diff --git a/optim_nn.py b/optim_nn.py
index 0c87e1f..b67c6b7 100644
--- a/optim_nn.py
+++ b/optim_nn.py
@@ -574,7 +574,7 @@ def run(program, args=None):
         mloss = 'mse',
         ritual = 'default',
         restart_optim = False, # restarts also reset internal state of optimizer
-        warmup = True,
+        warmup = True, # train a couple epochs on gaussian noise and reset
         log10_loss = True, # personally, i'm sick of looking linear loss values!
 
         problem = 3,
@@ -657,16 +657,27 @@ def run(program, args=None):
 
         # use plain SGD in warmup to prevent (or possibly cause?) numeric issues
         temp_optim = learner.optim
-        learner.optim = Optimizer(alpha=0.01)
+        temp_loss = ritual.loss
+        learner.optim = Optimizer(alpha=0.001)
+        ritual.loss = Absolute() # less likely to blow up; more general
 
-        for _ in range(2):
+        # NOTE: experiment: trying const batches and batch_size
+        bs = 256
+        target = 1 * 1024 * 1024
+        # 4 being sizeof(float)
+        batches = (target / 4 / np.prod(inputs.shape[1:])) // bs * bs
+        ins  = [int(batches)] + list( inputs.shape[1:])
+        outs = [int(batches)] + list(outputs.shape[1:])
+
+        for _ in range(4):
             ritual.train_batched(
-                np.random.normal(size=inputs.shape),
-                np.random.normal(size=outputs.shape),
-                config.batch_size)
+                np.random.normal(size=ins),
+                np.random.normal(size=outs),
+                batch_size=bs)
             ritual.reset()
 
         learner.optim = temp_optim
+        ritual.loss = temp_loss
 
     if training:
         measure_error()
@@ -683,8 +694,6 @@ def run(program, args=None):
             return_losses=True)
         batch_losses += losses
 
-        #log("learning rate", "{:10.8f}".format(learner.rate))
-        #log("average loss", "{:11.7f}".format(avg_loss))
         if config.log10_loss:
             fmt = "epoch {:4.0f}, rate {:10.8f}, log10-loss {:+6.3f}"
             log("info", fmt.format(learner.epoch + 1, learner.rate, np.log10(avg_loss)))