Yet another bloody day on this compute shader. Still not working, but slightly wiser as to why. Have another bug to sort out now though. One for tomorrow that. Had to wait for a courier so Sasha only got half hour today. I’ve decided to eBay a load of stuff, so if you are reading this then this lot is going cheap, to the point of if it doesn’t sell it’s going in a skip. The original cost of this lot is about five grand. Anyway, a pair of Tannoy DC2000 speakers, big floor standers, in okay condition and perfect working order. A pair of Celestion bookshelf speakers. A Jamo centre 100 speaker. Topfield PVR. A high end Denon multi-region DVD player which also does WMA/MP4 and other formats. A DVD/Video combo recorder. A high end tape deck. A Pioneer THX RDS A/V amp. This beast is about 120 watts per channel and cost over two grand originally. A nice A/V cabinet with smoked glass doors and a TV unit, just over a meter long. Also a Sony Blu-ray player. All going, if I get no bids they will all get chucked. Forgot one, a Yamaha subwoofer. So if anyone wants anything then leave me a message.

Went out this evening for a walk, turned into a bit of a two and a half hour marathon. Had a shower. Torture porn night.

This trip we are planning on taking just happens to coincide with the Monaco Grand Prix, that really was purely luck. So we either try and be somewhere else that weekend, or try and be there. It would be rude not to really wouldn’t it.

Got up at 6:20 and took Sasha to daycare. Went back to bed. Spent the entire day on this compute shader again and still got bloody nowhere. Cleaners came, I went out for my walk. Then went, I picked up Sasha. Did more work. Then went to Pump. Came back and did a couple more hours, it’s all very odd. Oh, my presentation has been approved. I have to do a half hour spot talking to probably the best 500 developers in Europe, an interesting challenge. Need to get a new TV stand so that everything fits. Can’t find one I like (yet). Don’t think I will hit my target weight tomorrow.

Spent all bloody day on that compute shader again, still not getting anywhere with it. Walked Sasha for an hour and then did a walk this evening as well. Not sure I’m going to hit the target weight this week. Managed to do another two hours of studying on meteorology. Spent the rest of the evening staring at speakers. I think these Tannoy’s need to go. They are very old and don’t really work well on the sound stage. Got my eye on a decent set, but with the amp that’s going to be about £1400. Was looking at side and ceiling speakers, but it’s all such a faff I think I’ll stick with 5.1. Jamie has decided there aren’t enough pay days before holiday time, so we won’t be going anywhere I expect. I’ll probably block book a number of flying hours instead and build the time up. (And before you think, oh why don’t you pay for all of it, in reality it would cost me somewhere close to seven grand for two weeks somewhere I’ve been to about five times already.) We may look at Europe instead as the Euro is pretty good at the moment. Maybe EuroDisney and some time in the south of France would be good.

I don’t think the floor approved of all my cutting and drilling. I woke up this morning feeling like I’d been in a car wreck. My shoulders physically hurt and I was covered in bruises. Still, got up and cracked on. Standard Monday, couldn’t really get into much. Walked Sasha for an hour. Did a bit more. Went to the gym and did Combat, which wasn’t great when body parts didn’t want to work and I was knackered. Forgot my towel for some reason so couldn’t have a shower at the gym. Came back and did a couple of hours decent work on a compute shader. Had a shower. Ate salad. I’ve decided to set myself weekly weight loss goals, weigh in day is Thursday. If I’m not at the target weight then no alcohol for the rest of the week. Is that a reward or punishment? See how it goes.

So started quit early, decided to get the first lot of exercise out of the way, so took Sasha out for an hour. Came back and cracked on. Moved the telly out of the way and picked an arbitrary strip of wooden floor to saw through. Once that was up I could see where the nails were for a beam so sawed through just to the side of them. Got the square out fairly easily. Had a peek through the hole…. Thankfully there was a small gap between the bottom of the beams and the foundations, or hard core, or basically junk. So then moved the bookcase and sawed a nice square out of the stud wall between a couple of joists. Then drilled down with a hole cutter. This was going weird as I appeared to be getting shards of metal. It wasn’t until I’d completely knackered the hole cutter that I realised I’d been drilling through a nail. Drilled more holes, this time thankfully they went right through. Chiselled through the holes and managed to remove the dodgy nail and left a nice gap downwards. Now the fun part. I poked some speaker cable down the hole with various loops held together with cable ties. I then broke up a coat hanger and jammed that on the end of a couple of lengths of tile beading. Then shoved that under the floor. Spent the best part of an hour getting nowhere.

