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In checking the documentation for some method, I ended up wondering what ‘_StringBase’ is (as I already knew Ogre::string was a std::string). Taking a look at OgrePrerequisites.h I found an interesting define and typedef:

00148     typedef unsigned char uchar;
00149     typedef unsigned short ushort;
00150     typedef unsigned int uint;
00151     typedef unsigned long ulong;
00152 
00153     #if OGRE_WCHAR_T_STRINGS
00154         typedef std::wstring _StringBase;
00155     #else
00156         typedef std::string _StringBase;
00157     #endif
00158 
00159     typedef _StringBase String;

Since my project is set to use the unicode character set, it would be more convenient if Ogre::String objects were basic_string instead of basic_string at heart. Because Ogre is being used, I have a Source/Ogre folder so I can compile whatever I want without effecting “my base set” and SDK files else wheres; then just move the libraries over to my Buildtarget area afterwards.

Generally MSVC++ is a pretty fricken fast C++ compiler on Windows compared to MinGW, but Ogre is not a midgit. I setup a batch build for release/debug dll/static of all the required libraries and plugins in VCExpress, then I launched SWAT 4. The game takes a little while to startup so I went about my usual stuff; when I returned I found that Windows XP had crashed!

A blue screen of death complaining about a page fault in a non paged area, and noting an nv4_disp.dll (nvidia) file.

Sometime when I can afford the downtime, I’ll likely conduct tests of the machines memory (…), graphics card, and do a reformat of Windows XP. Before any of it, I will also likely compile a custom FreeBSD kernel on the machine as a pre-test of her integrity.

I have never, ever, under any circumstances had a system crash while compiling code., no matter what I throw at it (although I admit, 90% of the time I compile code on a FreeBSD box lol). Run out of disk space yes, shout barely intelligible linkage errors yes, muckle buckle about crappy dependencies yes… but never, has any of these *****s crashed during a compile! So this is starting to worry me a bit… oi, it’s always more trouble when a computer has been both obsolete and off warrentee for a few years.

So far, no luck in trying to sleep, even have tried burning more energy then normal, alas it appears to be hopeless. On the upside, tonight I’ve managed to overhaul my shell profile.

I spend most of my time behind a zsh, but also have regular contact with bash and various ksh; generally I avoid csh/tcsh on the grounds of muscle memory [sic]. The various Bourne style shells are a lot a like, but also a lot of differences once you grow past the /bin/sh of 30 years ago. I don’t care much for maintaining a profile/rc file for each shell I use, so approximately last year: I just wrote one central ~/.Terry_shrc file. The intention was for that file to be able to handle any OS/sh pair I’m likely to bump into, keeping to a portable subset of the scripting language & general unix. It only makes dialectual assumptions that functions (name() { list }) and aliases (alias name=’repl’) are supported; lesser portable constructs such as the $() and $(()) notations are totally ignored. My profile is so portable, that the bloody thing has even been easily adapted to Interix/SFU and Cygwin environments. The more OSes I encounter, the more portable the thing tends to get… lol. SFU/Cygwin basically required nothing, I just extended the platform detection stuff for the sake of creating workable aliases.

From the get go, the various shell specific rc/profile files were set to source my central profile, which in term was set to source a ~/.site_shrc file for site local changes; which of course is a symlink to ~/.site_shrc.hostname ;). Tonight I’ve extended it to source a .sh_funcs and .sh_funcs.osname for additional stuffs, as well some real improvements on how it goes about doing its magic.

Occasional SAS related stuffs, fiddling with my profile, and hashing out the various rs-* scripts for my rsync system aide, it’s been about 2 weeks since I’ve done any coding, and probably two or three months since I’ve done any hard core coding :-/. I’m always happier when I’m coding more….

The desktop is still powered on, left her downloading the ISO image for later; right now I’m in front of the laptop. My status message on pidgin, is set to indicate that anything not related to relaxing, is gonna get >/dev/null‘d!
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I plan to take the rest of the afternoon off to myself, if I can’t get a decent nights sleep, I may as well get a decent day off work, lol. Let’s see, what’s the plan…. Hmm, I need to get a few things typeset, tend to odds and ends—like catching up with a razor blade and a hot shower. Dixie is powered on, so that I can leave her unattended with the music streaming, while I get stuff done. There isn’t much on TV, but that is fairly normal 8=).

The dogs have been chasing me down, they’re angry that they can’t go out for a walk because of the rain :'(. In all fairness, I could use a walk myself; and the rain would help. The only problem is the idea of a 6 kg dog dragging a 73kg man through the mud >_>. Hopefully the rainy weather will subside a bit, so they can get their walks in for this weekend, and the internet connection will stay stable again 🙂

Well I tried, I really did try! Woke up from a nap and was so tired, I decided to skip the shower, shave, and computer for tonight, and just go to bed and try to get some sleep for a change. Just took care of odds and ends, threw on The Simpsons Movie for something to watch, and made ready to pass out.

Then her royal pain woke up and needed her back scratched, then she woke up Willow who decided to tackle me; *sigh* it is just impossible to win some times!!!!

Upon sleep proving to be a hopeless affair, I gave up and dug up some strawberry ice cream for a quick snack. Largely gave up junk food a long time ago, but sometimes I’m in the mood for something sweet. Finished the movie a lit’ bit ago, then decided to boot the laptop off batter power, and try and pass some time.

Si much for a nights sleep…

Today we’ve barely had any rain down here, just thunder; yet every darn time we get plenty of either in just the right spots, it’s virtually impossible to keep a steady internet connection!

