Obscure Journey

Stuff I wish I knew before re-branding

Publié le 29 Avril 2018 par Charly C.

Catégories : #life experience, #life lesson, #tips, #advice, #business

As some of you know, I recently moved my blog and I also re-named it. All this trouble can be called re-branding! YAY!

So my rebranding consist of:

new hosting platform
new blog name
new author name
new blog and author logo - that I designed

In case you're wondering, the old version of the blog still exists, still on the platform I was using before, however it is being hidden from the public.

Like many other people that try new things for the first time, there are some things I wish I knew before doing this step. Well, to be completely honest, I did no research on what rebranding or moving a blog so it's partially my fault. In any case, if you want to learn a few things, or think you might need a few tips in the future, please read on.

Backing up pictures

Not everyone posts pictures along their blog entries. You'll see some of my own entries with no pictures whatsoever - they're not always relevant.

However, if you do have pictures on your blog, you might want to back them up. From the start. The same goes for your videos.

When I rebranded, I noticed several posts [this is just one of them] had broken images, and I was really scared I didn't have them anymore. But thanks to the hoarder that I am, I did find them.

You might want to edit them and have them bear your new brand if you watermark them. I didn't do this, but maybe I should. The thing is I am not 100% sure I still have the originals or that I want to waste even more time for that.

that entry was deleted before rebranding, as i changed my mind about it since the time i wrote it.

Edit / delete posts / entries

Rebranding usually has something to do with having changed your mind about the purpose of your blog. This means you'll have to go back on your posts and see if there is anything that doesn't fit your new perspective. Rebranding is similar to a face-lift so to say, so you'll have to do this.

I had to delete some entries that for some reason or another were blank. Originally those were re-blogs on my other platform, but perhaps the original poster also deleted the entries or something weird happened. Blank entries look weird and unprofessional, so in the bin they went.

At the same time, you might want to delete or add new pages for a better organization of your entries. Editing them [their content] is also a good idea, to breathe in some fresh air.

Check and fix your URLs

My URLs were a mess after I moved my blog. It took me several days to go through all my entries and fix them. As a curiosity, they read something like: "http://www.obscurejourney.com/http://theownertravelsto.wordpress.com/missing-entries-on-my-blog" - WordPress is my previous blogging platform. This type of URL looks complicated, not functional and very unprofessional. My old blog is still there, but it's hidden from the public: it's my way of backing up my site.

Not only did I have to fix the ugly URLs, I also had to fix any links I had in any post as well! My links were directing the visitor towards my previous blog and therefore the links appeared broken. I hope I did well and managed to fix them all.

Learn about your new host

This should be a no-brainer. But, I jumped on this new platform without reading too much about it. I still hope I won't regret it, haha.

You should learn about your new host because you want to go LIVE as soon as possible, so learning about the host - how to post entries, customize the appearance of your site, so on, should be done beforehand.

For instance, WordPress and over-blog work differently when it comes to creating new pages. In WordPress you create a new page and it appears at the top, by default. On over-blog, you have to create the menu yourself. Each method has its own advantages - and i like that here, on over-blog if i want to change what a page says, i can just change the URL of the old one [if I want to keep it] and create a new entry with the previous link. It sounds a bit complicated, but it's really easy.

Let's just say it took me a while to realize a few things, and only because I didn't properly study my new host.

Matching social media

I decided I should make social media accounts that match my new brand and identity. This is because I want to appear more serious and more professional. however, don't expect to see me on those accounts too much for they make me anxious, and it's close to a panic attack. But, if you want to show your support, you can do so there, if it's easier for you. Send me a private message or a public one, and i'll make sure to reply to it [sooner or later].

Before I was "the owner of the blog" or "the owner travels to" or something weird like that. Now I decided to take on a pen name [yea, sorry this is not my ID name - I don't connect at all with it] and a easier to remember URL.

I therefore created "matching" social media accounts: on twitter and on facebook, and I connected both to this platform. I also have a "matching" email account on gmail [4charlycross [at] so on]. There's also an instagram account by the same name - you have higher chances of seeing me active here.

