Golf mechanic

Another round of golf today. I shot 115, which is better than before. My woods were back, and towards the end of the round I was beginning to fix my swing.

Currently, I tend to swing like John Daly. Huge backswing, powerful downswing, full followthrough. However, when he does it, the ball goes 300+ yards perfectly straight. When I do it, the ball slices so far left it begins to come back towards me. Other times it gets no lift, something I refer to as "downspin". Sometimes it does both, landing in the woods on the left side of the hole, no more than 30 yards away from me.

I started to fix it with a combination of things people have said to me over the years. My mother constantly tells me to not swing back so far, and my brother constantly tells me to not come around on the ball. Until today I wasn't really able to do that last one without messing up the swing completely, but now I think I've done it.

With the new swing, I don't do nearly as much of a backswing. I only swing out until my arms are about level with my shoulders, then I force myself into my downswing. I have to force it because it just doesn't feel natural to be stopping at that point, but in time that'll change, I sure.

During my downswing I put in as much force as I can, while making sure the club head follows a straight path. I can't really describe how I do this, but it seems to come naturally with the extra power. I do a full followthrough still, because that's what you're supposed to do.

Preliminary results look good. I drove over the stream on the 17th at Riverbend, something I've never done before (it's a good 200 yards out, I think). In general my drives were infinitely better, and my fairway woods were a lot straighter.

Now I just need to fix my short game and putting.

Take the redeye

Both my eyes are bloodshot, and are on their way to having the whites turn completely red. I need to get more sleep, obviously, but it's kinda cool having red eyes.

Occasionally I'll feel something in the eye twinge a bit, and I know that's another blood vessel popping up to the surface. It feels weird, but doesn't hurt too much. Normally anything happening with my eyes creeps me out, but this isn't so bad.

And just as I typed that I actually thought about the fact that these are things that carry blood through my eyes. I'm all twitchy now, so I have to stop typing.

Blood makes me squeamish, and anything involving eyes just freaks me out, so combining them in one thought was a really really bad idea.

Gaaaaah.

A new beginning

I bought a new fan. It was the only type Wal Mart had in stock, and cost me 15 bucks. It's a simple 12" table fan, nothing fancy, and so far it's been doing a good job of keeping me cool.

I have a theory that Wal Mart makes you stupid. Spend any time in one and you'll see a non-stop parade of idiots. They'll block aisles for no reason, try to push carts through other carts, take stuff out of their cart and leave it wherever they feel like, and any number of other things that no intelligent person should do.

This world simply can't have that many morons in it, and all of them converging on a single place is statistically impossible. Therefore, entering a Wal Mart automatically makes you stupid.

They're sneaky about it. You don't feel stupider, but you are. You notice everyone else being stupid and gloss over the stupid stuff you do, and your intelligence doesn't return until you walk out that door. Even when you're outside you still don't recognize the stupidity, because your perception hasn't changed. You remember everybody else being stupid and yourself being normal, which simply reinforces the fact that people in Wal Mart are stupid.

And before anyone says it, yes that includes me. The fan I got was on the top shelf, on top of another fan. I had my brother tip the bottom one so the top one would slide off, and I caught it as it fell. That's stupid, and we were both idiots to do it that way. If I'd missed it, I'd have to deal with a broken fan (most likely by putting it back on the shelf), and get another one. The one I got looked like the one one in the store without a banged-up box, so I'd have a broken one and have to get an inferior box to boot. As I said, stupid.

Preserve your intelligence, don't shop at Wal Mart. I think employees are safe from the stupefying effects, but I have no way of being sure. They always seem to know where things are, so they must have some possession of their mental faculties left.

Finally

After 5 months of waiting, I have a security clearance.

I'd say more, but then I'd have to kill you.

3 weeks?

Does it really take 3 weeks to process a transcript request? I submitted the request at the beginning of the month, and according to OCAS, they still haven't received it. Queen's is really dropping the ball here, especially since I got a paper copy after less than a week. Does it take an extra 2 weeks to send it to a 3rd party? Really?

I'm in the lurch here, and not enjoying it.

A lesson in frustration

I finally got to the last mission in Guild Wars. I was in a good group that had done the previous mission nearly flawlessly, and a new addition was someone who had been through the mission a few times and knew what to do. He was an amazing player, knowing exactly what to pull towards us, how to not get too many at one time, and where we should stand to gain advantages in combat.

