robert.admin – Page 75 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

January 2, 2022

The Commodore (Review)

his was one I got off the shelves at my local used bookstore, a roaring sea adventure set in the dark days of World War Two when the Japanese were pushing their ships down the “slot” and the Americans were doing everything they could to keep them from reinforcing and re-invading islands in The Solomon Islands. Into this hell-battle comes Harmon Wolf, an American Indian with his first command, a new destroyer. Wolf finds himself thinking outside the typical blue-navy box, willing to take full advantage of the new American radars to offset the threat from the Japanese Long Lance […]

January 1, 2022

OpsLog – TBL – 12/31/2021

es, I was able to round out a wonderful year of operations (with all the covid concerns) on a high note, coming back to my personal favorite, my own Tuscarora Branch Line. Now, before moving to what happened, a quick New Years Tally. Over the last year I was able to operate at the following places (ranked in order of attendance): TBL: 16 LM&O: 13 FEC: 4 WAZU: 2 WVN: 2 L&N: 2 TY&E: 1 P&WV: 1 WB: 1 So that totals out to forty-two ops sessions, pretty good all together. The Tuscarora I ran […]

December 30, 2021

Best of 2021 (DOG EAR)

n what is as much a tradition as weekly blog postings, I close out my year with my Best Of review of books that delighted me. And I’ll say that it was a rough year. With everything going on, I really didn’t find much of anything that lit my fire. No Oves. No Airbornes. Nothing that really lit me up as in years past. But anyway, here are the best of my reads for the plague year of 2021. RedShirts – A wonderful tale by a new master of scifi. It’s rather like Galaxy Quest but […]

December 26, 2021

Conagher (Review)

very so often, I need a mental health book. Sometimes SciFi pulls too much at me. And those recent political histories I’d dabbled into are stone-cold depressing. So I need something, the literary equivalent to eating a bucket of ice cream in my jammies. And for that, there is always Louis L’Amour. In Conagher, a young couple (married in typical economic desperation) with kids from his former wife rattle west in their wagon to start a new life. He’s built a small house in the middle of absolute nowhere. Once everyone is settled, the husband rides off to purchase cattle […]

December 23, 2021

Reading and the modern world (Quoted DOG EAR)

wo kinds of conservatives are drawn to the business major at Liberty Tech. First are the genuinely naive, true patriots, often small-towners, admitted despite lower SATs, but nurtured on an undying faith in the capitalist system. And then there are their sharper, sharker brethren, more common to some suburbs, eighteen-year-olds who are already so practical, cynical, and business-minded – willing and wanting to extract as many dollars from the world with as little effort as possible – that the idea of learning to read, write, and think, perhaps only for reading, writing, and thinking’s sake, seems like a complete waste […]

December 20, 2021

OpsLog – Wazu – 12/19/2021

ell, we partied like it was 2010 today. By that, I mean we had a room full of enthusiastic operators in a large home (well, clinic) layout, we ran everything and most of the people stayed for the end. Just like our club used to do things. It was an interesting session – I’ve been dispatching at Andy’s for years (across three or four layouts). The Wazu is by far the best, a loose simulation of the UP line from Spokane to Portland. And for this session, I pulled out my new dispatcher program (focused more on being a true […]

December 19, 2021

Warspite (Review)

he fourth book from the Ark Royal series (which seemed odd at first, given the ending to the third book). But in this book, we have a recovering Earth launching a colony attempt way, way out into the black (as a fall back in case we come that close to extinction again). Here, Captain John Naiser finds himself in charge of Warspite, an experimental cruiser operating on escort duty. And he’s got his work cut out for him. It turns out that piracy has been occurring in space; a transport to a beleaguered colony has gone missing (through the wonder […]

December 16, 2021

A sad, lonely book (DOG EAR)

live in fear of finding one of my books in a used book shop. What does that mean? Did the owner not care enough? Is my book like the puppy in a shelter? Well, here’s one that’s worse. Found a neat book at the used bookstore. As I read it, I noticed that it was in great condition, but had GEORGIA HIGHLANDS COLLEGE LIBRARY stamped on the side. So I could always look this school up but I’m going to go with the idea that it’s some sort of commuter college, a tiny place in the backwoods somewhere. So this […]

December 16, 2021

OpsLog – LM&O – 12/15/2021

ast time we did ops, we got a couple of people to attend and ran a handful of early trains. I groused about it in the blog and nobody liked that move either. This time we decided to pick up at 6am (a quarter of the way into the session) and just run the balance. And now EVERYONE showed up and the layout was jammed. Hopefully you’ll like the blog. So yes, it was a pile on. We ran the rest of the trains, all the passengers (who were probably pissed at the LM&O’s excuses for the horrible service delays […]

December 12, 2021

A Pirate’s Life in the Golden Age of Piracy (Review)

y friend Brian loaned me this one, a book about the history of piracy over the golden age (1600’s, mostly). I went into it with my engine room set to dubious speed – author Robert Jacob notes in his opener that he isn’t really a historian in any way. He is just into pirates (his author picture shows him in pirate cosplay garb). So, I figured, let’s see about pirates. I’ll give him this – he did a very competent and thorough job. He works his way from 1640 onward, following each captain as he plunders and blunders about, picking […]