I agree. Let's be honest - it's kind of weird that we rely on a program that is really designed for editing photographs as our main tool for designing web sites. I'm all for exploring this further at least as a tool for doing layouts and design that CSS can handle. For everything else (e.g. designing icons), there are more appropriate tools.
I used this site starting around February of this year. I thought it was really helpful and I ended up losing close to 30lbs in 10 weeks because of it (I've also kept it off since then, too). It wasn't really the money that mattered - I guess I saw it as sort of a game and it was fun to try and beat the goals from week to week. Also, having my friends cheer me on helped a lot (you have to have a couple of friends sign up with you to keep you honest). Perhaps I could have done it on my own without this site but the idea really worked for me.
I agree. As much as I want to leave Facebook I keep my account around so I can easily keep tabs on people I don't see very often. Ah, if only Facebook would let me take my data and connections with me... I can always dream.
I have had success gaining fans for my Facebook page using Facebook ads. I targeted my ad to people who fit my niche and I gained fans fairly quickly. I also made sure to keep my fan page fairly active by posting there on a regular basis.
I don't agree with the idea that designers should just hand off mock-ups to developers and expect them to implement it properly. All of these points can be addressed by coding your own HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Developers don't have the time to worry about your grid, they have enough to do as it is. Design that stops at Photoshop is only half finished, and a web designer who doesn't have the skill to implement their work is not really a web designer at all.
When I work with developers, I just tell them to do their thing and make it work. Don't worry what it looks like - I'll do the rest. Using GitHub on our projects has made this really easy for me.
I have been doing something similar to the advice in this article and it's been working for me. I took a small hobby blog and got more serious about it, implementing these ideas as I go. So far it's going well, and while I think you can do a lot of things things at once I don't think you need to feel pressured to get it done all in one go.