The mission was going awesomely until something in the game decided that everything should attack me and nobody else. When you die in Guild Wars you get a 15% reduction in your health and energy, to a maximum of 60%. That basically means that once you die, you die much more easily. I experienced that firsthand.

I was riding at 60% penalty just after the longest part of the mission, and then died several times fighting the 2nd last boss. After we dispatched him, there was just the last boss to deal with. He only killed me three times, but that didn't matter because the rest of the party got killed shortly after my 3rd time.

All told we spent roughly an hour and half on this mission, and then lost it in 2 minutes.

I'll get it next time. Hopefully.

Sadness

Sometime overnight, my fan passed away. I woke up with an unusual amount of sweat covering me, and noticing the distinct lack of breeze, I soon pinpointed the cause.

The lifeless form beside my bed was a bit of a shock. The blades standing motionless, the switch still set to 1, the setting I always slept with. A gentle breeze, but not distracting, and it shall never blow again.

This fan stood by me through hot times and hotter times, and helped me through days where I thought I was going to melt. If not for its constant air movement I might have gone mad this summer, or at least been much hotter than I was.

Farewell, dear fan. I shall never forget you.

Fun with elevators

One of elevators in my building has a funny problem with the door. It opens normally until it gets roughly 7/8 of the way, then it hesitates for a second, and then very slowly opens the rest of the way.

Despite my full knowledge of this, I still managed to ram my left hand into the hesitating door when I got off the elevator to do laundry today. I didn't just ram it, I drilled the sucker. Scraped a bit of skin off my knuckles, but thankfully there was no blood.

There was a Swiss Chalet deliver guy in the elevator at the time (who orders Swiss Chalet delivery for lunch?), and I think he made a comment about my amazing coordination, but I was too busy not dropping the laundry basket to listen to him.

While waiting for the elevator when I was going down to put the laundry in the dryer, the fire alarm went off. I knew they were testing the system today, but I didn't know when, and I was standing directly under the bell when it went off. Scared the hell out of me.

I didn't realize this before, but each floor's fire alarm sounds slightly different. The trip down to the laundry room was a constantly shifting tapestry of sound, and it was possibly the coolest thing I've ever heard.

There are 20 minutes until the dryer will be finished, and I'm really curious as to what's going to happen on the elevator this time.

Practice makes the opposite of perfect

We went golfing today, and I had my worst round of the season. Again. It seems the more I play, the worse I get. I shot a 119, which just 6 strokes better than the first time I ever went golfing, which was easily 10 years ago.

Although I shot par on one hole, the rest of the round simply went terribly. I've lost the ability to hit a fairway wood (but I didn't bother switching to my irons until I flubbed 3 consecutive shots on the 18th hole), and those were the mainstay of my game. I can't drive very well, my short game is equally atrocious, and the less said about my putting the better. Today was a bit different in that my putting was a bit better than normal and my short irons stopped pushing off to the right, but those good things were balanced out by my complete lack of long woods.

I could probably fit a name to this new condition, but I'm reluctant to. I'm a bit embarassed by my newfound failings, especially since I used to be so good at hitting a nice 3 wood and, to a lesser extent, 5 wood. I used to tee off with my 3 wood because I could hit it so well, and I don't know if I'll ever be able to use them again.

Talking about golf is starting to get depressing. Why am I bad at everything I enjoy?

Twilight Imperium

Twilight Imperium is incredible. We played for 10 hours (with a break for dinner), and the game only ended then because we had decided on a set number of rounds. I won on victory points because nobody could catch me (I had 10 going into the last round, and depending on if I got the Imperial strategy card I could have ended with 13). A normal victory condion is 10 points, so regardless I would have been the winner.

We managed to go almost the entire game without a single battle. I conquored enough influential planets to be able to control the voting on any issue, and Seb and I formed a very solid coalition. His race was highly technical, mine was very political, so we agreed that he wouldn't attack me if I voted with him on every issue that came up.

You randomy pick a race at the beginning of the game, and each one has some unique attributes. The one I got (I can't remember how to spell it) got two action cards whenever one was dealt, and could have as many in their hand as the wanted (as opposed to the limit of 7 for everyone else). That stack of cards saved me several times, most notably when Cid tried to play an emergency repairs card to return his dreadnoughts to full strength and I had a sabotage card waiting to prevent it. The look on his face was absolutely priceless.

