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.

This morning started at almost normal time, well normal for me. It was milestone build day, so I was sat in a chat room with about fifteen people all panicking. I got my build uploaded and working with a whole six minutes to spare, I really don’t know what all the stress is about.

Jamie went out with Tyrion to eat, I’m sure he played with his broad sword.

After about five years of having my car with really annoyingly loud wiper blades I bought some new ones off Amazon. After about twenty minutes I worked out how to fit them. I then spent ten minutes inside the car listening to the silence as they swished by.

I had a bath, a glass a wine and classic FM. I was listening to Rachmaninoff’s piano concerto No.2 (The one in brief encounter, see I can be quite cultured when I’ not being an ass). I was thinking that may be fifty would be a good time to call it quits. I mean, that gives me eight years and a few odds to complete everything I want to do and to visit everywhere I want to go. For instance I’ve never woken up and thought “Fuck, I really need to go to Norway” or “The one thing I really must do is go hang-gliding over the Himalayas”. I think eight years may be enough. I may even get a couple more rooms decorated. I don’t want to get to a pensionable age and suddenly realise I don’t actually have a pension. I don’t want to sit there and wonder if I can afford a box of Ritz crackers. I don’t want the only highlight of my week to be the postman arriving delivering a Kim & Co. gimp suit from QVC. I don’t want to sit and drown in my own bile.

It would make an interesting YouTube video. Don’t think it could be done though, how could you video dying and then upload it? It would require some dodgy scripting and you just know that will fuck up. How about twitter? That would be cool. But you just know at the ultimate moment, some cunt in a lorry will drive over a man hole cover, the phone lines will jump and your connection will drop, fifty years will be completely pointless because you couldn’t tweet ‘That’s all folks’ at the exact second.

May be I’m just in one of those moods. But don’t worry I won’t shuffle off the mortal coil without righting a few wrongs along the way. There are a few people I need to take out first, you know who you are, and I’m coming to get you.

I was thinking of doing a new YouTube video, which will consist of me, a rolling camera on mains power and a memory card that can hold about three hours. I’ll then just sit there and consume two bottles of wine. It may be an Oscar wining performance or totally shit, but either way, it could be very revealing.

Still got a bit of a cold, hopefully in the recovery phase now, want to get back to the gym and normality.

Yesterday I woke up and felt like complete shit. I didn’t get up at all. I think I had breakfast at about midday. Work was right out. I ended up staying in bed all day and just reading a book. If I moved from the bed I felt awful. I did get up in the evening and have a shower, watched a bit of telly.

This morning I still wasn’t great, so didn’t get up until about 3. Did some work in the afternoon and evening. Slowly beginning to feel more normal now. It’s now almost midnight, just eaten. I’ll relax a bit then go to bed. It’s daycare day tomorrow, but the cars out of petrol and I doubt I’ll be much in the mood, so Dillon will have to stay in. Need to do milestone builds tomorrow which aren’t the most exciting, but will require little interaction.

I’m reading an odd book at the moment, ‘The Wasp Factory’, can’t remember who it’s by, but it’s strange. About a boy who had his genitals bitten off by a dog. Just over halfway through.

Anyway, time for self promotion, follow me on twitter @mannmansion and don’t forget the new YouTube channel mannmansion.

So today started mainly in bed and continued there for quite some time. I’ve got a bit of a cold, so wasn’t too bothered about getting up. Got up half way through Elaine Paige. Started on the carpet tiles. Realised that I didn’t have enough of them so had to pop to B&Q again. Came back and laid them all. I’m sure the bloody dog will dig them up again.

Retired to my lair and finished editing my third YouTube video. Yes, I actually edited it. It was good fun, not sure I’ll do any more soon but I enjoyed it and it made a nice change. Jamie I’m sure hates it’s and would like to crawl into a small hole and die, so I guess there are some advantages. Anyway, check out my masterpiece here.

I’m going to have a bath, followed by chicken. Probably wine. No, definitely wine.