You don't have to be very active on all of these platforms, but it's nice I guess to give people options to get in touch with you, other than through your blog [or youtube channel -yes I have one of those as well, for when I think stuff are easier to show through a video rather than pictures and writing. but don't expect 4K HD quality or anything as I'm just an amateur].

the logo that i made myself in MS Paint.

Logo

As you can see, I also have a "logo" that I use "everywhere." It's like a virtual signature for easy recognition.

Use the logo across your social media accounts or wherever you want to be recognized. You can use a picture of yourself, if you're ok with it [i'm not u_u] or the same handle across all your accounts [as I tried doing].

This idea came to me, after seeing a vlogger i was watching, renaming her Twitter, and now her old handle belongs to a random guy who will benefit from her hard work. Her new handle is difficult to write and pronounce, and doesn't really have a connection with her life, except slightly. I try not to make that mistake and you shouldn't either.

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raw carrot salad - vegan friendly

Publié le 28 Avril 2018 par Charly C.

Catégories : #Cooking, #salad, #vegan, #raw, #food, #tips, #hungry, #snack, #yummy, #recipe

INGREDIENTS

1 or 2 large carrots, or maybe 2 to 4 smaller ones
some vinegar
some salt
some oil – the default cooking oil here is made from sunflower seeds. I remember using olive oil once, but it was too heavy and the taste was not the one I was used to.

For instructions, read below the images. ;)

I used a pretty big carrot.

peel and wash the carrot(s)

Shred the carrots. Julienne works nicely too.

season with salt, add oil, add vinegar, in no particular order, and mix.

season with salt, add oil, add vinegar, in no particular order, and mix.

NOTES

You can add a green (or more sour) apple as well.
You can also add shredded raw white cabbage.
You can use mayonnaise instead of salt, oil, and vinegar. [not vegan anymore, and heavier]
I don’t think the apple and mayonnaise go well together, but you can try if you are that curious.

This salad is perfect throughout the year. I can’t say I like it more plain than I like it with mayonnaise, but the one with apples is my least favorite. I usually feel bloated after having this one. It tastes pretty nice by itself.

Bon Apetit~~

in between stages.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not vegan, but this doesn't mean I eat meat all the time. Yes, I used the tag [hoping] for more exposure, but I think it's connected or relevant.

This salad can be enjoyed by those who follow a vegan diet or lifestyle as well.

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Nothing new this week

Publié le 22 Avril 2018 par Charly C.

Hello all!

Sadly, this week I have nothing new to share. Despite having 10 posts in the draft mode, none is complete nor near completion. I also don't have the time to edit them, as I have a deadline today and then I must start working on another task.

Sometimes, being a freelancer means I can't take proper care of the blog, and this saddens me, but it's the lifestyle I chose and that I believe fits me most. I also really like what I do - as I mentioned several times, i believe.

Have a great Sunday and week. I hope to be back on Thursday with a movie review I watched recently, so keep an eye open for that!

PS: i haven't forgotten about my tarot entries, I was conflicted about posting because of my new found interest and belief in Jesus Christ. Don't worry, I won't be drowning you with Christianity stuff - but I will share some stuff I find interesting, from time to time. [And i do have something to share ... it will take some time though because the idea (inspiration) just occurred to me].

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Rapidly gaining weight - a nightmare

Publié le 15 Avril 2018 par Charly C.

Catégories : #life experience, #beauty, #health, #story, #advice, #life lesson

Some of you might remember one of my past entries in which I talked about losing weight, and you can read it here. At the time I promised I'd talk about how I also gained weight.

It wasn't very easy for me to talk about gaining weight, and the only reason I can find is that this is something a bit hard to think about. Right now, I passed through 2 periods of rapidly gaining weight.

First time of weight gain

The first time happened after we rehomed a puppy we found on the street. There's no secret that owning a dog makes you go out a lot, and sometimes walk a lot. Owning a dog is great if you need an excuse to go for a walk to either stay in shape or lose some weight. Best results are when you find a dog that needs long walks, that is full of energy.

Sadly, such a dog is not really happy in an apartment with other pets, or with people who are more lazy than active - such as myself.

As you know, Kali [the puppy] found herself a home with a dog-loving family [we're more of cat people], and this meant I had no reason to go out and walk as much. This lack of exercise translated into extra 7 kg for me [about 15 pounds].

