs and journals, such as librarian.net, Neil Gaiman, and Fury 3.1 Alpha: Home.

And that, generally speaking, is my morning reading routine.

Sunday, November 17, 2002

My fight with Ian

It all started when my computer was doing its weekly backup. Because I had installed the Sims (which still won't run on my machine, d-mn-t!) the process was going to take at least an hour. So, figuring I'd do something useful in that time, I offered to take our car for an (overdue) trip to Jiffy Lube (which Ian had previously agreed to do yesterday and didn't) and asked Ian to switch CDs when the backup program prompted for them while I was out.

The trip to Jiffy Lube took far longer than I planned (over an hour and a half -- one of the reasons I had wanted Ian to do it midday on a weekday). I was hungry and bored (I finished the book I'd brought along about 20 minutes along, and had nothing to read but US and People magazines) and annoyed at myself for falling for one of their suggestive sales pitches. When I came back home, I discovered that Ian hadn't switched the CDs at all. Meaning, in my mind, that I had wasted an hour and a half, and still had the lost computer time to the backup. I saw it as an exchange of chores, and Ian didn't pick up his half.

Well, I went a bit ballistic. Ian says I turned into a psycho hosebeast from hell, and maybe he's right. Ian made me a grilled-cheese sandwich because I was hungry, but I was still furious that he didn't do anything with the backup. [Apparently, he looked at it, wasn't entirely sure what the computer was asking for, and instead of risking a mistake which might destroy something, thought it better to leave it alone. He also said that he didn't hear me ask him for the backup.]

When Ian gets really, really angry, he takes it out on inanimate objects. A few months ago, he punched a dent into one of the walls. This time, he started slamming his forehead into the bedroom door, making a hideous cracking sound (it turned out to only be chipping the paint, but I couldn't see that at the time). And, while logically I know that it's better to lash out against things than people, both seeing Ian hurt himself and at wanton property damage make me even more furious.

I ordered Ian out of the house. And, grabbing a book and his coat, he went. We were both too angry to talk to one another; I simply didn't want to see or deal with him, and generally when he gets into these states he walks out anyway... I know, I behaved poorly, but I was enraged.

After a while, I calmed down a little bit. There were a few errands I wanted to run while I had the car (Ian is now gaming Sunday afternoons after his class, meaning I might not have any chance at the car on Sundays (we've since worked out an alternative plan so I won't be so housebound). Since Ian took a book with him, I figured that he probably walked to the library to let off some steam and read. I figured I'd drive down to the library, tell him I loved him, and ask if he wanted to accompany me on my errands. Maybe we could talk, or just spend time together. In case I missed him on the way, I stuck a note on the door:

I love you.
Thank you for the sandwich.
I've gone out to run some errands.

Then I did something else stupid. I realized I locked my keys -- all of them -- in the house. <Grumble> While I was dressed warm enough for the trips from car to door, my outfit was not suited for much more than that. Still figuring that Ian had gone to the library, I walked over there (catching a fortuitously timed bus for part of the trip). He wasn't there. I tried phoning the house, but he wasn't home yet. I picked up a couple books from downstairs and began to read, calling the house every fifteen minutes or so, until finally he picked up.

I told him rather sheepishly what I'd done, and he agreed to drive over and pick me up. Interestingly enough, while he had been letting off steam on his walk, he thought enough to stop at the pastry shop and pick something up for me. I do love him very, very much.

I asked Ian if he wanted to accompany me on the errands or if he'd prefer to stay home, and he agreed to come along. We're both still mad over the incident, but we'll recover, I think.

Saturday, December 28, 2002

Harry Potter scene comparison

Tuesday, December 31, 2002

2002 Journal calendar and index

Tuesday, February 4, 2003

Federal budget deficits and surpluses

Based on Tables 1.1 and 1.2 of Historical Tables, Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2004, these are the budget deficits and surpluses since 1980:

Carter Reagan Bush I Clinton Bush II estimated

Year Surplus or deficit in dollars as percentage of GDP 1980 -73,830,000,000 -2.7% 1981 -78,968,000,000 -2.6% 1982 -127,977,000,000 -4.0% 1983 -207,802,000,000 -6.0% 1984 -185,367,000,000 -4.8% 1985 -212,308,000,000 -5.1% 1986 -221,215,000,000 -5.0% 1987 -149,728,000,000 -3.2% 1988 -155,152,000,000 -3.1% 1989 -152,456,000,000 -2.8% 1990 -221,195,000,000 -3.9% 1991 -269,328,000,000 -4.5% 1992 -290,376,000,000 -4.7% 1993 -255,087,000,000 -3.9% 1994 -203,250,000,000 -2.9% 1995 -163,972,000,000 -2.2% 1996 -107,473,000,000 -1.4% 1997 -21,958,000,000 -0.3% 1998 69,213,000,000 0.8% 1999 125,563,000,000 1.4% 2000 236,445,000,000 2.4% 2001 127,299,000,000 1.3% 2002 -157,802,000,000 -1.5% 2003 estimate -304,159,000,000 -2.8% 2004 estimate -307,400,000,000 -2.7% 2005 estimate -208,211,000,000 -1.8% 2006 estimate -200,504,000,000 -1.6% 2007 estimate -178,149,000,000 -1.4% 2008 estimate -189,594,000,000 -1.4%

Thursday, February 6, 2003

On blogging -- a narcissistic self-evaluation

Well, it's now been two weeks since I created my RSS feed and syndicated my journal. Since Blogger Pro has a 30 day trial period, during which I can back out free of charge, I thought it worth asking myself what's changed and whether it's been worth it.

