Download the show here!

I first met Fausto Fernós & Marc Felion of the Feast of Fools at the second podcast expo where I briefly said hi. I was very much in the closet at the time so I didn’t want people to see me talking with them. How ironic that I would be outed to some of my best friends at the time, Dawn and Drew, during that trip.

We hung out quite a bit more at the 3rd podcast expo a year ago. It was a week after I moved to San Francisco and was on the way to being able to be more myself and express who I was. I had a great time hanging with them and was there for a great cake sitting video with their hot fan Jonathan.

We then hung out at The Stud in San Francisco a few days after the expo for a live show. I was given a free pass from Curtis Jensen to Steamworks, one of the sponsors of the Feast of Fools show. I didn’t really think anything of it at the time but eventually decided to check out the club.

Thru the Feast of Fools and Curtis being there I learned about Steamworks, which is now the company I work for, and have for the past 3 months now. I was able to come out under my own terms 3 months ago and feel better about myself, and life. I am free to finally be myself.

Since then a lot has happened….It was great to be able to hang out with Fausto & Marc in Vegas at the 4th annual New Media Expo (formerly podcast expo). We recorded a show and discussed being outted 2 years ago by Nobody Likes Onions, depression and my suicide attempt on Twitter, and the future of podcasts and online communities.

Here is the invite code for Ping.fm which I mentioned towards the end of the show: vivalaping

It is a great listen as I think there are quite a few unanswered questions about me and who Nick Starr really is. If you are in the San Francisco area make sure to head out to Meet & Greet in San Francisco  (Pilsner Inn) with Peaches Christ on Thursday, August 21, 2008 • 7-10pm 225 Church Street, San Francisco, CA, and donate to their travel fund.

Download the show here!

I am getting ready to fly out to the New Media Expo (formerly the Podcast expo, and about 3 other names which everyone will be saying. You will be seeing a lot of tweets about different meetups, dinners, lunches, events, and parties if you follow me on Twitter over the next few days, as well as some cool info about people I meet out there.

This is my 4th year, and the conferences 4th as well. It sort of became a bit too corporate last year, but I think Vegas will bring the life back into the attendees.

I’ll be headed to the GLBT Podcaster & Listener Meet & Greet hosted by Fausto & Marc of Feast of Fools Thursday at 7pm at the SpaceQuest Bar, Hilton Hotel, NLOL Comedy show Thursday night at 10:30pm, Revision3 Meetup Friday at the Double Down Saloon from 6-8PM, and have friends flying in from Toronto which I met recently just for vacation. I am sure that there will be other great events I’ll be at, so if you want to say hi and are in the area, watch my Twitter stream.

Also, if you want to see what is going on (wether you are at the expo or not) watch/bookmark this link for all tweets related to the New Media Expo. I try to filter out all the noise and get all the tags people will be using in that customized Twitter Search, but if there are extra tags I should add let me know.

I also did an interview a few weeks ago, which is live today with Victor Cajiao of the Typical Mac User Podcast about social media & new media. We discussed a variety of services and how you can use them to gain and keep an audience as well as other trips and tricks of the this new media world we live in. Make sure to listen to the show here, subscribe to future shows in iTunes, and follow Victor on Twitter.

Well I’m off…my brand new Moo business cards arrived 1 hour before I was leaving the office so I’m ready to have fun and party it up in Vegas baby! Cya there!

Yep…only $2 for your favorite Starbucks cold beverages…all you have to do is find a receipt lying on the ground, or actually go out and buy some morning coffee and bring that receipt back sometime after 2pm and your Grande (16oz) cold drink is only $2.

Now of course things like this couldn’t last forever, but it will last from now (August 5th) thru September 2nd which is really the end of summer anyway (unless you live in San Francisco where they have Indian Summers or Florida where it never leaves summertime).

BTW b/c of my diet I don’t visit Starbucks very often as the only 3 drinks I can stand there (Vanilla Bean Frappuccino, Straberry Cream Frappuccino, and Caramel Apple Cider) are waaaaaaay too high in carbs, fat, etc, and I can’t stand coffee or tea.

HA! If you know me for real, you know that I am not a wildly successful person, but recently I have been quite successful at losing weight. I remember going clothes shopping with my mother and buying size husky as a child. I’ve always been heavy as far back as I can remember, and was picked on at school for it. I got down to 177 back in 2002 in order to join the Navy, but haven’t been that low until now. Recently, I have gone from my all time high (that I measured on a scale) of 220 all the way down to 155 where I am at now. I’m in the best shape of my life (including most of high school). How did I do it? Let me tell you.

