Essentials (2013) in the male wardrobe

As someone who is not naturally gifted with an intensely beautiful appearance I can appreciate how an appropriate and high quality wardrobe can drastically effect perceptions and attractiveness.

I once had very few high quality items in my wardrobe selection and I suffered from it!

For whatever personal reason I decided to invest in a better style of choice and from that point many aspects of my social and romantic life improved drastically; I went from having no girlfriend to having several over the course of a few years (all of whom were very much above my league) and my position as a person increased substantially.

My confidence as a person was enhanced and I felt more comfortable in my skin - it also inspired me to begin the road to losing weight and improving my health so that I could fit in to more style-orientated suits, jackets and jeans.

So here's my selection of what every man should have in his wardrobe:

Skip the hats (unless you pull the look off)

Fedoras have come back in fashion in mainstream fashion retail. Taking a classier approach to fashion and reverting back to the days of Macs and Double Breasted Jackets, fedoras seem to be on many celebrity images. 

While fedoras and other hats may seem like a simplistic fashion choice, there is much more to a hat than popping it on your head and sadly these days most men cannot pull the look off without appearing creepy or old beyond their years. 

Try before you buy and get an opinion from a friend (and not the sales rep who will say you look amazing in a gimp outfit if it ensures a sale). 

Glasses to match your face or contacts

Glasses can either destroy your look or enhance it. 

As someone who has no other option than to wear glasses due to being allergic to most forms of lens formula it can be a real struggle to find a suitable style. 

The mature male will want to find a style orientated pair of glasses which are suitable both in the clubs and in the workplace. Glasses are surprisingly versatile in that if they match your face they will match your clothing. 

Above are the glasses that I wear at present. 

They are comfortable and fit in to that niche category of 'smart casual' glasses that many professionals are choosing to adopt. I bought them when I was working as a research officer for the Scottish Government. 

The days of hipster styled large frames, over-the-top flower power colours and flamboyant design is over for many glasses styles and a more professional look will reflect your transition from being a boy to being a man. 

Some people prefer contact lenses - they allow the eyes to be naturally displayed. 

It is absolutely essential, and I do speak with experience when I say this, that you must find a contact lens that is 100% comfortable with your chemistry; if not you will be left with a semi-permanent pinkish staining of the surface of the eye that looks unsightly.

Jeans

Every man should have at least one pair of good jeans for both smart and casual occasions. 

Jeans have gone from the poor mans choice to the top-class clothing option for the young and prosperous. 

Strong, long lasting, virtually indestructible and never out of season, jeans are an excellent addition to any wardrobe. 

For most men straight or boot cut jeans are optimal for style. Matched with a smart-casual shirt, black or brown ankle boots and a black suit jacket to create a look that can be applied to multiple situations. 

Jeans are becoming more acceptable in the work place due to their combination of smart attire and versatility to seasons when compared to traditional cotton trousers.

Tops to match your body shape

Skinny. Slim. Muscular. Fat. 

Getting your t-shirts and shits to appear well on your body is important.

Unlike jeans, tops are not so versatile and they can make a dangerous impression if done incorrectly. 

As someone who struggles with weight I have found that grunge styled checkered shirts with a displayed undershirt works best. Blacks also work in my favour. 

Black shirts are one of the few tops that will suit pretty much anyone. Try for high quality cotton shirts (slimfit for muscular/thin and slightly eased for heavy/fat build). 

Try to avoid sports branded shirts and t-shirts as the designer logo days are leaving us. Unbranded is often best these days - companies such as Slaters, Burton and even Tesco's F&F are excellent for brandless apparel. 

Darker tones of pink and red work best of muscular body shapes.

Blues, blacks and crimson tones for heavier builds. 

Orange rarely looks attractive. 

I'll be covering suits and shoes in a separate article as they each lend to a much more complex consideration of style matching. 

Hope you enjoyed the article. 

Driclor Solutions review

For anyone who has a streak of vanity in them such as myself there is often nothing more esteem destroying than noticeable sweating.

As a college student I am often running around from location to location and too often the unsightly sweat patches can appear. In my search for a fix to this problem, I stumbled upon a Over the Counter pharmaceutical product 'Driclor'.

'Driclor' is unique in that is not targeted at a specific demographic - it is scentless which removes the clash of smells that can come from several other forms of anti-antiperspirant such as Triple Dry or Dove.

It is also not a traditional anti-antiperspirant; rather than applying on the go, you apply it at night and wash off in the morning with a further application of your commercial products.

Primary ingredients: Aqua; Aluminum Chloride; Alcohol  

After using this for 2 weeks I have noticed a significant improvement; sweat patches under-arm are almost non existent and confidence is certainly boosted in social situations where close contact is expected such as the college class or at gathering.

The downsides: I wouldn't recommend this for someone with sensitive skin or pre-existing skin conditions. Consultation with a trained medical professional may be needed prior to using this product.

