Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 5:40 PM

Sorry if things have seemed quiet here of late. In personal news, I'm quite confident that I aced my Corporate Libraries class. I don't want to say much on the job front out of worries that I may jinx something (A "loose lips = pink slips" kinda fear). This weekend, Ian and I will be going to Arisia, a local SF con. [Don't think that makes our house a theft risk -- remember, we own a three family, so other people will be here!] While there, I'm considering having Nancy Lebovitz make me a button that says: "Ask me about my resume" as a possible networking shortcut. (For a good laugh, read her catalog; she's got some very funny slogans.)

Also, I'm now about two-thirds of the way through Chapter 2 of my fanfic, and have written just over 5800 words total, plus a lot of notepad scratchings. (However, about 1200 of those are a much later chapter that came to me fully-formed, but will probably require rewriting when the plot finally catches up with it). Since a large part of this involves character exploration and growth, I'm trying my hardest to write the story in order and not jump around, which means that while I've slowed down and bogged down within the current chapter, the next scene I really only have to type out because I already know perfectly how it will unfold.

We'll see. Don't expect to read the story for a while yet. I'm hoping to write a story within the Schnoogle length guidelines (at least 28,000 words -- about novella length) so I want to satisfy for myself that I can complete this before posting anything publically. So I want at least four or five full chapters before I show it to anyone but Ian and trusted beta readers. Though I didn't NaNoWriMo, this for me is a similar exercise in quantity as much as quality.

When it comes to current events, I'll confess, the "ignorance is bliss" meme is currently on the ascendant. I've liked so little of what I've been reading that I haven't wanted to read about it.

I was just reading Lawrence Lessig's blog about the loss of Eldred vs. Ashcroft. What an impressive man. I've mentioned before my interest in the Supreme Court. Readng his latest entry, on how he teaches his classes makes me wish to study constitutional law with him.

And I guess that's about it for now.

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:15 PM

Okay, the number of fictional characters in the Buffyverse who now have their own LiveJournals, and comment in one another's is simply getting too surreal. I just finished reading Mayor Wilkins' journal. Wrong, wrong, wrongity-wrong.

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:02 AM

No, not today. (You can put down those calendars and presents -- or don't if you're feeling generous :> )

I'm talking about this announcement:

J.K. ROWLING'S HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF PHOENIX TO BE PUBLISHED ON JUNE 21, 2003 IN THE UNITED STATES, BRITAIN, CANADA AND AUSTRALIA
The World's Most Anticipated Book Is Over One Third Longer Than Previous Book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
NEW YORK, NEW YORK: LONDON, ENGLAND: January 15, 2003 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by J.K. Rowling, the fifth in the bestselling series has been scheduled for release on Saturday, June 21, 2003 in the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia, it was announced today by Scholastic and Bloomsbury publishers. The companies also announced that Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is over a third longer than J.K. Rowling's extraordinary previous book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Woo-hoo! Yaay!!!

Well, I now know one thing I'll be doing for my birthday. Though I suppose this means I should finish my Year Five fanfic before the "real thing" overtakes my speculations...

<Harrumph> And they say that reading fanfic will hurt the author's sales...

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:05 PM

For more on my earlier post on the controversy over NC-17 fan fiction, including a copy of the cease and desist letter sent to Restricted Section and some really thought-provoking discussion, I strongly recommend you read this entry in my friend Griffen's LiveJournal.

Posted by Lis Riba at 1:50 PM

Okay, I think I have to publicly thank (and/or embarrass) undauntra for recommending I read Lust over Pendle, a particularly funny Harry Potter fanfic that's had me laughing out loud all day long.

Hmm.. Let me try to find a section that will read well without too much context. This scene takes place at a highly exclusive restaurant, between the owner and head-waiter:

"Better take no chances. After all, we do have -" a slight inclination of the head indicated a member of the Cabinet, seated in a discreet little alcove just outside the dining room and waiting for his companion to return from the Ladies. "Indeed, sir. And it would be such a pity if anything were to spoil his evening, or, of course, his wife's." "Ye-es. A very lovely lady. If a little - um - ?" "Changeable in her moods, perhaps, sir?" "Exactly. They've been coming here for over five years, and sometimes it's hard to believe she's the same woman." "I believe, sir, that something of her volatility may be attributable to her health. From my observations this evening, sir, I understand her to be an unfortunate martyr to sinus trouble." Their eyes met in perfect understanding.

