Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:49 AM

When we last left this blog, an unannounced Blogger change has started adding <div style="clear:both;"></div> to the start of every post, and <div style="clear:both; padding-bottom: 0.25em;"></div> to the end of every post, independent of anything that is or isn't on the user's template. And that, of course, messes up display of my sidebar, and causes problems to countless other bloggers, including users of one of Blogger.com's default templates.

So, thanks to searches of other weblogs thru Technorati and Feedster, I've found an interim solution. Adding

div { clear: none !important; }

to my style sheet restores a more normal display, at the expense of disabling all uses of <div style="clear:both;">. Fortunately, I don't use that tag, but if I ever did...

I just hope Blogger will undo this misguided change entirely (or at least provide clear and public explanation of why they feel it's necessary). The whole point of templates is to allow users to customize how their weblogs display. It just feels wrong for Blogger to start adding extra tags at the beginning and end of posts uncontrolled by either the template or what users enter in the body.

But somebody needs to explain to the folks at Blogger that you just don't do that. You don't roll out a change to publishing that affects all templates without at least notifying users somewhere of what you're doing.

I mean, look at LiveJournal. Not only is status.livejournal.com fairly regularly updated, but the status log has its own LiveJournal which users can show in their friends' pages. ["We are currently updating some software on our webservers, which may cause some difficulties...] Furthermore, the support board is public, meaning I can check whether anybody else has reported my particular problem.

Blogger, on the other hand, is totally, unhelpfully, opaque.

Status.blogger.com hasn't been updated in over a week. Blogger Buzz is purely PR and new features, with no current events whatsoever. And once I've submitted a support request, I can't even check on its status until/unless they email me -- which nobody has yet -- much less see what others are reporting to know whether I'm alone or part of a trend.

At least one customer reports that Support answered hir request with a pointer to this generic FAQ question. Given the number of other blogs (and blogger forums) writing about this, I would think that Blogger Support is getting flooded by similar questions and complaints and would've noticed this isn't the usual.

But it seems wrong that over 36 hours after this problem became apparent, I still haven't seen word one on this from Blogger themselves, and am forced to resort to other bloggers and forums for information. [This Blogger Forum has been the best source so far.] You know how I've determined that Blogger hasn't fixed the problem? Find another Blogger blog that updated recently (like Atrios) and check their source. Because even if Blogger does fix this problem, I don't trust them to announce they've changed it back. That's not a good state of customer relations...

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:20 PM

Sorry the previous post isn't displaying correctly (for those viewing through my site rather than an aggregator, the image is being pushed down below the sidebar). I'm not sure why, but Blogger appears to be adding scads of <div style="clear:both;"></div> to the page, even though such tags are not in my template.

Advice from more HTML-savvy readers on what this tag is doing and why Blogger might be sprinkling them throughout the page would be appreciated.

9:25 PM:   Okay, it's not because of the image in the previous post as I had thought, it's whichever post is atop the page. It will display the date header, title of and subhead of the first post, but then it gives a huge white-space, deferring the body of the article until after the sidebar. This must be a new change to Blogger, because none of my previous archive files include that tag.

Lord, save us from ill-made well-meaning improvements. Here's hoping it goes back to normal soon. I really don't want to have to redo my entire template for their cock-up.

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:15 PM

Take the MIT Weblog Survey

The larger the sample is, the better chance they have of being unbiased. So if you do any kind of blogging, whether it's a personal journal or just a list o'links, give it a try.

Furthermore, once you've taken the survey, you can see how you compare to the aggregate. [I'm older and have been blogging longer than most who have taken it to date.]

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:05 PM

As if I didn't have enough potential reading on my plate, the Librarian's Book Club just pointed me towards something titled The coming of the book: the impact of printing 1450-1800, which sounds like a fascinating combination of technological and social history.

Also, continued from my browsings in the book indices, the third book in Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus Trilogy, Ptolemy's Gate is due February 1st, 2006.

Despite all the current books I've mentioned in recent weeks, I haven't even started the two I checked out on Tuesday, because I'm still in the middle of rereading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (which I want to finish before Book Six comes out). And that's slowed down even further since I discovered the_snarkery. This LiveJournal community did a communal chapter-by-chapter readalong of the Harry Potter books, making some fascinating observations.

