Category: Opinion

Remove Easy Digital Download Stripe Fees

2023.09.27

Sometime around the update to version ~2.10.0, Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) started collecting a percentage of sales off the top of its American users’ sales using Stripe Connect. This was initially 2% sometime around early 2019, but increased to 3% in September 2023, presumably to help keep EDD+Stripe connection under active development. I don’t think they should charge repository plugin version users, especially when they have clearly not come through on providing a safe and quick connection with Stripe like was advertised. Even if they did come through, it’s just… everything everyone hates about the worst of WordPress. Ick. As of Easy Digital Downloads version 3.6.0, EDD was still using the Stripe API version 2020-03-02, and only updated to version 2022-11-15 in version 3.6.3, December 23 2025. […]

My Days with Pilgrim Skywheel

2021.04.27

Hiking, Opinion, Pacific Crest Trail

In 2014 I spent four months traveling with Pilgrim Skywheel, AKA Gus, AKA Josh H. We traveled in my Vanagon and went on some death marches, including a SOBO up San Jacinto in 100º weather, and a loop in the Sierra where we ran out of food. He is in fact "unpredictable," but I hope we can re-frame how we treat people in the hiking community. All people.

My Gatekeeping, Continued

2020.03.04

Hayduke, Opinion

So as to not seem like I’ve got my head completely up my ass, I’m going to address a blog post shared with me by a climber friend of mine. She, blessed with nice melanin, mentioned it with a hard wink as if to say… “consider it carefully, Caroline.” I’m trying. In June 2018, the Center for Outdoor Ethics issued its first guidance on social media by urging people to “avoid tagging (or geotagging) specific locations. Instead, tag a general location such as a state or region, if any at all.” We disagree. We invite all public land owners to experience and fall in love with local, state and national parks, national forests and wilderness areas—and here’s why you should too. We don’t care whether you are […]

Figure it Out: a Hayduke Flop

2019.12.07

Hayduke, Hiking, Opinion

The other day I noticed someone crowd-funded a movie about the Hayduke Trail. (Reading what I just wrote made me puke in my mouth.) Actually, it’s worse. let me rephrase that: someone crowd-funded a movie about his hike of the Hayduke Trail. I suffered through the movie, then I wrote my thoughts in a 1-star review:

Hayduke Regrets

2019.11.02

Hayduke, Hiking, Opinion

TLDR I have removed public access to my Hayduke maps because I’m done making it easier for people to enjoy exploitative hikes of that Trail.

Nature : Museum

2019.10.01

Hiking, Opinion, Pacific Crest Trail

Discussing my latest backpacking trip with my guy, I came up with an analogy which I like very much, and which seems original and enlightening. I compared modern wilderness visits with museum visits of the recent past (pre-2010). My first memories of museums were of the Anchorage Museum as a young teen, then the Louvre and Musée D’Orsay, and the Met in NYC and Mutter Museum in Philly as an older teen. Even if relatively brief, I treasure those visits for several reasons. Be they small or petty reasons it doesn’t matter, the memories are large as a very deep breath. Memories of carefully-curated open space and light, surprises of color and subtle hushed sounds. Photos were disallowed and so I would stare without blinking in an […]

Dear PCT Class of 2019

2019.04.01

Hiking, Opinion, Pacific Crest Trail

I’m getting ready to go on a hike of my own, but I wanted to drop you a note to let you know it’s still snowing in the High Sierra. My 2017 blog post “Dear PCT Class of 2017” with tips about snow travel and whatnot definitely, definitely applies, since we got more snow (* see footnotes) this year than we did overwinter 2016/2017. I spent the winter shoveling, plowing, skiing, and snowshoeing in the Sierra, and I’ll tell you what: nobody who knows anything about avalanches or snow conditions (in brief, they suck) is going back there behind the Crest right now. I hope you read my 2017 letter and do all the other research and preparation you can, and don’t rush a thing. There are […]

Living at Frenchies: Getting There

2018.09.09

Hiking, Lonesome Miner Trail, Opinion

Or – that one time I drank my urine. Between August 22 and September 6 I lived deep in the Inyo Mountains in an old mining cabin near the ghost town of Beveridge. This was an experiment in backpacking vs. thru-hiking. I’d realized that thru-hiking was a bit of a rat race, and decided to try an extreme version of backpacking. The difference? Backpackers tend to walk much shorter distances and often spend more time at camps. Backpackers had time to draw and read and sit around; thru-hikers do not. I wanted what they had. My plan was to hike in 12 miles to an extremely remote ghost town, and spend at least two weeks holed up at that cabin. I actually started my backpacking trip on […]

Hiking the Lonesome Miner Trail – Part 2

2017.05.11

Hiking, Lonesome Miner Trail, Opinion

(Continued from part 1) I started hiking the Lonesome Miner Trail in late March – a bit too early this year, it turned out. 2017 is a BIG snow year. It was cold and there was still snow up there in places. Because the trail is so steep, the snow and ice really were not in my favor for crossing certain areas safely (e.g. not accidentally sliding down the mountain). Also, much of the trail is on the north faces and in the shade, so it was COLD. I decided to come back and finish after letting the trail thaw over the month of April. Returning – May 1 2017 Glory be! Flowers are blooming in the Inyo foothills and as it turns out, up high too! […]