I gained this much weight in about 2 months. Sadly, I can't remember my before or after weight. 14 pounds in 2 months seemed a lot to me, but it really can be worse, like the second time around.

Second time of weight gain

The second time when I gained weight happened at the beginning of 2017 after I gave up my job as a supermarket cashier. I haven't talked about this job because it needs a separate entry, and I'm not ready for that yet. You can read about other jobs I had though, if you're really curious.

A bit of background info

Working in a supermarket as a cashier is close to working for the devil himself. And giving up that job was both a good and a bad thing for my health. If you ever worked in a supermarket, you'd know what I'm talking about.

This place was opened from 7 am to 11pm and we were supposed to work only 2 shifts! i was very "lucky" [can you sniff the sarcasm there?] to work mostly the afternoon shift ... and this meant I'd get home at 1 am [because of random "duties" we were supposed to perform after the store closed].

This messed up my sleeping hours, that I tried hard to fix [I used to go to bed at about 3 or 4 am, and managed to make myself sleep quite early at midnight. with my new job, i'd go to bed at about 2 am]. A poor sleeping habit also means poor quality sleep, therefore not getting the rest I needed. Especially for the weekends I had to be there the whole day, from 7 am to about midnight. yes, you read that right - 2 days of 14 hours in a row, meaning on Saturday [make that Sunday morning] I'd sleep 2 or 3 hours?

Of course, this further led to stress and having a breakdown at work and almost fainting. I also started to feel my overall health impoverishing as my diet was all over the place, not getting enough nutrients from my food. The breakdown and near-fainting happened after a couple of months on the job [wow, that was fast]. At that point I decided my health is far more important, so I decided to quit.

The aftermath

As soon as I finished working there, on New Year's Eve, I went into a sort of coma for 2 weeks straight. I'd sleep for 22 or 23 hours of the day straight with whatever breaks for restroom and food. A lot of it. All of it. Can you imagine what food with no working out does to the body?

Before starting the job from hell, I was about 59 - 60 kg [so about 130 - 132 pounds]. While on the job [for some 3 months] I went down to 56 - 57 kg [123 - 125 pounds]. When I finally started to need less sleep I noticed i reached 70 kg! [154 pounds].

Gaining some 13 kg [28 pounds] in 2 weeks is insane if you're not pregnant! This happened in January of 2017. Only in October I managed to start losing a little bit of weight. Now, in April I'm about 67 kg [147 pounds]. I'm trying to work out as often as I can, and of course I'm eating much less.

some advice:

If your job is too demanding and you can barely get any rest, it might be better to give it up, unless it's your dream job. In my opinion, no job is worth risking one's health because health is something we take for granted, but it has no price when we have it. As soon as we get sick, we start shelling all the money we have and don't have, just to get better.

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Purple chokers

Publié le 7 Avril 2018 par Charly Cross

Catégories : #fiction, #original story, #short story, #story

It was a long cold winter night. It started to snow for a couple of hours already - the first snow of the season, but it wasn't enough to cover the ground.

In the bus stop, a couple was sitting on the bench waiting for their bus. They were waiting already for 30 minutes but thankfully they weren't cold as they were dressed well. The girl was wearing a dark colored puffy jacket that reached her knees. The hood was pulled over her hair and she was resting her head on the guy's shoulder. His jacket was light in color and he was playing a game on his console. The hands that were closest were swirled together - a sign of their affection.

They were the only ones waiting for the bus that seemed to never come. They weren't in a hurry to reach their destination as they were comfortable there sitting like that. However things would change as soon as their ride arrived, but it was OK because they'd still be together.

After what seemed to be an eternity, an old bus arrived and stopped. The middle doors opened, the couple got on. In reality, just ten to fifteen minutes more passed and that bus wasn't even supposed to be there.

The couple went to the back of the moving box and sat on 2 chairs in the same pose as on the bench. Their ride was fast, faster than the human eye could see, but our couple didn't seem bothered - perhaps they didn't notice? Or maybe it wasn't that fast to begin with.

