Work was delayed by an hour so I could have a lie in. Well I did get up at 6:20 to take Dillon to daycare. So started at 10. Spent a long time running CPU profiles, it ain’t the most exciting thing in the world, but quite productive. Jamie has the week off, so spent all morning in bed just like he’s done all week. He just managed to get up in time for the blind man to come. That’s a man who sells blinds, he didn’t turn up with a dog to tune my piano. Although I’ve never seen a dog tune a piano. I don’t even have a piano. Anyway, he turned up and moaned that he couldn’t measure anything as it wasn’t tiled yet. He seemed to have the idea that I wanted the blind inside the window box, which was something I never even considered. After I said that I wanted it outside he settled down and buggered off for some pattern books. By the time he’d measured everything we’d chosen the design. I think he was a bit shocked by the fact that I just don’t have time to piss about with these things. It was costing me more to stand their while he was pissing about with paperwork than the damn things cost. Oh they weren’t cheap. But I’d done a bit of research and to be honest I couldn’t be assed with buying some cheap shit off some site then have to cut it down and try and screw it to tiles. They can install it. If they fuck it up I’ll sue their ass. Right. That just leaves, two bolts, two doors, two drawer fronts and a granite top. And some painting. And some rubbish disposal. Went to Pump. Worked on my arms. Weights coming back up again now. Came back and did my keyboard practice. Working on left hand chords. Which as they have an inversion are a real pain in the ass. Thankfully what I learnt when I was about twelve has come back to me and I’m having no problem reading music whatsoever. It’s getting there, it’s just quite difficult. I think I’ll be on ‘Bye bye love’ for the foreseeable future. But now I’m doing it without cheating and using the single finger coords. It’s odd, as now ‘Are friends electric’ I can now play without even thinking about it, plus improvise on top of it which is quite fun. Bought Ableton Intro, as it was the last day of the sale. So thats sorted now. Looking at a software VST plug-in, as I still can’t get the sound I’m really after.

Wasn’t feeling it this morning. Had a bit of a stomach ache, stayed in bed for a couple of hours. It did pass. Work was dull, mainly tracing bugs again. Went for a run in the afternoon. Came back and did a few more hours. Only did about six today in total, that’ll make up for last weeks madness. The grout and insulation boards arrived. That just leaves the cupboard doors, two bolts and the granite worktop. Had a shower and then settled down to more ‘Bye bye love’. Okay, getting the hang of it now, both hands. Once I’ve mastered it I think I’ll need to move away from fingered cords and do them properly. Also worked on a couple of other tunes. It’s quite fatiguing and hard work, if enjoyable when it starts to become vaguely recognisable. Watched Celeb BB. God Perez is really getting on my tits, he’s such an attention seeking twat. I’m beginning to like Katie more and more though. It’s going to be an interesting one.

Started this morning almost on time. Today was all about bugs, all other peoples. Looking through crash dumps. Dull stuff. Took a break of about ten minutes and that was it. Finished at twenty past five. Finished putting the annotations on another video. Then went to the gym and did Combat. No new people, although the car park was full. Came back and unblocked the sink. Jamie managed to gunge it up with fat. Then filled it with bleach, lovely. Then he went out. I finally set up the synth and the keyboard on the stand. Sat down and played around a bit. Finally got into the left and right hand thing and spent about twenty minutes trying to play ‘Bye bye love’. It’s actually quite tricky, I will master it soon though.

Started morning with coffee and feeding dogs. Then it was straight on to scraping off paint. Thankfully that really was the last of it. Then cleaned it all up, masking tape and then on with the primer/undercoat. When that was all done I went out for a run. Came back and fitted the new lock in the bathroom door, took quite a while to chisel it all out. Then sanded down the door. Everything now is ready for top coats. Had a bath. Jamie is now cooking. Haven’t done anything on my music room.

Okay, so celeb BB. I haven’t really watched it since I spent five glorious hours watching Kenzie sleeping about ten years ago. But there was just something intriguing about this years intake. There’s Katie Hopkins, who I think I share probably quite a lot of view with, she tells it like it is. I can see Nigel Ferage looking her up on her exit. Then there’s Ken, well, not sure if he’s just playing it up or if he is a truly racist bigot. And we are only on day three. This is going to be a good one I’m sure.

Started this morning with coffee and read the paper. Then I eventually got up, drove to Argos and picked up the shower. That then just leaves the grout, the tile beading and the thermal boards. Put another coat of paint stripper on the door frame and waited for many Amazon parcels to arrive. Which they did. I then assembled a keyboard stand. It currently contains no keyboards, but one step at a time. Drove towards town, then walked to it. Popped in toolstation, bought a door handle and lock, sealant, oh and more paint stripper. Came back, scraped door frame, still not clean, another coat of stripper. Ordered the grout, the tile bead and the thermal boards. I think that really is everything now apart from the blinds, and may be a toilet brush. Still waiting for a couple of bits to arrive. Maybe by the time Mr Plumber starts the door frame will be finished, I wouldn’t bet on it though.