More PCT high snow tips

2017.04.12

Hiking, Opinion, Pacific Crest Trail

In my last feverish post, I totally missed some really good points about hiking in snow – really crucial stuff like navigation. A 2011 nobo thru-hiker made me aware right away (but doesn’t necessarily want to be credited). So without further ado here are more tips from someone who has gone through the difficult and uncomfortable, but very survivable process of trudging through the High Sierra in a high snow year: “GPS/phone = major time saver. THERE IS NO TRAIL. Forget the trail being avalanched away. It’s just not there” (until many people walk it first). Learn how to read a map and navigate by it (that is an invaluable link to a precious map-reading resource, BTW). “Carry a paper map back up, because you know, if […]

Dear PCT class of 2017

2017.04.11

Hiking, Opinion, Pacific Crest Trail

2017 snow pack is the biggest whomper we have seen in 20 years. Forget about 2005 and 2011, we are entering new territory with just about as much (well, more) snow but more heat from our warming planet. Snow is not only STILL falling in the Sierra, but has begun to melt, with significantly high and early - dangerous - runoff.

The Annual Whitney Shit Show

2016.06.26

Hiking, Latergram, Opinion

On top of Mt Muir, 14,000 some-odd feet. Looking really smug for someone who has no fuckin’ idea how to get back down. Erskine Fire smoke didn’t even go away last night, so sunrise was a relative disappointment. Also, I was joined by FOUR unprepared East Face climber dudes in the Whitney hut and had to dress them up in my gear to stop their shivering. I cannot believe I let them wrap themselves in my $$$ cuben fiber tent. Two of them were in tee shirts! No sleep last night. All told I saved six men’s lives on Mount Whitney and yet was still asked over and over by older men if what I was doing (hiking alone) was safe. “Where’s your parents little girl?” Argh!!! […]

Sierra High Route Part 2: Taboose Pass to Piute Pass

2015.10.15

Hiking, Opinion, Sierra High Route

Day 1: Taboose Pass to Taboose Pass August 16th. I started the day having leftover apple pie, cinnamon rolls, and fresh hot coffee with LoveNote and Burly White’s wedding party near South Lake. This was a beautiful wedding, a marriage of two great people who met while hiking the Continental Divide trail and fell in love. They crowned their hike and sealed the deal by adopting a puppy together, and this great dog, “Huckleberry,” dug holes between the two as they voiced their oaths. Behind them the backdrop of the Inconsolable Range and Bishop Pass Mountains Mt. Goode, Mt. Johnson, and Mt. Thompson seemed only painted on canvas — it was that perfect. I was watching them get married and looking at familiar High Sierra at the […]

PCT Gear Review

2013.10.23

Bikes, Opinion, Pacific Crest Trail

I was really comfortable with my gear along the Pacific Crest Trail, so I thought I would share it with you, and explain why it worked. Please note beforehand that I purchased all these items with my own money after carefully researching them, and was not given anything for review. The following are my opinions. If you look at this photograph with me, I will talk about the items shown, left to right, one row at a time. Click a link to skip forward to that gear item.

The Assholes of Bon Appetit Ads: February 2013

2013.01.22

Opinion

I was automatically subscribed to Bon Appétit when Gourmet magazine died. At some point I might have even renewed that subscription, because it’d become a tradition to hop into a steaming hot bath and pore over the recipes while getting giggly drunk on gin or wine and eating ice cream. Every time one landed in my mail box it screamed, “bath time!” It meant I had to set aside an evening just for me and my magazine: a pretty special date. I’m not renewing this subscription for other reasons, but I thought I’d share what flipping through the most recent issue felt like. It felt a little icky. It felt like Adam Rapoport, the former style editor of GQ magazine, had taken over a cooking magazine. The […]

Mother Earth F*cker

2005.01.28

Opinion

“Like Earth, we receive the gift of life through an act of Divine creation. From birth to death the vital force of sexual energy is a primal influence. Profound intimacy and ecstatic pleasure are realized when sexuality is embraced with deep sensitivity and passionate awareness. Understanding the synergistic harmony of love, sex, and spirituality is fundamental to a happy life.”~ Heather Firth I recommend looking further into Heather Firth’s work. She’s got a good eye for sexy rocks. Keep a keen eye peeled for whether sexy artifacts exist in a synthetic environment such as your neighborhood sidewalk or workplace conference room. If they do, are they sexy? Or just silly and obscene? Is the ultimate sexual object organic/coincidental or synthetic/intentional? Like clothing over a beautiful skinscape, Christo […]

Depending on How You See a Thing

2004.03.05

Opinion

For some reason I have Grace Quek in my head, aka Annabel Chong. She’s fascinating and it’s horrible. Spiros Markou, the Greek writer and critic, summed up Chong’s dilemma when he recently said to me “emptiness, she seems to be filled with emptiness, and therefore tries to get fulfilled through the body.” While pondering his remark, an early scene from the documentary kept coming back. It is of Mrs. Quek reminiscing of happier times, when her daughter was very young. She fondly remembers her daughter’s independence from a young age, and tells of leaving her alone while she and her husband were away. She used to pin a handkerchief to little Grace’s clothes, she says, and instruct her daughter that if anything went wrong, or if she […]