Selling like a hot cake

My book's had a bit of a surge on amazon.co.uk breaking the top 50 for a couple of coding sub-sections..which on the face of it impressive, but in reality, I think it just sold 2 more copies last week.

Its surprising how few copies it takes to push it up the charts.

The US chart positions are less impressive, but I at least broke the top 1400..just

That said, my statement recently showed 223 sales in a period of around 4 months, if it does that again by the christmas statement I will get some moola...not much but enough for dinner maybe.


I am quite pleased though, getting good feedback from users, and some of my own students have been reading the library copies and commented on enjoying it.

I'm going to start giving a class next block using it as the main text book, sadly I can't force them all to buy it, but it will be nice if a few turn up with a copy.


Ahthankyew

that better not be the start

of the end.

Been noticing a distinct stiffness and pain in my index finger joint....its starting to mess with my guitar playing, I do hope this isn't arthitis or something similar, I don't want to lose my guitar playing just as I'm in a band thats actually doing lots of guitar playing...

Asprin seems to take edge off but I'm going to see the doc, even if its not a big deal to him and just one of those age things.....its a big deal to me


Ahthankyew

Ah well

You gotta give love a chance I suppose, but when it continually demonstrates a lack of commitment or interest in your life, its time to say stop.

Crazy idea to find love- experiment #3 over.
Result...failure

Conclusion....stop trying so hard, its not really something that should require effort.

Ahthankyew

Sad to report the tragic death of a beloved son, brother, entertainer, boyfriend, father, and all round good guy.

We've heard from a certain Mrs Guild, that her son Brian has not been posting on his blog for some time, After an extensive investigation we discovered that Brian sadly passed away after a tragic electrical accident while performing with his musical trio, The Famous Belcrum Recordings.
The Image above shows the popular band just before the tragic accident where Brian was reduced to a smouldering lump of charcol due to him dribbling on what was found to be an electically live mic causing 25000v to be dumped into his body.

According to audience members at the event, Brian had just hit a perfect note, for the 1st time during the gig after which there was a bang and they were pleased only to be able to hear lead singer Rosemarie's vocals.
"The band certainly sounded a lot better once they had that nice little fire at the side of the stage and the screaming stopped, there was also a lovely smell of roast pork, which made the atmosphere so much more cosy.", mentioned one attendee.

We reached out to FBR for a comment but so far none has been recieved, an ad for a new guitar player has been posted on their facebook page.




Ahthankyew

Change is hard

As I finish off the last of the MagPi lessons and wrap up the Book projects, along with the last few days of debugging on the Coleco project.

I start to think about the next project which if it comes off will be something very sweet on a Nintendo Switch, I can't say any more than that at the moment but I'm excited about it.

So its office clean up time....and finally fitting my triple monitor stand...which turns out the gas units on it are shit and can't take the weight of my side monitors...hmmm well I'll make do. But I don't like it, its not the way it was, change is uncomfortable...

operation tidy begins.

Ahthankyew

Oh the irony!

Benta is a fussy eater, theres no other way to say it, she likes plain simple home cooked food. Isn't keen at all on dairy, (hence hates my mac and cheese) and can't stand meat that isn't burnt to a crisp...

ok well, as a self confessed foodie, its my duty to expose Benta to  the joy of food. Which is why I had a couple of tickets for a surprise taster menu at a very nice restaurant here in Breda.

She was up for it and actually quite looking forward to it, as was I, I love fine dining and surprise menus.

Well....the restaurant is a lovely cozy place, with attentive staff and an interested chef who was keen to make sure we had no specific dislikes he would avoid. Dairy was mentioned and avoided

And on we go to a couple of small amuse bouche and appetizers . Really lovely.. But then comes a mackerel tartar...nope, she's not having that... awww, no problem I had double...it was stunning.

Then a small eggplant and carrot and raisin salad...just a mouthful, actually quite silly portion size, but its an appetizer. She tries it, almost gags :D  The courses that follow are a bit hit and miss for her but she did like the cooked Red mullet mini, mini fillet, and the wild pork terrine with a scraping of sweet potato and onion puree. It was really nice... overall she enjoyed 50% of the food, so I was feeling quite pleased, but yeah the portions were tiny.

Finally a dessert of coconut  rice cream and ...well bits, this I didn't actually like much, but dutifully ate... Benta had a small taste, said she liked it but didn't finish.

So overall, she wasn't terribly impressed by her 1st fine dining experience so we will have to work up to it, starting and McD's and moving up through KFC before braving a kebab place...

The irony though, is that as soon as I got home, something very very bad stirred in my bowels, and I then spent a good hour on the loo, followed by a rather disturbed night trying hard to avoid throwing something up, which I just managed to do...oh dear...a touch of Mumtaz tum kicked in.(Mumtaz is a great indian restaurant I used to visit a lot in Bradford, but every time I would get a bad tummy, so some kind of allergy).

So whatever I am allergic to was in one the of dishes...and I am feeling rough as a bears arse this morning.
Benta was unimpressed by my Frasier like desire to introduce her to a bit of culture, and I have been duly humbled.

Ahthankyew

Getting quite popular

Very very proud of Famous Belcrum Recordings, we're getting better and better and people are really starting to like what we do, we've acquired a few fans, and our sound and confidence grows with every gig.

Ironically this weekends gig was the smallest we ever had, we were booked for an open air market event, which should have attracted a few hundred, but the heavens decided to open and people stayed away, we moved indoors to a cafe but only a dozen or so people braved the rains, but even so they loved it and we did too. The small audience let us play around a bit and make a few mistakes of course. But it was so much fun.  Rose gets more and more confident with the ballads, it's wonderful to hear.

We also for the 1st time used our own sound set up, which was brilliant to do, I've had my DL1608 unit for a few years and never really got the chance to use it. It performed brilliantly. Though it turns out I can't save the set up, which is frustrating.
But not to worry, I'll keep it exclusive for FBR, which means the settings we used will remain


Ahthankyew

fucked if I know

this is work related.......not going into detail, but sooooo many changes, so much tinkering with processs...need to vent...can we please just focus on making good coders out of beginners.
christ...its not fucking rocket science...whatever the process, thats what I am going to focus on


can't say more, might get read by da' managment



Ahthankyew

diet slow but steady

So the new, don't shove as much in your pie hole diet is slowly taking effect, 3 kilos down so far
Also I've taken the chance to cycle into work a bit more even though our new and currently very disorganized campus is 20-25mins away. Its still a nice cycle while the weather is good. So I'm getting 45 mins of light exercise as well as the reduction in cake and booze.

Work is all very strange at the moment, the new place is not quite where we need it, I don't have a permanent desk for all my gear, which is indeed a pain. Though I've decided to camp at one today with dual monitors which lets me hook things up.

Benta is struggling a bit with getting used to things, its a bit frustrating for me, not being able to help her in some places, especially when I'm at work and she's over in Utrecht trying to figure out buses, but I'm sure she'll get used to it.. When they work they are great, when they don't,......well its stressful




Ahthankyew

Well.... here we go

Benta is settling in, she's a bit overwhelmed by some things and needs to learn that sushi, mac and cheese and various other European foods are good :D an

Its nice having someone to cook for and chat to, I missed that.. things are certainly looking up,

But I have to go back to work on Monday...booooooo
She also starts summer school for her masters on Monday too, so who gets home 1st will be interesting.



Ahthankyew

flights booked, countdown begins

Cheapflights.com is a great site for getting a good deal on flights, even if you go to the sites it recommends you can find the same flights costing double what it costs to book through them.

But finally we got the stamped Visa which allowed us to get the flight booked, and now Benta will be arriving in a very very sunny, but soon to be very rainy Netherlands on Thursday.

Counting down the hours :D

Also to the rain, this heat can go bugger off, I don't want to have to book a trip to Iceland to recover from this holiday period.

Ahthankyew

Its not a tap, its my pits

Every day for the last couple of week's (when not in Scotland) I've come up to the office, sat down,  started to get into some work, and then had to listen to the drip drip drip of sweat from my armpits landing on the floor before slowly starting to realise I am utterly befuddled by the heat.

