Chuck's Life

2011-09-09T13:29:00.001-05:00

The Straight Dope: Are brown bottles better for beer?

2011-09-03T11:26:00.000-05:00

The Straight Dope: Are brown bottles better for beer?

Peru 2007

2011-07-27T11:19:00.002-05:00

cbelier's favorites on Flickr.

Lost States: Where did they get the lions?

2011-07-26T21:24:00.000-05:00

I've always wondered about this....

Lost States: Where did they get the lions?: "Easter weekend is the perfect time to ask this question: Knowing they'd get likely eaten by lions, why didn't the early Christians abandon..."

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2011-07-24T22:02:00.001-05:00

TechCrunch | Facebook Glitch Revealed Thumbnails & Descriptions Of Friends' Private Videos

Facebook's labyrinthine privacy controls have sprung another leak. This time it's their Videos feature, which lets users share brief clips with their friends and family (Videos launched back in 200...

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Craig Ferguson - The lost "Dr. Who" cold open.

2010-12-01T16:02:00.001-06:00

General Class Here I Come

2009-01-26T10:25:00.000-06:00

One of my New Years resolutions was to upgrade my Amateur Radio license from a Technician class to General class. With all that life threw at me and my family last year, I decided to do something for me. My initial plan was to upgrade during HamCom 2008 last June. Life got in the way and those plans had to be scrapped. This year I've decided not to let anything get in my way. So far I've been using the Gordon West & ARRL General class books to study for the test. I am about 1/3 of the way through and so far the material has been pretty easy to follow. I'm shooting for taking my test in February. That should not be a problem if I keep up with my current pace. Wish me luck.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles

2008-08-27T13:51:00.000-05:00

I've been on a bit of a mystery bender lately. It started with "The Big Sleep" by Raymond Chandler and continued through his "Farewell My Lovely", "The High Window" and "The Lady in the Lake." I planned on continuing to read the rest of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe books, but then a curious thing happened. I am a huge Doctor Who fan and was watching the season 4 episode "The Wasp and the Unicorn" and became enamored with the Agatha Christie character and her mysterious disappearance after she found out about her husbands affair. My mother and grand mother had read every one of her books that they could get their hands on, so I was familiar with her work. I however, always thought of her work as simple and not up to the high standards I have come to expect from authors like Tolkien, Jordan, Brooks, Weis & Hickman, Asimov and Bradbury to name a few.

On a whim, I downloaded "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" for my Kindle and started to reading it. I have to admit that I was entirely wrong about her writing. She had me hooked from the first paragraph of the first chapter. Her writing style reminded me a lot of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's. Her Poirot had his Hastings as Holmes had his Watson. Her settings were precise and meticulously described. Clues were left in the open for all to grasp but I have to admit she did toy with me by having Hastings and others poo poo them and throw me off the track. So much so that when the final solutions was presented, I was able to recall just where in the story the author had presented them. This was her first novel and it reads like she had been writing novels for many years.

Overall I would highly recommend it.