Value for money: For £6 ($10) there is enough of the solution to last for quite some time with application needed once every few days after the first week. It also allows for the user to keep their other products which, for myself, would be old-spice and Lynx body sprays.

Best combined with: This product can be combined with all other pre-existing products, however to pay attention to any skin irritation as Driclor is extremely powerful.

Where to buy: Larger cosmetic pharmacies such as Boots; online at Amazon and in many supermarkets.

Overall rating: 

4/5 with a loss of a point due to the lack for sensitive skin users to fully enjoy

A quick guide to Adsense - beginners guide (application and first month)

Google's Adsense can be a fantastic way to gain some extra income over a month; it's simplistic to establish and can be applied to most websites, blogs and YouTube channels.

 For the last 3 months I've been enjoying the thrill that comes with blogging and striving for more following, and thus more ad revenue; before the enjoyment comes a few downturns, and it's these I'll be focusing on. 

My experience at the start was of a high income and YouTube moniez. Sadly this is not the case unless your blog, website or video go viral - Adsense is a significant source of income for high rating blogs that retain much of their following of weeks and months, but for the small guy it can be a real struggle. 

Here's a quick guide to your application for Google Adsense.

There are two sections - one for traditional text (blog) and one for YouTube. 

Phase 1 - the application process (blogs and websites)

We've all gone through it. 

You're there, and your product is taking off. You may have a few thousand hits per month and as you feel you have a real shot at making this a full time source of income. 

Google's application process is mostly electronic and 'spiders' will crawl through your product looking for key words which relate to products, goods and services. 

The best way to ensure that you application is accepted is to have larger, wordy pages and posts; websites and blogs that focus on consumer goods such as mobile phones, gaming and music will be significantly higher in their chance of approval than political blogs or personal blogs which focus on an individual. 

Do you have a following of 2000+ a month? Then you're sure to be accepted so long as you have many 'buzzwords' such as corporate names, product titles and so forth. That doesn't mean you should load your articles full of deliberate deception words, but rather it should encourage you to be more descriptive in your articles. 

Make sure your blog or website is open and constructed; Google likes their ads to be placed on a well made websites or blog. 

If you fail, and your application is unsuccessful, then try to apply in the future - perhaps 2 weeks.

High rollers for Adsense:

• Gaming 
• Technology 
• Fashion 
• Consumer review
• Geek
• Music
• Media
• Cosmetics 
• Comedy

Application can take up to 4 days for decision as the automated system will spend some time going through your content. 

Successful? Then you're half way there to earning some quick income.

Phase two - Placement of ads and the 'do nots'

Biggest rule: Never, under any circumstances, click your own ads and never have your friends click them either - Google is the largest software firm in the world, they'd spot it in a second and they could bring you up for fraud. 

Ads are automatically customized and placed on Blogger, however on sites it may be slightly more tricky; on websites, you may add in a specific code via HTML; for those, like myself, who struggle with HTML insertion I'd advise perhaps getting a friend to help you out.

A mistake that most people made is to view their Adsense account every hour or so - Adsense rarely updates accurately and clicking multiple times a day is a waste of valuable time that you could be dedicating to improving your writing style or website design. Sit back, relax and ignore it for a week or two; Adsense has a threshold that prevents you from withdrawing your income (in the UK it's £60) and has a set period of payment -- this makes checking it redundant.

The appearance of ads once accepted will take roughly 2-6 hours; until then you will have a blank box.

Don't expect a massive income for an extended period of time unless your website or blog brings in thousands a day; it's not going to happen.

I recommend investing some time in marketing, networking and making a few friends who can either help get your content out there or who can create content for you; it's extremely hard to make content on a daily basis without help.

Do not every ask for your fan base to click ads on Adsense; Google will be swift in their punishment of you.

 Please note that some Blogger themes do not support Adsense and therefore it's advised to preview any theme prior to choosing it.

Phase three - What to expect and important things to check

Expect a low income and few clicks; quantity is the important key factor in your income. The more clicks you receive and the higher your audience, combined with the relation of ads to your product, will decide your income. There's nothing at present that can be done about this as Adsense is almost entirely automated. 

Here's a quick checklist to make sure you are set up:

1. Do you have your bank account or address validated for payment?
2. Are you ads placed and appear within your theme?
3. Can you keep and retain an audience? 
4. Enough material of interest to bring people in?
5. Networking and contacting more influential community members? 
6. Have you enough coffee, tea or vodka for your content adventures?

Finalized earnings are much different to what you may see during the course of a month; these can be affected by false clicks such as someone using a proxy server or any clicks that Google considered to be non-valid and therefore non creditable. Once again, nothing can be done about this. 

Your earnings may say $40 but then fall to $20. It's a fact. 

YouTube

YouTube is much, much simpler and much more lucrative than traditional Adsense - you only need one account for all your Adsense products. 

