I had my gym one-to-one session on Friday. It was to tell the gym what I wanted to achieve and which exercises and machines were best for it.

In the past I have been getting into the routine of mainly using machines rather than free weights. I learnt lots of different new exercises which will hopefully kick-start different muscles working. Like I said at the start of the year, 2008 was the year to get super-fit. Its been going “OK” so far but needed that “kick”.

I was hoping to also find out my percentage body fat as the last time I measured it was more than 4 years ago at my previous gym. I think it was something like 17% ish (I think???). I had one of those free one which from a packet of Special K and it never changed!! It was always about 14% ish. Unfortunately the actual machine was being used for some demo so will use it some other time.

There is a new search engine around which claims to be better and do a more comprehensive searching job than Google. Cuil, pronounced “cool”, was created by a few people who used to work for Google.

I have tried it out and at the moment it doesnt seem that good. There are nice touches such as the tabs at the top to narrow down your search. However its search results are not as good as Google and the associated image just doesnt work too well.

For example I searched for “manchester united“. The results this time are OK (its no. 1 result was the official Manchester United web site) but the associated image for the Manchester United Wikipedia entry is of some old bloke. The image isnt even in the Wikipedia page?!?!?!

I also tried searching for my company Citrus Cube Design to see what it came up with and searched “citrus cube design“. Its first result was something from professionalontheweb.com. Out of the top 8 results, 6 of them are from professionalontheweb.com. Only one of the links, went to my profile on the site. The others were to other companies which apparently had citrus cube design in the text somewhere – it didnt! Also the little description for was completely unrelated and the associated image was of some office furniture?!?!

I found a few new search engines recently which try to do things abit different and more than just “search”. My favourite is one called Searchme. Not really tested its results properly but allows you to narrow your search down and then visually see the pages scrolling through – like you do in iTunes looking through the album covers. Very nice!!

I am sticking with Google for now!!

I went to see The Dark Knight at the weekend with some of my ex-workmates. First of all the movie is VERY good! I was really looking forward to seeing the movie as it had some excellent reviews. According to IMDB it is the no.1 movie ….. EVER. The average rating on IMDB right now is 9.3 out of 10.

I had read a couple reviews and pretty much all of them were given a top rating (since then I have read one review of 2 out of 5 – I think he was just in a bad mood when he watched it!!).

I really enjoyed Batman Begins so was expecting big things from The Dark Knight. It had everything. The stand out performance though is most certainly Heath Ledger as the Joker. He is fantastic. Its a truly menacing performance. AMAZING!!! Hes also not one of those “bad guys” who threatens to do something but doesnt end up doing so. He really does end up blowing a hospital up. Hes funny aswell with several laugh out moments. One of the ones I remember is the pencil vanishing trick. LOL

The special effects were great too … its always good to see the awesome batmobile (which is more like a tank!). I am trying not to spoil any of it for people who have not seen it yet but just to say the make-up/prosthetics are great … rather gruesome. (In some way surprised it was a 12A and not a 15).

The movie is quite long so be warned. Its about 2 and a half hours so including adverts and trailers your going to be in the cinema for almost 3 hours so go to the toilet first!! At one point in the movie it seems to be getting towards the end but then theres another 45 minutes!!!! Like I said its a very good movie but without Health Ledger it would just be a good action movie. (Almost Christian Bale’s batman voice is really annoying).

Rating: 8.75/10

Had a great lovely weekend. For a start the weather has been brilliant – very sunny and hot. (As usual the back of my neck has been tanned a lot). On Saturday I went to Tatton Park with a few friends. The park was quite busy – there was some flower show on and also with the weather being so nice lots of people in the park. We played abit of football, badminton and frisbee. In the evening I met up with some of the ex-workmates. We went to watch The Dark Knight which I was really looking forward to (review coming soon). It was brilliant!!! We then went for a nice meal at Wagamamas and a drink at Kro Picadilly. It was really good to catch up.

On Sunday I went to a friends house party. Lots of lovely food and great company. I will be uploading photos at some point soon on Facebook. It was very sunny and her garden had no shade so lots of people taking shelter under various umbrellas and tents. Also got the briefly catch up with some people I met in Shanghai a couple years ago – its a small world!

A few of us took shelter inside and somehow ended up watching High School Musical!!! I know!!!! My friend’s kids are big fans of High School Musical so one of the DVDs was playing on the TV. We wondered what was so good about it so she put Part 1 on. My word its sooooo cheesy.  Musicals are bad enough most of the time bursting into song but this was super cheesy – american cheese. There was no doubt that it was an American movie. When they were singing, it was such bad mimeing and the acting was laughable. Actually the movie was quite funny … unintentionally!

Later on in the afternoon/evening I went to a family party, also in Bolton. It was a good to see family and catch up (including a small game of garden 10 pin bowling). I got back home abit past 8 and watched the rest of Top Gear.

A few weeks ago it started getting warmer with nice sunny days and then suddenly a bit of a dull day. However the last few days have been scorching. At the weekend it was soooooo sunny!!! I had a great weekend with lots happening…. more of that later when I get round to blogging about what happened.

Well a couple weeks or so ago I was in town on the way to get my hair cut. Some woman was handing out leaflets and I thought it was just the usual random leaflets about cheap phone calls, closing down sale or club night.

In fact it was for a “talent” scout. The leaflet said they were looking for “models, actors& extras”. I think she was thinking more for some extra when seeing me!! There was a photo test session at Bolton the other day and it was all free so I thought no harm. Maybe they need a web site????

It was a small photography place in Bolton called Century Photography. He took a couple photos and said he would be in contact via post soon to let me know the outcome. Lets see what happens …..

I went to see Wall E on Wednesday. I had heard very good things about it and some reviews saying it was the best animated movie EVER. Even Toy Story!!

It was a good movie but just not “amazing”. It was very very funny and laugh out loud and was more cute if anything. It was a bit sad in a way, this robot being pretty much completely alone for hundreds of years.

It has many funny moments and one thing which was amusing was that it showed that in a few hundred years humans will be all fat and stupid! LOL

Rating: 8/10

The 5th eviction has just happened and not surprisingly Belinda (Belinda Belinda) is out. She isnt one of the most hated in the house (amongst the public) but she didnt really bring much to the house and was abit annoying with all her dramatic theatrical singing. Her snoring may have annoyed housemates but I think it was funny for the viewer.

This years Big Brother really does have a split in the group especially with the heaven and hell split. Also this year there have been loads of food fights, mostly involving the repulsive Rebecca. There have apparently been compliants about it especially with the recent thing in the news about people not wasting food etc. Most of the hell group are so bitchy its unbelivable. Especially Luke, Rebecca and Mikey. My word they moan and bitch so much.

My favourite is still Rachel. She is so nice and lovely!! They were talking about the music played during Lukes birthday and she likes Avril Lavigne! Also in some way like Rex. He is quite arrogant always talking about his restaurants etc. I like Kat aswell. It pretty much seems that everyone in heaven I “like”, and everyone in hell I dislike.

Sir Alex Ferguson has met up with Ronaldo in Lisbon last week. He said “It went well. We put across our points of view, where we stand and where the player stands”. “I can say he’ll be a Manchester United player next season. He won’t be sold.”

This will hopefully end the speculation about his future. Maybe only till the transfer window opens up again in January!! As long as he plays well for United it will be good. We will have to see. It will be October when he comes back after his ankle operation.

Some scientists are studying the effects of global warming and have strapped plastic tanks to the back of cows to collect the gas.