Getting fotki from fotki

So you finally got fed up with fotki.com and need to move away? But they locked your originals? Here's how to get them back :)

Check up

Make sure you got enough space on your local drive!

1. Go to  http://stats.fotki.com/ (obviously login first).
2. Check space on your local drive.
3. Compare.
4. Get a new drive if you must :)

Enable originals access

1. Log in to your fotki account.
2. Go http://myaccount.fotki.com/services/. 
3. In the "Download by FTP and storage of photo originals" (what kind of stupid section name is that???) there should be a button to activate it. I don't have it on the screenshot because I already activated it.
4. Click the button.
1. It might complain that you don't have enough Fotki credit. WTF is that anyways?! Follow the prompts to give them some real money (they like US dollars) in exchange for their fake money.
2. Once you paid, come back and activate originals access. You might have to wait a few real minutes while they process your credit card charge. WTF are they doing there? Are they processing it by hand?!

Install FTP client

To download all your originals you will need an FTP client.

1. Download it from http://www.smartftp.com/download
2. Install it.

Download your fotki

Be warned! This section takes several hours, depending on how many photos you have. Do it overnight or something so your computer has a chance to finish it.

1. Launch SmartFTP. It will warn you about the trial version, just click ok.
2. Click File->New Connection.
3. Type "ftp.fotki.com" into Host textbox, and your fotki.com username and password into respective fields.
4. Click on Open a Local Browser in the right panel.
5. Choose the directory in the right (Local) panel.
6. Select both private and public folders on the left and drag them to the right.
7. Give plenty of hours and you're done!

Die-ting: Day 4 - over and out

Day 4 is over and with it the whole adventure. At first Arina started heaving concerning stomach aches that wouldn't go away. This was not described in any dieting literature and we decided that it's best to end her dieting. Meanwhile I've been pondering my own situation as well.

Besides feeling light (as in not overly stuffed) I didn't feel any other benefits. In addition I lost some weight and since I'm fairly thin to begin with I thought it wouldn't be good to keep going on. I am pretty much down to just muscles and next thing to go will be them.

As of now we're both out of it. Arina had some chicken broth and chicken and feels fine. I had the broth and some salad and feel just fine as well. I will likely try this again in 5-10 years but not sooner than that.

P.S. I am, not for one second, sorry that I tried this. It was an interesting experience. I now know that I can easily go on without food for several days and feel fine.

Die-ting: Day 3

Another day and nothing new to share. Turns out you really should drink laxative teas with this diet to help your body... cleanse. Surprisingly I haven't felt that my stomach is empty despite no food for three days. I just drank one such tea and we'll see what happens. If you don't see any posts from me tomorrow it means that nothing interesting happened or I'm incapacitated :)

Die-ting: Day 2

I'm still here! Day 2 is over and it was remarkably unremarkable. I was out running errands all day, went to a few food stores, visited two friends who were eating when I came over and I was just fine. There was no sense of hunger.

What I did miss very much is the taste of food. I love to eat! Well, who doesn't? Every once in a while I got a thought of some delicious food (Thai, Italian, etc, etc) and that's what really got me. But... the show must go on!

Die-ting: Day 1

Finally after several years of thinking and talking I, along with Arina, started my first-ever cleansing or detox diet (which includes no alcohol or any other substance)! For those unfamiliar let me briefly explain how detox diets work. They are not designed for weight loss but rather for letting your body clean itself (kind of like the self-cleaning mode in ovens). As such cleansing diets include an intake of some sort of easily digestible calories and minerals so you're not completely starving.

The particular diet we're on is called maple syrup diet. It's about 60 years old and is very simple. I learned of it from one of my teammates at work. Our plan is to go 10 days however we'll have to play it by ear after first 5 days since this is our first time doing such a thing. I also plan to keep a daily blog of my experiences, if anyone is interested. And if not, who cares, I'm doing it for myself :)

And the first day is almost over. Surprisingly I don't feel crazy hungry as I feared. I obviously would love to eat something tasty but it's not an overpowering emotion but rather a state of very light hunger which is easy to battle. Of course it's just the first day... Nine more days ahead!