This is no exaggeration, even with evaporator coolers and fans on full blow, my office is an oven, and heat exhaustion quickly takes over, getting any work done is near impossible.

I'm starting to panic, since I was close to getting a few key things done and dusted to let me enjoy my break. But managing less than 30 mins in every 2 hours, as I scurry for some cool water or cold part of the house (there's aircon in the attic) has meant a total loss of productivity.

I have considered moving my dev systems up to the attic, but it would take 2 days minimum to remove all the music gear on that desk, and re-set up my coding stuff and that assumed I can keep up the pace of going up and down stairs.. Also I don't have good internet upstairs...the walls in my house are too thick and the signal drops off on the 2nd floor, it just fails to get to the 3rd. (I really need to fix that, but have no idea how)

As much as I enjoy sunshine, I'd like it to stay in my preferred location of the Canaries...and not here so I can get on with having a nice quiet refreshed life in my own home

ok well I've wasted 10 mins typing this, and already I'm dripping, sat as I am in sweatpants with no top.

I bet you just as it starts to cool down, I get a cold!


Ahthankyew

Its all about to get very mental

So, lots o... (don't you hate when people start a sentence with so..) f changes about to happen.
Any day now Benta gets her passport back with the visa that lets her get on a flight to start a new life here, mostly dealing with the masters she's doing, but even so, it'll be start of a new life of us.

Of course it also means having a major clear out, so the house is being stripped back and scrubbed, regardless of Benta's arrival , this needs to be done, I've not actually had a proper house clean in a long time, I may also get some paint and touch up the kitchen a bit since the new kitchen is going to have to wait a bit.

Also my new diet/lifestyle choices are in place, I hate it, I really do but I am strong this time.. I can't stand to see any more photo's of me at friends and in this case weddings where I am just a fat beach-ball in a suit.
So since coming back from my cousin Roy's lovely wedding to Katie,  I've been on a very strict 1000Kcal a day diet.
I've bought in shit loads of food, but separated out for individual portions of chicken, steak, pork and burgers. Its all in the freezer, so I have food for a month, Costing about 150euro's,  which is 10 takeaways...hmmm also saving money.

There's nothing wrong with food I eat, when I cook myself, its just that I seem to eat enough for 3.. thats over. Sticking to 1000k is  basically less than half my recommended intake, but it should give very fast results. Its too early to have any real impact but I won't cheat. Every hunger pang is a gramme lost.

Also I'm making a point of cycling every day, even if only for a short 2km warm up around Belcrum, getting my heart beating a bit for a few weeksm,  and then back to the gym again. No point paying for it and not using it, but I do want to drop 5kg before I start that, so I can focus on some toning up rather than worry about fat burning.

Its very hard to do all this in the current heat, its been consistently over 30degs peaking one day at 41.4 outdoors. Ironic that Benta is currently shivering in 19 degree temps in Nairobi, lol, wait till winter.


Ahthankyew

i'm neglecting you both

Sorry readers, not been keeping this updated, doing lots of stuff, some of it actually quite good fun, but also still getting on top of a list of things on my todo list that never seem to end.

But back I am, starting to unwind as the holidays are here, a lovely week so far, only had to get up once, for no reason as it turned out. Its also been astonishing weather, so hot and sweaty making anything more than going up and down stairs a bit of an effort...and yes we know what that means, more promises about losing weight I probably won't keep, but I need to. I've got to fill my time with more than being sat at a computer screen.

I can't deny its had a very direct and serious impact on my mental health, having nothing but work to focus me, means I can't escape from things that bother/worry me, and there's been a lot of that in recent months. Thankfully things are about to change.

I do have a lot to do, in 2 weeks or so Benta will be moving in, getting herself ready to start her masters at Utrecht, so need to get a few things cleaned up and looking respectable...removing that large pile of laundry from the spare room(her office) for one.

The house has suffered quite a bit from nearly 4 years of single male syndrome so its best I have a proper clean out..there's stuff in the fridge I'm sure is 8 years old...time for a full declutter.

I am even...thinking...only thinking...its time to thin the guitar herd down. I am enjoying my playing more and more, especially with Roos and Ed in the Famous Belcrum Recordings, but I realise I am just not playing a lot of my babies...keeping them on the walls as decorations where they don't get played as much as I used to is clearly bad...I might just put them in their cases and hide them away....or sell them....hmmmm not sure..


I've no idea how well the book is selling but I suspect not that well, as I am not seeing a lot of people on the website forums. Plenty of visitors, dropping by though, so maybe they are downloading the files and not signing up...but I suspect my dreams of millionaire author living on a tropical island with a typewriter are about to be smashed.

Anyway, off to do a bit of a bike ride, and get myself some coffee


Ahthankyew

only a couple more weeks

There's a lot going on at the moment with work, both day job and private work, and homework for some exams I have to take, with 0 confidence of passing.

Hence, not too many updates to report, I just sleep, work, drink, sleep, work drink

not good for me really.
oh well, hic!

Ahthankyew

I've not yet succumbed to a heart attack

in spite of the weight gain.

Just been incredibly busy, and only just starting to make a little bit of headway on a few things....looking forward to the summer hols...only 8 more weeks to lots more work :(

Ahthankyew

I'm sooo fat

I don't even want to type the number, its the worst ever..

ok thats it... I said it before, but thats it..

Jezuz I'm so faat

Ahthankyew

End of block....and a holiday

Been a busy stressful block, lots and lots of extra work to do, I had waaay too much on my plate, and just didn't say no..

Still got some things left to deal with but as far as students are concerned its all done now, just extensions to deal with and then a holiday for a week,.

Can't really rest, still have things I have to get done but I can dial back the pace a bit and tackle them in my own time.. Got to get ready for 2 gigs, so need to fit in some practice somewhere,  finish the Coleco project at flaming last, and get the last of the 3D games up on the site.

oh did I say I had less to do...yeah, well that is less.



Ahthankyew

wow...

top 3......wow...just wow...
kindle version too..the hardcopy has been sold out on amazon.co.uk for a week,.

Ahthankyew

yeah shadows working again

I actually got stuck on this for several days,  which was frustrating, I have a shadow demo already and transferred the code to my main test demo, and it didn't work.. Utter confusion, why would it work one demo and not another... it took me several days to realize that my shadow demo project used a much smaller terrain and this one was much bigger and also the light source was stuck in a corner.....

grrr, oh well, its like most bugs, if you have never seen the behaviour before you simple can't see it. I assumed something was up with my code or the new Rasbpian Stretch..but no it was me, I didn't set it up right...but there you are, fixed now...with help from some of my facebook friends.

Behold shadowmapping shadows.
Not the best system for shadows, they tend to be hard and pixelly, but the fact is the Pi's GPU does not really have the power to do the sampling needed to create softer AA shadows so its as good as it will get for now.

Ahthankyew

how hot is too hot?

I'd say the hot and spicy chicken noodles I just ate qualify as too hot.. since after 30mins I am sat at my desk having drunk 2 liters of cold water and still have my tongue hanging breathing in cold air to sooth it.

wow..that was vindaloo levels of spicy.


Ahthankyew

Enough coughing

For about 2 hours today I was engaged in a very serious attempt to cough up, not just one but both lungs.....despite my very best efforts, the lungs stubbornly refused to budge but did succeed in causing me both a massive headache and a pretty impressive strain on my ribs and diaphragm.

Worst coughing fit ever.....


Ahthankyew

Proud daddy slightly disappointed

As I read through "my" book I can't help notice several small errors that are the result of corrections from the type setters. There's plenty of small errors of my own, but it does upset me that the typesetters added their own.

2 really good ones 


on page 8,11 and 12, there is mention of a grey dot when using the debugger.... which is funny because what I wrote was, there is a red dot!Clearly the type setters looked at the monochrome version of the image, and decided to "correct" my text since it certainly is grey in the image.....but of course on your screen its red.
Again a great typesetter error, OOP stands for OOP. What? I wrote OOP stands for Object Oriented Programming.

There's going to be a lot more, at the moment I am just dipping into sections and finding things like this, I need to get some post-its and a highlighter pen and start marking them off for the next edition.

