This week’s challenge, then, is resolution. Take a photo or find one that represents a resolution you are making… or one you’re not making! What does this resolution mean to you? How will it change your life?
The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now.
Chinese proverb
My resolution is to get out and run more. I started during lockdown and I want to take it forward into the coming year and keep trying to improve.
Here’s how to take part:
Take a photo or search your files for one that represents the week’s theme.
Write a post, including your photo, any words of explanation or inspiration you wish to share, and a link to this challenge page.
Comment on this post with a link to your page so others can see your contribution.
That’s it! Super easy.
This challenge will stay open for one week, then next Thursday, I will post the next challenge!
I’ve been trying a few different face creams recently and two have stood out as phenomenal. I don’t use the term “Holy Grail” usually, because I think it’s a bit of an exaggeration about most things, but when it comes to skincare, ROC Retinol Correxion Sensitive Night Cream and Olay Three-Point Regenerist day cream are now my Holy Grail products.
Packaging of ROC retinol correxion sensitive night cream for sensitive skin.
I bought ROC retinol correxion sensitive night cream from Amazon back in December and I’ve been using it ever since. It’s been a great addition to my usual skincare routine!
How the box says to use it: The instructions on the back say to use ROC retinol correxion at night, going two nights with cream then taking a break for two nights before using it for two more nights, and so on, until your skin gets used to it, then to use it nightly.
How I use it: I’ve been using it two nights on, two nights off for the last 6-8 weeks and I don’t feel ready to use it every night yet. Why? Because it’s effective! It’s working perfectly for me so why go overboard?
ROC retinol correxion sensitive night cream tube.
The immediate effect: When I first used this on my skin, it seemed to enlarge my pores and make my whole face look dry for about two days, then it completely settled down again and now my skin looks better than ever.
The long term effect: After about three uses, my skin got used to it and I found it seemed to be re-drawing my skin (I honestly don’t know what the word is, it was like an IRL photoshop airbrush) smoothing over all my fine lines and making my skin look more vital. It’s been completely amazing! It contains retinol which is drying to the skin so make sure to use a good day cream and maybe even face oil as well!
Negatives: Retinol increases your skin’s sensitivity to UV light, so make sure to use a sunscreen during the day when you use ROC retinol correxion night cream at night. I try to always use SPF-30 or above anyway, so it’s another reason to wear sunscreen. Also this stuff does nothing against blue circles, but that’s fine because the Olay Regenerist 3 Point day cream does.
The scientific bit: It contains Retinol which is a form of vitamin A that stimulates collagen production in the skin.
The packaging: It comes in a box with a clear window so you can see the tube of cream. Inside, there’s a plastic tray to hold the cream in place. I’d like to know if the packaging is recyclable or not.
Does your playlist need something fresher than an explosion in a Febreze factory? Do you need to hear the band that Captain Jack Sparrow would most certainly have at the top of his playlist (y’know, if iPods were around back then)? Has your musical collection struck an iceberg, and now it’s sinking faster than Celine Dion at a Guns N Roses concert?
Picture this:
Earlier this week, my life was a meaningless cycle of daily routine, designed to be productive but not exciting (imagine me brushing my teeth, washing my face, and it’s black and white. Perhaps someone’s playing a Film Noir soundtrack, but maybe not; it’s your mental image after all). Sound familiar? Well, then I discovered Rusty Shipp (the Film Noir turns into a very stylish seafaring monochrome with optional pops of colour; the Beach Boys are queueing to see them… the Beatles already did)…
Okay, maybe I’m going overboard. See what I did there?
Seriously, though, stop what you’re doing right now (put the cat in the kettle if you need to) and click play, this music will bring new awesome to your life, even if your existence is already perfect; this is Davy Jones Ain’t Got Nothin’ On Me:
Do you need to hear more RIGHT NOW?? Of course you do! Here’s their second song Sinking Scarabs:
See what I mean? Now I know I just worked very hard to get your undivided attention, but I am confident that I wrote a cheque that this music can cash. So if you haven’t clicked play, do it now!
Let’s get a bit more serious with the band now:
Rusty Shipp is a 3 piece band consisting of Russ T “Rusty” Shipp (that is his real name) on vocals and guitar, Andrew Royer on drums and Dustin Herres on bass. Their music is described as “surf rock meets punk and grunge” and I’d recommend it to anyone into cool activities that need an epic in-ear soundtrack. This would also be perfect for a road trip’s playlist music. Rusty Shipp are based in Nashville, Tennessee, and they’re probably one of the most strikingly creative bands I’ve seen in recent times. They’re inventing a completely new genre here, using elements of surf rock, grunge, hard rock, and even ska. They have been compared favorably to both Nirvana and Iron Maiden. Their lyrics showcase storytelling techniques we would usually associate with the great poets of bygone eras (Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner, for example, or Milton’s Paradise Lost) a progressive bassline and a guitar sound that needs its own surfboard! You can find out more about them at their website.
