Fan Death

It has been brought to my attention by a friend who is teaching English in Korea (hifire.blogspot.com) that Koreans believe that having a fan blowing on your face while you're sleeping will kill you. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death)

I was so excited to hear about this, because my mom had warned me to never let the fan constantly blow on my face at night. She was so afraid of the consequences, she wouldn't let my sister and I to use a fan at night. She eventually gave in and let us use one as long as it was oscillating. I thought my mom was nuts and made this all up, but now I'm glad to know she has a whole nutty country to keep her company. :P

I grew up with a lot of these urban legends and superstitions. Just to mention a few no-no's:

1. Photographs with 3 three people should not be taken
2. You should never measure you height while lying down.
3. The number 8 is lucky, even if you have to do some arithmetic to get the eight. For example, the number 179 could be considered lucky because 1+7+9=17 and since the digits of 17 add up to 8, 179 is lucky.
4. It is bad to have a house where there is straight path from the front door to the back door. I have family that have constructed walls just so this isn't true in their house. Sure, this may improve the chi of the house, but how is your personal chi going to be when you have to navigate through the maze just to get to the kitchen from the living room?

This last item belongs to a long list of beliefs commonly referred to as Feng Shui. Don't get me started.

Avocado + Heat = Bad Times

Inspired by a visit to California Kitchen Pizza, I thought I would try using some of the ingredients they use in their pizzas. I didn't have any Peking duck nor barbeque chicken handy, but I did have some avocados. I recall seeing a Nacho/Mexican pizza which consisted of avocados, salsa and sour cream on their menu. I didn't try it, but remembering a friend enjoying it.

I played it safe and only used avocado on half of the pizza. It was a good thing because this was my worst experiment ever. I think something happened to the avocado when you add heat to it, because it tasted terrible. It was like it sped up the ripening process. After spending 20 minutes at 425 F in the oven, the avocado went from slightly under ripe to ripe to overly ripe to so overly ripe it began rotting. It was the first time my own cooking almost made me vomit. I recommend not trying it.

Thinking back to CKP, they probably added the avocado, salsa and sour cream after the crust was in the oven. I might try it again when I am able to block the horrible experience from my memory.

A Spare A Gus

Recently, the topic of "asparagus urine" has leaked it's way into almost every circle of friends I have. So, I'd like to include everyone else on it. Well, the gist of it is when I eat asparagus, it makes my urine smell different within 10 minutes. I didn't think I was special, I thought everyone experienced this, especially after a reference was made to it in "Austin Powers - Goldmember". ... ... So funny.

Anyway, apparently I'm in the minority...only 40% of the population have the enzyme that breaks down asparagus to produce this odour. Furthermore, not everyone can detect this odour -- about 10% of the population can not detect the odour.

I bring this up because I think other things I eat are affecting the bouquet of my urine. I find I'm consistently reminded that I've eaten Cheerios earlier in the day when I go to the urinal. There have been accounts of people (my informal poll of my co-workers) experiencing the same thing with Sugar Crisps and coffee. Today, I noticed a hint of cucumber in my urine and sure enough there were a few slices of cucumber in my sandwich.

Is this all in my head? Or is there something wrong with my internals? And am I deteriorating into a human vegetable juicer?