I managed to survive work, just one more day and I’m free for a couple days… free to be stuck at home anyway, lol. I got home maybe around 1900Z, but I honestly have no idea where the day has gone +S. The most i can remember is making the web’rounds, discussing software over GTalk, and letting a friend dig me into reading X86 Assembly code for a few hours!

Right now, I’m just to freaking tired to get anything done, but to wide awake to just pass out and sleep. So far it seems to be fairly consistent, that once I logoff and lay down, that my brain goes bonkers :-(. On the upside, my dreams have been taking a much more positive light lately, then they have been for the past month or two.

What I really need is an exceptionally long vacation, just get away from it all…. where the most pressing worry, is where to have dinner! Ugh, but that ain’t likely to happen in my life time :'(

I made it off to work with a bleeding toe again, not as bad as yesterday though, I really miss having 10 healthy toes… but at least nothing landed on my foot today, for a change. Getting through today was an exercise in exhaustion, my stomach wasn’t very happy. I blame it on having 4 helpings of food last night but nothing to eat this morning :/. After getting home, I had a quick cookie to tide it over until dinner time.

Nearly twisted my left hand and fingers off getting the car loaded, had a bad slam into the car frame. I was able to send my arm into the motion to minimize the strain on the joints, but two of my fingers are still sore from it. They’re not going to get any rest either, because while much of the illiterate-majority of computer users are largely mouse bound, I’ll hang someone by their rats tail if I can’t go keyboarding! I type with ten fingers at mental speed, so if I couldn’t type, it would be like a normal person losing their voice lol. The trobbs are starting to subside somewhat, hopefully it won’t be swollen by work tomorrow. Maybe I’ll grab some server time tonight as a stress test.

Last night I took about an hours break from existing projects, to work on a rough prototype for part of an “SAS Realism” skin that I’m interested in making for SWAT 4. There are two different directions I can see it going in, so I started work on a mock up of one. In working on Cara’s armour vest, I had to do a little removal operation on the textures in order to get the text just right; doing that is pretty trivial but left it rather unsightly. In order to make it look good, I had to learn something new, which created a very nice looking end result for the vest textures. To solve the problem, I just looked at it like a sketch and tried to adapt what I would have done to paper, to the laptop in front of me. I chose to take an hours break and work on the mockup so I could refine the technique a bit more, might come in very handy with the next phase in doing Caras skins.

When I was at work, I was thinking a bit more about starting to draw again. The more I learn about the computer side of things, the more it looks like the same concepts are used with a different set of tools. At every opportunity to prove other wise, my mother constantly manages to prove that I can say *nothing* around her without paying a price for anything she finds disagreeable 8=). So, I’m probably not going to return to using paper anytime soon; especially when computers are better creators of privacy around here. Doing graphics on computers has never been my strong point, but it consistently gets easier the more I have to work on images. Someday maybe I’ll be able to do whatever I want through software like GIMP and Photoshop; and it is always nice to have something time consuming to work on, it can be very good therapy. I think I’m going to give it a go in the near future.

With my brain in a deeper level of thought from all of that, I also came up with some ideas needed for moving a program I would like to write into implementation phase. I’m always happier when I’m working on some code then when I’m not. The down side of course, is it usually means much less sleep! Since it was working on her custom skins that started this logic chain, I’ll probably have to thank or curse at Cara later on lol.

It’s just a few more days left to go…. Tues, Weds, Thurs, Fri; then I have 3 days off work. THe miserable thing, I haven’t a damn thing to do, that doesn’t come from popping from the todo list!

Right now it’s just as if everything is passing, but nothing is moving. Damn it, this is unnerving. I feel like I could be awake for another couple hours… probably will be tossing and turning for at least an hour. I wonder tentatively if I’ll ever find peace. Whenever I lay down to sleep, there’s nothing to occupy my mind as it drifts to sleep; as such it gains an unhindered measure of exploration. The thoughts never end, never. Ironically during the day, if I have nothing to occupy my mind with, I end up getting drowsy: at night I end up wide fsckin’ awake!!!

Peace ceased to be apart of my life a very long time ago. That which remains, is black and empty, maybe it will always be so.

This lack of sleep is driving me crazy… is it really to much to ask for, a simple bit of peace? Why is it so hard to come by such a trifle, it’s just sleep. Going nuts.

So far I’ve managed to write a quick script, that should take care of updating my laptop tomorrow afternoon; took to long getting the files downloaded to worry about running them tonight lol. That however, just passes the time, it doesn’t fill it. To easy, there’s no challenge in it and not very much distraction either :'(. At least, it’ll save me the trouble of another week-long update cycle, if I keep pace with things (like normal).

Tried reading some of the Count of Monte Cristo, but not even that calms my mind. Sometimes the past can be a path riddled with glass, if you have a long memory; and I have a very long memory. Sigh, 0430 local has passed… time to be heading to bed, if I’m ever going to get up on time tomorrow.

I’m so tired of all this shit,what does rest even feel like? Does it even have a sensation to it? I haven’t known it in such a long time. As darkness comes, the light retreats; as sun rises, so does the flames.

*sigh* it’s around 0400 local, I’ve been to tired to do much of anything tonight yet to awake to sleep. I’m still essentially wide awake, just exhausted. Tomorrows and early morning, only it really is today, in more ways then just the clock across the room.

I just wish that I could get some decent sleep for a change…. it would sure beat concluding the work week in zombie-fashion. My next day off is Saturday, hopefully there won’t be any interrupts. Lol, even the dog is stairing at me, as if to say wtf are you still doing awake!

Without a doubt, I seriously need some serious R&R

Nearly time to sleep, irregardless… sigh. Really, I think I’ve only had one decent nights sleep in the past 3 weeks or os, it sucks!!!

I’m just so tired of all of this crap +S.