Started the morning at a fairly sensible time and pretty much cracked straight on. Which is pretty good for a Monday. Working on shader stuff still, but this time it’s the code side of it, which is a mot more interesting. Got a lot done, doesn’t work yet, but there is an end in sight.

Walked the dogs, it’s bloody freezing. Even in the office it was cold.

Went to the gym and did combat. Came back and did a bit more work. Then it was back to video editing. I managed to achieve something fairly complex on Final Cut Pro then I couldn’t get jump cuts to work. I think it needs a few more hours work, enjoying it though, managed to crash it once.

Then I got my shiny shiny new toy out. Macbook Air. All setup with email and Final Cut Pro. Still can’t find a nice image editor. I’ve downloaded ‘Gimp’, will have a play with that. This thing is so thin and the battery appears to last forever. The keyboard however is an ass to type on if you have long index finger nails. Crack on again tomorrow.

So this morning was fairly typical of a Sunday. We slept in. Jamie got me breakfast, I read the paper. We failed to have sex.

Mother phoned, apparently she found (well she didn’t) an old 110V yellow transformer in her garage and asked if I wanted it. If not she says it’s worth about forty quid and she would sell it. Well that would just about cover the cost of some hideous box she just bought to stick books in. If she wants to buy a box, then why not get a body shaped one with handles. I didn’t reply, it’s Sunday, she got a few hours of my attention yesterday, about the same amount of time she gave me when I was five.

I then got up and fitted a new letter box to the front door. Thinking about it, why would you fit one anywhere else. Then I ripped up all the remaining hall carpet and binned it. Goodbye to a hundred quids worth of carpet tiles. I then got my chisels out. After watching a couple of videos about laminate flooring I decided to knock out a few bits around the door frames so the flooring can go under it. This should hopefully produce a better finish than trying to butt it up to the edges. Had lunch, boiled eggs. Jamie’s dad came round, was quite indifferent. I continued with the chiselling and managed to whack myself in the knee with the mallet. I picked up the dog poo.

I then decided as I was feeling more bloated than a hot air balloon it would be a great idea to go to the gym. Hour and twenty minutes on a treadmill. I can no longer walk.

Sat down and down the rough edit on my knew video (well it’s actually our new video as it has Jamie in it as well). That’s ready for the second stage of editing now. Think I’ll have a bath and then get the food on. A fun day, I’m glad I made the effort and got to the gym, feel slightly less fat now.

So this morning started with lots of sleeping. Followed by breakfast and a dog walk. Had lunch. Was going to go into town but it looked like the apocalypse was about to start so headed to B&Q instead. Spent ages looking at laminate flooring, this is what my life has come to. Finally spent about a hundred quid on three packs of the stuff together with all the tools.

Then visited my mother, first time I’ve seen her since Christmas. She’s still irritating.

Came come to find the dogs have chewed another floor tile. If they can eat laminate flooring I’ll be impressed. Can’t lay it yet as it has to ‘acclimatise’ for 72 hours. I’ll rip up the old carpet instead and do some preparation. Also have a new letter box to fit on the outside.

Done the accounts. Got our USA ESTA visas. Got Jamie a driving license. Think I’ll have a quick bath. I’m cooking tonight. Will hopefully edit my new video tomorrow.

This morning started later than it should with a panic about printing out a damn label to send a laptop back. Then the shopping arrived. Spent all day doing shaders again. Finally finished all the dull stuff. Added some code to the compiler which is about the most interesting thing I’ve done all week. Good news is that next week I can get on with the proper work, I’ve got a couple of extra ideas as well.

Went to the gym and did Pump. Laverne asked if I wanted to do half hour, I wasn’t really planning, but we were chatting so I took her up on the offer. I surprised myself about the amount of weight I’m now lifting after only a few sessions, also my back was a bit straighter. I think I could make these Friday extra sessions a bit more permanent if I’m seeing gains.

Laminate flooring this weekend. Oh the joy. Plus I have my video to edit.

Yesterday was fairly normal work wise. Very dull. Went to the gym and went for a run, haven’t done that in a long time. It’s full of posers, they will go by February. Came back and ate.

Then Jamie and I did something rather fun and rather different. We sat down on the couch with the dogs and made a YouTube video. It’s entitled ‘The boyfriend tag’, look up YouTube for similar. But basically I ask him ten questions about me and he asks ten questions about him. It took about an hour to film and was a good laugh. We split it into two. Jamie is going to edit his half on a PC using ULead and I’m going to edit my half on an iMac using Final Cut Pro X. It’ll be interesting to see the results. It’s a great video by the way, I really enjoyed making it.

Got up at 6:30 this morning and took Sasha to daycare. Went back to bed. Started reasonably early. Still working on shader constant parameters, but just before I was going to the gym there was a big panic about a test version we sent out. So went to the gym and then spent the rest of the evening sorting all that out.

