paul tranter: blog of a ginger beastie

Mr. & Mrs. Tomlinson! (Mike & Helen get wed!)

noreply@blogger.com (paultranter) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:19:00 +0000

I need to do a quick shout out to my two great friends Mike and Helen that got married this weekend. It was an amazing day, Helen looked stunning, and Mike was looking very dapper too!

Their wedding was at St. Luke's in Cheltenham, followed by a wonderful celebration at the Green Dragon Inn only ten minutes away from the church.

I was lucky enough to be asked to be Mike's best man, and so it was my honor to look after Mike on Friday, ensure he was there on time on Saturday, tie his tie, and remember the rings. I even managed to squeeze out a slightly drunken speech in the evening, which was probably far more embarrassing for me than it was for them!

So, congratulations to Michael and Helen, now Mr and Mrs Tomlinson, and thank you both so much for having Mandy and I at your special day!

HELP! Have you seen this person?

noreply@blogger.com (paultranter) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:07:00 +0000

Please help me, I knew this person, we were great friends, we'd tweet each other daily...

...but then, one day, without warning, they were gone!

I suspect some "bird" was involved some how, but I can't prove anything.

Any help gratefully received,

let me know your findings here;

twitter.com/paultranter

Check out my new threads (well my xbox avatar!)

noreply@blogger.com (paultranter) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:28:00 +0000

I have had a few styles for my Xbox Live avatar over the past few weeks - probably due to their new avatar marketplace! As always I got enticed with the Star Wars Avatar gear, donning a shiny new Clone Trooper Avatar dress up outfit, with and without matching Clone Trooper helmet...

I also had a cool lightsaber!

From there I purchased myself a cool t-shirt that plays to my love of contemporary character design and vinyl toy culture, looking more like my actual self! - and finally, with more than just a nod to Beatles Rock Band I am now decked out in a classy suit, cool hat and I think I have Paul McCartney's bass! (Viewable only via Xbox Live friends list)

Check out the mini me on Nike+

noreply@blogger.com (paultranter) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:21:00 +0000

That's me apparently!

The Boys Get Nasty!

noreply@blogger.com (paultranter) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 22:30:00 +0000

Last one I think, check out my abs, nice!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMA BREW!!!

noreply@blogger.com (paultranter) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 21:48:00 +0000

This is a birthday gift to our good friend Emma Brew from Mandy and I.

As I understand it, she's a big fan of Dirty Dancing, so I saw my opportunity to play Jimmy Saville and "Fix it for her" to dance with Swayze!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

"No one puts Brew in the corner!"

JibJab Sendables - So wrong, its right! Funny flash videos for Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (paultranter) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:24:00 +0000

OK, thanks goes out to my friend Hannah Stallard for this one! This site is funny as...well, as sticking your face on some crazy dancers or whatever else makes you chuckle!

So here's me and my lovely wife Mandy, dancing as maybe we should have done at our wedding back in April (2009).

You can easily create one yourself, and then post on on face book, just hope Mandy forgives me for this!! :)

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

So check out JibJab here to create your own funny flash video!

Mugg of a different kind: Muggmaker for Facebook!

noreply@blogger.com (paultranter) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 12:01:00 +0000

Check out this funny MuggMaker Ap for FaceBook - I made mine in minutes, its easy and intuative to use and you'll have yet another virtual self before you know it!!

You can then animate your new self, and embed it as I have below - then you can add some images to your FaceBook profile too! Cool as...

See the app in action here... muggmaker.com

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland Trailer (iTunes official)

noreply@blogger.com (paultranter) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 21:24:00 +0000

Its now official now, and on iTunes!

Check out the official trailer for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland at Apple Trailers (click blog title for link) I'm just downloading the 1080p version now!

Enjoy the show...

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland Trailer (YouTube)

noreply@blogger.com (paultranter) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:06:00 +0000

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland teaser trailer seems to have been leaked from the San Diego ComicCon a little too easily.

It looks pretty awesome to me, Matt Lucas and Helena Bonham Carter's characters are great looking. Typical Burton styling, but I'm not complaining - can't wait for the release to come around now!

Not sure how long this will be up, so check it out while you can!

Official Disney website for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (visit)

Star Wars The Empire Muggs Back Links

noreply@blogger.com (paultranter) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 12:19:00 +0000

Hey all, just a quick update on some more links for the Star Wars Make A Wish Foundation auction - There are some great features here...

(images from starwars.com - please visit for more images and some awesome mighty muggs stuff!)

My Mighty Mugg: Chewie in 'da house!

noreply@blogger.com (paultranter) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:59:00 +0000

Whilst we're on the topic of Mighty Muggs, I took some pics of mine that I was going to use as profile pictures, having decided not to do that (preferring to use my own mugg!) I guess Chewie was feeling a little left out - so here he is, in all his 100% recycled plastic glory - thanks Mighty Muggs for these wonderful toys!!!

Below: Chewbacca Mighty Mugg / From Star Wars Mighty Muggs series 1 (I think)

Star Wars The Empire Muggs Back

noreply@blogger.com (paultranter) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:35:00 +0000

Just having a quick follow-fest on twitter, and found my way to the awesome Mighty Muggs Twitter page (http://twitter.com/mightymuggs) and Toy Tragic (http://twitter.com/toytragic) both worth a look - but they covered this great story from Starwars.com - check it out;

The Empire Muggs Back.

Its a fundraising event for the Make a Wish Foundation being run over at the San Diego Comic Con, all good stuff - great idea Star Wars peeps! The folks over at starwars.com also say they are releasing artist profiles and tips on how to customise your own Mighty Muggs - cool, can't wait.

