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Famous author and “Legend In His Own Mind”, Donald J. Bingle is currently running a kickstarter for his latest novella, Frame Shop.

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Arr! It be that time again! Talk Like A Pirate Day!

This year Bingles in 3 states celebrated TLAPD not only by talking like pirates but even dressing like them.

Cap’n Rich prompted the following missive from an officer in the Royal Navy:

We need the K-9 unit dispatched to 1120 please.

The “Cap’n” may be enticed to leave the premise by placing Solaris scripting books or chicken wings in the parking lot. Don’t be alarmed about the apparent firearm as it’s been identified as the make shift window handle from the Telecom equipment van. Please do recover the key as it needs to be returned to a nearby 7-11 so they can regain access to the men’s restroom.

Splashly Ashley was also highlighted by her captain in a missive:

If you have not filled out your talent profile and turned it in to your manager, please do this by EOD today. We appreciate your help and timeliness in this effort.

Also, make sure you fill out the Career Ambition section!

Ashley’s is to talk like a Pirate… but just for today.

Amber (aka Leftie) and her parrot Evermore plundered The Isle of the Krispy Kreme with her sister.

And then there is Scurvy Don and Crazy Linda. Words escape me…

I work with a lot of self proclaimed “rednecks”, and as you all know by now, I celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day at work.

Therefore, it isn’t any surprise that the following question came to mind the other day… Are pirates the same thing as rednecks? Let’s look at the evidence!

Both drink to excess
Both are typically missing teeth
Both don’t bathe regularly
Both like to shoot things
Both have “unique” hairstyles
Both have “unique” facial hair
Both have “unique” clothing
Both speak their own language
Both gamble
Both tow dingys
Both like flying their “colors”
Both fish

Are they the same? Maybe not exactly, but there are definitely a lot of similarities!

As Dad already mentioned, I got married the other day(!) and so here is my obligatory post to inform you of some of the details missing in that earlier post.

So: on Saturday morning at 10am on May 31st, 2014… oh I’ll just let the programs do the explaining:

We were joined by our family and friends who supported us in person and in thought from afar, and are very glad for those that were able to join us, even if we didn’t get to spend much time visiting between getting married and rushing off to the airport before 2:00 in order to catch the flight to our honeymoon (a cruise out of Port Canaveral that stopped in St. Thomas and St. Maarten). We want to thank everyone for coming and for all the help that so many people put into our wedding: our families, our roommates, and even random strangers from church that helped with decorations, lighting, sound, video, flowers. Everything went off smoothly (at least as far as we could tell) and I didn’t even fall flat on my face when I tripped (ask someone about that sometime, I’m sure it will be a story for a long time).

So now we’re married and I am officially Mrs. Ashley Peters (which is really weird to say and think, but that’s what happens when people get married)!

I may put up a post about our actual honeymoon, since I do have some pictures and video from the trip and for now I don’t have very many official wedding photos to share but feel free to check out the ones I have put in the gallery. However, for the time being I will be working on editing together the footage from the church videographer and the two hidden cameras that Dad put up in the balcony and in the plant behind the minister, so I should have that video at some point in the future too. For now, take a look at a time-lapse of every 10 seconds during the ceremony and the slideshow that Amber made for us that we played after the ceremony.

That’s all for now, you’ll have more when I have more to share!

The last couple of weekends have been cause for some celebration!

First, Ashley graduated from Calvin on May 24th! Karen, Alyssa, and I drove up to Michigan on the Monday and Tuesday before graduation. After moving Amber out of her dorm on Wednesday and Ashley out of her dorm and into her first apartment on Friday, we were proud to attend her graduation ceremony on Saturday. Yay, Ashley!!

But that paled in comparison to what the next Saturday was to bring. Ashley’s wedding to Josh Peters!

I’ll let Ashley post her own entry about the wedding (after the honeymoon), but needless to say the week between graduation and the wedding was full of last minute planning and arrangements, a wedding shower, crafting an 8 minute slideshow of pictures of Ashley, Josh, and Ashley & Josh (yay, Amber!), decorating, relatives, rehearsing, eating, shopping, hauling, wrapping, packing, visiting, errands, lots of emotions, and very little sleep. But all of that effort was worth it to watch Ashley and Josh walk back up the aisle as husband and wife!

We are thankful for all of the family and friends that were able to share in this momentous occasion in Ashley’s life.

We love you, Ashley!

— Mom and Dad

When I returned to my desk after lunch today one of the guys on my team told me simply, “Go look at the sun.” After looking at him quizzically and asking, “Why?” he would only repeat, “Go look at the sun.”

So, I went back outside and looked at the sun.

Whoa! That’s cool!

Apparently the “sun halo” is caused by the refraction of sunlight through ice crystals high in the atmosphere. I quickly went back inside and grabbed by phone and everyone I could find and went back outside. It lasted for at least 20 minutes. I wasn’t outside when it went away, but assume it faded like a regular rainbow does.

— Rich

I’ve created a new page where you can not only grab a free Kindle app so you can read Kindle books and stories on your PC, Mac, iPad, tablet, or smartphone, as well as on your Kindle, but you can find my books collected for purchase.  Use this link when you shop Amazon and I get a small percentage even when you buy other books, cds, and merchandise.  http://www.orphyte.com/donaldjbingle/newpage110.htm

This January is special for me. Instead of taking Spanish like I did as a freshman, or studying abroad like Sophomore year, or learning computer forensic techniques like last year, I get to do a completely for-fun class. I am taking Board Games, or technically “Games in Community” a class that consists of playing, learning, teaching, and creating board games.

As part of the class I will be blogging about the games we play, so if you are interested, please visit my blog to see what I’ve been up to. (and now: back to gaming…)