Of course, most scenes require a little more context to get the joke, but I've been most amused by it.

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:25 AM

I stayed up until 2 AM last night (this morning) but managed to finish the first chapter in my Harry Potter fanfic. I still feel very self-conscious, both of the quality of my writing and the subject, so I don't want to show it to too many people yet. I also want to see if I can carry the story for a few more chapters before posting it publicly, to make sure that my plot doesn't fall apart like a house of cards. [I've been twiddling off various scenes in my notebook since the first of the year, but I need to start putting things in order to see how it flows.]

If anyone is really interested in reading this, maybe acting as a beta-reviewer, please let me know. A detailed knowledge of the four Harry Potter books is essential, and some experience with fanfic would be useful, though not necessary.

Meanwhile, the fanfic world was hit with bad news this morning. For those who don't read fanfic, authors generally give their stories ratings using the MPAA system. If you want something completely light and fluffy, look for a story rated G or PG. PG-13 or R-rated stories are mature. And some with truly adult concepts are labelled NC-17. These things may not be to everyone's tastes, but readers are always warned of adult content before they're exposed to it. [Many of these sites require potential readers to pass through full disclaimer pages on R and NC-17 stories, asking for confirmation of age, before anyone can read the text. Kids are kept safe.]

In October, FanFiction.Net removed all NC-17 from their archive, and forbid posting of any new NC-17 fiction. In response, a group of writers for adults created RestrictedSection.org, a site exclusively for fiction rated NC-17. No chance of "innocent" children accidentally stumbling upon this, because it was all clearly labelled as adult content, with several levels of disclaimers on just about every page of the site.

But, apparently that's not good enough for somebody, because the word this morning is that they -- alone of all the other fanfiction sites -- just received a cease and desist order, and have temporarily closed the site while they work with the good people of ChillingEffects.org to fight this.

As I wrote in my paper on Censoring Cyberspace for Children, "[T]he spread of the Internet has made more people aware of the net's potential threat to children, and to children's potential threat to the net." Quoting from the Supreme Court's 1997 decision against the CDA, "[R]egardless of the strength of the government's interest" in protecting children, "[t]he level of discourse reaching a mailbox simply cannot be limited to that which would be suitable for a sandbox."

Sigh. This sucks.

Posted by Lis Riba at 2:00 PM

First of all, let me preface this by saying that I love my husband, who went out this morning and got us a cheap speaker phone. Being able to wait on hold without having the receiver pressed to my ear is a great savior of my sanity...

And, it took only half-an-hour on hold this time, but I got through to the DET and got everything straightened out so I'll be getting my unemployment checks again. However, d-mn the Republicans for stalling on things so the checks stopped on December 28th.

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:45 AM

I spent forty-five (45) minutes on hold at DET before giving up and hanging up in frustration. I had/have other phone calls I need to make before lunch, and I was growing more-and-more angry at the way this one task was rapidly consuming my entire morning.

Ian's upset at me for hanging up, saying that they're counting on people giving up in order to save money, and now I'm going to have to wait all over again. I want to get a speaker-phone, so I won't be tied to the headset and can just listen to the hold music while moving around and doing other things.

Meanwhile, in the time it took to write this, I've already completed one of my other calls.

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:05 AM

I'm pointing this out because I don't believe enough people have gotten the original message.

According to today's Boston Globe, the new rating systems of the Leave No Child Behind Act will label half of Massachusetts schools deficient. Now, according to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education (a non-partisan, non-profit Washington DC research group) Massachusetts sends a higher percentage of high school students and young adults onto college than any other state. But that doesn't matter. Based on the new standards, most schools are failures, making students eligible for district-funded "private tutoring."

