Adam White

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This is the kind of testimony that really stirs something in my heart:

My foodbank story all started at the beginning of this year. I met Kellie in January and we soon got together in February, I was homeless whereas Kellie was in emergency accommodation. Our benefits were getting delayed and we were struggling to feed ourselves. A friend mentioned to us that there was a company called the foodbank that could help us out, at first it seemed to be too good to be true. We went to the law centre in town and received a voucher entitling us to 3-5 days worth of food that we couldn’t afford to pay for ourselves.

So off we went to the foodbank one day and were given around six bags of food and met some wonderful people in the process. Over the coming months we visited a few more times, during this time the council finally found me a flat, as I was homeless however I had no furniture and hardly any belongings to move in with. Richard and his wife Sandra pointed me to the furniture project that was run by a member of their church and within a few months I had everything in place that i needed.

However during this time I had to make regular visits to the foodbank to just be able to feed myself and Kellie. Whilst we were choosing the furniture we were so touched by the generosity of the people helping that we decided to attend their church as a mark of thanks and respect.

The Sunday morning we attended something struck deep within us, seeing all the people there so friendly and passionate in what they believed in. It left a lasting impression on us and we started attending more and more often, soon after we were invited to join a small group from the church to learn and gain a wider understanding of God.

On 22^nd November 09 Kellie and I were baptised and in a way our story all started with a visit to the foodbank to receive help that we wouldn’t have been able to get anywhere else. In the long run we both know it was God’s plan for the both of us and we’re planning our wedding at the church early in 2010.

This is our story, I hope you enjoy it at much as we are!

For more information about Swindon Foodbank please look a their website at http://www.swindonfoodbank.co.uk

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The geek in me can’t help but find this amusing…

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I’m feeling a little overwhelmed again at the moment. Now that I have got back into the daily groove of work I am rediscovering how tired it makes me. This hasn’t been helping me get anything done so my to-do list has been ever growing since Christmas and my stress along with it.

Those that follow me on Twitter will notice the amount of films I have watched recently and will say “Stop watching films then and get on with some work”. This is easier said than done where I am concerned though.

My personality does not lend itself to self-motivation. After a little self reflection recently I came to the conclusion that the thing that motivates me more than anything else is getting things done. That’s why I love my 9-5 work at the moment. I feel like I achieve something on a daily basis and come away smiling.

Unfortunately, I am so tired when I get home that motivating myself to do anything apart from just pray, cook, eat and chill  is too much. I want to relax in the evening and at the weekend so I can be ready for the next working day.

But if this carries on I will never get anything done at home again!

Before Christmas I discovered an online app called Teux Deux (http://www.teuxdeux.com) which allowed me to schedule what I was going to do on a day by day basis and it really worked. My problem now though is I have so many things to do that I don’t know what order to do them in.

My plan is to read up on the Getting Things Done principle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_things_done) which I have looked into in the past but never properly implemented in my home life.

So I may be a little busy for a while organising everything but hopefully when that is done I will find the motivation to blog again and get lots of other things done.

Watch this space…

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I’ve always been quite techy and know what I’m doing where computers are concerned. A lot of my friends and family know this so I have a number of calls over the years to fix technology related problems.

So it was again tonight: I was sat with a friend’s laptop which didn’t want to connect to the Internet anymore.

However, thankfully, I have been in this position before with other people’s PCs. Lots of times. So I knew exactly what to look for first.

A quick check through the installed applications highlighted immediately what the problem was: Norton Anti-Virus software.

McAfee and Norton anti-virus software are the most annoying applications I have ever come across. They are bloated and cause more problems than they fix. Why else would a program come with a special uninstaller that you can download from their website? Because they break your PC and are a pain to get rid of!!!

They scare the public into buying their products at ridiculous prices when people really don’t have to. If there is anybody out there who has a Windows PC heed my next piece of advice: Never pay for anti-virus software for personal use.

My advise is to use one of the following products instead which are all free, all really good and don’t mess up your computer:

Microsoft Security Essentials

The latest application to join the party but the one I am going to mention first as it is my current product of choice. It integrates extremely well into Windows (you don’t notice it is there most of the time), it rates highly on virus catching capabilities and is developed by a household name for that extra piece of mind.

http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

AVG Anti-Virus

This is the product that I loved up until Microsoft’s offering and is still installed on a number of PCs I have fixed over the years. Again it is free, rates highly and is very popular. Get it if you have an allergy to Microsoft products! Be careful when navigating their website though as they try and confuse you with links to the pay for version. Just keep clicking the link for the free version though and you will be fine.

http://free.avg.com/gb-en/homepage

Posted by Adam under Personal & Techy Stuff | 1 Comment »

I love film. I always have and I think I always will. I watch an awful lot of films and regular readers of this site will know I review a handful of them too (followers of me on Twitter get to see my mini-reviews as well).

I keep up to date with the latest film news through a couple of film websites but I also choose to listen to two film podcasts:

Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo’s Film Review

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lvdrj

This is by far my favourite podcast out of all I listen to. It is the one I regularly look forward to every week and am sad when Dr Kermode or Dr Mayo are on holiday as it is just not the same. The way these two banter between each other is brilliant and the film reviews are always entertaining. I even got the opportunity to go to Leeds and see a live version of the show which was brilliant.

