Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:40 PM

Well, I've finished washing dishes for now (ran out of hot water, and only have a few items left, so I feel satisfied) and was just thinking about a few other random association things that I wanted to share.

• First of all, I recently burned my first compilation CD, and I just have to say -- damn, I'm good. I was playing it while washing dishes, and they just sound good together. You can read the track list on my Recreation page.
• Second, speaking of entertainment, this morning, I finished reading my 65th book of the year. I've read more books so far this year (today's the 123rd day) than all of last year -- although, to be fair, I was taking classes the last two years that kept me too busy for much pleasure reading. As I (think I) said elsewhere, I know that all this reading isn't necessarily good for me -- a lot of it has been a means of escape/avoidance of the very real issues of job loss. But, things may taper off soon. There are only two more books left in the Edward Marston series I've been reading, and I don't have many books lined up on the horizon. Plus, I was figuring that I was going to take just a week or two of "vacation" after my last day to relax and destress, and then it's on to the full-time job of job hunting. So, I'll be losing my supply of two vital commodities -- books to read and time to read them in -- which should bring me back down to merely human levels. :)
• Ian & I had a funny conversation last night. He had never had strawberry-rhubarb pie (or much anything with rhubarb in it), so last night while grocery shopping we saw one on the day-old half-price table and I suggested getting it. It was cheap. So, we got home and after dinner, tried a slice apiece. After polishing his off, he turned to me and said "It's nice, but mine is better." And I agreed with him. And it's true. We weren't joking. Even though Ian has never made strawberry-rhubarb pie -- even though he had never even tasted it before -- he's such a good piemaker that whenever he does, it will be better than that storebought one.
• BTW, if anybody from IBM CommunityBuilders (or other community research) is reading any of this, I had an interesting thought for a paper. Apparently, during filming of Lord of the Rings, after the actors got their makeup and costumes, people noticed that actors playing the same race (hobbit, elf, dwarf, human) generally hung out behind-the-scenes with other actors playing the same race. What's more, they adopted certain mannerisms of their races. So, the people playing hobbits were more mischevious and fun-loving, the actors playing elves became more vain about their appearance, and so-on. I've seen several news articles that remarked on this. The actors didn't do this on purpose, the filmmakers didn't try to force them together -- they just fell into the stereotypes. Interesting, no?

Anyway, that's about all for now. I'll be picking Ian up from the train station in about a twenty minutes, so should leave shortly. The kitchen is (relatively) clean, with candles, winecups and challah already on the table. I didn't come up with any good ideas for dinner, so we'll see what Ian's in the mood for. Goodnight, everybody!

Posted by Lis Riba at 4:49 PM

Oh, and while reading Slashdot's review of Spider-Man, I found some more info on Free Comic Day, this Saturday at most comic shops around the country. You can read about it at Freecomicbookday.com.

Also, for those in the Boston area, next weekend, on Mother's Day, the Arnold Arboretum is holding their annual Lilac Sunday. Have I mentioned that I think my favorite time of the year is spring. I do. Don't you? Course you do. [Sorry, I'm just in a really good mood this afternoon.]

Posted by Lis Riba at 4:00 PM

I saw Spider-Man this morning. Amazing! Face it, Tiger, you just hit the jackpot!

I suppose I should make something clear at the forefront. Spider-Man was one of my earliest heroes. As far back as I can remember, I've always loved the character; he's one of my favorites. I had been disappointed that Ian's 3-7 shift would block us from seeing an evening showing at the drive-in (I know there's always tomorrow night, but I wanted to see Spidey on opening day). When I found out that a local theater had an 11:45am bargain matinee, I was set. I made plans, and Ian complied. :)

And it was worth it. I'm pretty sure I had a stupid grin on my face for most of the film. They threw so many wonderful bones to the comic fans: familiar lines and poses, scenes and characters. The Green Goblin was so the right choice as villain, allowing them to do all kinds of swooping aerial fights. The creator of Hercules and Xena really was the perfect choice to film Spider-Man.

Casting was well-done all-around. Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe managed to portray really engaging characters even while their faces were completely obscured by masks, which is an incredible acting feat. J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, Cliff Robertson as Uncle Ben, and Rosemary Harris as Aunt May -- they all looked like they stepped right out of the comic book. I actually recognized Betty Brant and Robbie Robertson in the offices of the Bugle, without even hearing their names (and keep an eye out for Ted "Joxer" Raimi in a minor role as JJJ's flunky). Ian said he saw Stan Lee as a cop or security guard, but I missed it. Kirsten Dunst as MJ was the one note that didn't always ring true for me. She was charming and cute, and a definite prize, but sometimes she just didn't feel like the MJ I grew up with.

