So this mornings lie-in was rudely interrupted by the shopping arriving early. I book an 11-12 slot for a reason, not to be delivered at 10:40. And oh, deliver it to the house of the dot com manager person as well. Tsk. Anyway, Jamie got up and dealt with it. I progressed to coffee and breakfast. Then on to work. Still on tools as my new PC has been delayed yet again. Went pretty well actually. At lunch time it was time to take the dogs out. It’s been very cloudy all day, but also very warm. I harnessed them all up and Jamie lumbered off the bed. Goes in the cupboard and finds one shoe. Then starts looking for the other one, which he eventually finds under the bed. Now how the fuck did that happen? Did he come in one day and remove the single shoe, then hop upstairs and chuck the other one under the bed? Fuck knows. Dogs had a nice long walk anyway. Ate salad. Did more work. Still looked very gloomy but walked to the gym. Did Pump. Walked home in a very light drizzle, it was quite pleasant actually. Got home. Removed DirectX 9 from trunk, a pleasure I’ve been waiting for for a very long time. We no longer support technology from 2012.

Pizza time. Not a bad week, must be said.

For some reason Jamie must have been very bored as he tossed me off this morning, may be he just needs to ‘woo’ me more. Back on tools. An animation viewer thing. Very frustrating pain in the ass. Walked Dillon and Sasha. Both were good. Managed to get out this evening, it was very very warm. Walked up to a cache at the top of Filton that was a DNF the first time, this time found in about ten seconds. Then walked back via an alternate route, which was longer, but nice evening. Did a tad more work, got this bloody thing working. Nearest caches are now well over an hours walk away. Dropped a text to Captain James, weather not good over the weekend.

Started fairly fresh. Still on tools. Had an email about my new PC, it isn’t going to arrive this week which is rather annoying. Cleaners arrived and cleaned. I walked Dillon and Sasha, each on their own, but today they did the same distance. Ate salad, with cheese. Walked to the gym, did Pump, walked home. Did more work. Ate salad with cheese. Jamie has informed me that we are going to a wedding for three days at the end of the month, it’s probably not up the road then. We have an invite for Italy as well, somewhere else where we won’t be going. Fancy some cheese.

So spent the day working on tools again. Fairly successfully, I’m sure it will piss a few artists off, but that was probably intended. Walked Dillon, he’s getting better, almost to the point that he may have enjoyed it. Walked Sasha, she was upset that it wasn’t as long as normal, but the lunch hour remains the same, they have to share. Went out this evening, supposedly doing Geocahcing, parked up for the first one and got that. Then ended up walking a lot and getting nowhere. Drove all over the place and managed to get two more. Need to plan better really. Eaton too many sweets, and I really don’t eat sweets. I think Jamie wants sex, he’s shaved his bits and everything. I’m reading a good book at the moment.

Now ‘One Direction’ have said they will meet with the poor girl who had her leg chopped off. Which is very nice. But you can now just see countless teenage brats saying a knee for Neil, a toe for Liam or dare I say it, a leg for Louis. It would have been nice if they met her and kept quiet about it, rather than announce it, seems a bit of a publicity stunt.

So woke up fairly on time and got on with it. Doing tools programming again. I’ve got quite a bit of it to work now, well, it draws stuff and doesn’t crash. It doesn’t draw what it’s supposed to but never mind. Walked Dillon, weather he wanted to or not. Walked Sasha. Went to Combat, it was Nick again, his timing is still out. Ate salad. Lots of salad.

Now the Alton Towers situation. I seem to remember saying it would have quiet ‘re-opening’ and ‘The Smiler’ would be all cordoned off. Well, it opened again today, with the whole of the ‘x sector’ cordoned off. ‘The Smiler’ isn’t covered, but I believe HSE is still examining it. There were five serious injuries reported and one girl has had her leg amputated. Alton Towers has admitted full liability (I’m sure that will please their insurance company) and will pay compensation. My money is still on ‘The Smiler’ never opening again.

So started this morning with walking Dillon. He wasn’t overly keen but soon got the hang of it. Came back and swapped dogs. Was accosted by annoying local kids with, ‘What do you do?’, ‘What does your dad do?’, ‘Someone here works a Tesco’s’. God, when I was their age I was busy setting fire to old people, why don’t they just fuck off. Had lunch. Then drove out over towards Westerleigh, spent ages trying to find somewhere to park, then eventually just dumped it on the side of the road. Went out and spent three hours doing another twelve caches, that takes me up to 402. Going to have to go some to hit 500 this year. We had a Bbq this evening, just the four of us, very nice, if somewhat filling.

