[This is Part 4 in the multi-part epic describing the wedding I attended at the beginning of August 2002. Previous episodes: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3]

Friday, August 2, 2002. I had been told the night before by the groom's mother that breakfast was scheduled occur at the Stone Estate at 10:00, so we would be making a mass departure from the Longview Luxury Suite (the title I am now using to describe the residence where many of us stayed) at 09:30.

As the occupants of the groomsmen's quarters gradually awakened around 09:00, I informed Jaeger and Captain Logan of these plans. Each member made preparations (I believe Captain Logan was the first to shower, but my memory may be imperfect on that), and eventually sauntered over to the main house to meet with the rest of the party.

The journey back to the Stone Estate commenced as planned.

At the Stone Estate, there were many more new arrivals that Friday morning. I'm sure I will not remember all of them. The bride's grandparents had arrived, as had bridesmaid #3, cousin of Kiesa. There was just barely enough room around the breakfast table for everyone to squeeze in, and it was a large table. This breakfast would be the last meal prior to the wedding during which the gathered company would all sit and eat at a single table.

The breakfast commenced with a great variety and massive quantities of foods, and much merriment all around. This meal would be a preparation for the dark days ahead, much like Bilbo's birthday party would act as a precursor to Frodo's hasty departure from the shire, and into the more treacherous realms of Middle Earth. (Or not so hasty, depending on whether one references the book or the movie.)

Um... right. Getting back on track....

After breakfast, Jaeger declared that he was going to drive to the airport to retrieve scottgalvin.com, whose flight was scheduled to arrive shortly. He invited anyone present to keep him company on the journey to Portland. Yanthor and I accepted this invitation.

Though the trip from Longview to Portland lasts about an hour, it may as well have gone by in a flash. When three old friends who haven't talked to one another for nearly a year get into one car, time disappears. It's all about the conversation.

Aside from the usual catching up on scifi and computer stuff, we got into some serious talk about Yanthor's wedding of the prior year, some related gender issues, and various family matters. (Summing it up that way, the topics almost sound like something boring; but in this case, they were definitely not.)

As we arrived at the airport, Yanthor brought up the topic of possible outcomes of attempted crackdowns by the tyrants of the information age, who appear to be hell-bent on doing anything in their power to squash freedom of speech and innovation, using any means possible, including bribery of government officials, and even resorting to use of armed force against people who value their freedom enough to exercise it. (Yanthor also wrote a bit more about some of these issues recently.)

I posed a question (paraphrasing): When faced with a government that doesn't care (or worse, takes sides with the "bad guys"), is a popular revolt possible? How many atrocities and arrests of peaceful hackers will it take before public outrage erupts? Will the populace ever rise up against tyranny en masse? Or will millions of people, upon witnessing arrests of a dozen examples, cower back in fear and submit?

As I asked these questions, I privately considered my own observations of those I know personally. Most people, thanks to the fluff-filled news media, don't know anything about what's going on. Of those who do know, how many care? Of those who care, how many are willing to take action? I consider myself one of those who cares, but how much action do even I take?

In my thoughts, I also considered the people back home who I knew at work. How many of them care about issues of freedom and rights? I knew there were several coworkers who did, but they were not the ones in control. I wasn't sure (and still don't know) exactly how the causal relationships work, and this is a broad generalization, but it seems that anyone who gets into a position of middle management or above just stops caring. (Or did they ever care in the first place?)

Why? I don't know. Is there something about moving up the corporate ladder which causes people to stop caring, or is the system setup in such a way that people who didn't care in the first place are the ones to get promoted? When one does nothing but stare at financial figures, day in and day out, maybe quarterly earnings reports start to become more important than a national legislature whose votes have been sold to those with the smallest scruples.

In any case, when I considered how I would answer my own question, based on my knowledge of those I knew, it did not bring me hope.

Paradoxically, the act of participating in a discussion with people who do care, talking with those who want to do something to improve the world, and strategizing with those smart enough to divise ways to go about it, gave me a new kind of hope. I thought, If this energy -- the energy of three random geeks wandering through an airport talking about how to save the world -- could somehow be shared with rest of the world, maybe, just maybe the future would have a chance. But how might that happen? I didn't know.

I theorized to Yanthor that maybe we could learn a few things from those who have gone through similar struggles in the past. The Civil Rights Movement, with Martin Luther King. The American Revolution. Ghandi. South Africa's struggle against apartheid. (Ok, maybe I didn't name all those, but a few of them.)

Looking at history, virtually all the successful movements for civil liberties in one form or another have had charismatic leaders to unite the public. People seldom stand up for themselves enough to make a significant dent without someone to inspire them in large numbers. Do we have any such leaders? Not on a wide scale.

