I’ve Finally Joined the Gym!

Posted on October 19, 2008 by Paul

Yesterday I finally took the plunge and joined the gym. It isn’t as if I haven’t been exercising as I run most days, play squash at least once a week and play football (badly) on a Tuesday evening. However I haven’t really been getting the results I expected and as the mornings are getting darker and wetter I thought taking exercise to the next level might be a good idea.

My sister joined The Warwickshire Health & Racquets Club a few months ago and we were both members when we were juniors so knowing it is an excellent gym it seemed like the logical choice. Chris also joined last week which will hopefully mean I’ll go more frequently as I’ll have two gym buddies.

After joining yesterday I managed to book a gym induction for Today and I have to say – it was awesome. During the session my personal trainer put me through my paces with interval training and time really goes quickly exercising that way! Also the personal trainer told me I need to eat way more protein so now I have an excuse to eat meat with every meal! Result!

What Are You Doing Wednesday Morning? Coventry Starbucks?

Posted on October 2, 2008 by Paul

Wednesday morning is quickly becoming my favourite morning of the week. Originally it was one of the worst, having to get up slightly earlier than usual to avoid the cleaners! However it has evolved into something much better!

Wednesday morning is now Starbucks morning. In the beginning it was just me, I’d grab a paper and head down there for about 7.30am which was awesome. Now we are getting a little group of us down there regularly mostly consisting of Matt and Chris!

So, what are you up to next Wednesday morning? Fancy a coffee? Well feel free to call into Starbucks for a coffee and say hi!

Google’s Chrome – No Thanks!

Posted on September 3, 2008 by Paul

There has been a heck of a lot of buzz about Google’s new web browser Chrome. I’m a huge fan of Mozilla Firefox and wouldn’t really consider switching as Firefox3 has some very cool features, however I do like the idea of someone challenging Microsoft. Competition is very healthy and you only have to look at how Microsoft has reacted to the growth of Firefox.

Chrome does appear to have some great ideas such as a personalised homepage which is automatically generated and running each tab as a separate process which means if one ‘page’ causes your tab to crash, the rest will keep going! Very clever.

Interesting, definitely, a good idea to use it, definitely not!

If you have a quick read of Google’s End User Licence Agreement (EULA) you will find the following paragraph:

11. Content licence from you

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights that you already hold in Content that you submit, post or display on or through the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content, you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive licence to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content that you submit, post or display on or through the Services. This licence is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

…uh, what? You mean if I type anything, upload any media content, do any work, do anything using Chrome, Google basically owns it. If I was writing this post now using Chrome, Google would basically own it! They could edit, adapt, mess around with it and sell it if they want.

Thanks Google, but no thanks. I think I stick with the Mozilla EULA.

The Strangers – Film Review (spoiler warning)

Posted on September 1, 2008 by Paul

[imdb:the strangers]

This is almost certainly the worst film I have seen in weeks!

The basic story: people go to house, nasty people pop up as if from nowhere as soon as the music calms down for the first time in 10 minutes. People eventually get killed in the last minute of the film.

Sorry if I ruined the story for you, however to be honest I’m doing you a favour.

Hellboy II – The Golden Army – Film Review

Posted on September 1, 2008 by Paul

[imdb:hellboy II]

I saw this with Chris on Sunday morning and I have to say, it was awesome. Well it was awesome compared to the first one!

Basically there is a golden army controlled by a load of elves who decide to take over the world… who are controlled buy a golden crown which controls them… and Hellboy has to destroy it to save the world. Oh and there was a walking tree type thing. Nothing like any other story, possibly in three parts… .

Anyway, it was enjoyable and was a much better way of spending Sunday am/pm than being incredibly hungover.

Mazda MX5 – A Shattered Dream

Posted on August 29, 2008 by Paul

Maxda MX5 For pretty much as long as I can remember, I have always wanted a Mazda MX5. In my opinion it is an extremely good looking car and even though it has some obvious impracticalities such as having only two seats and Britain only have 2 sunny days a year, I still wanted one.

For many years it was just a dream, however last month I found myself in the position where I could afford to buy, run and maintain one. Actually it would be cheaper to buy a ’05 MX5 than my current car, an ’06 Ford Focus!

A couple of weeks ago I went down to my local Mazda dealer with my Dad to have a look at a couple they had for sale. The salesman was doing his normal job of talking up the cars and they did sound impressive; “rear slip diff, low profile tires, 6 speed gearbox”. However, as soon as we started looking round them faults started to emerge. The chrome had blistered on the trim and alloys, nearly all the closures were set incorrectly and generally they looked a bit warn. Even worse, when sitting inside I discovered the seat was as far back as it went and I was a little cramped, and that’s just for starters. The interior was like something out of a ’80s Maestro, just not construed so well.

So I’m sorry Mr Salesman but I’m really not interested in booking a test drive. I don’t see the point. It was a good dream but onwards and upwards, I’ll just have to find something else to aim for!

Twitter is Awesome!

Posted on July 22, 2008 by Paul

I have been using twitter for just over a month and I’m hooked!

Twitter is like the facebook ‘Paul is…’ part but without all the other crap that does with it!

They describe it better so here is a quick youtube video:

If you want to check out what I’m doing, take a look at @paulbain on twitter.

Kung Fu Panda! – Film Review

Posted on June 30, 2008 by Paul

[imdb Kung Fu Panda]

Kung Fu Panda was simply awesome! It was entertaining all the way through and not due to innuendo found in films like Shrek, but because it was genuinely amusing!

The animated Jack Black aka Panda was a brilliant character. The film also had an underlying ‘feel good’ plot which was combined with a moral and socially relevant scenario as Panda was quite obviously an orphan as his father was a duck!

Well worth the watch!

Last Week in Manchester

Posted on June 29, 2008 by Paul

I am now into my last week living in Manchester which is a very strange feeling. I have known for just over 8 weeks that I would be moving back to Coventry, however it has come round very quickly.

The apartment has slowly emptied of my stuff over the past couple of weeks and my bedroom in particular is starting to look very bare! I’m planning to move the rest of my stuff back to Coventry on Friday which means I only have four days to get everything done at work! Fingers crossed!

I have started to realise recently how much I will miss Manchester, especially having a nice flat, lots of brilliant places to eat and drink and of course some great friends, however I can’t wait to get back to Coventry.

The main reason to move back to Coventry was to be closer to most of the family and the majority of my best friends are still in Coventry or are back frequently which will be great. It has been quite lonely in Manchester recently, but that is probably more of a reflection of how much effort I have been putting into life in Manchester; next to none!

On a blog related note, I hope to be keeping this a bit more up-to-date, so check back soon!

Coventry is Very Strange in the Morning

Posted on June 4, 2008 by Paul

This morning I was up and out of the house by 6.30. Nothing new in that, however this morning was different as I am working from Coventry this week and escaped the house to avoid the cleaners who scare me!

So I was in the centre of Coventry just after 6.30am and it was dead. I struggled to find an open car park and when I did, I was the only person there. I assumed Starbucks would be open as I’m sure the ones in Manchester open at 6.30 ish but it didn’t open until 7am.

It was quite nice walking around the centre while it was deserted. It seemed a little like ‘I am Legend’ just without the zombies. However I was a bit of a poor reflection that the only place open at that time of the morning was McDonalds.

On a different note, my new Macbook arrived today! I wasn’t so sad as most people appear to be on YouTube and record the unboxing, but I’m very pleased with it.

Paul Bain

PHP Software Engineer