On the Dangers of the Internet

On my school listserve email distribution list for my program we get all sorts of messages. They're mostly about school events and goings-on, notices from our student government, and ocassionally they are personal messags trying to espouse a particular point of view (we got lots of them urging us to kick out our university president when he was found to be misusing school funds for personal events, such as a 13 course birthday dinner for his daughter, paid for by the school).

Last week, we got an impassioned letter telling us about a new "reality TV show" (somewhere in Europe, if I recall correctly) that was supposedly going to follow the training of suicide bombers, eventually culminating in their supposed death. Only what was really going to happen is that the TV show was going to convince them they were dead and in heaven, making a mockery of their "sacrifice".

Needless to say, my school is highly public service-oriented, and this student was wanting to orchestrate a boycott, get the show canceled, etc. And I don't disagree in principle -- this sounds like a disgusting TV show.

Keep in mind this email goes out to thousands of students and alumni.

So imagine my surprise when we get a follow-up email several hours later. Evidently, the sources were checked and the story originated from The Onion, the humor newspaper.

Oops!

Moral: Look before you leap, especially when it involves mass emails.

Roses

From a bouquet I bought for Beth. 

Wedding

In answer to Shannon's plea, I am posting a few pictures from the wedding. Here are the lovely bride and groom:

Bride and groom both looked really happy, and bit relieved, too! Also looking happy and relieved are mom and dad:

And here are the decorations that Beth and I, along with lots of help from a few friends (especially from college friend KD) and from both families. We transformed the flourescent-lit office space into a party-worthy room (IKEA to the rescue!). Notice all the candles and favors on the tables that Beth made and K helped coordinate.

UPDATE (12/12): Just thought you should know that I hung all those IKEA globe lights from the ceiling. 21 lights, 9 extension cords and 1260 Watts in all.