Dan Pacheco

Got the iPhone. Not crazy about the AT&T network, but I like the features. And it’s not that slow. Wifi rules!

This goal is something of a cheat because I was just informed that I HAVE won an award for something I didn’t even enter! More details to come soon …

Check! You can see it at bakotopia.com/events

After a physical revealed that I have higher than normal cholesterol (probably genetic), I made radical changes to my diet and lost 10 pounds over 2 months. I have another 10 pounds to go to reach my ideal weight. How did I do it? I’ve adopted a nearly all vegetarian diet, I don’t eat cheese or milk, and I use olive oil instead of butter (and never very much of it). Now if I could just find more time to exercise …

We’re working on some much-needed improvements to user profiles on Bakotopia.com. We’re realistically about three weeks away from launching them. Can’t wait to see them launch!

We’re working on some improvements to http://www.bakotopia.com, including the addition of a clickable event calendar. Hopefully it will launch soon, along with a bunch of other cool stuff!

We just relaunched http://www.bakotopia.com on a new platform that’s based on PHP and MySQL. Cool!

It took a while, but I’m finally over “it”!

I’m so excited! After a year of living in a house with a second-story door that goes nowhere, the door now opens to a beautiful second-story deck with a view of the Boulder Flatirons and Indian Peaks behind them. You can see it on my Flickr photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pachecod

I had someone do this for me, but I pulled all the permits for it. I wrote up the plan, posted it on Craigslist along with how much I was willing to pay (after researching what a fair cost would be)—and I found the best local builder to do it! He brought out two other guys, and they had the entire thing up in a little over a week. It would have been faster, but we had one of those freakish Colorado spring snowstorms. It was 70 degrees at noon when they poured the concrete, but was 30 degrees and snowing when they left. As a result, one of the concrete piers broke and had to be redone. Other than that, this was a very easy, fun and worry-free experience.

I’ve managed to do this with my spouse once a month for the last two months. If I succeed in doing it for one more month, I will declare victory!

I just created this free community site for Bakersfield: http://www.bakotopia.com
It’s about the 8th such site I have created for a mass-market audience.

I fee so self-actualized now it’s not even funny.

I’ve almost managed to stop biting my nails. Once I master that goal, I will take up guitar.

Saving money is the least fun, but ultimately most rewarding thing I have ever done. It’s right up there with carrying no debt on credit cards but getting frequent flier miles by using credit cards and always paying them off. I highly recommend both!

I lived in Holland for a few years as a teenager. Yes, I know what you’re thinking. Ooh—you must have done a lot of pot then! Actually I never once did any in Holland. I was a very good kid, probably too good. What I liked most about Holland were the chocolate and the bike paths (almost every street had a separate street next to it for bikes, complete with little bicycle stoplights). And of course, the Dutch are just very cool and tolerant about just about everything. I think this short experience in another country with such progressive values really shaped who I am today.

I’ve actually created a large number of online communities over the years, but I’m most proud of my latest one: http://www.bakotopia.com
It’s a needs and interest-matching site for young people in little Bakersfield, California.

This is thanks largely to my wife, who is a vegetarian and likes cooking more than I do. But recently I have started making fruit smoothie shakes in the morning and eating just that for breakfast. You can do this yourself if you have a food processor and buy big bags of frozen fruit. Take it out of your freezer, throw it in the food processor, put in some unflavored yogurt, hit a button and you’re done. It’s pretty easy to clean up, too.

Right now I manage to get to the gym twice a week. I would like to increase this to 4 times a week. Now that I’ve publicly stated this on this site, I guess I should JUST DO IT!

How do you actively purge your system of bad juju from the past? It seems to naturally dissipate over time, but in this day and age there is so much bad stuff around that we almost need something like an enema for evil and bad past experiences. Sometimes I wish I could just flush the memory of certain people and exepriences from my mind.

I have a ski pass, but I never have time to use it. It’s such a tragedy!