So the boss stayed clear of me all day which was probably wise for both of us. Worked on grass stuff then a complete load of other performance related stuff. Very very busy. Went to gym, did Pump. Then did a session with Laverne. Came back and did a few more bloody hours. Still, it is the last couple of months of the project. Put the washing away, now just waiting for the pizza to heat.

I’ve ordered all the stuff for my ‘music room’, will arrive tomorrow.

So started near enough at 9AM. Worked through until almost 3PM. Then walked the dog (Dillon it wasn’t happening). Then did a 7 mile run. Came back, had a shower, then did far too much work again. I’m getting it from all angles at the moment, frame rates, not enough grass, not enough this, too slow that, memory overwrite here…blah blah blah. Just living with it. I’m thinking of taking the whole of May off, and I want to be paid for it, plus it ain’t coming off my holiday quota. And I want a 100K. Tax free. And I want a pony.

Started at 6:20, back in bed by 7:10 and working by 8:40. I won’t discuss work, but lets just say I resigned twice, called the MD a twat and the last I heard from him was six missed calls and a text message saying ‘Answer your phone you diva’. All over grass. End of.

Walked Dillon. Picked up Sasha. First proper Pump session. New release, not sure about it yet. Came back and got the keyboard out. Now I’ve learnt all the patches I’m now trying to play against the music video, I think this is a good way of learning the rhythm. Boy is it bloody difficult. I was really drained after an hour.

Now sat down. Half pissed already. Hell of a day. Watching ‘Celeb Big Brother’. This year, so far, only three in, but looks interesting.

So this morning started at a record 8:36. I was so shocked I almost went back to bed. Worked all the way through for five hours. Then, as it was a nice day, it really was, almost eight degrees, I went for a run. Came back. Had a shower and then carried on with work. Still finished by just gone six. Then downloaded both Cubase and Ableton. The object was to assess both. Cubase didn’t get off to a good start, first the installer didn’t work with OsX, then after it did install, it seemed to take ages to start up. Still when it did it was fairly intuitive and I managed to record a midi track without too many problems. Then I installed Ableton, which I’d already played around with last night on the MacBook, installed no problem. Fun to play with, intuitive and lots of help windows, ideal for a noob like me when it comes to these things. Managed to record a track in that in sections and then piece them all together. I quite like the work flow in Ableton, I think I can have a lot of fun with it. It’s only after you record your midi playing you realise how crap your timing is, and boy is mine way out. Okay, so waying it up, Cubase has been around for four thousand years, is used by shit loads of people and is a very advanced tool. Ableton is very flexible, supports loads of shit, does everything I want and is half the price of Cubase and is also on offer at the moment. It’s about £46, which I can live with for a bit of software. I think the next step I need to do is pretend I’m part of ‘Tubeway Army’ and start playing along to the music video, that should hopefully improve my timing.

On an unrelated note, I need to file three years of notes in my old Filofax. That’s will just leave 2012, which will be filed at the end of the year. I will then bin it, in some sort of weird ceremony. I have then every single year since I was sixteen documented and stored in a drawer. Until I moved on to the online blog a couple of years ago. It would be fun to actually transfer all those notes into the blog, but twenty-three years worth would take some typing. It’s a shame actually that I don’t have entries from about the ages of twelve to sixteen, by god there would be some good shit in there. I will reveal all when I hit my fiftieth, you have eight years to wait.

So this morning I was up at half eight and started work bang on quarter to nine. Within ten minutes I was pissed off and people were generally annoying me. This is pretty much what I expected though. Spent some time fixing a memory overwrite issue, then it was on to a GUI glitching bug, which I’m still on, but found the cause of now. Will need lots of testing. Took a half hour break at lunchtime to walk the dogs, then straight back on. Was determined to finish bang on quarter past five…well managed twenty-five past, so not too bad. Then I piddled around a bit and then went to combat, which was busy, but not as busy as I was expecting. Came back and practiced Gary Numan again, pretty much got all the patterns nailed now, need to work on fluidity. Then had a pop at a couple of others, now working on ‘Imagine’ which is quite difficult as you have to jump around the keyboard a lot, getting the hang of it though, that’ll be the next one to play on the big keyboard. I need to start working normal sort of hours and ignoring everything work related outside of them, otherwise I don’t really have much of a life. So I’m determined now not to check any forums until work time tomorrow. Not my dog walking day tomorrow, so may be able to go right through. Oh, also saved two more baubles, the rest are now sadly in a land fill somewhere.