Morbid person that I am, this site seems to have made an impression on me and I find myself occasionally checking it out. I don’t mean to be disrepectful to the memory of anyone or to the grief of their friends and family, but there are two deaths in particular that really strike me as especially weird and kind of embarrassing.

Apparently two young college students, a girl and a guy, were messing around with a large helium-filled balloon that was used to advertise a condominium complex. They climbed inside of it and then later the balloon was found deflated with their bodies inside.

It raises so many bizarre questions. First off, who knew that helium was so toxic? What were they hoping to accomplish crawling inside the balloon: a squeaky cartoon voice on a massive scale? How long did they last inside it before expiring? Was there a moment when they realized that they were in real danger or did they just black out without any awareness that things were going terribly wrong? Did they both willingly crawl into the balloon or did one of them have to convince the other that it would be a good idea? The embarrassing thing is that now they’ll always be remembered for their bizarre and, dare I say, kind of ridiculous manner of dying. It’s the kind of thing that makes me think the gods truly have a warped sense of humor.

More weirdness: I was just about to post this entry when I found that the MyDeathSpace site is suddenly non-responsive. I just get a “Service Unavailable” message. Cue the creepy music.