Brian Luvera's Blog

Just like with any other painting you are most likely going to have to start with planning. With a garage it is a good idea to decide on a color which is more contemporary, and can handle a bit of dirt and does not turn grey because of the fumes from the car. You are not going to run it when the doors are closed, but there is always some tar and fumes that don’t get out before they hit the walls, and that makes them slowly turn grey. So when you are starting out, make sure that you carefully sand the walls, and wash them thoroughly to avoid any spots where the paint is not going to attach well.

For me the grey color is the easiest, since it fits in the color of my garage floor tiles and is easy to maintain – it won’t turn grey since it is already that color. When you are painting you should possibly use a paint that is designed for rough conditions. Also make sure that you cover the floor with newspapers to avoid any spilling on the new tiles…  When you need to use a primer then you need to use it. don’t go cheap here since this is the one room in the house which is used the most, and maintained the least.

Apply at least two coats, preferrably five and let the previous one dry out well before you add the second one. Just do a steady job and you are going to be fine.

If you are like me then your garage means a lot to you and you have to keep it shiny and good looking. You will never know when you have someone over who wants to see  your car, and for that you need to have a great garage to show it off. Also I do a lot of work on my car so I need to have a place where I can go when ever I want without being uncomfortable. The latest thing that I did to make it look a little better was changin the floor tiles, and pulling the old ones out was quite easy, since there were already tiles, but adding new ones needed some planning and here is what I did.

I needed to first make sure what kind of flooring was I looking for. I was not sure I needed to get tiles, and I was also looking at carpet and other synthetic materials. The thing is that I like tiles and I decided to get two different colors to make a nice pattern there. There are not much tools that are necessary and you most likely only need a rubber hammer, a chalk line and also knee pads to avoid hurting yourself. If you are not afraid of that, you can be sure that the pads are going to make the project are more enjoyable one.

With the tiles there is not going to be any adhesive, and you only need to lay them down and make sure that they are the correct size, so don’t get exited about the amount of work: it is going to be simple and a lot. Because of the interlocking you are going to need to carefully use the hammer to make sure that they are securely attached and basically you are done.

I have been waiting for this for a long time since my garage looks like a junkyard, well did before I installed my garage shelves to get it organized. It was quite a good amount of work that I had to put in to it but I did learn something from it. I made a few mistakes and that is stuff that I don’t want other people doing if they decide to install the shelves themselves, and that is why I am going to write a quick “how to” on installing shelves in your garage.

First off you are going to start planning. Make good plans on where you are going to put those shelves and how big you need them to be. Also make sure that it is possible to put them where you want then – there should be no wiring in the wall if you are going to attatch them to the wall, and no plumbing and airconditioning pipes going there. If there is you can probably work around them by cutting a matching hole in the shelves, for me there was no pipes so I did not have to worry about this.

The very next thing to think about are the tools that you are going to use. You don’t want to wake up durig the project that you don’t have all the tools that you need – that will drastically make your project longer. This happened to me, and I realised that I need a new saw to be able to cut the shelves in a proper angle. So if you have a garage which has weird angles and a concave ceiling then make sure that you prepare for everything. At the same time you should be thinking about the materials you are going to use. Many people go with metallic shelves since they are considered quite durable, but for me I did go with wooden ones, because of the fact that they are easy to handle. You can cut them in to shape and not worry about the durability going down. With metallic shelves there is the case they the sides are specially bent to give extra support to the shelf, so you can’t cut that. If you have pipes and stuff you are going to need to go with wooden shelves to be able to mold them in to your liking.

If you decide to get shelves that are standing on their own feet – instead of being attached to the wall, make sure that you assemble them correctly. Read the instructions carefully, since you can make big mistakes which might damage the shelves. If you misassemble them you are not going to get money back if they break.

Once you have your shelves ready, don’t overload them. Put the heaviest stuff on the bottom shelf, and stuff that you rarely use on the top shelf. That way you won’t constantly have to reach to the top and risk something falling on your head.

I started this depression treatment series of posts and I am going to keep writing it until I feel like I have said all I have to say. Many people are not comfortable medicationg themselves unless it is completely necessary and that is why they don’t go see the doctor – they will just slap a prescription in their hands and forget about the patient. In most cases it is not like this and I have heard about people who have received very professional help in their situation.

Most people don’t even think about getting medical help because that would be the same as accepting that they need “head medication”. Well the problem with that is that basically when you are derpessed you have a chemical imbalance in your brain, and that can not be fixed with the right thougths. You are going to need medication if you really want to get help and that is why in severe cases it is important to go see a doctor.

The drugs used to medicate it are selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors which will basically increase the amount of serotonin that you will have for your brain to use and rebalance your brain.

Earlier today I wrote an article about the symptoms of depression I mentioned that I probably should add another post here to tell you about the treatments. This is not a health blog neither am I someone who is an expert in health related issues, but by doing some research I can learn anything and here are some ways that you should use to treat your depression.

Many people start suffering from depression when there is too dark and they don’t see the daylight for long periods of time. This happens especially in parts of the world where during the winter there is the majority of the day dark. Mostly in the norhtern parts of the world in northern Europe and in Alaska.

The reason for people to get derpessed because of this is that our bodies need some real alteration in the day. You need to have a period of bright light and a period of darkness. This is because most of our hormonal and chemical systems are operating according to the changes of the day. At night we are producing hormones such as melatonin and in the morning we produce such as sex hormones and cortisol. That keeps us working during the day and enables us to fall asleep at night. These systems are controlled by the suprachiasmatic nucleus in our hypothalamus which is in turn controlled by light sensation in our eyes. That was a bit roughly explained but you should get the idea. If there is no clear change between the day and the night we are not going to have a normal hormonal cycle and our brain chemistry is going to get messed.

This is why many people get help from bright light therapies which are actually just a fancy way to say “sit in front of a light during the morning”. You will get a specific type of bright light which you will turn on in the morning and sit nearby, without directly looking at it. Do this for a half an hour and you can simulate the natural daily cycles and get help to your depression. Once again this is no professional advice and I am just reading stuff from the web and implementing here, and that is why you should also consult a doctotor if you feel like you might be depressed.

I have been quite down for a long time now and that is one of the reasons I started this blog for. I get to write down stuff that is going in my head and that is why I am writing this post too. Since I have been not feeling that great I have started to think that I might be depressed, and that is why I am going to write this post about the symptoms of depression.

Normally you don’t really understand yourself if you are depressed. You are not going to blame some condition on the fact that everyone one the planet seems to be doing it wrong and only making you annoyed. You don’t want to accept the fact that the problem is in your head and you should do something about it before it gets too serious. I don’t want you to be jumping in conclusions or anything but when you realise that you are trying to push everyone away for no good reason it might be a good time to go see a doctor.

It really happens like that. One day you realise that you want to be alone for no good reason and that you don’t feel that good even if you are alone. Most of the depressed people never realise that they are depressed, they just go about their miserable lives without really enjoying it. When you constantly feel like there is no tomorrow and are hopeless of the future, it might be agood time to consider some treatment. There are those people who are just pessimists and that is why you should not go and give diagnoses to your friends who seem like they are depressed, since in many cases you can’t tell what is going on. They could just be having too much of things to think about and  be stressed in that way, that does not mean they are in the need for some brain chemical altering medical treatment.

Another common symptom is the feel of guilt and that is what hit me. I realised that even though I was not doing anything wrong at work I felt like the bosses were about to fire me because I was a bad employee. Actually I am pretty good and one of the best at what I do there so there is no reason for them to give me the boot, but even so I constantly felt that I was doing something really wrong, or that they were just going to start blaming me for something outrageous and get me fired.

Usually you can get rid of depression by talking about it but it is a good idea to go see a doctor. I am probably going to talk about the treatments in another post.

It was not that long ago when it would be considered rare to own a cell phone and truly fast they have evolved in to something that can be found in everyones pockets. Not only the yound people but also the old people. These are people whoe were forced to use the phones to be easier to contact, since the relatives and parents want to know where they can find their loved ones and to be able to contact them. Also the cell phone plans have been going forward and that is why many people are changing their plans from the old ones that they got when speaking to a mobile phone was still expensive. There are still some holes where you can step when you are choosing for a new plan and I am sure that I have stepped in one of those. One time I got a new plan only to notice that I as bound to get a new cell phone also, and I was forced to hold that plan for two years and pay to $25/mo fee… I kept that but never used it.

If you want to avoind spending too much money then try the following. Before you are going to buy yourself a new cell phone make sure whether you want to get a prepaid one or just a traditional service. That way you can either choose wheter you pay your bills before you use the phone or by the amount that you use the phone. If you have a history of not being that great when it comes to controlling your phone bills I suggest getting a prepaid to manage your calls.

If you have a big family then there are family plans that can be bound so that the calls inside the family will be either free or less expensive. That way you can be calling your children or your parents free of charge, and not worrying about this necessary communication making your phone bill larger.

I have also heard of some plans that can make you gain bonuses while speaking. If you are speaking a lot then this might be something worth looking in to since you can buy stuff with your bonus points, and it would be great to have some extra stuff every now and then for free!

Don’t pick the first one that is offered to you, but with cell phones and cell phone plans do your research before making any decisions.

As you can see from the theme here, I am an Apple fanboy. I own an iMac, iPhone, two iPods and soon I will get a mac mini for my livingroom. Today I am going to write about the newly released Apple iPod just to get this blog started. I woke up this morning and saw an email on my iphone the very first thing I did when I shut the alarm down. As I came to read the mail my jaw dropped and I said “I have got to get me one of those”.

Not only had they took it to the next level, they also made a huge difference and still kept it the same size with a larger screen. No it has a built in video camera, an FM radio that you can simply push pause, and contiunue listening from the exact same spot again. This is not only great but for me it will be very good feature since I am constantly listening to the radio and getting interrupted. For everyone who have not yet heard about it, check out apple.com for more information.