First of all, I'm definitely getting more hits since I've syndicated.

This chart shows how many hits (or page views) my main journal page has gotten from January 1st through yesterday. You can see the spike since I started syndicating on January 23rd. [In general, it looks like I get most of my hits on Mondays, with a gradual downward trend bottoming out over the weekends.] Part of the reason I only provide the first paragraph in my syndicated links is to encourage people to come here to read the rest of the story. [Think of the syndicated feed as an alarm clock, notifying you when new material is available.] A LiveJournal user named adcott created this "doohicky" which lists all syndicated feeds LiveJournal subscribes to, sorted by popularity. Right now, I'm tied for 85th place out of 828 feeds. And most of those ahead of me are either comic strips, professional news sources, or celebrities. [Amusingly enough, I'm tied with Library & Information Science News.] I've got 22 readers, which is pretty impressive. On the other hand, 45 people have befriended my rarely used LiveJournal account. If all of them subscribed to my LiveJournal syndicated feed, I'd be in the top 50. [What, me competitive?] Honestly, I'm just happy that more people are reading what I'm writing. It makes me feel that this site is more than just a personal memory aid. Technorati indexes weblogs for inbound links. There still aren't many, but maybe influential punditry isn't that unachievable a goal.

Content-wise, this site had already been moving more towards newsblogging (and away from being merely a personal journal) before I started syndication. However, pressure to impress my now-larger readership may have accelerated that trend. After all, if people are actually spending their time reading what I'm writing, then I feel I ought to provide them with something of value.

DailyKos recently posted some advice for newsbloggers. Officially, it's about what zie* is looking for, when deciding whether to add a blog to zir* blogroll, but it's worthwhile advice for newsbloggers in general:

Be noticed. Make a stir. Don't regurgitate the contents of a news story, but provide perspective or additional insight. Be clever, funny, original. Get away from the default templates. Get away from Blogspot. Create your own identity. Your own domain. Have attitude. Be self-confident.

I think I'm holding my own there. Of course, my opinion only goes so far. What do you, my readers think about this journal? Do you like it? Dislike it? Do I spend too much time pointing out links you've already seen elsewhere? Am I too verbose? (that one's not likely to change until I get a job) Am I interesting or do I bore you? I really want to know. I'm getting some feedback from comments in my inbound links:

• The Infamous J writes: "Riba has some interesting things to say about the Columbia mission as well as tampered voting in the Republican's favor. She has done her homework and presents linked and informative text blurb. I can't encourage you enough to go and check her out."
• On the other hand, Nobody Knows Anything put me on her blogroll, describing me thus: "Rambling and ambling around, picking up links here and there, making personal comments on them. I'm not deeply in love with this blog, but I'm keeping it for a while."
• Avedon Carol and Gail Davis have linked to posts of mine without comment, but even that implies that I'm providing some value.
• Finally, Interesting Times was the first blog to add me to their links, although I'm somewhat embarrassed at how it began. I was just being a whiny git -- I even acknowledged that my complaints were petty because I wasn't a well-known blogger. But somehow, he saw my post, apologized, and linked to my research. And since then he's linked to several other of my posts, so I guess he likes my stuff and holds no hard feelings.

The related question is whether it's worth continuing with Blogger Pro or if I should ask for a refund. Let me try to organize my thoughts on this:

• On the positive side, I appreciate the convenience in having Blogger automatically create the RSS and ping Weblogs.com every time I publish. On the other hand, those are things I could just do manually with a little more time. Generating RSS manually would also give me more control over its content, including assurance that it validates as proper RSS (something Blogger's generated feed does not).
• I don't like the fact that I can no longer edit my site from Opera, and have to use IE or Netscape. Also, I'm not planning on using most of the other Pro features -- I got it strictly for the RSS capabilities.
• And, for a while now, I've been dissatisfied with my commenting software. Blogger doesn't have native commenting software, so I use YACCS and am pretty happy with it. However, some readers have told me it has lost some of their posts. Others have complained about how it slows down loading of the site
• I really prefer the way some other journals powered by Movable Type handle commenting. I also envy their LJ-like ability to use cut-tags which prevent the site from becoming too bogged down in long posts (verbose, moi?). I don't have time for it now, but if there were an easy migration path for my journal and comments, I might consider switching.

All this makes me wonder whether it's worth it to spend all this money on Blogger Pro right now. On the whole, the above evaluations seems to say no, but I'm still not entirely sure (convenience is compelling).

