Dellanave

I received my Nest thermostat and barely had my jacket off before I was installing it.

The product is VERY Apple. When I lifted the top of the box, I predicted that the Nest would be facing up with nothing covering it…sure enough I was right, just like an iPhone. The quick-start installation guide was very complete, and they even include a small screwdriver to do the job. I had to use a trim plate because my old thermostat left some marks on the wall.

Setup was quick and easy, the entry for your wifi password resembles a combination lock and it is sort of a kick. The nest immediately downloaded a software update and updated itself flawless.

I’m pretty excited to see how much this can save me on my heating. I have been pretty bad in the past about turning down the heat when I leave for an entire day or weekend sometimes, so if nothing else this should pay for itself with the ability to crank down the heat from my iPhone. The app is simple and effective, by the way.

I’ll update when I get my first winter heating bill and compare it to last year.

I need a design opinion. I don’t have the necessary faculties for this.

Here is a screenshot, or you can view the full site at adaptifier.com

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UPDATE: Read the update as of 6/24/2011 below.

I just spent way too much time figuring this out, so hopefully this will save you some time.

6 months ago or so from now (June 2011) it was possible to merge your Facebook Place page with your Fan page.  This was a good thing because it was pretty annoying that people would “Check-In” to your businesses’ page, but it was the wrong one.

There are still thousands of articles on the web on how to Merge your pages.  If that wasn’t bad enough, a lot of them warn you NOT to merge your pages because it changes the layout irreversibly for the worse.

Here is the punchline:

To “merge” your Facebook Place and Fan Page, just add a street address to your Fan Page and DELETE the Place page.

Now you have a unified Place & Fan Page.

Update 6/24:

Immediately after the merge & deletion, I noticed I could not check-in to the newly “converted” Places Page.  I tried a few things such as changing the address slightly, and even deleting the address so that it would tell me at the top of the page that I could convert this Page to a check-in place by adding an address.  Nothing worked.  So finally I emailed Facebook.

 This is the response I got:

Hi David,

We are aware of the problem that you described and apologize for the inconvenience. Unfortunately, we do not have a specific date for when this issue will be resolved but hope to fix it as soon as possible. We appreciate your patience 

Thanks for contacting Facebook,
Oliver
User Operations
Facebook

Soo…. proceed with caution until Facebook gets their shit together.

I’ve taken quite a liking to kombucha, and so has Sheena and a whole bunch of my friends.  The only downside is that kombucha is an insane $4 per bottle.  It wouldn’t be so insane if it didn’t cost almost nothing to make.  So I’ve started making kombucha.

Here is the first thing I learned:

DO NOT BUY A COMMERCIAL STARTER

They are a waste of money.

I have purchased 2 starters now.  One from a company that specializes in this kind of stuff, and the other from Craigslist but I believe it was purchased originally from a same or similar supplier.

My first commercial SCOBY failed completely.  Now granted part of this was completely my fault in leaving it in an area which was way too cold .

My second starter is going on a week, and is producing kombucha very slowly.

On the other hand, a SCOBY that I grew from a bottle of commercial brew is going STRONG and has already produced 1 solid batch, now onto the second.

Do this:

1) Go to the store and buy a bottle of “orignal” (unflavored) raw kombucha (I used GT’s Original) with the biggest, gnarliest jelly looking blob in it and lots of yeast & sediment.  Let it warm up to room temperature.  $3.99

2) Boil 6 cups of water.

3) Put 1/2cup of sugar in the hot water.

4) Steep 4 bags of black tea in the water and let it cool to room temperature.  Transfer to a jar.

5) Pour the blob, the yeast & sediment, and about 1-2 cups of the commercial kombucha into your jar.

6) In less than 30 days you will have a strong kombucha SCOBY, and about 2 bottles worth of kombucha that cost you $4 instead of $20.

Proceed to make more kombucha as you please.

