Started as normal. Actually I got some really good work done today so very pleased. Not sure if it will improve performance a lot, will have to wait and see on that one.
The weather is shit.
Went to the gym and did Pump. Then did a session with Laverne afterwards.
So that’s it then. Last day of January. So February the plan is not to drink and not to eat pizza. Four weeks, how hard can it be?
Started late, well finished late last night so didn’t mind. Bit of a dicky stomach as well, but that soon passed. Cracked on with work. An interesting day on that, now all the grunt boring work has been done I’m on to the frustrating debugging stuff. During some dull compiling moments I looked up some Final Cut Pro X plug-ins. I wasn’t happy with one section of my video, I wanted a shatter effect for an explosion. After a good Google I found a company that specialises in FCXP plug-ins. As usual with these things they seem to have a permanent discount available. I ended up getting three in the end, shatter, smoke and fire. I got the exact effect I was looking for with plenty of scope for playing around more.
Went to the gym and did Spin. Gave Laverne my power bill to see if she can do it any cheaper. Had a chat with her about doing the Friday thing on a regular basis. Came back, finished off work and then did some more video editing. Determined to get it all done by the end of the weekend. I’ve got a few ideas for some other videos.
Bloody cough seems to have made a bit of a come back, wish it would piss off.
I still haven’t charged this MacBook Air.
Had a fairly restless night, mainly due to it being a ‘non pill’ day. I woke up at 4AM, couldn’t get back to sleep. Got up at 6:15 and took Dillon to daycare. Got back home and went to bed. Had a dream. This was a weird one. I was in the back of a car with my sister. The car was driving itself. I told Sarah (my sister) to take the steering wheel. Then in the background I heard a helicopter. It was doing an emergency landing. It crashed. The next thing I knew was that my mother was attempting to disconnect the fuel line. You’ve just got to love mind altering drugs.
Work today was mainly syncing code and data and making everything work again. All went fine, bit one hell of a long day, about twelve hours.
Did pump. Good fun.
Came back and in-between work did some more video editing. It’s almost complete now. A bit disappointed about the noise on the video, I think the ISO was set too high. Still it’s only my fourth video. Great fun doing the editing though.
This morning started vaguely on time. Cracked on, it’s very tough going at the moment, but hopefully have it all sorted by the end of next week.
Managed to get everything done by early evening, so shut down and went to the gym. Ran for an hour. Came back and then spent a couple of hours editing the new video.
Ate salad. With pickled onions. I was supposed to no be drinking this week, so far failed abysmally.
Oh, doctor rang. We had a short discussion about coming off prozac, so that’s going ahead. Fuck knows what will happen there.
Liking this laptop a lot. It’s still very shiny. I’ve also still yet to plug it in to the mains.
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.
Today was bloody hectic. Had a shit load to do. Then I checked a load of stuff in in the morning. I was due for my medical at 2PM so I set off at 1:15. When I got to the M5 I realised that I’d forgot to check in an important file, so had to come back. Sure enough on the message board was ‘Tim has gone out of office and left 72 shaders with compile errors’. That would have been fun.
Got to Staverton only five minutes late. Had my class II medical which involved eyes, ears, sight, hearing, reflexes, a full 10 probe ECG, blood pressure, lots of coughing and prodding and of course pissing in a bottle. All was fine, no problem at all. The only sticking point is the Fluoxetine, which isn’t on the list of acceptable SSRI’s. Which is a pain in the ass. So now I either have to change to one of the three recommended, which won’t be a lot of good as I’ve already been on two of them, or come off it completely. I’ll phone my doctor tomorrow, well I phone for an appointment anyway, as the CAA will send him a request for medical history. I’ll probably end up just coming off them early, rather than in six months which was planned. I need to be ‘clean and free of symptoms’ for four weeks. I’m not sure I’ll ever be free of symptoms, but the last thing I’m planning on doing is parking a helicopter in crowded street. It seems a bit strange, but I guess they have their rules for a reason. I think I’d be more depressed if I couldn’t fly solo. It doesn’t really hinder my training as there’s still a shit load I need to learn on dual still, even then there is the advanced stuff that can be moved forward as necessary.
So after all that, drove home, fixed more shit I’d ballsed up then went to the gym. Finally in the evening I sat down and finished the days work off properly and gave it all my concentration. I’m now closer to where I want to be, but not as close as I’d hoped by this stage of the week. It’s all been a bit shit really.
On the positive side, I’ve managed to find a car rental company that doesn’t take the piss when it comes to one-way drop off fees. Now I just want a coupe rather than a Cadillac. I think a convertible isn’t going to be big enough, when the roof is down there is enough space for a small sandwich.
I went to have my dinner. Jamie was cleaning the fridge out and put my stuff on the counter. Sasha promptly ate my chicken. So all I had was a hard boiled egg. No wonder I’m depressed.
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.