Meanwhile, I got an email to say that the air-miles had been credited to my account. So as it was Jamie’s day off, I gave him my credit card. So fourteen hundred quid later we have a first class flight to LAX and a premium economy flight from NYC. It’s a three week gap. So now need to plan the journey. It’s going to be quite exciting. Thankfully the flight will be paid for this month, so I can do car hire and hotels over the next couple of months. Considering it’s three weeks, it shouldn’t actually work out too costly.

Off to Staverton tomorrow for my Class 2 medical.

Started at a reasonable time. Today was mainly lots of editing shader text files. Very dull, lots of typing. Walked the dogs. Went to Combat. I’ve been having an annoying headache all day. It went while I was at combat and has now come back again.

Jamie started a shared document where he put in all the places he wants to see. So I did the same. I then started to plot them on a Google map. A rough route is beginning to form. Need to add in a couple more places as at the moment so of the drives are about twelve hours and that’s a bloody long day. Most of the places seem to be gathered on the left and right, with not much in the middle. We will end up going partway through Wyoming and there’s fuck all in Wyoming.

Think I’ll have a early night and read a book.

So Saturday started off with a good lie-in. Then after feeding everyone I spent ages cruising web sites looking at DSLR camera reviews. I have an old Canon EOS400D, but that doesn’t shoot video. I was looking at the Canon 650D, but it’s been discontinued. So after lots of reviews I decided on the 700D. Also I found a shop in Bristol that was cheaper than Amazon.

Walked the dogs, miserable weather again. Popped into Tesco’s as they seem to be selling a load of stuff off cheap at the moment, didn’t get anything. Had lunch, then picked up some crickets. Then drove over to Cotham, parked up and walked into town. Picked up a couple of bits then started heading to camera shops. Had a ply around with the 700D. Ending up buying that and a 40mm F2.8 lens, got a good deal on it with cash back.

Came home and got straight on with the accounts. Had a shower and then picked up Sarah and Shaun. We spent the evening in the dining room chatting, eating pizza and playing with the arcade machine. Jamie had picked up some WiiU games cheap so we popped them on. There was a party one in which we had to do weird things like scoop up water and then carry it across the room. There was a another one where we had to do folk dancing round the controller. We really aren’t designed for folk dancing. It was great to play after a few beers.

This morning started with finally kicking Jamie out of bed to get me breakfast. We then had a fairly leisurely in bed. We kicked the dogs off the bed and did adult things. Got up. Set up the 700D, played around with the different lenses, the standard kit lens is an 18-55mm, this is a good starer lens. It has a usable zoom, with good image stabalisation and also a stepper motor for the auto focus. I then changed to the 40mm pancake lens and took a few test shots. Jamie eventually got up and we took the dogs to the field, they had a good runaround. Came back, did a home check for a couple of cats. Then played with the 40mm lens again. Took some fantastic shots of Jamie and the dogs, the depth of field on it is awesome. I did a test video but the auto focus is a bit noisy and the sound isn’t great, so need to play around with that a bit more.

We went to Frankie & Benny’s for dinner, very good, I was good and had chicken and pasta. Think I’ll have a bath, haven’t had one since Wednesday. Dirty bugger.

Work wise was a bit dull. Still working on shader constants. As it turns out the work I’ve been doing isn’t that effective and I need to redo it in a completely different way. Shit happens, it’s just one of those things, but until you do it, you just don’t know. Anyway, that’s now a job for next week, at least then I can attack it when I’m not ill.

Had a talk with the boss, sorted out my time off for my road trip. I’ve been with this company for seven years, so taking a bit of a career break wasn’t too much of a problem. While I was talking to him Jamie had his holiday confirmed at the same time.

So this is it then, we are going, the time is booked off. We have about three and a half weeks, Jamie has a month. We have a shit load of Tesco vouchers we are converting into air miles. We are flying first class. We are going to fly to LAX and then drive across the USA. We’ll then end up in NYC. I’ve got no bloody idea what we are going to see between the two apart from Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. May be able to get DC in or something, may be some theme parks.

It will be the ‘great American road trip’. I’m planning on vlogging the entire thing and editing it on the go. I’ve ordered a Macbook Air (shiny) to do the editing on. I’m looking at a Canon 650D to do the video on.

I was briefly happy.

We went and saw ‘Anchorman II’ at the cinema, it was fairly funny but a bit silly. Made a nice change though.

Pretty much back to normal work day today. Still a little bit blocked and coughing. Working on shader constants again, after some performance tests though it’s touch and go if it makes a great deal of difference.

Walked the dogs, after it eventually stopped raining for a bit. Went to the gym for the first time this week, all okay, so finally getting over this illness.

Thinking about getting a MacBook Air for our road trip, so I can do video editing on the move. It’s possible to do it on the iPad, but I think it would be quite painful. Will pop into an Apple store and peruse I think.