While I may not always agree with the opinions given I don’t primarily listen to find out what to watch, I listen for the pure, unadulterated wittertainment.

Cinemagogue (Mars Hill Church)

http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/cinemagogue

Pastor James Harleman of Mars Hill Church regular shows films and chats about them before and afterwards from the Christian perspective. I find him very entertaining and he highlights things in the films that I would have otherwise missed. If you are a Christian and a film lover I recommend you catch a listen.

View the entire series

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For the past four years I have owned various Sony Ericsson smartphones (the P900i followed by the P1i) which have had a basic calendar, notepad, etc and a hardware keyboard. I liked being able to use my phone for more than just making calls.

About a year ago my contract with O2 came up for renewal but there was no phone available that took my fancy. My foray into smartphones had left me disappointed as the applications installed were usually sub-par and I am too used to free stuff to shell out for anything better.

The rise of the iPhone during this time seemed to be moving things in the right direction where the applications were concerned but the touchscreen keyboard and my allergy to anything Apple was too big a boundary to cross. I would have never heard the end of it from everyone that knows me if I ever bought an Apple product.

I was patient though (or lazy) and didn’t renew my contract straight away.

After a while the Android phones started appearing. While this new operating system from Google seemed to be everything I was looking for, the touchscreen keyboards on 99% of the phones was putting me off.

It was then that I heard about the Motorola Dext. Running Android and sporting a hardware keyboard, it looked perfect except the heavy emphasis on social networking that was putting me off. I started to think I was far too picky and was never going to find a phone.

It was then that a press release came out from America announcing the Motorola Droid. The early photographs looked amazing: A large touchscreen with just as large a keyboard hidden underneath.

When it was eventually released in the US it was greeted with unanimous praise and selling like hot cakes. It was soon destined for Europe and the UK (although strangely retitled the Milestone) but there was still a problem: No service carrier was picking up the phone over here. T-Mobile, O2, 3. They all had all strangely rejected it. Then Expansys came to the rescue. They offered  the phone without a contract for £550 or with a T-Mobile contract for £50.

So I waited for it’s UK release and after the feedback was positive I took the leap, cancelled my O2 contract and got the phone.

To be continued…

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Just in case you didn’t know; I am a software developer who specialises in web development utilising the latest Microsoft .NET technologies. Every day something new comes out from the open source community or Microsoft themselves and in order to keep up with everything I listen to a fair few podcasts that hopefully will keep me up to date with everything I need to know (and even some things I don’t):

.NET Rocks!

http://www.dotnetrocks.com/

With shows normally lasting an hour, Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell interview people from the .NET world about all kinds of topics. This is my number one choice for .NET developers and at over 500 shows it has a great history behind it.

RunAs Radio

http://www.runasradio.com/

RunAs Radio is a new one to my list but I place it second due to its relationship with .NET Rocks. It is considered to be the sister show and Richard Campbell also hosts this one. What makes it different though is it is aimed at the IT professionals out there and covers more hardcore topics like patch management and security. It is not aimed at developers but I find it does nothing but help me to understand some topics outside the scope of my actual job role.

Hanselminutes

http://hanselminutes.com/

Hansel minutes is hosted by Scott Hanselman who is a greater speaker on all ASP.NET related topics. He is also another regular listen of mine and it is rare that he speaks on a topic I am not interested in.

Polymorphic Podcast

http://polymorphicpodcast.com/

Similar to Hanselminutes this podcast focuses on ASP.NET and related topics. The frequency of the podcast can vary but when it comes it is usually worth it.

Herding Code

http://herdingcode.com/

Herding Code has four hosts: K. Scott Allen, Kevin Dente, Scott Koon, and Jon Galloway. This makes the chats more varied as everyone chips in with there opinions. They don’t focus on a specific topic and have covered everything from iPhone development to development patterns. This can make it quite hit and miss as to whether an episode is worth listening to but the variety and quality of the show makes up for it.

SitePoint

http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/category/podcast/

The SitePoint podcast focuses on web and as such covers every kind of web topic known to man. This limits the appeal to me down to the odd podcast but I keep an eye on it just in case.

Software Engineering Radio

http://www.se-radio.net/

This is my least listened to podcast as it covers software engineering as a whole and therefore can be a little too high-level or left-field for my liking. They sometimes come out with one worth listening though.

UK MSDN Flash

http://channel9.msdn.com/tags/UKMSDNPodcast/

And finally we have the relatively new UK MSDN Flash podcast. Eric Nelson has only been doing these for a while but they are generally only short so are perfect for filling in those tiny gaps.

View the entire series

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I’m always a little dubious about highly anticipated films. There is something in me that looks for the one that nobody knows is coming and takes the world by storm (The Matrix was a great example of this). However, the early buzz surrounding Avatar was universally positive so I went in with high expectations (never a good idea).

I wasn’t too fussed about 3D either. I saw Beowulf in 3D and it gave me a headache and it just seemed like a gimmick that got in the way of the beauty of film. So I decided to see Avatar in good old-fashioned 2D and then see it in 3D later if I liked it enough.