Yanthor brought up some of the luminaries of the free software / open source movement as possible candidates for leadership to inspire the people. RMS? ESR? Linus? I would have to concede that their leadership has greatly inspired some of us. Do they, or could they, have enough wide-scale appeal to bring about change in Washington? I do not know these answers.

Then, suddenly, we ran into scottgalvin.com near the luggage carousel, and the world was brought back into focus.

scottgalvin.com had arrived on his plane (from California, I believe), and was ready to go for the wedding. The party, which now consisted of 4 computer geeks, returned to Yoda, and began the journey northward back to Longview.

During this trip, scottgalvin.com told us of some of his adventures with his new girlfriend, business plans for buildmeasite (or... maybe that was from another conversation), and how to get good deals on plane tickets.

Using the map from Yoda's glove compartment, I relayed a small fraction of the information Jaeger had taught me the day before about the geography of the area. "And this was where Jaeger took out his Visor and beamed the marriage proposal to Kiesa."

scottgalvin.com was duly impressed.

As we arrived back at the Stone Estate, Yanthor was awarded another possible handle (as if he hasn't been known by enough names over the years). Since Anya's parents take a dim view of Yanthor, due to what they perceive as a lack of religious conviction on his part, he is known as a heathen to them. scottgalvin.com suggested that this become his handle: Heathen.

I dub thee Heathen of Yanthor.net.

Back at the Stone Estate, scottgalvin.com had not eaten for many hours, so he wandered to the kitchen, where he would be given some synthetic protein formed into the shape of a burger.

At this point, I may be getting some of this slightly out of order, because I think some of the events I'm about to describe actually happened before the trip to the airport. But for the sake of narrative consistency, and because I'm just now recalling it, we'll put it here.

During the hubbub, I pulled Yanthor aside to discuss a pressing issue: The bachelor party. I asked if he had any ideas regarding possible activities for the night before the wedding. He, like me, didn't know the area, but we resolved to keep it in mind, and bring up any bright ideas. And, of course, as The Slayer had suggested, we might ask scottgalvin.com if he had any ideas later.

We decided early on that the "traditional" bachelor party standby of hiring a stripper would be out. Aside from any obvious issues regarding perceived "morality" in this conservative camp, there was a more important reason not to go this route. We knew Jaeger wouldn't like it. Yanthor and I both were both certain of that. End of discussion.

Captain Logan joined our conspiratorial meeting in the living room, as we tried to think of ideas. He wasn't sure either.

Perhaps overhearing our talk, even Kiesa stepped in, and simply said. "I'm not part of this discussion. I don't know what you guys are talking about. But you're probably going to need to look in Portland to find the fun stuff." (paraphrased)

During one of these secret discussions, Jaeger wandered in to hang out with us. Yanthor's mid-sentence alteration of the subject into a discussion about php classes was about the funniest, though perhaps pathetic, recovery I've ever heard. I kept a straight face though. If Jaeger knew (I think he probably did), he didn't say anything.

Finally, Yanthor suggested an idea that struck a chord: Bowling. To the casual observer, it may sound cheesy. But we had been on a bowling team in the league back at ucollege.edu. Every Sunday morning during the spring term, a team of four of us would go out and bowl with many of the other students from the college.

It was great fun, getting together with the team every week. Keepings stats. Seeing each person improve during the course of the season. Cheering one another as the pins fell. It had become a tradition for many of us.

After eating his lunch, scottgalvin.com joined in on the discussion. Though he had never been part of the ucollege.edu bowling leagues (he was never a student there), he thought this plan sounded good, as did Captain Logan. All the groomsmen had formed a consensus. (Except Humblik, who hadn't arrived yet, but we were sure he would enjoy it, since he had played in the leagues too.) We would go bowling.

The wedding rehearsal at the church was scheduled to begin at 14:00. Somehow, the clock managed to advance at an unbelievably rapid pace.

A few minutes before departure, several of us took a brief journey into the forest surrounding the Stone Estate. Among the thick trees, we discovered a platform built onto one of them, around 5 meters off the ground. It might have been a foundation for a treehouse.

I climbed up to the platform, followed by Captain Logan. We concluded that it would be an excellent location for shooting a high-budget version of a Worst Scifi production. (An oxymoron if ever there was one?) Get a ton of cameras to surround the platform, get some cables strung from cranes to suspend the actors, and do some high class bullet time kung fu shots as the stunt players jump from the platform to perform their moves. A salivating thought.

Soon, the rest of the troops emerged from the Stone Estate, signalling that it was time to depart for the rehearsal. Never a dull moment!

We loaded into respective vehicles. Those travelling in Yoda discussed computer programming and scifi movies, natually.

Before long, we were pulling into the parking lot at the Longview Seventh Day Adventist Church. The wedding rehearsal was about to get underway.

[Coming someday: Part 5 -- The Rehearsal.]