Blog – Page 89 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

January 30, 2016

OpsLog – FEC – 1/30/2016

“Such a day; rum all out. Our company somewhat sober; a damned confusion amongst us! Rogues a plotting. Talk of separation. So I looked sharp for a prize and took one with a great deal of liquor aboard. So kept the company hot, damned hot, then all things went well again.” – Edward Teach (Blackbeard) think I know why I thought about this during the FEC’s latest op session. Both shed doors were open. Had a train pull past a turnout and then back unannounced. But I’d already thrown the switch behind him and he backed over it. A caboose […]

January 31, 2016

The Slow Regard of Silent Things (Review)

he little hair cutter I go to told me about this one. She’s a fan of both The Name of the Wind and A Wise Man’s Fears, and got me to read them both. So when I heard there was a short story about Auri, a weird little tale that makes no sense to anyone who hasn’t read the story, of course I had to read it. The deal is, this is how everyone knows this little book. It’s not like any story you’ve read before. It lacks a climax, characters (outside of the main one) and even dialog. The […]

February 4, 2016

Writing Fast (DOG EAR)

‘ve been distracted by a coming trip, halfway round the world. Came in to work today thinking of air travel, of winter storms, of all the things yet to get, of packing, of preparation. But it’s Thursday and time for a pre-written version of DOG EAR, crafted weeks before, to pop up. Logged in to check the update and found there wasn’t any. I’d run out. I know I have a couple I’ve posted from various coffee shops and eateries, things I thought about and wrote at the moment. Presumably they are all sitting in my in-box, still waiting for […]

February 7, 2016

Out of the Silent Planet (Review)

o JR Tolkien and CS Lewis are in a bar, grousing about the sorry state of literature. Sounds like a joke, right? It actually happened. So the two literary giants were discussing fiction’s flop and they both decide to write science fiction books. They ended up agreeing that they would each produce a work to reverse this decline (or at least cash in on it): Tolkien would write a time travel story, Lewis a space travel one. Tolkien never got beyond a rough draft and some tinkerings, but Lewis took his across the finish line. So in this book, a […]

February 12, 2016

The Neptune Strategy (Review)

ing windows. That’s what sold me. There is a thing in historical fiction where an author nails details that ring so true, you simply find yourself in that time. And John Gobbell did this in the historical thriller The Neptune Strategy by simply mentioning how some of his characters, driving in the California heat in 1944, crank open the wing windows of their car to get some airflow. Man, remember those things? This wasn’t all. Even though this is a navel thriller, he hit enough other points to impress me. He knew Southern Pacific serviced the coast, that engineers whistle […]

February 21, 2016

India – Day Zero – Worries, worries

ey, blogs can be therapeutic. I think you can write stress away. Anyway, hoping so. We’ve been getting ready for our big India trip, twelve days on the other side of the world. I’d name this work Passage to India but that’s already taken. But it’s been no less an ordeal. Our travelers include myself, my wife and my sister. We came up with this a half year back – I pitched it to the wife and managed to get her to agree (you can refer to my other blogs to know just what happened to her in Amsterdam – […]

February 21, 2016

India – Day One – Travel and travel and more travel

couldn’t sleep last night – too much in my head, what with three airlines to navigate, a 4am wakeup, a ride to the airport, guilt over the cat, and the endless milling dread of imagining things that might go wrong. Which is what I do, I suppose. Anyway, the limo guy was a touch early and he took the abandoned 436 in, a straight shot in twilight Tuesday. Got to the airport and found out that, no, Jet Blue does not share luggage routes with Delta so we’d have to do it ourselves (which wasn’t what they told me on […]

February 23, 2016

India – Day Three – Hard Roads and Harder sells

oke up feeling good (had been wondering if I had contracted Ebola from the New Delhi tap water I accidently swallowed last night). With my guts intact, we packed up and headed out, down the road from New Delhi to Jaipur. On the way, we stopped to check out the Qutab Minar Victory Tower, a huge standing structure made and remade and remade again (they need a lightning rod on that thing). Evidently the firm solid structure inspired my guts because in the rest room nearby I deposited a poop of equal consistency. Yea! So it’s looking more and more […]

February 23, 2016

India – Day Two – Delhi, new and old

he day actually started at the airport – we got in at half-past eleven in the evening. The Indian tourist visa deal was a pain; it took an hour to clear it what with the dodgy fingerprint machines. The van ride in to the hotel was hectic; dark and smoggy and honky. When we got to the hotel, ready to crash into bed, first we accidently rode the elevator down to the basement then found out the room card wouldn’t allow us access to the elevator buttons. Finally someone coming up gave us a lift back to the lobby. After […]

February 25, 2016

OpsLog – LM&O – 2/24/2016

o joke – when you go wheels up out of Delhi at 3am and touch down in Orlando at 8pm the same day, you’ve either got a really fast plane or you’re making up the time-in-flight adding in the time difference from flying halfway round the world, ten and a half hours in this case. That equates to twenty-seven hours in planes and airports, all during the longest day in your life. And yes, you’ll have jetlag like you won’t believe following this. Somehow I made it in to work Monday for our most important audit we face every two […]