On August 6th, nearly a month ago now, I posted the following message to my Facebook friends to announce my plans:

I will be leaving Facebook. It won’t be right away and I will leave a trail so others can find and/or follow me. I’m certainly hoping to take some of you with me. Unlike last time, this time I intend to leave permanently. There will be a series of posts over many weeks as I migrate away, and this is the first one. The next will contain action items should you wish to stay in touch.

On August 23rd, I announced the first step in that process: an open source address book designed to allow my friends to share a variety of contact information with me in a way where I the data is not shared with a third party such as Facebook. I also set an intention to start producing content for my own blog again.

This post is an attempt to capture and share why I started down this long path to leave Facebook. It’s a complex topic and I might reflect on it differently in the future. Lately, my short answer is that “I’m a decentralist” and Facebook is, of course, highly centralized. However, that doesn’t explain why I would choose to leave Facebook over any other centralized service I use on a regular basis. There are two things that make Facebook the service I feel I need to leave. First, I believe Facebook is one of the more dangerous centralized services. Second, Facebook has been one of my worst addictions. Addictions to drugs or alcohol will slowly kill you. Many people who struggle with alcohol or drug addiction also have a co-occurring mental health condition such as anxiety or depression, so look for rehab facilities at recoverydelivered.com. Facebook is a little different in that, instead of just being bad for you, it is looking to exploit you and manipulate you. It was designed that way.We now know that the political consulting firm named Cambridge Analytica used the Facebook machine to drastically impact the 2016 American Presidential election. The details of this propaganda campaign are the central topic of the documentar The Great Hack; I highly recommend watching it. The fact that Facebook asked Cambridge Analytica to destroy the data they ended up using for their campaign doesn’t go very far in making me feel like Facebook is responsible enough to hold so much of our personal information.We didn’t need the Cambridge Analytica incident to know Facebook is a problem. When the service is free, you’re not the customer – you’re the product. We’ve accepted that advertisers are trying to manipulate us into buying a product of some kind. This seems innocent enough. However, that kind of advertising model creates an incentive for Facebook to design their experience to keep you viewing more and more adverts, thus the platform has evolved to hook us rather than satisfy us. And I have been hooked.

After moving from Boulder to Seattle, I found myself spending a lot of time “socializing” on Facebook and not engaging the new city. I was using Facebook as a social crutch and I needed to stop. So somewhere around 2014/15 I decided to take a year off. It was wonderful and also painful. Without Facebook, I had more time – time that I invested into other important parts of building a life here in Seattle. However, without Facebook I wasn’t getting the same updates on the lives of friends and family I cared about. I was missing pictures, events, and critical opinions on popular memes. When the 2016 election was approaching, I decided to come back from my Facebook vacation and re-engage. The time off gave me a lot to reflect on.

A lot of good stuff happens on Facebook. We wouldn’t use it if it didn’t have some kind of value to us. However, I find that I am often going to Facebook to connect but only engaging with people I barely know about topics that frustrate and upset me. I find it harder and harder to keep track of authentic posts made by my friends. When I visit their personal pages, I see lots of relevant posts about their lives that I never saw in my feed. The fundamental value of keeping up with friends and family isn’t as prevalent as it once was. Yet I still keep checking Facebook, hoping for something that’s going to make me feel some kind of way – and I don’t think that’s a good thing.

So I have resolved to leave, but not in a rush. I know that I have to. Facebook lacks the ethical foundation to warrant surrendering so much of my personal power. However, I’m going to take my time and try to maintain – perhaps even strengthen – my connection with Facebook connections that I care about. And I’m going to document and share the story along the way right here on this blog.

I’m also hoping to start making more decision to support the kind of Internet I believe in – the Internet and open Web we all were dreaming of before taking some wrong turn along the way. If I can leave Facebook, who knows what I’m capable of.

The post Leaving Facebook: Why appeared first on zasKoda.

Rinse Rinse Rinse

Above all else, rinse your sponge often. Hold the sponge under running water and then squeeze, release, and repeat. Do this when you first pick up the sponge, between dirty tasks, and most of all, when you finish using the sponge. You can’t rinse too often.