They were wearing identical purple leather chokers around their necks, but you couldn't see them due to their clothes. The girl felt chocked by hers, even after all the time she wore it and had it enlarged. The guy was also feeling choked, however they were bearing with the sensation for they were together. They knew that those who made them wear these accessories, knew better ... however the girl still didn't want any of it.

She started thinking of how she met her Partner several years back. It was at school. A school she didn't remember anything about, let alone how come she was attending it. One day she woke up in his bed with no recollection of anything from the previous night or anything else from the past. Since that morning till present day she tried really hard to recollect anything, but the few figments of broken images her brain showed her made no sense at all.

Those images were of her making clothes with a bunch of people she couldn't recognize, and she had the feeling that they were way behind with the project - or was it a custom order for the next day? The images showed her worried faces and everyone hurrying up to make patterns and to sew - but what was that all about?

Her Partner was a rather popular guy at school, even among the teachers for he was very skilled. This meant he could break or bend though rules here and there with no (bad) consequences. He could even save other students from severe punishments if he could benefit from it later on. But was she really attending that school? wasn't she too old for it? The reality of her life starting that morning showed her something else.

That morning she woke up because he was softly kissing her. She later learned that whenever he wanted her to wake up in the morning or after any nap, he would gently kiss her, or nibble on her fingers or ears. She quickly noticed that despite the kisses being very sensual, nothing more than that had happened - they were still dressed on.

She was feeling bloated, so she needed to find a restroom quite fast. She then heard herself saying "I'm sorry, I'm not in the mood when I get my period..." These words made him stop the kisses, and he moved away - he knew better than to continue with anything whenever any girl was experiencing those few days every month. He answered something, but her current state of mind prevented her from hearing or understanding his words. Yet, she replied: "I'll take care of it, just wait here - I'll return as fast as I can."

She went out of the tiny apartment only to see she was on some grounds that looked like a campus. It was very early in the morning and there was no person around to see her, as far as she could tell. "Good," she thought to herself. Her legs took her to what it looked like a public bathroom complete with showers, bath tubs, and toilets.

She checked herself in the mirror - a blond young looking girl with fair skin was looking back at her. She had big brown eyes and her hair was past her shoulders, no bangs, and needed to be brushed. She wasn't very tall but she wasn't short either, and she was thin. Her full lips looked chapped - she was dehydrated.

The bathroom had all sorts of instructions and rules plastered over its walls, and they were indicating the places with clean towels, new toothbrushes, as well as any other supply you could need. Instructions on what to do with the used items were also posted. She happily followed all of them to clean and arrange herself.

Having finished in the bathroom, she wanted to go back to the only location she currently knew in this place. However, she managed to get lost and to end up in the kitchen. This is when she did remember she was supposed to return to the apartment with a glass of water. She had no idea how would she accomplish this since everything seemed to belong to other people who she currently didn't know.

Luckily for her, some other girls showed up there, and they seemed both surprised and happy to see her there. She asked about the water and told them about her memory loss, and one of them was happy to show her around and to help her get some water. However she still had to figure out how to go back.

Except, HE appeared out of nowhere with a puzzled face, telling her “There you are! I was beginning to worry! Let’s go!” One of the girls in the group hearing this, became really annoyed, and also started to talk to her “Don’t even think about Kay - he’s mine as I saw him first!” Our girl was very shocked hearing this, and thought to herself <You can go ahead and have him, what do I care?!> however, before she could say these words out loud, she felt a pain in her chest, so she didn’t say anything anymore.

A group of guys also came, and they started to tease (or did they really mean it?) the guy called Kay “HAHA! You KNOW you’re not supposed to sleep together - they’ll kick you out for sure this time, if they find out! HAHA!”

“Kick us out? But he’s rich and he paid to have all the privileges!” our girl heard herself saying. Kay didn’t see this one coming, so he couldn’t stop her, even though she was quite right. He only decided to tell the new guys in a dry voice “Mind your own business!” and then to our girl “Anna, let’s go to class, I have your stuff.”

“So my name is Anna ... It’s a pretty name ...” she said to herself in a very low voice.

The next thing Anna knew was that she was in a classroom, trying to take notes. There were many students attending this first class, and the teacher was a middle aged lady. The teacher was pointing out the most important parts of today’s lesson. The classes ran one after the other, and each one seemed more and more weird for our amnesiac Anna.

