TBIs

I know this information won't go anywhere, but I'm going to state it as if this page sees millions of views:

The most common misperception about brain injuries (TBI) that I have noticed is that people automatically assume that brain injuries heal or get better with time.

This couldn't be further from the truth.
Brain injuries last a lifetime. They never get 'better', in fact, they often worsen over time.
Imagine that you have a complex spider web and the spider is gone. It looks beautiful, and holds up on its own against a majority of things like water and wind. Imagine that a rock fell on that web and ripped a hole through it. The hole isn't going to repair itself. The hole degrades the integrity of the rest of the web, and with the same conditions that the web held up to previously, begins to get worse.

Now, my case, I've been exposed to multiple brain injuries. The first was the most damaging. It caused my brain to have migraines of a sort of freaky and unusual way. No remedy for naturally occurring migraines had any impact on these ones. Nothing short of high strength pain killers would relive the discomfort caused. Going back to the example, lets say that the migraines are like a new resident insect declaring the web its home, and every time that it walks across it, it causes a bunch of stress on the whole web, and especially more stress on the hole in the web. This can cause more holes to appear as the stress becomes overwhelming.
Just like in that case, TBI-caused migraines add more stress to the already damaged brain structure, causing further harm to it.

I lucked out in a way: my mTBI has only caused the migraines, small impact on memory, and a slight reduction in cognition. I know many more people with TBIs that weren't nearly as lucky. (one who had an unfortunate incident during a parachute jump where they landed in a tree and their brain twisted inside their skull, another who was blown out of a vehicle by an IED and their memory was severely impacted to the point where they never remember anyone they meet. They list goes on) Unfortunately, mine is severe enough to warrant me "unemployable" meaning that even if I were able to be hired by someone, I would never be able to perform at the standards of employability that would allow me to continue working for very long. Nobody wants to hire someone whose health can change as often as the wind does.
I have good days, bad days, and many days where it's not at either extreme, but still a struggle to muster the motivation to get out of bed.

It gets annoying when people assume that disabilities are all the same, or that a "home remedy" for one thing will work on something that only shares a portion of the name. (there are many versions of migraines: e.g. cluster migraines, stress migraines, hormone migraines, brain injury migraines, etc.)

If someone you knew had lost an arm from the elbow down, would you try to suggest assistance tips about it to someone that lost an eye? Sure, they both lost a part of their body, but the similarity ends there. "I get migraines" is a blanket term, just like saying that "I'm in pain". It doesn't tell you where or how, but rather the end result: pain. You wouldn't take an antacid for a bee sting, just like I don't subscribe to home remedies for hormonal migraines.
"have you -tried them-?"
Surprisingly, yes. All they do is make me feel like an idiot who is in a tremendous amount of pain and -very- short of patience.

TL;DR: Don't assume anything about anyone. If they complain about a medical thing, and you're not their doctor who specializes in it, show compassion and sympathy, don't try to fix it (unless if they ask).

Odd day

So, a few months ago, I bought a new car.
Not just your average "I got a new car, it's fancy because it's new," no... When I buy new, I make sure it's mine. Made sure I got every feature available. I wanted to live the "this is the best you can get" experience... within budget.
Luckily, I didn't have to stretch far, as I knew what I wanted (thanks to renting the same model just 6 months prior).
How I messed up: I settled with the dealership grabbing it from out of town, as opposed to accepting only a custom made one from the factory. This meant not only 300miles put on it before I saw it, but all of the things that happen to the paint during that transport.

I'm a stickler on paint jobs. I was ICAR certified as a paint specialist and that came with it's own burden of knowing just how paint has to be treated. My other vehicle had paint issues that only arise years after buying it. By then, there is no warranty to cover the manufacturer's defect in the paint. It has what is best described as little 1/4" long scratches all over. This is caused by the base coat of the paint not properly drying before the clear coat is applied, and the "scratches" are popped bubbles of the gases escaping the only way they can: through the clear coat, and damaging it. This drives me up the wall, but I can't do anything about it because I don't have access to the proper facilities to fix it myself. I refuse to take it somewhere to have someone else do it, because I'm fully capable of it and I know just how little attention many professionals will give it.

So back to the new car.
I wasn't able to give the paint my special care when it should've happened. That's no excuse for me not trying to remedy that anyways.

I may be ICAR certified, but that was only in completely stripping off paint and putting on new paint. (as well as fixing repairs, blending, etc.) We weren't taught "detailing"... the act of caring for the paint after the paint specialist is done with it.
Process I know:
wash,
sand/chemical paint removal,
clear out defects in base surface,
prime,
defect clearing,
prime,
wait,
base coat (or single stage),
wait/bake,
wash (very very gently) - if needed. If vehicle sat in booth while curing, skip.
clear coat,
bake.
1-week cure time.
cut with 2000grade sandpaper. This is to remove any imperfections in the paint, and to level the surface for maximum brilliance. This step is almost always skipped in every paint job that isn't 'high end' ($$$).
polish,
seal,
wax - if desired, but it's redundant.

Process by detailing:
wash vigorously,
dry,
clay bar,
dry,
cut with rubbing compound(if really needed),
polish - includes "swirl removal"
seal,
wax - once again, redundant

You can see how at the end, they're the same. Getting there is different. I never learned how to clay bar because I was using a DA sander to take off the paint... or aircraft remover.
The only advice I ever heard was "get it wet, rub it on the paint"... gee thanks, how will I tell if I did it right? The point is for it to remove the foreign substances from the paint job, I saw the clay bar (which, frankly, looked, smelled, and felt like $1 playdough) get very dirty even after a thorough wash. This was 15 years of pollution and grime coming off my older car.

So instead of buying a $200 Porter Cable DA polisher, I went with the Harbor Fright version. In all intents and purposes, it is practically the same thing (all of the reviews also reflect this). My mistake was settling with harbor freight DA pads: after cutting the hood and one rear quarter panel of my older car, the cutting pad exploded. (I still can't find half of it) Luckily I didn't have it pressed against the surface when this occurred, so no damage was done. I'll use the other pads I got until they also explode, but I think I'll replace with high quality pads.

My time on my older car was cut short with condensation appearing, telling me it was time to stop. Maybe if I'm feeling antsy, I'll go do my new car in the garage. It hasn't been washed yet, but I think I can swing it, since there has been heavy rainfall here for the weekend. I don't need to cut that paint, either, so I can start with clay bar and move right on to polish and then seal it up for the winter.

I am tempted to take my older one to a professional detailer, to see if they can muster up a cut and polish that I just simply can't do with my lack of resources. I'd be all over it if I had all the supplies I did when I was getting ICAR certified.

So yes, odd day... I normally don't give two shits on cars until they rile up a stink.
I normally wouldn't have dived into this, but the holiday driving reminded me that harsh weather was going to seriously mess up my new car's paint.

fancy schmancy

Yep, I wiped the slate clean.
I updated the layout.
The content is no longer filtered :P