So I watched a lot of TV this weekend. First it was the rugby, with Wales and England which was a real cracker. I really enjoyed watching this game. I’ve also realized that when games are tight – ie can go either way at any moment or when the scores are close and one team nips in at the end – that's a great game of watching. I was impressed with two players: Ross Moriarty from Wales was totally committed to each tackle and play of the game he was involved in. The other was from England and it was Nathan Hughes. Both players took huge hits and were in one word, relentless. England won in the last moments of the game having come up from being down to win 16-21. Well done, honestly.

I also watched the France and Scotland game. This was also a good game, and in the realms of the northern hemisphere teams such as England and Wales(above), the calibre of rugby was great. I’m not sure this level, as good as it seemed would compare with South hemisphere teams but who cares – they’re not here. France got the win in a similar way to England’s win over Wales with the end result being 22-16. France played as well as Scotland, arguably better – they did win, didn’t they!

Then I watched the new Lego Batman film and New 50 Shades Darker film. Different films admittedly – one was fun, silly and ridiculous which is why I watched it. The other was dark, serious and intense which what I needed after the Logo film!

I’m also either getting heavier or my bed’s mattress is getting on a bit because I can feel the springs in it now and then. So I went out and bought myself a a matress topper which is a new thing I saw while browsing the Argos app on my phone. This one was not a memory foam one, which I was sure I wanted but then read that it can make you a bit warm and I don't like being too hot in bed(well…). So I got this “air-flow” type one which is better ventilated and thicker. Generally, I guess its a poor mans solution to getting a new mattress but its not my mattress and I’m a tenant, so I’m not exactly running out to spend money on it. I slept particularly  well and this morning I didn’t feel like I had a stiff back or anything really. So that's good…

I also did some reading about interpreting requirements and converting them into conceptual models with associations, multiplicities and that. I actually got the hang of it pretty well but I was reading up between penalties and tries while watching to rugby – I perhaps I wasn’t as “in touch” and I could have been. Rugby was good though.

I wasn’t feeling too hot yesterday so I checked in sick. Slept most of the day and by the end of it, my back was sore because of how I slept – who knew that sleeping and rest could be so detrimental though in all honesty, it was good to rest up. I had a bit out of it since this run which seemed to coincide with something in the universe that slowed me right down, I don't know why but I think its because I been just doing way too much stuff and needed to rest. Sometimes as hard as it is, you need to stop, force yourself to stop else you will burn out.

Apart from that, I did go to the gym today however and i feel a lot better because of it – obviously I didn’t run/gym yesterday. In other news, I watched Donald Trump in action on youtube and thats pretty entertaining – especially as he exposes the biased and dishonest nature of the media at large – which I’ve always had a problem with. Remember this? For that I praise the guy for his determination and effort to expose it. The jury is out on all his other policies however but the guy’s growing on me honestly – if only for his, well frankness. So sue me, right?

Working on a few flaws in my word counting algorithm yesterday, which get exposed under Windows – Linux seems to handle the flaw well. Basically my unit test was failing and the problem was that I was doing some pointer arithmetic wrong – easily happens in C – probably why people tend to say that C is brutal because well it is. C# on the other hand or most other higher languages would be like ‘no, don't do that, don't move forward, don't collect £200 – sort that out now!’. C is like, ‘whatever man, you know what you’re doing right, you’re elite now right, you write C now? ok go for it”.

C is badass.

Here is what I did wrong, forget the other changes – that's just refactoring:

void STR_GetWordN(const char *s, unsigned int n, char* word)
 {
     int wc = 0;
-    for(int i=0;i<strlen(s);i++)
+    printf("input string is '%s'\n",s);
+    for(int c=0;c<strlen(s);c++)
     {
-        if(isspace(s[i])) continue;
+        if(isspace(s[c])) continue;
         wc++;
-        while(!isspace(s[i])&&i<strlen(s)) {
+        do {
             if(wc==n) {
-                *word = s[i];
+                *word = s[c];
                 word++;
             }
-            i++;
-        }
+            c++;
+        }while(!isspace(s[c])&&c<strlen(s));
         if(wc==n) {
-            word = '\0';
+            *word = '\0';
             return;
         }
     }

I also figured that I could make this function shorter but nevermind that, lets get it working first – right Dennis Richie?

I took out a book on SQL the other day, – haven’t even read the first chapter. That tells me one thing for sure – take it back you don't want to read it. Rule #1 is to trust yourself.

I installed Visual Studio 2015 on my tablet yesterday, that took up 15GB of space – can you believe it. Long gone are they days it took up like 500MB. I want to develop more on my tablet because its lighter than my laptop and I love my laptop though.

I’m in this vortex in space and time right now where I’m not sure who I like the most right now Linux or Windows – I just like them both and that’s kind of a tough place to be because you can’t devote all your time to the one. Time is running out and you’ve got two options, I hate that. Linux to me is like the admirably, honest and loyal friend and windows is the boss that everyone likes including you. Go figure.

Life is a game of choices.

I wear reading glasses. Not all the time though - only when I’m reading or working on the computer because I’ve got an astigmatism that makes my brain work harder when I try and focus on seeing things, especially small things – like small fonts and stuff. For instance, my one eye has got the astigmatism while the other is fine and by brain tries to workout the differences between the two eye’s interpretation of any picture, kinda like a 2-way merge process and because this process can be fairly process-intensive over a long period, I can get tired. That’s roughly how the optometrist explained it to me – I made up the bit about the 2-way merge though… So for studying or reading, I tend to get really tired and I’ve been known to just quit or fall asleep!

I don’t really realise how useful they are until I put them on and details become high-def, and then high-def really has a meaning. The other day I sat behind a woman on the bus and she was reading a book, I glanced over hear shoulder momentarily but couldn’t read/see what she was reading – put my specs on, any I could, even from where I was sitting behind her, make out large portions of her storybook – which I think was in polish, or some other foreign language. My sight was acute enough to make out that it wasn’t English. Pretty impressive. I’m like superman with x-ray vision, ok its not that but it feels like a super power at times.

I don't run with them or anything like that, and I’ve never needed them – I’ve done without them for the best part of 30 years. My normal vision is pretty good and I’m not going to be reading any books while I wiz-by the sidewalk. I also like to wear them when I watch tv and movies – like on Sunday I watched the new Underworld film, which is about the war between Werewolves and Vampires(btw: It got bad reviews on rotten tomatoes but I enjoyed it)

Been reading C# in a nutshell 2nd edition to and from work most days (that's why I had to put on my specs when I was in the bus behind that woman btw). I’m rather enjoying it – reading that is and not what other people in front of me is reading, but the c# book, duh!