They began Phoenix in September 2004 (and only just started Goblet of Fire three weeks ago). Honestly, just start with the first post for either book and use LiveJournal's "next post" button to navigate through them all. And be sure to (at least) skim the responses, because there are valuable comments to be found.

Much of the_snarkery is snide and funny (for added fun, the members have been playing Jabootu Bingo to point up some of the more obvious cliches) but the contributors also find some surprisingly valid issues through their close reading, such as pervasive negative presentations of weight and femininity, cute colorful details that become increasingly implausible when examined (wizarding photos, Time Turners), and hypocrisies in how actions or emotions are portrayed based upon JKR's sympathies towards the characters involved.

If you want a critical look at Harry Potter, it's well worth checking out.

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:40 PM

Following up to my previous entry, I went scanning thru Books in Print for forthcoming Elizabethan fiction and books on Marlowe: maybe Riggs is the start of a larger trend (she says hopefully).

Ooh yeah! New Nicholas Bracewell mystery due out next month. The Malevolent comedy is, what, the fifteenth in the series? And I seem to have missed The Siren queen, a new Ursula Blanchard mystery, too. [I see Karen Harper and Kathy Lynn Emerson also released new books this spring in their respective series, but I wasn't as impressed with their works as other Elizabethan mysteries. Now if only Simon Hawke would get around to a new Shakespeare & Smythe novel... Betcha didn't know there were that many Elizabethan mystery series!]

But primarily the forthcoming Elizabethan fiction are YA books. There are about a half-dozen "diaries" of Grace Cavendish, maid to the Queen, written by Patricia Finney and others. And The Black canary sounds intriguing. Like Susan Cooper's King of shadows (which I have read) it features a modern youth travelling back in time to participate in period theatre.

Forthcoming Marlowe nonfiction includes:

• History play: the lives and afterlife of Christopher Marlowe by Rodney Bolt in September. I think it's already out in the UK, because I've seen some weird reviews. Sounds as though it speculates Marlowe survived 1593, not necessarily because he agrees with authorship-skeptics, but as an exploration of "how we construct truth."
• A Christopher Marlowe chronology by Lisa Hopkins
• Christopher Marlowe: poet & spy by Park Honan
• And Oxford University Press is releasing a new edition of The Collected poems of Christopher Marlowe, edited by Patrick Cheney.

[Since I've gotten access to academic journals through work, the Hopkins' and Cheney's aricles about Marlowe have particularly impressed me.]

Oh, and for those of you who might be wondering, Lemony Snicket Book 12 has an expected publication date of October 1st.

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:50 PM

Major thanks to Elizabeth Bear for pointing this out:

Well, it's not quite Bond, but it's still her Majesty's service - if only, a little less secret than the going's on at MI6.

According to The Telegraph, 007 contender Clive Owen has signed to share screen time with Cate Blanchett in the Elizabeth sequel.

The Brit plays Sir Walter Raleigh in the $20 million dollar follow-up, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, which will detail the Tudor monarch's tempestuous relationship with Raleigh and suggest that Elizabeth was infatuated with the courtier and adventurer.

The exact nature of the Queen's relationship with Raleigh, which was the talk of the Elizabethan Court, continues to fuel speculation. Some historians believe that the Queen's extravagant largesse towards the former soldier, by granting properties and trading monopolies, was proof of a deep infatuation. There is also ample evidence to suggest that she was jealous of his relationships with other women.

He was thrown in the Tower for a time when it emerged that he had seduced one of her ladies in waiting.

A source close to the film, which will be directed by Shekhar Kapur, who also directed Elizabeth, said the casting of Blanchett and Owen was the stuff of cinema magic.

"These are two stars who are capable of generating some real electricity," he said. "We are talking about two of the most beautiful people to grace the big screen."

The new film will also show the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 and the execution of Mary Queen of Scots.

The original film compressed history a great deal, but was otherwise gorgeous. I hope they get much of the supporting cast, such as Geoffrey Rush as Walsingham and Richard Attenborough as Burghley. Because it really was the whole ensemble that made the movie.

