View From the Bushes

Well, it's April Fools' day, and to be honest I think it's gotten a little out of hand. It seems that every single website on the internet has to run some kind of April Fool's joke, to the point where it's actually just kind of lame... Particularly since some are so obscure that you're not even sure what the heck they're talking about and all the rest are so blatant as to be childish. That being said, I had planned to play an AF joke on one of my friends. See, he's leaving for South Africa on Saturday to visit a girl he's enamoured with. So I thought this would be an ideal time to somehow convince him that his trip was in jeopardy. Actually, it's not that difficult since I could get access to his mail server. My first thought was to forge a letter from the girl in question, but I decided that was too vile...

Proceeding along the lines of forging e-mail, I thought I could find out who he booked through and then have them send him an e-mail. There were a couple of problems with that. First, his mother actually bought the tickets for him (don't ask) and he would just immediately try and book a seat somewhere else. I needed to not just take out his flight, I needed to take out every flight. So I came up with the idea of telling him that a plane had crashed into the Sears Tower. I think that was the point where my reach exceeded my grasp, though not by as much as you might think. See, he doesn't have TV or radio; the internet is his sole means of getting news. And while it was more difficult to mess with his internet than his mail, it still seemed feasible. I even toyed with the idea of making mock-ups of some of the major news sites.

In the end, a combination of four things kept me from carrying out my plan. First off, I was dead tired last night. Secondly, one of my key accomplices didn't get back to me. Thirdly, the whole thing was too complicated. And finally, as I mentioned above, 15 minutes of web surfing this morning and I was completely sick of the day. So once again, my lack of follow-through kills an otherwise promising project. Ah well, what ya going to do?

Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross