View source for Wedding/Vows

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Our wedding vows were written under constraint. The constraint is explained at the bottom of this page. At our wedding, we asked people to read the vows and try to guess the constraint before we revealed it to them. You might find it fun to do the same.

gn7Utk hi! nice site!

== Benjamin Mako Hill ==

Unlike this vow, my love for you will remain unconstrained. Like
the vow, it will remain in perfect balance. Like the constant, our
relationship will constantly grow in strength; naturally doubling
while retaining the perfect proportion.

:I notice a cheerful doubletake for our impending coupling.
:Speedily, startle gets abolished -- unfading happiness.

:This alliance will progress. It absolutely does taste familiar: simple artistry. Our love has stayed; still strong.

:Now, honestly, I..

::I promise defense of objectives and unapparent qualities.

::I promise symbiotic struggle, absolutely joint romance.

::Golden as wondrous ratios, as a oft cited rule. Also duration.

== Constraints ==

In addition to being wedding vows that describe our feelings accurately -- a tough enough constraint for most -- the numbers of letters in each word in each vow matches consecutive digit in the decimal expansion of a famous mathematical constant. Mika used π and Mako used φ. Where the digit was zero, a word with ten letters were used. No words over ten letters were used at all. Punctuation (e.g., hyphens and apostrophes) were not counted as letters. A slightly modified version of this constraint has been used by [http://users.aol.com/s6sj7gt/mikehome.htm Mike Keith] in the production of, among other pieces of writing, [http://users.aol.com/s6sj7gt/mikerav.htm Near A Raven].

We selected each constant for symbolic reasons. To explain our choices, we included this piece of explanatory text on the printed version at our wedding:

:π symbolizes the enduring, cyclical nature of our relationship. φ, also known as the golden ratio, symbolizes balance and proportion. Like love, both numbers are irrational.

== Blogs! ==

Many people have thought our wedding vows were funny or interesting. Here is a very incomplete list of some of the people and news organizations that have written about our vows. Feel free to add your own blog entry here:

* [http://www.boingboing.net/2006/06/08/hackers_wedding_vows.html Cory Doctorow on BoingBoing.net]
* [http://vitanuova.loyalty.org/NewsBruiser-2.6.1/nb.cgi/view/vitanuova/2006/06/06/0 Seth Schoen on Vita Nuova]
* [http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.cfm?blog_id=590 John Derbyshire on New English Review]
* [http://www.bookninja.com/?p=1010 George Murray on BookNinja]
* [http://jokermage.livejournal.com/143390.html Ioeil Aindreas]
* [http://krizoitz.livejournal.com/22063.html Another Livejournal Page]
* [http://www.ah-gan.com/weblog/2006/06/11/weddingvows-wikimakocc/ Gan's Weblog]
* [http://www.falchion.per.sg/2006/06/a-geek-wedding/ Colin Sng]
* [http://www.outsidecontext.com/wordpress/2006/06/09/i-am-not-a-geek/ Outside Context Journal]
* [http://viviane212.blogspot.com/2006/06/greek-wedding-sorta.html Madeline on Viviane212]
* [http://fishyillini.blogspot.com/2006/06/nerd-love.html Emily Katherine]
* [http://www.doubleviking.com/?p=14151 Double Viking]
* [http://realacid.com/show.php?id=2481 Real Acid]
* [http://anarchaia.org/archive/2006/06/09.html Anarchaia]
* [http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2006/06/freethinker_sunday_sermonette.php Effect Measure's Free Thinker Sermonette]
* [http://allyourwedding.blogspot.com/2008/10/math-rules.html All Your Wedding Are Belong To Us]