There is nothing quite like cattle class on First Great Western when the air-con has broken down

So this morning started far too early at around 6:45AM. The dogs thought they were going to daycare, they were so wrong. I had a coffee, rebooted and then headed to Parkway station. Since they’ve built the new car park, parking is now a breeze. Collected tickets, got on train which was bang on time. Journey was fine, I read a magazine. It was the express, so only had one stop before London. The ticket was almost a hundred quid and there were eight people on the carriage. There is something very wrong with the train system. Got on the tube, made it to the office by 9:30. I can’t go into detail, but lets just say, people turned up, but it took a good hour to get the PC and console all up and running which was a little embarrassing. But I did have plenty of questions to fill the time with. Thankfully it all worked in the end though and we were able to carry out various profiles. There was supposed to be another meeting in the afternoon but that got canceled, so we ended up going out for lunch. Time was rolling on, I pegged it back to London Bridge and then back to Paddington. I missed the bloody 15:45, so grabbed a ticket for the 16:15. Sat on the loo for twenty minutes (I paid my 30p, I wanted to get my monies worth). Then headed straight for the train. Sat in coach ‘B’. It soon packed out, so there was standing room only. It was getting rather hot. The air-con in the carriage had broken down. I then spent the next hour and a half in a sauna. Got to Parkway at 6PM. Pump starts at 6:10. I’d already sent a text to Laverne saying I would be late. So hammered it back home, let the dogs out and then headed to the gym. I got there halfway through the back track, so I’d missed the warm up, squats and cheats. Afterwards we had a private session, I lifted some fucking heavy weights. Good to see the body is getting back in shape after the holiday. I’ll keep doing weekly sessions again now with Laverne, you do feel really good afterwards.

So yes, the entire day basically was taken up with two train journeys and a meeting. How the hell people can commute daily to London from Bristol I will never know. It’s a) Very expensive and b) Very unpleasant.

No idea what I’m doing tomorrow yet. Sunday I’m going flying for the first time in ages. Don’t have my usual instructor, he’s off on his hols.

They think it’s all over, I’m not sure it ever started

So I woke up this morning with a bit of a head. Got on with work. I had this bizarre idea about implementing temporal coherence, so I did. It worked. I’m now hailed as some kind of god again. Rest of the day was rather frustrating about setting up a machine for tomorrows meeting. Walked the dogs. By the tim I’d finished work it was really too late to do anything. So went for a run and then watched the second half of the football. Watched England be defeated by Uruguay. We were outclassed. It’s all over now for this world cup. Up early tomorrow to travel to London.

Who the hell has a BBQ on a Tuesday anyway?

So yesterday was pretty run of the mill. Did a lot of GPU profiling. Went running twice, once at lunchtime and then early evening. I then headed out to pick Lisa and Andy up. I left Jamie in charge of the BBQ which had six foot flames erupting from it due to the addition of a wine glass full of white spirit. We had an evening which slowly descended into debauchery and very loud singing. My neighbours must have been impressed. It then ended up in the dining room, playing pac man on the arcade cabinet. They walked home at about 1AM, we went to bed.

Dillon didn’t go to daycare this morning. I was a little bit hanging, must be said. Skipped breakfast and went straight for three rounds of coffee. Then I implemented FXAA antialiasing. Still looks a bit dodgy in places, will play around with a few bits. Really need to sort out specular aliasing issues.

Went to the gym and did Pump. I think I’m pretty much on the money now as far as the weights are concerned. I couldn’t get the plates for the ones I wanted, so ended up going higher than planned. Nothing went bang and my arms still work, so will stick with those for the next couple of weeks.

Read lots of papers about antialiasing. I have a very dull life sometimes. It’s very hot.

Stand with your left leg forward, your left leg, left leg

Didn’t start too badly considering. This week is all about GPU profiling. Oh the fun. Actually it’s very interesting. You end up producing a huge amount of data, which you have to stare at and then see if you can do anything about it. So far, so good. Found some fairly easy low hanging fruit which I’ve started to tackle. A lot more analysis to go and no doubt quite a few upcoming changes. We have a meeting with dev support the end of the week, so try and get as much in by then as possible.

Walked the dogs. Went to Body Combat. I felt pretty into it tonight and gave it a bloody good go. They was a new guy behind me, who did the entire thing on one side, no matter how much Liz shouted at him, he just stood there. Money says he won’t be back. Came back and did some more work. Got fast depth clears working, needs tidying up now. There are a couple of other oddities which I need to work out what it is.

Having a BBQ tomorrow, on a Tuesday? Yes, not my idea.

I’m standing there holding a dagger and then a man on a horse suddenly comes along

So this morning didn’t start too badly. Awoke fairly early. Jamie went out to get his hair done (poof), I got up and started relinking all the holiday videos after a bit of a cock-up with Final Cut Pro. Managed to find a little program that helped with converting links back to the original files and happily donated the $4 requested for it. It was all sorted after an hour. Had a quick lunch of boiled eggs then ventured out.