I was the only person to achieve their secret objective, which gave me an extra 2 victory points. It was a fairly easy one, hold the planet at the centre of the universe, build a space dock on it, and then have a fleet of 8 ships there. The hardest part was getting enough command tokens to raise my fleet limit high enough to get the 8 ships to be able to occupy the system, and I didn't get attacked there until Cid made a move for it in the next-to-last round. I tried to block him with a card that didn't let him attack a planet of my choice, but the wording on the card said planet, not system, so he could still attack my fleet. That was the battle where I interrupted his attempt to repair his ships, and as a result of that I won it rather handily.

Because of my dependence on politics and action cards, I didn't really build up my technology or ships too much. I didn't really need them too much, but some of the public objectives for victory points were based on technology, so I developed them at the end. My ships were still rather lacking, and I think I only build 2 dreadnoughts in the entire game. They're the largest regular ships you can build, and the way we were playing they got to attack twice, but took up 2 spaces in your fleet. Besides the good damage, they're also able to take 2 hits, so destroying them isn't as easy as you might think.

I think the part of the game I liked best was the strategy card system. There are 8 cards, each representing a different strategy, ranging from Initiative (which makes you go first and pick the first card next round) to Trade (get a good deal of money for building things, set and break trade agreements, and decide if other players are allowed to make agreements of their own) to Imperial (instant 2 victory points). There are others that give you free technology or more command tokens or let you call votes on political issues, and each one changes the game just a bit.

When you play a strategy card, everybody else has the option to enact the secondary strategy, which gives them a lesser advantage. These vary quite a bit, so I won't describe them. I made good use of the Imperial secondary, because it allows you to build units without activating a system (a process that renders it essentially useless until the next round), and Seb freely abused the Technology secondary because one of his race's unique attributes was the ability to get both the primary and secondary of the Technology card when he activated the secondary. as such he got 2 technologies per round and became massively overpowered.

However, in the end politics and smart strategizing won the game, and I can't wait until we play it again. Maybe we'll get more battles then.

How is it the end of July already?

I'd talk more about the concept of time, but I really don't have time right now. I'm so witty.

I'm going to Steve's in a bit, to play a new board game. It's called Twilight Imperium, and apparently it's a bit like Axis & Allies, but with alliances you make on the fly and on a galactic scale. Mat sent me a bunch of information about it, and it sounds like a really neat game.

Here's an exhaustive review of the game that has gotten me a bit more excited about it.

Dizzy

I've been a bit dizzy all night. It started before dinner, and for a while it was so bad I couldn't cook, but not so bad that I couldn't walk to Subway. I'm still a little wobbly, but it's not as bad as it was.

I don't think I'm getting sick, but it's a possibility. Maybe I'm just not drinking enough water.

So far the drawing hasn't begun. I keep meaning to do it, and then finding something more urgent. Pretty much the same thing I do with my writing. I think I need to find a new place to do stuff, because this room seems to stifle my creativity. When I'm out walking around I have ideas flowing in nonstop, and as soon as I sit down they disappear.

Starting tomorrow I'm going to force myself to sit out on the balcony to do stuff. We put up some netting, and the pigeons have stayed away thus far. Stupid pigeons, hate them so much. But they're gone, so I hate them less.

Hooray for progress!

It's been a useless couple of days

Nothing has happened in the past few days. There haven't been any jobs posted anywhere, nothing's been going on online, and it's too hot to concentrate on anything for more than 5 minutes. It's very frustrating to be aware of wasting time all day with no way to stop doing it.

The Year That Wasn't just keeps on going.

Nothing to say

I forgot to buy french fries.

Now back to your regularly-scheduled life.

One of those San Andreas moments

I just finished the mission in GTA San Andreas where you have to steal the 4 police bikes and park them on a moving car carrier (it's in Las Venturas, if you haven't done it yet). You have 12 minutes to do it, and each one you steal gives you 2 wanted stars. Definitely not a cakewalk.

I finished it on my first try with 10 seconds left on the clock. As I was driving the last bike up the ramp, the car behind the carrier moved up and clipped me slightly, which caused me to spin sideways and fall off the ramp.

Instant heart attack, because at that point I had 20 seconds left, and I was sure I was either going to fall off the bike or get pushed into the other lane and would lose. Fortunately neither of those happened. I stayed on the bike and the car stopped, which left me a nice easy drive to the ramp, and I finished with the aforementioned 10 seconds.

It's not fun repeating any mission, especially not a tough one where you battle the clock and the cops, and even more especially when you're right at the end. Words can't describe how relieved I was when I didn't fall off the bike.