Its quite annoying but also a good lesson to learn, never ever assume the typesetters and proof readers get it right.

On the plus side, its sold out at Amazon :D... I don't think they keep a lot of copies in stock mind, but even so, it sold out. :D






Ahthankyew

Proud daddy gives birth to book

A very special package arrived, only 6 copies though but even so, its amazing to see the book finally in the paper... An unreal sense of pride, now swiftly followed by a sense of fear and dread as I complete the website, and hope that people like it.

Ahthankyew

Manflu over, chest infection of course

Yeah that was a mega manflu, pretty sick and unable to function for most of the week. But over it now, aside from the inevitable chest infection, which also isn't as bad (so far) as I've had

The strange freezing weather though is forcing me to think twice about going out in the cold, so Harvey's walks are being cut back to morning and evening, he can pop out the back garden for a pee.


Hopefully though its done with and the chest will clear up in a week or so.


The book is selling, on kindle at least pretty well, starting to get a lot of visitors to the site, so getting my ass in gear to make sure they are all Jessie and Stretch compatable, as well as Ubuntu and Debian builds

Had a couple of issues  though, mainly with the 2D library I build which I hadn't considered I'd built over the course of 3 projects so its much more than is described in the book, but thats ok, the core features are all there.

Better get back to work....still need to squeeze some time to clear the colecovision game, but work has been overwhelming this last 2 weeks, when I was able to deal with it.

won't get it done sat here on the couch...off upstairs.




Ahthankyew

oh thats a bad one

Yup full man flu, fever, snot, painful chesty cough, headache, weeping eyes, chronic tiredness, and weak as a kitten.

Not your average cold. Going to be a few days to recover, not 100% sure I will make it to work, but it does seem the fever has broke, so I can read a screen again...wasn't able to focus on it for a couple of hours.

Worst possible time to get sick, got a tonne of work on 3 things to deal with and not been able to string 2 coherent thoughts together to actually do anything.

I'm going to try to clean up the house, there's snotty tissues all over the place, and not done the dishes for 4 days...ugg, its a mess.

Harvey has also not had a proper walk for ages, just letting him out the back, so I need to go clear up his mess as well.

Lets hope the chest infection that inevitably follows these man flu's won't take too long to clear up

ok...time to face the stairs...just need to work up to it.




Ahthankyew

croak

stinking cold, really chesty...going to be one of those 6 week chest infection jobs I think

grrr



Ahthankyew

SHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT!

The book is due to release on March 22...according to Amazon.co.uk, so all my preperation to upload files and support info is set for delivery on March 22


Except it just got released in the US.... I never though to check Amazon.com which has an earlier release date.


oh fuck

Just as well I hadn't planned to sleep tonight


Ahthankyew

No more drips

I finally changed the tap, its only a temp one though a cheap 20quid tap that really isn't quite big enough to give the clearance needed to fill the kettle, but at least the drip drip drip has finally stopped.


I wonder if this will also stop the voices in my head...no, I'm not going to do that.. from telling me what to do.

I said no.


Ahthankyew

Shit is getting real

the book is printed, amazon has the cover pic, and a small preview of the 1st chapter...i'm shitting myself hoping people like my chatty style of prose and can't wait to get my free copies so I can send them out to the people who helped make it happen.


Annoyingly there's an error in the preview, which will be in the main book, nothing major, just an extra word, the, in a sentence, but its scary that I missed it before..

Not much I can do about it now though, unless it sells out and they want a 2nd edition.

The Website is up, still looking a bit clunky but its there, and the files are being tested now to go up live.
Going to be a busy few weeks till the 22nd March when it is released but then I'm going to chill....at least until the 1st negative reviews come in.


Ahthankyew

toothless old grandpa

Oh I forgot to mention, when I was in Kenya my bloody tooth came out. Both my bottom incisors were compromised because of bone necrosis of the jaw caused by my radiotherapy 7 years ago, the bone has been dying away all that time and exposing the teeth, the 1st one lost its foundations about 6 months ago and has been wobbly ever since. It has been a bit of a pain, the Dentist wants me to go to the hospital, but I was
a) busy
b) not happy about going back to the hospital.

So anyway, after a lot of discomfort and wobbling, biting into some toast one morning I bit down on the tooth and it was very painful, and sure enough a few hours later I realized it was still niggling and tugged it, and out it came. No pain, and actually quite a relief, but of course I now have a gap in my teeth.

Its not obvious really, my droopy lip, also cancer treatment relate,  hides it when I smile, but the gap is there to see when I talk.

But I have to say its better out, I can eat again, biting into food, and no fear of biting down on a sore tooth. Now the other tooth will come out in due course, then I will have to go the hospital and see if anything can be done (I know that they can't, there's no bone for an implant) but we'll see how the other tooth manages on its own for now, when, not if, it gets loose I'll talk to the dentist.



Ahthankyew

Kenya Adventures....lots of contrast

After my mad adventures in Thailand,  I decided to take another jump and this time went to Kenya, so I've now been to 4 of the 5 main continents...next on the list is South America, so that's the summer sorted.

But Kenya, well I had wanted to go for some time,  there's a strange connection between Kenya and me, with a few of my ex's having come from there.

I have also been chatting on line with someone interesting who lives in Kenya so the chance to holiday and meet up with the lovely Benta, and spend some time was a no-brainer.

It has been amazing, but a land of such contrast, the poverty is tear jerking in ways that made me ashamed of my species, there's also shocking violence and a sense of dread when walking down even the so called posh parts of town, especially at night. but I think its to be expected in such a large city, where such poverty exists. Driving is a death defying experience, combined with a waiting game in the jams. It so wants to be a modern city, but as much as it tries, its not there.

In the daytime though I went on a walking tour with a fun guide, called Gene, who I managed to out geek on the subject of railway lines and steam engines and even African history and art. Lots of interesting fun, and also jaw dropping arrogance of the empire builders who used people as a disposable commodity when building the line.

Out of the city though my fantastic guide Timothy took us to amazing places, wonderful highland forests, where the +2500m altitude had me gasping for air, but still able to show a natural talent for archery (I need to look into taking that up here), and a surprisingly non complicated ability to let gravity drop me down a zip wire while not screaming like a girl.
Also he showed us some amazing views from the edge of the Great rift Valley, and then a chance to walk among the animals who live there at the Hells Gate park...(not the meat eaters, just the usual non tofu eating vegetarian types in their natural habitat).
Timothy was also arranged for us to spend a night at the Sarova Salt lick game reserve https://www.sarovahotels.com/saltlick-tsavo/

Which was out of this world, Lions, Elephants, warthogs, various antelopes, Ostriches, mongoose,  zebra and lots of other things trotting down to the waterhole in full view of the terrace, just amazing.

Such wonderful things to see, and such lovely company for the trip, there were so many funny moments and breathtaking awesomeness, it was amazing.

A small downside though was a serious bout of tummy troubles, most of the time there, maybe the water I was brushing my teeth with was a bit dodgy, since I only drank bottled, but  it was bad, so much so, that a fart was never undertaken without a lot of  careful preparation, and I got to be very chatty with the local pharmacist who's sales of Imodium tripled while I was there. The last day in particular when the Imodium basically stopped working was a strategic mission from toilet to toilet but I got to the plane with no accidents, and in fact in the plane, I had the dubious joy of discovering that happens when the loo flushes when you are sat on it.....interesting sensation. 

Another downer was the hotel, the Ibis Styles Nairobi, it was awful, I am well used to Ibis's minimal approach, but this was bad, the room was tiny, of course and kept clean, but the staff were slow, chatting among themselves most of the time, the restaurant was a disaster of inept careless food (who serves unrinsed pasta mixed with a full jar of pesto as a dish). The air conditioning, which was the main reason I chose the place, didn't work most of the time, and even when it did it was crap and dropped only 1 degree, and on my last day, at 4am, they had a workman doing some work in the car park below my window at 4am... fucking a.m....using an angle grinder no less for 15 mins then welding.. I was livid.

But am home, once again confident in my farting and looking forward to a fresh block on Monday.

