robert.admin – Page 22 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

May 19, 2024

OpsLog – FEC – 05/18/2024

ell, this just shows the dangers of over-scheduling. In my defense, we’d agreed to have “night ops” at the club layout this Saturday, and then a few days later the FEC crew call came out. The club is a commitment I have to honor (and it’s fun) but the FEC hasn’t run in six months and I wanted to jump back aboard (it’s also fun). So that’s it – run to Palm Bay in the morning, operate until late afternoon, then burn across half the state to the LM&O for the evening session. And I had a sandwich with me […]

May 19, 2024

The Goodbye Cat (Review)

while ago I wrote a review for The Traveling Cat Chronicles, which I heard about in Japan (movie poster below) and found that the book had been translated into English. It was a great story form the cat’s point of view of a man and his furry companion, traveling Japan together, trying to find the cat a new home for reasons that are horribly poignant when finally revealed. It was a great story that brought tears to my eyes. Since I only seem to find better literature in other countries, I was snooping the stacks in the Amsterdam train station […]

May 16, 2024

Parrotheads (DOG EAR)

t’s interesting to look over this history of Jimmy Buffett and his hit Margaritaville. After all, he was a guy hanging out in the Caribbean and supposedly wrote this song that resonated amongst all the sad yuppies of the world. The song in its imagined state implies a laid-back lifestyle. But if you look at the lyrics, it’s more about a marginalized alcoholic “wasting away” in the bottom of a margarita glass, who is wandering aimlessly and slowly realizing that he fucked up his life and there is no coming back. The thing is, Buffett was no fool. Soon as […]

May 12, 2024

AmnotTrak – a Cautionary Tale

o here was the plan – drive my snowbirding mother up from Daytona Beach and drop her at my sister’s in Norfolk. Then, after a few days of bookstores and coffee shops, pick up an Amtrak train south to ride back to Orlando, Florida. After all, I like trains. And I’d just suffered a long flight and crippling legroom of Icelandair. I didn’t want to fly. I wanted to ride a roomy train. What could go wrong? The train picked was 91 which I’d board at Staples Mill Station, Richmond at 5:30 PM. I figured I’d sleep on the train […]

May 12, 2024

American Gods (Review)

eil Gaiman can always be counted on to provide interesting and clever fiction. And this one, his massive tome of American Gods, shows this ability to the utmost. So figure that gods need people to make them exist. They exist through belief. Belief is what makes gods live, and brings them power. So of course, American has no gods before there are people (the rest of the world is lousy with them). And as humans arrive, across the Barents Strait, grind their longboat prows into Newfoundland, settle in Plymouth, arrive to build railroads, to escape a potato famine, or are […]

May 9, 2024

The problem with that warrior bitch (DOG EAR)

ccasionally people buy my books on Amazon and Smashwords – gratifying. The pocket change is nice. Of course, the entire reason this site exists is for me to peddle my books while attending more book shows, writing more books and being famous and all. Well, most of that didn’t happen but I have to admit, I enjoy blogging and posting every little bullshit that comes to mind. But still, the minor monetization of the site is part of it, so for every posting (and I have thousands of them), I always add a link to my page with Amazon links. […]

May 6, 2024

OpsLog – WAZU – 5/5/2024

need you to run manifest 223,” the dispatcher told me. “It’s almost two hours late.” So fine. In minutes I was rattling through the Spokane throat, running at track speed, wheels sparking off the multiple frogs and points. I was reminded of the old flick Broadway Limited. These were the times you needed to lean out of the cab window, face into the wind, sliding your goggles over your eyes. Then I thought of something. “Dispatcher, 223. What’s my authority to?” “Pasco yard. And move it. I want you to make up time.” “Got it. Highball.” Hit Pasco and Klauck […]

May 5, 2024

Trigger Warning (Review)

rigger Warning is a collection of Neil Gaiman short stories, perfect for the long plane trip to Amsterdam. They all are stories which the main character is surprised (sometimes fatally) by a turn of events. Often they are close calls, or cautionary notes, or just death. But they were all fun. My favorite of the bunch was Adventure Story, a cute little story where a man asks his mom about an item on his late-father’s desk, an tiny figuring, and in denying and pooh-poohing it, his mother hints of some sort of crazy Indian Jones adventure his father went through. […]

May 2, 2024

The Babble with Travel (DOG EAR)

hat, I’m still doing this? It’s been, what, weeks since my last DOG EAR. Well, I’ve been busy. First off, I was off for two weeks in the wonderful Netherlands. And as my want, I write a blog each day about what we saw and experienced. That’s all find and good – with my tinytop computer, it’s nice to retire to the quiet lounge at the end of a day and just… reflect. It’s the writer’s thing to do. And you can find all my recent travels HERE. The Netherlands are right at the top. Anyway, I’ve been doing this […]

April 29, 2024

Destroyermen 9: Deadly Shores (Review)

ou’ll notice that I’ve picked up reviews again. With my two week vacation in Amsterdam and my blogging about it, I really didn’t have time for book reviews. Well, I’ve got a stack to get through so even though it’s late, let’s get started. So Taylor Anderson’s Deadly Shores is the ninth book in the Destroyermen series. In this one, the world gets bigger as we learn more about the reptilian grik locations in Africa, hints about another race further north along the western coast, and possibly more allies beyond the South American Dons. Yes, the book is busy. Unlike […]