Blog – Page 225 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

November 17, 2024

The Mercy of Gods (Review)

o the creators of The Expanse series have closed it out and moved on to a new series. Or did they? The Expanse ended with (spoiler) the ring gates closing and hundreds of colony worlds cut off. Most of them were not established and probably died off. So in The Mercy of Gods, it’s loosely hinted that the humans on this world can find records of their DNA existence, including themselves, animals and plants (alongside more indigenous animals and plants with their own form of DNA). Records were, of course, lost. Nobody knows how they got there but it hints […]

November 17, 2024

OpsLog – VSW – 11/16/2024

his wasn’t my best idea – going over to Polk City to run the Virginia Southwestern when I also had a Saturday Night Ops session at the club later. So I’d be dispatching for, let’s see, eight hours (and on the road for three). And all that model railroading and I wouldn’t touch a throttle. Still, I do enjoy dispatching. We approached the VSW with the same caution that sappers would an unexploded bomb. Last time on this railroad, everything blew up and the session ended with a critical staging area dead. The only reason we were able to run […]

November 17, 2024

OpsLog – LM&O Saturday Night Special – 11/16/2024

ell, you can’t spell “Shenanigans” without “Shannon”. And, it seems, you can’t spell “Dumbass” and “Dipwad” and even “Wackadoodle” without him, too. I’d really overbooked Saturday. I agreed to run on the Virginia Southwestern earlier that day, but the club was having a Saturday Night Special session that evening. I’d asked at the business meeting if we could maybe, you know, skip it but too many people wanted it. I even considered not going but Shannon sweet-talked/blackmailed me into doing it. So, spending thousands of husband points and possibly fatiguing a year or more off my life, I agreed to […]

November 21, 2024

Losing my Religion (DOG EAR)

t doesn’t take much of a stretch to imagine that I’m a liberal. Commute by bike. Live on a pretty gay street. Have friends of all nationalities. There are a couple of business I won’t buy from unless backed into a corner. Exxon, for the Exxon Valdez and their bullshit response. BP, for the same sort of thing in the Gulf. So that’s environmental. You might even say my wife and I have taken it a step further – we own a small (older) Mini Cooper and a newer Prius. For other concerns, I don’t buy from Chick-fil-a and Hobby […]

November 24, 2024

Destroyermen 12: Devil’s Due (Review)

o what can I tell you about this series I haven’t yet? The way keeps expanding. We learn more about the League of Tripoli (the alternate fascists in the Mediterranean). And more about that maniac Kurokawa (the Japanese cruiser captain that chased USS Walker through the portal and into this crazy world). And all the crazy crap that’s been going on. The Japanese are playing for time. The Grik are expanding towards another mega invasion fleet. The League is up to no good. The Republic of Free People in South Africa finally got their thumbs out of their asses and got […]

November 24, 2024

OpsLog – FEC – 11/23/2024

consideration I’d never had before – the environment of your train room. When I was fifteen or so (and since it is my birthday today and I am sixty-six, that was effing fifty-one years ago), my dad and I built a moderately large HO layout in our Cincinnati basement. In the winter, the floors and walls were icy and the air cave-cold. I remember crawling under the layout to wire (thanks, Dad. I see your guile only now) on the stone-chilled floor, my joints stiff and my hands, ass and knees numb. So yes, your environment means a lot. Recently […]

November 28, 2024

Phone Question (DOG EAR)

kay, so I’ve got a flip phone. Yes, I’ve taken a lot of crap for it, the whole dinosaur thing. Ironically, they are making a come-back – people realize how invasive and consuming immediate internet gratification can be. It turns you into a drone. Now, my flip has its own problems – I keep it in my front right pocket – I can just get it in there with my keys and wallet (the left front pocket has my pocket watch – an old staple). But the problem with that is that there are some critical buttons on the outside, […]

November 28, 2024

OpsLog – LM&O – 11/27/2024

s usual, we are never sure how many people will come out for a night-before-Thanksgiving session. We’ve always underestimated our turnout. And this year, as in years past, you’ve shown up just how much you dislike your family and relatives by coming out for a good night of full ops. And as always, we are glad to have you. As John C’s photo shows below, we had a large number of club members (plus a couple of friends and family, a guest or two, and even our favorite den-mom) to run with us. So our overall perspective from the dispatchers’ […]

November 30, 2024

OpsLog – CT – 11/29/2024

t’s taken a long way to get here. Our HO B&O Chicago Terminal layout was promised to be a major attention-getter at our club, drawing a huge wave of HO guys into our membership. But then the clique lost enthusiasm and quit, leaving us with our own version of the I-4 eyesore, a big expensive thing nobody knew what to do with. Jim T worked on it, adding industries (possibly too many industries) to the line. Bob K helped him with scenery. But that ended with us having (for all practical purposes) a very long engine test track. Again, interest […]

December 1, 2024

This is how you lose the Time War (Review)

n interesting little time war story. It starts off with an operative from a future world who is trying to shape the destiny of the universe to suit her masters. She is pacing through the ruins of a titanic battlefield, scattered with space ships, tanks and corpses, surveying the carnage and pretty proud of herself. And then she finds an envelope labeled, curiously, Burn Before Reading. Inside, she finds a short letter from a counterpart of this time war, a playfully sneering letter from her nemesis. Of course, the two are heavily monitored and watched by their respective commands so […]