Blog – Page 177 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

April 24, 2022

Vanguard (Review)

anguard is the lead-off book for the third cycle in the Ark Royal series. First we had the supper carrier that pulled Space Battleship Yamato stuff with an evil race that boiled out of the black at us. And then we had Warspite, the experimental cruiser with the heavy plasma gun that fought the Indian nation in the colony worlds and blasted and Indian carrier. And now we have Vanguard, the first Earth battleship, built strong and built to last. But will that be enough? Our story opens with yet another alien race discovered. Without knowing anything, Earth sends a […]

April 25, 2022

OpsLog – WAZU – 4/22/2022

t’s always good to see a layout progress from session to session. And today’s running of the WAZU railroad (a reference I’m not sure anyone gets) was no exception. Last session was good; this one was better. We have to applaud the efforts of Doc and Sparky, who personally made operations improvement goal one. In this, they reworked the card system in the yards (including making sure everything was pre-staged and the yards carried reduced car loads (a mistake a lot of modelers make)). Also, the turnout controls were reconfigured with led to a lot less fumbling for switch throws. […]

April 28, 2022

OpsLog – LM&O – 4/27/2022

here are two types of people who want to see a massive head-on between two trains. One is a deranged psychopath. The other is a rival dispatcher. I’ll admit that I take great pleasure in being a good dispatcher. I developed the control systems (the computer to track trains and the warrants to command them). I developed the position, sitting in the middle of the layout with my Atari 520 ST and my crude program thirty years ago, controlling trains on N-Trak modules. I’m a boomer, having walked in and dispatched layouts I’ve never seen before, cold, in cities a […]

April 28, 2022

Alternative Radio (DOG EAR)

used to love listening to Rollins College radio (WPRK) while I doodled back in the train/computer room. It had such good DJs (students and wannabees). When I’d drive in to work (on the day’s I didn’t have the bike) I could listen to Nina’s Sunrise Soul or student interviews or whatever. Then Covid hit and the station went into a broadcasting loop, the same songs over and over. Even with the pandemic winding down (but please, Readers, be careful!) they haven’t brought back the wonderful format I enjoyed, not fully. My radio, 40 years old, finally crapped out and I […]

May 1, 2022

Fear God and Dread Naught (Review)

o, the war that got started in Vanguard heats up with Humanity and the Tadpoles against another pair of races, foxes and cows, who have the advantage of FTL communications. Captain Susan Onarina has been absolved (with stern warning) of the charge of mutiny (when she turned a stunner on her panicking captain) and saved ship and fleet from destruction. And Midshipman George (Georgina) Fitzwilliam has her own troubles, namely four new middies under her and challenges to her authority. So the Vanguard and the human fleet proceeds to a borderline planet, Unity, to smoke out the aliens and, of […]

May 1, 2022

OpsLog – WVN – 4/30/2022

here has to be a reason I crawl out of bed at 6 AM, hitting the road by twenty-after, running west for Tampa to operate on the West Virginia Northern. The sunrise in my rearview was breathtaking – the haze turned it into a giant molten ball imperfect with bands of clouds. Two cars pulled over on the side of I-4 to watch it. The rearview mirror gave me enough of a treat and a couple of miles more distance. And the fast food joint I always stop at, I had a quiet coffee over a book, eating an egg-McSomething. […]

May 5, 2022

Multilingual (DOG EAR)

s I always start off these blogs, “XXX simply another way to communicate, so i is covered in this blog”. I write about ways humans communicate. And one way they communicate is through software code. So now you know what “XXX” means in this context. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m writing a game named Pathfinder, an epic adventure of exploration, exploitation, starship crew management, aging and death. It’s a lot of work since Squiffy (the gamebook generator I prefer) has its own language. But to make it sit up and bark, you also need JavaScript knowledge. Both of these I’ve […]

May 8, 2022

Another Solution (Review)

efore we review this short story, let’s just say how thankful I am for paperback anthologies. I’m currently re-grinding through The Three Body Problem (hey, you don’t even need to wait for the review – HERE it is!) But I don’t want to lug that hardcover monster around so instead I’m reading a little collection I got from a local bookstore, Star Destroyers (that’s the name of the anthology, not the shop). So anyway, I had this collection of stories about big star ships in my back pocket as I went for my long walk. Stopped in a Cindi’s Cafe on Orange […]

May 12, 2022

The Dark Side of your Brain (DOG EAR)

‘ve talked about the brain’s interesting aspects, about how you can go to sleep with a problem and wake up the next morning with a solution. It’s amazing the way the brain processes thoughts and strategies. But there is a darker side of the brain when it runs unchecked through your sleep cycle. Often I’ll wake up at 4am in a sort of night-panic. Whatever little worries I had have been thrashed about all night and become insurmountable, mountains from molehills sorts of things. Anything you were mulling over as your went to sleep suddenly fills you with bed-dampening sweating […]

May 15, 2022

Emergency Skin (Review)

little short story by author N.K. Jemisin, and interesting point-of-view tale that unfolds as you read it, like a flower or an onion. Whatever. So there is a human settlement out there, the Founders, who escaped Earth before it collapsed into total environmental ruin. From the clues, you get to understand that they are male, white, and don’t like women much (too emotional). Now they run a freakish society on some other world where the reward is a full growth of skin (so you can move about and bask in white privilege, I suppose). The “soldiers” under them can also […]