Thoughts – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

November 11, 2021

Second Thoughts (DOG EAR)

had a piece all queued up for today, a thing about learning something I knew about someone, something that rocked me back on my heels and made me blink. It was about how we characterize people we know in our minds and are startled when we learn or see something that changes this ideal. I wrote it early this morning (after waking up and thinking about this person). It was a good piece, having my full emotions and concerns in it. Saved it in drafts and walked with my wife for breakfast. When I got home I looked at it […]

July 31, 2022

Thoughts and Prayers (Review)

stumbled across Thoughts and Prayers by author Ken Liu in that wonderful The Years Best Science Fiction, presumably the year being 2019 (oddly, it’s not clear). Anyway, just giving you the name of the story means I’m giving you a knee-jerk reaction. You are either agreeing with what you think I’m going to say or deciding that I want to pry your gun from your cold dead hands. Even though the latter might be a little true, no, this story goes deeper than that. Told in the interesting format from various characters involved, we learn that an older sister / […]

December 1, 2022

Book of Love (DOG EAR)

o instead of one of my dystopian movies, one recent Friday night I selected one I thought JB would like, Book of Love, an Amazon flick from 2022. Well, she liked it. I was amused by it, but the more I thought about it, the madder I got. So, the plot is this: Henry Copper is a very nebbish author who has spent five years on a novel that nobody likes. He wrote it from his own heart, his cold suffering lonely heart, reaching out to those like him. It is a book about chaste and unfulfilled love. The book […]

October 5, 2023

My Thoughts on Curbside Libraries (DOG EAR)

uddenly Curbside Libraries are popping up all over the place. Since I tend to walk a lot, I’ll pass them often and nose in, seeing if there is anything interesting. I hate to say it, but judging America’s reading levels, it is pretty bleak. Most of the time, it is grim. Generally there are two things in these boxes – children’s books (not beloved classics, but just general teach-a-lesson books) and utility books (cookbooks, self-help books, etc). Really, this is what you people read? A few years back, I was riding my bike and came across a stack of books […]

April 24, 2024

Netherlands – Concluding comments

ell, if you made it this far on my blogs, you win the prize (eye-strain and headaches, most likely). Anyway, I’ll just wrap up our trip home and offer my own thoughts. The day after the tulips, we left. Our activity director, Danni, was in charge of getting us transport to the airport. Apparently, the Gate One people listen to my brother in setting up connections – sure, leaving two hours before our flight seems like a great idea, right? So what would we do – sit on the boat and watch the old passengers leave and the new ones […]