Saturday and Sunday

After several hours of lack of productivity or socialization, thanks to my Buffy Disorder, I broke the anti-social streak by attending a poker game with a buddy of mine. We played for 7 hours. The first round, featuring 10 players, was Texas Hold 'em, regular style, with limits. The rest of the evening was spent playing Tournament style Hold'em, with no limits. I came ahead 11 bucks during the first half, and ended up 5th place in the tournament. So overall, I was 9 bucks down. It was fun, however.

Today my friend patricks came over. We were supposed to have more gamers, but they were all lame. Lame! But no matter, we played Cybergladiators, a game designed by patricks, et al. There is much amusement to be had in this game, though the ultra-heavyweights are very powerful. We were able to temper that potency by covering the arena in mines. This meant that after every action that traversed distance, you had a 50% of hitting a mine. Once hit, you had to do damage, and then check for what direction how far you flew due to the blast. Then you got to check to see if you hit yet another mine. It's a real crowd pleaser, I guarantee it! It's a great game to get some folks together on, without a huge investment in your characer or time. :-)

Patrick also brought over a stuffed chicken breast...which I forgot to offer the leftovers to take home! It was acquired from Whole Foods, and stuffed with pine nuts, spinach and feta. It's delicious! I intended to give you the leftovers, Pat. I'm sorry. :(

Tonight I'm going to meet some friends for Ethiopian food at Addis Ababa, then to the Crest to see Touching the Void.

If you think you had a bad day, or a bad 5 days, you need to watch Touching the Void...now.

I the link in my previous entry will take you to a summary, but let's say your day started out like this:

First, you are a 25 year old mountaineer. You've already made a tremendous climb up a 21,500 mountain face. It was dangerous, stormy, cold. You're about to begin your descent. This should be the easier part of your mountaineering experience. Then..
-You slip and fall several feet, breaking your leg in a most painful way, jamming the bones in your calf (tibia?) up and splitting your femur.
-There is no help to be had, except in your partner. No radioing for help or a helicopter. One or both of you dying is highly likely.
-Your buddy tries to slowly lower you down the mountain face, but as you're being lowered, your leg is hitting all sorts of rocks. But hey, as long as you're feeling pain, you're alive.
-It's storming, you can't see, nor can your partner. Your partner can't see that he's lowered you over an overhang. you can't get slack in the line, so your partner doesn't know that you're still alive and well, or what. Your partner is getting frostbitten, lossing his ability to anchor and hold you up, and he can't go down further without risking the both of you falling down the mountain.
-So, he cuts the line. You fall about 100 feet into an icy crevass.
That's Day 1.
After that, you're still alive, precariously balanced on a little icy ledge in the crevass. You can't crawl up towards the light. You're pretty sure you're dead meet. Your partner assumes you're dead, but doesn't come looking for you. You're alone. All alone.

What do you do?

If you're this fella, he lowers himself down further into the crevass. He'll either hit bottom, or he'll fall, and death will be quick. Yay for death, kids!

He makes it out of the crevass, and crawls, falls, rolls, hops, scoots back to base camp in about 4 days. He fights of dehydration, hallucinates, soils himself, loses about 1/3 of his body weight in the process.

His climbing partner, riddled with grief and guilt, burned his buddy's clothes thinking he was dead, and viewing torching his partner's drawers as a good way of closure. Passing out intermittently, he was trying to reflect on his life and family, feeling certain he was going to die soon, when a song he hates gets stuck in his head. I heard the song too. It was very bad.

How did the unfortunate climber know he was getting closer to camp? He was crawling through the stinky water run-off area where they went to the bathroom at base camp. Yes, he was crawlng amongst his and his partner's shit and piss.

Interestingly enough, the climber started out on this trip a Catholic. He lost his faith in God during his 5 day crawl. Though he didn't mention it, I'm fairly sure he believed in hell.

So...how badly is your day going?

(no subject)

So, I'm relaxing, finishing up laundry, and having a spot of Peppermint Ginseng Tea. I'm listening to my beloved iPod. Life is relaxing.

I dined on some delicious Ethiopian food, combined with fantastic conversaton with some compatriots.

I assembled my blood pressure monitor.

First reading: 114/72
Second reading: 112/69

Well, that's a vast improvement over Thursday and Friday...maybe I don't have the cuff on tight enough.