I’ve come to the conclusion that the dining room isn’t going to paint itself

Didn’t get up early, but then again got up early enough to avoid any kind of sex. So I did the accounts. We then went out and visited a kennels for Sasha. It’s a small place, but all the dogs go out and run round together. Sasha is very social so I think she will enjoy it there, so we have booked her in.

Came back and picked up all the dog shit. Had lunch (washed hands in between). Checked on wine. The Chardonnay has finished fermenting so I’ve added the stabiliser. I did give it a quick taste and it appears to be pretty good. Now have to wait for it to clear and settle. The red is still bubbling away, although at somewhat a slower pace now.

Went out for a run. Basically covered the whole circle of the Stokes. Came back and did my next Japanese lesson. All going well. I’ve finished the first unit now. Will do the review stuff and then move on to unit two.

We then popped in Sarah’s to give my nephew his birthday present. Came back and finished Japanese for the day.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m never going to finish off the dinning room myself, so I think I will put a little away each month to get people in to start doing these tasks. And then I just do a Google. And find a specialist paint stripping place, that do nothing but paint strippers….and they do trial packs. I so have to order some and try it, if I can get that paint off safely without having to steam the bloody stuff I’ll be well impressed. Something fun for next weekend then for sure.

Right, bath time. I may even drink my own wine. Then I’m making pancakes.

God visited my dwelling once again

Was having a very odd dream first thing, was staying at Andy and Justin’s place. We were about to go for a bit of a threesome then the doorbell went. It was the same woman who visited a couple of weeks ago from the god squad. She asked if I was okay and if I’d had a chance to think about any thing she had said. She then said that she knew I was in computers and wanted to show me a short passage from the Bible. As I’m not generally rude I locked the dog in the kitchen and listened to her quoting a passage about god designing everything. She then asked, “Who do you think designed computers, do you think it was God?”. I said, “No, It was Alan Turing and he was gay.”. She snapped her Bible shut an her and her patent leather shoe’d colleague buggered off rather sharpish.

I walked the dog. Took her to the vet again, she’s lost almost a kilo so she’s doing well. Did the shopping. Then ended up visiting a drum shop. Not that I have a noisy new hobby, but my nephew wanted some ‘silencer pads’. I then was rather out of my depth when a hobbit and his stick insect assistant then went around asking questions about drum sizes and ‘rock kits’. After a call to my sister I had a box of rubber things and was fifty quid lighter.

Walked into town, just in time for everything to shut so walked back again.

Quick shower, then we were off to Andy and Lisa’s. My white was a big hit, although it still tastes like a lot of sulphates to me. The Strawberry though was a great success all round. We talked lots of general chit-chat, ate Fajita’s and played ‘Robot Uno’, which was pretty good. Overall a nice evening, even the taxi driver was quite chatty and nice. Good to get out once in a while.

More joys of drive trains

Today I’m still working on physics type stuff. Mainly the drive train still. It’s all interesting yet slightly confusing at the same time. You have an engine and gearbox, a clutch and then the most confusing mechanical thing ever in life, a differential. Still, can’t talk much about it all, but it’s good fun anyway.

Mmm, well not really much today. Walked the dog, did the washing, went to Body Pump. It really has been quite a quiet day, just kind of got on with it. After yesterday, it makes a nice change. Still, lots and lots to do next week, been a little slow progress this week, but as I say it’s all kind of new stuff to me so I have to learn it and then write it all.

Bath and pizza time (not at the same time though). Not sure what I’ve got on tomorrow yet. I know we are supposed to be going out in the evening.

Wreck-It Ralph

Today was rather weird. I was working as normal, doing physics type stuff. Was then requested for some schedule information. But it appears to be the usual case of someone telling one person one thing and another person something else. It ended up with me being told to ‘find another job’, which was really friendly considering it was on an internal forum. Anyway, that person was put in their place and made a public apology. Although I don’t see this project going much beyond conception anyway, will see how it goes.

Due to all the drama I ended up going for a run very late in the afternoon. Came back and finished off yesterday’s Japanese lesson. Quite a lot of it is making sense now, but I do need to keep running through my flash-cards, otherwise I’m pretty terrible at forgetting the words. Ate salad and then it was off to the cinema to see ‘Wreck-It Ralph’. Well, it was okay, at a push. The first twenty minutes or so was fine, then it all got a bit boring and started looking at my watch. I tried to find all the Sonic references, I missed all of them, Jamie spotted them all. They could have done more with it. The trailer film at the beginning about the paper planes was probably better. Still, it was an evening out, on Valentines day. Oh yes, I failed to get Jamie a car. He got be a card, a singing teddy bear and rose petals. I ended up printing out a ‘Tesco Value’ Valentines card. It’s the thought that counts.

All torque and no trousers

Woke up at about 6:15 so couldn’t be assed to sleep for ten minutes so got up and got the dog ready. Dropped her off at daycare, was back by 6:50. Didn’t get up until 10 then.

Today I was mostly working on physics type maths stuff. Which is fun but complex. All torque curves and braking curves, coefficients and inertia’s. At the end of the day I have a pretty ‘animated spreadsheet’, which is great for me as I like numbers, but not too pretty for anyone else who actually wants to see something visual. Anyway, a long way to go on that, but made a pretty good start anyway. I now understand more about it than I did yesterday, which is always a good sign, plus I think I can say ‘I had fun’, which is always a plus.

Didn’t go running outside today as the weather really was bloody miserable, raining and freezing cold plus a massive head wind. So instead as I finished a bit earlier by working right through lunch I went to the gym for a run instead. Came back and carried on with my Japanese lessons. It’s getting there, but it’s certainly more than five minutes work.

