How To Unshrink Clothes Using Vinegar? Don't do it!

Being a larger than average fella, I find it immensely frustrating when my t-shirts shrink in the wash and / or dryer. After some researching online I found various different videos and guides saying that I could un-shrink my clothes by;

1 - soaking them in distilled vinegar,

2 - putting them in sealed ziplock bags for 30 mins,

3 - washing them on hot (with laundry powder)

4 - and then tumble-drying them on hot.

The logic behind this was that the vinegar reacts with the glucose found in the cotton t-shirts, and when subjected to heat it expands, thus expanding and effectively un-shrinking the shirt.

I'm here to tell you from experience, don't do it! I'm afraid that despite the rather convincing videos and amateur articles out there, it's a hoax, and a load of quasi-scientific nonsense. I did this and just shrunk the bejesus out of my t-shirts even further, to my immense annoyance.

Spare yourself the expense, effort and nuisance of trying this method out, because it simply doesn't work.

I am now rewashing my t-shirts cold, and am just going to have to unstretch them the old-fashioned way - by letting them hang-dry.

A Fading Generation and How They Relate To Younger Adults

Older people from a slightly old-fashioned and conservative background in England, I have noticed, have not realised just how much adult culture has changed while they weren't paying attention.

In today's English society, it is profoundly inappropriate and offensive for any one adult to give a public 'dressing-down' to any other adult, regardless of whether one is in their seventies and the other is in their twenties. The idea that this sort of thing is appropriate is long out-of-date, and only adhered to by those without any real relationship with younger adult peers.

In just the last few weeks I received a loud, confrontational telling off from an older man in the street because he felt my car was parked too far on the curb of the road. I'm sorry to say the episode did not end peacefully. The truth is, his sudden (and rather obnoxious) headmaster-style telling off took me completely by surprise, and having had neither warning nor time to prepare for the onslaught, the older gentleman got a pretty offended reaction from me.

Some friends of mine very recently received the same treatment (although over a different issue) in a similarly public setting. They all felt just the same afterwards as I had done; shocked and outraged.

I'm not sure if it happens upon turning eighteen, but certainly from age twenty-one onwards, in today's society all adults are peers, and outside of the military or a high-powered business setting, we are all aware that we should be treated as such. The level of insult implied, and aggravation provoked by an older person taking it upon themselves to deliver a good old-fashioned telling off to a younger adult, is on a similar level to if they had randomly hit one of my infant children. It's so insulting that many younger adults such as myself find ourselves either retaliating with some considerable force, or absolutely resenting that person for a very long time afterwards. What back in the day might have been relatively acceptable behaviour from older folk has now become a recipe for inspiring serious ageism among the less grace-giving, and for causing un-necessary resentment and relational schism in any given community where it occurs.

The generational divide can be quite easily seen, certainly among Christians and church leaders; it is rare to find someone in their fifties who will loudly berate a fellow-adult in any setting whatsoever in the church. It is not so rare the older you look. 

Now as I approach turning thirty, I hope I can 'stay young' in my mindset. While I intend to age with dignity, and not spend my life trying to act like I'm still seventeen, I nevertheless want to keep my finger on the pulse of English culture, to have peers of all ages, and to know how to treat them in a way that inspires peace, rather than just venting a loud blustering rebuke onto them and destroying any hope of a resolution based on mutual good will.

Why does God allow suffering?

Ah, the age old question. That wonderful question which so many people have posed to me in a smug and triumphant tone, as if there is no possible answer I could give that would be satisfactory...

If the Christian God is all powerful, and all loving, how can he allow bad things to happen and suffering to occur in the world?

I'm going to have a go at answering this one.

I'm also going to have a go at giving what is an extremely complex theological answer in easily understood ordinary language. The answer will be 'what Christians believe', and therefore will reference the Bible as it's source and explanation.

The first part of the answer is to point out that the question is starting from a completely nonsensical place. The Bible does not teach that God is all-powerful in the way many people today understand it; it says that 'all things are possible with God', but also that it 'is not possible for Him to sin'. It says that 'nothing is impossible for God' but also that 'he cannot lie' and 'he cannot be unfaithful to himself'. God is capable of doing anything within goodness, but cannot do anything within evil. He is omnipotent within goodness, but powerless within evil.