To become a YouTube Partner you need original credit that falls under either your own nations Copyright laws, or depending on relations with the United States, the laws of America. 

I'm lucky - I run a Political/News field on YouTube; thanks to Scottish Law, I am able to use clips from news outlets so long as I give credit. 

To earn money on YouTube, follow the standard Partnership application process; this may take less time than traditional Adsense if you account is in good standing. 

For each video YouTube will scan the content and either monetize it or reject it; this can take anywhere from 2 seconds to 2 days and it isn't perfect, for example: I use Copyright free music for my videos however the notes, composition or tempo may be similar to other videos and therefore YouTube may need to manually approve this. Don't feel down about it as they allow videos so long as no Copyright has been breached. 

As you progress as a Partner you will be offered more features and options ranging from live broadcast to pre-uploaded videos that are published at a specific time. YouTube is great for content creators as it has many broad tools for free that are user friendly. 

YouTube videos need to be over 30 seconds long to allow for 'in play' advertisement, AKA the ads that most of us skip. However, these ads are the best for gaining a good income. 

Well I hope this guide helps you, and I wish you luck in your adventures. If you liked this, found it useful, or love kittens then please do share and subscribe.

As always the comments are open for questions and feedback

<3 guys  

Sony Xperia L Review

Sony's flagship range of mobile products - the Xperia series - has been a hard-hitting contender in the Android market for a few years now.

The latest model of Xperia touchscreen handsets are no exception with a stylish exterior, responsive screen and hardware at an affordable price compared to many of their rivals.

For almost a year I was using an Iphone 3GS; a nice little device, but nothing to write home about. As someone who had used BlackBerry and Android before and after the departed fate of my Iphone, I was missing features such as interchangeable memory devices and Google's PlayStore.

I'm happy to say that my investment in the Sony Xperia L has not gone poorly and after two months of usage this is how it rates in the field.

Apps and Performance 

The Sony Xperia L is in no way a heavy weight Android device however it's a hybrid of conventional entry level pricing and Sony's traditional value for money ethic that seems to be resonating in some of their products as of late (and let's not forget the PS4).

Notable features:

• Qualcomm MSM8230 Snapdragon
• 8 MP, 3264 x 2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash rear camera
• Bright, responsive and full colour 3.4 inch display
• 2 MP front-face camera 
• Impressively loud and clear rear speaker 
• Sony Walkman as standard
• Up to 32gb MicroSD card support
• Sony Smart Connect for streaming music, pictures and movies via WI-FI to PC and Playstation
• Android Jelly Bean
• Up to 102 standby time (if full power management settings are in place)
• Up to 6 hours talk time (if full power management settings are in place)
• Support for wireless and USB tethering hotspot for mobile broadband
• Full Wi-fi, Android NFC and SmartTag support

I've had very few problems with the Sony Xperia L; at times it can struggle to multitask however this seems more a problem with Android Jelly Bean's inability to close applications such as Skype, WhatsApp and Gmail. 

I would say this phone is perfect for the average mobile user who enjoys surfing, checking emails, enjoying music and watching media.

Those who enjoy heavier applications may struggle with this phone it does have a tendency to lag when faced with too much multitasking. 

The phone has not shown any fault when dealing with applications such as Temple Run 2,, Zombie Smash, Fast Racing and Red Line Rush. 

The phone has had no crashes in 2 months. 

With the latest Android, this phone enjoys stable application usage with no detectable problems

Application and performance rating:

Screen, display and Battery life

The display on the Xperia L is beautiful and crisp, with a full colour and a responsive touch screen. 

The screen has a scratch resistance display and is extremely sturdy. 

Battery life is poor at times, with 2% being used in a minute if mobile data and backlight are active; this is the biggest complain I have with the device - the battery is small and recharges quickly, and is cheap to stock up on so is not a problem on longer trips if replacements are available.

The touch screen is precise with ease of use for those with larger fingers, such as myself. 

It's easy to clean and has no signs of wear or scratching.

I wouldn't be expecting to draw any art with this device, however average users should find it more than perfect. 

Screen and display rating:

Battery rating:

Camera

The camera can be woeful on this device at times, especially in low light environments.

The LED flash is intense and can overpower a natural shot in dark, especially at close range. 

The pictures from this phone can be beautiful, however at times they can also be poor. 

The phone has a traditional camera layout with a button in place for focus and snap; touch screen is also available for attempting more focused shots. 

Example shots:

Camera rating:

Design and Style

Design and style are this phone's biggest advantages - it's by far the most beautiful phone I've ever owned. It's compact, light and very sleek. 

The design is hard wearing which shows no sign of any damage, even after I accidentally dropped it down a brick wall recently. 

The phone is well made and well designed, and everything about it is beautiful. It has a non-imposing sense of elegance to it, and will never go amiss for those more fashion obsessed.  

Fits in the hand perfectly and feels comfortable.

Design and Style rating: