The Twisted Mind Emporium

could this be snow

2012-02-12T08:26:00.000-05:00

Well, I looked out this morning and, low and behold, there was snow on the ground. Okay, not the first time this year, but it seems like it and this winter is, at least in my mind, starting to wind down already. Which brings me to the fact that I love indoor tennis. Snow, rain, wind - who cares when you have a roof over your head. And with my new Wilson BLX rackets I did pretty okay during my

starting my new racket

2012-02-05T07:00:00.000-05:00

Well, I’ve been searching for years, and it looks like my search has finally ended. I’m talking about finding a suitable replacement for my old Max 200G tennis rackets. And here it is: The Wilson BLX Blade Tour 93 So, how close are they to my old rackets? Well, the Wilsons are about 2 oz. lighter than the Dunlops, and 10 pts headlight as opposed to the Max 200Gs 4 pts. They have the same

old coot winter

2012-01-29T06:41:00.000-05:00

Despite my eating a load of Vitamin D every day, I’ve been in a bit of a funk this winter. Actually, I can’t even say we’ve had a winter so far this year - not that I’m really complaining - but shouldn’t there be snow and stuff? In fairness, I did have to shovel “once” yesterday - maybe that counts? And speaking of yesterday it was my Anniversary. Yup, been married now a total of 23 years . .

Short Story: End of the Line

2012-01-22T06:50:00.000-05:00

Seems to me it's been far too long since I posted a short story . . . . . . hey look, here's one now. And it's, what else, a horror story! Enjoy! End of the Line by Paul Darcy Malcolm had one of those days, and all he was thinking of, as he boarded the train at Marigold Station, was a hot supper and a early bedtime. The crowd of commuters found places to sit and when the mini-rush settled

it sort of adds up

2012-01-15T08:51:00.001-05:00

Since the demise of Reader’s Den, our book review site of years ago now, I’ve decided to join Goodreads.com. To date I have over 1,000 books rated and over 130 book reviews posted. Seems like a good place to share what you have, and are currently reading, with others. I even got my wife to join and she is liking it. I know, just one more website to suck away my time . . . And it occurs to me

multi media migraines

2012-01-08T07:35:00.000-05:00

I am the first to admit that I’m far from the most tech savvy guy on the planet . . . like about 10 AU far from . . . You see, when I install software I just expect it to work. Not so with Windows Live Movie Maker from Microsoft for Windows 7. I followed all the online instructions to the letter, did everything I was supposed to and - no go. Some dumb error during install to do with direct X or

no real resolutions

2012-01-01T09:21:00.002-05:00

I was wondering what I could write here today that would be profound, inspiring and appropriate for the start of 2012. But, since I can’t think of anything I’ll just write . . . as you were. Of course many of you, myself included, see this artificial place keeper in time as the appropriate time to turn over a new leaf, make a new plan, or just get the bathroom clean because it’s a day off and

Happy Ho Ho

2011-12-25T06:38:00.001-05:00

Well, it’s Christmas morning and millions are awakening to see what Santa brought them. I’m likely, at this moment, frying up sausages and eggs and trying to restrain my daughter from digging in to her presents before we have breakfast. Yeah, this is a blog written the day before. Not much to say except, Happy Holidays! Now, go enjoy your family and friends! Oh, and get out the board games!

tree up output down

2011-12-18T07:53:00.000-05:00

As promised to our little one, not so little anymore, we put up the tree yesterday. And despite my grumping the whole time (I am the "Grumpy-Daddy" after all - I have an image to uphold) it looks pretty darn good. There is even some snow on the ground . . . Okay, more like a dusting with rain on the way tomorrow. Sigh. I kinda miss the Christmas Winter Wonderland I grew up in. It was usually

so damn cool

2011-12-11T05:38:00.001-05:00

Yes, I am easily amused as you will see later on when I post a couple of links. Ooh! ooh! - this week I got an upgrade to my computer system which included an upgrade from XP to 7. I was apprehensive at first, but now that I’ve had the system installed for a few days - I’m quite liking it - a lot. So many more cool things to play with that XP just never had. And I swear my computer is acting

this hurting unit

2011-12-04T08:09:00.001-05:00

Yup, I’m not in great shape today for one very good reason. It was not from drinking. It was not from a virus. It was from slipping on a taped line on the clay courts Friday night while going for a shot. I slid out of control and ending up tumbling ungracefully first onto my elbow and hip and them flopping like a landed fish hard onto my back. It looks fun when you watch a professional tennis

one on one

2011-11-27T08:15:00.002-05:00

Well today is tennis doubles day again . . . but with a twist. Today I’m the number one ranked player on court number one. Yikes! There are six courts, so if you do the math that means I’m sitting on top of 23 other guys . . . and yes, that does not sound right, but you know what I mean. So what did I do differently last week to land me in this prestigious position this week? Three things.