Anyway, I loved it, I highly recommend it, and I'm probably going to see it more than once. If you stick around for the end of the credits, you can hear the old 1970s animated theme song -- not Aerosmith's cover (which is floating around the (World Wide) Web), but the original. Part of me really wants to spend this weekend (a) digging up all my old Spider-Man comics to reread (I have all the McFarlane ASMs plus the other Spidey-books from that time-period), and (b) buying GNs of many of the classic stories that I don't own (like the earliest issues, the death of Gwen Stacy, and the Death of Jean DeWolff storylines).

Oh, and in other cool news, I found out this morning from Slashdot that Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is available on DVD. Even though the only DVD player we've got is the small screen on my laptop, I want it. List price seems to be about $35, but after searching Dealtime.com and Bestbookbuys.com, I've found a couple sites selling it for $28 (including shipping). Of course, I just deposited my severance check, and don't know when or where more money will be coming from, so I'll probably (try to) hold out on this one for a while.

Anyway, that's about all for now (isn't that enough, though?). I'm still feeling great, the weather outside is beautiful and I'm actually feeling quite chipper this afternoon. I should get off the computer, wash some dishes before Ian gets home, and maybe think of something nice I can cook for a Shabbos dinner. Have a good weekend, everyone!

Posted by Lis Riba at 1:35 PM

Forgot to mention this one. As seen on Obscure Store, a sixth-grader has been suspended from school for having blue hair.

Also, because it was mentioned on this week's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, here's the article and picture of the "Earl of Southampton, Shakespeare's patron and possible lover." Kinda cute, but I think Kit Marlowe is better looking. [Isn't it a shame that Johnny Depp is no longer associated with the biopic project? The resemblance is amazing.]

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:30 PM

Woo-hoo! I was just checking the stats on my site, and it shows that "crawl4.googlebot.com" from "Google Inc. US,CA" is currently visiting my site. Looks like I've made it!

Just some random musings for this morning:

• Does anybody else think the new Jango Fett ads for Star Wars Episode II resemble the MasterCard "Priceless" campaign?
  • High impact armor: $10,000
  • Short range blasters: $1,500
  • Missle equipped jetpack: $5,000
  • A clone to raise as your own son: Priceless
  • There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's Lucasfilms.
  Mind you, I'm still not overly interested in seeing Episode II, but this ad amused me.
• I'm annoyed at Baskin Robbins. As I said yesterday, I knew that two of the locations listed on their website were closed. We tried to find the one in Peabody and it looks like that one is gone as well. I'm sorely tempted to write them and gripe that their store listings are woefully out-of-date, and because of that I wound up driving fruitlessly around Rte. 1, nearly missing Frontier House, and definitely missing their free ice cream offer. Although I know better ice cream can be found in the Boston area, Baskin Robbins holds certain nostalgia appeal, and -- darn it! -- I want my free ice cream!
• For anyone near a comic shop, Saturday is apparently "Free Comic Book Day", whatever that means.
• Frontier House ended well. The last two hours seemed much more educational than the previous segments, and the inter-family bickering was muted enough to be watchable. I thought the newlyweds were adorably cute and had an intelligent strategy, and I hope the Glenns manage to get back together. I still don't care for the Clune family, though. They seem in serious denial.
  In some respects, the most important lesson of the show came at the end, as the families tried to readjust to modern life. Watching the Clunes, in a mansion where every room is larger than their entire frontier house, talking about how bored and lost they now feel... it makes me wonder what we all might be missing out on with all our conveniences and fast-paced lifestyle.
• BTW, it's a little late for this year, but I simply have to plug the Omer (Simpson) calendar for any Jews reading this journal. This has been the first year that we haven't missed counting a single night of the Omer (I think our past record has been about two nights) and the credit goes to this website.

That's all for now.

Posted by Lis Riba at 1:27 PM

Okay, this is just something silly from somebody else's journal. Another of those frivolous little pop-quizzes, with my results:

What are you?

