robert.admin – Page 146 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

January 4, 2015

The Martian (Review)

here are at least two other Lonely Astronauts out there. One was a short YouTube series about a guy left on the moon by the last Apollo mission, a bitter fellow who vents with streams of bleeped cussing (it’s actually pretty funny). The other is some sort of children’s book. Be that so, Andy Weir’s take on a man being left behind, this time on Mars, is a stunning, exciting, funny, sad, and vivid account of what happens when Astronaut Mark Watney, thought to be dead during a panicked mission abort in the face of a terrifying Martian sand storm, […]

January 2, 2015

I hate: Black

hat IS it about wearing black? Look, I commuted in on the bike today. It was 7am, still dark, and misting. My glasses were beading up but I swiped them when I could. I rode with full lights, yellow shirt and jacket and a brilliant orange safety vest. I passed about four pedestrians on my travels. Half of them were crossing the road outside of crosswalks (one was only twenty feet from it). All of them were wearing black (I nearly hit the guy off the crosswalk – like it’s hard enough to see normal people – stupidity ninjas are […]

January 1, 2015

After the story (DOG EAR)

o I’m in Stephen Donaldson’s Lord Foul’s Bane right now, a saga that a reader-chum at work convinced me to try. This has been on the back of my mind since my roomie in college (all those long years ago) raved about it. And it’s the usual fantasy novel. A lot of walking and a lot of strange names, races and titles. And while I can’t do anything about the travelogue, I remembered what I should do for the baffling syntax. Yeah, you got it. Flip to the back. And there’s the glossary. I can’t tell you how many times […]

December 28, 2014

New York – Day Four – Escape from New York

won’t say it rained that day. But it was ark weather. The front hit on our final day. JB had agreed (with some prodding) to walk with me over to the Hudson to see the museum carrier Intrepid, followed by a walk across the city to Grand Central Station (something she wanted to see). She should have argued better. At first it was fine – we both had umbrellas and it was raining. But was we got closer on the carrier, it came down harder and harder. Soon our legs were getting wet, my arm (from holding her hand) was […]

December 28, 2014

Singularity Sky (Review)

ingularity Sky is another element of Charles Stross’s future universe, where computers underwent singularity (i.e. they turned the corner on human intelligence and streaked away), and in doing so, these now-godlike AIs teleported 90% of the human race to other planets, mostly in racial/regional blocks. So this one was a step backwards for me – having met Martin and Rachael in Iron Sunrise (and missing them in Accelerando), here we see them in their “courtship”, traveling to and enjoying the rustic pleasures of the New Republic. So it’s meaning within meaning here. The New Republic was originally force-settled by some […]

December 27, 2014

New York – Day Three – Making Book on the Horses

fter Sting, it’s hard to top it but we had a really good day. It was misty and rather cold, but still doable. The morning broke drizzly and cold, with JB, me, my mom and sister boarding a carriage on the border of Central Park. Through the efforts of Flash the Horse, we circled around the interior of this vast yet beautiful greenspace (yeah, Orlando, thanks for developing the old navy base into Baldwin Park (i.e. Nob Hill for the rich, rather than greenspace for everyone). Not many people were out, so we huddled under our carrage blanket, looking out […]

December 25, 2014

Absolutely True (DOG EAR)

avid Barry frequently uses the phrase “This is absolutely true” and “I am not making this up” when he’s making a central point, the quirk of base reality set against the background of his humor. Writers should take note of this. We need to occasionally have a point of absolutely true quirkiness in the center of our characters, something that makes them real. My own life has its quirks, but it’s pretty much a point A to B life-path. Nothing major. But if I were writing it, I’d have to mention the cat-feeding story. See, the wife is all but […]

December 25, 2014

Phantom (Review)

hen I first cracked this brick-thick novel open, I wasn’t sure what I was reading. Was this some sort of parody? I was reminded of The Further Adventures of Captain Gregory Dangerfield, a novel about an English hero perfect beyond perfection. Rich, cunning, trained, handsome, and adventurous, that book was a lampoons of men’s adventure books. And when I first started reading Phantom, I thought it was the same sort of thing. My evidence? Lord Alex Hawke (yes, an English lord, complete with an estate and bazillions of dollars to play with), who is respected in society yet also an […]

December 20, 2014

To have and have not (Review)

his one’s been on the Hemingway stack for years, part of a wifey Christmas gift from long ago. Been meaning to read it. And then, tired of modern plot devices (and having seen the namesake movie with Bogart over at an outdoor showing), I decided I had to read it. Well, the movie was good. And the book was nothing like it. Yeah, better. Much better. To Have and Have Not is a collection of four short stories following the declining fortunes of Harry Morgan, an honest, pragmatic, and (at times) ruthless man who owns a boat and plies the […]

December 18, 2014

I hate: Backstabbers

hate backstabbers. So, first, at least make it worth it. If you are going to backstab me, don’t make it easy for me – keep my whip. But I also ask that you make it worth it – have that gold idol under your arm. Leave me to die. Don’t just pick up corporate brownie points by ratting me out. I mean, shit, I’ve been backstabbed major by corporations – I’ve had two that owed me backwages or cut my wages to keep the lights on fire me. I’ve been fired for nepotism – when the little family-run business found […]