May 2025 – Page 3 – Musings from Brian J. Noggle

I Was Going To Post About This Anyway

May 1, 2025May 1, 2025 Brian J. Noggle

A couple of years ago, when I was still driving my youngest to youth group (before he could drive himself), I would get to the church to pick him up a little early (as is my wont for all things). This particular summer evening, I had the windows down, and I was listening to the birds and the wind in the trees and just soaking in the ambience of the quiet Sunday evening in the neighborhood. When the youth group came out, one of the young ladies in the cohort said, “What is he doing?” referring to me, just sitting there with my automobile off and no device in my hand.

The New York Post reprints a Fortune piece based on a podcast at the 31 Flavors last night, so I guess it’s pretty serious: The new rawdogging? Workers are ‘barebacking’ on their way to the office — and fellow commuters are furious:

Curiously dubbed “barebacking,” the NSFW-sounding practice involves forgoing all tech and either gazing into space or — even worse — making repeated, awkward eye contact with other passengers like some kind of subterranean serial killer, Fortune reported.

Podcaster Curtis Morton, who coined the term, recently slammed straphangers who engage in the questionable practice in a TikTok video with 100,000 views.

“You’ve commuted enough times,” the Brit, who cohosts the “Behind The Screens” podcast, ranted in the clip. “Why are you sitting there without a phone, without a book, just looking at me, looking at what’s going on? Just do something!”

As I’m able to sit and enjoy my rich interior monologue without reading a book or scrolling through meaningless Internet drivel (like this blog post!) for long periods of time, I’m a bit of an outlier even amongst these Gen-Z-Discoverers. And since that night, I’ve wondered if it indeed makes people uncomfortable.

I guess so, for Gen-Z people who need something to rant about on obscure TikToks anyway.

But when I commuted on mass transit for hours a day, in my college years, I didn’t have devices, and I did not focus on books, especially college textbooks. The neighborhoods I went through required that you keep your attention on your surroundings.

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Movie Report: Kung Pow: Enter the Fist (2002)

May 1, 2025April 30, 2025 Brian J. Noggle

Book cover After watching Tropic Thunder, I popped this film in on the next night. I kind of have a bit of a goal now, to watch the films I recently bought at an estate sale, because the unwatched films are now overflowing from the top of the video game cabinet and onto the top of the (full) unwatched video cabinet. AND THIS CANNOT STAND.

Also, if you’re keeping track, this is the third time I’ve watched this film: The first, in the theater, maybe, with my beautiful wife (or on videocassette with my beautiful wife). The second, probably rented from the video store not long after I mentioned the film to my wife and she repressed the memory of it. And now, again, since I’ve bought it at an estate sale and want to clear that particular deck.

In it, Steve Oedekirk (more known as a writer) has digitally inserted himself in a 1970s martial arts flick by imposing his head upon the lead actor, and he’s rewritten/redubbed the dialog and has inserted a number of gags, including a brawl with a computer-animated cow. In the plot, he’s a wanderer whose parents were killed by a gang led by Master Pain, and he grows to learn to fight and to seek revenge from Master Pain and to liberate the countryside from the sinister machinations of The Council who is giving Pain the orders behind the scenes. The plot is not important, though, as it only serves to tie the gags together.

Like Tropic Thunder, it’s a bit self-indulgent and only has a couple of really funny moments. But maybe I’m just old and grumpy. Maybe 13-year-old Brian J. would have liked it better.

At any rate, a couple of days later, a couple of things have stuck with me. The main bad guy, Master Pain, and the love interest are dubbed in silly voices. Master Pain sounds like a cartoon character and the love interest sounds like the high parts of Miss Piggy’s voice (without the brass), and she is prone to saying “Wi-oh-wi-oh-wi.” I’ve found myself making those voices when I’m alone. Jeez, Louise, guys, the things I say, the voices I make, and to be honest, sometimes the animal noises I make when I’m alone. I would be frightened for the sanity of anyone else whom I knew did this. But I’m pretty sure I’m sane, ainna?

And now I own this film on DVD, and if history proves a guide to the future, I will likely watch it more than I watch most things I own. I don’t know why I am drawn to these dumb comedies, but I am.

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A Big Iron On My Desk

May 1, 2025April 30, 2025 Brian J. Noggle

I got a new computer over the weekend.

My old PC was only five years old, and it is probably adequate, but it’s had a whine somewhere within, and I was reluctant to tear it apart to find it. I actually did at the beginning of 2024; my employer provided an annual $200 stipend for office supplies, so I opened it up and gave it a listen and thought it was the power supply fan, so I replaced the power supply. But that was not it. Audio playback was starting to fade in and out as well, and it was laden with cruft–basically, in the five years I’d had it, I had installed all sorts of frameworks, servers, and databases that left behind detritus when uninstalled–so it was taking 30 minutes to come to the desktop after a reboot. So I decided it was time.

I am about to disappoint you, gentle reader, but I did not build my own rig. Continue reading “A Big Iron On My Desk” →

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