Hey remember that wedding I went to like two weeks ago?

I was finally able to get the pictures from Ashley's wedding onto my computer, so I thought I'd share them. So here you go.

Here's the altar before the wedding started:



And Kevin waiting on Ashley to come down the aisle:



Ashley coming down the aisle with her dad:



Ashley and Kevin at the altar:



You may kiss the bride:



...ok that's enough loverboy.

Mr. and Mrs. Kevin Ch@mpion:



The newlyweds walking off into the sunset:



Their first dance as a married couple:



The garter toss. I actually ended up with it because all of the other males were avoiding that thing like the plague. Which is just as well, I suppose. If I'm the next one to get married, they can relax for quite a while.



The flower toss:



In the middle of all the comotion, I actually managed to get a picture with the bride:



I probably forgot to mention that there was a substantial amount of free alcohol available at the reception. I think I also forgot to mention that the reception was held in a Shriner's Club, so there was two shelves of fez hats in the room. Not a good mixture:



There was no throwing of birdseed, but there was blowing of bubbles. I know it might just look like a camera trick, but that bubble really was the size of a beach ball and about to hit Ashley in the head. She was out for a good ten minutes.*



All in all a good time.

*The previous two sentences are not true. If you needed this clarification, you can go ahead and keep believing they were true.

Here we go again

A friend of mine has asked me to comment on the resurgence of the North Korean nuclear crisis, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. A little over a year ago, I expressed my belief that North Korea wasn't going to use, or even test, any of its weapons and I still stand by this prediction, especially with the news that North Korea is (only, in my opinion) using the threat of a missile test to get the world's, and more specifically the United States', attention. To put it simply, North Korea is like the older sibling who throws a tantrum because he's jealous of the attention being given to his younger sibling (i.e. Iran).

Long story short, North Korea is just, again, trying to get the best deal that it can. Launching an intercontinental missile, as some believe the DPRK is preparing to do, would just not be rational from the standpoint of the Koreans. That isn't to say, of course, that allowing your population to starve to death is rational, but testing a missile would alienate the North Koreans' only remaining real ally -- China.

If China can no longer take the side of the North Koreans, the North Koreans will be, as we say in the business, screwed. So, I suspect the outrage being expressed by the State department is feigned on some level, because one: they're pretty sure that even the Koreans aren't that stupid, and two: they know that if the Koreans do go forth with the missile test that it makes our position that much stronger. Of course it's easy for me to say sitting here out of range of the missile and not being responsible for millions of lives, but I'm just not too concerned about the Koreans' little tantrum. They're not really in the position to be making any demands.

Damn you Sco++ Baio

I have the unfortunate condition of being born in the same decade as a particular television show that bears my name. Not only does the show bear my name, but the theme song for said show is quite catchy and professes to want me, or anyone with my name, "in charge" of their days, nights, wrongs, rights and their person in general.

Because of this, I have often been subjected to having the aforementioned song sung at me, particularly upon meeting a new person. Thus, I thought this song was common knowledge. That was, of course, until one of my friends swore that she had never heard it. This led me to question my whole perception of reality, so now I'm hoping you can help me. Partially to restore my perception of reality -- but mostly just to help me win an argument -- if you could let me know via comment whether you know the song in question, I would greatly appreciate it.

I'm alive

Ok, so I haven't blogged in like two and a half weeks. Not that any of you are particuarly unfulfilled without my, well, random musings, but those of you that don't talk to me on a regular basis might be interested to know that I'm still alive and such.

The lack of blogging has been from a combination of things. First, I haven't had much time in front of a computer lately. Second, when I have had time in front of a computer, my computer has been incooperative at times and prevented me from blogging. And third, I just haven't had much to say.

So, here's the abridged version of the events of the last two and a half weeks:

Had job interview. No news yet. More details as they become available.
Went to Athens. Good times.
Went to Tybee for Ashley's wedding. Better times. Pictures to come.
Went home for Cuyler's graduation party. Good times.
More D.C. job searching. Still no news.
Jackie is still getting better. Walking more, trying to run, etc.
Still haven't won a softball game, but apparently we have the hardest schedule in the league, which ranks us above teams with as many as three wins. So everything's relative.
Just watched Hide and Seek with Dako+a Fanning and Rober+ DeNir0. Creepy as hell.

So that's pretty much the last 17 days in a nutshell. I'm hoping to post pictures and anecdotes from Ashley's wedding, but my computer has not been cooperative. If you have anything in particular you'd like my thoughts on or would like me to elaborate, just let me know.

Top 5O Conserva+ive songs?

I'm not sure what to make of this. I'm not particularly thrilled with the idea of taking songs out of context and applying meaning to them that the authors never intended.

I'm quite perplexed by the use of the B|ink 182 song in light of the fact that the lead singer was involved in the campaign of the most recent Democra+ presidentia| nominee.

I'm also rubbed the wrong way by the inclusion of 'Brick.' Having heard the song's explanation from Ben Fo|ds himself as not wanting "to make a big hairy deal about it or make a statement...just wanted to reflect what it felt like," it somehow seems inappropriate to use the song to make a political statement.

Such is the nature of politics, I suppose, but geez.

Most irritating is the subtitle of the article — "quit calling us squares, you beatniks." Sigh. Squares? Beatniks? Really? What is this, 1960? Come on, guys. We already have a major PR problem of being seen as 'uncool.' This really isn't helping.