So this morning started with a brief coffee and then off to the vets with Dillon. The vet put a muzzle on Dill’s, as she thought he may get bait snappy, didn’t move a muscle. Came back and then took Sasha for her walk. I then went to mothers, on the pre tense to mend her lamp, but really I wanted her garden shredder. Said, shredder was picked up. I also pumped up her tyres and listened to her moan. Had lunch. Was thinking about going out but time was getting on. Shredder conked out as soon as it was powered on, so needed some TLC before I could use it. In the end, worked very well and the garden is now clear of piles of shit. Had shower. Picked Sarah and Shaun up. We’d already drank a shitload before the pizza arrived and then ate a shitload before we sat down for the film. Sarah chose ‘Pulp Fiction’ which is a bit of a classic. I hadn’t watched it in ten years. It’s an odd one. I think it takes several views before you really ‘get it’. It’s also a hell of a long one at just under two and a half hours. It was all very cosy on the couch, but good fun had by all. We’ll do it again some time, but may be with something perhaps a little more light hearted.

So this morning started with a bit of a blur, but it was hot, so a great excuse for three mugs of coffee. Anyway, work wise I’m still a bit underpowered thanks to hardware failures so needed to get on with something. Had a vast discussion about light mapping, it’s a very dull subject. Then fixed a couple of minor things for someone who had only waited two years for them. Then I had to venture into some tools stuff. Not my normal area, but we want to get shot of DX9, so all the tools have to work in DX11. So the fun job of converting them all, or at least starting on it as I can no longer build for console has fallen to me. It was all going fairly fine until I came across an odd concept in DX9 where you can do the present with a window handle override. On DX11 this doesn’t exist, so you have to create a swap chain for each window handle. Oh the joy. You don’t get this shit on consoles, they don’t have any bloody windows.

Walked Sasha, at the only point in the day it rained. Walked to the gym, did Pump, walked home again, did more work. Did the washing. Oh the normality of it all.

Who thought all those years ago (okay, less than 3) I would be bothered to actually write something dull and tedious about my life, almost everyday. Well you’re reading it, so get over yourself.

Had a hell of a mucus problem this morning, I mean both nostrils were absolutely full. After a good blowing session I felt considerably better but now had sinus pain. Still, rather have that than no ability the breath. Good news is the cough has subsided and apart from a bit of pain pretty much everything else is back to normal.

Work is a pain at the moment as I’ve lost most of my main PC down to various hardware failures, so it’s pretty slow going. Thankfully only had one bug to look at so wasn’t too bad. Then had a look at various lighting solutions for another project. My wonderful presentation video is now available on a certain manufacturers web site. Sorry, thanks to very heavy NDA the stuff, that’s very much where it will stay, unless you are a registered developer.

Have ordered (well, I didn’t, I have ‘people’ you know) my new work PC. I7 4Ghz, 512GB PCIe boot drive, 1TB SSD, 2X4TB data drives, 16GB RAM, twin 980GTX. Apparently it’s great for editing text and compiling, which is all I’ll ever use it for.

It’s been very hot today, which to be honest has made a nice bloody change.

Anyway, here’s to another 1,000.

So started with a bug, and a cough, they were not related. The bug wasn’t very interesting, but led on to something more interesting. The good news is the weather has substantially improved, so Sasha got a nice log walk. Went to Pump, came back and did a couple more hours work. All bugs now shot.

So continuing on from yesterdays drivel. Apparently someone has lost a leg, although that’s not confirmed. The names of a couple of people have been released, they had fairly serious injuries. So some additional information, from what I can gather, although it’s still not exactly clear. The empty car was stalled at the bottom of a loop (although in some reports it was held at the top of one, although I really can’t see how), the other car was then released some minutes later and ploughed right into the back of it. The only way I can see that happen is if the system was reset after the empty car was already stuck. The system would then forget that there was any car con track. If the alternative had happened and the empty car was at a holding point then the full one would have ploughed into it full speed and the brake would have held making it a lot worse. I can’t see that happening though as there’s no way the sensors would allow a braked car and a full one on the same track section. I still think it’s a human override doing something they shouldn’t.

So where does it leave the park? Well depends who you ask. Most analysts are saying ‘Seven day wonder’. That no one will care a jot next week, ride will open and it will be forgotten. Park was closed today and is closed again tomorrow. Now here’s my take on it. I’m going to be a bit more pessimistic. I’m going to say it’s not going to open again until Monday, where there will be more of a ‘soft’ opening. By this time, ‘The Smiler’ will be covered in a shroud, the same sort of thing that was around it when it was built. Then it will be several months while Health & Safety Executive, the ride manufacturers and no doubt several private investigation companies paid for by very expensive lawyers carry out their various tests and examinations on the coaster. As well no doubt, countless interviews with operating staff, mechanics and witnesses. Then during the winter closure it will all be taken down and scrapped. Why? Well, the ride cost £18 million. 16 people were injured, in what will probably turn out to be some combination of operator error and bad design. So 12 will get a million each as they may get a bad back in years to come. The four at the front have to be on for several million each. Plus costs, there will be an awful lot of costs. All these will have to be paid out by some insurance company. Then you end up with a bit of a problem, it can’t operate without insurance. Would you then go on to reinsure the same ride that you’ve just had to pay out about £40 million on? I don’t think ‘The Smiler’, will ever sadly be smiling again. Hopefully I’m very wrong, everyone will settle for a season ticket and the lady will grow a new leg.