No being anywhere can be capable of perfect good and absolute evil, because to be capable of one is to be incapable of the other. The two possibilities are mutually exclusive. It is a nonsense, like saying a cup of tea is also a rhinoceros, or a Christmas card is also a mathematical equation. The Bible says that God is both the most powerful being there is, and also incapable of evil. Therefore, Christians cannot believe that any creature capable of the full goodness of God and also the full evil of Satan exists. We must start from the point of being clear about God's omnipotence - he is only able to do good, and is not 'omnipotent' in the way people asking the question usually mean. No-one is omnipotent in the way they usually mean, because it is not possible logically for anyone to be. It's a nonsense concept.

The second part of the answer is to point out that, being only good, God cannot break the rules. There are rules of the universe, and when Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden sold all of us to the Serpent, they did so 'legally'. If God could have simply waved a magic wand and set things straight again, he probably would have done, but to do so would have been to break the rules, and he could not do wrong. God, being only capable of good, could not just undo that agreement. When the world and everything in it was sold to Satan, it became 'fallen' and polluted. The very fabric of nature contracted a strain of evil as it passed into his ownership, and so did all life forms which were formally under Adam's 'jurisdiction'. Everything in the earth became damaged and degraded in its DNA, though Adam, Eve and Satan entering into a binding contract. God could not just rip up the contract. Thus, despite God's original plan, thanks to Adam, Eve and the devil, we live in a broken and fallen world, which is not how it was ever intended to be by the Creator.

So, the answer to the question becomes a little clearer in the light of these two points. God does what he can, but cannot break the rules. Adam and Eve legally sold the world, and all of us to Satan, causing it and our race to become broken and fallen, and introducing pain and suffering into the equation. God cannot just step in and stop it all, because he is unable to. He cannot do wrong, and to rip up the contract which they formed with the devil (eating the fruit etc) would be wrong. So he doesn't allow suffering because he wants to, he allows it because he must.

Near the end of my degree

Its mid-February, and I'm back at Cliff College for the last short period before my graduation later this year. I can't believe I'm coming to the end of my degree at last / already!

For quite a while now I have been somewhat intentionally neglecting this blog, because for a while the majority of my creative writing energies have been going into writing books, translating modern paraphrases of old texts, and writing essays. However, I am at such a monumental crossroads bookmark moment of my life that I feel I would regret it if I didn't make an entry here.

I worked very hard this past three years to get a first, but it's looking more and more likely that I'll only get a 2:1. Ah well. At least I can say I gave it my absolute very best effort, but alas, even my very best efforts when combined with 2 very young infant children, and a pretty unwell wife mean that I'm probably not going to be the one to break the 6-year-long streak of no-one graduating with a first.

And I really have given it everything. After these 2 weeks I have another 6 weeks at home to complete and submit all my essays, and after that I am done. The amount of focus and effort I have put into this degree has really shown in how much I have neglected other areas, specifically fitness and any serious effort at a healthy body and physique. Which is a very diplomatic way of saying that I've become an even bigger fatter git than ever I was when I started.

The various stresses of life have meant that using food as a mood stabilizer has been more and more tempting, and the pressures have mounted and my moods have been in ever increasing need of stabilization. However, the light at the end of the tunnel is so close now, that I am getting excited for all this college pressure to be done and over with so that I can wake up in the morning without any pressure, anxiety or deadlines, with a clear and unburdened mind.

I can really feel the sleep debt and stress avalanche beginning to build up in me. It's a bit like when I lost Grandad; the feelings are very numbed, but I recognize that they are there nevertheless, squashed under the surface, producing their unpleasant fruit and obvious signs & symptoms. I am probably going to need a really good relaxed summer of little to no pressure or responsibility so I can really really relax and unwind, and get into a more mellow and peaceful groove of life, in which the mood swings are considerably less, and therefore the need (and yes it is a need) to use food as a stabilizer will be significantly reduced. In short, once I have rested and recovered, I am going to go to town on getting my body thin and in shape again.

Joel will have started attending day care 5 mornings a week by that time, Caleb will be crawling and or walking and hopefully sleeping through the night, Sydney will (please God) have her driving license and be able to have the independence she needs, and so with any luck all the stress and weary slog of balancing a marriage with a degree with work with parenthood with church with everything else will be reduced right down, meaning that the burden on me is so much lighter.

Every summer between each year of the degree it has been that way; as I have no lectures to attend, textbooks to read (and understand) or essays to write, I have found I can cope with going running again, I can cope with a stricter diet, and with so many more positive practices for a healthy and thin body. Because each summer has been this way, I have a lot of hope that when the degree is completely done, and not even a mild anxiety hovering on the edge of my thoughts, I will be massively freed up even more so than before, and though it will take time, I will get down to my goal (12 stone) and be proud of the way I look again.

signing out...

Jimlad