I don’t know anyone who has ever stuck to a training program for an entire year.  It may have happened, but I haven’t met this person.  Most people do a program for 12 weeks, and IF they even make it to the end they move to something else.  Usually they will be all over the place with their goals.  First it’s a Delorm Hypertrophy Method cycle for 12 weeks.  But then they got too fat so they hop on P90X for 30 days, not quite making it the full 90.  During PSUX they screwed up their shoulder, so it’s 4 weeks of light kettlebell get-ups, windmills, and resistance band rows.  Back on the wagon again, it’s 8 weeks of Enter the Kettlebell.

And so on.

Most people make piss poor progress.  This is an observation I have made, but I have some interns working on some data to demonstrate this fact.  Look around though, are you seeing people making fantastic progress?  I bet not.

One year and 14 days ago I started my journey of training with the Gym Movement protocol.  I already knew that I would never need another program again, but of course only time can truly tell.  Many people just flat out said “Biofeedback training won’t work.”  Many people said that the gains would stop coming “in a year”.  Well, we can now confidently say they were all wrong.

Here are some numbers I pulled out of the training tracker database:

• Total pounds moved in 1 year: 5,030,523
• Deadlift increased from 450 to 562.
• Number of training sessions: 201
• Total working time: 110 hours (pretty small investment if you ask me)
• Average improvement per movement per session via blended metric: 46.4%
• Body composition changes: ~185 at <8% Body Fat.  Leaner & more muscular.
• “Cardio” – best KB snatch 3/26/2010: 35lbs 100 reps in 4.6 minutes.  Best KB snatch 2/14/2011: 62lbs 101 reps in 9 minutes.

I don’t know if the numbers speak for themselves or not.  I can tell you that the improvements are astounding.  I do not know of many people who are moving this quickly.

I’ve been on the same program for a year now. I go to the gym, I do what tests well.  I make everything easy.  I work within my limits.  I expand my limits.

But some of things can not be measured.  What value do I put on the fact that I never really have a “bad” training session?  How much value can be attached to setting new Personal Records every single time I train?  Studies have shown that strength training in general has a cognitive carryover – how much greater is the carryover when you are literally becoming better than you ever have been EVERY day?

If you are interested in training with Gym Movement there are a few places you can get started.  The road isn’t as well lit as it should be, yet.  But it will get better.

1. Read this Gym Movement introduction article by my friend Daryl.  He goes over basically everything you need to know.
2. If that doesn’t get you started you have 2 choices:
3. Start reading through the Gym Movement articles section on Adam T. Glass’ site. OR
4. Purchase Grip & Rip 2.1.  Of course, there is a cost to all the information being compiled and presented to you.  Don’t say you can’t get it for free though.

I’ve heard all sorts of arguments for why Gym Movement won’t work or why it won’t work for <insert population here> people.

Every day we get emails from around the world from people who are out of pain, stronger than ever, feel better than ever, etc and so on.  I now have a gym full of people who span populations from hardcore tri-athletes to middle-aged women who have never trained a day in their lives – every one of them is making perpetual progress with Gym Movement.

What’s your excuse now?

I competed in my first powerlifting meet today. It was the Minnesota Open under the USAPL federation. Here are some observations from the meet. These are all based on my opinion, so you’re more than welcome to take them with a grain of salt or ignore them completely. I will note however, that I destroyed everyone in my weight class and under in the deadlift by over 60lbs. My bench and squat were average, but surprise of surpises – I don’t train those lifts.

1) I watched people miss all 3 attempts. I don’t know who has coached these people, but there is no excuse to miss all 3 attempts. Last I checked the point of the game was to put the biggest total up on the board. If you get a big fat 0, you might as well go home. It’s really not that hard.

1. Pick a weight you know you can hit to put you on the board.
2. Pick a weight above that will give you a good score, maybe a small PR, but not a huge PR.
3. Either go for a PR, or go for broke and try a weight you’ve never done. You should have already posted a good number in #2, so this is bonus time.

I also watched guys literally get crushed by their 2nd attempt. Then what? You can’t go down. Do you go out and get crushed again?

