Me and My Bipolar

Mud, grime, bucket, step and hose

2012-01-22T12:49:00.000Z

I love driving, it's one of my outlets. I trash around corners and will happily careen into puddles and mud, I drive through city areas where there is lots of pollution. Unfortunately, I do not like the a dirty car so I also give my car some tender loving care.
Also car washing is a sort of therapy for some too!

How to get a winning look no matter how good or crap your car is...

1) Hose of all the dirt and traffic grime on your car. Preferably use flowing water instead of a jet spray as this can push debris and dirt elsewhere.

2) Do not use washing up liquid as this will damage the paintwork because it is made to cut through grease, dirt and paintwork.
Use a decent car shampoo any of these will do depending on your budget.

Adjust the shampoo to water ratio accordingly. If you have grit salt on the car use tepid water not warm or hot as this will activate the salt and it will cut into the body work

3) start cleaning from the top down - simple reason is that you go from cleanest at the top, to dirtiest at the bottom.

5) If your car is relatively big then one half of your car first and hose off the shampoo then shampoo the other half

6) By this point I do the tyres (usually the filthiest). Spray some wheel cleaner on all four to give it some time to work.

Get an old cloth or a wheel brush and work the cleaner into the grime until you are happy with the wheel. When rinsing off, keep the hose spray localised in the wheel area as you do not want wheel cleaner to go on the paint work.

7) By this step you're too tired to intricately wax your car to make it blind small mammals, you can use a spray on, wipe off product to save lots of time. It's almost as effective as convential waxing and gives a decent shine. I usually use Demon Shine which is very effective. Spray on the wet surface and wipe away!

After wash care
There are a range of product that you can use on the car.
If you wish to add more robust protection to your car, then I recommend waxing your car by hand using products such as Turtle Wax. Do not rush waxing because you'll probably still have a haze of wax somewhere which ruins the newly washed look of the car!

If you have recently wax perhaps you only want to use some car polish. The better one's protect your waxed body work and brings out an impressive shine.

DO
use a clean sponge - do not throw it on the floor and pick it up again to clean your car, there may be small stones stuck in the sponge that can scratch the car.
Take your time if your car is really filthy, it's tempting to just scrape things off. You might also want to try the heavy duty car cleaning shampoos.

DON'T
Use water that is too hot or cold
Use washing up liquid
Old sponges that have collected lots of dirt

Sod's Law
Sometimes we can't win with this sort of law...

Facets of many feelings, dichotomy and the unfixed

2012-01-20T13:06:00.000Z

I am getting better at saying "no".
I have been uncovering a great deal that I did not know about myself.
These small things are a big revelation for me.

For example:
It's okay to feel feelings - simple yet does not occurs often in my mind

Also, things are not either or there is a grey area - thinking does not have to lie at two extremes

At the minute I feel at my wit's end. It is exactly like the feeling you get when you get when you spend a lot of your time trying to fix something, but it simply refuses to be fixed. You throw down your glue, tools, tape and say "f**k it"....that is how I feel.

A game of thrones, disorders and the cramp twins

2012-01-20T12:50:00.000Z

My sisters have been unbearable lately, perhaps through no fault of their own.
All I will say is, I am scientifically convinced that I could find some sort of disorder I could name after them.

Anyway, I have finished the Game of Throne book by George RR Martin.
I must say I was amazed but disappointed. I was amazed because the book was a complex weave of many many characters and revolves around lies, deception and scandal.
I was disappointed that the book is merely a portfolio of very sketchy stories bound together. Hence there was no depth to them.
To be a bit biased I liked Lord Eddard Stark's character, I felt he was only the very few with substance as a character.

The modern world, choices, cars and germs

2012-01-14T10:23:00.000Z

It is easy to compose a list of the things we hate, of the everyday nuisances we love to complain about to make life a little more bearable.
So instead of doing the easy thing of grumbling, I decided to write about the modern day things we all take for granted.

