3d illusion arts: Oddity Central

Oddity Central

Hygiene-Obsessed Woman Washed Her Hands 300 Times a Day
Anatomically-Correct Cake Shop Will Kill Your Appetite
Competitive Horseless Horse Jumping Is Just What the Name Suggests

Hygiene-Obsessed Woman Washed Her Hands 300 Times a Day

Posted: 11 Oct 2012 03:21 AM PDT

40-year-old Julia Abdullah, from Malaysia, was obsessed with her self-cleaning rituals. Her bizarre behavior started 20 years ago, but it gradually got worse to the point where she was washing her hands up to 300 times a day, spending 5 hours in the shower and shampooing her hair 25 times per day.

Julia first noticed something was amiss two decades ago. She was working as a laboratory technician, and often handled urine and stool culture samples, as well as blood samples for HIV tests. She started spending increasingly more time on washing her hands, for fear of contamination, and although she suspected she had developed OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), she didn’t seek help. ”I thought I could will myself off the washing,” Julia remembers, but her condition only got worse. She eventually lost her job as her obsession caused her to be constantly late for work, and needed to find other ways to pay her rapidly increasing house utility bills. At one point the woman became so desperate that she started scavenging through her neighbors’ trash looking for stuff she could sell. In a short period of time she amassed a collection of junk that occupied the two-room flat she shared with her mom. The hoarding got so bad that her mother had to sleep at the stairwell as there was no ventilation or natural light in the flat. ”It finally got too much for me to bear. I got so angry that I stopped bathing for three months,” Ms Julia told the Malaysia Chronicle, but her obsessive-washing habits were hardly cured.

“I called the Singapore Association for Mental Health (SAMH) hotline in 2009. I was almost driven to the point of suicide,” Julia Abdullah says, and they helped her get life back on track. Only her condition worsened a year later, after she missed some of her treatment appointments. She was again going through two bottles of shampoo and 21 bars of soap per day. She was so exhausted that she didn’t have the time or energy for anything else. Luckily, her SAMH counsellors intervened and admitted her to the Institute of Mental Health,for 22 days. Now Julia Abdullah says she has regained control of her life, but agreed to tell of her struggle in a photography exhibition called Picture My World, which is organised by IMH to raise awareness of mental illness, as part of its World Mental Health Day activities.

Hygiene-Obsessed Woman Washed Her Hands 300 Times a Day was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Anatomically-Correct Cake Shop Will Kill Your Appetite

Posted: 11 Oct 2012 02:29 AM PDT

You hungry but there’s nothing in the fridge to munch on? Don’t freak out, just take a look at the “treats” offered by this anatomically-correct cake shop and you’ll probably lose your appetite for a while.

Miss Cakehead, the creative director who previously brought us the decadent Bloody Human Heart cupcakes and the Human Meat Shop, has now found a new way to shock her fans – an anatomically-correct cake shop featuring all kinds of sick treats, from STD cupcakes and infected toenail cookies to carbuncle bars that will put your stomach to the test. She’s basically inviting bakers to come up with the most gruesome treats they can and showcasing them in various locations across the UK, as well as online on her Eat Your Heart Out blog. The Evil Cake Shop is described as “a the place that allows your imagination to plumb the depths of deviance and soar to the highest ecstasies of bad-taste and good-flavor.”

Talking about the stomach-turning STD cupcakes currently on sale at St Bartholomew's Hospital Pathology Museum, in London, Miss Cakehead told Metro that The STD cakes have really been quite powerful in teaching people something. We've had people say it's the first time they have thought about the risks of getting a disease.” Another mind-blowing creation featured at her bizarre cake shop is the lung cancer cookie collection, which features edible cigarette butts and ash. For more gruesome deliciousness head over to Eat Your Heart Out 2012, just make sure you do it’s on an empty stomach.

Photos via Eat Your Heart Out 2012

Anatomically-Correct Cake Shop Will Kill Your Appetite was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Competitive Horseless Horse Jumping Is Just What the Name Suggests

Posted: 11 Oct 2012 01:32 AM PDT

It’s run just like a regular horse jumping show, only in horseless horse jumping it’s the humans who have to make it through the obstacle course without knocking down too many hurdles.

If you’ve always dreamed of imitating a 1,000-pound horse in front of a live audience, there’s no better way to do it than signing up for a horseless horse jumping event. As wacky as it sounds, this kind of show is becoming increasingly popular, with numerous equestrian contests featuring the event on their schedule. Around 20 horseless shows are organized every year in Europe, Central America, USA and Canada, with the number of contestants ranging from 40 to 130. Some of the participants have been training for this kind of contests since early childhood, using a broom as a horse and jumping over sticks in an improvised course, and I guess they never got over it. Others are just looking to have some fun, and everyone of them agrees it’s a very pleasant activity to take part in. Impersonating a show jumping course is for a good cause, as JustWorld International, the nonprofit organization who stages these events, donates all the proceeds to fund projects for poor children around the world.

Photo: Starting Gate

Phil Rozon, a Canadian jumper judge, who also officiates at horseless jumping events says contestants are judged just like horses. The fastest time around the obstacle course wins, but penalties are incurred for each knocked-down hurdle, and factors like placing according to speed are also taken into consideration. Just like in real horse jumping contests ribbons are awarded through at least sixth place. Participants range from as young as 3-year-old to grownups, but the most competitive jumpers are aged 9 and 15. Some of them actually train for the event, and to have more chances of winning and add a touch of authenticity to the spectacle they even wear horse boots.

Photo: Starting Gate

Asked why she thinks so many people take part in horseless horse jumping events every time they’re organized, JustWorld International founder, former elite show jumper Jessica Newman, said “It’s just fun to be a horse”.