Changing gears slightly, I've decided to learn how to draw. No real reason, I just feel like I should be doing something during the day rather than sitting on the internet and sending resume after resume, none of which ever get a result. I guess I could revamp my resume yet again, but I think there are only so many ways I can say the same thing before not getting answers drives me insane.

Writing has gotten a bit frustrating because of this persistant block I keep running into. As soon as I get rolling with an idea, the block comes down and cuts off the flow of words. It's very annoying, as you can probably tell. I'm sure I've talked about it here before, so I'm just repeating myself, and I really shouldn't do that. So, instead of whining about writer's block, I'm going to pick up a new medium. I can already draw a little bit, so with a bit of practice I should be able to get to a level where I can feel good showing my work to people. I hope.

Maybe I'll draw my San Andreas guy. I have him decked out in a leather jacket, matching cowboy boots, a cowboy hat, and aviators, so I'll at least start off by drawing something really cool. I've nicknamed him Renegade, and he makes his own rules when applicable. Not all the time, because he doesn't follow anyone's rules all the time, not even his own. That's how much of a renegade he is.

Renegade with an assault rifle is the coolest video game character you'll ever see. Too bad we have the Xbox version or I'd toss up a screenshot.

Ninja waiters

We went to East Side Mario's tonight, and I noticed something quite unusual about the service. Whenever my drink started to get low, the waiter would replace it with a new one at the exact moment I finished it. Furthermore, I never saw him approaching, and he did the entire transaction almost silently.

Our waiter was a refill ninja.

Kevin's going to laugh at me

I just put in an application for a job installing machines in laundry facilities. It's a summer position, and they wanted moving experience. From the description it sounds like a narrower version of the moving business, one that only moves and hooks up washers and dryers.

Dryers are no problem, they're the lightest of all common household appliances, and they're generally pretty easy to set up. Washers used to be the bane of my existence. They're decpetively heavy (especially the front-loading type, which can be almost as heavy as a refrigerator), and disconnecting them is a painful mess (on account of the hoses, which will always be full of water no matter how long you let it drain for).

At least none of these will be the old type with the concrete base, and it's almost guaranteed we won't be carrying them into disgusting basements with narrow staircases. And because of that simple condition, I can declare that isn't a moving job.

There was another job listed doing web design, and I really want to apply for it, but I won't be considered for it. One of the requirements is to be returning to full-time studies at the end of the summer, and I haven't gotten an acceptance yet. I guess I could apply and tell them I'm still waiting, but I don't know if they'll accept that. Assuming the job hasn't been filled already, that is.

Isn't jobhunting great?

On headphones

I've noticed that when I listen to music on my speakers, I'm always aware of what's playing. If something I don't like comes on, I'll have the song changed in 2 seconds. Sometimes faster.

When I listen to music on my headphones, on the other hand, I'll sometimes be halfway through something I don't care for before I notice there's even music playing. I mean, I'll be aware of the sound, but I won't be listening to it. I'm sure entire songs get played that I don't really notice, and then all of a sudden I'll realize what I've been listening to.

Is it strange that I tune out something I took an extra step to listen to?

If you're wondering why I have music I don't like in my playlist, I just toss every song I have on one giant playlist and have Winamp play them randomly. It's easier than organizing them, and you never know when you'll feel like a certain song.

This is weird

I've lost all concept of time. I've been noticing for a while now that I can never seem to remember what specific day events happened on (like what day it rained, when I sent an application to a certain job, etc), and it just dawned on me that it's the middle of summer.

I've been in limbo so long now that I've just assumed that it'll always be this way. I think I might be screwed for a job now, because nobody is going to want to hire me for a month and a half (assuming I get into the program). All the good jobs will have been snapped up by people smarter than me, and all the crappy jobs will now be filled with high school students.

Is there no room for the university graduate with few practical skills?

I've been out of school for over a year now, and at the end of August I'll have been unemployed for a year. This shall henceforth be known as The Year That Wasn't.

Sleepless

I have to be up at 8, and I'm finding new reasons to avoid going to bed. I don't know why, so I told myself I'd write something here and then punch myself in the face until I fell asleep. The face punching to induce sleep is an experimental procedure, but I'm excited about its potential.

I'm going to my grandma's again tomorrow, and this will be the last time for a while. My mom flies back to Washington on Thursday, so this is the last time we'll have a chance to do anything with her until she leaves. Most likely another round of golf coming up, and I'll be sure to let you know about any new afflictions my swing acquires.