After the last class of the day, everyone was preparing to leave. In the exit hall, there was a pretty long table covered with a perfectly white cloth. There were many students waiting, but very few were leaving. Some of them would place on the table what looked like a choker or some sort of jewelry. Another student, usually of the opposite gender, would pick it up and put it on and then they would leave with the person placing the item on the table. The one laying the item down was also wearing an identical piece.

Anna couldn’t see Kay anywhere, and she felt as if she had to wait for him. Or was it because he was the one bringing her here, she hoped he would take her back as well? She didn’t have to wait for too long to find out: Kay did come, and did place a choker on the table as well. He was now waiting for her to pick it up. She reluctantly did, and she tried putting it on, despite not having a clear idea of what it meant.

She couldn’t really operate the clasp on it. “Can you help me?” she turned to Kay, only to see him showing her that he only wrapped it around his fist. She copied him, and they were able to leave as well. On their way back, she started to look at the item on her fist: it was purple with some silver decors on it and she expected his to be the same. She heard him say “You know we can wear these things on our wrists too, right?”

Her reply was a short one “Oh...”

Anna was now thinking about her memory loss, about her current life, and what she should do from now on. In the end she decided that at least for now, this life was rather enjoyable, and she felt as if nothing could hurt her. In any case, it was far better than trying to make clothes at the very last minute.

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A gunshot in the night [short story]

Publié le 31 Mars 2018 par Charly Cross

Catégories : #original story, #short story, #story, #fiction, #mystery

The incident happened shortly after 1AM, on a Monday. The noise was very loud, sharp and it scared the small and usually quiet community we're in.

The night was quiet as most residents were either seniors or needed their rest for another long week in the office, starting the morning. A very loud BANG! was heard in the night, similar to the sound of a gun getting shot in the movies. After that, everything went quiet again.

Here, nobody owned a gun, nor did people know if the others owned one. This also meant they had no idea where the sound came from. If you managed to get close enough to anyone in the community, you'd also learned they would even speak about such details because it wasn't in their nature to do so, especially since guns were taboo.

Mrs. and Mr. 月山 were also asleep at the time of the loud BANG! but the noise woke them up: it sounded so close to their house.

"What was that?!" they wondered looking confused one at the other. They knew that the occupants of the house nearest theirs, were not in town. Or at least they were supposed to have left some 2 days earlier. They were over the moon because apparently they had won a 5-night getaway, from a TV contest. They were heard saying the trip was to an area well known for their hot-springs, at a really nice but not overly expensive ryokan. According to their calculations, they had yet to return.

A young couple from abroad lived across the street, so technically still close enough to the 月山* house. They seemed like nice people, spoke little and broken Japanese. Some residents were scared of them simply because of the language barrier and other misunderstandings that came with it. Others feared the foreigners because of their cute tattoos, however they never gave the impression of being violent people or the kind to carry guns.

However that night Someone pulled the trigger of a gun and it was still Somebody who called the police.

At around 2AM the police lights and sirens started to fill this quiet neighborhood. An ambulance also arrived, though two more were on their way to the crime scene. When something like this happened, TV station crews usually appeared as well, but maybe this time they will stay away. Or will they?

The doorbell of the house where the 月山 lived rang sharply in that quiet darkness. Voices soon followed: "We're sorry to disturb you, we're the police..." Of course the couple expected them to come to their house. Mr. 月山 went to open the door, just like any other good citizen would.

"But was that really the sound of a gun being shot?" he wondered.

footnotes:

*月 [Japanese: tsuki; Chinese: yue4] =moon, month

山 [Japanese: yama; Chinese: shan1] =mountain

**written in December 2017, published in March 2018

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Winter in Bucharest

Publié le 25 Mars 2018 par Charly C.

We all know that the weather has changed all over the world. This year the changes were more obvious than ever, as the snow reached Rome.

Today, as I type this we're hit by another snow storm that started yesterday. It inspired me to show you guys what Bucharest is like in winter.

