Experiments Archive

Experimenting With Car-Free Living

It has been quiet around here lately and with good reason: Not only have I been working on a new product (more to come in the upcoming week), but I’ve also been busy biking all over town. Ever since Earth Day, my girlfriend and I have been living car-free. It has been a goal we’ve had for a while and I must say we’re doing pretty good so far.

Our goal is to keep her car parked as much as possible (I don’t own a car myself). We’re still thinking about making the switch to a true car-free life but we want to give it a trial run before we make any major decisions.

5 Steps to Become an Early Riser

I’ve been a night owl my entire life, even when I had to get up early to head off to work. Funny thing is, I really enjoy getting up early in the morning. I just never could figure out how to do it without dragging myself out of the bed or wishing I had a syringe full of espresso.

However, for the first time in my life I have established a routine in which I wake up at 6:30 every morning. Crazy huh? I never would have thought I would be the type of person to willingly wake up early each day.

6 Reasons Why I Ditched My iPhone

I’ve been an iPhone user since it first came out a few years back. I even upgraded to the 3G version since I wanted to get some faster internet. But guess what? As of this week, I am officially iPhone free! I just sold my used iPhone on Craigslist for $250 and feel great about it.

Over the past year, I’ve been contemplating on and off whether or not I needed a cellphone. A few times I got close to pulling the plug but then changed my mind. I really don’t like the idea of constantly having a phone on me. Heck, I even saw two people run into each other on the sidewalk yesterday because they were both walking and texting. Have we really gotten this bad?

An Experiment in Sleep deprivation

Want to catch up on work? I think I’ve found the solution. Don’t sleep. Ever.

Just kidding, that’s a horrible idea. However, I did stay up for over 35 hours straight over the last two days and managed to get a TON done. Not only did I build two websites from scratch, but I also managed to do some design modifications to a bunch of my websites and blogs. If you’ve been there before, you’ve probably noticed the changes I made to this one. Anyways, I wanted to write a little bit about what it was like staying up so long.

Vibram Five Fingers: Not Your Average Shoe

What in the hell are those? That’s what most people seem to think (and say) when they see the Vibram Five Fingers. So I decided it was time to grab a pair and see what they are all about. As it turns out, they are the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever worn in my entire life.

Quick Introduction

If you’ve never seen these before, they are a unique shoe made by Vibram. Vibram is most known for making the soles of popular hiking shoes. The reason they are so unique is because they feature five toe sections and fit much like a glove.

Haircut Fail…Or Win?

Is that a bob haircut? I sort of resemble Suri Cruise…

Anyways, after much debate I decided it was time to say goodbye to the long hair. I’ve had it for more than a year now and wanted to change it up a bit.

P90X: Phase 1 Completed

A little over 4 weeks ago, I wrote a post about starting P90X. It’s an intense workout program that last 90 days and is made up of 3 separate phases. I also did a recap of week 1 and summarized the workouts and how hard they were at first.

Yesterday was officially the last day of phase 4 for me. I ended up being a few days late due to the move to Austin but I still made it. And I can honestly say I feel in great shape. The 3 weeks of workouts followed by the recovery week were intense and kicked my ass far more than anything else I’ve ever done. It’s crazy how much of a workout you can get in your living room.

Blog Post Frequency Experiment Results

Back on March 18th, I wrote a post about blog post frequency and an experiment I was conducting. Now that it has been a few weeks, I thought I would go back and take a look at my traffic stats ever since I started writing a little less frequently.

Here are my stats starting two weeks before the experiment through April 12th:

Not Much Change

As you can see from the graph, not a whole lot of changes took place. If anything, my traffic started increasing a little bit since …

My Plan To Pack On Some Pounds

Creative Commons – photo credit: jontunn
About a week and a half ago, I decided to go on a bulking diet. If you are not sure what that is, it’s basically a diet where you eat more calories than you burn and lift weights in order to gain some weight. I have been in to weightlifting for about 6 years now but have really slacked off over the last year (more like not lifted at all).

I managed to go from 185 all the way down to 168 without even trying. I do eat as healthy as I can and avoid all boxed foods as well as junk food (chips, McDonalds, etc). The only time I “cheat” and eat less healthy foods is when I go out to eat sometimes. So that might have a lot to do with losing a little weight since it’s hard for me to get a lot of calories in when I am eating nothing but healthy foods.

Anyways, I’ve started to look like starvin’ Marvin from South park so I made the decision to bulk up.

Below you will find a breakdown of what I am doing in the gym as well as what I am eating. I’ve been documenting my weight everyday and once I hit my goal I am going to do a post with before and after pictures to show everyone what is possible.

An Experiment In Blog Post Frequency

One of the most common questions I receive from fellow bloggers is “how many times should I post on my blog?” I usually respond with a simple and honest answer…I don’t know.

I have been blogging on and off for over 5 years now and still have no idea what the best blog post frequency is. Here on this blog, I typically try to post Monday through Friday. I’m usually too busy on the weekends to post and I expect my readers are as well. However, I do miss some …