After hearing their latest song, Sinking Scarabs, I was so taken by their music that I had to find out more, so here is an exclusive interview with Rusty, Dustin and Andrew from Rusty Shipp:
How would you describe your band to new listeners in one sentence? Rusty: Raw, high-energy, Beatlesque songs with a surf rock overtone and philosophical lyrics. Dustin: It’s got that 90’s grunge sound but a surf rock feel to it. Andrew: Very reminiscent of the 90s grunge scene with a little surf rock tossed in for flavor.
I would definitely agree with that. Rusty, when you moved from Washington to Nashville to take the band to the next level, what were some of the unexpected challenges that you faced? Rusty: That it’s tough starting a band from scratch because most musicians you find on Craigslist aren’t serious; most of the serious musicians seem to rely on connections they’ve already made in the music scene and don’t resort to Craigslist.
That sounds difficult! It must take so much work to get a foothold when there’s so many bands all trying to get the same exposure. You’re one step ahead with your very unique musical style, but what are three things that you’d like your audience to know about the band? Rusty: We make a lot of Canadian jokes for some reason, are actually really nice, laid back, caring guys, and like Taco Bell. Dustin: We love stupid jokes. We love people. We love Taco Bell. Andrew: Super approachable, goofy, and we take what we’re doing very seriously.
Wow, so you guys really love Taco Bell. Tacos are pretty incredible when all is said and done. It sounds like it’s useful to have a sense of humor in order to keep a band together. What’s your favourite thing on your ipod playlists at the moment? Dustin: I’ve been listening to almost nothing but Dirty Loops and Dear Hunter for the past forever. Rusty: I’m currently listening to all the recordings of song ideas I’ve made the past decade, pulling out nuggets for future songs. Andrew: Been a lot of Coheed and Cambria and He Is Legend lately. A little Arctic Monkeys and OK Go to lighten things up a bit.
Wow that’s some pretty inspiring stuff. I am very partial to the Arctic Monkeys, myself. What’s the most rock-n-roll thing that you’ve done so far (musically or otherwise)? Andrew: I don’t know. I guess I’m not very rock n roll. I’m a little too laid back I guess. Rusty: I don’t know, but my mom bought me a rock n roll looking jacket for Christmas so I could finally look the part instead of wearing Hawaiian shirts. Dustin: I wear a fake leather jacket to and from work everyday. That’s pretty rock-n-roll if you ask me.
There’s that sense of humor you both mentioned in question 2! Andrew, you’re clearly made for surf rock! So one last question, what’s the thing you’re most excited about for 2016? Dustin: I’m excited to really start focusing on my music career and making myself become a better artist. Also, I’ve been helping with a church called Church Alive that just launched last year and I can’t wait to see how it grows this year.
Andrew: I’m pumped to see where this band goes. I think we’ve got a good shot to do some pretty cool things. Rusty: Making a solid, creative, radio-quality full-length album.
So there you have it, Bryan Adams and Maple Leafs are fair game, Craigslist isn’t the greatest place to find band members, even in Nashville, center of the musical universe, and the band members are really nice guys. Rusty Shipp have a sound that’s set to become legendary, so get in on the ground floor before they get so big, you’ll be staring at their albums on iTunes thinking, “damn, I wish I’d shared them with my friends.” Don’t be that person! Share this with everyone you know and watch your grateful friends’ faces as they light up with the joy you brought to their lives. Download their latest song, Sinking Scarabs for only 99c here and whatever you do, subscribe to their Youtube channel here so you are the first to hear their latest music!
Note: This is not a sponsored post. I have no financial interest in this band.
Today’s video is how to do UV Glow in the Dark Rainbow Hair and Rainbow Eye Make-Up, and it’s probably the most exciting thing I’ve ever done on camera.
….Scratch that.
It’s definitely the most exciting thing I’ve ever done on camera and then uploaded to Youtube! Stop sniggering at the back, girls (and stop texting in class).
Coming in at around 18 minutes, it shows you how to get the glow in the dark hair trend that’s gone viral on Buzzfeed! I’ve taken it to it’s logical extreme and done it as a rainbow braided effect. The best part? You don’t even need to bleach your hair! Even if your hair is black! Next time I go raving THIS is what I need to look like:
The rainbow glow in the dark UV hair tutorial came out like this.
But that’s not all. It doesn’t take 18 minutes to do some braids, make them rainbow then speed it up for Youtube. What else is in the rainbow glow in the dark UV hair video?
You guessed it, there’s this awesome full rainbow eye tutorial as well! That’s right, it’s a double rainbow!! I have wanted to put this rainbow eye tutorial on Youtube since April 2014 when I first came up with it, it’s actually what prompted me to start my blog in the first place because I wore the rainbow eyeshadow look to a party and literally everyone (even the boys) were asking me how I did it.
And you’ll have to watch the video to see how to do it:
To get the UV glow in the dark hair gel back out of the hair, unfasten the braids, gently comb them out (or unravel with fingers – be prepared to get fluorescent UV gel under finger nails and all over the floor so I did this in the shower cubicle because I hate cleaning) and then wash the UV paint glow gel out of the hair with shampoo. Paint Glow UV Gel is 100% safe,* it contains no radioactive ingredients, the glow is caused from the fact that it’s more reflective of UV light (although technically UV hair gel doesn’t have an SPF)! I used Alberto children’s shampoo followed by plenty of conditioner because this hair tutorial can dry your hair out a bit. It did wash straight out in the shower though. I was very disappointed by the size of the Paint Glow UV Hair Gel tubes but each braid used about a toothpaste-on-toothbrush amount of gel, and next time I’m buying anything for a similar tutorial I will buy the more expensive UV hair dyes that last a week or two instead. The UV hair gel is obviously MUCH better if you have a job and don’t want to turn up fluorescent on Monday after partying all weekend.
