Saturday, June 25, 2005

Scrambled Bains, Anyone?

I just wanted to share this weird recipe I'm not sure if I can even eat this it's kinda gross, I think. These are not my words from the writer on the link below. Here you go.


Scrambled Brains


When I was growing up I spent a lot of time at my grandparents' house. I remember that very often on Sunday mornings and occasionally for dinner, my grandmother would fix an appetizing dish consisting of scrambled eggs and calves brains. Now, this I was told is a delicacy, who made this so I can't imagine. I can remember that the brains were mixed into the eggs and were rather hard to distinguish, except for the paler color. While I suppose it wasn't horrible, for a child it was a rather traumatic experience being expected to eat this stuff. On the other hand, another regular dish at grandma's was something called blood sausage, which is indeed made of pigs blood, barley, and spices and when cooked is a black looking sausage. To this day it is one of my favorite things, but for some reason, it's very hard to find. Hmm.


What's cooking? My outrageous recipe of the month is Scrambled Brains taken from Gook Book 0. for more outrageous recipes visit www.lavamind.com/food.html



Friday, June 24, 2005

Blackout

I got totally pissed last night. After the rain poured heavily, a blackout occurred thrice while I was in the middle of something on my computer and later while I was watching TV. Each blackout lasted for approximately 3 minutes only but imagine how annoying it is not being able to finish what you're doing due to continuous interruptions. Blackouts in this town usually last for many hours especially when it's raining really bad. What's worst is that the water supply here gets cut off too since it's dependent on electricity.





After these blackouts, I thought everything will be okay until our cable signal just went off the air too possibly due to heavy rains as well. I waited patiently for the signal to come back but it took a while the dead air's killing me already I thought maybe something's wrong with either the TV or the cable wire I tried a little troubleshooting  out of curiosity I inserted the tip of a ballpen through the small hole beside the volume button of the TV. After 20 minutes, the cable signal came on. I'm not sure if I was able to fix something or it was just coincidence that made it work. A couple of hours had passed I think around 2AM the cable went off again while I was in the middle of watching a movie. I'm wanting to stab the TV out of frustration good thing it fixed itself and it was just rather quick.


What have I done to deserve this?


Saturday, June 18, 2005

Be Safe Than Sorry

I thought about this e-mail that was forwarded to me. It made me extra cautious about food handling because I noticed these days that food poisoning is getting rampant. I'd like to share this not to scare but to inform and warn people about the reality that this incident can happen to anyone. Life is precious, it shouldn't be put to waste.



A stock clerk was sent to clean up a storeroom in Maui, Hawaii. When he got back, he was complaining that the storeroom was really filthy and that he had noticed dried mouse or rat droppings in some areas. A couple of days later, he started to feel like he was coming down with stomach flu, complained of sore joints and headaches and began to vomit. He went to bed and never really got up again. Within two days he was severely ill and weak. His blood sugar count was down to 66 and his face and eyeballs were yellow. He was rushed to the emergency at Pali-Momi, where he was diagnosed to be suffering from massive organ failure. He died shortly before midnight. No one would have made the connection between his job and his death, had it not been for a doctor who specifically asked if he had been in a warehouse or exposed to dried rat or mouse droppings at any time. They said there is a virus (much like the Hanta virus) that lives in dried rat and mouse droppings. Once dried, these droppings are like dust and can easily be breathed in or ingested if a person does not wear protective gear or fails to wash face and hands thoroughly.


An autopsy was performed on the clerk to verify the doctor's suspicions. This is why it is extremely important to ALWAYS carefully rinse off the tops of canned sodas or foods and to wipe off pasta packaging, cereal boxes and so on. Almost everything you buy in a supermarket was stored in a warehouse at one time or another and stores themselves often have rodents. Most of us remember to wash vegetables and fruits but never think of boxes and cans. The ugly truth is, even the most modern, upper class, superstore have rats and mice. And their warehouse most assuredly does! Whenever you buy any canned soft drink, please make sure that you wash the top with running water and soap or, if that is not available, drink with a straw. The investigation of soda cans by the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta discovered that the tops of soda cans can be encrusted with dried rat's urine, which is so toxic it can be lethal. Canned drinks and other foodstuff are stored in warehouses and containers that are usually infested with rodents, and then they get transported to retail outlets without being properly cleaned.



Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Mummified : Egyptian Mummification

The truth on the mysterious death of one of ancient Egypt's great rulers King Tutankhamen was unraveled on National Geographic's feature presentation on "Pharaoh's Week" last Sunday. They presented overwhelming facts that led to the true cause of Tutankhamen's death. He died of infection due to an open fractured wound on his knee however, scientists also gave convincing evidence on speculations that he was either murdered or he fell off his chariot on his way to a battle that caused his untimely death.


It was also clarified the myth regarding the curse that whoever dares touch his corpse will die. Truth is that there is really a curse, a biological curse. Logical thinking no matter how Egyptians think that mummification is a sanitary way of embalming their dead, there are still risks involved. Exposure to biological hazards surrounding those tombs can cause serious health problems.


I've always been fascinated with Egyptian's art and culture particularly their practice of mummification. Back in school, I did a baby thesis about mummification for one of my English minor subjects.


The process of embalming the dead is a painstaking task. It's not just removing the vital organs, drying the body, wrapping it then putting it in a casket afterward. Egyptians mummify their dead because they believe that there were six important aspects that made up a human being: the physical body, shadow, name, ka (spirit), ba (personality), and the akh (immortality). Each one of these elements played an important role in the well being of an individual. Each was necessary to achieve rebirth into the afterlife.


Mummification involves careful preparation of the body because an intact body was an integral part of a person's afterlife. Without a physical body, there was no shadow, no name, no ka, ba, or akh. By mummification, the Egyptians believed they were assuring themselves a successful rebirth into the afterlife. That study gave me so much respect for the Egyptians philosophy towards death and their remarkable way of preserving the human body.


http://www.geocities.com/isis_artemis_0/ancientegyptmummy.htm
(Pictures of Mummies, Funerary Carvings, and Reliefs)

http://members.aol.com/egyptart/mummy.html
An Egyptian Mummification



Back at It: A Long Overdue Update

It's been three months since I last sat down to write, and I've missed this more than I can express. Life has a way of throwing unex...