I sadly don't take many pictures to begin with, and therefore most of the images below are rather repetitive...?

random street in winter

views from my window in winter

I like snow. But only when it is fresh and clean.

Snow fascinates me for some reason - it can be a field or a forest covered with a thick blanket of snow and I could get into a trance. I see it as a symbol of complete solitude, quietness, retreat and the harshest time of the year.

Sometimes I want to live where it's coldest ... yeah, i have weird ideas. Perhaps it's because at times feel that my heart is that frozen and not caring.

I also see the snow as a canvas and it's waiting for something to be created on it.

various snow men. the 2nd was maybe 2" tall

This is one of the views I like the most: trees covered in heavy snow.

As you can tell, most of the images are from past years' winters. The 2nd snowman above was on the hood of a car. Its hat is a beer bottle cap - how adorable!

It only snowed a few times this year. here are some glimpses.

I hope you likes seeing some snowy scenes from Bucharest. But new we're ready for the spring and summer!

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Being a hoarder

Publié le 18 Mars 2018 par Charly C.

Catégories : #life experience, #life lesson, #advice, #tips, #story

Hello there!

My partner would label me a hoarder - at least in some regards. I totally fit the bill of "don't throw that away as you don't know when you might need it!" In recent years I started to tackle this and I generally stopped trying to keep every little thing.

As some of you might know, I recently changed the platform I blog on. I used the well known WordPress but I think over-blog might be a better option for me. The blog on WP is still there, but hidden from the public. [as a back up >.>]

During this move, I had to look at all the past entries and see if the images are still there, to check the links, and other stuff. To my shock, some pictures were completely gone! Luckily, I still had most of them on my computer, on tumblr, and even on a DVD.

However, one blog entry in particular still had some pictures while others were nowhere to be found! DISPAIR!

So I started to search for them everywhere. And I mean everywhere. The only place I didn't look until the end was a folder called "COPY." Lo and behold! The pictures I thought I lost forever, were there! The ONLY copy I still had of those pictures!

I was quite happy to discover them. I edited them as fast as I could and I put them in the blog entry.

This is not the only time I kept something "for later use" and it was actually useful. But I have a hard time recalling the other times, at this point. I really don't know if I could get similar pictures if I didn't find them, so I'm thankful for being a hoarder.

Piece of advice: You don't really need to keep 5 items of the same type, generally 1 is enough.

How about you: Are you a hoarder? Did you ever find yourself in a situation where you wish you kept something you threw away only to discover it would be useful for X situation? Or did you at some point need something you knew you kept and were happy you did keep that thing?

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a visit to the national art museum

Publié le 11 Mars 2018 par Charly C.

As you know, this is not my first time visiting a museum.

However this time I kinda want to start a new type of posts on the blog: free things to do in Bucharest. These entries will not be regular, but I will make a page to collect these entries, so that you can have a better access to them.

So, the Romanian National Art museum has a special offer for its visitors: free entrance EVERY first Wednesday of the month! This also includes taking pictures - but make sure you don't use the flash!

The museum is split in 2: the Romanian art section and the European art section. I wanted to visit the Romanian part first, and we did so. We thought we could also visit the wing with European art, but we forgot to bring something to drink and we were a bit tired as well. So we decided to visit that wing next month.

This means that at last next month you'll have another blog in this series. YAY!

However, since I could take pictures for free, I took a ton of them! And since they were just too many, I turned them into a video that you can see below!

You can contact the museum here:

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ART OF ROMANIA

49-53, Calea Victoriei, Bucharest 010063

Telephone: +4 021.313.30.30; Facsimile: +4 021.312.43.27

The tickets cost about 15 lei per adult, or about 4USD, and apparently they act as day passes because if you keep it, you can return for another visit. Make sure to bring cash because you can't pay with your card. There is a bank across the street from the museum, where you ca withdraw money though, so you don't have to worry so much about this if you forget.

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Annoying commercials and impossible standards

Publié le 8 Mars 2018 par Charly Cross

Catégories : #ads, #annoying, #beauty, #commercials, #review, #shopping

All of them! It really doesn't matter what they promote because all of them are trying to sell impossible things! This is one reason why we don't own a TV set, even though at times I wish we did.