It makes me wonder what these guys are doing in training. How do you not know you aren’t going to pull 611 after a 547 opener?  What are you going to do in #3?  Pull 630 which is 50lbs more than you have done in training?

I have never missed a deadlift in competiton.  I’ll say that again: I have never missed a competition deadlift pull.  Each and every time my 3rd attempt has been a new PR. When I used a periodization system I set up my training so that I would peak on competition day. Sure, I could have missed if I had a bad day, but more than likely I was going to get it. Now that I train with biofeedback & Gym Movement I know what day of the month I typically can set a new max on and I know what I need to do to improve my lift. Case in point, I had hit 550 in December. To hit 562 wasn’t going to require an act of god.

Oh, and dear reader who isn’t a lifter: these weren’t guys on their first meet.  They’ve probably been powerlifting for 10-15 years.

Which brings me to my next point:

2) If you aren’t strong enough, nothing you do in your 1 minute countdown will save you. I watched guys huff ammonia. I watched dude bros have their dude bro handler punch them in the chest. I watched guys rub chalk all over their singlet. I watched guys throw their headphones off their head. I saw screaming & yelling.

Not once was the chicanery associated with an epic performance. In fact I would say the association of extra nonsense was highly correlated to missed lifts.

Get your training right. Then go to competition and do what you have trained for. If you are not strong enough, go back and train some more. Putting on an Alpha Male show isn’t going to make you stronger. I won’t ever make fun of the weight anyone is lifting, but when you are beating your chest for a sub-2x deadlift I will make fun of you.

3) DO go out and compete in something. The highlight of the day was running into this granny that I know from the dog park. She is like 70 and told me she just “loves deadlifting”. Now that woman knows the way to my heart. She owns a state record in the deadlift for her class, in large part because no one else is competing. Do you hold any state records?

4) Don’t be a dick. I didn’t hear a lot of guys encouraging people they didn’t know. This 17 year old kid I met set an American Record in bench press and I don’t know that I saw one guy give him a high-five.

5) If you aren’t making progress, change something. I ran into a guy I competed with a couple years ago at a TSC. He pulled 455 at the time. I pulled 405. At the meet today I pulled 562, and he pulled something like 485. Something is WRONG if you haven’t put more than 50lbs on your deadlift in 2 years (unless you’re Andy Bolton, hi Andy). If you are the guy reading this right now, I want you to know I’m not trying to be a dick and I would love to have you come train with me. I just know that it is a classic example of the lack of progress most people see, and yet they continue “trying hard” thinking something will change.

Tim Ferriss is a pretty well known fraud.  Other people have written about how his reality is far from what he preached in 4HWW.  It’s also well-known that many of his accomplishments are dubious at best.  Maybe the most glaring example is his Chinese kickboxing championship in which he exploited a loophole in the rules to significantly out-weigh his opponents and then simply SHOVE them out of the ring.

Now this charlatan has written a book on how to “become superhuman”.  I won’t even link it because as far as I’m concerned I’m already giving him more attention than he deserves.  In any case, in this book about half of it is devoted to developing super-human levels of strength.  To that end, he posted a video with his new year’s resolutions for 2010.  In it, he says that one of his resolutions is to attain a 500lb deadlift.  Here is a clip I cut from the video.

Now a 500lb deadlift is far from superhuman strength but it is definitely a formidable level of strength and a worthy goal.  Tim states that he had previously pulled 475 for a triple on a trap bar, so by my estimation his barbell deadlift 1RM would have been somewhere between 425 and 450.  In other words, far less than a year away from a 500lb 1RM.

Here we are a year later…..and there is no evidence that I have seen that he has accomplished this goal.  I’ve combed through his twitter as well as his blog.

But he released a book on attaining super-human strength?

But he can’t reach his goal of a far-less-than-superhuman 500lb deadlift?

What does this say about the rest of the content of the book?

And before you think I am full of shit and jealous of his success as an author, here is a 520lb deadlift from July by yours truly.  I have since taken that to 550, and have pulled 500 for a triple.   Does that make me any more qualified to tell you how to run your body?  No.