Looking forward to Benta coming to visit NL soon, and then I can show her our tofu eating vegetarians in their natural habitat.



Ahthankyew

More software woes

Fortunately not on the colecovision though, finally I am able to get a few things done on that again, no more missing sprites, its bliss.

And I have been able to do quite a lot due to the fact have had to spend soooo much time installing new software to try to add Android builds to my SBC content....hours and hours spend downloading data. SDK's , tools, platforms etc..but nothing works...what an utter utter waste of time.

Even at the height of the coleco bug, I don't think I have come so close to buying a gun and heading to google HQ...what an utter pile of shit the android dev tools are..I am just too mad to even attempt to try again.

I'm off to warmer climes for a week, escaping the sub zero temps and carnival madness of NL for a week.

I'll take a laptop though, and try to do some more coleco work on the plane.



Ahthankyew

Well that escalated

The bug is dead, all hail Brian, destroyer of bugs, puller of hair, screamer of screams and smasher of keyboards. Let this day be remembered for all eternity, the bug is dead.


What a total fucker...I mean really, months I've been plagued by this, then it would vanish, then come back, then vanish...I just couldn't get any grasp of what and why it was happening

It was random, no specific routine seemed to cause it, my sprites just vanished, nothing I could do would explain it, code still worked but sprites vanished, stepping through the code showed nothing, moving things around showed nothing, altering data seemed to work, but then it would come back.

Months...I'd leave it, come back to it, leave it, spend a week on it, spend an hour on it, rewrite dozens of apparently working parts, alter data systems, redo everything, apart from the cause of course.

And finally after squeezing a bit of code to let me display some values while the game was running I was able to locate the value that was not as it should be (though it was fine on the emlator)

And it turned out to be a clearing of a flag/location value in an interrupt, which the main code also used to set some things up, normally the interrupt would be done loooong before the code needed it, but if the interrupt happened after the code tested for the value, it would never be reset...and lo...the sprites would vanish

The frequency would be erratic, but once cleared after that test, it would never be reset again.

As the code, grew, shrunk, changed did more or less things, the threshold for when the the test occurred would be later and boom, sprites would vanish for no earthly reason...

It never happened on the emulator/debugger because it handles its interrupts slightly differently, and the test was always after the interrupt. Changing data formats had an impact, but only because it altered timing, so so erratic.

shit...months..really maybe a year on and off, it stopped me dead in my tracks many times....Without a doubt the worst bug I have ever had in 30+ years of coding...I have been mystified.

I can finally clean up the Colecovision game and get it finished and delivered, my poor client has been so patient. He'll finally get his game now.

Ahthankyew

Saw the book cover....oh wow

its been 2 years in the making, and I've cursed it more than I've praised it, but the end is near, I just saw the 1st draft cover of my book, with my fucking name on the front...my fucking book,with my fucking name.,..its surreal.. I am chuffed to bits. even though I want a few changes it still is utterly unreal to see.. I can't believe I had the patience to write a book...shit I hope people like it,


Ahthankyew

Oh I broke the forun

Deleted something on the main site, that screwed up the other bits....oh well, reset

Ahthankyew

ohh I added a forum

Though it wasn't easiest thing ever, there was some confusion over where to find the database (I had to buy space on my server) but the site is now complete with a basic forum, all default settings but it will to for testing things out give it a go HERE


Ahthankyew

Website Japes

Its been many many years since I even attempted to set up a website, and I can't honestly claim I have learned anything since then, but I've been slowly putting together the new Scratchpad website, its looking pretty good.

Its rather a slow process though and prone to confusion, I can't say I'm a big fan of  HTML or CSS, but the templates supplied in DreamWeaver which just little bit of aleration are doing the job.

Click on the link above to see the progress so far, its still mostly holding pages but its navigating reasonably well, though I am sure I should break it into smaller pages for faster loading or some such web developer taboo.

Ahthankyew

Radio 2 and coding.

Dunno why, but I always find having Radio on while I work to be quite focusing, I've even been known to head bop a bit if a catchy song comes on as I am typing.

I've now grown up and switched to BBC Radio 2...I dunno why but BBC Radio One just bores me to tears now, in the same way Radio 2 used to 10 years ago.. Things change eh!


Had a few days of no motivation to work, which is ok as it was New year and I hadn't really planned to do too much work, but hard at it today, clearing off the next article and making some great progress on the Colecovision game (yes still working on it)

Article is all written up, just testing the code on a couple of different Pi's to make sure the recent Jesse-stretch update does not cause too many issues.

Back is 99% back to normal, so off to the Gym tomorrow to resume the torture, and I'll be cycling to the cinema tonight to finally get my Star Wars fix, sadly its been spoiled to death but I'll still enjoy the movie.

Kinda looking forward to going back to work on Monday, but really want to get the decks cleared 1st so back to my head bopping, as I'm every woman is now playing on the Ken Bruce show.



Ahthankyew

Bye 2017 its been...odd.

As my back starts to feel normal again, I have picked up a cold....lucky I wasn't sneezing all week with a torn muscle in my back.

New Years eve today, I have been invited out but am going to stay in today,  I need to keep Harvey company, he gets very stressed by the firework frenzy that happens here, and I want to finish up a bit of office and studio clean up I started before the back went. Also I really want to have a complete revamp of my guitar set up, which is a pain in the arse really. Lots of disassembling and hole drilling in my pedal board. I just want to put my beat buddy into the system and also make more use of my VL3 as a proper guitar unit, I rely too much on my GR55 for guitar sounds and really I need it for the VL3's guitar options and step features....still like the GR55 a lot though. But I have a full looper on board the VL3 and effects I haven't even tried to use, bit silly having a 900euro unit and only using it for vocals when I don't do that much singing.

Diet has been out the window the last week, but going back on it, can't get to the gym till the back heals properly though so that's at least a week.

Book proof reading was a major pain, and I have to do it one more time apparently, but even so I am looking forward to getting the book out

Going to get the cleaning down, and start 2018 as I ended 2017, new me....new attitudes and new determination.




Ahthankyew

still sore

Not quite gasping for breath sore, but the back is still sore. Thought it was getting better yesterday but when I got out of bed today it was really bad...might have twisted in my sleep or something...


More likely I slept long enough for the painkillers and alcohol to wash out my system..I'll do something about that.



Ahthankyew

oh c'mon....no?

I did my back in, not doing anything even remotely energetic or slightly risqe, nope , I was reaching into the fridge to get some fish and my back just exploded.
Unbelievable pain, had me gasping for breath for several minutes....before I was able to get on my back to flatten it out.

oh man, I was just about to cycle over to Liz and Pete's too, but after that it was very clear I wasn't cycling anywhere.

thankfully though our friend Berrie came and picked me up,...and drove very very slowly to avoid speed bumps. But he couldn't' help but corpse with laughter as I squealed in pain at ever turn and speed change.

Anyway as long as I sat in my chair I was ok and had a wonderful dinner followed by a simply awesome game of poker which saw me as chip leader for a large part of it. Sadly right at the end, Berrie came back into play and some utterly crushing play from him saw me losing more than 70euros of my much hard won winnings... But I broke even and had a great night..before crawling very slowly and painfully into bed after 5am...a good evening with pills and alcohol keeping the pain at bay

My back is going to be screwed for a few days still, but it will get better....I hope.


Ahthankyew

Fame...but not much fortune.

My beginners C++ coding articles have started in MagPi I dunno if this will be 6 months or a year but its still nice to get myself a credit in a published magazine. You can also download it free or pay for it in the shops.
Its really hard to fit in what you want to say in only 3 pages, but I think I got off to a good, if uninspiring start. We'll see if part 2 when we finally get some graphics going will peak peoples interest.





Ahthankyew

Never invite a vegan to a meat party

I had a dinner party for my birthday( bappy hirthday to me) and had a really nice 4 course menu, but I totally underestimated how much effort it would take to provide vegan options for one of my guests, it was a bit of a nightmare for timing and organising.

but though the food was slow out of the kitchen, it was good, and the vegan options were well received.