[And, hey, maybe this increased attention to the Elizabethan era will help buoy other fictional works set in the period, like, say, stories about a certain Christopher Marlowe...

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:25 PM

Several more people have guessed the correct answer, but most of you are still over-thinking.

To refresh, yesterday I posted the following riddle:

Imagine you are in a room with no doors or windows, and no openings in the floor or ceiling either. How do you get out?

(Answer behind the fake cut-tag)

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:45 AM

While this year's birthday was by no means a day of thrilling extravagance, nor indeed did I really do anything particularly special to mark the occasion, it was strangely satisfying in its own way.

The best birthday gift was more of a realization than anything tangible. It's hard to put into words, but as far as work is concerned I'm certain I'm in the right place. And that's a very good feeling. This sense has been growing for a while, but yesterday really cemented it for me. My workplace recognizes my strengths and appreciates them. Gives me a place to shine while doing things I enjoy. Most of the subjects I'm being asked to learn about are things I want to learn anyway, so there's room to grow. And unless I do something really stupid to fuck things up, I can probably happily work at this company for a decade or more. I wonder what role I'll play in this forthcoming project (I hope public reaction at ALA is positive and informatively helpful) because I have a feeling I can really soar with it.

This week's Free Will Horoscope says:

You need a new launching pad. Not rocket fuel--you've got plenty of that. Not a reliable internal guidance system or a strong hull or redundant safety features. You've got all those things. The only essential that's lacking is the right place for you to blast off. So shop around in the coming days, Cancerian. Except for that key factor, you're more than ready to get your project off the ground with a bang. Ideally, ignition and lift off will happen no later than July 14.

Somehow it feels like Rob Brezsny's advice comes too late. I think I've already got that.

Weird dream last night. Firefly body swap episode/fanfic. It's a plot device that works better in a fantasy universe like Harry Potter than in more serious SF, but the notion of prissy fastidious Simon "Could you not do that while we're... ever?" Tam finding himself in Jayne's body (I imagine him suddenly in need of a very long bath) and having to deal with Jayne "Maybe I'll give him a tattoo while he's out" Cobb occupying his... Just the body language and dialog delivered from the wrong actor seems amusing to me. [I wish I had managed to get tickets to tomorrow night's Serenity sneak...]

Finally, of the six responses I've seen to last night's riddle on LJ and my regular comments, so far only one person has gotten the correct answer. I have emailed that individual, so if you haven't heard from me keep trying. I'll post the answer soon-ish.

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:45 PM

By the way, at a party this weekend I heard a quite clever riddle told by a boy under ten.

See if you can answer it:

Imagine you are in a room with no doors or windows, and no openings in the floor or ceiling either. How do you get out?

All the information you need to solve the riddle has been provided. So don't pester me about what you're carrying or what other items are in the room.

Care to take a guess? [Or have you heard this one already?]

I'll post the answer sometime later, after a sufficient number of people have taken a crack at it.

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:05 PM

Lotsa local events coming up that I had hoped to attend when we were in better financial shape:

 • Gaylaxicon 2005, July 4th weekend in Cambridge (with an excellent vantage point to watch the fireworks)

 • Readercon, the following weekend in Burlington.

 • The Witching Hour, October in Salem. Oodles of my online friends will be attending, but prices are closer to academic conferences than to SF conventions.

That doesn't even include all the plays and Shakespeare festivals around the country this summer.

Plus there's that small matter of wanting to spend Guy Fawkes Day in the UK, which is also looking relatively remote at the timebeing.

Sigh...

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:00 PM

Got a clean bill of health from the doctor this morning. [I was not, in fact, late, as I worried in this morning's post.] No real changes from my last exam. I should get more exercise, drink more water. He also agreed with my mother that calcium supplements are a good idea, not just for me, but also for the (two younger female) medical students observing my exam (see, Mom, I do listen to you!). Though I forgot to print out the abstract, I told my doctor about the latest study on the Pill, and then during the gyn part of the exam I explained a bit further about androgen insufficiency to the medical students.

