Andy's Man Club Opens in Manchester TONIGHT

Mental health is still a taboo issue in the UK today. Depression and other conditions are still rarely discussed outside GP / specialist surgeries, although they affect 1 in 4 of us in the UK. Suicide is the leading cause of men under 50, yet most of us are reluctant to open up about this. Men's support group Andy's Man Club is fighting to change that, and through encouraging talking, is helping to save lives.

After spreading across Yorkshire and into Oldham over the last few years, Andy's Man Club now opens in the heart of Manchester City Centre tonight.

At 7pm the first Manchester group will begin their weekly sessions in Federation House. You can find it down the side of the Printworks, near the Pilcrow. I'll be there, along with a handful of people from the Oldham group. There'll be plenty of newcomers too, so we're expecting mix of experienced and fresh attendees. If you're male, over the age of 18 and feel it would help, you'll be welcomed to drop in tonight.

The group runs on a simple structure nationwide, so no matter what group you attend, the same questions and time structure will apply. Some of the questions change each week, but round 1: 'how's your week been?' and round 3: 'do you have anything to get off your chest' will remain the same every week.

Sunday daytime: If you're quick, you might get a place on a game of Exit the Room, featuring 'games where you will develop and explore new ways of using your brain, explore hidden capabilities, and meet new challenges as they arise during our real-life escape games.' Mental health support group Talk About It Mate has organised the event, and has been prepaid through a voucher. There's one more space. We're meeting at 11am in Piccadilly Gardens.

Aliens vs Predator: Deadliest of the Species

I twice read Aliens Vs Predator: Deadliest of the Species this week. It's a huge, weighty graphic novel in which the remaining humans have escaped the now alien-infested Earth to live in giant skyliners hosting entire cities, floating above the planet's surface.

On one of these skyliners is trophy wife Caryn, whose nightmares are causing great concern for her conglomerate husband. On the arrival of a bunch of intergalactic trophy hunters, she realises these nightmares are closer to reality than she thought. Siding with the hunters, she has no choice but to fight the scourge of the universe- the xenomorphic aliens- along with her tribal hunter friends- if they can be called that.

For a graphic novel, this was weirdly highbrow. I don't know whether I'm just not as smart as the average comic fan, but I found this harder to follow than the original AVP release. What was real? What was a dream? Why do people turn into other people? The book was not only heavy in the sense that it was twice as thick as its two predecessors- AVP and AVP: War- it was a cerebral challenge too. Does the average comic fan know the definitions of words like occlusion, vaunted, amanuensis, patella, progeny, ingress, primo, alecto, maegaera, tisiphone, chattel (I've since come across this word this week) 'didi mau' (Vietnamese for 'go, go quickly,' something American GIs brought back from Vietnam), mondo (perhaps Italian for 'cool', or 'extreme') and sophistry? I know I didn't. I had the Dictionary.com app open the whole time I was reading Deadliest of the Species.

But yeah, it had a load of humans, aliens and predators beating the crap out of each other, and that's what we read AVP stuff for, right?

Still, there were a few contentious issues: Why was the predator alert system in English? Why would an alien born by a chestbursted predator have more diluted acid blood than an alien born by a chestbursted human? The soldier who is sprayed suggests it doesn't bun as much as usual, but then in addition there's no mention of him being sprayed with alien blood before. Also, how could a character use the predator-tech invisibility shield to sneak up on... another predator? Don't they use heat vision? Come on.

Great fun but the hardest graphic novel I've read by a long way. I got it discounted and second hand at Manchester Comic Fair, taking place again this coming Saturday at Sachas hotel in the Northern Quarter.

How to be Human: Review

A month ago I went to TV presenter Ruby Wax's book signing. How to be Human: The Manual was written in conjunction with Ashish Ranpura, a neuroscientist, and Gelong Thubten, a Buddhist monk.

I recently finished the book. It's a light-hearted look into humankind: our behaviours, attitudes, quirks and drives. Although an interesting read, I found I had a lot of problems with it. The book's opening chapters describe our anthropological roots- how our caveman ancestors' behaviours wouldn't have been that different to ours today, and how their small, close-knit communities instilled in us a fear of being outcast. All of this is described as if profound, but there's a lot already written about this out there.

She then moves on to present day mental health conditions, and how these issues are formed. Despite writing this with the help of a capable neurologist, she still touts the now-debunked left-brain / right-brain theory, suggesting one side works with emotion, the other with critical thinking.

Along with this, she touts the dubious 'higher power' reference in addiction groups- the idea that we ask God or some other entity to 'remove defects of character.' I have some small experience of attending addiction groups, and some experience of being a neuropsychology patient. Take it from me, putting religion into treatment for a neurological condition will only cause more harm. Science won't. (That's why I'd personally advise people to avoid the Anonymous groups.)

Ms Wax is also guilty of using the phrase 'commit suicide.' It's generally accepted that we should change the language to say 'died by suicide.' People who take their own lives should not be viewed as criminals, but people who didn't get the help that they drastically needed, and a mental health advocate like Ms Wax should have known better.

One of the more interesting parts of the book is about 'mindfulness,' a buzzword at the moment, and a form of meditation. A few people have encouraged me to give it a shot. Ms Wax describes, though, 'when I slip into the depths of depression, it would be cruel to do any kind of therapy, let alone mindfulness... If you could tune into your mind in the depths of depression, you'd most likely hear the voices of hell, because that is a symptom of the disease.'

