robert.admin – Page 220 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

April 3, 2012

A tight spot

In my last session, the turnout going into Watsonville staging came literally unglued. Originally I had to cut half the mounts off it get it to fit, screwing it tight and backing it with double-sided sticky tape. Well, that worked – for ten years. Then, in the middle of the session it came apart, the motor swung loose, the throw arm popped out, and the switch was suddenly manual. Thankfully we could still position it by hand and trains could still enter Watsonville. But it had to be fixed. Since the tape was no good, I wedged styrene between it […]

April 1, 2012

Tigana (Review)

The poor Palm. The Palm is a splayed formation of land under a two-mooned sky, overrun twenty years ago by TWO empires, the Ygrath from the west, the Barbarior from the east. Since that invasion, the land huddles like Czechoslovakia beneath Germany and Russia. Worse, so bitter was the fighting in the west and so angered was the Ygrathian ruler with his son’s death in that campaign that he destroyed the two cities of the primary state which had stood against him, toppling its towers, grinding the survivors under heavy taxation, and even magically striking the original name of the […]

March 31, 2012

UCF Book Festival 2012

Don’t let anyone tell you doing a book show is easy. Up at five AM, out the door and on the road so we could make it early to beat the rush in the door (what rush?). The problem is if you plan for every disaster and there isn’t any, you’ve got a lot of dead time on your hands. Yes, we were set up and staffed for a 9am opening. At 6:30am. Oh well. Fortunately I was boothed next to Rod Sanford, a Florida mystery writer with some shows under his belt. He gave me advice that I found […]

March 29, 2012

A writer’s blog (DOG EAR)

Let this be your first lesson, Grasshopper. I’ve got to blog on a fixed schedule. Nobody is going to check back every day for irregular postings, nobody except crazed stalker-fans. And my mom. With this in mind, I’m going to start posting up twice a week. As already established, I’ll post book reviews on Sunday. Since I can’t knock down a book a week, you’ll have to deal with some hazy recollections. But still, I’ve read a lot of books and will do my best to point out the more entertaining (for better or worse) of them. I’m also beginning […]

March 29, 2012

Site Timetable

Updates to be posted as follows… (check the bottom of this page for specific updates!) Writing Advice – EVERY THURSDAY EVENING! (In the inkwell) Book Reviews – EVERY SUNDAY EVENING! (On the nightstand) Model Train Blog – AFTER EVERY SESSION! !!!FULL BOOK REVIEW LIST!!!

March 28, 2012

Opslog – LM&O – 3/18/2012

It’s no surprise to anyone who knows me that I’m a curmudgeon – I don’t really like kids.They follow manufactured fads like lemmings. Youth is wasted on them. They had door-stops for heads. We were getting ready for the session tonight – not many of the usuals were there, but in contrast, we had a couple local visitors (guys who know how to run) who we pressed into service. And we also had two kids, JW’s son and another new member named Matthew. Junior JW signed up for the Silver Bullet #1 (his old man said he’d give him the […]

March 28, 2012

Supplies for the book show

So, I’m going to the UCF Book Festival. Got a booth and everything. Chairs are there, table is there, I just need books and a pen, right? My supply list: Cover Art picture (12″x18″) Cover Art easel Sample book Sample book easel Price post sign (for corner of book cover) Scotch tape (to attach price sign to book) Spartan helmet Books (60 of them, in two rolling suitcases) Cash for change ($200 in ones, $300 in fives) Cash box Ipad (borrowed from my brother) Credit card reader Camera (gotta get pictures of this event – needed to charge the battery, […]

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 […]