Use Lots of Soap

As you’re working through tasks, add soap to your sponge often. When you re-soap your sponge, you should also rinse it thoroughly. Start by rinsing the old soap and waste from the sponge by squeezing it several times under running water. Then apply fresh soap. Squeeze the sponge a couple of times to distribute the soap. Finally, rinse it once or twice – not enough to remove the fresh soap, but enough to evenly distribute the soap through the sponge.

Put The Sponge Away When You’re Done

Before putting your sponge away, rinse it thoroughly. If you just finished a relatively dirty task, re-soap the sponge. This will clean the sponge and prep it for your next use. Never leave your sponge at the bottom of the sink. Your sponge will stay wet with waste water and grow lots of bacteria. Instead, place your sponge on the edge of the sink so it can drain and dry. A dry sponge is a safe sponge! For even better results, get a sponge basket. A basket will allow your sponge to dry quicker and more completely between uses.

Don’t Cross Your Sponges

Don’t use the same sponge for washing dishes and cleaning the toilet. A kitchen sink sponge should only be used on dishes and cleaning counters. I once saw a kitchen sink sponge used to clean cat food bowls. It was not properly rinsed. Maggots appeared in the sponge – no joke. Also, a kitchen sink sponge should also only be used in conjunction with kitchen soaps. Never use the dedicated kitchen sponge with harsh cleaners such as Lysol. You should try to limit your accidental consumption of harsh cleaners (such as Lysol) to none, mostly because it’s poison and could make you sick… or dead.

When In Doubt, Nuke

A soiled sponge will pick up a mildew smell. I have found that not everyone can smell mildew. If you smell mildew, you’ve done something wrong. Regardless of your ability to smell the mildew, sometimes you just know your sponge is risky. In these cases, toss your wet sponge in the microwave for about 2 minutes. This will destroy the bulk of any bacteria living in your sponge. Be careful when removing your sponge from the microwave, it could be pretty warm. Be sure and give it a good rinse before use.

Conclusion

A sponge can last an extremely long time when taken care of. If cleaned regularly, a sponge will begin to deteriorate long before it becomes too soiled to use. While obvious, the best practices listed above seem to go largely ignored by many people. Help save a life, tell other people about kitchen sponge best practices.

The post Kitchen Sponge Best Practices appeared first on zasKoda.

I really cranked it up starting on October 9th. In 7 days I went from 164lbs to 158lbs. I also went from a body fat percentage over 19 to 18.2 thanks to the knowledge I gained about andarine from this website, which helped me lose weight all the while making my bones stronger and my muscles bulkier. The attached photo shows the physical results. I’ve gotten a number of congrats followed by inquiries as to how I made such a rapid change. So much so, that I thought I would share it here. Simply put, I ate less food, I ate better food, and I exercised more.

Diet

I tracked my diet online for about a week. Unfortunately, now that my free trial has expired, I can’t log in and get actual samples of exactly what I consumed. Generally speaking, I did the following:

• consumed around 1000 calories a day
• ate a lot of veggies – and a wide variety of them
• consumed as little fat as possible
• ate only enough carbs to maintain my energy levels
• Followed the tips from https://www.theedgesearch.com/ to ensure that my diet didn’t include high carb foods.
• drank a lot of water and only water, I even cut coffee out (don’t know if it affected anything)
• reduced my meat portions a little
• took a time release multi vitamin every day and a calcium supplement almost every day. Find out the KratomCountry health benefits.

