robert.admin – Page 16 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

April 13, 2025

Destroyermen 14: Pass of Fire (Review)

econd to last book in the series. And probably one of the more unfortunate titles I’d ever seen on a jacket. Was hanging out with friends, talking about books, and I mentioned I was reading Pass of Fire. Someone looked at my funny. “Pacifier?” “Huh?” Had to blink. “Oh.” Regardless, its another sea yarn set in the dino-world of alternative-literature, a planet like Earth except that dinosaurs still live and all sorts of different sorts of peoples from different sorts of times show up. Now, unlike our world, this one came with its own Panama Canal, and everyone wants it […]

April 6, 2025

ShowLog – Deland – 4/5/2025

t’s all about rules, I guess. Weekend of a stress-inducing show – stressful because I wasn’t allowed to lift more than five pounds with my right hand due to post-surgery rules. This made me pretty useless, so I got the useless job of being the “show boss” (i.e, supervisor). Without Steve there (he was on another of his many vacations) and no prior show boss in attendance, I was rather on my own. Oh, I’ve done just about ever show we’ve attended by not as the “official” show boss. My team got there at 7pm (well, most of it, anyway). […]

April 6, 2025

The War of the Wenuses (Review)

o one would have believed in the first years of the twentieth century that men and modistes* on this planet were being watched by intelligences greater than women’s and yet as ambitious as her own. With infinite complacency maids and matrons went to and fro over London, serene in the assurance of their empire over man. It is possible that the mysticetus** does the same. Not one of them gave a thought of it only to dismiss the idea of active rivalry upon it as impossible or improbable. * = a man who designs women’s clothing. ** = a sub-species […]

April 2, 2025

Fantastic Voyage (DOG EAR)

ometime media and entertainment play a larger and unifying role in things. I had pretty important surgery today. There was 70% blockage of some of my blood passages in my heart. To make things worse, it’s called “The Widowmaker”. Happy thought, especially since in the week following the diagnosis, I suffered an episode of small but sharp pains right from that area. Of course, like your automobile, by the time I went back to the cardiologist’s urgent care it had stopped and I was fine. No sign of anything. That made me more than happy to follow the doc’s recommendation […]

March 30, 2025

Destroyermen 13: River of Bones (Review)

think I’m almost there – two books remaining. As always, the reptilian Grik in Africa somehow come up with another massive army and fleet of galleys (along with the usual host of ironclads) and are coming down the south-flowing Zambezi river, attempting to break out and flood across the strait to Madagascar, to push out the allies and keep pushing until thousands of miles are taken back. Unluckily for our heroes, all their assets are north, up in Zanzibar, where they just put paid to much of the Japanese presence there, including squashing a significant character or two. So there is […]

March 27, 2025

OpsLog – LM&O – 3/26/2025

t was the best of times, it was the worst of times. But doesn’t every OpsLog start like this? The important thing here is that we gradually get better. In prepping the photographs for this blog, I noticed a number of properly-done background things (such as cars off-spotted correctly). As simple as it seems, it means that our operators are learning. Every session is a bit better than the last. And so, in this blog, I’ll be listing the lessons we (or, at least, “I”) learned. You’ll see them in bold. Okay, from my point of view, I came on […]

March 27, 2025

Procrastination (DOG EAR)

o I got it bad. I’m kinda in a distracted point in my life. I have some critical surgery coming up, and the testing alone (with the various support activities) is really bugging me. And there is the continuing issue about the club trailer (a member put the title in his name and then died, and the DMV has been less than helpful). And then there is all the model railroading operations I do, often two to three times a week. And an older friend of mine who is having anti-social issues – that costs me time in the form […]

March 24, 2025

OpsLog – WAZU – 3/23/2025

came into this session with determination. The day before we’d operated over at the Virginia Southwestern. Some of the operators were new, some timid, and some.. well, “some”. At one point we had four L&N trains in the CTC-controlled shared trackage, and two more snippy Southern trains trying to get through. Since I controlled the turnouts from the panel, I set up a pretty neat lap siding pass for two long coal trains to get around Kyle’s mine shifter. But the two crews were timid – even with warrants all the way to Atlanta staging, even with all turnouts set, […]

March 23, 2025

OpsLog – L&N – 3/22/2025

t was such a nice morning. Came out of the house as the sun broke over the trees, breath steaming in the cold as I made my way to the car. Swung by the coffee shop to pick up a cup. Dropped by Zach’s place to mailbag him for the ride out – an informal meeting of the ONT Operations Committee. Happy to say while we rode out, we might have cracked the steel mill output dilemma, as well as tidying up the freight flow across our club’s bridge route. Time for a quick meal in Wendy’s before heading over […]

March 23, 2025

Gate Crashers (Review)

don’t quite remember where I got this one – probably a used bookstore. It didn’t have ISBN or copyright info, so I’m guessing self-published or an advance copy. Either way, it was a pretty good effort. So we have the Magellan, a deep-space exploration vessel making a time-dilated, sleep-chamber haul out on a mission of exploration. Deep in space they find an object with no relative motion, just sitting there. When they try to move it, it attempts to remain where it was, slams into the back of the shuttle bay and then burns out. Fortunately they can communication with […]