We are apparently going to the cinema tomorrow, so I may do the torture porn thing tonight instead. Anyway, time for salad.

Then she jet-washed my gums

So started on time and basically spent the morning setting up a new project, which considering the amount of baggage and libraries required plus all the platforms takes quite a bit of time. Can’t announce what the project is as usual but this is quite an interesting one and could potentially be quite good.

Went out for an early run, so I could get back and have a shower. Then it was the case of chasing across town to avoid all the traffic. Problem is there wasn’t actually any which was very surprising. So spent about half hour in the dentist waiting room reading a Japanese phrase book. Then the hygienist came and collected me and spent the next half hour with a mini jet-wash and blasted the fuck out of my gums. I now have a very sore mouth, but the upper row of my teeth is no longer aching, also it’s no longer squeaking, which was to be honest a pretty odd feeling. I then crossed town again at just gone 6PM. Again no traffic. Carried on working, adding a few more bits, mainly still set-up stuff. Worked to early evening, then did another Japanese lesson on-line. Going well, lots of flash cards done. Also the grammar lessons are very interesting, a lot more of it makes sense this time round. I’m now aware of what the hell I was saying. Also I’m trying to pick up a lot of the script as well, hopefully that will just sink in. Got a few months to learn it all.

Had salad. Watched the last episode of ‘Lewis’, I thought they stretch that out a bit longer than the seven seasons, but I guess Kevin Whatley is now older than Morse was. Also James Fox was in the same scene as his dad which was a nice touch. That only really leaves ‘Mid Somer Murder’s’ left now.

Think I’ll have some cheese. After all it’s pancake day.

Still learning Japanese (again)

So started this morning fixing up a couple of Android issues on the current project. Spent quite a long time hunting for a crash bug. Found it in the end. We’ve decided not to do any further work on the concept game after everyone who’d tried it decided it actually wasn’t a very interesting game. This happens, quite often in the industry. What you think is a great game concept on paper, may just not work and make an interesting game. It’s nothing to get annoyed or upset about, but best to spot these things early on. You can always reuse bits and pieces of it to limit the amount of time wasted. Still, new upcoming project is a real real big one if it goes ahead properly, a hell of a lot of work, but very interesting.

Walked the dog. We had a nice long walk today as she needs to lose a bit of weight (don’t we all). Finally booked a hygienist appointment at the dentist. Had to lie a bit about my last check-up date, no doubt they will moan somewhat about that tomorrow. I will then probably have to go back later next week and spend a bloody fortune.

Did Body Combat, no Sarah tonight as she has a cold. I try not to do colds. Did some more work, more tidying up Android. Then did some more Japanese course work stuff. It’s coming on, lots of flash cards, it will come.

I thought I’d walk 10 miles in the rain, so I did

Day started slowly, I had no real plans, so was in no real hurry. Had breakfast, had sex, read a book on Tokyo. Finally got up and had lunch. See, I did say it was a slow day…

After lunch I did the the dog shit run, then decided as it was horribly cold and drizzling that wouldn’t it be good to walk ten miles. So off I went and walked to doggy daycare (without the dog) and back. I know it’s pretty much exactly ten miles. I know how long it takes now as well, if you want to know then walk there yourself.

Came back, changed socks. Did the first lesson of my Japanese language course again as I now have my blank flash cards, so wrote them all out. I’ve added the Japanese script as well, I have no real plans to learn it yet, but some of it may sink in for certain words making things a bit easier. I will attempt to do one lesson a day and see how I get on after all when I was in Japan about fifteen years ago I could speak Japanese fairly fluently providing it wasn’t going into any great depth (discussing the beer being watery was fine, discussing the intricacies of particle physics was a bit out of my league). A Lot of it is coming back to me, but as usual with age more falls out than goes in (a bit like hair). Jamie is learning as well but using a different course, he has one which is more of a ‘tape’ type thing on his phone. It’ll be fun anyway.

Right, I’m going to have a bath now, followed by a posh dinner, well it’s ‘Tesco’s Finest Range’ anyway. It’s chicken, so probably about 90% horse then.

Today I failed to do anything really constructive

Ended up getting up later than I’d planned due to dozing off and having one of my Saturday morning dodgy dreams. I remember there being lots of naked people but that was about it. Went to Tesco’s, Jamie had failed to give me his shopping list, so has no food.

Came back, walked the dog had lunch. Drove to outside town, parked up. Walked to Maplin, picked up some blank Blu Ray discs, want to archive a couple of bits off the PVR. Walked into town, picked up some new phones for mother. Drove to mothers, installed new phones, listen to her talk about herself for a bit. Came back home and did the accounts. Now I’m not going to have a bath (so no need for wine), will have a shower instead and then cook a curry. Tomorrow I’m sure will be full of excitement. Probably not though.

Today I learnt Kanji (Well not all of them)

Last night to stop my heart palpitations I drank a considerable quantity of wine and ended up going to bed fairly late. This cure the heart problem, however it did give me a hell of a headache this morning. So this mornings productivity wasn’t particularly high. So I went through a few videos on more course on ‘Kanji’, ended up learning about thirty of them. All useful ones like in/out, stop, including tax and the sort of things you see on signs.

Walked the dog. Came back and did some work, today was mostly on Android stuff, had a lot of loose ends to tie up. Did Body Pump. Came back and did a load more work to make up for this mornings loss. Still have a few more Android things to sort out but it’s getting there. I think I’m going to have a bath now, but for once I’m going to skip the wine. Talking of wine, the brewing is going well. Well the Red is certainly bubbling away, about one big bubble a second. The white however is refusing to bubble at all, it’s fizzing gently in the bucket, but no major gas output. I’ll keep an eye on it.