I'm In A Good Place:

First, let me take a moment to say thank you for all the prayers and well wishes during this difficult time. I also want to take a moment to say thank you to those that took the time to message me on social media and a very special thanks to those that took the time to call and check on me. It meant a lot to me. My decision to leave the wet shaving hobby has been a happy one and I am in a good place. Sometimes you simply have to turn away from something to be happy and writing blog posts and making shave videos was one the many things that I've turned away from. I was already burned out on the wet shaving hobby in general and then my dad passed away on June 14th, 2020 at 1220 AM eastern daylight time. We last saw him on June 7th after we traveled from Virginia to Florida to see him, I last spoke to him on June 11th, 2020 and he died on June 14th, 2020 from pneumonia caused by complications from lung cancer. That was the icing on the cake for me in making some really tough decisions concerning my hobbies and interests. There has been NO trolling and/or personal attacks towards me which had zero influence on my decision to leave the wet shaving hobby.

The first thing that I turned away from was making shave videos. I tried to quit before and a few people talked me into giving it another go and I did for a while but it was becoming a chore rather than being fun. There's a lot of work that goes into making and uploading videos on YouTube and I do mean a lot of work. It takes roughly about 1.5 to 2 hours of work just to upload a 10 minute video on my YouTube channel and that also depends on how busy YouTube is which has been slammed as of late. More on that in a moment. The scary part is that's my shorter videos that are between 6 to 8 minutes in length and with a high speed internet connection. Those that don't have that kind of internet speed takes even longer. Something had to give, I stopped making videos. So I stopped making videos.

Getting away from the news media has been one of the greatest thing since sliced bread. I mentioned YouTube being slammed earlier and that's why they have been slammed as of late in addition to other forms of entertainment such as video games and streaming services. People are sick of the news media and I feel 100% better since I turned off the news media and politics in general. I've not decided just yet but there's a 90% chance that I will NOT be voting this year and if I do decide to vote, it will definitely be the absolute last time that I do. I'm that sick of it. I'm also sick and disgusted of seeing the people in these protests and marches too. It's an embarrassment to our country and their behavior has been disgusting to say the least. I never thought that I would see the day that people would get "offended" at statues that have been up since before their grandparents were born along with getting upset about labels on boxes of rice, pancake mix and pancake syrup. It's straight up disgusting in my humble opinion. There's no other words that I can use.

My final decision was to give up on writing blog posts. 7 months since my last blog post and to write something different each time has been getting tougher each time to the point where I no longer have the will or desire to even write something anymore. Between that along with my post views dropping significantly, it's simply best that I stopping writing blog posts in general. I'm doing good to get 25 views per blog post now and the only reason I got more than that on the last one is because I've not been writing blog posts anymore. It's simply not worth the time to write something if people arent going to read it. So with that being said, I'm happy with my decisions that I've made and I'm in a good place. So thank you for your support over the past 6.5 years and God bless all of you.

Feather Soft Guard Blades Ordered:

Earlier today, I went ahead and ordered these some what new Feather Artist Club Soft Guard injector blades. These are just about my last option when it comes to single edge style blades but it's definitely worth a shot. I do hope that these work in my Occam's razor. Maggard Razors stated that these will NOT work in the Mongoose SE razor. We will soon find out if they work in the other singe edge razors. These were some what expensive but I don't mind because I know that I will get them in a couple of days. Or at least I hope I get them before my next shave video.

I really do like my Occam's single edge razor but if I can't get a good shave from it with these blades, I have one more choice to make and that is the Schick P-30 blades which are extremely expensive. You have to order the P-30 blades in bulk off EBay. I've not found too many single packs at all. 

^ If these soft guard blades arrive Saturday, I will do my usual mail call video and then shave with it on Sunday. If not, then you will see me use my RazoRock MJ-90A razor with a Vintage made Brazil Gillette Platinum Plus blade which is extremely comfortable and very easy on the skin too. I'm hoping that these are easy on my skin like the reviews and ads claim. To make sure that things go well during the shave and to achieve the most comfort, I will stick with the lowest setting on the Occam's SE razor. It will definitely be interesting.

No Monetizing For Me Folks:

After nearly 11 years, I have closed my Google AdSense account on a permanent basis and it's been a huge relief off my back and then some. This was my decision and mine alone. Google did NOT have any say so in this at all. In fact, they probably didn't even notice when I did close the account. This has been brewing for quite sometime now. Especially after YouTube changed their rules along with a couple of other events that took place in 2019. But after much thought, I decided to close my account in December 2019 and I did not get around to it until a few days before Christmas of 2019. In my humble opinion, I am far better off without it and it is definitely not worth my time either.

I first opened my Google AdSense account sometime in 2009 after someone from a dot com style forum told me about it. Back then, my blog was an automotive/racing blog and I had not discovered wet shaving yet. But at the time I thought it would be a good idea. In the beginning, everything was going pretty good. No technical issues or anything. That changed when Google AdSense started changing their ad codes. That's when things started falling apart. So after about a year, I removed the ads from the blog but I kept the AdSense account open for a later time. My blog was functioning perfectly without the ads and for a good number of years, everything was great and I was having a blast. Then along came April 2nd, 2019. 

Google plus went bye bye. Which meant that Google had to update their ad codes. No issues at all never really paid attention to it until about August of 2019. Google AdSense started automatic ads and for a while they worked. Then I started getting AdSense error emails and messages. I go to my AdSense account page and I ended up having to cut, copy and paste the code to fix the ads. That worked briefly until California passed a limited advertising act. My blog would not be accessible to CA residents if I didn't comply and I wanted everyone to be able to read my blog. The tech issues I experienced in the beginning started to return. So once again, I removed the ads and I swore that they would never be back on my blog ever again. But I still kept my AdSense account open.

At this point, there was no ads but I could still monetize my blog and YouTube channel. Then YouTube who is owned by Google decided to change their requirements for monetizing videos. Once that went into effect I came to realize that Google AdSense is not worth it. I also began to realize that I went from a slim to no chance in terms of monetizing my YouTube channel. Then another thing happened almost overnight. My blog went to the same format as Twitter. It was at that moment that I knew that for sure I would end up closing my AdSense account.

The final straw came when I went to the AdSense account website to close my account. When I saw the total revenue generated was only $7.91 U.S. Dollars over the entire 11 years of keeping that account open, I just shook my head and did not hesitate to close the account. I have stated repeatedly like a broken record that making YouTube videos and blogging about wet shaving are just hobbies for me. My income is generated elsewhere. Both when I first started blogging 13 years ago and I can definitely say the same thing today. I never expected to make money with Google AdSense. I figured roughly around $300 U.S. Dollars at the most per year if I was lucky which is about the same as my state income tax refund that I got every year when I was still able to work. But the fact is that it took 11 years to generate just under $8 U.S. Dollars which won't even buy my decaf coffee that I've been drinking here lately. So if you was to ask me as to whether or not I think Google AdSense is worth it? My answer would be no.