robert.admin – Page 178 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

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 […]

January 20, 2013

The Further Adventures of Captain Gregory Dangerfield (Review)

How much did I love this book? When it came out in the late 70’s, I read it then stole it from the local library. Never done that before (or since). In college, I vulched people who borrowed it from me (it made the rounds of our gaming group). Then I loaned it to a friend a year or so back and that was it for my book. Gone. Fortunately I discovered that Amazon had a used copy for sale and I picked it up (see how karma works – I eventually paid for the book I stole). So now […]

January 17, 2013

Then and Now (DOG EAR)

There is a writer’s group that meets here in Orlando – I’d probably go except I’m committed to something else those nights and can’t make it. But it hits me, reading their exchanges following their meetings, that the focus of the meetings is marketing their self-published books. And that’s fine, I suppose – God knows I could have used it, given the haphazard failure-daze of a marketing effort Early ReTyrement went through. I am the world’s worse salesman, a fact I do not hesitate to admit. But I’m left thinking of the group that got me into writing, The Writer’s […]

January 13, 2013

River of Doubt (Review)

There is a common theme in disaster yarns. Usually you have a hint of what’s coming by the very book subject (or its back-blurb). But as you read, the windup is a litany of ill-advised, poorly-considered and stupid choices made that lead to the fiasco. And the Roosevelt journey into the Amazon rain forest (a subject I knew nothing about) fits right into this theme. After losing a bid for a third term of the White House (at the head of the doomed Progressive Party), our man Teddy decided he needed a final hurrah, something to do that would fit […]

January 10, 2013

Showdown (Dog Ear)

Originally I was going to write about the silly thing that occurs in climactic showdowns, when the hero and villain square off. The villain for some reason is out of ammo or has thrown his sword in desperation. And the hero, smiling toothily, drops his weapon to go hand to hand, mano-a-mano. Then I noticed that I don’t see this in novels. See it all the time in movies. In Scaramouch, the hero taps the vibrating sword just thrown at him by the swinish Marquis de Maynes and bids him to retrieve it. In The Great Race, Tony Curtis permits […]

January 6, 2013

The Aftermath (Review)

Got a special interest in this book – see, I’m working on a computer game, Solar Trader, and so I’m very hyped on solar system mechanics. With all this door-to-door hyperspace nonsense out there, it’s easy to overlook just how much space there is between the sun and Pluto (yes, it’s still a milepost by my standards). The Aftermath is rather like The Real Story, a tale where a simple event in the begriming snowballs into system-wide repercussions and a growing cast of characters. Here, the Zacharius family (mom, dad, and two bickering kids) are just hoving in on a belt habitat when […]

January 6, 2013

ShowLog – Deland – 4/6/2013

Two things were obvious after our two day train show in Deland this weekend. One: How tired I was (a good tired) – came home, had a beer, and crashed. Two: How well we did. For the second, I realized it when I was counting out our tip jar, $54.75. Now, it might not sound like a lot, but when you are counting a huge stack of ones, it’s easy to realize that many of these represent allowances from kids. Our club makes it a point to let the kids run, and there are signs up hinting how we’d sure […]

January 4, 2013

Premium Rush

Okay, so I don’t do movie reviews anymore, and I hardly commuted by bike this week (raining). But still, we watched Premium Rush tonight. While fictitious and unlikely, it sure made me smile. It’s a true biker’s movie. See, Wilee, ex-law-student, NEET and now bike courier, is just doing his day-to-day risk-taking in traffic, just one miss after another. And he’s on a suicide ride, one of those fixees, steel frame, no gears and no brakes, what the true risk-takers ride (no shit – about a year ago, one of these guy got crushed by an ambulance in town). The […]

January 3, 2013

Resolutions (DOG EAR)

We’re looking at yet another new year (seeing how the Mayan’s prophecies were typically misconstrued by a population eager for a taste of apocalypse). Nope, just another year of same-ol-same-ol. I’m not going to make resolutions, not solid ones anyway. The doc told me to lose 10 lbs so I’m working on that. As for everything else, I pretty much hold to my life as I should – it feels right and works for me. But then there is the writing angle. I suppose it’s time to post out some more cover letters. I’ve got a system with those big […]

December 30, 2012

Frankenstein (review)

I thought I knew this one. Jacob’s ladders with crackling electricity. Lighting flashing around dark turrets. Hunch-backed assistants. Stumbling, rambling, helpless monsters. And, of course, “IT’S ALLIIVVVEEE!” Frankenstein. My niece got me to read this, as detailed HERE. Never read it but if a kid demands you read a classic, you really need to follow up. Okay, first misconception – that the monster is named “Frankenstein”. Actually, that I knew but most people don’t (technically, he might adapt the Victor Frankenstein’s surname, but I rather doubt it. Demon. Monster. Those are more appropriate). So the book starts with letters from […]