Of course, due to church-state separation issues, private schools don't have to undergo such punitive rankings.

And thus, more evidence that the results are rigged to promote vouchers. Gd, this is evil.

The game is rigged. We need to spread the word, and hopefully change the rules before this completely guts public schooling in our nation.

Ooh, and as I predicted years earlier, the closing of the "marriage gap tax inequity" (which only actually penalizes about half of taxpayers) actually created a new singles tax. Sigh.

I really wish government would get out of the marriage business altogether. Just recognize "households," which would be a group of people mutually responsible for each other and their children. IMO, households could share insurance benefits, powers or attorney and so forth, but aren't necessarily marriages. [That would also end the church-state issues over same-sex couples. Let each religion marry whomever it wants, without having to kowtow to government restrictions on who is "eligible."]

To continue the bad news, how about this little gem from Eric Alterman:

TALE OF TWO PRESIDENTS

The Legacy: Two Bush Presidencies, Six Years, ZERO Jobs.

The Times reports “A White House estimate shows that administration officials are expecting President Bush’s tax plan to generate only 190,000 jobs in 2003, a small number when compared to the 1.5 million jobs that have disappeared over the past two years.”

Al Franken reminds us somewhere, I forget where, that the net job creation of BOTH Bush administrations is a grand total of ZERO. Six years, ZERO jobs. I suppose it’s all a coincidence. ZERO, by the way, is approximately TWENTY-TWO million fewer than the Clinton Administration created. Bush II has two years to catch up. Somehow I don’t think this rich person’s tax cut coupled with an unnecessary and unprovoked war is going to do the trick.

I'm writing this while on hold to the DET, trying to get my unemployment benefits reinstated after they expired in December. So much bad news in the papers, that I do think nostalgically about the "ignorance is bliss" meme. I can't just bury my head in the sand. But there's so much going on in the world that it would be completely draining to focus on every injustice unless somebody paid me to do so. Which is why this journal focuses so much on domestic issues rather than international ones. I do care about what's going on in Iraq and North Korea, but there's only so many hours in the day where I can read and post about these issues. Again, if somebody were paying me to investigate these (say, being paid to blog or working for a newspaper), I'd love the chance to delve into them, but for now I have to marshall my resources.

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:00 PM

Odd reality TV thought

So, during the Simpsons we were subjected to ads for tworeality shows: Joe Millionaire, in which women compete to date a man who's pretending to be rich, and Man vs. Beast, in which animals compete against humans in such events as sprinting, speed eating, and so forth.

And I suddenly realized what the next reality show leap will be:

When Animals Date: Twenty desperate women will compete to go out with a mystery "man," but imagine their surprise when the "winner" finds out her date is actually an orangutan. Hilarity and ridicule will ensue.

I hope to Gd that no network actually goes through and films this, but it sounds disturbingly plausible enough that I wouldn't be surprised to see something like this air.

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:20 AM

Oh. Wow.

I really, really love The Thin Man. What a fabulous movie. I never saw it before (I guess the one I caught the end of on cable must've been one of the sequels) and it's marvelous. I simply adore the dialog, and covet Myrna Loy's dresses. The only thing lacking at the Brattle Theatre where we saw it was that I really wanted to be drinking a martini during the film (and I normally don't like martinis). For folks in the Boston area, there are three more showings tomorrow today Sunday. I really want to watch it again, and soon, but I'll probably just rent it on video instead.

And, if that isn't enough, in this morning's mail we got word that the Boston Athenaeum will be screening Another Thin Man (the third film in the series) next month, with "traditional refreshments" (whatever that means). So, I guess we'll have to rent a video of the second film sometime soon as well.

Oh, yeah, and we also saw The Maltese Falcon as well (double-feature, doncha know). Twisted, twisted film.

Ah well. At my request, Ian made me a saketini, with my favorite sake and Hendrick's gin (my least disliked gin). Unfortunately, the gin is overpowering the sake and I don't like it. No big loss.

Anyway, I ought to get to sleep. Goodnight, people!