Feb 2005

First off I started as most people do at New Year’s thinking to myself that I would love to shed some extra pounds. My friend (at the time) Billy and I were hanging out and going to the gym. He told me he wanted to lose weight in time for Pride, which I had no idea about at that time. Pride in San Francisco is the last weekend in June, which put the goal about 6 months out. I figured this was a good goal to set and decided on 165-160 as my goal. Quite lofty for a guy in his 200’s, but something to strive for.

Feb 2006

Before this I was doing a high carb; low fat diet. I would eat all the foods I wanted as long as there was little to no fat in them. Pretty much my diet consisted of beans & rice. While this diet might of been effective for some, it wasn’t working for me very well.

May 2006

I decided to go with an old diet I had done in the past with mild success. I got down to about 185 with it before and figured I would give it a full go this time. It isn’t the Atkins diet and it isn’t the South Beach diet, but somewhere in between. (Let me also interject here that I drink a SHITLOAD of water every day. While I do still occasionally drink diet soda, I make sure to have at least 9-10 8oz glasses of Voss water a day.)

Sept 2006

Breakfast: I would eat depending on time (which most days was very little) an Atkins breakfast bar or shake shortly after waking up (6am-8am). These chocolate shakes turn out to be pretty yummy. If I had more time, I would fix up about 2 eggs as scrambled or over medium. When I got to work, I would microwave 2-4 pieces of precooked bacon as a 9am-10am snack.

March 2007

Snack: If I got hungry outside of the bacon, I would have a string cheese. Cheese turned out to be one of the best snacks for me, as it is something I love, but also is very low in carbs. I would get 50% reduced fat cheese and other low-fat cheese to help reduce the daily fat intake.

June 2007

Lunch: Now let me explain that I am very much a meat and potatoes person. I don’t like most vegetables, fruits, salads, etc. I am one of the pickiest eaters I’ve ever met. My lunch would consist of 2 turkey sausages or 2-3 turkey hot dogs. I would microwave them for about 30-45 seconds, then pull them out and slice them down the middle. Pour my favorite condiment of the day on, then finish cooking.

Sept 2007 (I didn’t eat anything for 3 weeks)

Here is a HUGE tip…these meals are quite repetitive, at least they were for me. Here’s the tip on mixing them up. SPICES & SAUCES! Every day I would pick a different spice, mustard, etc to put on my meals to help mix things up and keep the tastes different. I love Emril’s Essence, Boar’s head spicy mustard, and low-carb/reduced sugar Heinz ketchup. BTW be careful with mustard, almost all of them are zero carbs, but once you start getting into honey mustards the carbs rack up quickly.

Sept 2007 (Obviously started eating again)

Snack: In the afternoon I would grab another string cheese or more often a sugar free Jello. Throw on a dollop of light whipped cream (0-2 carbs) and you have a yummy and low-carb snack.

November 2007

Snack: Between leaving work and dinner I would sometimes have a snack. It might of been a carrot, piece of cheese, or Atkins bar (which are going up in price recently, but still worth buying to help fight those chocolate/sugary cravings).

December 2007

Dinner: Being new to California and not used to the expensive cost of living, I would stay clear of eating out as much as possible. Instead I would buy frozen or raw chicken breasts and cook them up at home. There are plenty of great zero/low carb dressings to marinade your chicken in. This is where spices would play a huge factor as well. Every night a different spice or different sauce to pour on. I would occasionally eat a helping of cooked broccoli (with melted cheese on top) to round out my dinner and keep me from being hungry the rest of the night.

Feb 2008

Here is the key though…as much as diet played a factor….EXERCISE is what helped me lose the weight. I would go to the gym, even if I didn’t want to 3-6 times a week and do at least 30 minutes on the elliptical machine. I would go and work on some of the equipment as well, and always do at least 100-200 crunches. It wasn’t an intense workout, but I would maintain certain goals while on the elliptical.

April 2008

Working out became something that I looked forward to (so cliche I know), but it is true. I would typically go after work, but have recently started toning up more and doing more machines, so I go in the morning to do weights and still do my cardio on the way home from work.

May 2008

I also for a large portion of the diet have taken Alli. It is one of the first OTC diet/weightloss drugs the FDA has approved. It has some crazy “treatment effects” which I am glad to say I never had, but with the wrong intake of fat you are in for some nasty times. I would take one pill with each meal. Alli isn’t the answer for everyone, but it does help eliminate up to 25% of the fat put into your body while eating.

June 2008

That’s about it….diet, exercise, and Alli were the main secrets to my success. I am still not exactly where I want to be and with such rapid and dramatic weight loss I have some left over areas I am trying to tone up now. Am I where I want to be? No way…Don’t get me wrong, I love the new me and feel great as I went from a size 36 to 34 to 33 to 32/31 and now to 31/30. I just want to feel more comfortable nekkid and specifically with my shirt off. I am sure that I will get there with time and effort.

