www.chrisdaines.net — Chris Daines

Turning food into a points-based game to lose weight.

by chrisdaines on January 8, 2011 · 0 comments

I told some of you a few days ago that I began a trek to lose sixty pounds by the end of the year.

After seeing pictures of myself at the heaviest I’ve ever been this New Year’s, I realized that a steady 7 pound gain a year over the last ten years has not been gentle on my figure or health at all.

I am contributing the biggest motivating mindset change right now to this android app called My Fitness Pal.

It works just like a pen and paper would if you were counting calories, but it makes it quicker, easier and eliminates math.

I am awarded calories for physical exercise, and keep track of everything I do via the app or the web site.

I won’t lie and say it is easy or that I don’t think about ditching it and going back to my comfort foods. But change isn’t easy.

This isn’t a diet, or a punishment or anything else. It is simply keeping track of food for the caloric energy value it contains. That’s what makes it different. I am able to keep myself accountable with my intake and output.

You can make your food and exercise diary public or private, allowing for accountability from friends (if you are honest) you are welcome to help keep me accountable and I will do the same for you if you choose to use myfitnesspal.com

My profile is here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/whatisinthebag

And the android app is free in the marketplace.

I’m only weighing myself once a week, so even if it is only one pound a week I loose I wont be distraught by fluctuating weight.

I realize this might sound like I’m trying to sell you something, but I’m not. I’m simply motivated to be healthier and this is working for me. It makes eating more like a game, where I have a number of points I can spend every day, and in order to be comfortable the entire day I need to choose healthier options.

I can still eat cheeseburgers, french fries and chocolate but they cost a lot more than fruits and vegetables, but sometimes you just need a cheeseburger or some pizza.

If you do decide to to use the app, or the website, please let me know.

A dawn approaches

by staticantics on September 9, 2010 · 0 comments

Good morning you absent clouds.

What makes Los Angeles different?

by chrisdaines on August 30, 2010 · 0 comments

It is the bleach. As seen in corporate restroom corner.

Totally Awesome

The case for less words on a resume

by chrisdaines on August 25, 2010 · 0 comments

I make reasons to update my resume every few months. Not because I’m always looking for a new job but because my ideas are constantly moving and evolving.

A well-written resume can be wonderful, but isn't always visually effective.

Case in point: What I thought was the Best Resume Ever only six months ago now looks at me like a giant wall of text.

No one is very interested in looking at my wall of text, aside from the automated resume-indexing spiders employment websites developed to take the human out of the hiring equation.

That is not to imply a resume can’t be a great experiment in typography and writing to a specific audience. Some of the most graphically boring and bland resumes carry so much vital information they are impossible to criticize.

Not every potential employer wants to see a clever resume. In a sea of resumes and rising competition in the struggling job market taking a chance on something eye-catching and different from those other wall of text resumes could mean important eyeball time.

It could also mean an eye-roll and immediate rejection.

Making a resume individual and personal is a daunting task.

So the challenge of resume design unfolds: How do I convey who I am and what I am capable of?

There is no solve-all answer. No single solution exists for resumes. No book, template or tradition will mean the best resume for you.

A resume that isn’t continually adapted won’t reflect you. It will atrophy as you evolve and when you are in a crunch and need that resume you will settle for Just Another Resume.

Resumes are individual. Depending on what your work field encompasses, it is worth the effort to make something yourself.

What I developed for myself was different from any other resume I did before. I threw away the walls of text. I trimmed what comparatively little writing there was into stronger, more confident and positive declarations.

Graphics have their places in your resume, if the work is yours

I included a tiny sample of work I’ve done. This meant I had to incorporate visuals — something I hadn’t tackled in a resume before. This forced my resume to go beyond the single page theory and required scrolling.

This works to my advantage because what little text exists prompts an exploration and examination of my entire presentation, not brief keyword searches.

In defense of writing to keywords, my declarations take care of that.

My new resume is bolder and takes more chances.

What would I do next? Experiment in color perhaps.

Downtown Bakersfield is atrophying: A photo study

by chrisdaines on July 24, 2010 · 2 comments

Excuse the size of this post. I wanted the pictures to be large.

The Kern Photography Association got together for their second annual photo walk this morning. Lots of nice people and lots of nice camera equipment descended on the just-after-dawn downtown section of Bakersfield to make images in the coolest time of the day.

I spent the morning focusing on colors and textures and light. I made a few images of scattered things around the city and as I ventured father from our original meeting place I made a strange observation.

Downtown Bakersfield is atrophying.

Corner after corner; block after block the empty store fronts and boarded windows and doors make the pawn shops look like quality shopping opportunities.

I suspect as the residential sprawl jumps away from central Bakersfield every month as new homes are built. Big Box stores are being added to the corners of all of these new communities. Two new Walmarts were built and opened in less than a year, Two new Targets will be finished in about the same amount of time.

Downtown Bakersfield is in some serious need of injection of something aside from theaters, bars and pawn shops.

I took quite a few photos, and I’ll post them all here. For a happier set of photos, feel free to check out my flickr set of Bakersfield Photo Walk photos. I’ll be adding photos there all week as I edit them. I wanted to put these picture up while I was still thinking about this subject — though it is difficult not to think of it all the time as I commute to work.

Please recognize these pictures were taken in an area of about two square miles.

These aren’t all of the shuttered businesses either. I could have taken many other photos in the location I wandered — and even more if I had gone farther. The Oildale section of Bakersfield is under even more dire straits. The county’s unemployment rate surely isn’t helping much.