robert.admin – Page 177 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

February 14, 2013

Writing Time (DOG EAR)

Sunday was an op session, and then Downton Abbey in the evening. Monday, work and then the train club bi-laws committee way, way over on the other side of town. And then over to the club to work building flats in Jacksonville and fuss with an alarm test way too late. Also, a fan wanted to see a sample of an unpublished book, so I had to prep that up and post it. Tuesday, ordinarily my night off, the parents are in town for diner so it’s work, then way, way over to the other side of town again. If […]

February 10, 2013

Mirror to the Sky (Review)

This book put me to sleep. I liked it, but it just knocked me out. I don’t know why – the writing was good. The story was good. The idea was new. But I’d read it and my eyes would flutter and then I’d be in zonkland. So aliens come, ostensibly to be our buddies, but mostly to search out a threat they’ve perceived. To show us their good intentions, they display cultural art, paintings they’ve done, ones so important that every fleet that goes out carries exact duplicates of them. But their art is disturbing. When one looks at […]

February 10, 2013

OpsLog – TY&E – 2/10/2013

First runs of any railroad are always fun. There is no expectation of success, no holding to timetable or getting cars to the right places. Hell, since nobody knows what’s happening, you can answer every misroute, every cornfield, every break from railroad tradition and operating practice with a shrug. Hell, I don’t even know what TY&E stands for. But we had some fun, not only running trains but also coming up with major overhaul improvements to the trackplan, crazy enough to make owner JW scream in mortal rage. Actually, outside of some yard recommendations (man, Youngstown is just one effed-up […]

February 8, 2013

Dem’s da Brakes

There is a chic set of apartments off the corner of Lake Ave and 17-92, shoppes on the bottom, clock tower on the top, so cute. I check the time when I make my left onto Lake on my bicycle commutes in the morning. So I’m coming up 17-92 today and I’ve got one car (if a hulking Armada can be deemed a simple “car”) coming up in the far left lane. I could get across in front if it, over to my left turn, but I’m not sure where this person is going – no signals. Of course, as it goes by, its […]

February 7, 2013

By its cover (DOG EAR)

My wife and I share a strange little habit, one carried over from my bachelor days. We like to go to dinner and read. We usually go this at fast food joints, quiet places during off times when we can sit in our corner and read our respective books. Then, over desert frostees or brownies or whatever, we’ll chat about what we’ve read. Last time over at Wendy’s, an old lady got up and said how nice it was to see people reading. She even mentioned how nice it was that I was reading The Three Musketeers. We chatted with […]

February 3, 2013

Thy Kingdom Come (Review)

Thy Kingdom Come is a collection of short stories, no, two collections of short stories, all taking place fifteen minutes into the future. Or, more correctly, a horrible new century that I’m just as happy I don’t live in. One set involves young Martin Sorenson, a boy growing up in the heartland of the USA. His father has just been asked to join the “Reconstruction” party, a grass-roots right-wing organization that is just getting its start. And in that formulative first story, Dublin’s just had a nuke detonate in it. The second set, named “Armageddon” and interspersed between the “Plainview” […]

January 31, 2013

Death of a book salesman (DOG EAR)

I read today how Barnes and Noble is cutting back and closing 450 to 500 stores in the coming years. Whereas the death of this Goliath should fill me with smug satisfaction (given how many mom-n-bob nooky bookstores it killed), it doesn’t. Actually, it fills me with a cold dread. A chilling wave of digitalization, of buying whatever whenever, is washing over us. So what’s the difference between being served by a teenage Goth punk in a used bookstore as opposed to the same studded wonder doing it in a chain store? One is a sign of hip and trendy urban […]

January 27, 2013

No Country for Old Men (Review)

The movie for this book stuck with me – it has one of those critical moments (like Purple Rose of Cairo) where the screen-writer tells you “you think you know where this is going? Guess again.” I suppose it comes from our expectations of story-telling, that heroes always win and villainy is defeated. Occasionally its nice to see an author perform a public service of rocking us back on our heels. I was happy to see (as I read the book) that this wasn’t just a director decision – the author ran with it. I won’t do a spoiler on […]

January 24, 2013

Dipsticks (DOG EAR)

This came from the Writers Group as discussed last week. It was one of the best short stories I’d ever heard. And the crushing critique was one of the most spot-on, thermal-exhaust-port bullseyes I’d ever witnessed. The story in an abbreviated nutshell: A man has a living fantasy of the climactic moment of grace in his life, that of driving to the perfect fishing spot in a vintage 1957 Chevy. So he puts a couple of years into the project. He buys an old beater and rebuilds it tires up, turning it into a shining vehicular fantasy. Oilstained and weary […]

January 23, 2013

OpsLog – LM&O – 1/23/2013

I usually start my ops day dreading it. It’s just my personality – worry worry worry. Had two visitors coming in and was hoping we’d have some sort of decent session. This would make up for the fact that Omar (a work-buddy) had been thinking of coming out but couldn’t make it. Anyway, met our visitors over at the Olive Garden and everything went fine. Drove over to the club and the lot was almost empty – three cars. My worrying was justified it seemed. So we started to clean and people poured in. We even got a few guys […]