I even made a vegan cheesecake for everyone...better than I expected... but frankly, I much prefer the real deal..

no point in doing my weigh in, I utterly stuffed myself as my birthday treat, I'll wait a few days till I get back to my diet...It may get destroyed again at Christmas but I'll try do do a bit more of that exercise stuff

Ahthankyew

wtf 94.2?

Eh....but.. I've been good...aside from one slip where I had a chinese takeaway....damn that is disappointing.

ok so havn't actually been to the loo in a day or 2, one of the downsides of eating less carbs, but...still....this is very upsetting.

I need to get stricter on the diet and harder at the gym, not at all happy.


Ahthankyew

93.2 knew it was a blip

yeah, I guessed it was just a blip, back to the strict diet again and 5 mins extra on the rowing machine.

Ahthankyew

92.9 ?? thats...odd

Really not sure how, as I've not been quite so strict this week with my diet, but I have been maintaining my restricted lunch and no sweets/treats rule.

Maybe the increased exercise is kick starting the old skinny me's metabolism back in, in which case I'll be 8 stone again in no time.

wow 8 stone, I was that weight right up till I quit smoking in my late 20's. Don't really want to be that thin again but it will be nice to get to 10.


Ahthankyew

First look at my bookie wookie

I have the first proofs, and am really pleased to see it, not sure I totally like the formatting in places but its still great to see it. I supplied nearly 900 pages in double space and they've crunched it down to 450ish in single spacing...ok well it does mean less paper I guess, but I was kinda looking forward to seeing a big massive drop on your toes and crush them but still its a hefty book.

what is amazing is for god knows how long, the cover page and headers I had the name of the book wrong....wtf..how and when did that happen??? I only realised when one of the notes mentioned changing the name of the book...wtf..how did it change form The Fundamentals of C/C++ Game programming: using target based Development on SBC's... to.
The Fundamentals of C/C++ Game Development: using target based Developement on SBC's...........two developments??
I just blanked it..it must have been there for months...


Anyway the book is clearly registered with its proper name, it was just my title that was mangled for some reason. I will have to spend a bit of time in the evenings reading through...that's going to be fun.


Ahthankyew

93.5 phew, not too much damage

2 proper meals in the hotel didn't do any real harm.

Back to the gym tomorrow (groan)

Ahthankyew

Heading home

Ok thats Finland ticked off the list of places to see...rather cold and grey, and no sign of the northern lights sadly.

heading home on a very comfortable train whisking the miles away with power for the laptop and pretty decent wifi..this really is a nice way to travel.

Sadly in about 30 mins I have to leave this nice train and start the process of queuing up to be treated like cattle on a plane...bah...


Other news..my book proofs are due for delivery tomorrow,  they mailed to let me know, so can't wait to see what they've done with the scribbles and bad screen shots I sent them...

No idea on the weight, didn't eat a lot in Finland but did have a few drinks with meals, so that might boost the calories, but that said, all this walking in snow and running for trains counts.



Ahthankyew

Finland is very cold and very dark....

Well no scales to check so can't tell, but the food is quite fatty so guess it will have an impact...what I honestly didn't realise is they are 1 hour ahead....almost missed my stop on the train thinking I had an hour till it arrived

Just up here to meet up with some people, do some computer chats and have a little nosey around, I'm quite far north so kinda hoping to see the northern lights.


nothing so far.

Ahthankyew

Farce

went to pick up the new phone, you know the one I scheduled for a Saturday delivery because I would not be home to pick it up Monday or Tuesday...
it was supposed to be at our local Gamma store by 3pm. I went there at 5.45

they didn't have it.

check track and trace, they don't know when it will be delivered there.


farce


Ahthankyew

93.7 still no phone

A bit of extra effort at the gym and a long cycle ride, though I did treat myself to a curry, minus bread and drained of excess gee.....but back under 94 kg and will try to keep it that way, hoping to get under 93 in a week.

The new phone is currently sat in the pick up depot, after another failed attempt to deliver it yesterday. So annoying I got back just in time but was on the bike and could not get the back door open as I'd left the key in it (I left out the front door yesterday) I could see the van through the windows,if I had got in the door I would have caught him but by the time I realised I could not open the door, and had re-opened the back gate and run around he was gone. A comedy of errors really.

But I'll pick it up on the way home tonight..Not that its any kind of special event, its only an Iphone 6, to upgrade my 5, but I just want to stop making pocket calls to strangers as my 5's off button isn't working.

Ahthankyew

94.4 I feel bad....

I know exactly what this is, I got very very drunk on Sunday when out with my mate Martin...and I had a kebab.....and then another... I lost all control under the influence of the booze.

So 2 major break from my regime has shown the danger.... I will be good and do a bit more extra gym stuff.


Ahthankyew

94.2 not as bad as feared

yes I did pig out the Thanksgiving turkey dinner was magnificent and I had a double helping..
Was going to go to the gym to work some of it off, but I'm stuck in waiting for my new Iphone to arrive.

on that note, its not an X,  I love my 5c I really do, but its getting chuggier each upgrade and the top on/off button is not really working. My provider had an offer on Iphone 6's and I thought I'd give it a try, its bigger than my 5c but we'll see how it works out. I'm not a fan of bigger phones, so chances are if I don't get on with it, I won't upgrade to the later Iphones as they are bigger still and I just don't want that. So this may be my last Iphone

when it arrives....

Ahthankyew

93.3 but that won't last

I am going over to my Friends Liz and Pete for a thanksgiving dinner (Liz is American), there's no way to avoid it,  a big turkey dinner, cornbread, rumballs and other treats....

Back  to 98Kg tomorrow I fear.


Ahthankyew

93.7 oh yes,,,thats what I'm talking about

Love it when it keeps going down, I actually didn't expect it as I overate again, but gym, long walks, and reduced amounts of cake in my gob, are certainly working..

only 20Kg.. to go...oh....thats a lot...6 months at this rate, but hey, its all good.

Ahthankyew

93.9 Get in there

Despite over indulging in some really nice home made vindaloo last night, I cracked 93, it feels good.

The gym seems to be working, even at the current very light level so will hope to see 92 this week....maybe


Ahthankyew

94.4 oh well

Wibble and wobble. I was really hoping that I'd crack 93 this week, but nope. Not to worry, once the gym work kicks in properly I'm sure things will drop.

Diet is still going well, but I suspect my body has now adapted to the reduced intake and is keeping things level. I really hate being hungry and can't really cut any more from the intake without making myself super hungry, so its more about upping the gym work, just as soon as the machines don't start ringing heart attack alarms after 20 seconds.



Ahthankyew

94.2 Solid

100g is 100g, and not to be sniffed at.. Off to the Gym in a bit to do some grunting and sweating...

still my idea of total hell but has to be done.


Ahthankyew

94.3 with a bit of a wobble on 94.2

The scales giveth, and the scales taketh away....blessed are the scales.



Ahthankyew

grrr 94.9

Well as I said, fluctuations should be expected, and I did indulge in some potatoes last night, for the 1st time in a while.

Gym all signed up and the usual assessment process has determined I am over weight..unfit and need to lose weight and work on my cardio...well duh!

Didn't really get a chance to use any equipment properly yesterday but will do on Wednesday, just go through the machines for a few minutes each till I feel the fitness levels are appropriate to try and turn up the heat.

Ahthankyew

94.4 get in

and we're back to the dropping....hoping to get to 93 at the start of the week, will be taking a cycle into town later to sort out a gym membership and hopefully doing my 1st session on Sunday

I do need to get a reasonable pair of trainers and sort out some workout gear,
Am planning 3 trips a week, Sunday, Wed, and Friday. I don't have band practice or other regular commitments on this days so an hour in the gym then will be perfect. Since its also close to the cinema, I might even have a crack at catching a movie or 2 that I've been missing out on.


Ahthankyew

damn.. 95.0

Borderline 94.9 but still a slight gain on yesterday...I guess 3 brie crackers was 2 too many for supper.

Its annoying to see but really its quite normal to fluctuate 300-500g on a daily basis, depending on what you eat and when you go to the loo. So I won't get to downhearted over this... I did a good long walk with Harvey, who was plumb tuckered out when we got back, so must have been good.

