robert.admin – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

September 19, 2024

Weight (DOG EAR)

‘ve always meant to say this but never got the urge until I showed up early for a dinner that everyone either skipped or came late for. And here it is. My quote: The weight of time is far less that the weight of a thin paperback book. This might not make much sense unless you’ve ever decided to go somewhere and had nothing to do for forty-five minutes or so. And for some reason, when you left your house, you picked up the paperback you were reading, yet, the one that was just getting interesting. You gauged it in […]

September 16, 2024

OpsLog – Tusk Coast – 9/15/2024

‘d just had a massive operation session the night before and hadn’t left the wind-down barroom post-brief until 1am. So why did I put myself back into the DS desk the very next day for another ops session, this time on ACL-flavored Tuscarora? Well, I’m easy. Far-away Student Zeus asked and I’m always willing to scrape up a session. So we had me on the DS panel, Greg on scheduled trains, Zeus on Coal, Zach as leverman and Mike on the station desk. So we were ready to go. The first half the session went well enough (better than the […]

September 16, 2024

OpsLog – LM&O – 9/15/2024

n one sense, our Saturday Night Special club ops was a shambles. Stuff broke. Trains did all sorts of unapproved maneuvers. The clock ran hyper at 15:1 and reset with each reprogramming. I had to go dump a Guinness afterwards. On the other hand, it was glorious. See, this was a training session, a chance for everyone who has wallflowered or wanted to try newer, more difficult jobs to give them a chance. We went over the warrants so all the operators would be knowledgeable [sic]. And we told everyone that everyone around them was just as inexperienced, meaning goofs […]

September 16, 2024

The Utterly Uninteresting Unadventurous Tales of Fred, The Vampire Accountant (Review)

friend who has read and enjoyed a number of my recommendations suggested (tentatively) this book. His pitch reminded me of how I tried to ask for dates in high school. Hesitantly. And the book (about Fred, a nerdish young accountant who is transformed into an unholy creature of the night (well, religion doesn’t show up, not really, and Fred just works overnight on his accounting practice)) is interesting. Yes, Fred is as happy as a socially-awkward noodle-head can be, and he has a source of easy-to-get blood. But then trouble raises its head. And again. And again. The chapters are […]

September 13, 2024

Deconstructing Media (American Ninja Warriors) (DOG EAR)

isclaimer – I have not watched this show. I’ve seen the ads on the mindless-drone TV at the dealership and rolled my eyes. Okay, this is some sort of program where they have contestants from everyday people (i.e. stupid) compete in an unlikely and over-engineered obstacle course. But that’s not what I’m deconstructing here – I’m looking at the name they’ve given this wasteland show. American Ninja Warrior. So, first up. “American”. What has this got to do with anything? Is there a Polish Ninja Warrior game I need to know about? Or is this a way to stick a […]

September 9, 2024

OpsLog – TBL – 9/9/2024

he first perimeter defense, the outer gate, was wide open. It was almost like a trap. Cautious ingress. The second defense, the savanna out front, was similarly trespassed. While it was rumored to be the killing fields of several apex predators, the grass had been foolishly mown back, allowing perfect visibility. The final obstacle was the steel door. Even clearly marked – Members Only – the knob was loose, unlocked. There had to be a trap – ninja blades, kill lasers. It had been too easy. So, taking hold of her ten-year-old decoy, she shaved it through the door to […]

September 8, 2024

Raylan (Review)

f you’ve ever seen Justified on the web or streaming services, you know that cool main character, Federal Marshal Raylan Givens, a Gary-Cooper-like lawman who casually blows away Southern tire-biters who have it coming (meaning they are trying to draw against him). He’s a cool dude. And he’s the creation of Elmore Leonard, a crime writer of great renown. He’s written a string of books about this character and they are all as smooth as moonshine. It’s a very unconventional storytelling method. First off, you nearly have to read it out loud. From a grammar standpoint, it isn’t proper English. […]

September 1, 2024

Record of a Spaceborn Few (Review)

idn’t we just talk about this author? Becky Chambers, writer of A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and A Closed and Common Orbit. She’s that author who takes a wondrous set of characters and locations and trashes them, telling the story with edge-case characters and briefly-mentioned locations. You aren’t getting sausage grinding with this author. You get a new telling of a new perspective in a “loose universe”. I like this, if only because it is ballsy writing. So in Record of a Spaceborn Few, earlier books have hinted that when the Earth collapsed into ecological disaster, the […]

August 29, 2024

OpsLog – LM&O – 8/28/2024

hese great, dumb beasts, moving as one, plodding through dust and adversity in their drive towards their distant goal. Small stupid eyes peer from beneath their shaggy manes, nosing their fellows, driving on and on, clutching their trains under their arms… What? Yeah, I’m not talking buffaloes here. I’m talking about the general rush for the door, the one-and-done deal where half the club is out the door and heading home to their nightcaps and their Tonight Shows. Those who stick to their throttles were looking around about 9:20pm (real time AND train time), wondering if the rapture had happened […]

August 29, 2024

Stacks (DOG EAR)

eird little story for your blogging pleasure. Of course, I love to read (no shit, right?) And since I just had a week’s vacation, I’ve been plowing through books. My review stack is about six deep right now. Funniest thing, though. I’ve been watching James Garner in The Rockford Files. Great show that echos the old Private Eye Noir of the past. I’ve never really watched it but lived in the time (1974) and the place (LA) so it’s all there for me. Curious about the main star, I picked up a book, The Garner Files, Garner’s autobiography. Enjoyed it. […]