Blog – Page 70 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

December 17, 2014

OpsLog – LM&O – 12/17/2014

hort entry tonight. Not much to say about the sleepy week before Christmas. Everyone was in a good mood. The layout was purring. When it came to writing warrants, I had them pretty much figured when people called – no waiting. So here’s what I want to know. I ran on the L&N recently. In a four hour session, I wrote 84 warrants and was bushed at the end of it. And it was full-bore dispatching, working non-stop to get all those trains over the division. But on the LM&O (which is scaled as a longer railroad and has more […]

December 18, 2014

I Hate (DOG EAR)

was struck by two things while I went around my Saturday errands (if you must know, a trip to the dump and then the blood bank (26 gallons!). The first was an NPR piece on a 13 year old who got mentioned on the sports broadcast for predicting something about sports (don’t ask me – I have no idea what they are talking about)). He’s got a twitter feed with a bunch of people and he got a nugget and published it – it went viral and now he’s on easy street (you don’t think that’s not going to show […]

December 18, 2014

I hate: Backstabbers

hate backstabbers. So, first, at least make it worth it. If you are going to backstab me, don’t make it easy for me – keep my whip. But I also ask that you make it worth it – have that gold idol under your arm. Leave me to die. Don’t just pick up corporate brownie points by ratting me out. I mean, shit, I’ve been backstabbed major by corporations – I’ve had two that owed me backwages or cut my wages to keep the lights on fire me. I’ve been fired for nepotism – when the little family-run business found […]

December 20, 2014

To have and have not (Review)

his one’s been on the Hemingway stack for years, part of a wifey Christmas gift from long ago. Been meaning to read it. And then, tired of modern plot devices (and having seen the namesake movie with Bogart over at an outdoor showing), I decided I had to read it. Well, the movie was good. And the book was nothing like it. Yeah, better. Much better. To Have and Have Not is a collection of four short stories following the declining fortunes of Harry Morgan, an honest, pragmatic, and (at times) ruthless man who owns a boat and plies the […]

December 25, 2014

Phantom (Review)

hen I first cracked this brick-thick novel open, I wasn’t sure what I was reading. Was this some sort of parody? I was reminded of The Further Adventures of Captain Gregory Dangerfield, a novel about an English hero perfect beyond perfection. Rich, cunning, trained, handsome, and adventurous, that book was a lampoons of men’s adventure books. And when I first started reading Phantom, I thought it was the same sort of thing. My evidence? Lord Alex Hawke (yes, an English lord, complete with an estate and bazillions of dollars to play with), who is respected in society yet also an […]

December 25, 2014

Absolutely True (DOG EAR)

avid Barry frequently uses the phrase “This is absolutely true” and “I am not making this up” when he’s making a central point, the quirk of base reality set against the background of his humor. Writers should take note of this. We need to occasionally have a point of absolutely true quirkiness in the center of our characters, something that makes them real. My own life has its quirks, but it’s pretty much a point A to B life-path. Nothing major. But if I were writing it, I’d have to mention the cat-feeding story. See, the wife is all but […]

December 27, 2014

New York – Day Three – Making Book on the Horses

fter Sting, it’s hard to top it but we had a really good day. It was misty and rather cold, but still doable. The morning broke drizzly and cold, with JB, me, my mom and sister boarding a carriage on the border of Central Park. Through the efforts of Flash the Horse, we circled around the interior of this vast yet beautiful greenspace (yeah, Orlando, thanks for developing the old navy base into Baldwin Park (i.e. Nob Hill for the rich, rather than greenspace for everyone). Not many people were out, so we huddled under our carrage blanket, looking out […]

December 28, 2014

Singularity Sky (Review)

ingularity Sky is another element of Charles Stross’s future universe, where computers underwent singularity (i.e. they turned the corner on human intelligence and streaked away), and in doing so, these now-godlike AIs teleported 90% of the human race to other planets, mostly in racial/regional blocks. So this one was a step backwards for me – having met Martin and Rachael in Iron Sunrise (and missing them in Accelerando), here we see them in their “courtship”, traveling to and enjoying the rustic pleasures of the New Republic. So it’s meaning within meaning here. The New Republic was originally force-settled by some […]

December 28, 2014

New York – Day Four – Escape from New York

won’t say it rained that day. But it was ark weather. The front hit on our final day. JB had agreed (with some prodding) to walk with me over to the Hudson to see the museum carrier Intrepid, followed by a walk across the city to Grand Central Station (something she wanted to see). She should have argued better. At first it was fine – we both had umbrellas and it was raining. But was we got closer on the carrier, it came down harder and harder. Soon our legs were getting wet, my arm (from holding her hand) was […]

January 1, 2015

After the story (DOG EAR)

o I’m in Stephen Donaldson’s Lord Foul’s Bane right now, a saga that a reader-chum at work convinced me to try. This has been on the back of my mind since my roomie in college (all those long years ago) raved about it. And it’s the usual fantasy novel. A lot of walking and a lot of strange names, races and titles. And while I can’t do anything about the travelogue, I remembered what I should do for the baffling syntax. Yeah, you got it. Flip to the back. And there’s the glossary. I can’t tell you how many times […]