robert.admin – Page 180 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

November 18, 2012

OpsLog – Tehachapi – 11/3/2012

As I mount the footplate to my Santa Fe steam engine hissing seven boxcars up from the caboose at the end of this mile-long (or so it feels) freight train, I reflect how nice it is when everyone agrees. The crew had met over the register book in the ATSF yard office, discussing our coming eastbound run from Bakersfield to Mojave. Long trains (such as ours) give me an antacid attack – we can’t really fit anywhere, not without a lot of flagging and sawing and stuff, so I’m not happy about that. To make matters worse, we’ve got an […]

November 17, 2012

Greek to me

It’s been an eventful couple of weeks here at RobertRaymond.com. I’ve never been comfortable with the site’s lack of backup. After initiating it a few years back, I never found a backup system that seemed to work (you know the drill – you install something, follow the instructions, and suddenly you are at a screen that doesn’t match the instructions; Monopoly on a Ouija board. So I’ve been meaning to do that. It was my intention. Blah blah. Then a few weeks ago, I started getting a lot of registration activity on my board. Yay, me! Every hour, another registrant. […]

November 17, 2012

OpsLog – Tehachapi – 11/2/2012

After the long flight to San Diego, after breakfast/lunch (watching dubiously as one of our group has an omelet and beer), after naps and dinner at City Deli, it’s time to head over to the sprawling La Mesa Model Railroad Club (located in a museum basement in Balboa Park) and help set up. La Mesa is a huge place. They’ve modeled the route from Bakersfield to Mojave in 25 scale miles, running it in a simulated 1952 under Time Table and Train Order rules. It’s always a blast to run here – its like a mix of railroading and La […]

October 31, 2012

Robert Raymond, Vampire Hunter

Months in the marking… Back around March or April, my admin told me (following my stint as a carnie barker at a work function) that she knew what I should be in our Halloween work party – Abe Lincoln, Vampire Slayer. The idea had appeal. It took some doing. First, JB and I went to see that silly movie, just to see what it was about. Then I read a book on Lincoln. Then, a month ago, I started letting my beard grow out so I’d have something to work with. And then the final weeks – renting a tailed […]

October 28, 2012

NO UPDATES FOR A WEEK OR SO

The site will be undergoing maintenance and background work, and I’ll be occupied with other hobby efforts. This means I won’t really have any updates for the next week or so. See you when I get back!

October 28, 2012

Starwolf (Review)

These days, scifi is a pretty black and white affair, vast black space and dusty white lifeless planets. Nothing got that across for me than Ark, showing what happens when you are lucky in launching a desperate colonization effort. And there was Flying to Valhalla. Same deal. But Starwolf is old school scifi. Written as a three-book saga in the early 60’s and reprinted as a collection in the 80’s, it’s a bold splash of color. Space is stuffed with golden nebulas and Christmas-light stars. Who cares that dead worlds somehow have an atmosphere? Who cares that the party lands […]

October 25, 2012

Unlikely Heroes (DOG EAR)

The wife and I had ridden our bikes to dinner, then to yogurt over at the village center of Baldwin Park. Understand that Baldwin is a neo-community, one built on a perfectly good naval training center. It’s smart and clever and cute and as plastic as, well, plastic. It’s fake from end to end. But they have the only yogurt shop within wife-cycling range, so there you go. While there, I saw a couple of Goths hanging out on the benches amid the manufactured quaintness, desperately seeking an identity. Like Illinois Nazis, it’s hard to take Baldwin Park Goths seriously. […]

October 24, 2012

OpsLog – LM&O – 10/24/2012

I‘m pushing cars into Hendler Paper in Mingo Jct as the simulated night grows deeper and the session winds down. There are two spurs here, shipping 1 and shipping 2, and I’ve got to sort my mixed cut onto the correct ones. No problem since I see a slick way to do it. It’s been a fun night. Even though attendance was a little on the light side, we’re moving most of the trains. Further, my buddy/rival is running the board and having a bad night. Harris Glen was locked up tighter than the Grinch getting twisted up in a […]

October 22, 2012

Lock down

It looks like I’m getting hit by registration bots. I’ve gotten about a dozen registrations today and they all have the same format. This being the case, I’ve locked down registrations until I can figure out what to do (if anything). You can still leave comments – you’ll just have to answer the little coded id question. No big deal. If you’d really like an account, simply send me your username and email address and I’ll set you up. Sorry about this. The web can be a crazy place.

October 21, 2012

299 Days : The Preparation (Review)

So, to its credit, 299 days made me think. At its core, it’s a book about independent preppers who get ready for our country’s coming collapse with guns, food, guns, a bolt-hole, guns, like-minded friends, and guns. So, am I going to get a dozen guns, a prepped hiding place and enough food for a year? No. But I am looking at my total lack of preparation and reconsidering that. I think my wife and I will organize bolt-bags (gym bags with a few pairs of clothes, critical medicines and copies of important paperwork). We made it through the aftermath […]