That said, a typical day’s meal might look something like this:

• Breakfast: Either Kashi cereal, Bare Naked cereal, or a granola bar. I would eat about a cup of cereal with just a splash of soy milk. Note: after the 7 day rush, I started to include a splash of orange juice. Vitamin C is a great metabolism booster.
• Lunch: Sometimes nothing but raw veggies. Broccoli was common. I would also eat celery and carrots. Beware of carrots, they contain some sugar. I would continue to eat on a couple of cups of veggies through the day while drinking lots of water. This would easily sustain me through work. Other days I would have small meals such as fish tacos with lard free tortillas or a small helping of noodles. Still, I would eat them slowly over the course of a couple of hours.
• Dinner: I usually grilled my dinners on the George Foreman grill. I would include a small portion of lean meat such as bison (very low in fat), salmon (good fats), or chicken breast. I would grill a wide variety of vegetables including zucchini squash, asparagus, onion, red bell pepper, broccoli, and egg plant. Finally, I would include a small helping carbs such as a half piece of pita bread or small helping of rice. A few nights I replaced the carbohydrtes with a salad consisting mostly of leafy plants with a light misting of sesame seed oil and balsamic vinegar.
• Snacks: For the most part, I didn’t snack. My lunches felt like snacking all day. I went to bed early because I was getting up early for the gym. I did eat a few nuts and some beef jerky from time to time. Keep in mind, I was also drinking large amounts of water on a regular basis.

Exercise

I signed up at my nearest gym, which worked out well because I had an old membership on freeze. I got a special deal on 5 personal trainer sessions for $50. This wasn’t crucial, but the support and advice did help. More often than not, I read more at Nerve Pain Guide and keep myself well-informed on the precautions to take before lifting heavy equipment. During the rapid development phase, I hit the gym every day. On a couple of days, I went both in the morning and the evening. After the phase, I dropped down to about 3 times a week. A typical session at the gym would include:

• Stretches: Some basic startup stretches to loosen my leg muscles. This was less than 5 minutes worth.
• Cardio: I usually would run an average of 15 minutes on the tread mill to get my cardio up. When I started, 10 minutes was enough. Near the end of the week, I would run 25 minutes. If it was my second visit to the gym for the day, I would do about 10 minutes on the stair machine instead – just to mix things up.
• Original Floor Routine: With my heart rate up, I would hit the floor routine for around 15 to 20 minutes. My original floor routine included:
  • 20 straight crunches plus 10 crunches to each side
  • 10 straight leg lifts plus 10 leg lifts to each side
  • 15 per side of these crunch like things propped up on my elbow (works your side, no idea what they’re called)
  • a fast count of 100 while holding myself up on my elbow and toes
  • the same fast count of 100 while resting on my hips and belly and keeping my feet and shoulders up off the floor
  • a 30 second back bend and 30 second side twists to stretch out my ab muscles
• New Floor Routine: I’d found some Trophy Fitness Club gym locations, and had contacted them. After enlisting myself there, my trainer gave me a whole new and improved set of routines that included the use of a yoga ball. I integrated these new exercises into my routine – trying to change it up each day. These new routines included a mix of:
  • Holding the yoga ball between my feet for the leg lifts.
  • Placing my back on the floor, feet on the yoga ball and lifting my hips.
  • Lifting light free weights above my chest while laying with the back of my shoulders on the ball, knees bent, hips up, and my feet close together.
  • Squats while standing on a half ball (hard to balance) and holding light weights out in front of me.
  • Torso twists with those strechy elastic rubber things for resistance.
  • Most painful of all, holding myself up on my elbows and toes for 45 seconds – while squeezing my abs as hard as I could.
• Weight Training: After my floor routine, I would hit weight machines for another 10 to 15 minutes. I generally picked 2 or 3 machines and did 20 to 60 reps at various weight levels. I focused on my core, but did spent time on my shoulders, arms, and legs.

In addition to this, I’ve also been taking the occational yoga class. I believe I took 2 1-hour yoga classes during the 7 day push. Before and after the 7 day push I did a bit of outdoor activity including biking, hiking, running, and – of course – snowboarding.

The results were rapid and impressive. It took being in the right frame of mind, but it didn’t take a lot of time. After my 7 day push, I still continued to burn fat and build muscle while going to the gym less, taking cardarine and eating more. I figure that’s probably because of a boosted metabolism. I suspect that if I don’t maintain regular physical activity, I could easily relapse and see rapid weight gain. Thus far, that has not been an issue.

Most importantly, I feel a lot better both mentally and physically. It is more than worth it. Also, find more dieting resources at Shape Bloom.

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