I bought Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow a while back, and I've managed to get over my Guild Wars and San Andreas fixations to start playing it. I saw my brother do a few parts of some missions, so that kind of ruined some of the suspense. still, I'm finding my own ways through things, and I already did one mission better than he did (the one where you infiltrate the submarine, if you're wondering) just by going a different way off the start. I'm also a little more trigger-happy than he is, and that causes almost as many problems as it solves. In addition, I tend to snipe moving targets, something that annoys him to no end. What can I say, I'm actually a better shot when I have to lead my target. Couple that with strategic uses of light switches (and the fact that guards are completely vulnerable when they're turning lights on), and you have a completely different play style, and therefore a different challenge in parts where I already know what's coming up.

It'll be a lot harder in the later missions where I haven't seen anything, but I'll be ready with my patented move, The Fist From The Darkness. It essentially involves punching a guard in the face as he rounds a dark corner. Devastating, and it has an awesome name.

Time to punch myself to sleep.

Another job fair

There's a job fair at the Corel Centre today and tomorrow. I was planning on going, but I looked at the available positions and most of them were either retail or food service, both of which make me nervous because I'm not so good at dealing with strangers. There are others I'm at least partially interested in, so I still think it would be worthwhile.

I looked at the bus schedule, and there's no bus that runs directly to it when there's nothing going on. The best there is a rush hour-only express route that might not even stop nearby. Besides that fact, it starts running around 4 and stops around 6, so even if I did take it I'd have to hurry, and based on previous job fair experience there's almost no way I'd make it.

They showed some coverage of the fair on Sportsnet (it started yesterday), and within the first hour they had a huge number of people lined up. They said they're expecting over 3000 people to show up over the 3 days, and it's very unlikely that I'd be finished with it in time to catch the bus (which might not even stop nearby).

My options seem to be to get my brother to drive me after he gets home from work, or send my resume online. The online option is the most likely one, seeing how he's going to be tired and I'm sure driving to the far side of Kanata in rush hour traffic is the last thing he's going to want to do. I know it's the last thing I'd want to do.

So, I'm going to be submitting a resume online with 3 references to maybe get a job checking food chits or taking tickets in a place that might not even be working if they don't settle the hockey lockout.

Hardly seems worth it, does it?

And we're off

I just finished putting in my application for the technical writer course. Turns out I didn't need to order a transcript because it can all be done online, so I wasted a few days and 10 bucks. I guess I'll survive, but it's still annoying.

More muttering about everybody's dependence on Internet Explorer follows. I tried to fill out the forms with Opera, but it kept telling me it wouldn't work and I needed IE or Netscape. I told Opera to identify itself as IE, and to absolutely no surprise the application stuff worked just fine. The only hiccup I had was at the transcript ordering screen because none of the buttons would load, so I decided to give in to annoyance and opened up that page in IE. For some reason they don't show any toolbar buttons in the applciation system, and you can't use the back shortcut or reload the page. I'm not usually one to complain about other people's web design, but if you're going to set it up that way, at least tell the users they can't do it.

I now have an application in, a transcript is on its way, and I'm $88 poorer. Now I just need to find a summer job (I hate looking for work, have you noticed?) so I can have some spending money during the school year. Assuming I get accepted, that is.

Here's hoping.

The return

I'm back. My grandma's veranada has never been whiter (as far as I know), and I'm sick of painting. I can still smell it, so either I have the fumes stuck in my clothes or I got some on me and missed it while cleaning up. My grandma's house doesn't have a shower, so that's a distinct possibility.

The work was a bit mind-numbing. I scraped off as much old paint as I could on Sunday night. some of that paint was been on there for longer than I've been alive, and a lot of it had formed an inpenetrable shell. I managed to scrape down to bare wood in a few places, but others were impossible. On Monday morning I put on primer, and there wasn't quite enough in the can to cover everything. A floorboard and a half were left uncovered, as well as the stairs. The floorboards weren't a big deal because they're normally covered by a carpet, and I decided the stairs would need 2 coats. There was lots of paint, so I wasn't too concerned about it.

Once the primer was dry and the scorching heat of the day was receding, I set out on the task of painting. I started around quarter to 4, and I'm not sure when I finished, but it was before dinner. I did the latticework, the railings, the sides, the floorboards, and the stairs. Four sides of the veranda got covered, and some of it was exhausting detail work. I had to squat for most of it, and I don't know if my knees will ever be the same.

