Oddity Central

Oddity Central

Woman with Toilet Phobia Is Terrified She Will Be Swallowed Up When She Flushes

Posted: 19 Oct 2012 05:09 AM PDT


Can you imagine having to ask someone else to flush the toilet for you because you’re too terrified it will swallow you up? That’s exactly what 20-year-old Ney Decino, from Church Village, Wales, has to go through every day.

"The sound of the water sends shivers down my spine. It's awful. I swear it will swallow me up. Once I've flushed, the sound of it and the look of the water going down, it freaks me out,” Ney says. She has had an irrational fear of toilets ever since watching a scene in the 1990 film Look Who's Talking Too, starring John Travolta and Kirsty Alley. It showed an imaginary big-eyed, sharp-toothed character called Mr. Toilet Man, who screams it wants the child’s pee. I actually remember that scene, it freaked me out a bit as well, but I got over it pretty quickly. Ney, on the other hand, hasn’t, and she has had to deal with her phobia for most of her life. The young mother says she only goes to the toilet in public if it’s an absolute emergency, and always tries to find work close to home, so she can use the only toilet she feels safe on. And even there, she has problems flushing if she’s by herself. She will use a friend’s toilet if she has to, but only if they or a family member flush for her. Now, she’s trying to face her fear by setting up a Facebook group and getting in touch with other phobia-sufferers.

“Ever since I saw that film, I've been terrified. When I was about 11 I wet myself on my way home because I wouldn't use the loo at school. I was so embarrassed, I'd waited four hours but I just wouldn't use another toilet. I just wanted my mum to be there so she could flush it for me,” Ney remembers. She says the tension rises as soon as she walks into the bathroom, and builds up until she leaves. “I just flush and run. The sound of the water sends shivers down my spine.” The sound the toilet makes and looking at the water going down just freaks her out. She washes her hands in the kitchen because she can’t even bear being in the same room as the toilet cistern fills up. Cubicles in a row are a nightmare for the mother-of-one, and she never uses old-fashion pull-chain toilets, because the sound they make is just too much for her.

Ney Decino (Photo: Adam Gasson/HotSpot Media)

Believe it or not, Look Who's Talking Too was actually one of Ney Decino’s  favorite movies when she was growing up. Her parents videotaped it for her, and she watched it dozens of times, despite her fear. But it triggered her phobia, and from age 4 to 13 the fear of Mr. Toilet Man made her unable to flush unless there was someone in the bathroom with her. The problem caused some tension between Ney and her parents, because they got really frustrated with always having to flush for her. They always believed she would grow out of it, but she never has. In fact, it just got worse with time. Pregnancy only made the phobia worse, because she had to use the restroom more often, but now that she has her nine-month-old daughter Kaydee, it’s gotten considerably better, because she’s always with her when she needs to flush.

 

Now, she hopes the Facebook group she set up will make her life easier and help others with their own phobias.

Source: Mirror.co.uk

Woman with Toilet Phobia Is Terrified She Will Be Swallowed Up When She Flushes was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Illustrator Creates Incredibly Detailed Drawings Inside Matchbooks

Posted: 19 Oct 2012 03:50 AM PDT


Jason D’Aquino is an expert miniaturist who unleashes his talent on all kinds of recycled objects, from ledgers, leaflets, vintage calendars to small pieces of paper and even tiny matchbooks. And to make sure everyone understands just how skilled he is, the man doesn’t do some simple doodles, he recreates the Mona Lisa, vintage movie portraits and even portraits of icons like Marilyn Monroe.

Drawing the kind of stuff Jason D’Aquino does is hard enough on a large canvas, but he manages to do it on the inside of matchbooks. Using high-magnification goggles, like those used by jewelers, the artist sketches incredible artworks only a few inches in size, sometimes even under an inch. The self-declared miniaturist seems to love small surfaces and has always enjoyed the challenge of seeing how small he can draw. As a child, he was always fascinated with his mother’s artworks, and says he had a pencil in his hand since before he could walk. Although he remained faithful to the graphite pencil, his art got smaller and smaller as he grew older. At first it was just a matter of convenience, but soon shrinking his art became a challenge. At the rate he’s going, he probably going to need a microscope pretty soon.

In his matchbook miniature series, Jason takes inspiration from retro movie posters, the work of H. P. Lovercraft, as well as icons like icons such as Marilyn Monroe, Alfred Hitchcock and Eraserhead.

 

 

 

 

via This Is Colossal 

Illustrator Creates Incredibly Detailed Drawings Inside Matchbooks was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Guy Can Put Out Candles Three Meters Away with Energy Generated by His Punches

Posted: 19 Oct 2012 03:11 AM PDT


Zhang Feng, a 23-year-old man from Zhengzhou, China, has apparently mastered a unique kung-fu technique he calls “Shaolin Sunshine Hand”, which allows him to generate enough energy with his fists to put out candles up to three meters away. This you gotta see!

Remember those cheesy Chinese kung-fu films we all used to watch during the 80s and 90s? I used to love seeing kung-fu masters blowing stuff and enemies away with their punches, but I kind of always knew it was just theatrics. After looking at this video that recently went viral in China, showing a nerdy dude throwing punches at a row of 15 candles and extinguishing them with air or energy generated by his flying fists, I’m not so sure anymore. I know, you’re convinced it’s a fake, and you’re not the only one, but the guy actually invited a couple of reporters from the Zhengzhou Evening News newspaper into his home to try the feat themselves and then film him doing it. The two journalists gave it their best shot, but were only able to put out one of the 15 candles set 10 cm apart, and even blowing air didn’t kill all the flames. Zhang Feng, on the other hand, put them all out just by throwing punches. Needless to say the reporters were in awe and couldn’t explain how he did it. If they were in on the trick, shame on them, but maybe there is something to this uncanny Shaolin master.

Feng says he has been practicing the art of air punching for the last eight years, after doing some online research. He found that the form of “Shaolin Sunshine Hand” was the easiest one among the 72 Matchless Skills of Shaolin, so he started practicing it. At first, he only managed to put out candles just 3 cm away, but as time passed and his skills improved, he was able to extinguish a flame up to 3 meters away. But during these 8 years of training he used up more candles and lighters than he can remember, and at one point his family got so worried about his obsession that they forbade him from practicing. He continued to do it in secret, and although his family didn’t support his efforts, they stopped opposing him after a while, as long as he didn’t injure himself or set the house on fire.

He did sprain his joints multiple times, but he never gave up. He just waited until his arms were better and started punching air again. But it’s not all in the fists, the spectacled Chinese says. He does a series of qigong exercises in order to balance his chi before every attempt, and says breathing plays an important role, as well. I used Google Translate to get some info from the original article, but it wasn’t very clear. He says something about his lung capacity being limited and only being able to throw four punches in rapid succession. You can check it out for yourself, maybe you can get something more out of it.

Anyway, the video speaks for itself. You can watch the reporters try to put out the candles themselves or scroll to the final part where Zhang Feng extinguishes the 15 candles with his Shaolin Sunshine Hand, and then a single candle 3 meters away. One source says the reporters asked him to do his magic one more time, but his energy was spent, and he was only able to put out the first three candles. The Zhengzhou Evening News reports that after the first attempt, Zhang Feng was exhausted, drinking a whole bottle of water and sitting down on the sofa to rest. It seems this kung-fu stuff really takes it out of you.

 

I wonder what the old dude moving stuff with his chi energy thinks about this young Shaolin master’s powers? Maybe the two should get together and trade secrets.

Guy Can Put Out Candles Three Meters Away with Energy Generated by His Punches was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

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