On the way home, I stopped at the library to return a couple books. No parking spaces, so had to double-park in the lot. Being me, I of course skimmed through the New Arrivals section (rather than just dropping off at the front desk and departing) and picked up two books: Savage pastimes: a cultural history of violent entertainment and Words on fire: the unfinished story of Yiddish. [I need to remember to print out my intended reading list so I have it handy for these impromptu library visits.]

I got into work at 11:45 with just enough time to snarf some lunch and catch up on e-mail before a 12:30 meeting. And the rest of my day has been the best kind of busy, researching interesting and intellectually-stimulating subjects for management. [Oh, how I wish I could go to the ALA Conference this weekend.]

Medical research idea:

Had an interesting thought while driving home from the doctors', which I'm going to forward to Dr. Goldstein as a possible avenue of further study.

At its crudest description, the birth control pill (and other hormonal contraception) works by simulating pregnancy. The woman's body doesn't produce eggs while gestating. These hormones can also depress libido.

But when naturally-occurring, pregnancy hormone changes don't just stop cold-turkey, the way women go off the Pill. In pregnancy, the body chemistry changes in other ways related to giving birth and post-natally (through breast-feeding, etcetera) before returning to "normal."

Now, there are some women whose libidos don't bounce back after preganancy.
Question: How did these pregnancies end: abortion, miscarriage, vaginal birth, c-section? Did the mother breastfeed or use formula (no judgment calls! Several of my friends had problems breastfeeding and I know not every woman can)? And how do those numbers compare with women who don't experience such androgen insufficiencies. Maybe there's some correlation between how the pregnancy proceeds/concludes and how well testosterone levels bounce back.

Depending on those results, maybe we need to consider changing the way women go off hormonal contraceptives. Instead of just stopping cold, maybe we ought to investigate a regimen of other transitional hormones to restore balance more naturally.

I am not a doctor (nor even a med student) but that just makes sense to me as an avenue worth exploring.

Anybody with a more academic background care to evaluate and help me refine this proposal? Maybe I do have a PhD dissertation within me...

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:15 AM

No big plans for the day. Got my annual checkup at 8:45 am, and then hurrying off to work where things are busy in a good way. And then tonight, we have to clean out my closet, because tomorrow we'll be getting back all the clothes the drycleaners washed after the housefire.

Several cards and packages have arrived in the mail over the last several days that I'm holding off on opening. Got one email birthday wish from an outfit I think of as spammers and one e-card from family. My mother send me a spiral notebook begun when I was four days old, recording the quantity and content of my every feeding for my first year to a level of detail that astonishes Ian.

Since I've kept a blog (my last three birthdays), I've blogged my horoscopes from the major syndicated columns. Here's what they have to say today:

Linda C. Black:

Today's Birthday (06/21/05). Partnerships and alliances are very important this year. Align yourself with people who know what they're doing and do it well. Go along for the ride.

Sally Brompton:

IF TUESDAY, JUNE 21ST, IS YOUR BIRTHDAY
There are two little voices inside your head, one telling you one thing, the other telling you something completely different. That is something you must live with as you were born on the cusp of two signs, but it need not be an obstacle to your ambitions - on the contrary, it will double your chances of success this year.

Eugenia Last:

Happy Birthday: Take a clear-cut position and move toward your goal. This is the year to get your priorities straight and stop making excuses. Success will not elude you if you take action, but thinking and doing are two different things, so don't be afraid to take a different and unique approach. Your numbers are 6, 11, 23, 29, 34, 21

Holiday Mathis:

TODAY'S BIRTHDAY (June 21). Welcome to a year burgeoning with positive energy -- you grow in every dimension. Usually you like to expand your intellect and let your life follow, but in the next three months, your approach is more from the heart. You simply decide to feel more fulfilled, more passionate and more determined -- and so you do. New love is divine with Pisces or Libra. Your lucky numbers are: 40, 2, 22, 19 and 35.

Georgia Nicols:

IF JUNE 21 IS YOUR BIRTHDAY: Britain's Prince William (1982) shares your birthday. You are naturally sensuous, which is why you respond so strongly to taste, touch, smell and feel everything! You have good financial sense and will work diligently for your goals. Your zest for life and your drive to succeed will help you overcome any obstacles. Sometimes you go overboard working. Expect increased solitude in your head to learn something important.

