Since buying toe socks isn’t my style, I’ve been trying to find an alternative to washing my 5 finger shoes every 2-3 days (as I’m running out of reasons to wash clothes…pun not intended).

After googling the interwebs, I came across this tip by Get The Funk Out:

Efferdent Tablets This product is normally used to cut through bacteria within dentures, but doubles as a deodorant for Vibram FiveFingers. The Vibram website recommends using this product to eliminate tough odors that develop within the FiveFingers. Place Vibrams within a large tupperware container, fill with water and add 1-2 tablets. Allow 1-2 hours to pass before removing the Vibrams to air dry.

You can pick this up at your local Walmart, although you might want to explain why you’re buying it to the cashier and spectators lest you receive awkward glances.

Update (10/3): Reduced image size. Thanks for the tip Bradley!

After much pondering and thought I’ve decided that the new Facebook (specifically timeline and ticker features) is not for me.

I’m tired of fighting Facebook over the privacy issues, and instead of relearning them for the 7th time I’m simply going to defriend everyone but family. I barely use the service outside of messages (which I’ll allow for anyone to contact me via Facebook or darnellclayton@facebook.com) and loathe how the service is now being used by third party sites to “report” on my activities beyond the blue and white walls.

For those wondering I’ll be on Google+ (visit my profile at http://darnell.co/+ which will redirect towards my profile) and enough of my friends are active on it now to make it worth while for me.

Anyways thanks for the memories Facebook! While I think the changes are impressive and breath taking, I don’t feel like have my personal life/quotes mined by companies and frenemies without an easy way to privatize the settings.

So after running/walking in my 5 finger shoes for the past couple of weeks and stumbling upon WW2 fitness test, I’ve finally come up with a workout schedule that will:

• Test my physical limits
• Help me catch up to my workout-holic brother
• Build up endurance/strength minus weights

I’ve also decided that I’ll train with my camelbak as since I drink water like a fish (yeah, I’m a waterholic).

I’m going to exercise 6 days a week, and for accountability use FitFu & Runkeeper (which appeals to the geek in me).

• Sundays: I’m going to run 4-5 km, as well as do pullups (with the end goal of accomplishing a minimum of 20 consecutive pullups).
• Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays: Will be pushups (4 sets of 125 consecutive reps) and bicycle crunches (2 sets of 250 reps).
• Tuesdays and Thursdays: Dips (10 sets of 50 consecutive reps) and Jack Knives (500 consecutive reps).

I’ll take Saturdays off to rest my body, lest I wear myself out completely.

Update: Fixed funky code do to USER ERROR: ID10+

Despite all the hate being leveled at Google from Uncle Sam, various startups and rival companies (I’m looking at you Apple!), I’m a passionate fan of the numerous Google services available, including Gmail, Google Voice, Google Chrome, Google+ (note: here’s my profile link), AdSense, Analytics, Search (of course!) and Android (note: I’m still not ditching my iPhone, but I do love some of the features available to Android, especially regarding third party apps).

However in the past few weeks months (or months?) I’ve started to use other services instead, some of which ironically are not attempting to compete with the Google Goliath. Here are just a few that I’ve started using instead of the Google alternative.

Out: Google Calender, In: Remember The Milk

Why?: If it weren’t for Remember The Milk’s (or RTM for short) iOS app I probably wouldn’t even consider ditching Google Calendar in the first place (as I loathe RTM’s web interface). However the startup has released a slick to-do list that is not only easier to create alerts upon, but also has simplified the process when it comes to creating events. Even better I can easily schedule events on every second Tuesday without having to dig too deeply into the “events” section.

I’m now subscribed to their premium service (which costs $25/year) and while I have tried rival to-do list managers (including Google tasks), few were as elegant as well as powerful as RTM.

Out: Google Docs, In: Evernote

Why?: Even though Google Docs is far more powerful than Evernote, the latter is far easier to use when it comes towards creating notes and “documents” than the former. I also enjoy the fact that I can record audio notes straight from my iPhone into my Evernote note (which comes handy when you’re in a lecture or meeting and the main speaker is speaking way too fast).

