Holy cow, this is awful. This is the worst climing season on Everest since 1996 (that's the year Into Thin Air was written).

Eleven people have died so far, and not because of the weather: [link]

Yeah, yesterday I saw an article about that, along with a photo showing a huge line of people climbing to the summit.

After 1996, I saw an interview with Alex Lowe, who was one of the premiere mountaineers in the world, and he basically said that it was irresponsible to be a commercial guide above 8,000 meters. The conditions were too unpredictable and hazardous, and anyone climbing should be required to have developed the skills and experience to protect their own lives. You end up with guides risking the lives of their clients and themselves in order to provide "the experience", which is exactly what happened in 1996.

Lowe died some years later, in an avalanche in Nepal.

Yeah, it's kind of amazing that the 1996 season changed nothing. (I was thrown out of a Quickie Mart in 1996 when I picked up the Outside magazine with the article that became Into Thin Air and stood there reading it for, like, 2 hours.)

Mom, Dad, I Have Something To Tell You. I'm Black.

Is it harder to be black or to be gay? Wanda Sykes has an opinion on that.

Oh, here's that picture of all the climbers on Everest: [link]

The God of Mischief is a good name for a cocktail.

Oh, and there was a climber who was determined to bring his bicycle to the summit. (He wasn't allowed to.)

I actually like to think of Iron Man as somewhere between a tequila sunrise and a dusty nail, and it amuses me highly.

Climbing Everest will probably be a challenge that bests me, but it does look like it's losing its cachet in more ways than one--I mean, the fact that you can "just" pay someone to take you has to start to mean that paying someone to take you doesn't mean as much...but evidently I'm not used to the psychology of buying myself achievements.

I see there's an ad saying "check this website out if you live a 'maybe life'--if you have more than 15 migraine days per month". It both makes me want to cry and smash the television. I recently read some posts on a migraine forum and it was simultaneously many conflicting things, but I now know for sure that I'm petty enough to resent people not named me who are cured of chronic attacks. I'm sure if I knew them, I could be happy, but just as random non-ita !s. I'm bitter as all fuck.

I'm kind of bitter on your behalf.