Picked up the dog poo, then walked to Iceland (the freezer place, not the country). Got my second hour of exercise in. Had lunch. Then back to fishing. There was something which looked solid very near where I’d drilled the hole. I thought it was the gas pipe. But it can’t be, as after much more thrusting it’s vanished. I assume it was just a bit of broken wood that had come free from my endless banging above. Made a modified hook with more coat hanger. Went for a three pronged approach. Managed to get it stuck several times, hook various pieces of wood and stones. Eventually I got the hang of it, with various thrusting and twisting and snared the wire. Gently pulled it through. Then it was just a case of pulling through the hdmi and network cables. Fitted the speaker wall plate. Put another hole in the floor to bring the cables through. I still have the other side to do for the speaker cable, and that’s a lot further away. Job for next time. Put all the boards back and screwed them down for the moment. It’ll all need caulking and sealing properly, then a good dose of filler. Still, a fairly successful day. Had bath. Now time for the Grand Prix highlights and a well deserved glass of wine I think.

Started this morning with coffee and cereal, plus the final lot of Aloe Vera, just to kill it off. Actually weighed the cereal, it said a ‘serving’ was 30g, no bloody way, so went for 60g. Go up fairly sharpish and walked Sasha for an hour. Then visited mother, her laptop had login problems. I did sort it out fairly quickly (to be fair, it wasn’t actually caused by anything she had done). She did do the right thing and keep her gob shut during the process. I say keep her gob shut, but she spent most of her time coughing after eating an Easter biscuit, I declined, too much cinnamon is never a good thing. She did say it was mothers day tomorrow and she needed a new gate, I declined to comment on both items. I did come out with a plank of wood though, need that for a future project.

Came back and ate salad for lunch. Then drove towards town, parked up and was dying for a pee again, that’s two weeks in a row now. Went in Richer Sounds and picked up some speaker cable. Then went in Sainsbury’s and used their loo. Walked into town, went in one shop and walked right back out again. Stopped off in Tool Station and picked up supplies, including 1,000 drywall screws. I only need about 6, still, always good to have spares.

Came back and did the accounts. Jamie turned up and asked if I’d pissed in the air freshener thing as it seems to have ‘refilled’. I said I’d just topped it up with water, believe that if you like….

Was about to have a shower and Jamie was running the bath, so ended up in the bath with him. He had some dreadful podcast bollocks going on, so finished off a magazine.

So tomorrow I have to saw through a floor, two stud walls and attempt to fish cables through. Should all be very exciting.

So drank last night, but not much, probably ate more than I should though, need to watch that. Work was all about this compute shader for lighting which at the very end of the day I finally got working to a point. There is something weird going on with the broad phase culling. It looks like a depth meta data cache problem, but can’t work out what yet. Walked Sasha for an hour then did another hours walk early evening. Done the washing, downed almost two pints of water, which now means I can down two pints of lager. Trying out new pizza tonight, it better be good.

Today was very much a bit of a depressing one. Work is all going crazy for all the wrong reasons, so I won’t dwell on it. I’m just trying to avoid everything at the moment. Got something fun to play with over the next couple of days though. Took Dillon to daycare at 6:20. Took Sasha o vet at 9:40. Started work at just gone 10. Walked Sasha at lunchtime, then picked up Dillon again. Did a bit more then went to Pump. Still working on my arms. Still on the Aloe Vera, I reckon I can get about two more days out of that pot. One more shake left as well. So tomorrow I turn the booze fridges back on. I won’t actually drink anything until past midnight tomorrow, and then I don’t plan on having much anyway. Played around with PhotoShop and tried to come up with a tattoo design. It involved helicopters and Pokemon.

So Singapore is out then, decided it was the size of Bristol but with the population of India. Plus the flight is a bit too long haul. I think we’ve found a solution to suit everybody, Orlando and Miami. And because we are awkward we’ll do it backwards and go to Miami first. Anyway, lets see how it goes. Work day was pretty much all one bug, which stemmed back to some code from around 2006. Still, fixed now. Management annoyed me yet again. May look for somewhere different now, end of project, I’ve been there eight years.

So that’s the end of ‘Cleanse 9’. I’ve still got some Aloe Vera left, so it will become ‘Clean 11’ by the time I’ve finished. Lost around eight pounds. Was hoping to get under ten stone, almost but not quite. Still, I will continue for the foreseeable future on a reduced calorie diet and keep the two hours of exercise a day up. Hopefully then I’ll lose the stone I wanted to eventually.