robert.admin

October 6, 2023

On Sheet – Codedancers

t all started two decades ago when a lot of people died. Well, not real people. Model railroad pretend people. Back then, our club used to use a big metal board (about six feet long) to keep track of trains (which were magnets). The dispatcher would move these about and dictate warrants from the situation he saw. A major problem occurs when you try this. I liked to write “hyperspace” warrants for passenger trains. You know, with the line clear, I’d write a warrant to get that train moving and stay moving across the division. The problem is that I […]
October 5, 2023

My Thoughts on Curbside Libraries (DOG EAR)

uddenly Curbside Libraries are popping up all over the place. Since I tend to walk a lot, I’ll pass them often and nose in, seeing if there is anything interesting. I hate to say it, but judging America’s reading levels, it is pretty bleak. Most of the time, it is grim. Generally there are two things in these boxes – children’s books (not beloved classics, but just general teach-a-lesson books) and utility books (cookbooks, self-help books, etc). Really, this is what you people read? A few years back, I was riding my bike and came across a stack of books […]
October 1, 2023

Bull, the Pulp Issue (Review)

his unlikely softcover was sitting in the “Buy one get one free” stack. Since I’d bought one and everything else in that stack was YA or woman-heartthrob stuff, I picked up this one. Inside the cover, the publisher (Bull) notes: “Bull is dedicated to examining & discussing modern masculinity: what works, what doesn’t, what needs to stay and what needs to go.” I’m not sure what that all means; I’m just in it for a good story. And The Pulp Issue is packed with those. It’s a crazy mix of Noir and Pulp tales, most of them placed in our […]
September 29, 2023

On Sheet – Superintendent

omething we do on our club layout. Look, it’s an old layout – been around for thirty years or more. And it’s N-scale, so it has it’s problems. And the original construction team was in a rush. So yes, it does have issues. Trains will derail. Sections might drop out. Things won’t work. So we designate someone – for the session – as the Superintendent. His job is to answer all questions. He also assists members who derail, get confused, need help. In this, it helps if he’s physically fit enough to climb under the railroad when needed to fetch […]
September 28, 2023

OpsLog – LM&O – 9/27/2023

‘m sitting in my dark, dingy writer’s loft, smoking my metaphorical cigarette as I prepare for my character assassination hit. On the chipped and stained table before me, my M102 Blamethrower. I check the fuel level. Topped off. Taking that final drag, I engage in the time-honored memory flashbacks of the session. The screams. The collisions. The confusion. The helplessness. So many trains doing so many things wrong. My hands tremble. I shake the nightmares clear like under-layout cobwebs. I cannot do this. I cannot torch egos. Yeah, there were layout problems. It’s N-scale and there always will be. But […]
September 24, 2023

The MurderBot Diaries (Guest Review)

new series for me— the MurderBot Diaries by Martha Wells. In the first installment of the series “All Systems Red”, a half organic half robot security bot (who goes by his title ‘SecBot’) wishes to put in a minimal effort ‘half -assed job’ (by his own admission) at security, and be left alone by his human survey team protection charges so he can view his trove of downloaded soap operas. SecBot finds himself saving his humans and figuring out the complex plot to exterminate them all.  Great interstellar adventure ensues as the bot gains both human attachments and grows in […]
September 22, 2023

OpsLog – TBL – 9/21/2023

ey, I like running trains with the guys. Operations is about playing a multi-participant game bigger than yourself. I love it. But it also means that, since I’m one of the founding members of ops, I get called on a lot. People don’t understand their timetables. Or their warrants. Or their freight waybills. There are accidents out of reach, whole train derailments, dead engines, stupid questions (yes, those DO exist). One moment, I’m in the cab, pondering my switching moves. The next, someone is tapping me on the shoulder. I get pulled out of it a lot. So tonight I […]
September 22, 2023

On Sheet – Battle Plans

o plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first encounter with the main enemy forces. Only the layman believes that in the course of a campaign he sees the consistent implementation of an original thought that has been considered in advance in every detail and retained to the end. — Helmuth von Moltke I’m a member of the operations committee in our club. I’ve designed the freight forwarding system (all three versions). I’ve come up with the trains, the timetable (for passengers) and the crew start times for everything else. I’ve suggested changes to track alignments to improve […]
September 21, 2023

Tooned out (DOG EAR)

ne of my guilty pleasure are Webtoons, specifically found on the site of that name (search for it). This is an avenue for artists to easily post up their comic strips so the reader can follow them and enjoy them. Some of them occasionally get turned into low-budget movies. If I were an artist (and not a writer) I might consider it. I have subscribed to a dozen of these which post on different days. My little guilty pleasure was to ride my bike into work, have a shower, get a cup of coffee and since I was the first […]
September 17, 2023

On a Pale Horse (Review)

remember becoming aware of this book when my date was reading it on a cloudy day on a Chesapeake beach some forty years ago. I remember saying I’d read it soon. Well, the date turned into a relationship that turned into a bad joke. But yes, four decades later, I finally picked this book up. One reservation (not about the girlfriend (which I should have had)) on the book; it is part one of something called The Incarnations of Immortality. And since I got this in a used book store, it’s like a four leaf clover – just because you […]