Today was lots of playing about trying to work out what goes where. Mainly playing with shaders. Trying to trace input attributes and constant params. Still trying to compile stuff in GL to rip the CgFX info from it. I may look into the DX11FX parser, which is now handily given as source. It would be nice to get rid of the GL stage and use something more customisable instead.

Took the dog to day care. Cleaners arrived early, they actually did a fairly good job. Picked the dog up from day care.

Summer is over and it’s raining again. It eventually stopped mid evening, so I ventured out with my GPS. Managed to find one which has been annoying me for a while. Then found another odd one over towards Parkway then went back to another one which I still couldn’t find on the third attempt, I think it may have been muggled…And yes, while looking I did indeed manage to poke myself in the eye with a tree branch.

Finally come to the end of conference material and now actually on to the practical stuff. Only come across one major problem so far, well it’s not really a problem, more of a stern challenge. It’s going to take me quite a while to get to grips with it, but it will be fun.

Didn’t venture out lunchtime as I wanted to crack on. Finished up early evening.

Then went out looking for a geocache. This one was a bit special as you needed to solve a clue first to work out it’s location. I solved the clue last night. I walked up through Almondsbury and found the correct field. I then spent the best part of an hour scrambling through bushes trying to find this bloody cache. No success. Still, nice walk.

Came back, ate salad. Torture porn night, and I actually have some torture porn for once. Jamie has just made his dinner and disappeared. I complimented him earlier on dressing like ‘One direction’, except none of them are fat.

I whispered to the guy at the table, that all was going ahead as planned, then I was called over to the reception desk in the large dinning hall. They said I had a delivery, it was a tall glass like dome containing something. I walked back but then turned around again to the reception desk. I said, “Is it okay if I store this in the cellar due to the earthquakes?”. They said it was fine. I walked passed the table and whispered, “It’s okay I’ll follow the girls out somehow.” I made it to the stairway and started descending the numerous staircases. I made it to the ground floor where there was a small but busy haberdashery shop, the final staircase led down to the cellar. It was obstructed by various boxes of bottles, I managed to climb over them all and found myself in a tunnel in the cellar. I walked further on and there in front of me was a wall full of electronics, I could faintly hear the sound of a tape recorder playing the same brain washing message that had gotten to all of us. I picked up a tea trolley and with one mighty swoop I snapped off all the circuit boards hanging out of the wall. I then pulled a load of wiring looms away from it. In the background I could hear people coming down to the cellar. I quickly moved to the center of the room and found an air-conditioning unit above me. I removed the cover and started pulling out the foam inside. I then dived up into the foam and found myself in the floor above.

I woke up and took the dog to daycare. I went back to sleep.

We’d just come back from holiday and Jamie was saying that he fancied a trip to New York and that he wasn’t going to take me. I said if he did that I’d divorce him. Andy and Lisa turned up, they sat on the couch while Jamie fannies about. He then said that, “we are going out now, sorry you could come as well but there isn’t enough room in the car.” I asked where they were going, he replies, “We are going to see my old friend Dave Vitty do a show at Rage”. I start to seeth, Andy and Lisa look uncomfortable. They leave the house. We are all in a restaurant together, Jamie starts moaning about money, I say that I want nine pounds for Sasha’s doggy daycare and a fiver for the petrol. He hands me a load of change. He also says he wants to move to London, I say no, unless he starts earning more than me. We are back at the house, he then complains that tickets to New York are more expensive than he thought as the payment bounced.

I woke up. Time for work.

Oddly a letter arrived for Jamie from the bank, he’d probably gone over his overdraft limit again. I said he shouldn’t have tried to buy that ticket to New York, he looked confused.

Today was the last day of conference material. Got through it all, tomorrow I start on the practical stuff.

Finished up and then went geocaching again. Found another four. Still stuck on the one by the Hilton hotel. Think I’ve got good clues for another two. Also just managed to solve a picture puzzle, I thought it was an anagram, but it was actually coordinates. Now programmed into the GPS, so ready to go tomorrow. Yes, over bloody Almondsbury way again.

Woke up in a pile of sweat. It was either a very hot evening or I’m going through ‘the change’. Actually started early, so I could finish vaguely on time. Working on dull stuff for the next four days, but it’s only four days, so grin and bare it.

Managed to get in a few more bits of Japanese revision in breaks. Went out for a run. Finished on time so went out to Almondsbury to find another Geocache. Spent about twenty minutes thundering about in a thorny bush, I was looking for a nano-cache not attempting a dogging feat. Failed.

Came back home and once again failed to find a decent location for three suitcases and a step ladder. They are currently all sat on the landing, every time I need to move across the landing I have to shift them all around. They will probably stay their for eternity.