I put another coat on the stairs this morning, and then painted the doorsteps, because both the front and back doors needed it. The place looks a lot nicer now, so it was worthwhile.

Painting aside, we got in another round of golf, where my list of ailments increased. In addition to 100 pound wedge, I now have a case of Contracting Neck Disease (which causes the neck muscles to violently contract when in a downswing, causing the head to lift and the shot to be ruined), and recurring bouts of Feather Touch (which causes long putts to stop very far away from the hole). Even with these afflictions I managed to shoot a 113, so I guess I compensated. Kinda.

I got my transcript in the mail today, so I'm going to apply for the technical writer program tomorrow. If everything goes right, I could be returning to the sweet embrace of academia, my refuge from reality. If not, I might be able to finagle a job at a wine and beer brewer. They called on Monday about a resume I had sent to them, so my brother called my grandma's to let me know. I called them and talked to the interviewer, but it turns out they were looking for someone to work for them permanently, using the summer to train them for the busy season, which starts in September. He said I should call if school doesn't work out, so I guess that's something.

I just realized, I haven't played Guild Wars since my guild got our guild hall, and with it the ability to do guild battles. I used the word "guild" way too many times in that sentence. The point still remains that I need to play more.

Wild and crazy nights

Canada Day came and went without too much excitement. I went to Steve's with the promise of a barbecue, but instead got locked out in the pouring rain. Everybody had gone to Subway just as the rain started (about the same time I was getting on the bus), and they wisely didn't want to leave until it stopped. I didn't have that option, so I hurried from the bus stop to their house (which really wasn't too far), but I was soaked the minute I got off the bus.

After pounding on their door and cursing them to hell, I started to walk home after the rain stopped (hoping to dry out a bit). I called them before too long, just in case they'd gone somewhere and had just gotten back, and to my joy that was the case.

The people who live just down the street from them are jerks. They just stood on their balcony hurling abuse at me. I was too wet to bother thinking up a retort.

After getting in and partly drying off, we set about the long, arduous task of deciding what to do. We decided on poker sometime later in the evening, with the possibility of Axis & Allies. To pass the time, we played Clue.

I hadn't played Clue in probably 10-12 years, so I'd mostly forgotten how to do it. Still, I picked Col. Mustard, as I tend to do, and set out on the trail of the killer. Steve won the game, beating (among others) his housemate who's in police training. I guess all those rows and columns triggered his accounting reflexes. If you're curious, it was Mrs. Peacock in the kitchen with the lead pipe. I had Mrs. Peacock, and I was fairly certain about the lead pipe, but I had no clue on the room. I was thinking it was the billiard room, but never managed to get in there to find out.

Finally, we got to the poker game. after a hard fought game where I came back from the brink of disaster, I went all in on what I thought was a bluff and turned out to be a straight. After knocking me out, Steve went on to beat Kyle and win the game. Seems like a pattern of Steve winning everything, which might have been a factor in there not being an A&A game, aside from the fact that poker finished at 5:30 in the morning.

After quickly checking the bus schedule and finding that there was one coming soon, I left and discussed strategy for guild battles with Steve. We have some plans, but I don't think anybody cares about me discussing Guild Wars in this blog. So I won't. Plus this way our secret plans stay secret (insert evil laughter).

I got to bed around 6 and woke up in early afternoon, and soon after my brother and I decided to go golfing. Golf turned out to be a train wreck. I had my worst round of the year, and despite getting par on a par 5, it was horrible. I discovered a new phenomenon I call the 100 pound wedge, in which my wedge seems to gain weight as I swing it downwards, thus driving it into the ground and absorbing all the energy of the swing. This results in a fully-swung wedge hitting the ball maybe 10-20 yards, and for shorter shots, leaving the ball as far from the hole as possible while still travelling forwards. 100 pound wedge is a serious threat to my game and sanity, and I hope it clears up soon.

Tomorrow I'm leaving for a few days. We're playing golf with Mom again, and then I'm going to be taking two days to paint my grandmother's veranda. I'm not sure how I got roped into that one, but I did. Lousy family exploiting me for cheap labour. The veranda desperately needs a coat of paint, and I can't complain too much about doing it (painters are probably expensive and Grandma doesn't have fat stacks of cash sitting around), so I'm going to grin and bear it.

I'll be back on Tuesday, most likely. Until then, avoid getting 100 pound wedge and don't play Clue with accountants.