I also love the ability to easily clip web pages into Evernote, and highlight relevant content for a friend to checkout or even for a blog post. Of course Google Docs isn’t completely useless to me, as I still need a simple spreadsheet solution that doesn’t rhyme with the word Excel.

Out: YouTube, In: Qik

Why?: There are only 2 reasons why I prefer Qik (the premium version) over YouTube right now. The first is that I can broadcast live video for up to 90 minutes (note: YouTube also has live video but they have yet to roll it out to my account) and the second is Qik’s iOS app that allows you to apply effects upon the video as you’re broadcasting live.

Unfortunately not many people inside and outside of the geekverse use Qik (most are on Ustream, Viddy, Vimeo, etc.). Since Microsoft technically owns Qik (as they inherited the service after purchasing Skype) I’m hesitant about relying entirely upon the service so as a precaution I am automatically porting all of my Qik videos to YouTube as I’d rather be safe than sorry).

Out: Picasa and Picnik, In: Instagram

Why?: At the end of the day all I want to do is quickly edit a photo that I’ve taken on my iPhone. While both Picasa and Picnik are powerful tools to edit images with, they are often too slow for my taste, especially if I want to post something while on the go.

Instagram is probably closer to Flickr than its Google rivals, although truth be told it’s a lot more fun to use than any picture service that I’ve tried. Unfortunately Instagram is only available for iPhone users, so I’ll continue to use Picasa as well as Picnik until Instagram launches a decent web app as well a desktop app.

What about _______?

There are a few other services I am testing out as “Google replacements,” but as of now Google is either providing a superior service or the rival services are too expensive for my taste.

Is there a service that you use instead of Google? And please don’t say Bing! (as we’ve had a falling out since the hiybbprqag scandal).

According to man legend, the warriors from War World 2 were a lot more fit when compared against the average GI, and believe it or not there is an official workout to prove it!

I’ve skimmed through the list of exercises which include pull ups, push ups, “cross over” knee sit ups (what I call them), squat jumps and lots of running.

While I’m confident that I could easily pass the running tests (since I’ve run all my life thanks to track, football, and fun running in my new shoes), it’s the other tests that have me worried a bit.

Pull Ups 

According to the scoring sheet, I’d receive a “fair” grade as I can only do 8 out of 20 push ups. While this isn’t exactly failing according to the chart (at least as far as I know), however receiving a score of 52/100 isn’t passing in my book, so I’ll be working on getting up to 20 in the not so distant future (especially after finding a decent pull up bar in the park which is mocking my 8 reps).

Squat Jumps

I haven’t done these in a long time (since football years ago), so at best I can only give an estimate of how well I would do on a test (I say 50 at least). 75 is perfection according to the vets of old, so that will be my overall aim (although I’ll strive towards 50 at first).

 Push Ups

I’ve done push ups for almost as long as I’ve run, and apparently the WW2 score sheet considers 54 push ups to be excellent. The most I’ve ever done consecutively is 220 push ups (which I will not repeat as I was in pain throughout the week) but I can do between 100-150 push ups before my arms feel like they are on fire. I guess this is one test I pretty much pass with flying colors!

Cross Over Situps (in 120 seconds)

This exercise seems like a cross between situps and bicycle crunches, and I’m pondering whether this exercise is even safe to do (as it seems to strain the back). Regular situps I can do with no hassle (550 was my all time record), and I’m consistently pushing out 200 bicycle crunches too (despite my abs being on fire). I’m hesitant about doing cross over situps (again what I call them as they are different from traditional situps), but I might practice these as well in the not so distant future.

What About…

I’ll continue doing other exercises such as bicycle crunches, Jack knives and dips, although I’ll strive to ace these test scores and blog about the results later on.

(Props to Art of Manliness for tracking down these exercises, Image Credits: German Federal Archive).