I realise that we are going to be in Tokyo for ten nights, so far we have Tokyo Disneyland for two days, nothing else planned, better have a look.

Tonight is very warm, the dog is asleep in her basket, even she can’t be arsed to do anything.

So yesterday started with sanding. Much sanding. Mainly working on the coving, I’ve done about three quarters of the bit which is stripped. It’s actually coming along quite nicely and I’m getting quite a nice finish. I spent the best part of four hours manually sanding it, this caused the whole downstairs to be covered in dust, as well as me. After this my arms were aching and my neck was shot. I took a shower and a few tablets to stop my neck flaring up. Went out for a walk and then felt fine.

Met my sister at the pub, it was full so we went off to the Taj Brasserie, which was very nice indeed. I was so parched (and full of sanded plaster) that I downed two pints of King Fisher in about three minutes. The meal was very good, although the Chicken Garlic Chilli Masala wasn’t as spicy as I’d normally expect. Then between three of us we got through three bottles of wine and I think my sister and I drank the bulk of that. Got home and then the combination of everything caused me to revisit the curry. It was no spicier the second time round. I then spent several hours praying to the porcelain god. I have no idea if it was the shear amount of alcohol or a combination of SSRI’s and anti-flams, but it came on all of a sudden. Usually I just fall asleep.

So then, in the morning, how did I feel? Amazing. I woke up a little dehydrated and that was it. For the first time in months I actually felt that my melatonin levels were about normal and my head and body were actually both in the same time zone. I was going to get back into sanding but took the dog out, she decided it was far too hot for her and actually sat down a couple of times. As it really was a nice day I thought I’d give the DIY a miss and go out and get some sun. So I had some lunch then went out walking for about five hours. I had my little GPS app and found three more Geocache’s in Hortham and one in a Almondsbury church yard. Came back, hung some more washing up and had a cold beer (see I can’t be put off). Then I did a few more bits of Japanese on the iPad and then had a bath. Now just relaxing before work again tomorrow. Just four work days.

Had a bit of an odd task to do today. Gear wobble. More accurately gear wobble sound. Anyway made a change from boring database type stuff I’ve been doing the last couple of days. It was pretty straightforward to do and is quite effective.

Nice weather again. Went out for a run lunchtime. Also started going through the Japanese course again, right from the beginning and using it as a review. Sped through the first unit in a couple of hours.

Went out in the evening for another Geocache hunt. Found another one, failed to track down two others. It is quite fun and appeals to my geekyness.

We ended up watching a documentary last night which was rather strange, it was about ‘dogging’. It mainly seems to be a way to get your wife shagged by as many odd people as possible. It appeals to ugly men and fairly ugly women. Jamie said, ‘So she’s sat there with her minge out, now what’. Well as it happened, not much. Oddly they were all wearing animal masks, which added another layer of bizareness.

Working on app code again, once again not particularly exciting. Most of the day was just fire fighting various issues with very little additional code done, but again, that’s just the way it goes sometimes.

Cleaners arrived. They made a sensible decision and actually sent one of the original ones round who actually had a clue what she was doing. The fire grate still has ‘dust me’ written in it still though.

Picked up the dog from playgroup.

Did a bit more Japanese but got to the point now where new stuff isn’t really sinking in. So I think with the last week or so I’m just going to start going through from the beginning again and use that as a review. As I think it’s going to be a lot more useful to be able to order train tickets than it is to discuss the fact that ‘Maroon Five’ concert tickets have sold out. (Yes that is in there.)

Went out for a walk again with my phone GPS. Found two more geocaches, went for a third but that bloody motorway was in the way again. Anyway, good excuse for a nice walk as yet again it was a very pleasant evening. Hopefully if it gets warmer I can get the bike out and seek out a few further ones.

Jamie is cooking tea tonight, so salad free. Hopefully I’ll get it before tomorrow.

As I spent most of last night working I took an hour off this morning to catch up on my Japanese lessons. I’m on target to finish again now but it’s going to be pretty hard going.

Went for a run.

Finished work at a reasonable hour so decided to go out and have another bash at geocaching. I picked one which was about 1.5Km away. The problem was this little road called the M5 which was in the way, so ended up being 3.5Km away. It was up towards Hortham under a bridge. It was nice to actually find one. The phone GPS is a bit crap, the compass just spins round and round so you have to find it using distance alone. I may treat myself to a GPS when I’m in Japan. Anyway it was a nice evening and got home just as it was getting dark. Corked the rest of the Pinot and stored it to mature. Watched some telly. Early start tomorrow as Sasha is off to playgroup.