*But don’t eat it. C’mon. Moisturizer is safe to wear, and we don’t eat that either.
I purposely designed the hair look to be androgynous so anyone with enough hair can do it. The eye make-up, of course, is down to preference. This would be an AWESOME look for a pride march, a rave or dubstep gig, or any other time you want to show that you love glow in the dark rainbows!
Rainbow eye make up from the front (because what else goes with glow in the dark rainbow hair????) in normal light.
Rainbow glow in the dark UV hair and make-up tutorial results: In a UV light AND normal light together.
What do you think? Do you like it? Next week I’m doing a rainbow UV glow in the dark no-shave mohican because I’ve wanted to try a mohican since I was like 6 and saw my stepdad’s mohican (y’all probably call it a mohawk in the United States but we invented punk so I’m not fully translating this one).
I upgraded my WordPress.com blog to a custom domain because I had wanted to upgrade to a custom domain since November 2014. I researched the benefits of a custom domain and the pitfalls, and everyone’s advice was clear cut – “do it, it will improve your SEO ranking.” SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is really important to me as something like 90% of my traffic comes from Google. Only now it’s taken a hit, and it’s all because I upgraded to a custom domain. Here’s what will happen to your site’s metrics when you upgrade to a custom domain:
You will lose your Alexa ranking. Low numbers are good (Google has an Alexa rank of 1): Mine went from an extremely healthy sub-6 million (and steadily increasing) to over 18 million overnight. Take a look:
BEFORE: I was in the top 6 million websites worldwide.
AFTER: My website’s ranking has dropped by 12.5 million places! WTF??
Your backlinks from your WordPress blog will all redirect – but you won’t be getting that link juice or authority for all the SEO work you’ve been busting your ass over for the past year.
So you will lose all your Google rankings. As an example, here’s a before and after picture for the search term “how to get rid of blue circles”:
BEFORE: I was the number 1 result.
AFTER: I dropped to 3rd place after getting a custom domain.
This means you will lose traffic. When you lose traffic, it’s just a negative spiral. My traffic was over 300 views a day two weeks ago, when I still had a WordPress domain; now I’m on a custom domain, I get 150 to 200 views a day.
Sites that heavily lifted content from your site to write their own imitation articles will now outrank you in search results, as will sites displaying 10 words before you have to click next, and ones which are a vehicle for Google Adsense. The blue circles example is just an example – all of my most-read posts have plummeted down the Google rankings.
Gravatar will not accept the domain change as a WordPress site, so while you redirect, as far as Alexa and Google are concerned, your new domain is dead to them. They have withdrawn help/support as well so you can’t contact them and ask them to fix it. Gravatar is owned by and integral to WordPress.
Since Gravatar is how your WordPress Login manages all your backlinks from your comments on other people’s sites (you know, when people click your name and it magically takes them to your site? That’s a dofollow backlink), you now lose any link juice from comments on sites with a better Alexa ranking than yours. I lost three of my most important backlinks from this, because there are a lot of big sites (CNN for example) that are powered by Wordpress.
People don’t really look at the URL any more. Half the kids in schools don’t actually know what to do with a URL if you give them one on a worksheet and put a laptop in front of them. Most of the people using the internet these days have this same level of understanding of computers. Therefore the main argument in favour of getting a custom domain from WordPress is redundant – they claim your site will improve in search results and get more authority but it’s just not true because they don’t let you change your backlink in Gravatar – just the website URL in contact details – and Gravatar refuses to accept the new domain as a WordPress account – no matter how many times you give them your login details. As far as Gravatar is concerned, you no longer have a blog (but WordPress knows you do, so auto-redirects from your old URL. Any redirected links are worth nothing in SEO terms).
I worked twice as hard over the last 7 days trying to get more backlinks on non-Wordpress sites (because my WordPress account’s backlinks are now utterly worthless) and while I’ve gotten four new backlinks pointing to my site from upstream (from more popular sites), I haven’t gained a single inch of ground.
The internet at large doesn’t seem to have a solution to any of the above. So I am writing this for anyone else wondering about upgrading to a custom WordPress domain – if SEO is where your traffic comes from, upgrade to a custom WordPress domain at the START of your blog, or don’t do it at all.
Post-Publication Update: After I published this post, I had a hunch. I’ve just checked, and I’m right: ALL of your internal links need manually changing to the new domain name as well, because WordPress doesn’t do this either. I was under the impression that the “technical difficulties” they said my site might have for 72 hours was because WordPress was crawling my site and changing all the links. So all my INTERNAL SEO (the links pointing to other parts of my own website) all also need changing. This is another cause of loss of Google ranking.
