Blog – Page 222 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

August 22, 2024

Addiction (DOG EAR)

ou know, I think the thing about drunks and drug addicts is when you see them in their ragged states, hanging on at the margins of society. The sorrow from this comes from thinking about the lost potential – here was a person who fell through the cracks, who might have gone on to create great art, great items, great friendship and great loves, who, because of a weakness for drink or drugs, lost this chance. I think this every day while in the downtown coffee shop and watching the baristas take pity on the homeless who wander in, giving […]

August 25, 2024

OpsLog – FEC – 8/24/2024

ough day for me on the Florida East Coast. Evidently we simulated love-bug season. I could hardly see out of the cab and the wipers didn’t help. Squinting for half the session. But that comes in later. So Ken wanted to dispatch and in a surprise move, put Zach into the trim job (I’ve done it several times – it’s good casual fun). This, of course, meant we could all talk about Zach in the ops shed, so it was an amusing day. Delighted to find myself moving road units – been a long time. My first job was the […]

August 25, 2024

The Sudden Star (Review)

o the last time I went back to sci fi in the eighties, it didn’t play out so well for me. I didn’t enjoy it and gave it up at the midpoint. It was simply a dead horse. But in the same purchase, I’d picked up The Sudden Star by Pamela Sargent. Okay, so the premise here is that there are “white holes” (what black holes feed into (look, everyone in 1979 was all excited about black holes. They’d captured the imagination of the public back then. Even Disney cashed in), So we find Earth overlooked by this new star, […]

August 29, 2024

Stacks (DOG EAR)

eird little story for your blogging pleasure. Of course, I love to read (no shit, right?) And since I just had a week’s vacation, I’ve been plowing through books. My review stack is about six deep right now. Funniest thing, though. I’ve been watching James Garner in The Rockford Files. Great show that echos the old Private Eye Noir of the past. I’ve never really watched it but lived in the time (1974) and the place (LA) so it’s all there for me. Curious about the main star, I picked up a book, The Garner Files, Garner’s autobiography. Enjoyed it. […]

August 29, 2024

OpsLog – LM&O – 8/28/2024

hese great, dumb beasts, moving as one, plodding through dust and adversity in their drive towards their distant goal. Small stupid eyes peer from beneath their shaggy manes, nosing their fellows, driving on and on, clutching their trains under their arms… What? Yeah, I’m not talking buffaloes here. I’m talking about the general rush for the door, the one-and-done deal where half the club is out the door and heading home to their nightcaps and their Tonight Shows. Those who stick to their throttles were looking around about 9:20pm (real time AND train time), wondering if the rapture had happened […]

September 1, 2024

Record of a Spaceborn Few (Review)

idn’t we just talk about this author? Becky Chambers, writer of A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and A Closed and Common Orbit. She’s that author who takes a wondrous set of characters and locations and trashes them, telling the story with edge-case characters and briefly-mentioned locations. You aren’t getting sausage grinding with this author. You get a new telling of a new perspective in a “loose universe”. I like this, if only because it is ballsy writing. So in Record of a Spaceborn Few, earlier books have hinted that when the Earth collapsed into ecological disaster, the […]

September 8, 2024

Raylan (Review)

f you’ve ever seen Justified on the web or streaming services, you know that cool main character, Federal Marshal Raylan Givens, a Gary-Cooper-like lawman who casually blows away Southern tire-biters who have it coming (meaning they are trying to draw against him). He’s a cool dude. And he’s the creation of Elmore Leonard, a crime writer of great renown. He’s written a string of books about this character and they are all as smooth as moonshine. It’s a very unconventional storytelling method. First off, you nearly have to read it out loud. From a grammar standpoint, it isn’t proper English. […]

September 9, 2024

OpsLog – TBL – 9/9/2024

he first perimeter defense, the outer gate, was wide open. It was almost like a trap. Cautious ingress. The second defense, the savanna out front, was similarly trespassed. While it was rumored to be the killing fields of several apex predators, the grass had been foolishly mown back, allowing perfect visibility. The final obstacle was the steel door. Even clearly marked – Members Only – the knob was loose, unlocked. There had to be a trap – ninja blades, kill lasers. It had been too easy. So, taking hold of her ten-year-old decoy, she shaved it through the door to […]

September 13, 2024

Deconstructing Media (American Ninja Warriors) (DOG EAR)

isclaimer – I have not watched this show. I’ve seen the ads on the mindless-drone TV at the dealership and rolled my eyes. Okay, this is some sort of program where they have contestants from everyday people (i.e. stupid) compete in an unlikely and over-engineered obstacle course. But that’s not what I’m deconstructing here – I’m looking at the name they’ve given this wasteland show. American Ninja Warrior. So, first up. “American”. What has this got to do with anything? Is there a Polish Ninja Warrior game I need to know about? Or is this a way to stick a […]

September 16, 2024

The Utterly Uninteresting Unadventurous Tales of Fred, The Vampire Accountant (Review)

friend who has read and enjoyed a number of my recommendations suggested (tentatively) this book. His pitch reminded me of how I tried to ask for dates in high school. Hesitantly. And the book (about Fred, a nerdish young accountant who is transformed into an unholy creature of the night (well, religion doesn’t show up, not really, and Fred just works overnight on his accounting practice)) is interesting. Yes, Fred is as happy as a socially-awkward noodle-head can be, and he has a source of easy-to-get blood. But then trouble raises its head. And again. And again. The chapters are […]