July 2008

I hope this helps you, I know this plan isn’t right of everyone, but being a very picky eater I think I can maintain the diet for sometime to come…as long as they keep slaughtering those stupid chickens, I will be sure to have them for dinner.

I don’t know if there is an AA for text messagers, but if there were I would be a member. I’ve gone so far as to cancel my voice service on my phone, and have unlimited 3G data and unlimited SMS messages (don’t ask how) for $50/month.

If you want to contact me there are many ways to do so. Texting is the preferred method, but if you don’t have my number you can send me a direct message via Twitter and I get it as a text message. Heck you can even do Twitter via SMS by sending your updates, direct messages, and replies to 40404 (in the US only).

On top of texts, I am on email virtually all day long, and my email address hasn’t changed in years: me at NickStarr dot com.

I’m on IM services as well:
AIM: NickStarr
GoogleTalk: NickStarr (at) Gmail (dot) com
Yahoo: NickStarr_cc
MSN: me at NickStarr dot com
Skype: NickStarr

Of course there is Facebook as well, and with their new IM service the service has become something I keep open all the time as well. Add me as a friend on facebook and send me a message.

So send me a message to say hi or just want to talk, can’t promise I am free ALL the time, but I’m around quite a bit.

When I first started off at the beginning of the year, I wanted to get to 160lbs before Pride. I managed to reach that goal weeks before Pride and according to my scale last night I am down to 155.1 lbs.

When I was in Toronto, I couldn’t help notice that I still am not where I want to be with my body, and personally with my life. My room (and this is no shocker to anyone who has known me) is quite messy…I still haven’t really unpacked things after moving in a few months ago. Financially, quite honestly I am not well off at all. Finally, physically I want to be….and this is a major thing for me…able to take off my shirt and not be embarrassed or scared.

Ever since I was a little child, I can remember my mom going and picking out the “husky” sized jeans for me to wear. I for an entire summer didn’t eat very much in high school, and dropped to the weight in the picture above. That was my junior year of high school…and I had girlfriend after girlfriend. I felt confident and good about how I looked.

Now that I am down to the weight I want to be at, I would like to start working on more then simply cardio and a little weights. I want to tone up, as I am now left with the flab of a former 220 lb frame. My tummy still sticks out some, my arms are flabby and not muscular at all. Now I HATE physical labor and working out…so this is going to be a HUGE challenge for me.

I am going to with everything in me start working out on a bi-daily basis. I will do weights & gym equipment in the morning, followed by my standard 30 minutes on the elliptical machine. I also want to incorporate maybe another 30 minutes on an exercise bike to make my cardio up to an hour long. Also doing crunches every time I am at the gym should help work my stomach out.

Now I mentioned before that I am not good with money. I spend it like it is going out of style, so getting a personal trainer is a priority for me, but I want to make sure that I am secure financially first.

Finally, my room. I am going to, after working out tonight, start to clean up. It is quite a mess, and I have 2 cabinets that are still not put together. Like I said, I hate HATE HATE cleaning…so it is going to be quite a task. I also think I want to get rid of my queen sized Aero bed, as it takes up a large majority of my room. I’m thinking a futon might be a better and more reliable choice, and will take up quite a bit less space.

I think with a cleaner room, it will help motivate me to be less lazy and be happier….being around a mess can be depressing, especially when you know you “should” clean it up.

I want to blog more, I just feel like I am short on time. I think getting my life into more of a pattern and schedule will help me. I am not good at sticking to things…AT ALL, so maybe some structure will help me out.

BTW I don’t want to set any hard and fast goals on this one, but I would like to be able to post a picture with no shirt on by the end of the year, and be comfortable with it.

One week ago and again today, I was waking before the ass-crack of dawn to catch a plane. Last Monday, I stumbled home from the end of a weekend long Pride celebration and caught an hour of sleep before I left for Toronto, Ontario in Canada for a week. I personally didn’t want to go and was sort of dreading it.

When I got there, passing thru customs was a breeze. My boss and I went to the company condo and unpacked. We went over to the company’s club right on the main street of Toronto’s gay village off Church Street. It was in the evening that we arrived due to the 3 hour time change and 5 hour direct flight. We went and had an amazing steak dinner and finished off a great bottle of Cabernet.

My boss went home and I decided to hit up some of the local bars. I stumbled into what would be my evening home for most of the duration. Being in a new city and not knowing anyone there, I decided to break out of my introverted shell and started walking up to random people and striking up conversations. I started off by introducing myself and asking what local spots are good to hit up on various nights of the week.

