Time Travel discussion
Just for Fun
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April Fools Attempts, Successes, & Failures
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Well, one of the Pauls told me he's almost finished my book.I thought that was good news, but after your post I'm not so sure, hmmmm?
Howard wrote: "Well, one of the Pauls told me he's almost finished my book. I thought that was good news, but after your post I'm not so sure, hmmmm?"What? You wrote a book, Howard? And you believed me?
Naaah, I don't do April Fools tricks, not lately. I did finish (really) and totally enjoyed it. Well done! I'll get some specific comments to you soon, probably tomorrow. Today I wound up having to work on an electrical panel for a while, something I know very little about, so now I'll poor a glass of wine and celebrate my survival. Cheers.
One of the Pauls
Paul, thanks for that but, tomorrow I'm taking my newly repaired machine for a test drive & that's no April Fool's joke.If it's working properly I should return in a day or two & if not, well...
Let's just say I hope I get to read your comments.
But who knows what the future will bring?
I've always wanted to play a good trick on my family, but never could come up with anything that wasn't either lame or cruel. I like the rubber pencils idea, for a school.
Cheryl in CC NV wrote: "I've always wanted to play a good trick on my family, but never could come up with anything that wasn't either lame or cruel. I like the rubber pencils idea, for a school."I'm with you, Cheryl, not amused by lame or cruel. Part of growing up, or it should be. Amy's got the right idea!
Howard wrote: "Paul, thanks for that but, tomorrow I'm taking my newly repaired machine for a test drive & that's no April Fool's joke.If it's working properly I should return in a day or two & if not, well...
..."
If you'll be in the vicinity of 18th century Virginia, Howard, could I catch a lift? And a ride back on your return? I have friends to visit.
Paul wrote: "Howard wrote: "Paul, thanks for that but, tomorrow I'm taking my newly repaired machine for a test drive & that's no April Fool's joke.If it's working properly I should return in a day or two & i..."
I'll take a lift as well. Drop me off in 1644 this time. ;)
Mod
Yes, I don't like cruel jokes ... the types where you end up ruining your clothes or sweating bullets from stress. Although, one of our famous April Fools jokes around here is to tell everyone that we realized we graded the students' English placement test incorrectly and they'll have to take the test again. If they read the instructions on the test, it's immediately obvious it's an April Fools joke. But nobody ever reads instructions, do they? We used to "make up for our trick" by tricking them again with Oreo cookies filled with toothpaste. But these days, there are so many flavors of Oreos that they'd think they were just getting mint Oreos. While this joke is funny for the teachers, it can definitely be stressful for the students.
And Howard, if you get your time travel machine working again (is the fistula still going backward while the time stream is going forward?), I'd really like a peek at the far future. After all, I can read about the past in history books.
Mod
However I absolutely loathe pranks on unsuspecting victims which can effectively cause them major embarassment or mental injuries. You know the stuff where DJs cowardly calls up victims and put them in a spot pretending to be someone else etc. Its damaging, and absolutley no consideration goes behind what their victim is feeling. There was an incident a few months ago when 2 DJs rang the hospital treating our Duchess (Kate) pretending to be Prince Charles or someone in the family, forgot who. The nurse who took the call was fooled and passed them on to the Duchess's carer.
Now the nurse went under so much stress about her mistake in falling for the trick that she um...I know this will sound extreme but she commited suicide. Now why an earth she killed herself over this (leaving two children) is beyond me but she was clearly in a mentally dark place. Point is, when anyone plays a practical joke on someone, it may not be physically harmful but it can be mentally painful and its a lot worse than physical pain. Its cowardly, its stupid and ultimate harmful to others. Its never funny. Never.
If Howard, has a seat left on the time travel bus, I'll buy a ticket, drop me off 3 months earlier so I can wack some sense into those DJ's and save that nurse.
Mind you, as a result of the incident, DJ's are not playing practical jokes anymore. See, this is one of the many reasons why we shouldnt change the past because we need tragedies and mistakes to happen to learn from. It sounds cruel but its not, its about protecting the future, not rectifying the past so that future is none the wiser.
That's quite an insight, Tej, in your last paragraph. I need to ponder that....
