I'm really not a fan of euphemisms. I mean hundreds of different names for penis are all well and good, and generally hilarious. That's just being inventive. It's the way people attempt to soften the blow or make people feel better about themselves in that bullshit PC way. That's what shits me to tears.

"Differently-abled" for instance. Differently how? I can walk, they can't. It's not different, its clearly dis. It's a lack of. It's not like I'm not some how disabled from their perspective. They haven't traded in their spinal column for some physical bonus that I don't have. They can't move objects with their minds, or fly, or even see through walls. This isn't the movies, this is real life, and its not fair. Being wheel chair bound has given them no supernatural abilities at all (apologises to Steven Hawking).

In fact, in reality they're just being an inconvenience to the rest of us. Besides getting the best car parks (and those parks always being empty - except when I'm in them), they've also some how managed to get every building built to suit themselves. We wouldn't want them to have to stretch slightly to turn on a light, no, definitely not. So now any new office block, home or whatever that's built now has every door handle, light switch, hell even toilet seat low enough so that someone in a wheel chair can use them effortlessly. That annoying half-crouch you have to do to open a door? Nope, the builder wasn't drunk or freakishly short, its built that way so someone in a wheel chair is not inconvenienced by it. (This is actually true, though the builder might also have been drunk or freakishly short.)

So in summary, the only physical advantage a disabled person (sorry, differently-abled person) has is that shit has been built for them. So next time someone falls out of a wheel chair and you are the only one around, on't help them, because that'd be a real inconvenience for you.

Another term that really annoys me is "partner". It's annoying because its deliberately ambiguous. It could mean wife, husband, boyfriend, girlfriend, fiancee, your business partner or hell even the person you copy labs notes for in Clinical Physiology pracs (although secretly want to bone). The thing is, whenever someone I've just met mentions "my partner" without further clarification, I always, at least initially, think they mean in the gay way. The very second they say the word, my mind goes "Ohhh....", not that I'm prejudiced or anything, but it's generally not what they meant. So, why is the word used all the time? I get that spouse and fiancee are stupid, and presumably and not-inconsequentially French, words. I wouldn't use them either, but what is so bad with wife or girlfriend or whatever. If they aren't gay, then I can only presume they are trying to avoid terms which might offend people who can't as yet get married. If they are gay then I'm probably going to work it out when they eventually mention their partner's name, unless of course its Chris, and then I'm going to be left to make a very risky judgement call based on the length of their hair and/or the angle of their wrists. And likely, I'll be very wrong.

On the subject of politically incorrect, onto cars with a ridiculous carbon-footprint.

I ordered an eBay radiator for the Skyline during the week, and it arrived on Friday, although with some confusion, as it went to my parents place. Removing the old radiator was actually more annoying than I thought it would be. On the engine side the radiator was rather convex, which meant it fouled on the engine fan, the engine fan also fouled on the radiator shroud, and the radiator shroud fouled on both and everything else in the engine bay. The other problem was that on the other side the A/C radiator was also bent out of shape. In fact was the thing that copped the majority of the impact of the IC piping. I managed to get the radiator shroud off in one piece, and the engine fan was easy enough to get clear. The radiator followed and actually looked surprisingly intact, except for the shape. In fact the only point of failure I could find was the stud part on the bottom end tank which copped the impact. Presumably all the coolant poured out from that point.

The next step was to get remove the A/C radiator. Suprisingly, despite coping a harder hit on the night of the drift practise than even Boxhead did, it still held gas. Obviously the radiator was ruined, and I wasn't going to replace it, but this meant I had to vent the A/C gas. I didn't bother to check what gas it was, so I'm not sure if it was a CFC or what, but regardless its in the atmosphere now. Sorry, Greenpeace. Again.

I threw the new radiator in, which fit as well as you'd expect it to having being welded by Chinese who've never even seen an R32. As I thought the radiator cross member wasn't noticeably bent (this was the first time I'd looked at it since I parked it weeks ago), though the intercooler pipes weren't so lucky.

Next up I had to fit a fan of some sort, the original engine fan was minced on one of the blades, but it was never going to fit with the thicker radiator anyway. I already had a thermofan knocking about, so I attached it to the original radiator shroud and gave it a test fit. The shroud itself fouled on everything it could and I had to hack away the entire section near the power-steering pumps and lines. After that it fitted ok, although clearances are incredibly tight.

A few fiddly things remained, the top radiator hose was too long for the wider radiator, so that had to be cut down to fit. I also needed to grind down the coolant drain plug as it was right up against the power-steering lines. Other, than that it was just a matter of filling the car with fluid and turning the key.

Only problem was the battery was dead flat, naturally.

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