Back is almost better now, so will get signed up to the gym tomorrow and make my 1st efforts this weekend.


Ahthankyew

94.7, cracking a digit is very cool

Yup, dropped below 95, as I hoped, and doing well. If I maintain this 200-300 g per day I'll be a very happy man, though I suspect once my body realizes what I'm trying to do it will rebel and the drop will slow down.
Getting a unit digit down is very satisfying, I suspect I might have a party (diet food) when I drop to into the 80's

realizes...realises... I wish this spell checker would use proper English instead of that American version...grrr



Ahthankyew

95.0kg

Yes I'm going to start recording the weight again after a few years when it was down in the low 80's, more to shame myself a the moment than anything but given that I was 98kg 2 weeks ago, this is a good start.. It hovered on the 94.9kg but didn't stay there.. But I am losing 200-300g a day with my diet and increased activity, as soon as the back is feeling better I'll get to the gym and really get the calories burning.

And that's the only gossip I have, back is still twinging, but getting better.




Ahthankyew

owww

I don't think here is a connection to my recent full on cleaning mode, but last night as I was sat in the office doing some work, I stood up to an intense pain in my back...muscle pulled for sure...

So no more cleaning for a few days, just as well most of my normal work involves sitting very still on a cosy chair, which may in fact be causing the back ache.

But yes half the house is now very clean, I even spent a good hour scrubbing the steel extractor hood with vinegar to get the grease off it.  Still got the spare room and attic to go for the deep clean experience but the house is suitably clean and tidy again as part of my, new me, run away from the old me before it kills me.
Diet is progressing well between 2 an 3 kilo's lost, depending on when you weigh, and I think I have found a nice gym in town, which I was going to sign up for yesterday until the back thing happened (a warning perhaps)

Going to do something about my wardrobe soon too, but not till I've lost some more weight, there's no point buying clothes that fit now and won't in 6 months, except for t-shirts, which I wear anyway so thats hardly going to be a new look.

Quite like granddad shirts and waistcoats, even though they are very out of fashion, and hard to source. Will see about that another time.

Today, though I'll have to pass on the cleaning, and keep myself dosed with ibuprofen and focus on some sit down work.




Ahthankyew

Another check

US spelling, I had forgotten that I had another advance on my book due when I delivered the manuscript, which I did last month, and sure enough this morning a good old fashioned paper check arrived... :D The bank won't have any idea what to do with it again but even so its a nice little bonus to top up again after my holiday.

Lets hope I get these every 6 months now and in much bigger lumps....not likely but nice to dream.



Ahthankyew

Chained to the loo

I've had a rather nasty stomach flu since coming back from Thailand, I felt unwell the day before I left, but dosed up on loperamide to avoid any nasty accidents which even with the delayed travel back kept me in clean underwear.

Since I got back I didn't use the loperamide so that whatever it is can get the hell out of me, but after 5 days of bad bad cramps and explosive trips to the loo I've gone back to it. Which is good, except when it wears off, the resulting trip to the loo is beyond description......beyond....description.

Anyway, we'll see if I need to take some more later.

The other downside to this flu is that I've felt pretty rough overall, but that hasn't stopped me going to work or doing my increased physical activity but it does impact on my coding, I cant really come up  with a single idea for what to do next....really frustrating.

I hope this wears off soon. On the plus side, its also impacting on my appetite, I'm just not that hungry.....good for the diet I suppose.


Ahthankyew

hah I outlived the Gym

Spent the last week, on the diet, already dropped 2 kg, most likely from the stomach flu I've had since I got back from Thailand. But also been increasing my physical activity, much longer walks with Harvey (he's confused!!) Longer routes to work on the bike, and making more effort to use stairs etc.

ok, they are very small steps, but I was just building up to the horror of the gym.....but no horror needed, I walked past today with the intent of popping in to see what was on offer.. and its closed :D

Despite my 25 euros a month propping it up for the last 4 years with 0 actual output, they closed.... yeaaahhawwwwfuck

Seems to have happened a few months ago, that's when the direct debits out of my account stopped, I hadn't noticed and I just never walked passed since to notice the doors were actually locked.

Oh well, guess I will have to find another gym to join, there's dozens of them around so it won't be too hard I'll scope them out for a week or 20......no no I won't I really do have to do this.




Ahthankyew

Oh you fat bastard

So Thailand was fun but also an eye opener, I was shocked and saddened by the scores of fat old men with young thai girls on their arms shuffling around. I can't judge if their relationships were genuine or part of the holiday sex trade but it did shock me into taking a long hard look in a literal mirror, and fucked if I like what I see.

I've been in serious denial about my weight gain and slipping life standards, the house is messy, the back yard and shed are bomb sites, and I'm not taking care of the normal every day things, including my health, I eat too much, I drink far too much and I just don't do enough. Basically I've been moping around for nearly 3 years now, its time to get a grip.

I have to stop, or I'm not going to see 60. A proper diet, a proper clean up, a proper exercise regime...and yes I do mean the much detested Gym, but I weighed myself last night..

98Kg.....98Kg......fucking hell....I mean its no wonder I suffered in the heat in Thailand, and was even puffing as I put on socks....c'mon Brian...time to stop.

I am going to get my shit together. Having a total clear out, of all the crap in the cupboards and freezers.


Ahthankyew

home sweet home

I'm back

I can say I had a very nice holiday, saw some wonderful sights, enjoyed some memorable bucket list experiences, drunk a lot of cheap booze and enjoyed it, but there were also things I didn't like.

I got a little ill the last days, part cold/flu, part food, the travel back was fucking awful and I will never fly Aeroflot again ever....

But also I can't see me going back to Thailand, its nice to see, but once seen, it pretty much wraps up any reasons to go there. It's very commercial, hard to find any authentic sense of Thailand, and it's very oppressive and the sleaze that everyone assumed I went there for is incredibly real, and very depressing and in no way appealing to me.

At times it was impossible to sit at a bar and drink without being hassled by hawkers or more often hookers. I know I'm a sexy maaaan, but I kinda don't need to hear it as I'm trying to have a quiet drink and being pawed at. I did find some quieter bars but even then the ladies would turn up at different times looking for customers.  I discovered it was best to hang out in bars where Aussie families hang out, for some reasons the Aussies have the family holiday part separated from the hoards of young men on brothel crawls. Sadly the family bars switch into hooker hang outs around 9 when the kids go back to the hotels/

Its actually rather depressing and sad to have such in your face approaches, it made me wonder why such a market exists, and the reasons is basically the tourists who go there to treat the place as a massive brothel.
The other thing that disturbed me was seeing so so so many old men, my age and older walking around town with young rent a brides hanging on to them. I took a long hard look in a mirror, and wondered how long will it be before I sink that low. Its really time to fix some aspects of my life before I slip into that kind of decline.


The country side is stunning, and the boat and jungle/forest trips I went on were wonderful. But now I've been there done that, I won't be back.

And I will NEVER fly Aeroflot again at least not via Moscow...did I mention that. I can't even write down how awful the customer service is..never ever again.


Back to work tomorrow. Can't wait.

Ahthankyew

ermm no its not a sex holiday

I'm really quite amazed that people are assuming that a singleton heading to Phuket for a week is there to work his way through the entire female and ladyboy population...... Everyone, I've told I'm going there on holiday has made that assumption?

At no point did it even enter my head.. I'm going for the warm weather (albeit possibly rainy), the beaches, the food, the boat trips, the excursions, the temples, the elephant and tiger sanctuaries  and the sex...no no, no, won't have time for the sex. There are 2 apparently well stocked brothels within 5 mins walk of my house if I wanted that and if that was the intent I think Bangkok would have been a better destination. But still a damn site more expensive that walking round the corner to Club Reaperbaan...

I really am just going to relax, get away from computers and students and book writing for 1 week in a 5 star hotel, have drinks on the terrace, swim in the eternity pool and laze in the on terrace Jacuzzi.  It cost much the same as a week in the Canaries so why not?
I had 0 summer holiday, cos I was way to busy coding and writing so this is my way to escape, doing something totally different before the next set of student assessment stress, then Xmas.

