darrelld

You have a chicken and egg problem. I visited your site, sat in as a listener for minutes and no one showed up.

For most people they need a significant diet change to see any effective changes.

First, it is critical that you understand that you need to commit to this for the long haul. There are no quick ways to lose the weight. Ignore anyone or any product that tells you otherwise. To lose it and keep it off you need to take a hard look at your lifestyle and change that.

Second, start small. I used to quit out of doing various routines because I tried to emulate people who were already in shape. I tried running, biking the gym but could never commit to any of them because I was too out of shape and it felt like work. Find something small you can do reliably and stick to it. For me, I started with walking a few extra blocks to the next subway stop instead of getting on at the one right in front of my office. Now if I can walk somewhere in 45 minutes I'll do that instead of taking the subway or a cab. This is how I get my cardio instead of running on a treadmill. You can never outrun the calories that you put into your body.

Soon after I changed my eating habits. I used to have burgers, burritos, pizza and everything else unhealthy every day for lunch. I changed those habits. It took a few months for me to find a rotation of things that were healthy for me, but also left me satisfied. I first found a deli that did a great chicken wrap that tasted delicious, filled me up and was far healthier. Then I found a place that made a chicken salad that satisfied me on every level. Slowly over the better part of a year, I replaced all of the unhealthy lunch options with healthier alternatives. I started asking fast food places to give me half a cup of soda in the smallest size cup they had and then months later I just opted for water where I could. It didn't happen overnight, it took time.

I also started just eating less. Not all at once, but slowly. I noticed that in the past when I went to a salad bar I would need to spend ~$9 for lunch to feel satisfied. Over the course of a year, I managed to get down to spending ~ $5 - $6 and still feel full and happy with lunch. Take one less spoonful, piece of meat etc over time.

Dieting is not something you do for a few months to lose weight, it's a lifestyle change. If I want a burger or burrito I'll still get one, the key is that I won't get one every day.

By this time with just adding walking and adjusting my diet over the course of a year, I noticed I was losing weight. I got a scale and a Fitbit. I checked my weight in the morning and at night, logged my calories consumed and calories burned. It became clear to me that a simple formula of consuming fewer calories and burning more helped my weight drop quickly. This made it easier for me to keep up with my new diet.

Next, I added a home workout routine. It started with just pushups which I could barely do 5 without feeling dead. The key is that I did the 5 I could do every day and kept doing it. Now while I watch TV at home I do as many as I can push myself to, take a break and then do some more when I feel like I'm ready. I can usually do 100 during commercials for a 30-minute broadcast. I've also added in sit-ups and squats. I have no set time to workout, I just do it in between my down time at home.

It's been almost 3 years since I first started paying attention to weight and now I feel better, have more energy and I'm down from a size extra large to medium, and sometimes small depending on the manufacturer.

Find what works for you, start off with small changes and stick with them. Even if you lapse for a week, just pick yourself up and continue pushing.

Nowadays they all just tell you what was in the latest release, or give some instructions on how to install it without telling me why I should even bother take time out of my day to install it.

I get the feeling more and more that developers are embarrassed about using it, similar to how some devs are embarrassed about using PHP, yet it's still a workhorse.

It's a simple time tracker. No cloud BS. It just uses local storage to track how long you've been working on any task.

I still have some features I'd like to add (like a countdown timer and clearing individual tasks), but I'm real happy with it and I've been using it at work to track my project time.

Computers used to be fun and exciting. Learning how to program was a hobby for me. Opening up that Gateway 486DX to tinker with the insides of it and swap parts out was fascinating. Yes they were big bulky and prone to failure but it was still fun.

Nowadays everything is integrated, soldered on and you need a laundry list of tools to even open the casing. Used to be you could just get a star head screw driver out of the kitchen and be done.

All of the whining about the new Macbook made me sigh. Get over yourselves.

The internet was a fascinating place before. I remember frequenting forums like http://www.hack3r.com/ and reading a python tutorial, finding a mistake in it and chatting on IRC with the writer who treated me as an equal, not just some 13 year old kid. On other forums there was debate and deep conversation. Trolls and extremism was not welcome.

Now we have twitter and Facebook where it's all "me me me" and no one is having real conversations anymore. Just short bursts of it.

Now when I start a project and someone asks me "Why are you using <INSERT NEW TECH HERE>?" I roll my eyes and groan. It's a single page website with a form on it. I'll code it up in Notepad++, capture the form data and save it to a database thank you very much. I'll get it done quickly and commit it to source. No need for me to spin up Node, grunt, yeoman and whatever other shiny thing you're talking about. I'll be dammed if I even use jQuery.

I've been day dreaming about going into another field where I can still maintain my standard of living, but then program again just as a hobby at home. Anyone know of a good field outside of the tech industry that a developer mindset would thrive in?