So the target was fourteen caches to take me up to two hundred. I’d allocated five hours. I was doing the ‘Father Ted’ series which seems quite appropriate for fathers day. I did three last week before the heavens opened. There were eighteen in the series. There were a few I didn’t find. So with two and a half hours to go I was four short. So then had to relocate by foot a mile or so away into a wood. Didn’t find the first couple then had a bit of a run. Found two in quick succession. Then #199 I found up against a rusty metal gate post. It was a wooden dagger with the log shoved in the end. While I was trying to get the log out a man came along on horse back. I just stood there, smiled and waved the bloody thing in the air…he trotted off. Number two hundred was just down the road. On the way back to the car I actually found another three.

Came home, moved over the last of the videos and logged all the finds. Added about three more hotel reviews from the trip and had a bath. A good day really. Weather was kind. The only thing I’m really suffering from now is bad chaffing in the taint region. I think it’s just a combination of heavy shorts and heat. I’ve put some moisturiser on it.

I watched the football, it was shit

Woke up far too early this morning. Phone still hadn’t been ported. Got straight on to O2 yet again. Did all the standard bullshit, “Oh, it won’t be done now until Monday because systems don’t work weekends.” I did negotiate returning the damn phone at no cost and cancelling the contract so they could shove it up their ass. The guy reassured me that I should wait until Monday.

Walked the dogs. Came back and low and behold the original phone no longer had a service. Got hold of O2 again. Apparently the ‘concern team’ had got hold of it, contacted Tesco mobile and sorted the bloody thing out. After a reboot of the new phone all was good, everything worked. Wankers. Range captain James. Apparently he was in a clinic in California as his wife was ill. I let him get on with it. Booked into Heliflight next weekend with Stuart. Can’t fly with Candia as she will probably do my test.

Shot a new video, it’s all about motorway service stations.

Had toast. Headed out to sort of Seamills area. Parked up. Then spent the next five hours geocaching. I wanted to get ten, I think I got eight. Which means if I want to hit two hundred tomorrow I need to get fourteen, which is one hell of a challenge. Came back. Got pissed off with FCPX again for fucking up a data copy. It’s all sortable, but just a pain in the ass.

Made curry. Watched the football. England were crap. I hate football. Roll on the next game.

It’s so hot I could do crotch pot cookery

So this morning started with Carl complaining about a hangover. He only had one bottle of wine, bloody lightweight. I had breakfast, he drank tea then vanished in a taxi. Later that day he was seen on Brighton beach.

I started work fairly early. It was one of those data syncing and waiting forever days. Still all got done in the end, together with a new mutex system. All checked in. Have to visit anti-aliasing again next week, that’ll be joyous fun.

Went for a run. Which wasn’t a great idea considering the heat. I went to Pump as well. Didn’t do a session afterwards, just too knackered, but did put a good effort in.

Came back and finished off work. Now going to hang the clothes up and irritate O2 again before having pizza.

I had a lager drink, followed by a lager drink, followed by several more

Still working on a lock free task manager thing, which I pretty much got to the bottom of. Walked the dogs lunchtime. Early evening I drove over to Filton and did four geocaches. I then met up with my old friend Carl at the pub down the road. We then sat there for three hours and drank heavily. I got through six pints, he cleared of a bottle of wine and a brandy. We then came back here and killed off another bottle of wine. He slept in the guest room. This morning we both kind of felt rather rough.

So everyone at O2 is called Wayne?

Slept pretty well last night for once. Got up at 6:30, took Sasha to daycare. Worked pretty solid all day on this damn render task manager. Got it working perfectly on my console, but on the PC it’s just doing really weird shit, almost like it’s shafting the 64bit atomic. Didn’t finish on it until gone eleven, will battle on with it again in the morning.

Took Dillon out for a run, he isn’t a runner. Still it knackered him out. Picked up Sasha. Went to Pump. Came back and did more work. Got in touch with O2 again, as still my number hasn’t been ported properly. Spoke to ‘Wayne’, followed by ‘Lisa’, now this is the 3rd ‘Wayne’ I’ve spoken to. Now when I got them to track through the records, ‘Lisa’ said, “Oh Yes, Riyva put it through again yesterday”. Right, so not fucking ‘Wayne’ then. I’m sure these Indian call centres just invent a new random name every time you open the chat window.

Just eaton, must be time for bed. I’m planning on meeting up with Carl again tomorrow.

Seventy five to go

So didn’t sleep again, got overheated then spent a few hours in the spare room as it’s just cooler. Working on a rather tricky bit of code today, all to do with lock free programming. It’s actually a very interesting, if very frustrating challenge. I did leave it at the point today where I have some interesting bits to do tomorrow.

Went for a run. Weather was nice during this, if a bit windy. Phone number was meant to be ported to now phone today, didn’t happen. But I can no longer send text messages on the old one (Did try and reply to you…couldn’t send…) Hopefully it will get sorted, I’m getting pissed off with having online conversations with ‘Wayne’ in an Indian call centre.

Went out in the evening over to Winterbourne, there were a series of caches there I attempted about a year ago. This time I found them all. A couple I was up to my neck and horse shit though, plus it was pissing down. Still got me out of the house. Came back. Jamie is off bumming Callum at Nando’s. Started watching the Canadian Grand Prix, think I’ll go to bed an attempt sleep. Sasha at daycare tomorrow again, should be Dillon, but cleaners are coming tomorrow.