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

August 5, 2012

Perdido Street Station (Review)

So you’re sitting around one night, poised in that indecisiveness readers occasionally flounder into. What next? Science Fiction? Steam Punk? Magic? Fantasy? Why not all of them, wrapped together in a plot which chafes so delightfully? China Miéville is a London author – it shows. His city of New Crobuzon is a sprawling, dangerous, vibrant, cruel place, a fun-house mirror image of London. Steam-technologies work. Magic (in a limited yet practical form) works. The city is a melting pot of story types and urban fears. Presumably New Crobuzon has a positive side, a side of decent people, quiet suburbs, theaters […]

August 4, 2012

The ten worst inventions in the world

Below are what I consider to be (in no particular order) the ten worst inventions in the world. Following this are the dishonorable mentions – perhaps they’ll go into their own list soon. So here they are…. 1) Cellphones. Never has it been easier to convey imperial disdain, to marginalize and ignore another living human’s existence. Add to this the ability to ruin dinners, concerts, quiet time, and tender moments. And all this so you can answer ‘Sup?’ to someone who finds your social input the equivalent of a bag of Doritos. 2) Texting. Not only does this provide all […]

August 3, 2012

Another goof!

A thousand apologies to readers of my weekly Dog Ear blog. It’s pretty easy to speak your mind aout writing when you don’t allow your listeners to talk back, isn’t it? I’d added the Dog Ear section when I’d last cleaned up the site. Didn’t look back, and didn’t look too close, I suppose. Anyway, today I was just musing over the Yamato piece I’d posted and saw no comment info. Hmmmm. Maybe its something to do with having to be logged in. So I logged in. Still no comments. Hopped to another blog area and there were the comments. Something was wrong. […]

August 2, 2012

You say Yamato (DOG EAR)

Retelling a story, especially a classic, is always dangerous business. Movies are generally updated (“reimagined” as Hollywood suits refer to it) to suit newer (i.e. duller) audiences. As for books, its generally not done. The major exception to this are those “zombies” and “robot” editions of classics, but that is, of course, simply a parody (and a rather stupid one at that). Normally I focus on written storytelling, but this weekend I had a curious episode of visual storytelling (i.e. a movie) that had been updated for a modern audience. It was none other than Space Battleship Yamato, based on […]

July 29, 2012

Dickheads

I can’t find it – I’d read somewhere that Orlando ranks worst in drivers’ skills and safety. I know we are solid-worst for pedestrian deaths, but I wanted to round it out with this statistic. Couldn’t find it. Tsk. I started to realize it as I chatted on the bike forums. Some riders would report going weeks if not months without a right-cross or left-hook. Me, I get them virtually every day. I watch motorists bolt in and out of traffic. I see them stop in travel lanes for the damnedest reasons (or no reason at all). And red lights? […]

July 29, 2012

Nausicaa (Review)

It happens sometimes, with work and class and trains and general malaise, that I don’t get a book read in a week (before I had a weekly column, I was even slower). I’m currently wending through the Odyssey, which is a pretty stiff read. However, I was interested to find a character in it with the unlikely name of Nausicaa, which was also the character of an amazing translated Japanese comic I’d read over the years. Turns out that’s where it’s author/artist, Miyazaki, got it from. It’s been a while since i read it (I’ve got them all here next […]

July 26, 2012

A kindle up your nook (DOG EAR)

At dinner the other night, a friend was flashing his reader at me, showing me his “stack”. Well, first, don’t wave your toy at me at the table. Adults talk books, they don’t thrust ePuds under their companion’s noses. Second, I have stacks. I have 30 feet of books (four shelves deep) in my Florida room. I’ve got hardbacks over my sofa, a huge shelf groaning with historical references in the living room, and piles along the side of the bed, my “next reads”. I’ve got stacks. You, you have folders. Big difference. I was thinking about this piece, my […]

July 25, 2012

OpsLog – LM&O – 7/25/2012

Well, it’s been a while, for this blog and for ops. Was busy with the show stuff last month so ops got canceled, and that Dale Carnegie class is on our usual ops night. Been a while. So I was looking forward to the session at the club, even though the AC was reported running dodgy, that we might not have enough guys, the usual worries. Well, the AC ran fine. We had all sorts of membership there, and a bunch of guests. The railroad was running hot – every movement was in play, alone with several extras. The dispatcher […]

July 22, 2012

The Time Traveler’s Wife (Review)

Got this as a loaner from a friend. She didn’t tell me anything, so I went in cold. Quite a book. Hokay, imagine that a guy has a chromosome disorder, something that when he is stressed or upset or sometimes just random, he flushes, sweats, pukes, then jumps through time. And he always leaves his clothes behind. So first off, he’s good at mugging people. And picking locks. And running. But more important are the places and times he goes to – eras and locales that mean something to him. He watches his mother’s horrible death from every angle. He […]

July 19, 2012

Augean stables (DOG EAR)

Was in the Dale Carnegie course the other week and there was an exercise concerning putting enthusiasm to work. Now what, thinks I, could I possibly be more enthusiastic about? Cover letters. Ugh. I have a pretty nice cover letter for Indigo. It’s clever, interesting and to the point. It’s got a great hook (“Indigo, where Watership Down meets Top Gun”). But if you’ve ever looked at some of these agency requirements, you’ll realize that they are often specific in their demands. And sure, a book about semi-sentient crows is not really science fiction, not fantasy, not quite. And this […]