Now Reading
Planned books:
None
Current books:
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Mathematics for the Digital Age and Programming in Python by Maria Litvin and Gary Litvin
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Statistics In Plain English by Timothy C. Urdan
Recent books:
- Practical Machine Learning in R by Fred Nwanganga, Mike Chapple
- Statistical Inference via Data Science: A ModernDive into R and the Tidyverse by Chester Ismay and Albert Y. Kim
- The Nature of Code by Daniel Shiffman
- Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee
- The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature by Matt Ridley
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Author Archives: Robert S. Robbins
Weekend In Gettysburg – Sunday
I wasn’t sure I had enough activities planned for the second day of my weekend trip to Gettysburg, but I managed to make a full day of it. I did leave Gettysburg a little earlier than necessary. I had a … Continue reading
Weekend In Gettysburg – Saturday
I spent the weekend in Gettysburg in order to give myself enough time to see everything. I left Williamsport very early at 5:30 a.m. and arrived in Gettysburg around 8:30 a.m. I used the Taneytown exit to avoid driving through … Continue reading
Fun Home At The Millbrook Playhouse
On August 3rd, 2017 I saw my third show at the Millbrook Playhouse in Mill Hall. This show was a musical based on the graphic novel Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. The interesting thing about this show is that the … Continue reading
Posted in General, Theater, Writing
Tagged Alison Bechdel, Clinton County, Fun Home, Millbrook Playhouse
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NYC Trip To See The Play That Goes Wrong
Yesterday I made a trip to New York City to see the Broadway comedy “The Play That Goes Wrong” at the Lyceum Theatre. My first goal on this trip was to visit the Society of Illustrators’ Museum of American Illustration … Continue reading
Posted in General, Theater, Travel
Tagged Chelsea Market, Lyceum Theatre, Posman Books, Society of Illustrators, The Play That Goes Wrong
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Second Trip to Gettysburg
Yesterday I made my second trip to Gettysburg, just one week after my first trip. On this trip my goal was to see the Gettysburg National Military Park and more of the battlefield. I left later than I intended after … Continue reading
Trip To Gettysburg
On Saturday, July 15, 2017 I made my first trip to Gettysburg PA. Gettysburg is two and a half hours from Williamsport so it is not that far away but I don’t like driving south on Route 15. That highway … Continue reading
Posted in General, Travel
Tagged Antique Center of Gettysburg, Cemetery Hill, Evergreen Cemetery, Gettysburg, Gettysburg Heritage Center, Gettysburg Museum of History, Lincoln Diner, Lincoln Square, Majestic Theater, Shriver House Museum, Soldier's National Cemetery, Steinwehr Avenue, Sunset Ice Cream Parlor, The Parrot
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Trip To Altoona Pennsylvania
Yesterday I made a day trip to another city in Pennsylvania, Altoona. Altoona is most famous as a railroad town. But is also has a connection with Williamsport as being the birthplace of the science fiction writer H. Beam Piper who … Continue reading
Review of Sweat by Lynn Nottage
On Saturday, June 24, 2017 I saw the Broadway production of Sweat by Lynn Nottage at Studio 54. Although Studio 54 was an infamous disco nightclub in the late 1970s, it is now a Broadway theater managed by the Roundabout … Continue reading
Posted in General, Theater, Travel, Writing
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Sweating In New York City
I made yet another trip to New York City yesterday to see a play on Broadway. I was a bit surprised to find the Susquehanna Buses in bright new colors with advertising for Bucknell University. It must be part of … Continue reading
Posted in General, Theater, Travel
Tagged Drama Book Shop, Merilu Pizza Al Metro, Met Breuer, Molyvos, O'Lunney's Times Square Pub, Studio 54, Sweat
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Studying Dramatic Writing
I recently bought the book Into The Woods: a Five-Act Journey Into Story by John Yorke. I found this book recommended in a video Lauren Gunderson: On Structure. This proved to be a book for screenwriters by a British television … Continue reading
Posted in General, Theater, Writing
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Sensory Deprivation In New York City
Yesterday I made yet another trip to New York City to explore the heights of human achievement, which is what the skyscraper symbolically represents. And to a certain extent, cultural centers like New York City do attract talent from all … Continue reading
The Victim Mentality In The Arts
Writing about the victim mentality could get me in a lot of trouble on a web site like Howl Round which attracts a large number of Social Justice Warriors. But it is probably safe to share my thoughts here since … Continue reading
Posted in General, Programming, Theater, Writing
Tagged conservative, playwriting, social justice warrior, victim mentality
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Recommender Systems And Their Significance
Recently I bought an expensive book, Recommender Systems: An Introduction, by Dietmar Jannach, Markus Zanker, Alexander Felfernig, Gerhard Friedrich. This book could be used as a textbook for a class which may explain why it was so expensive. I bought … Continue reading
Information Is Not Knowledge
Technology is drowning us in information but this information is often of little use to us. It might be worthwhile to ponder the fundamental nature of information. Although I work in Information Technology as a knowledge worker, I have given … Continue reading
Posted in General, Programming, Travel, Writing
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The Gaspipe One-Act Play Festival
Last evening I attended the Gaspipe One-Act Play Festival at the Greenspace Center in Lewisburg. This play festival was offered by the RiverStage Community Theatre. Lewisburg is south of Williamsport on Route 15. It takes around 40 minutes to drive … Continue reading
How Amazon’s Recommendation Engine May Shape Your Destiny
I have recently discovered that Amazon’s recommendation engine is powered by an open source artificial intelligence framework called Deep Scalable Sparse Tensor Network Engine (DSSTNE), pronounced “destiny”. I have tried to figure out how the Deep Scalable Sparse Tensor Network … Continue reading
Brooklyn Heights – Mapping The Territory
Yesterday I made my first bus trip for 2017 to New York City. My goal was to explore more neighborhoods in Brooklyn. Although I only intended to explore Brooklyn Heights, I had time to wander around Dumbo too. Exploring new … Continue reading
Posted in General, Travel, Writing
Tagged Brooklyn Borough Hall, Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn Heights Promenade, Brooklyn Historical Society, DUMBO, Heights Cafe, Henry Ward Beecher Monument, Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, Merilu Pizza Al Metro, MetroTech Center, New York Transit Museum, New York University Tandon School of Engineering, Port Authority Bus Terminal, Sentinel Apartment, St. Ann's Warehouse, The Heights Players
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CAST’s The Boatwright by Bo Wilson
On Saturday afternoon I saw the play The Boatwright by Bo Wilson. I haven’t been writing reviews of the local productions I’ve seen, but there are a few aspects of this event that I should preserve for future reference. For … Continue reading
Posted in General, Theater, Writing
Tagged CAST, Community Theatre League, RiverStage Community Theatre, The Boatwright
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Production As Validation
Recently I made the observation that playwrights should not be using a production as validation because that is too discouraging. I would like to elaborate on this point. The reason production should not be considered validation is that it sets … Continue reading
Posted in General, Theater, Writing
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Cultural Consumers Vs Creators
There are two types of people in a culture, creators and consumers. Consuming cultural products is a passive activity. Creating cultural products is an active activity. The reader is a consumer and the writer is a creator. I have made … Continue reading