Musings from Brian J. Noggle
Saturday, September 20, 2008
 
How Did You Celebrate Talk Like A Pirate Day?
Not like this fellow, who celebrated Walk The Walk Like A Pirate Day:

Hoard of gold coins found in banker's home basement


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:22 PM   0 comments
 
Can't Help Myself, Comrade
You know, I wanted to take the high road this election cycle.

Nah.

Obama 08: Let's Get This Party Started
Click to buy


Read about Obama's Communist Party connections here.


- posted by Brian J. @ 1:14 PM   1 comments
Friday, September 19, 2008
 
How Cute! Some Books
Kim du Toit starts it up again by showing off half of his book collection.

Me, I don't have time to update it with the new bookshelves, but here's the Noggle Library in February 2008, before book fair season.

I don't know why I bother trash talking when comparing our library to the bibliophile libraries of Porch Girl or the du Toits. I mean, it's clear we (I) have a problem, and we've turned the corner in book collection from book lover and are approaching tenured professor levels.


- posted by Brian J. @ 1:34 PM   0 comments
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
 
The Noggle/Lileks Video Collection Solidarity Approaches
Today he announces:
    Simply put: my wife got me a collection of 100 Mystery movies on DVD for my birthday, and I’m going to watch them all. This feature will run at least once a week, and will range from the boring – like our first one, alas – to the really, really bad.
My wife gave me the very collection for Christmas a couple years ago. Lileks is already further into it than I am.


- posted by Brian J. @ 10:58 AM   0 comments
 
Warning: Spore Can Help Terrorists Build Biochemical Weapons
Our nation's defense forces are just spitballing here:
    The American military and intelligence communities are increasingly worried that would-be bin Ladens might gather in a virtual world, to plan a real-life attack. But the spies haven't given many details, about how it might be done. Now, a Pentagon researcher has laid out how such a terror plot might unfold. The planning ground is World of Warcraft. The main target of this possibly nuclear strike: the White House.

    There's been no public proof to date of terrorists hatching plots in virtual worlds. But online spaces like World of Warcraft are making some spooks, generals and Congressmen extremely nervous. They imagine terrorists rehearsing attacks in these worlds, just like the U.S. military trains with commercial shoot-em-up games. They worry that the massively multiplayer games make it incredibly easy to gather plotters from around the world. But, mostly, virtual worlds are nerve-wracking to spies because they're so hard to monitor. The accounts are pseudonymous. The access is global. The jargon is thick. And most of the spy agencies' employees aren't exactly level-70 shamans.
And by "spitballing," I mean rousing a panic amongst the ignorant controllers of budget strings so they totally can get budget for a couple of full time MMORPG players, probably themselves.


- posted by Brian J. @ 10:52 AM   0 comments
Sunday, September 14, 2008
 
Good Book Hunting: September 10, 2008
On Wednesday, I found a yard sale and received a book I'd ordered off the Internet. Here they are:

3 more books for the bowing shelves

  • The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico, a book about the conquest of the Mexica written by one of the conquistadores. The bite of the Porch Girl continues.

  • The Caretakers by Tabitha King. That's my second book purchase from this author simply because she's Stephen King's wife. Brother, his coattails are carrying the whole family as far as I'm concerned. Maybe I'll read one of them and like it so I'll buy the author in his (Joe Hill's) or her own right.

  • The Audobon Society Field Guide to North American Birds including a visual flip guide. So by the time my children pay attention, I hope to know what kinds of birds you see around here.
Just when we thought Book Fair Season was over, though, my beautiful wife has found another coming up. Oh, the humanity! Did I brag here about the $25 bookshelves I found at Target? I retract that. Sissy little things are bowing in under a year.


- posted by Brian J. @ 11:18 AM   0 comments
 
Book Report: Murder at the ABA by Isaac Asimov (1976)
Isaac Asimov not only wrote science fiction, not only wrote science fact, but also wrote mysteries. This particular bit is one such, and it's one that includes Isaac Asimov as a character. The first person POV focuses on Darius Just, a literary author whose protege is murdered at the American Booksellers Association conference in New York. Just finds the body and determines that, although staged to look like an accident, his tempermental and sexually deviant, uh, protege (I already called him that, but other nouns are not forthcoming) was murdered. Just has, uh, only four days to find the murder. And if he does, he'll let Isaac Asimov write the book.

Asimov has fun with the book and with using himself, going so far as to have footnote back-and-forth with Darius Just. Along the way, it's a whodunit sort of mystery where you could figure it out, sort of, if you looked in the right places. Me, I don't puzzle the book out that way, so it's not ordinarily my cup of tea. But I enjoyed it.

As a side note, I'm actually re-reading this book. I first read it in high school, lo those many years ago. I liked it enough to pick it up for a buck, and all I remembered was the gimmick of having Asimov in it.
Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:34 AM   0 comments
To say Noggle, one first must be able to say the "Nah."