I am really really looking forward to it, I hope the rain isn't going to be too bad, but 25-30deg temps and being waited on hand and foot is going to be great.



Ahthankyew

JamHub is no more

Actually its been no more for a while, the company I mean, it went under Dec 2016. What a shame that such a clever innovative product did not make it.
I don't use it as much as I want to, since some bandmates for whatever reason are reluctant to use it, but in small sessions its wonderful and I find it a great tool. Though not that great for recording.

I needed to replace a couple of extension parts,  fortunately I found a source in NL/Bel that has them.. I better get a few, but I will just get the one I need and let the school buy the 2 it needs.


Ahthankyew

new vid

A few dead notes in the guitar, but we're still getting the hang of this number, Roos sings beautifully.

Ahthankyew

Holiday pick me up

In get a week off in October, and didn't really fancy staying in NL, so decided to head off for some sun, as I really didn't have much free time during the Summer, working on projects and the book.

But where can you go where its still warm? I like the Canaries a lot and always wanted go to Greece but Europe is chilling down now so it wouldn't be the best idea.

So I am going further afield and heading to Phuket in Thailand for a week, helluva long flight, via Moscow of all places, but its still very warm there in October, potentially a bit rainy but I booked flights and 5 star hotel for pretty much the same as it would cost me to go to the Canaries...so boom going for it.

Hoping I can get the last of my projects done and dusted beforehand
lol yeahh.hhh

Ahthankyew

New laptop

Got a new work laptop, its impressive a top end Alienware thing
horrible  keyboard though, smaller than my last one so I am hitting the capslock instead of the A key

Its going to take a few days/weeks to set it all up the way like it,  which is why I hate new laptops, I'm used to a particular  setup on my laptop, which will take a while to get done on this..b I have my old laptop for a week or 2 as I transition, so hopefully I can get all my tools transferred

oh well, its a lot more powerful, capable of running VR and Vulkan so it'll be useful for me to continue my learning on 3D and API's


Ahthankyew

huge come down

ok going to say it now, I'm feeling incredibly down, the end of the book has meant I've had a little bit of time to myself, and its kinda depressing that Im no further on in my life than I was 2 years ago.

Not going to go into details but it is getting to me.I was supposed to be at a concert tonight, but going alone didn't really appeal to  me so I gavce the tickets to friends. I've got another thing non Friday, going to see Ricky Gervais, that will be funny so I'm going to go, and take my friend Liz,   it will hopfully cheer me up, but I wish it could be someone I'm in relationship with...its just not happening..

Also the coding work I am doing is actually giving me a lot of stress, I managed to achieve some very major things in the last couple of days, getting graphics working across almost all linux targets and today working out the problem and a fix for the keys on linux

I was initially delighted at cracking these 2 tricky issues, but now I'm just feeling exhausted and down. If I keep working I'm distracted, if I stop, the shittiness of life kicks back....

guess I just have to keep busy.


ho hum....better not start singing sad songs on the guitar, I'll depress the neighbours



Ahthankyew

And now we're back, from outer space

I just walked in to ......

sorry, listening to disco music..

Back to work tomorrow, no students yet, we spend 2 weeks getting set up and ready for them but I think we're already pretty sure what we're going to be doing with them, barring a few minor changes.

Its been an interesting holiday, I worked the whole time, aside from a couple of, can't keep my eyes open I need to sleep, rest days and one poker night, I've been a busy camper.

At least we get a week off, 5 weeks into the block, I am going to try to escape to the Canaries for some sun and sand and escape from computers.. I'm sure something will screw up that plan.

Ahthankyew

missing bits replaced

Ok, missing bits have been replaced, still dunno where they went to but not to worry I was able to get them back in.

Sent off to the publishers again, now waiting for feedback, and also doing the website now..

Back to work on Monday...just as  I need a bloody holiday


Ahthankyew

Nearly normal services are resumed

Handed over to the publisher yesterday, an of coruse as soon as I sent it I found lots of things I ndeed to edit...but the book is content complete and all I am going ot do is fix, refine some parts...so no more late late nights.

and the Coleco game is starting to make sense again....

Im going to have a mega clean up to get ready for he life I'm about to reclaim.

oh hang on, I forgot something else :D


Ahthankyew

ohhhh...

yes a few small things got overlooked,  I'm working through them now...nothing mad though, its genuinely close.


Ahthankyew

....could it b?

No todo's to do, some tidy up's and checking but, no todo's to do.

not going to say it yet......but the end is basically......just over there past that big cock up you can't quite see around that corner, next to that thing you forgot behind that bit you did totally wrong.

Ahthankyew

Limping over the line

Still one final thing to do, explaining and reusing terrain collision meshes.....oh god its slow work....

Sadly my main model for the environment isn't especially good, creating more issues, But I have managed to get the main code in and running, I've got the screen shots and code snippets. I just have to fix or find the model that can provide the right visual cues to explain the points...and then its done.

Been working 20+ hour shifts for the last 4 or 5 days...on top of 14-16 hour shifts....I am close to dropping dead...but the thought of being done with everything is keeping me going.

hopefully my next post will be...its done!! praise bejeebuzz.

watch this space.


Ahthankyew

Noooooo

I had a relatively painless experience installing Bullet Physics, the test systems worked ok, I put my cars in and they fell and bounced, but rotated 90degs...no problem things I...

I'll rotate them back....only for the physics to stop phyucking working.

Oh and trying to add the debug draw.....bastard system....

BastardBastardBastardBastardBastardBastardBastardBastardBastardBastardBastardBastardBastardBastardBastardBastardBastardBastard

an time for a nice cool bottle of supermarket piss weak cider, then back to work.

Ahthankyew

7 todo's to do

thats 7 things I noted in the book I needed to review, add to, or provide code for...hoping to get 2 more done to day and the final 5 over the weekend.............then.....I dunno

maybe have a life or something?

Ahthankyew

arrghhhh

A week gone, still not done....lots finished and some good new stuff added but still not done.


so so so fucking hard to finish


Ahthankyew

Holidays???

Desperatly trying to maximise my time to finish off the book and coleco projects, so even though the holidays started on Thursday more or less worked constantly since, aside from a night out with my good friend Ed. I have a day out today as well which hopefully will end in a good poker profit, but even if not it will be a fun day.
Then back to it...No  messing, just working non stop till they are done. Nocternal living here I come.

there's not much else going on, I will report any interesting stuff if and when it happens.




Ahthankyew

Phew mad rush

Been mega busy, at work and at play, the Annual Sebeliouslaan double graduation gigs went quite well in spite of our slightly improvisational nature of our replacement lead singer. The extra rehearsals were well worth it.

I was much less happy with my gig at Belcrum Beach thugh accompanying Roos and her friend Ed from another Band (not our Ed, though both play bass funnily enough)  I had to play some melody lines on a song she was singing and Ed was playing the main chords, but I simply could not hear the guitar through the monitor and the engineer was not at the desk...I made so many errors I could see people cringe... I slightly redeemed myself by playing SOS for Roos, since I can do that with with my eyes and ears closed but I felt terrible at being so bad.

Anyway, that was just the personal life, work wise, graduates are graduated, interns are interned and students are all graded and most of them can move on to 2nd year and have some fun. Its been a good crop this year I feel back for the couple who didn't make it but I'm hoping they keep up the work and maybe they will get where they want to be.

Its back to book work, which in spite of all the other work I've managed to squeeze in quite a lot of ...but now the Publisher wants it done.. I have to just work full time flat out and get it to them.


Ahthankyew

The site is up!

Well its up, but its not got all the content in there yet

Take a look at it here its still mostly a holding page and due to my lack of expertise with Dreamweaver, the design package I am using, its pretty generic, but I'll tinker with it and start adding pages and content to it as I go.

I've got to offload a lot of the book code sections to that, to keep the page count down so it will start to grow.

Had a lot of fun yesterday adding the light based shaders to the 3D games, so nice to see them becoming much more realistic. Per vertex lights work great, per pixels too but what a performance drop in them.
I won't be doing per pixel lighting in the actual book demos, it will just cause things to really chug,  so its going to stay on the site as an example of what is possible rather than what you should do.