What concerns me is that a number of professionals and relatives have tried to push mindfulness on me, and when I gave it a shot I had this exact problem. I overthink. And I don't need more of that. Given all of this... Why didn't the neuroscientist Ash proof read this and make those corrections?!

How to be Human is an interesting but somewhat misleading read. Approach with caution.

Come and try some cocktails in The Ivy

Spinningfields restaurant The Ivy has recently reopened after a fire damaged part of the Byrom Street building. I dropped in a while ago, before the fire, and knew it would be a great place for a Manchester Cool Bars meetup. We're going on Saturday night! There are 6 of us so far, and The Ivy has said that we don't need a reservation for cocktails. So I haven't put a limit on RSVPs. Still, we're starting in The Alchemist just in case there's any problem getting in.

Away from the bar scene, Twitter has dealt a blow to third party programs like Statusbrew, making it harder than ever to find out who unfollowed you. These sites are largely used to mass follow-unfollow, which is an annoying spammy habit some accounts indulge in. I use it to unfollow those who aren't following back, aren't currently tweeting or don't have many followers. I do it, admittedly, to keep my following number below my followers number. To wean out those exact accounts with the spammy behaviour.

This will now be substantially more difficult. 

Matt, that won't be possible.

People would eventually find ways to abuse our platform & spam Twitter by aggressively following/unfollowing people natively.

We no longer want to be responsible for any spam, directly or indirectly!

I'm sure you'll understand.

- @easyamol

— Statusbrew (@Statusbrew) February 18, 2019

 
Cheers, Twitter. If anyone knows of any sites still operational that perform a similar function, let me know.

A return to clean living

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Me and John O'Reilley, the 19 Crimes guy. #australia #wine

A post shared by Matt Tuckey (@matttuckey) on Feb 16, 2019 at 5:02am PST

We're now way into February and Dry January, or the idea of it at least, a distant memory. I'm late to the party, but as of today, I'm going to live a little cleaner.

I'm cutting out what little alcohol I drink, and more importantly, cutting out chocolate. Doing away with desserts. Pieing the apple pies. Jacking in the flapjack. You get the impression. The plan? Fit back into some suit trousers, beat a few gym records, and hopefully get down to 77kg. (I'm currently at a horrendous 86.1.) To do this, I'll make lots of veg soup, eat mountains of chicken stir fry and plenty of sweet potato fries.

A few records to beat:

Horizontal Dumbbell fly: 2x38kg

Running at 14km/ph: 4 mins 30

Chest press: 103.75 kg

Wide grip chin-ups: 15

Cross train 10 mins: .69km

Dips: 75

10 minute cycle without backrest: 3.55km

As well as hitting the gym I'm going to do some weights at home and get through my Netflix watch list.

Valentines is the best time to be single.

Valentines Day is on Thursday this week- some say nothing more than money-spinning charade, others the most romantic day of the year. I say, if the couples are in the restaurants and 'staying in' (no need for further descriptions needed there), then that leaves the bars and clubs largely... full of single people.

Well, no matter what, we might as well go do cocktails somewhere. That's why Manchester Cool Bars are going to Albert's Schloss on Thursday night. It's the most likely place to be busy, it'll have a roaring fire, a live band and a load of drinks offers. Their weekly 'North by North Wurst' event claims to offer 'live music, beir and sausage...' Their words, not mine. Meet me in there from 8 onwards!

On Friday night Manchester Cool Bars are out again, this time around the Northern Quarter. We're starting in Daisy, a hidden cocktail bar underneath Evelyn's on Tib Street. Who knows where we'll end up but there are plenty of new trendy places that are easy on the wallet and fun to visit.

On Saturday night Young Professionals in Manchester are out on the town. Their 'Anti-Valentines night' has the same vibe as mine: balls to Valentines, let's just go out, drink and 'have fun in our glorious city, meeting new people.' A damned good idea if you ask me. They're a few steps ahead, with 99 people so far on the RSVP list. They've got a section of Dive Bar in the Northern Quarter cordoned off for the meetup, so come and meet us from 9pm onwards.

Power is a State of Mind offers no guarantee of coitus.

Power is a State of Mind is now listed on Gorkana!

Gorkana, the publication database from Cision UK, details many magazines and blogs that are currently looking for writing to feature. I've recently done some work experience where I learned about Gorkana, and decided I'd throw my blog in as a punt. It's been accepted! Hopefully now people may send me some guest writing about psychology or Manchester events.

This week I read The Batman Judge Dredd Collection, a graphic novel I found at Golden Orbit's Comic Fair in Sacha's a while back. Rather than one story, it's a collection of escapades made possible by a 'dimension belt' that transports Batman from Gotham to Megacity One. Yeah, it's far-fetched, but if you're going to put the two characters together, whose respective towns are so different to each others (not to mention in different time periods) then the scriptwriters have to pull out the stops. It's a little corny, but it's entertaining, generously weighty and beautifully illustrated, with various artists chipping in. The cover doesn't do it justice. The narrative gets a little strained in that, with any comic strip being a series of images, certain things have to be written out as an explanation. A great find.