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For Whom The Wedding Bell Tolls...

It tolls for Stu & Lexie!

Due to my... oh, we'll call it my "condition"... I was unable to personally attend my
youngest brother's wedding in Colorado Springs on December 22, 2001.

But, rather than throw myself on the floor, kicking and screaming and crying, I
put technology to work. While my brother Brad was still visiting Santa Barbara,
we purchased web cameras and set up a system where I could watch the
wedding take place over the internet. I'd also use the web cameras to
see part of the reception and spend Christmas morning with my family
(more on that next week).

Below is how the wedding was set up:

We used the web camera for video, but used a cell phone for audio. Stuart put the cell phone
in his pocket and attached a microphone to his lapel so that I could hear everything. It worked
incredibly well. I even got to hear the things Stu & Lexie whispered to each other (transcript of said
whisperings for sale to the highest bidder).

The ceremony started at 11:30am, Colorado Springs time. I woke up, had some breakfast,
and then put on a suit (from the waist up -- I wore jeans). I could have been a slob, but wanted
to look nice. It was a wedding, after all.

We were joined by friends of ours, Hunter & Casie Wimmer. Hunter went to school with Brad.

Since I could hear everything and Hunter & Casie could only watch the video, I transcribed as
much as I could into the Chat window so they could read what I could hear. It's good have
typing skills. I could only enter portions of what was being said (and even tried to do a sign
language closed captioning -- but I don't know sign language so I doubt it worked very well).

Hunter, Casie and I ended up cracking a few jokes, but when you're a few thousand miles
away from the action, silliness sets in.

Due to certain limitations (it was noisy and chaotic and the phone call was no longer free),
I only spent a few moments connected to the reception. Everyone was having a great time
and I was able to say hi to several people before disconnecting.

All in all, the ceremony and reception were wonderful and I couldn't have been happier to be there.


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