Occupy My Life: guy proposes to girlfriend over "human microphone" at Occupy Wall Street

[Video Link]

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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Is anyone else ever surprised for a moment that what these people are accomplishing- now on a super-public world-wide scale- can in any way trace its roots, through a strange and twisted descendance, back to Anonymous and 4chan? The name Anon and the Guy Fawkes masks are still around, but these guys used to be…well, they described themselves as an “ocean of piss”. Maybe I’m the only person who finds that change jarringly strange- but hey, who am I to complain now that their biggest claim to fame is no longer when they griefed forums for people with epilepsy by flooding the site with flashing gifs.
- Guest
  
  but they’ve always liked cats. So no, I am unsurprised that as they grew older, they grew up.
vette

It started with cats, didn’t it? Tracking down cat torturers and harassing them. Then Scientology, and now Wall Street. Pretty far from making swasticas in Habo’s Hotel.
matt ferber

King of Kute.
Guest

Didn’t take long for OWS to jump the shark.
- Cowicide
  
  You wish.
- EH
  
  How does a July 4 2012 convention strike ya?
  
  http://www.businessinsider.com/occupy-wall-street-has-plans-for-a-coordinated-national-gathering-2011-10.html
- greebo
  
  I’d suggest the only thing around here that has jumped the shark is the quality of the trolling.
  - Guest
    
    Jeez I’m not trolling. It was just a little joke. I thought it was sweet how he proposed.
    - Guest
      
      Jeez, you really were.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OAUXAA362EXWLYVMPJOKLFB5JQ Incipient Madness

Click me a like if this brought tears to your eyes as it did to mine.

Did we ever see anything like this from the Tea Party? Until recently I had a GF who lived way out in the Extreme Police State of Shenandoah, which borders the Wealthy People’s Socialist Republic of The Woodlands. The Woodlands is a hyper-planned, environmentally sound Crapsaccharine World. Rich people move there to feel virtuous. You can’t make a left turn because all major streets are boulevards with natural hedgerows on them. No visibility. All business have huge setbacks and have to have small standardized sinage and be completely blocked off by hedgerows . TV Tropes lists The Woodlands as a real life example of Crapsaccharine World.

But as socialist as the Woodlands people are. Tea Party was huge there. Huger in less affluent in Shenandoah, and got quite a lot of support in nearby working-class Fox Run. But what did the Tea Party do there? They rented venues and had scheduled speakers. Who paid for the venues? Who scheduled the speakers? Teabaggers are pure astroturf. Occupy is the real deal.

I have been to three events with Occupy Houston and swung by Occupy Galveston this Saturday before taking the ferry out to Bolivar for a twilight ocean swim.

Please do at least something to occupy wherever you are. Part-timers count.
- PaulDavisTheFirst
  
  please don’t make your belief in #occupy be contingent on who pays for what. make it contingent on the mood and spirit revealed in this video, or something else equally real.
  - Guest
    
    he’s saying that Occupy has a grassroots organization, which specifically contrasts with one specific aspect the TP, which had the funds up front to pay for the halls and busses. His brush was not as broad as you perceived. Your issue was not in play there.
- bibulb
  
  See, I think of The Woodlands as VERY, VERY conservative – it’s Corporatized Conroe. So Tea Partiers who want government out of their business seem like a natural fit to me. (They’re quite willing to shackle each other with inter-business rules, just no Big Gummint.)
  
  That said, I agree with you in the long view – the Occupy movements are the real deal, and kudos for going out and doing those.
http://twitter.com/randywalters Randy Walters

Awwww. Yep, tears in my eyes, too.
CharredBarn

I’m assuming by the favorable comments that she didn’t say No. Because hearing 300 Nos shouted back at you must suck.
- chrisspurgeon
  
  Oh man, I was at a Philadelphia Phillies game years ago when a guy proposed to his girlfriend on the Jumbotron in front of about 40,000 people. He got down on one knee, pulled out the ring, and she got up and stormed out.
  
  This being Philadelphia, home of the meanest fans in all of sport, the crowd went crazy…whooping, cheering, and booing in equal measure.
  - mccrum
    
    A few years ago sports teams decided it would be humorous to have local actors pose and have the “fiance” then storm off in a rage.
    
    You know, when the teams are doing badly, no such thing as bad press.
    http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Sources-Failed-Rangers-proposal-a-hoax?urn=nhl-219631
teapot

Now I can’t shake the image of the bankers proposing to each other in a scrooge-mc-duck-style vault full of cash, before rolling around in it and filling each other’s orifices with gold bullion to celebrate.
xenphilos

This is just plain awesome. Much success, to both of them and to the movement.
LaGrange

Ugh. Every time I see something like this I think about how much pressure this puts on the woman.
- http://twitter.com/DebZep DebZep
  
  Maybe true, but he knew I wasn’t going to say no. He knew he had me. Marriage is just making it official. :)
  - CaptainPedge
    
    Congrats both of you, Make sure you send wedding photos to boingboing :)
- Guest
  
  Yeah, Love really sucks, doesn’t it?
Cowicide

Even the cops celebrated… (in Canada)
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QN6WUG7WMBDAGUPFVSJ6HJAS2A Darth

And thus, did Occupy Wall Street jump the shark.
- Guest
  
  Just you keep repeating that. If you knock your forehead into the wall while repeating it the spell will be complete.
Entrope

I always thought one was supposed to get married with the prospect of having a stable, productive life together. (Call me old-fashioned if you like.) Aren’t these people protesting the lack of such prospects? So why would any responsible person propose in such a situation? Is he intentionally exploiting the combination of surprise and public exposure that LaGrange referred to a few comments up?
- http://twitter.com/DebZep DebZep
  
  We both feel strongly about this movement. He is very politically aware and like most informed people, was constantly frustrated by continuously watching things spiral out of control with a feeling that nothing could be done. These people are part of an environment of hope, and what better place to propose in than a place where you’re surrounded by people who give you hope for the future!
  - Felton / Moderator
    
    These people are part of an environment of hope, and what better place to propose in than a place where you’re surrounded by people who give you hope for the future!
    
    Well said, and congratulations!
  - Entrope
    
    If it was not obvious, a better place to propose is one where you are inclined to consider consequences and use your brain in addition to your heart.
    
    I don’t know if you noticed, but your post fits one of the conservative stereotypes of liberals to a tee: You “feel strongly about” something, you are “constantly frustrated… with a feeling that nothing could be done” and people “give you hope” (another feeling) — but you do not mention ever thinking or planning.
- mccrum
  
  Marriages become what you want them to be. And OWS also isn’t the kind of thing that is all things to all people but it is what you put into it.
  
  They’re not protesting stability or productivity. They’re (mostly) protesting the inequality of financial resources from people who make things towards people who make money and have the ability to “game” the system to sell people things that will fail while shorting those same things to other people.
  
  As for the publicness, any rational person wanting to spend their life with someone else probably knows how that person would react in such a situation. According to the responses from the girl posted above (congrats by the way, good luck to the both of you!), it seems like she’s fine with it.
chrisspurgeon

I have nothing snarky at all to say about this. I was totally touched. All the best to both of them.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_BZPUF2EASKRBUSDXMNN4IRB5GA dahlia

awwww, hippie love, that’s just sweet. i sent this over to a doom-and-gloom friend of mine to give him a little infusion of life-goes-on-despite-all. and it does. lookit that cute baby in a hat!