robert.admin – Page 193 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

March 27, 2012

Running dark

I was coming up 1792 in the pre-dawn gloom, well over to the right on a dark three-lane street with posted 35 mph yet 50 actuals. The road is old, concrete with short spans between the expansion joints, so the ride is hard – both hands on the bar, please! Was nearing my left onto Lake; time for a quick look over my shoulder. Headlights gleaming 200 yards back, plenty of time to cross the three lanes. I’m just across when a car hurtles past in the darkness, a second behind me and out of goddamn nowhere, bombing along at […]

March 25, 2012

Leiningen versus the Ants (Review)

Short story this time – the magnificent tale of a planter who refuses, against man and nature and the very gods, to abandon his scientifically-run plantation to a sweeping wave of ants. Written by Carl Stephenson for Esquire in 1938, it carries all sorts of themes across its short length. We have the white man’s burden (that is, the blunt Leiningen boosting, rallying, even threatening his squealing fearful natives to hold the line against this formicidaen army). We have the application of science to solve all problems, from the initial success of the the orderly, modern plantation to its defense […]

March 22, 2012

Understandable

I don’t know if you caught the original Mike Daisey broadcast on This American Life, where he told about his investigations on Chinese manufacturing jobs and the absolute horrors surrounding them. I remember how riveted I was to it. Then last week there was an ever more striking piece, where TAL interviewed Daisey on allegations that his story was embellished (if not outright fabricated). Just listening to Daisey choke on the followup interview (like the bit in the old Flash Gordon movie where Ming orders a loyal prince to fall on his sword) was gut-clenching. STORY HERE. And now the […]

March 20, 2012

White knucle publishing

While doing Q&A at the SandCastle Read-n-Feed the other week, a nice lady asked me about a snippet of song I used in that cute setup chapter where we learn that this blond-haired guy is not from the past currently described. “Don’t songs have copyrights too?” “That’s a good question,” I answered. “I’ll have to look into that.” And I did when I got home. And the shared writing-forum answer is don’t, don’t, don’t, DON’T!!!! Every blog I read talked about the terrors of being sued, of being raked over the coals for violating copyright. That you should never do […]

March 18, 2012

History of the Persian Empire (Review)

History of the Persian Empire, by A.T. Olsmtead, came out in 1948. It’s quite a monster – 524 pages – and must have been the epic of that time. Anything you wanted to know (at least in 1948) is in this book. My point in picking this up was to reacquaint myself with the Persians before having to speak about them at book functions. After all, its been twelve years since I did my heavy-lifting research for Early ReTyrement and, no, I don’t remember everything I’d read or known or discovered, not that long ago. It’s interesting though – he […]

March 18, 2012

Night attacks

Version 1.5.26 Preview01Logout Site Menus Content Components Extensions Tools Help Preview Save Apply Close Help Article: [ Change ] Title Night attacks Published No Yes Alias night-attacks Front Page No Yes Section Category Source StylesNormalFontSize An additional benefit of self-publishing seems to be the initiation of night attacks. I used to sleep the sleep of innocence, waking up refreshed in the morning, generally right before the wife would come in with OJ and the paper. Six or seven hours and I’d be fully rested and ready for the new day. And then I started this self-publication effort for Early ReTyrement. […]

March 12, 2012

OpsLog – Saluda Grade – 3/12/2012

It’s time to go hot. I’ve got my dispatcher program booted. I’ve got my lineup in front of me. The problem is, I don’t have crews. Maybe it’s because of that motorcycle wreck on the way in. So we wait a little more. Now its really time to start and we’ve only got four guys. We’ll have to run mother-may-I, no dispatcher. Everything about this burns me. It burns me that the economy sucks, meaning people have to work stupid shifts, stupid jobs, or simply don’t have time or money to attend. And it burns me that we’re all getting […]

March 11, 2012

The Helmsman (Review)

Every now and then, while wading through a stiff read (in this case, Olmstead’s 524 page History of the Persian Empire), I have to take a break. In this case, I fell into something I got out of a used bookstore, Bill Baldwn’s The Helmsman from 1985. So the universe apparently is a very class-conscious place, with the nobles on the top, and Carescrian ore-miners (such as our hero, Wilf Brim) on the bottom. Evidently recent legislation has opened up the academy to guttertrash such as Wilf and he’s made it through with a sub-Luitenancy, ready to report to his […]

March 10, 2012

OpsLog – FEC – 3/10/2012

So I’m out of Cocoa Beach, following another train north, riding his yellows. I’ve got setouts and pickups along the line, up to Jay-Jays where NASA Space Center supplies are dropped. Then turn and home. I want to do this perfect. I mean, really perfect. I want this to be my best run ever. It’s not because their are management types hiding in the brush with speed guns, no. It’s because after this session, the current FEC will shut down for good. For real-world reasons, Owner Ken has got to move his layout out of the house. It will be broken up […]

March 7, 2012

Vacation

I’m taking a vacation. Not physically (housebreakers take note). I’m going to mentally relax on the beach of Inconnectivity in the Offline Islands, and just allow my stress to drain away. Outside of my blog and email, I’m really only active in two places – a bike forum and Facebook. The bike forum has been tedious of late – in the biking community there is now a philosophy that you “take the lane”, and ride in the right-wheel track of traffic (if not further left). Look, I’m all for everything ‘further left’, in everything but cycling. Given the roads I commute […]