I know personally I don't use it too often, but it's nice to have if I want to type in all caps which happens occasionally. Holding down shift with a pinky for a anything more than a few key presses can be a little uncomfortable so I appreciate the caps lock key.

Being interested and having nothing better to do on a Saturday night I clicked it, got told my system was infected and to call a number for help.

I called the 800 number, got onto a representative who then attempted to get me to install a piece of software. I played along as the dumb consumer who just really to keep the viruses and hackers off his computer.

2 hours later with multiple service escalations, attempts to install a .exe and a .msi to a Ubuntu install, reboots, running windows commands in my terminal, giving fake credit card numbers (the kind generated to make sure your system can handle all credit cards) and me just acting plain dumb ended with me being hung up on.

I figure the 2 hours that they burned on me was one less poor soul they hooked in.

I took my first Milky Way picture in June from the Grand Canyon:

https://flic.kr/p/Lw5qWz

Step 1: Stop trying to be in a relationship. It sounds counter intuitive but really stop trying. Get off dating sites too. You are single, accept this. Really and truly accept this. Don't hide it, don't be embarrassed by it. Yes...own it. Keep reading.

Step 2: Start going out to more social events and have a good time. Join a social meetup.com group for Photography, hiking or even just a happy hour group. Be yourself, be relaxed, talk to everyone, don't try hard to be funny, just try to have fun with the people around you. Try new things that you never had an interest in before.

When meeting new people try to avoid the "What do you do / Where are you from" conversation. Not saying this line of conversation is all bad, but actively seek out something a bit more interesting to start out with. Talk about the news, the weather, the new iPhone, your love of dogs, your weekend. Keep switching topic themes until you hit on something that the other person really gets into. Think of conversation like a metal detector...you keep swooping around and you get faint pings back. As you get closer to real treasure your focus in on that area.

Step 3: Learn to flirt appropriately. This takes practice and you'll probably mess it up...You're probably already messing it up, don't worry you'll always mess it up sometimes. If you find a manual online for how to do it, just ignore it. Everyone is different: different personalities, different pasts, different sense of humor. Once again just like the metal detector metaphor, just keep swooping until you find whatever works. In general you want to make it clear that "I'm into you".

Don't always feel the need to rush to this right though. Sometimes you can start flirting right off the bat, sometimes you'll know someone for a while before the moment is right. Use your best intuition.

Step 4: Eventually you and someone else will hit it off. Ask them out. Just do it. Worst they can say is no. If they do say no: take it in, yes it might hurt a little, scar the ego. Think of it like applying to a job. Sometimes you just get a no. Move on. You want a response along the lines of "Fuck yeah! Let's do it" instead of trying to convince someone to do something with you.

Also if you think you've hit it off with someone, don't push too hard and come off as desperate. Don't take it personally if they just fade away. There are so many reasons why they may not want to go out with you: They may be still getting over a previous relationship, they may have some family issues which takes priority, they could just have gotten busy at work, might be moving soon, you might remind them of their dad, you might remind them of someone with whom they have a negative memory of or a whole other range of reasons. All of which have nothing to do with you.

Step 5: Keep taking care of yourself. Dress in a smart and modern way. Note: I don't mean go buy a new wardrobe, but do take a hard look to see that you're not dressing like a complete slob. Ask a close friend for feedback or check out /r/malefashionadvice.

Hope this helps.

Let's say we wanted to know about the `explode` function, right at the top of their page is a search box. Type in the function and a dropdown populates with a brief description of the function, adding confidence that you're on the right result.

You click the function and right there it gives you the function signature in easily readable text that's color coded. Just at a glance I know that explode will return an array, I must pass it a delimiter first, then the string I want to split and then there is an optional argument in square braces.

If that wasn't enough it goes on to explain each parameter down below as well as the return values.

Further down is the change log on what changed between versions.

Next up are what really makes the PHP documentation shine for me: examples.

Succinct and to the point examples with comments that have always been enough to get me started with the basics.

This would have been good enough, but they go a step further to give me related functions in the "See Also" section. Sometimes I'm looking for one function, but then find a function that can do it better, or I realize that hey after I perform this action, I'm probably going to need to use another one of these related functions such as the `implode` function.

User comments at the bottom are also great! They are usually insightful and have been very helpful in the past.

The writing for classes and extensions is also equally as good: well written, quick start guides, installation settings for Windows and Linux.

I've always felt that the website was very user friendly and accessible. When you go to the landing page you're not overwhelmed with information. Just a quick blurb about what PHP is, the news of releases, easy to find download options, and documentation and search are all above the fold and prominently featured.

He's an excellent storyteller and really grips you with the details.

I fully expected the thing to crash in a few weeks after I left and they would move on to something else, but no 8 years later and I'm told it is still running strong.