Changes To the Site

 

As of last night, I’ve moved danhawk.com to a new hosting platform called Squarespace.com. While that may not mean much to you, there are some changes that I should make you aware of.

Design

Obviously there is a new site design. This is one of the main reasons I made the change. Squarespace.com gives me a lot more flexibility to design the site to look best for you. I really like the treatment of images. Click on one of the photos on a newer post. Cool lightroom effect huh? I’ll be adding that to the older images over the next few weeks. There are also a ton of choices on fonts, size, spacing and alignment. I didn’t have that before and it always bugged me.

You’ll find all the posts right where you expect them, right here on the home page. There is a contact area, where you can drop me a quick note by sending an email or whatever sort of mesage you prefer on Twitter. I also have direct links right to Twitter and Facebook right in the header menu.

Colophon

The About page has a new name, Colophon. It is an old word from the publishing world, that has been adopted by web publishing folks and it means-

A brief description of publication or production notes relevant to the edition…

It tells a little about the “Publisher” of this site.

Links

Some of the older links, especially where they link back to my site, may have some issues. If you come across one, will you please let me know?

WordPress Community

If you are part of the WordPress.com community, and have subscribed to my site in the reader portion of WordPress.com, this is for you. Because this site is no longer hosted on WordPress, you won’t see any of my new content natively from your WordPress login. If you would like to continue to subscribe to my new posts, you can either just plug the URL of my site into your favorite RSS reader, or you can subscribe by email here.  This will be the last post that shows up on WordPress.

I appreciate the visits and the conversations. I hope that if you have enjoyed my posts or photos, that you’ll continue to follow along. I set up all the sites I follow on RSS and a couple of the photos sites on email so I’ll still be following the WordPress folks that I’ve come to know and love.

It has been a great run on WordPress, and I’m excited for this next chapter and how I’m able to grow the site. Once again, thanks for visiting and reading!

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Under 200! Weight Loss Update Week 14

Here are the numbers-

8–4 Weight 202.8 Waist 44.5 Chest 44.25 Hips 43 Neck 16.5 R Bicep 12.25 L bicep. 12.25 R Thigh. 26 L thigh 26

8–18 Weight 199.6 Waist 43.5 Chest 44 Hips 42.25 Neck 16.5 R Bicep 12.1275 L bicep. 12.1275 R Thigh. 25.5 L thigh 25.5

Can I just say how stoked I am this morning? Man, I don’t remember being under 200 pounds since college. I intentionally didn’t record measurements last week as Emily and I were celebrating 12 years of marriage and that meant, we were at the coast, eating out for every meal and doing very little that could be considered active.

That being said, the folks that see me every day and ask were fully aware that I was on the verge of breaking through the 200 pound mark.

Here’s another thing that’s really exciting- I also lost a full inch around my waist during this last 2 weeks and .75″ from my hips/butt. I knew these would both be great numbers this week as my suit pants have all gotten ridiculously big on me this week. Another belt loop, and another 2 suits that absolutely have to get taken in this week.

Ok. Enough about the success, let me say a little about what has been working for me.

Water and sleep. Every weight loss book or plan I’ve ever read or casually browsed talks about these two, but until very recently, I just didn’t approach them with much enthusiasm.

Water

I’ve been pretty hardcore. I refill my 27 ounce Klean Kanteen bottle at least 5 times each day at work, and usually 3 times again after I get home. For those who aren’t great at math, that’s 216 ounces, which is 1.6875 gallons. I got on this after my I saw my friend Chris fill up a gallon container and take it back to his desk each day. Chris is ripped. That may seem like a ton, but I feel less hungry, I have less cravings for other drinks, and my body seems to regulate temperature and everything else much better.

Sleep.

I was talking to my friend Shaun about sleep this week and we both felt like it was so common sense, but so easily overlooked. I am a little crazy about weighing myself. I weigh myself every evening before going to sleep and again in the morning. When I get at least 7 hours of sleep, I lose 4 pounds of weight at night. When I get less sleep, I lose less. Not just that night, but also the whole next day. I looked into it a little further and it seems like the consensus among doctors and researchers is it’s mostly water weight lost through respiration, perspiration and trips to the bathroom. In addition, the average person’s body burns around 70 calories an hour while sleeping through normal metabolic functions. There is some research pointing to overall metabolic processes operating more efficiently when you get enough sleep.

Ok, enough weight loss nerdiness. I’m now 19.6 pounds away from my 180 pound goal. I blew right past the halfway point without even realizing it because I was so focused on getting under 200. I’ve set a stretch goal to hit 180 by October 1st. It’s going to be tough, but I’m feeling pretty motivated and energized this week.

If you are also trying to lose weight, or develop healthy habits, I’m here to cheer you on. Drop a note and say “Hi!” and/or introduce yourself!

Delayed Marshmallow Gratification

 
Just saw this article today on Slate.  Researchers gave a group of kids a marshmallow each and told them that if they could wait to eat it for a few minutes, they would receive a second marshmallow.  The study was done back in the mid 70′s and they’ve been tracking key data about these individuals who are now in their late 30s and early 40s.

The data indicates :

…that the kids who knew how to delay gratification at age 4 tended toward higher SAT scores and social competence. As a group, they were better at planning and handling stress. And now a new study shows that all the way into adulthood, they are also less likely to be overweight or obese.

My wife always says that I have no sense of delayed gratification.  I can’t really argue.  I’m not sure how I would have fared in the marshmallow test, but I’m like a big 8 year old when it comes to gadgets.

Found the article via Dave Pell’s Nextdraft newsletter

App.net

App.net , which is a user-centric version of Twitter seems pretty interesting.  If you don’t know about it, go check it out.  I was so close to pulling the trigger and signing up during the backer phase, but ultimately, I held out for one big reason.

Google +

I started using G+ right at the beginning, as soon as I could get an invite.  I invested quite a bit of time and energy building a presence there and trying to bring folks over. I had pretty high hopes and for the first few weeks it seemed like it was really going to develop into a worthy alternative to Facebook.

It looks nicer and seems more concerned with user experience. It’s great for posting and viewing photos and the conversations are generally more engaging, but there is one big miss.

Almost none of my friends- I mean real, non-internet friends use Google+. Now, that doesn’t mean there aren’t any, but the handful of people that do are primarily reactive users. They visit, but usually only when a notification pops up in their open Gmail window.

Part of the reason I still use Facebook, is this lack of  personal connection on Google+. There wasn’t the mass exodus from Facebook  that people had hoped for. Though Google+ is arguably smoother, better designed and easier to access, the simple fact remains that there are very few regular people using the service actively.

There was a running joke during the first 6 months of Google+’s existence, that no one talked about anything on Google+ except Google+.  In other words, people were so concerned with an alternative to Facebook succeeding that they failed to consider what they would do with it.

I fear that app.net may have the same issue. I hope this isn’t the case, but I wonder if it will ever move beyond those in the tech community. Of course, there is the reality that many folks would call this a plus. Until a lot of people from outside join up, it will be a fairly small place. Great if you are looking for a homogenous conversation, but not if you are looking for a replacement for something as far reaching as Twitter.

Until it really takes off, it will be difficult for the average user to abandon Twitter.  I don’t want to check two separate services that essentially provide the same sort of thing.

I think this is primarily why Google+ has not become a true alternative to Facebook.  You can’t or don’t want to leave until there is a critical mass of your community that is also leaving.

The real question is if app.net can or should become a true replacement for Twitter.