Ten Things Meme

[erikred]

I'll credit this one to narwhale, because even though she wasn't the first, she was the one who tipped the scales.

Ten things that I have done that people on my friends list probably have not.

1. Bungie-jumped in Thailand.
2. Canoed down the Shimanto River.
3. Climbed Mt. Fuji.
4. Chased away gypsies in Florence.
5. Hiked fifty miles, half of them with coral poisoning.
6. Mock-fought the entire student body of Xiamen University at midnight on New Year's Eve.
7. Rescued a man from an overturned truck that had kerosene tanks in the back.
8. Led sixty people in the Hokey Pokey.
9. Built eleven fully operational and online computer labs at eleven Recreation Centers throughout Oakland.
10. Entered a holy mountain shrine through the Torii gateway and neglected to exit the same way.

Comments

[narwhale.livejournal.com]

How'd you manage to get coral poisoning?

[erikred.livejournal.com]

It was when I was around 14. We were hiking around the northern tip of Okinawa, and we took a detour to check out the reef. I was running to catch up with the other folks, and I tripped and skinned both of my knees on a large outcropping of coral. The scoutmaster, well-meaning soul, poured iodine on the wounds to clean them out; turns out coral thrives on iodine. By the time we reached the extraction point, I was somewhat feverish and out of it.

The irony was that my parents headed out to Korea the next day, leaving me with the scoutmaster and his family. The coral poisoning went into overdrive immediately after they left, leaving the poor scoutmaster and his wife to take care of me as I ran a huge fever, got huge red streaks down the insides of my arms, became somewhat delusional, and couldn't eat anything but liquids for the better part of a week.

The lesson here, kids? No iodine on coral wounds!

Coral

[0rion.livejournal.com]

You use vinegar to kill the coral. I used to have to do this quite a bit in Guam while either swimming or snorkeling or diving. It HURTS when you pour it on because it's the coral in its death throes, but it's FAR better than the coral continuing to live and grow inside your body....