Knowledge of hygiene and understanding of infections and germs

We think nothing these days of washing hands. In the 1800s it was deemed as optional for doctors to wash their hands.
A Hungarian doctor Ignaz Semmelweis observed medical students who assisted in childbirth, the women would be more likely to contract puerperal infections compared to those who were delivered by midwives.
The reason? Medical students would do autospies and would not wash their hands between clinical procedures. So washing hands in a chlorinated antiseptic solution was introduced. After three months the rate of deaths dropped drastically.

Many do not realise that over two hundred years ago, people did not know the relationship between infections and hygiene practices.

In the olden days if you had an open wound, lack of hygiene could mean death from septicaemia or losing your limbs from gangrene etc. This has been reduced in modern day thanks to antibiotics.

There are simple everyday routines we engage in as part of personal hygiene.
Everyday we wake up to brush our teeth, a fairly mundane part of the day but nevertheless an important aspect. We often take for granted the fact that have clean water, flushing toilets, indoor plumbing, hot water and showers?

Transport and cars

If you have ever read the Canterbury Tales, you would know that the pilgrims would take almost a week to arrive in the pilgrimage place of Canterbury.
So long each pilgrim has a prologue and a tale!
These days we can get into a car and cover hundreds of miles in a short time.

For example a typical journey from Birmingham to London is approximately 110 miles. This would take a fair few days to walk.

If you don't have the luxury of a car, then you can take the train, bus, taxi. Our choices for mode and method of transport is extensive.
What about planes, could any of our ancestors believe that we could travel continents in a mere few hours?
It is not just civilian transport as well. What about the endless deliveries that trucks and freight trains make in order to keep business and enterprise going?

Choices!

No matter how much we complain of advertising and ethical practices of credit cards,
we are spoilt for choice. Take for instance a basic household staple such as bread; when we go to the supermarket we are given an incredible amount of choice: white, brown, thick, medium, half loaf, toaster sized, wholegrain, seeded, best of both, gluten free, crustless....and many more.

Education
Historically knowledge and information, literacy was reserved only for the religious and elite.
Thanks to an explosion of human knowledge and for everyone to be entitled to access to information and education. This knowledge is exponentially increasing.

Nevertheless, there are many more that could be discussed. But these are a few.

Christmas past present and future and Hippocrates

2011-12-27T12:05:00.001Z

Was a nice christmas... my definition of a nice christmas is good food and drink.

Hippocrates once said, an ailment is better cured with food and drink than medicine.

I am not in wordy mood today...as fewer words as Clint Eastwood in all of his movies....

A writer with a thousand words and a hero with a thousand faces

2011-12-15T08:53:00.001Z

I am currently distracting myself with writing a story. The story is in it's sapling stages and I do not want to give too much away but it is developing into Game of Thrones meets Da Vinci Code.

This is mainly what I have been doing to keep myself on an even keel. Creative writing is really therapeutic for me.

As a result, I have been exploring different hero archetypes.

The Anti-Hero

John McClane, Hancock, Travis Bickle
We all know this one, most of today's film create a character similar that of an anti-hero.
The reluctant hero who initially has no interest in heroics. They are usually bitter about something, cynical and has a bad habit ie. drinking, gambling etc.
They are usually laypeople who have somehow stumbled into the situation. They usually are humble and fight to win their wish to 'continue what they were doing before'.
This hero archetype is one that most can relate to, a flawed, imperfect conception, compared to an invincible superhero.

The Lovable Rogue

http://www.empiremovies.com/tag/captain-jack-sparrow/
Robin Hood, Del Boy, Jack Sparrow
This hero will not have much regard for laws, will do things for profit and gain but usually does not mean any harm or kills. This is what makes the audience perceive them as a 'loveable rascal'. Though in the end, they will save the day and maybe even help themselves to some of the villain's booty whilst at it.

The Patriarch

Don Corleone (The Godfather)
The man of the house who will always take charged, he is either feared or admired by the relations around him (or both). He is usually full of honour and strict has traditional values. He may be an overbearing and overprotective father. He is cold and ruthless when it comes to outsiders who threaten his family.

This is not an extensive list, for further interest reading I would recommend:

http://img2.imagesbn.com/images/102230000/102238817.jpg

The Hero With a Thousand Faces - Joseph Campbell (Pantheon Books)