robert.admin – Page 113 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

January 20, 2019

Dead Man’s Chest (Review)

reasure Island, one of my favorites. Anyone who reads that is in the little club that knows that Long John Silver is not a fearsome blood-soaked pirate, no. He’s a manipulator and odds-player, changing sides as needed and playing his cards clever. And at the end of that story, he’s sprung by Ben Gunn, the cheese-drooling castaway, and apparently sails off to freedom, wealth and anonymity. And good for him. Dead Man’s Chest is a sequel to this tale of pirates and buried treasure. We meet Captain John Paul Jones (of later naval valor, so we think), on the run […]

January 17, 2019

After Hours (DOG EAR)

saw this great Martin Scorsese flick back when it came out in 1985. Funny story – my best friend’s mom and her daughter went to the art-flic house to see it and were totally confused. Why was this male dating-from-hell movie funny? The next night they took us to see it. We laughed uproariously all the way through it. They looked at us like it was some sort of elaborate joke. If you are a man, see it and think of your own dating disasters. If you are a woman, ask your man to explain it. Or stick with Outlander. […]

January 13, 2019

Caliban’s War (Review)

nother installment of my up-in-the-favorites scifi series, the crazy-interesting books by a writer team carrying the pseudo name of James S. A. Corey, and what you can view as Season 2 of the Expanse on some of your streaming services. You’ll remember that in our last review, James, Naomi, Amos and Alex had discovered that there was an alien molecule that was being dicked with by a soulless corporation – their thought: hey, we can really save on space suits if we could alter humans by changing their bodies, down to their DNA, to make them into whatever we want […]

January 13, 2019

ShowLog – Deland – 1/(12/13)/2019

etween a software load, a compliance disaster and the possibility of retirement, work is a crazy spin-cycle of shit. Outside of that, there is my friend in the hospital, the game I’m writing, the books I’m trying to read, all this crazy crap. And this weekend, two days of Volusia County Fairgrounds train show. Which was really, surprisingly fun. I didn’t know I’d enjoy myself that much. But even with the minor layout damage (Bill, can you maybe miss a pothole or two with the trailer?) the layout went together smooth and easy. We had good participation from the membership […]

January 9, 2019

Doldrums (DOG EAR)

his isn’t writer’s block. At least I don’t think so. There was an old Odds Bodkins comic (a Berkley counter-culture strip from the late 60s) where a character mumbles that it’s Monday and his brains are in the basement. I’ve always remembered that and it comes to mind now while considering a Thursday blog. Sometimes I just don’t feel like writing. Nothing creative comes to mind. It’s like that with game writing. I’m still adding functionality and adventure to StoreyMinus. During the day, I’ll be so excited to add new stuff to my adventures, like old bomb shelters (complete with […]

January 6, 2019

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry (Review)

eil DeGrasse Tyson is a science popularist, rather like Bill Nye and Carl Sagan. He brings science down to the level where normal nabobs (such as your humble reviewer, with his small backyard scope) can understand. And he does a good job at it. His book on general astrophysics was very good. Starting with the complete history of the universe (at least for its critical first day or so) was quite fascinating. Moving out to the scale of the universe, how scientists calculate things, how we basically know what we know, was quite revealing. It got me to realize just […]

January 3, 2019

A reflection on time (DOG EAR)

ime is always a sour subject with me. I’ve never had enough of it. Even without kids, even with a quiet, low-maintenance wife, there isn’t. I haven’t written seriously (my old Tuesday/Thursday lockdown) for years now. And there are the dusty model trains, the abandoned telescope, the unwatched movies. But still, in all this, I’m active, frantically so. My recent efforts have been writing StoreyMinus, an interactive game that is nearing something like completion. And then there are two nights each week at the train club. Oh, and my buddy who is in a distant hospital, necessitating a long 2-3 […]

December 30, 2018

The Travelling Cat Chronicles (Review)

kay, backstory – while visiting Japan, I saw a movie poster with a shot of a cat that looked exactly like my late Mookie. Stunned me. Looking further into it, I discovered the book the movie was based on, The Travelling Cat Chronicles. Part of me will continue my search for the flick. But part of me will finish the review of the wonderful book it uncovered. The novel follows a strange and interesting journey of Nana the cat and his companion (not owner – it’s not that sort of relationship) Satoru the human. Satoru, it seems, had found Nana […]

December 27, 2018

Best of 2018 (DOG EAR)

s traditionally on this site (well, as of last year), here are my outstanding books from 2018. I am not ranking these in any order. Simply put, they are the best five from the 50 or so reviews I did this year. If you are looking for something to spend your Barnes & Noble gift card on, these are you best choices. Leviathan Wakes – This has become a powerful series on the Sci-Fi network, a great saga of books that follows four characters on a small stolen ship in a universe defined by our solar system (in a hundred […]

December 22, 2018

Leviathan Wakes (Review)

f you’ve seen The Expanse on the Sci-Fi network then you’ve seen this book (the first in a series of seven or eight). It’s set in the solar system a century or so forward from ours. Earth is a UN dominated world, Mars bold and fascist. And the belt, it’s free-wheeling yet controlled by the inner worlds (and falling more and more under the sway of the OPA (Outer Planet Alliance)). So, yes, this is a universe set for conflict and action. Into this backdrop we find four people, late crewmembers of the ice rigger Canterbury (destroyed as part of […]