Blog – Page 85 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

November 3, 2015

OpsLog – La Mesa – 10/21/2015

ackstory here: You gotta understand the damn scale of the La Mesa Club. It’s big. Really big. Imagine that you were a tiny little HO figure. The distance is 29 scale miles from simulated Mojave to pretend Bakersfield. In most locations, pretty much all the track alignment is correct for the 50s. We run trains that are 50-100 cars long (often with two or three operators controlling engines). A half dozen clerkish characters keep the railroad organization (from crew calling to cooking to dispatching to MOW) humming. Yeah, big. So I’m in Mojave – just got into town aboard Extra […]

November 4, 2015

OpsLog – La Mesa – 11/1/2015

ough start to the day – got in a tiff with the crew caller early and ended up reading a book in the lounge for two hours. But then I got a train which was a real sweet run – over the hill with a minimum of fuss (except for a thrilling run-for-a-siding banana-drama). And afterwards I spelled the Caliente station operator so he could go get lunch (even had to write out a fumbling order). And that was exciting. Why? What station operators do: In ‘Time Table & Train Order’ operations (the method railroads operated for over a hundred […]

November 5, 2015

Ink Life (DOG EAR)

as one of those glorious days in Florida, eighty degrees with scattered galleon clouds. My mini was purring along the 520, riding out to Palm Bay to attend a model railroad session on the Florida East Coast. This is where we run trains as close to the rule book as we can, and you get kudos for doing your job with sharp efficiency. I was in the beach traffic, passing boats and RVs but everyone was keeping right so the pace was fine. Was thinking about the site and what I’d be blogging. I’ve got another review to ready, Rothfuss’s […]

November 7, 2015

Summer Triangle (11/6/2015)

as over at Leu Gardens (our local botanical garden) Friday night. It was outdoor movie night and we were there to see Double Indemnity, a great flick that will keep you from ever watching My Three Sons the same way again. Oh, and it’s got Southern Pacific trains in it. Regardless, tonight (Saturday) is supposed to be the star gazing night of the weekend (over at a gun range with the astronomy club) but I got a little in before the movie. See, we were sitting in a row, two couples, with the wives snittering in the middle. That left […]

November 8, 2015

Good Luck, Yukikaze (Review)

he second-parter to the first book, Yukikazi, written some 20-30 years after the first by a master of Japanese scifi, Chohei Kambryash. If you haven’t read my first review, linked above, the Yukikaze universe is one of perpetual (at least, three decades) war. An unknown race, the JAM, pushed through a hyperspace gate over Antarctica and attacked us. So we pushed them back to the planet “Fairie” and established bases. So we’re in daily air combat against the JAM, both sides upping their technology. Yet we are left with questions: Just what are the JAM? And how can we trust […]

November 12, 2015

Dog Ear (DOG EAR)

s there an echo in here? No, actually, this blog is about… dog earring. Just noticed it today – I’m reading an adventure yard from Douglas Preston, Tyrannosaur Canyon. The thing is, if you open the cover, you’ll see the Maya Books and Music pencil notification in the front – yeah, I bought it used, $3.50. I love Maya’s, a groovy little bookshop in Sanford, and will generally pick up a couple of covers just to help support them. So this thing is a foster book. Tonight, I was sitting on the back porch with a glass of wine, getting ready to read […]

November 15, 2015

OpsLog – TY&E – 11/15/2015

etting to the TY&E today was a pain in the ass. Colonial Drive was backed up both ways (on a Sunday at 2pm?). I had to make a U-turn across an anti-tank trap (in a Mini Cooper) to get turned around. I hate the east side of town. It’s nothing but vehicular constipation. I did see Bill’s big blue truck make the last turn off about 100 feet (i.e. 5 minutes of sit time) ahead of me. Finally got there and got attacked by dogs (the usual thing). And so, train time. There weren’t a lot of us, which is […]

November 16, 2015

Pleiades (11/16/2015)

ith a braced telescope, I finally got a good look at the Pleiades (or M45), the closest cluster to us (at a mere 445 light years out). It was amazing – a set of hot binaries burning blue, and a number of other stars in a more orange range. I didn’t see the nebula that is supposed to be around them but I’ll probably be able to see it with the scope in a few evenings. Also lowered the brace and picked up Orion coming over the horizon, making out its nebula (one of my favorite sights). Its amazing – […]

November 19, 2015

OpsLog – LM&O – 11/18/2015

pectacular! Oh, you might not think that from ground level (the ground being that of a 25 year old N-scale layout, with all the wear and club-cross-wiring such a thing naturally gathers). Yeah, it’s old. But still there are things that get better with every session. For example, we’ve got a new generation of support staff coming up. Bill ran the yard sharp and hot (the car-roistering will determine just how accurate it was, but from what I saw it looked good). And Matthew ran the long trick, dispatching an entire session keeping six freights, four locals, two passenger trains […]

November 19, 2015

Steins;Gate (DOG EAR)

ith total respect to the Japanese as a people, they have a crazy-strange culture. I’ve been watching their animation (“anime”, for you non-hipsters) for ages. Yes, a lot of it is the unimaginative same, merely riding on the shoulders of giants like Cowboy Bebop and Akira. But some of it is really, really good – from a storytelling aspect. One such piece is Steins;Gate. It’s a story about a young Japanese nutcase, a scientist-goofball with a make-believe lab who jabbers commands to his non-existent organization over an inactive cell phone and runs tests (with his staff of one groupie and […]