Almost everyone was very receptive and it lead to some conversation and sometimes just a, “thanks, have a good night.” I ended up making out with one guy, and then losing him. I found another guy and we decided to go home…

Well my boss is sometimes hard to read and tell when he is joking and when he isn’t. He said, “Alright no tricks in the condo” (which btw the company condo is a BEAUTIFUL huge 2 bedroom 2 full bath condo with washer/dryer and everything u could want). I was late and I figured what the hell maybe he’s asleep and/or maybe he was joking. We get back to the condo and I open the door and see him there. I decided that going back to the company club might be a better idea, so we did.

The next day was a bit strange. It was Canada day and the managers weren’t in plus add to the incident the night before. After realizing no one would be there my boss after about an hour of us around said I could go for the day. I decided to see some of the area by walking around. I shipped something off, and did very light shopping. I think I spend more in shipping costs then on what I bought that day.

That night, I decided to hit up Woody’s again as it was pretty hopping and no one had given a good suggestion on what to do on a Tuesday. This is where the trip really began for me. I started walking around and saw a few groups of people. I randomly decided to walk up to this one group of 5 guys. I start by saying I am from SF and wanted to know if they knew what to do, etc. One of the guys then asks, “Are you Nick Starr?” Shocked, I turn and say, ” Yes….ummm. How did you know that?”

In my preparation for heading out to Toronto, I messaged a bunch of people that came up in the Tornoto network about things to do and see while I was there. Turns out he was one of them. They eventually tell me to pull up a chair and we begin talking the night away. There were 2 couples, Neale and Shawn, Richard and Alex, and then Phil. When they went to go on a smoke break, I told Neale that Phil quite cute.

By the end of the night Phil and I were making out as he was leaving. I was sad to see him go, but we made plans to go to The Barn the next

On Wednesday Tara aka @MissRogue also had a Tweetup and a nice bar/restaurant closer to to the waterfront and I met some very insightful people.

Later, the Barn was a blast and while I am going to leave out quite a few details, I did enjoy myself quite a bit this trip . Phil wasn’t able to make it to The Barn as he was rehearsing for a performance at Crews and Tango tonight (Monday the 7th) & his throat was hurting and wasn’t feeling well. I ended up not realizing the higher alcohol levels in the Canadian beer and ended up going home. I couldn’t find Shawn to say goodbye, and felt so bad. I emailed them to make sure they knew I was okay.

Thursday was a bit of a lull. I remember going out, but it wasn’t a very eventful night.

Friday was awesome. We went out to, the newly opened after a 10 day suspension for overcrowding, Crews & Tango. It is where they have drag performances almost nightly on one stage, a upstairs dance area, smoking deck, and dancing area in the back. We watched some of the show, we danced…Neale and Shawn disappeared for an hour or so and Phil and I had a great time together.

Later we went to The Barn for maybe a half hour and off then off to bed.

Saturday was the downfall of the whole week. Phil and I had setup to go out for dinner, yet he wasn’t able to make it b/c of his rehearsal schedule and other obligations. We all ended up deciding to go to Fly another 3-4 story club, and showed up before the $20 cover charge took effect.

We were dancing, drinking, and having a great time. Here’s where the drama started….I personally didn’t witness ANY of this so I don’t know, but someone got upset at something someone else did in jest…and things came tumbling down from there. I later learned that Shawn and Neale broke up that night. I feel bad b/c they are both great guys and seemed to be happy together.

I had to leave, as I didn’t want to be in the middle of all the craziness that was happening, and it was nearly 2am anyway. The club goes all night, but stops serving at 2am. I kissed Phil goodnight and went home. We talked online that night and made plans to hang out on Sunday, my last day there.

Sunday I enjoyed the town, and our club one last time. Because of all of the drama the night before, not everyone was in the best of spirits, but Neale came out to Crews for one drink with Alex and Richard. Phil showed up around midnight, after a long night of rehearsing since their performance was tonight. Alex and Richard left shortly after Phil got there and we talked and watched the drag show.

We left as they were kicking everyone out around 2am, and talked and kissed till 2:30 or so….My airport limo was stopping by at 4:30, so I decided to stay up and we talked on IM till I had to leave.

I was very emotional and sad to leave….I never in my wildest dreams would of thought that I would of had so much fun and made so many great friends while being in Canada. A few of them might be headed to Las Vegas at the same time as the New Media Expo in August, so I should be able to see them then, although Phil won’t be there.

I hope to make it back sooner rather then later, as there were quite a few other people I only briefly got to know, and would love to talk to longer. Thank goodness for the internet…I am able to talk to them more now…and hopefully plan something big when I come up next time.

Well that’s my story…well the non-juicy parts…we will leave those details for another blog perhaps I’ll miss ya Canada, Shawn, Richard, Alex, and especially Neale and Phil.