back and back again

2011-11-20T08:25:00.000-05:00

So I’ve been playing Left 4 Dead with a friend, trying desperately to complete the very last mission “The Sacrifice” and it’s been hell. Also, my back is acting up crimping my tennis game. On the game front, we finally managed to complete “The Sacrifice” once, after about six tries. We switched characters to so my friend could get the same achievements I got . . . and you are rolling your eyes

winterizing

2011-11-13T08:54:00.002-05:00

Hate to say it, or think it, but I’ve been winterizing the past week. The yard is cleared of dead leaves - mostly mulched - and both cars have their winter treads on. I even dragged my snow shovel out from under the rubble heap I call a garage which was cleared to allow a car to fit in it. A novel idea I know. I’m all set for snow - not that I’m looking forward to it. Still, with the change of

mulch or bag

2011-11-06T07:35:00.002-05:00

It’s that season again here when our yard takes on the appearance of burnt orange and dull red. Yup, our three large maple trees have spewed their load across our lawn and I have the option of bagging or mulching those thousands of brightly coloured decaying leaves. I prefer to mulch since all the nutrition that got sucked from the soil can go right back in again for next year’s leaves. Then

hollow tween

2011-10-30T07:31:00.000-04:00

No, the title of today's blog is not a typo, but rather an observation of late. You see, my tweenage daughter is growing at an alarming rate and her food consumption this past month has been startling to say the least. No matter how much she packs back at meal time she is always hungry and continually searching the larder and fridge for “something more to eat because I’m starving!” Okay, then.

not addicted already

2011-10-23T08:14:00.001-04:00

It appears that I share a controversial “activity” with one of my good friends. It’s called playing computer games. And it seems that because we do it, we are labeled by our significant others as some sort of deviant sub-cultural game-obsessed layabouts with a severely debilitating and harmful addiction which can only end in ruin and they wish nothing more than for us to just quit playing

too old for this S___!

2011-10-16T08:02:00.000-04:00

So, after playing two hours of singles tennis last Sunday I’m beginning to understand the phrase, “I’m getting too old for this shit!” Waking up for four days afterwards in pain, unable to do the simplest thing, like bend more than two degrees without pain, really puts a cramp in your lifestyle. No more singles for me, that’s a given. The person I was playing was at least a decade younger than

turkey fever

2011-10-09T07:53:00.000-04:00

Well this is the long weekend for turkey chomping here in Canada and the weather is absolutely amazing. Sun, warmth, and Scarlet Fever . . . Yeah, the best weekend we’ve had in 2011 and my daughter comes down with strep throat complete with strep rash heading for a date with Scarlet Fever. Thank goodness for modern medicine. So, this puts a bit of a crimp in our grandiose Thanksgiving Day

USB bandwidth exceeded

2011-10-02T07:04:00.002-04:00

So I had this error message this morning after booting up the device. Seems some USB device was sucking more than its fair share of bandwidth and Windows didn’t like it. Problem is, the only two USB devices I have hooked to my device are the keyboard and mouse. Hmm. One of them was not playing nice. Oh well, everything seems to be working fine now and so this blog post is being written without

balls up

2011-09-25T07:31:00.000-04:00

That’s what the tennis instructor always says at the end of our tennis aerobics session . . . and yeah, I laugh inside each time I hear it. Still 12 years old I guess. So, I’ve been playing tennis 4, 5 times a week now for a bit and starting to feel like I can hit a few shots the way I used to. My old racquet is performing well and my wrist injury is pretty much gone. I did hurt my left knee a

new elbows

2011-09-18T07:51:00.001-04:00

For those of us, including myself, that have had to suffer with leaking elbows, there is an easy and simple fix for the problem. Oh, I should clarify which elbows I’m talking about; they’re not the ones on my body, but the ones in the basement of my house that seem to spring a leak on average about once per year. The plumber that came over to do the job of repair was extremely helpful and clued

hmm upgrades

2011-09-11T07:46:00.002-04:00

Every time I blink it seems to me that the computer industry jumps ahead about ten steps - and yes, I am Mr. Dinosaur when it comes to keeping up with the latest tech. My needs are not great when it comes to PC computing. As long as my rig can play games that are fairly recent (Fallout 3, etc), handle music creation programs and word processing, I’m pretty happy. My wife needs a new device

leaks and geeks

2011-09-04T08:03:00.000-04:00

One drop of water every twenty seconds - not so bad, right? Yes, I timed the latest pipe leak in the basement. I’ve removed the “stupid” drywall on the ceiling from the previous owners and found a very tiny drip coming from another 90 degree angle in the water pipes. This would be leak number four in seven years - Five if you count the drip every minute from a 90 degree bend in a water pipe in

celebration

2011-08-28T07:45:00.002-04:00

Today my daughter has a big celebration for her rep baseball season. There will be fun, games and pizza. It interfered with my D&D gaming day today though. But hey, when you have kids, you tend to put them first - even when they want you to . . . Also, I’m a bit fried from the four day vacation I just got back from visiting relatives in Ottawa. I like my brother-in-law and his kids but it’s