Jeraldine Saunders:

IF JUNE 21 IS YOUR BIRTHDAY: Ignore the impulse to make important moves now and wait until at least the second week in July to reassess situations. Your charm and attractiveness will reach stellar heights next month and again in December when you can push for recognition in career and achieve deeper intimacy in romantic relationships. In late October and throughout November you will be wiser than usual and can make beneficial plans for the future. The favors you receive then can make 2006 a highly successful year.

Bernice Bede Osol:

If today's your birthday: Those who do not share your high standards or attitude toward life could prove to be a major hindrance in your advancement.

Stella Wilder:

Born today, you don't keep your opinions to yourself, nor are you one to be easily swayed from your own point of view. The individual who intends to convert you in any way certainly has his work cut out for him, for you are confident and unwavering in your beliefs.

Jacqueline Bigar:

Cancer The Sun enters your sign today, initiating your birthday period and the summer. Why not get as much done as possible so you can celebrate later? Adjust to a different approach that someone else suggests. Tonight: **** The fun starts late.

Lasha Seniuk (week):

If your birthday is this week...close friends and relatives may be unusually temperamental over the next seven weeks. Planetary alignments now suggest that yesterday's business delays, career regrets and social mistakes will soon demand careful consideration. Loved ones will choose to revisit outdated options and renew past alliances: after mid-August, expect a series of unique social announcements or family changes. September through mid-November also highlights dramatic improvements in romantic relationships. New commitments will be serious and long-lasting: don't hesitate to explore new levels of intimacy, revised living arrangements or complex promises.

Lloyd Schumner (week):

Maybe in your next life, you'll believe the Zodiac when it tells you to cut the red wire.

Rob Brezsny (week):

Your assignment this week, should you choose to accept it, is to outdo the Dullest Blogger in the World. From a command post at www.wibsite.com/wiblog/dull, this mystery figure writes entries like the following: "I was sitting on one of the chairs in my house. My hand was resting on the arm of the chair. I drummed my fingers on the arm, thereby making a barely audible sound . . . I considered playing some music on the stereo system. I looked at some CDs for a while, but didn't put one on." And what, you may ask, is my reasoning for urging you to be more humdrum than this person who is renowned for provoking yawns? The astrological fact of the matter, Cancerian, is that you need to temporarily tone down your excitement levels--way down. Escape the entertaining melodramas for now, and take a rejuvenating excursion into lazy boredom.

And to get the day off to an inauspicious start, I've spent so much time compiling these horoscopes that I'm now running late.

Later!

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:45 PM

Very frustrating that I just haven't had the time to write.

In my head, at least, I've been detailing the followup scenes between Percy and Draco.

And I realized one thing I find so interesting about the dynamic, at least as I envision the characters: Competitively, I've got two people trying to outsmart one another. One plays chess, so plans in advance for alternatives several steps down the road, but isn't as good reacting to sudden surprises. The other prefers cards, so is quick on his feet and does much more with bluffs and strategems, but doesn't think as far ahead.

They're both intelligent, but they're playing different games. Who wins partly depends upon how much prep time the chessplayer has and how unpredictable the cardshark can be.

They realize this consciously, but there's one point where I can almost hear them thinking:

‘You're bluffing!’

‘No, you don't seem to realize you're in check.’

Of course, since they're neither that transparent nor that aware, agreement doesn't come so easily.

Ah, boys...

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:50 AM

Those who don't live with cats may not realize this, but cats have the power to emit "sleepy-ons" (possibly spelled sleepions) which can lure innocent bystanders into curling up with the cat and falling asleep. [This is probably related to the Theory of Cat Gravity, the beginning of which is described here.]

We brought Boopsie home yesterday around noon and then spent the afternoon and evening taking our catsitter to a party some friends across town were throwing.

I didn't know that when cats are determined, they can project sleepyons at extreme distances. Because I could feel the sleepyons affecting me from a third of a mile away. I got a full night's sleep, and I didn't actually go home until I saw the firespinners after dark, but all afternoon I could sense Boopsie trying to pull me back home to the bed where she was sleeping to keep her company.

When we finally got home, it was so nice to curl up with Boopsie that I think I slept ten whole hours last night.

I love our kittycat.