Dog Ear – Page 39 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

January 9, 2020

Reading is Believing (DOG EAR)

as on a long bike ride with a buddy. Back at his house after a number of two-wheeled adventures, I mentioned to him about Mortal Engines, a series I’d grown interested in and the megabomb movie that came from it. Not that the movie was bad. It just wasn’t quite there, not for the hundred million dollars they spent on it. So it goes. A franchise that wasn’t. But the thing was, my friend started warning me off the movie before I’d even admitted that, in large part of curiosity, I’d purchased it. And I liked it – it was […]

January 16, 2020

No time (DOG EAR)

veryone told me this would happen. “After you retire,” they assured me, “you won’t have any time.” For most of the office workers, I discounted this. I mean, what do they know? But I was hearing it from the retirees too. And yes, I know I’m a pretty busy guy. Trains. Astronomy. Writing. Reading. Travelling. Game Design. Watching damn series on Hulu and Netflix. Yeah, I knew I’d be a bit busy. But then it happened. I retired. So now I’m working that those things and finding I haven’t a spare minute. I’m getting ready to get my old layout […]

January 23, 2020

Breaking Eggs (DOG EAR)

ough day yesterday. Lots of work around the house, cleaning out storage, and getting my model train layout to run. And at the train club it was kinda an off night (meaning a lot of people stood around and gassed while the rest of us picked up the slack). So by the time I’d gotten home and blogged the session, I was pretty beat. Fastwind to this morning, when those two lovable kittens, Chinki and Ritz, were screaming for breakfast at 5am (as always). Fed then and found my way back to bed. With two kittens slumbering (so cutely) on […]

January 30, 2020

Noticed (DOG EAR)

don’t get a lot of money from this site. My references to other books get pretty much nothing (every month, Amazon mechanically tells me that, a nice confidence builder). So why do I have 1,472 entries on this site? Well, for one, it is still nice to get my own thoughts and interests out there. Look at the success of Facebook and Twitter. But it runs deeper than that. Yes, I might be a lone voice mewing into the night. Sure. And I can’t tell in WordPress (unlike Joomla) how many hits I’m getting. But I do remember I’d get […]

February 6, 2020

Thanks! (DOG EAR)

enerally the Blogatorium and its various threads are a sort of super-diary, a place where I can comment on media, write about books and recount train stories. Also, it gives me a great place to record my travels. And that’s fine – it’s one of its uses. However, it really is nice to pick up recognition for my efforts from time to time. In this, I’m speaking of the friends, the family, the various members of various clubs, even random people who will mention something I’ve posted that had an impact. Model train guys are always mentioning that they enjoyed […]

February 13, 2020

Game (DOG EAR)

ot invited/provoked to do a game on FaceBook recently (you can follow it on my Early Retyrement Book Group. The deal was that every day for ten days, you’d post a cover of a book you loved without comment. Well, I obeyed that – inside the realm of Facebook). But here, I can say what I want about them. So here’s the list in order of appearance, along with my comments. Day 1: War of the Worlds: When I was a kid, this one opened up reading for me. I’d never heard of a story where the hero just tried […]

February 20, 2020

Toil (DOG EAR)

kay, I just got out my second edition of the Journal Box, the National Model Railroad quarterly newsletter. On the good side, it was not the suddenly can-you-do-it rush it was the first time around. And I wasn’t fighting an unfamiliar tool (MS Publisher). And we had a hard submission deadline – Feb 15th at midnight, and NO EXCEPTIONS (last time they were trickling in two days later, tormenting my formatting with every inclusion). So things were a lot more stable. Still, last Thursday I started cleaning up a copy of the first one I’d done for the second. Looked […]

February 27, 2020

Best of 2019

t hit me a few weeks back that I had completely forgotten to do my best books of 2019 (something I’ve been doing for a few years now). Well, better late than never, I suppose. I will add this generic comment that, looking back, outside of enjoying The Expanse and suffering through (in, in retrospect, appreciating Infinite Jest), there wasn’t anything that really blew me away (or made me tear up or fob onto friends) last year. So, without any particular order, here’s my faves from 2019. Don Quixote – this includes both books. I really did enjoy the adventures […]

March 5, 2020

Podcast (DOG EAR)

aw an interesting thing today (a Sunday) – the wife and I decided to walk over to a local eatery to have breakfast. We’ve done dinner there a couple of times – it’s a little pricy but very eclectic and trendy and rather fun. And it’s the only place I can get what is becoming my favorite drink, Arrogant Bastard Beer. Only not for breakfast. This breakfast, we ordered our food and sat down, only to see two young guys sitting in the back corner with a bight light shining on them, bantering furiously away about StarWars, Jurassic Park, remakes, […]

March 11, 2020

Pushy Media (DOG EAR)

o I’m an old guy. I only started carrying a phone because I’m cycling in this crazy city (Orlando). And it’s an old flip phone I’ve had for a decade. People walking on the nature trails around here piss me off when they have their heads in their phones. And drivers with phones (which is illegal), don’t get me started. Not a fan. But something that’s really become an issue – with all the content and bandwidth available, people are watching more stuff, and they are watching it louder and louder. On the train I ride, it’s become an epidemic […]