Today it changes again. I’ve decided that my personal blog being ‘named’ my name just wasn’t working. I’ve known this for a long time but I didn’t do anything about it because I wasn’t sure what to do. Finally I got sick and tired of thinking about it and just decided to name it after what it has already become, rather than naming it something I’d like it to become. If that makes any sense.

As of today this blog, which is still going to be my personal Web site in all of the glory that it has come to be, is known as First Initial, Last Name – The official Web site of Colin Devroe.

For several years I have admired the ‘blogs’ that have been branded with their own names yet are run by one or very few people. If you read this blog with any regularity you can probably guess the forthcoming list, but here it is anyway: Daring Fireball run by John Gruber, Waxy.org by Andy Baio, Avalonstar by Bryan Veloso, Waking Ideas by Daniel Nicolas, Monday by Noon by Jon Christopher – and many, many others. I’m listing my friends who are good examples because, well, they are my friends and this is my blog and I can do that sort of thing.

This doesn’t mean that I put my own personal blog in this same line up. I don’t. It isn’t worthy. Also, some of these examples shouldn’t be classified as blogs. Daring Fireball is a business. It is the way John feeds his family. It just so happens that John’s business is “blogging”. This site will never be a Daring Fireball.

So First Initial, Last Name it is. I may grab an appropriate domain name for it, at some point, but I’ve always done more than fine with cdevroe.com so I don’t see that happening any time soon. Who types in domain names more than once or twice anyway, really? You should have subscribed to this site by now.

Side note: I’ve recently added the Share This button to my site (come to this post to see it). If you feel that anything I share on this site is worthy of letting others know about, please consider using this button to make it quick and easy to share the post, photo, or video on your service of choice.

Thanks to all of you that subscribe, read, and participate on my site. I really do appreciate it.

A sea lion?

Yesterday I saw my friend Daniel Nicolas twitter; “there was a seal at the beach! yes i got pictures”.  I knew once he published the photos I was going to link to them.

But then I got to thinking – did he really mean seal or did he mean sea lion?

Once he had the photos up I began doing a little digging to jog my memory about the differences between a seal and a sea lion, both of which are Pinnipeds, or “fin-footed mammals”.  It is a pretty simple classification really.  If you have a fin as a foot, you give birth to live young, feed your young with milk, are warm blooded, and have hair on your body – you’re a Pinniped.  However, the main difference between a sea lion and a seal is that sea lions have ears and can walk on all fours.

But, you might be saying, but so can fur seals.  This is where things start to get a little muddy.  The number of species of seal are actually quite numerous.  California sea lions, for example, are the most common species used in circuses and the like, but there are suborders of both seal and sea lion ranging in the hundreds.  Australian, Japanese, Galapagos, and Stellar are just a few suborders of sea lion.  New Zealand, Antarctic, Subantarctic, Northern Fur, and Cape Fur are just a few suborders of seals.

So what did Danny shoot?  I’m sticking with sea lion – partially because of my close examination of the photos, and partially because I know that Danny is from somewhere near San Diego.

What do you think it is?

Source: Flickr: Photo uploads from May 20, 2008 by djloche.

 

Date taken: December 1, 2007 |  My friend Daniel Nicolas in Hollywood, California.

This is one of my more favorite photos that I’ve taken with my iPhone, and only one of several of Danny.  What reminded me that I wanted to post this photo is that I wanted to recommend you taking a look at his photos, as well as his site (which is currently under a bit of construction).

Date taken: December 1, 2007 | Dan, shooting some of these photos. Taken with iPhone.

Fast forward to the weekend and we went to the Philly meetups and ate and drank foods and drinks that would not be considered diet foods by any stretch of the imagination.

Last week I weighted in at 199.0 and this week I’m 198.0. My goal is two pounds per week and so losing one pound is “ok” considering the week I had. Though tonight will be my return to the gym schedule that I once held along with a new cardio program that I’m starting.

My new goal weight is 180 pounds. The last time I achieved 185 I was not working out at the gym – I was merely doing cardio (in the form of endless amounts of basketball). This time however I’m hoping to build some muscle which should help to bring down the fat percentage a bit. So that is my goal – a wiry, stronger, and healthy 180. Then I will want to attempt to stay there from one Tuesday to the next forever.

At 2 pounds per week that means my goal is to hit 180 by the weigh in on Tuesday, April 24th, 2007. I look forward to trying to beat that goal.

Why not set a goal for yourself, like Daniel Nicolas has, since he has registered for the Carlsbad 5000 and has 5.5 weeks to prepare for it. I find it ironic that the most recent post on his “food blog” is a recipe for Homemade French Fries! I’d love to see or hear more about everyone’s goals. I know Mike is currently at the gym and has been almost every morning since he switched to the Body for Life program, the same one James is using, and it seems to be working for both of them. Mike’s day 30-update showed real signs of progress and I look forward to seeing what his next 30-day update shows.

There is definitely activity. Definite progress being made. Not only am I hoping that over the next few months I’m able to contribute to this again – but I hope that others find the time to do so too.

Side note update: I accidentally sent trackbacks to the above links with the wrong URI, so if you could edit those trackbacks to reflect /diet/ instead of /notes/ that’d be killer.

[tags]weigh-in, diet, the-diet, mike stickel, james mathias, daniel nicolas, carlsbad 5000, goals, gym, cardio, workout, snow, weather, body for life[/tags]