Mod
I guess the problem is that they could have never guessed in a million years that that would be the end result of their prank. You just can't know. When you have to involve someone else as an intermediary and they're not in on the joke, you're certainly setting yourself up for that person blaming themselves. You need to know someone is not going to be humiliated or harmed in the process.
My maternal uncles and cousins were always playing practical jokes on each other when I was growing up, April Fools or not. It was just a part of the culture of that family and it was pretty much expected. But it's was always something harmless. My cousin would put pepper in someone's Dr. Pepper, they'd give silly gag gifts to each other at Christmas, an uncle would leave a bag of cow patties in his brother's car ... things that were just silly and wouldn't cause undue stress or destruction (although you might have to ride with your windows down for a while).
Mod
"See, this is one of the many reasons why we shouldnt change the past because we need tragedies and mistakes to happen to learn from. It sounds cruel but its not, its about protecting the future, not rectifying the past so that future is none the wiser."
Oh, yes, I've always thought that about my own life. I'd not be the person that I am now without having gone through everything I have. I needed to learn X, Y, and Z to not make even bigger mistakes. If that's true in my life, then it must be true on a larger scale in order to prevent larger tragedies. Then again, we probably would have to learn other lessons instead.
Cheryl in CC NV wrote: "That's quite an insight, Tej, in your last paragraph. I need to ponder that...."I think Tej should qualify for the Book Drawing on the basis of his comment here alone! I'm in full agreement, with a possible exception for the last paragraph. If Howard has room on the shuttle, I'd say go ahead and reason with the dumbass DJ's. Any lessons learned from this tragedy will be very temporary. So go ahead and do the right thing; their past is still your present. (Howard's machine is getting crowded.)
But enough on that. I'm never amused by pranks that are simply deception, even harmless ones. What's clever about lying? We can continue this discussion next year.
Mod
But there are these DJs and tv presenters that call up unsuspecting victims, making them a laughing stock. That's just not funny because most of the time, the victim is left distraught at the humiliating experience. There were actually other incidents which did not turn out very well.
I must sound like I have no sense of humour...did I spell that right? h-u-m-o-u-r, phew, yep I did...oh man, it has to be a different spelling in the US hasnt it...grrr.
grumpy Tej
Tej wrote: "did I spell that right? h-u-m-o-u-r, phew, yep I did...oh man, it has to be a different spelling in the US hasnt it...grrr...."Yep, different spelling in the USA, Tej -- color/colour, humor/humour, and surely some others. But since I've lived in the commonwealth before I consider myself a bi-speller. Spoken accents in movies are a problem, though. We watched "FAQ About Time Travel" the other night and about a third of it (noisy pub scenes) was incomprehensible to our American ears even with playing bits over again. No problem conversing in person in the UK though.
Mod
Mod
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Yep, different spelling in the USA, Tej -- color/colour,..."
Oh Faq about time travel is definitely very strong with accents, they were actually Irish which can be hard to grasp even for the English but a lot of the humour comes in their delivery, as one Irish stand up comedian used to say "its the way you tell 'em" :)
So i take it bi-speller is not a real word going by John and Amy reactions? Nevertheless I thought there was no end to your talents with that impressive cross culture skill!
Bi-spellular! Good word, Amy. There may be support groups, at least until a cure is found. Totally enjoyed FAQ. At least one of the main actors is Irish, I believe, have seen him in other films. Liked the observation the guys made amid the craziness, that in the future, apparently all girls are American! We can ask Howard when he returns.
Mod
One of my co-workers opened her classroom today to find her windows covered with gigantic pink flamingos. It's an ongoing flamingo joke between 2 teachers that seems to resurface a couple of times a year when one of them gets "flamingoed". I complied in the flamingoing incident previous to this one when my mom was temporarily boarding with one of the teachers and I slipped a flamingo balloon into the foyer. We like to be silly around here. :-)
So tell me if any of you played any pranks or became the April Fool today.
I work for a school, so we tend to do something to our students each year. This year, we offered fake rubber pencils for students to use to sign in when they walked in late or forgot their pencil. Somebody else had a digital camera that squirted water. But we didn't play any truly epic tricks this year.
What practical jokes are making the rounds in your neck of the woods?