Do you want to listen to a guy who can’t even reach his own goals, but writes a book about how you’re supposed to?

P.S.  If Tim wants to provide evidence to the contrary, I’m all ears.  It will just serve to remove ONE reason he is a fraud and a charlatan.

It has been brought to my attention that some people think it’s weird that I post these #PReveryday updates or other gym PRs on Twitter and Facebook.  Some people don’t understand what they mean, and I’m sure others think that it’s just bragging.  Here is why I post these things:

The reason I post these updates is that I believe in leading from the front.  I think that if you are going to pay a professional to show you how to do something, they should be able to demonstrate that they are competent and able to do the same for themselves.  What exactly do I mean by that?

A few months ago I opened a gym, and tossed myself head first into the fitness industry.

So if people are going to come to me to learn how to improve themselves, I need to demonstrate to them that I am always moving forward, always getting better myself.  Believe it or not, this is not the norm in the fitness industry.  The point of this post isn’t to get into negative details about how other people do things, but suffice to say that it is a rare thing for a fitness professional to practice what they preach.

PReveryday (a Personal Record, every day) actually represents a lot of things, but the core of it is simple.  My friends and I share a belief that you can get just a little bit better every single day.  Is that a hard pill to swallow?  Just think about it for a minute.  What if you could get a tiny bit better at something every day.  How much better would you be in a week, a month, a year?

The thing is, if you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse.  It doesn’t matter what the subject is.  The only way to make sustainable progress is to always get better.  If your training program isn’t making you better every single time you train, it is making you worse.  There is no way around this.  If you blindly follow P90X, it will hurt you.  If you blindly follow your personal trainer at Lifetime, he will hurt you.  That is why every single one of my members at The Movement Minneapolis learns how to be their own scientist, their own best personal trainer, and how to PR every day.  Whether it be experimenting with their movement training, their diet, or their social environment, they all learn how to make themselves better every day.

So here is my challenge to you….try it.  Get better at something today.  Crush a sales call.  Find a new strategy to teach a kid something new (my mom uses this concept to teach kids who have never held a pencil how to read & write in English).  Set a PR in the gym.  Be a better boyfriend.  And then be proud of it.  Shouldn’t we be proud of our accomplishments, even the small steps?  I think so.

P.S. I want to write more specifically about the training side of things and why setting a PR every day is such a paradigm shift, but I’m going to save that for another post.

I posted this over here.

Every time I am stuck in snarled stop-and-go traffic I am reminded of the same thing: it shouldn’t be this way.

The unstoppable march of technology has made it possible for the vast majority of the people sitting in their cars, parked on the freeway sipping their latte to do the exact same job without going to the office. Between video conferencing, collaboration tools, wikis, email, Skype the “office” is an obsolete relic.

The advantages to reducing commuting to those people who must necessarily commute to perform their job would be tremendous.

1) Fewer cars on the road, everyone would get to their destination more quickly. Less time stuck in traffic = enormous increase in work output. This would be instantly reflected in the GDP.

2) Fewer cars leaving their garages would mean more cars available for car-sharing programs like Relay Rides. Suddenly, the household with 3 cars (1 for mom, 1 for dad, 1 for the high school junior) only needs 1 or 2 cars at most. And one of them can be shared out to someone who can give up their car completely.

3) There is a a growing mountain of evidence that commuting is measurably bad for your health. Nearly 50% of Americans commute. Call it 120million people. If even 20% of them (it seems likely that a much, much higher percentage of commuting is unnecessary) would stop commuting, you’d instantly make almost 30 million Americans more healthy.

4) Consider the ancillary benefits of people not spending 2 hours a day in their car. Less time in the car, fewer stops at Burger King for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. More time at home to cook good meals for themselves and their families. Finally that extra hour in the day to get a quick workout in. Or another hour to spend with the kids. In some families it might be the only hour they get with their children.

What are the downsides? There aren’t any.