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:45 PM

Hey, I just found this on Snopes (urban legend proving & debunking site):

Tonight, May 1st, from 6 - 10 PM, Baskin Robbins is giving away free scoops of ice cream! See here for details and store locations.

Unfortunately, I know that at least two of the stores they list in our area have long-since closed, but here's hoping for a sweet evening.

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:10 PM

Well, this morning I caught the train into downtown Boston and went to the unemployment office. After checking the department's website the other day, I filed my claim in person (even watched it being entered into the computer) and attended a brief "unemployment insurance orientation," which turned out to be nothing more than a staffer handing out a booklet titled How unemployment insurance works and explaining its contents. But, I'm now in the system. And in other monetary news, I just got word that I should have my severance check tomorrow, so that's good.

It's been a few days since I've posted, so what else has been going on...

• My hair has gotten some good reactions from friends. From strangers, young children are much more likely to notice and comment than adults. After seeing my niece and nephew Saturday evening, Winter Rose (age 4) said her farewell with "'Night, blue girl!" [I replied by calling her "red head", and she responded by calling me "blue head"] Another child in a grocery store felt obliged to point out my hair to her mother with a volume that alerted everyone around. (It was real cute.)
  Unfortunately, I don't feel that the photos really do it justice. It's not a solid blue, but has hints of turquoise highlights and purplish lowlights. At times, I feel like an anime character. Other times, I forget my hair is colored at all until I either look in the mirror or have an itch (unfortunately, whenever I scratch my scalp, my fingernails come away with flecks of blue). Meanwhile, I find myself making up and singing little filkish tunes when I'm out walking:
  • Blue hair. I just met a girl with blue hair.
  • You're my... blue-haired girl
  • Devil with blue hair, blue hair, blue hair...
  I guess I'm just silly that way.
• I've been watching Frontier House on PBS this week. Three families have been sent to recreate 1883 homesteader life in rural Montana. Unfortunately, one of the families are so embarrassing, they're almost painful to watch. Somehow, they expected this to be like a vacation, and have done little but complain (and occasionally cheat). Otherwise, it's a fun show, only moderately educational, but I prefer 1900 House.
  BTW, if anybody is reading this from IBM CommunityBuilders, near the end of the second hour, Karen Glenn made an interesting comment about what community means.
• I'm getting somewhat worried about Boopsie (our cat). She's twelve years old, and the vet gave her a clean bill of health at her last checkup, but she's come down with a lot of colds this winter, and it looks like she's got another one. She's sleeping much more than usual and eating less (stuffed nose == loss of appetite). At these times, she also seems to lose her sense of balance -- she slipped when jumping from the toilet tank to the bathroom sink for a drink of water (we don't let her drink from the sink, but her water bowl is on the counter), so now, when she gets thirsty, she hops into the bathtub and looks for us to turn it on. Her symptoms don't seem that alarming, but this has happened to her three or four times this winter -- more than she's ever been sick in the past. Don't even suggest medications -- liquid or pills, she can clamp her jaw tighter than a steel trap and can detect the minutest of proportions hidden in her favorite foods.
• Spider-Man will be opening at the local drive-in this Friday. I was hoping to see it opening night, but Ian just informed me that he'll be working for the Samaritans that night, so it means either seeing it at the drive-in on Saturday night, or maybe going to a Friday matinee at a regular theater.
• I've got the ability to view site statistics for Osmond-riba.org. I find it both surprising and interesting that Axle.org has been the greatest referrer to my site. I didn't know it was that popular.

This is all probably terribly boring, so I think I'll stop for now. I may see about putting a guest book up on my website, as an additional place (besides the comments here) for people to say hello.

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:45 PM

Okay, I've just posted some photos of me with blue hair to my Pictures page. And I think I've got commenting working on my journal now.

I'd love to know who is reading this site, so please add a comment to this post to tell me who's out there and what you think of things so far -- my website, my journal, my blue hair...

Anyway, I've now taken care of two of my immediate technical challenges. My next goal is to figure out why my website displays centered under IE, and why Netscape ignores many of my font styles. It's not too surprising, but my site looks best under Opera, and seems to have serious degredation problems with the less HTML-compliant browsers, despite their popularity.

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:11 AM

Well, I did it!

I'm a newly liberated woman, so why do I feel so blue?

Because I just spent four hours yesterday at a salon having my hair dyed that shade, that's why.

I'll post photos to my website in a couple days, but I look like an anime character.