Check out both stories here;

Officially at Star Wars (.com)

And the Toytragic blog (thanks guys)

While you're at it follow them all - great stuff;

Star Wars on Twitter | ToyTragic on Twitter | Mighty Muggs on Twitter

The Veggies are looking great!

noreply@blogger.com (paultranter) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 09:21:00 +0000

Just popped in quick to blast up a quick blog post, as I realise how I have neglected blogging anything about my poor veg for the past few weeks.

Its day 52 now on the Paul Tranter Veg Garden, and they are all looking really good, I'm especially impressed with the amount of tomatoes and chillies we have coming through!

I have been taking loads of pictures over the last few weeks, and so I hope to get on later tonight and update you all on the last 40 days or so of my first year of vegetable growing. (Not a day by day account of course, that would be even more boring than this possibly already is)

Here's how some of them are coming along now...

Marcus Fenix by Cubeecraft: attempted by Paul Tranter (me!)

noreply@blogger.com (paultranter) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:54:00 +0000

Hi all, so I had a quick blast at another Cubeecraft paper craft model over lunch, this time Marcus Fenix, and thought I'd share the results with you all...

So, here we have the template I printed off from the cubeecraft website, and its closely followed by my best attempts to create the head of Marcus Fenix in just a few minutes - speed was of the essence today as I have lots to get through (real work that is!)

Then it was onto the body, arms and legs....

and not forgetting his lancer of course! It's time to kick some locust ass! With a little help from his friends (also from cubeecraft.com!)

Just a quickie!

noreply@blogger.com (paultranter) — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:27:00 +0000

Hi all, just a quick one to apologise for lack of content this last week. I am really busy on client projects and so, after just two days of it my "Thought for the day" has already become a "thought for whenever!".

Oh well...

Have plenty of pics from my prospering crop to upload, hopefully get a chance tonight while Mandy is out with her best mate Diane.

Day 8: Plot have we here!

noreply@blogger.com (paultranter) — Fri, 15 May 2009 08:10:00 +0000

Just a quick update.

But an exciting one!

Shoots! I have my first Chillis, tomatoes and lettuce poking through - and yesterday I was saying how impatient I am! I love this growing lark...

Left to right: Lettuce (little gems), Tomato (beef), Chilli (Hot wax!)

Our official wedding photos from Andy Sutcliffe Photography

noreply@blogger.com (paultranter) — Fri, 15 May 2009 07:22:00 +0000

I thought it was about time to load up some photos from our wedding a few weeks ago (5 weeks to be exact!)

These were taken by Andy Sutcliffe, who both Mandy and I can highly recommend. It was such an amazing day, and I am so lucky to be married to such an amazing women - love you Mandy x

Day seven: Wot Plot?

noreply@blogger.com (paultranter) — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:08:00 +0000

Its only been a week I know, but I'm not the most patient of men...

There is not a single shoot on any of my seeds I've planted, but I have a spare two minutes while I'm waiting for some images to batch re-size and so I have decided to load some more images from my recent potting earlier this week.

But the ones my best mate Ben gave me a couple of weeks back are fairing better...

Plus I managed to scavange some deep pots to plant some baby carrots into as well as being a proud owner of a new 4 tier mini greenhouse.

Day one: The plot begins

noreply@blogger.com (paultranter) — Fri, 08 May 2009 07:00:00 +0000

And so it finally started last night, with some cheap seed trays from Woolworths (before they went bust), a bag full of the best organic compost I could buy, some veg feed, some plastic spikes to label my crop and a pencil.

All I needed was my seeds, and with not a lot of time to get them sowed last night (it was already 8.45pm) I opted to get my tomatoes planted, and then focus on the four varieties of chilli peppers I'm attempting this year! They include one called Hot Wax which sounds very exciting!

And so, by 10.20pm I was finished, I job well done I hope! Having never attempted to grow such large quantities of seedlings before I'll guess we'll have to wait and see how we get on.

I'll be keeping this story updated regularly with notes and photos, and any tips I pick up. In the next few days I should be sowing my other veg, including; carrots, spring onions, courgettes, beans, and also a blueberry bush!

-- Post From My iPhone

What a great day!

noreply@blogger.com (paultranter) — Tue, 05 May 2009 07:43:00 +0000

Mandy and I had a fantastic day with our sister-in-law Louise and cool little nephew Laurence yesterday.

We started with a trip to the nature centre on the Pershore road, where pebble mill used to be, it's only £3 in per adult! Randomly saw some wildtouch jewellery there, I had designed their packaging last year :)

Then we had some lunch at Franky and Benny's, followed by a quick bit of shopping at Next and Homebase (I now have a full stock of veg seeds to start growing).

It was great, I'll post some pics when I get into work...

noreply@blogger.com (paultranter) — Sat, 02 May 2009 08:09:00 +0000

It appears I can indeed publish from my iPhone, how exciting! Well, it's 9.15am, just woke up abrubtly from a dream where I was getting a dog! If only Mandy (my wife of 3 weeks and 1 day) and I where able to look after one..

Just waiting for all our wedding presents to arrive on the big John Lewis van, can't believe how generous all our friends and family have been, we're very lucky people, thank you all so much!

Template code is working...

noreply@blogger.com (paultranter) — Sat, 02 May 2009 01:14:00 +0000

But can I update my blog via my iphone?

Almost there

noreply@blogger.com (paultranter) — Fri, 01 May 2009 09:20:00 +0000

Hoping the site will be finished later today...

It's time to get the show on the road.

noreply@blogger.com (paultranter) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:45:00 +0000

Well, it really is time I started practicing what I preach, and so, I have taken it upon myself to update my personal website (www.paultranter.com) and in doing so I have set up my blog!

So please stay connected with me, and hopefully, one day, I'll have something exciting to say!!!

Just playing with the CSS too, lets see if I can get my head around it?!?