Boy, that went longer than I anticipated. Anyway, thank you to all my readers who have stuck with me through all this. As always, I read all comments made in my journal and really do appreciate them. I'd like to know what you feel about any or all of this.

Tuesday, April 8, 2003

Mary, Queen of Scots in Alternate History

So, I'm continuing to ponder alternate history involving Mary, Queen of Scots. I'm still not sure if anything workable (or, at least, interesting) will come out of this, but here's some further noodling on the timelines. Quotes from Alison Weir's Mary Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley are written in serif font.

The setting that sounds most promising to me right now is 1.1.1: Mary Tudor is Queen of England, Mary Stewart is executed, James Hamilton (2nd Earl of Arram) becomes king of Scotland and there's war with England. King James' son, also named James, was three years older than Elizabeth. It would make sense on so many levels to broker peace between the kingdoms by marrying Elizabeth is to Prince James:

• For Queen Mary, it gets Elizabeth out of the way by sending her up to Scotland
• For King James, there's the chance that his decendants could inherit both kingdoms
• The war began over a marriage between the kingdoms, so end it in a similar dynastic marriage

I have to read more on the actual history and the personalities involved to see how plausible this would be, but I rather like this alternate timeline. The further question is what interesting stories could be told in this timeline. I enjoyed Harry Turtledove's different alternate Elizabethan, Ruled Britannia, and Shakespeare's whereabouts and writings are usually interesting, but that aspect feels overdone...

Oops, looking further, it turns out that (a) the younger James was proposed as a suitor to Elizabeth and (b) was unfortunately certifiably insane, so his younger brother (also named James) replaced him in the line of succession. Fortunately he was also of reasonable marriagable age to Elizabeth, so maybe they'd be paired up instead.

Interesting times... Maybe after I finish classes, I'll have more time to noodle this out...

Monday, April 14, 2003

Tarot reading for my new job

I don't read tarot often, but with such a massive change impending, I thought it an appropriate time. I'll just reiterate the caveats I wrote here the last time I posted about one of my tarot readings:

I don't believe that there's anything supernatural about the Tarot, but rather (as Robin Wood writes): "I think it's a focus, that lets your own subconscious come up with answers and insights. ... [I]f you look at the cards, and let them trigger your insights and emotional wisdom, if you interpret the visceral reactions that you have to them, and translate them into words, then you will be reading the cards!"

So Friday evening, I reread the acceptance letter and other agreements as I shuffled the deck and let my anxieties and concerns shape an unspoken question. Then I dealt the modified Celtic Cross described in Robin Wood's book (and more briefly on her website). This is what I came up with:

Here's my interpretation (although I'd welcome comments from more experienced Tarot readers):

1. Pretty straightforward. Not the card I traditionally assigned as my significator (the 9 of Pentacles) but also a suitable description of me. Actually, now that the boom times are over, I'm wondering whether this might be a more appropriate significator for me.
2. I'm not so good with the aces, so had to look this one up. Creation, creative energy, beginning of growth or life... I guess that could apply to starting a new job...
3. I also have trouble understanding some of the major arcana. The moon apparently means restlessness, wildness and change Interesting...
4. My first reaction on flipping this card was a sarcastic Oh, thanks! I'll confess, I've had a lot of fun during my unemployment. I'd worked every summer since college and then had a full-time job, so it's been a long time since I've had a lot of free time. I had a lot of fun, possibly to the detriment of getting re-employed quickly. So I guess it's appropriate.
5. It was flipping this card over that I began swearing and called Ian into the room. This is not good. The cards I added to clarify this suggest that the impending problem might be one of finances. That wouldn't be too surprising coming off a year of unemployment which drained most of our savings.
6. This surprised me. Robin Wood writes "I don't use reversed cards (I think there are enough cards in the deck to describe anything; and reversed cards are simply unnecessarily confusing)" and I've seen similar advice for beginning readers from other sources. So when I shuffle, I keep all the cards in the same direction. Thus, the mere presence of a reversed card is unnerving. Because of that, I really don't know how to interpret this one.
7. Another Oh shit moment as I turned over this card. I know, the Death and Devil cards aren't actually about evil, but it's still a shocker. It looks like this also has to do with financial matters. Definitely something to be watchful of.
8. I'm in conflict with myself. Yeah, that seems about right.
9. This one puzzled me. Family and friends have been incredibly supportive through all this, so the notion that I'd suddenly be isolated seems odd. I'm wondering if this might mean I will have to tune everybody out in order to complete my schoolwork on top of a full-time job.
10. Night terrors; an entirely appropriate characterization of my fears. The kinds of irrational worries "when you wake in the dead of the night, sure everything is going wrong, and there is nothing you can do to stop it
11. Happily ever after: probably one of the best possible outcomes. Nice to see something uplifting out of all this. But it feels a long time away and it looks like there will be tough times before I reach my fairy tale ending.

As you can probably tell, I'm not terribly good at reading Tarot. [I'm pretty decent at getting the gist of the minor arcana, but I need to refer to the books for the majors, aces and court cards.] If any more experienced readers would care to deal out the cards as described and share their interpretations, I'd be most appreciative.

More to come...