Entry Thirty-Three.
Friday 2004.12.10, 2:00 PM CST.
HUGE news...  I am now engaged.

"i can take a veil
and i can wear a ring
and i can make you promises
but they won't mean a thing."
(The Dresden Dolls, "The Perfect Fit")

No, the headline is not a joke.  Yours truly, DJ Badger, is now scheduled to be someone's husband.  Can you imagine that?

And, before anyone asks...  No, Lanna is not pregnant.

Although we have been going out a relatively short amount of time, I have truly felt that Lanna is "the one."  This has been the most amazing relationship I've ever had, and I'm not about to let it slip through my fingers.  So, last Saturday (12-04), after I crafted up a cunning plan for the proposal, I asked her to marry me via a game of Atari 2600 Donkey Kong.

Okay, let me explain how that worked.  DJ TMJ and I had a little Atari 2600 shindig over at TMJ's house.  There was a surprisingly low turnout, especially considering how many (and I mean this lovingly) total geeks TMJ, Lori (TMJ's fiancee), Lanna and I all know.  However, we did have fun, sitting around playing lots of different 2600 games over the course of the night.  Shortly after midnight, I convinced Lanna to try the classic Atari 2600 Donkey Kong.  She did so, and in a few tries was able to beat the first level.

However, this was no ordinary Atari 2600 Donkey Kong cartridge...  This was a specially-reprogrammed version which did not have a second level, but instead slowly built a heart on the screen out of the game's "girders" and displayed the following:

It took her a few seconds to realize, after discussing the possibility of marriage for quite some time, I was ready to genuinely make this real.

I then presented to Lanna a really swanktacular engagement ring, crafted by the TeNo company, featuring a modest but still really nice diamond, set in nickel-free stainless steel, accented by two curved lines made of inlaid black ceramic.  It was almost as beautiful and unique as Lanna herself.  The ring was housed in an exquisite wooden (mainly bubinga and spalted maple) box, handcrafted by a really cool woodworker named Al Ladd.

Then, to nobody's surprise (because I rock so hard), Lanna said "Yeah," and it was official.

Jump forward to Tuesday, at Gypsy's open mic night.  I convinced Lanna to allow me to re-propose to her there, in front of a crowd of screaming Badger fans.  (Okay, maybe most of them weren't Badger fans, but a lot of them were screaming.  Or at least applauding.)

Special thanks go out to the following:  Atari 2600 programmer extraordinaire Paul Slocum (http://www.qotile.net) for hacking Donkey Kong for this event; Al over at AtariAge (http://www.atariage.com) for putting Paul's reprogrammed version onto a genuine Atari cartridge; TeNo jewelry (http://www.teno.com) for designing such a phenomenal ring, and Al Ladd (http://www.alladd.com), who did the incredible woodwork for the ring box.

So, that's it.  We're engaged.  It's amazing.  Go us.  More later.  :)

Badger