When the credits rolled at the end of the film my mind did not settle on the gorgeous special effects which is what the main attraction seemed to be. I was drawn to what was a very simple but gripping storyline. A master storyteller has returned to the art he left over 10 years ago and has not forgotten what is important in a film.

The plot is hardly original but that doesn’t matter if it is done well. Humans have discovered a mineral on a planet in another solar system (distractingly called unobtainium) which sells for an awful lot of money. So the capitalists are out to dig up as much as they can, as quickly as they can. However, the planet the ore is on (actually it is a moon called Pandora) is a forest planet inhabited by all number of savage creatures as well as the Navi who are a humanoid race very similar to elves in their appearance and respect of the land.

One tribe of Navi have a home in a giant tree (and I mean GIANT) which just happens to be on top of the biggest deposit of unobtainium around. So a band of scientists are tasked with finding a diplomatic solution to getting rid of the Navi so the diggers can come in. To better integrate themselves with the natives (and also be able to breathe the atmosphere) Navi bodies are grown (called avatars) that the scientists transfer their brains to temporarily, Matrix-style.

Into this setup comes the paraplegic Jake Sully. An ex-marine who’s twin brother has died and who now has to step into the shoes of his genetically matched avatar. This is where the fun begins as Jake is accepted in to the tribe where others before him have not and he learns their ways.

What ensues is Dances with Wolves style “seeing things from the other side” and an internal battle between his human self and his Navi self.

I won’t spoil how it turns out (although it is hardly surprising) but I can tell you that it is 160 minutes of sheer brilliance.

But how can I mention the film without speaking about the beautiful effects? James Cameron has created a piece of art when creating Pandora. The planet is intricate and gorgeous from its gravity defying mountains to its leaves that light up when touched. It is a treat for the eyes that is so layered there is always something amazing to look at on screen somewhere.

So having almost applauded it the first time I saw it I knew I had to see it in 3D to tell once and for all if the extra dimension is worth it. I can say that 3D does what you think it would. It adds extra depth to the scenes and really is the future of cinema. However, as a film lover I would still much rather see a film in the comfort of 2D. Until they can develop a technique of producing 3D films without the need for special glasses it will never be all it can be. The glasses are a distraction and I would much rather enjoy a film in 2D.

So, in the end, Avatar is a stunning achievement by Mr Cameron and I look forward to the proposed sequels. District 9 takes the accolade as my favourite film of 2009 but this comes a close second.

[9/10]

Posted by Adam under Films | 1 Comment »

I’ll be honest with you; I find reading my bible difficult and unless I am willing to sit down for an extended period of time and get into to some proper study with additional books for assistance I very rarely do it. With the new year I am hoping to get into some regular study time as I know it is nothing but help but I find that listening to people talk about the bible is a lot easier.

This is where my faith-based podcasts come in. I was first introduced to some preachers from around the world when I first started getting into God properly and haven’t stopped listening since.

I have dabbled with a number of different speakers over the years but below are the ones I listen to regularly and try and keep up to date with:

Andy Stanley (North Point Community Church)

http://www.northpoint.org/messages

Andy Stanley (along with the brilliant Louie Giglio) was the first preacher I listened to from another church. He heads up one of the largest churches in America and is a very gifted speaker. He is in his 40s and is very down to Earth in the way he speaks. I find the topics he covers excellent for new Christians and even though he is usually quite light on the doctrine I still find his talks excellent to listen to.

John Piper (Desiring God)

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/

I would describe John Piper as being at the opposite end of the spectrum to Andy Stanley. I first came across him when when I was still new to the Christian world and found him to be a little heavy and hard to listen to. Coming back to him years later I find him amazing. He seems to know so much about God and the bible and this shows in his very comprehensive messages. He is currently preaching his way through the book of John and has been for well over a year now. Full of doctrine and a definite pick for anyone that wants to learn more about their bible and God.

Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill Church)

http://www.marshillchurch.org/

Where would a list of preachers be without Mark Driscoll. A man who is still very young for a preacher in his late 30s he has an approach to God and the bible that just rubs off on any of his listeners. He is the only person I know who can bring humour and deep conviction to a message with ease. He is very tough and holds nothing back in his messages but talks with such love that you can’t help but be gripped. He has recently started a series with the aim to preach through every chapter of the book of Luke in 3 years. A stunning speaker and highly recommended to everyone.

Matt Chandler (The Village Church)

http://www.thevillagechurch.net/

I have only been listening to Matt Chandler for a little while and found him to be a very good speaker in the Mark Driscoll mould. Sadly, late last year, he was diagnosed with a brain tumour and understandingly hasn’t been speaking for a while. My thoughts and prayers go out to his wife and young family.

Mark Thornett, Nigel Howarth and Colin Thornton (Gateway Church Swindon)

http://gatewaychurchswindon.org.uk/audio/

And how can I complete a list of preaches without mentioning my own church? While I don’t listen to the online recording often as I usually listen to it first-hand I do recommend it to anyone in the Swindon area if they are interested in finding a local church or just getting an idea of what our church is like.

View the entire series

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