I'm pretty sure others may have written about it as well, but I still need to rant. You can stop reading, if you don't like rants, I guess. One of the reasons I'm putting this one out is in hopes for more people to be inspired to speak their minds and DEMAND realistic or trustworthy ads. Here it goes.

THEY ARE ALL LIES!

This phrase pretty much sums it up. I could end this here, but I must provide some proof for this claim. Let's start with beauty ads.

MASCARA: Do you know that ad for that mascara that makes the lashes appear 3000 times thicker and longer than they really are? That's a lie! There's no mascara available that gives that much volume. That can be obtained ONLY with fake lashes.

image belongs to its author.

I can't even leave aside the amount of photoshop that went in her eyes - the eye ball itself doesn't look normal at all [#shameloreal] - this ad is full of lies. No human being has this much of a difference between their upper and lower lashes. YES, some people HAVE naturally long lashes, but I've only seen it on guys, for some reason. I also wonder if Gwen is really so self centered in her private life - saying about her own lashes they're outrageous is not a good way to present yourself. I also have to point out that people have all sorts of fine lines on their hands, and that some people have a different skin shade on their hands compared with their faces.

HAIR PRODUCTS

The hair products that are commonly advertised are hair-dyes and shampoos. However those ads are also all lies. If there's a famous face used in the commercial, it's safe to assume they use professional products applied by professionals. Also, keep in mind that some hair products actually make your hair more dry than it needs to be, especially when used by themselves. -Don't tell me you didn't notice this!- To have a gorgeous looking hair you need to help it with some masks or oils (especially after a certain age).

Those ads are made against a green screen, some of the models use hair extensions. They also use some guys with sticks to flick the hair of the model to give the impression of more bounce in the hair. Pretty sweet and deceiving, right?

CLOTHES, ACCESSORIES, GADGETS

The clothes ads are perhaps not all lies - with the exception of the very photoshopped models they use. But that's a well known reality and nothing shocking. What the ads for the products have in common is the complete absence of reality, such as: a normal person will never stay in that pose the whole day, or go to the same places the model was taken to for the photo shoot. This applies to rich people too: they're generally busy getting more rich [more power to them, I guess] but they still wouldn't stay motionless throughout the day like in some ads.

I also don't think an experience will become better or worse thanks to the clothes or accessories I use. For instance, if I buy a bathing suit from an ad and I go to the beach I will still have the same experience as when wearing a 20 years old bathing suit that was not advertised for. The weather would be the same as well, regardless of what I wear.

And please don't tell me I can find the love of my life while running just because I chose to wear a certain watch, like seen below. I also won't have more fun or run [work out] more/ better with it on.

image belongs to its author.

If I choose to work out I'll do so because I want to lose weight, and to find an excuse to flirt. I saw a similar ad in a supermarket - I found it ridiculous. If I go buy groceries that's what I need, not a new significant other, and I'm certain many of you will agree with me.

THE SMILES OF THE MODELS

Could they be more unrealistic? I don't mean their perfectly white teeth, but the smile itself. You might argue that they heard a really good joke, but how many times or how often do we hear a really good joke? Sadly, not often enough.

Some people might even think there is something wrong with them if they can't smile at all times with a big wide smile. They might think there is something wrong because their teeth are not perfect looking and a perfect white color too. The hard reality is that the average person can't really achieve this "standard" and they shouldn't feel pressured to do so either.

I also have the impression I should reach a certain level of happiness if I use those products or brands ... but I don't. I don't think anyone does.

PRODUCTS THAT DON'T WORK

Well, I suppose the whole entry is related to this. However there are some items that do work and they are advertised - pain killers for instance. They might not work for everyone based on their personal conditions and other factors, but do work for a large amount of population.

Here I refer to certain cleaning and beauty items that are supposed to work but do not: there is either no change at all or they make things worse. How many times have you seen ads for products that are used by professionals? Not too many times, right? Because those actually work.

UNHEALTHY PRODUCTS or SERVICES

There are a few words to say here: Coca-cola, McDonalds, KFC. How healthy are they? I thought so.. Not to mention their taste, ethics..... and the list goes on.

These thoughts are my own. The post is NOT sponsored. [how could it be? LOL]

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