Back to work progress is really good again and I want to make the biggest dent possible in the todo list this weekend to try to get it to the publisher .

The book has been pushed back to Q1 2018, which is a shame, but I am not going to assume any more time I must finish this in the next couple of days so I can get my life back together and move on with other things that have been stacking up.

Ahthankyew

Slowly readching the end.

Incredible, I mean really incredibly, the progress has been so painfully slow, but I can see the last few bits to do, the only  problem is that for the last 2 -3 weeks every single thing I've tried to do has not worked, 5 minute tasks inexplicably take 5 hours, small errors get magnified, and for no reasons I can see, things that should work fine and do on a PC test case, don't work on the Raspberry.

Im sure much of this is just due to total code exhaustion, there's so much code in this book and the support site and trying to keep it all in a consistant style while allowing it to evolve is a mental task I don't think I've ever had to deal with on an individual project

But in spite of all this incredibly hassle, I'm limping to the finish line..... I just fucking hope that last day or 2's work does not take a month or 2




Ahthankyew

Nose almost worn down

Its been stuck at the grindstone for too long

I  am genuinely exhausted, not getting to bed till 2/3 am and having to get up for work at 8 at least twice a week, (lucky the other days Im not so fixed on my start time)

I know Im making progress but it just never seems to end, small 10 min jobs inexplicably bring some hiccup that takes 10 hours, sucking both time and life out of me.

the todo list is shrinking at an impressive rate, but some of the code still refuses to play nice...

I'm going to try to kill it this weekend....try....assuming nothing else takes 10 hours.

I never in my wildest dreams, after 70+ game projects thought writing a book would be harder.....it is.


Ahthankyew

arghhh

slow progress on the code, fixed a lot of the issues but slooooooowwwww


getting very wound up

Ahthankyew

Horrible times

Less than 2 weeks ago, I was in the UK, staying for a while in Southwark, right next to London Bridge,  and visited and ate in the Borough Market, walked over London Bridge, like so many other tourists.
I went to Manchester, to Victoria Station to change trams to get to Rochdale.

Hearing about the bombs in Manchester happening as I was passing through, and last night the terror attacks in London, on the streets I walked through and sat and ate, it makes you pause...anyone can be a victim of these nutters. Even safe and sound back in NL I'm troubled that no one is ever safe from madmen who want to harm you, its only accidents of timing and location that keep you safe.

Horrible times we live in, I doubt I'll live to see the end of these kinds of acts of violence justified by twisted religious morality.  We need to make the right start for future generations and take away the immoral justifications, starting with religion. Why do we still make excuses for it? It is without question the greatest evil humanity has ever produced.

Its not that I'm against Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, or any of the countless other beliefs and their practitioners, I recognize the supposed need and real comfort they give people, but they are fictions, being used as facts. Its delusion on a unimaginable scale.
If we stopped presenting them as facts to our children and let them question and refuse religion, we'd end so much of the hate that is used to divide us. It might take a couple of generations but getting people to stop brainwashing kids to believe that an invisible  sky fairy is looking after us and only us because we live the right way, is one thing we can do to make a better world.

Teach our children that they are responsible for all the worlds good and evil things and pretty soon they will want to make things better, not transform it into their idea of heaven on earth. Morality isn't religion's gift, its humanity's.

There is no afterlife, there are no rewards or punishments for the life you lead, there are no gods....lets just make the world better for us and our children and enjoy your time.




Ahthankyew

I am home

And so is Harvey.

life is back to semi normal.


Ahthankyew

Record Time

Passport is here, so happy, as much as I love spending time on Danni's couch listening to Harvey2's babbling, I need ot get home...flights changed, heading home tomorrow



Ahthankyew

This is rather nice...might do it again

One of the nice things about my cheap 1st class ticket, cos I booked in advance, is that I get to use the 1st class lounge at Euston.
Its a little busy at the moment, but free coffee, biccies and a small desk space to set up the laptop and charge phone etc...rather pleasent.

I must say I have always refused to use 1st class even if only a few quid more but in future I'm going to grab it with both hands, this is so much less stress than standing in the main hall of Euston smelling Burger King and staring blankly at a screen waiting for an update every 10 mins..

Heading up to Manchester to stay with sprog and await my passport. Left my nice AirBnB room this mornng all tidy, but of course I had to cock up and left my keys and dutch travel card in the desk drawer which  luckily I  noticed when I got to the tube station but before I got on the train...a few calls and a mini cab back to the place where I was able to get the friendly neighbour with the key to let me back in and collect my things.

I had to take the cab because quite frankly the hills up and down from the station to the house almost killed me. 9 years in the Netherlands has totally ruined my once fine athleltic physique...cough

nah its not funny I was totally puggled walking up a hill....it was a steep one but still, puggled is not good....I must do something about my weight and general state of fitness.... I  keep saying this I know, but fuuuck....when walking up a hill is too  much  effort I need to do something.

Book remains in 99% but can't do that last 1% limbo, was working all the time I was in the BnB till the small hours, only popping out to eat, but lack of notes makes it impossible to finish. The new model I was using for the race track demo also turned out to have a few issues. Nothing I couldn't fix but it just drained time and  still isn't quite right. Hoping I have space on the train to get it up and running and move on to the final open envirionment game

Better sign off here and use the hour I have to wait to  update the chapter on the issues with the model and see if the error I had is something obvious that I can fix without a Pi attached.




Ahthankyew

a First class wait

Well the AirBnB is really quite nice, its like being a lodger in someones house, though I've not seen much of them, we chat when I go downstairs for coffee.
I'm madly trying to edit my book, without the benefit of my own library for checking things, especially maths. Making a lot of things much harder.

Lucky for me I brought a raspberry and screen with me, its a bit small, but it at least lets me test out some of my code, not all though which is a concern and I still need too try to deliver on Monday.

I've no chance, a lot of my notes and content are on my main PC at home, ....home :(

I've let the publisher know my prediciment, Im sure he's sympathetic, but really just wants the manuscript, so I've worked as much as I can on my laptop, sat on a deck chair in my bedroom. Getting the spelling and content all ready.. I think that we're there.. If I can't actually do the coding, at least I can do the editing, its 840 pages, 40+ more than they want but they can change the text size if its too much for them.

Tomorrow I head up to Manchester for the week to spend with my daughter and grandson, not sure how much work I'll get done up there, I know she has no wifi but I can use my phone if I am not too reckless with bandwidth.
Since I was able to book in advance I have a 1st class ticket, never done that before, but its more to make sure I have a table and power socket to work on the 2+ hour trip.

As much as I am looking forward to seeing Danni, I really wish I could get home and finish my damn fucking book as well as the Colecovision work I have to nail now that I have invested in some proper equipment.

I've got a plane booked on the 29th, onthe presumption the passport will come on the 26/27th.... I just hope I didn't misspell some twatting thing.


Ahthankyew

London... a new kind of hell

I've lost my passport, no idea how, where, thiough fair idea of when, but lost or stolen I am currently without it...

Thats a pain in ways you can't imagine, since as a UK citizen, currently in the UK, I have no means of getting hold of emergency travel documents...nor can I apply for the 1 day priority passport, I can only apply for a renewal and that will take 7-8 days

oh shit......and I check out of the hotel later today...

I have a plan, I'm tryng to get an Air B&B for a few days, then head up to Danni's for a few more days, where I can have the passport sent, assuming they will send it there since I am actually not registered at any address in the UK...this is going to be such fun..

I need to get a passport applicaiton from the Post office, this morning, train to Tunbridge Wells to get a friend who is a company director to countersign that he knows me, back to London Passport office to make the application then hope that all goes well..

Currently having trouble getting Air B&B to accept my drivers license as ID....oh joy

And all through this I need to finish my book....


fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck and another fuck....


Ahthankyew

Grading over, back to mad work

Nice to get the grading down, it was kinda nice to not be writing as much while I was doing that, but time get back to mad hours and finish this damn book, only 1 thing to finish up and then I ncan hand it over finally

just hope I don't have any last minute bugs to clear up.



Ahthankyew