The 'Midnight' Joke of the Century
3 Comments Published by JM on Monday, August 27, 2007 at 5:20 PM.
*ding*
"You've got mail!"
That is how it always starts. One person sends it to some friends, those to their friends, and on and on it goes.
This one stated that on August 27, 00:32 AM, Mars would be so close to the Earth that it will look like the Earth has two moons! And that the next time an event like this would happen it will be the year 2080ish. (All of this was written in big blue text!)
So naturally Silas (the one who received the email) sent it to all of the home members, and even some friends who live here in São Paulo.
Sitting beside him when he read the email out loud, I held in the desire to scoff him, and instead tried to reason with him.
Me: "Do you know basic astronomy?"
Silas: "Oh you mean those guys who stay up all night to look at stars?"
Me: "Yeah yeah! I don't know as much as them but I know for sure that Mars won't look as big as the moon!"
Silas: "You mean those weirdos who believe that we came from monkeys and give the billions and billions of light-years away speeches?"
Me: "Forget it."
Nah. It wasn't like that, but I did try to 'politely' tell him (2 inches from his face) that an astrological phenomenon like that would have been big news by now.
So Sunday rolls by and it is all but forgotten in my head. But at night most of the people are hanging around. Finding it rather suspicious I 'discreetly' inquired why they were still awake. Kind of like this:
"WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE GOD ALMIGHTY ARE YOU FOLKS STILL DOING AWAKE?!?!?!"
So they kindly reminded me about the email (which by now had world-wide circulation apparently) which stated all that I enumerated in the first couple of paragraphs of this post. Well! I had to see this for my own eyes, half of the home awake staring at the sky.
So midnight rolled around and people started wandering outside trying to see Mars in all of its 'moon-like' glory. Hilarity ensued.
Person 1: "What is that there on the horizon behind those trees?"
Person 2: "Is it red?"
Person 1: "Yes it is! I think it is Mar...."
Me: "It is a cell-phone tower."
Person 1: "I knew that."
But as funny as that was, (It was so funny I nearly doubled over in laughter) the night wasn't over.
Person 3: "Wow look at the moon!"
Person 4: "Yes. A clear sky. Perfect for looking for Mars."
Person 3: "What are we looking for again? The moon?"
Person 4: "Mars. The email said that it is going to be as big as the moon! So I guess we just have to wait."
Me: "Oh look at the time. It is already 12:15, I guess we just have to wait 15 more minutes before 'POP' Mars will appear in all of its greatness!"
Person 4: "Maybe we are looking in the wrong direction."
*everybody turns to look at the other side of the sky*
Person 4: "Nope."
*everybody turns back to look at the moon*
15 Minutes pass...
Person 3: "I don't think Mars is going to come out. Who sent that email?"
Me: "Someone in France."
Person 5: "Oh no!"
Person 6: "Maybe Mars is showing up there? You know the whole rotation of the earth and all that stuff."
Me: *stifling a laugh*
Person 3: "Whoever sent that email is going to be soooooo sorry! I have to wake up early tommorrow!"
Me: "Everyone who is here came out of their own free will. That is what makes it so funny!" *bursts into laughter*
Everyone: "What is so funny?"
Me: "You!!" *rolls on the floor*
Everyone ended up walking off complaining loudly that they had been tricked into staying up late. I just could help myself but I haven't had something that funny happen in a long time.
No offense to all of you who still believe those kinds of things can happen. I have just seen one to many forwarded email to read them.
Later on I was discussing with John C. how people believe in anything they read online (Or anywhere for that matter). So much so that we even thought of coming up with a prank like that one again, just for another round of laughter.
But keep on believing folks! One day one of those emails might actually prove to be true. *snicker*
I have some pictures from a party, but both my computer, and another one caught a virus, so I spent all day fixing it.
I'll post pictures tomorrow.
"You've got mail!"
That is how it always starts. One person sends it to some friends, those to their friends, and on and on it goes.
This one stated that on August 27, 00:32 AM, Mars would be so close to the Earth that it will look like the Earth has two moons! And that the next time an event like this would happen it will be the year 2080ish. (All of this was written in big blue text!)
So naturally Silas (the one who received the email) sent it to all of the home members, and even some friends who live here in São Paulo.
Sitting beside him when he read the email out loud, I held in the desire to scoff him, and instead tried to reason with him.
Me: "Do you know basic astronomy?"
Silas: "Oh you mean those guys who stay up all night to look at stars?"
Me: "Yeah yeah! I don't know as much as them but I know for sure that Mars won't look as big as the moon!"
Silas: "You mean those weirdos who believe that we came from monkeys and give the billions and billions of light-years away speeches?"
Me: "Forget it."
Nah. It wasn't like that, but I did try to 'politely' tell him (2 inches from his face) that an astrological phenomenon like that would have been big news by now.
So Sunday rolls by and it is all but forgotten in my head. But at night most of the people are hanging around. Finding it rather suspicious I 'discreetly' inquired why they were still awake. Kind of like this:
"WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE GOD ALMIGHTY ARE YOU FOLKS STILL DOING AWAKE?!?!?!"
So they kindly reminded me about the email (which by now had world-wide circulation apparently) which stated all that I enumerated in the first couple of paragraphs of this post. Well! I had to see this for my own eyes, half of the home awake staring at the sky.
So midnight rolled around and people started wandering outside trying to see Mars in all of its 'moon-like' glory. Hilarity ensued.
Person 1: "What is that there on the horizon behind those trees?"
Person 2: "Is it red?"
Person 1: "Yes it is! I think it is Mar...."
Me: "It is a cell-phone tower."
Person 1: "I knew that."
But as funny as that was, (It was so funny I nearly doubled over in laughter) the night wasn't over.
Person 3: "Wow look at the moon!"
Person 4: "Yes. A clear sky. Perfect for looking for Mars."
Person 3: "What are we looking for again? The moon?"
Person 4: "Mars. The email said that it is going to be as big as the moon! So I guess we just have to wait."
Me: "Oh look at the time. It is already 12:15, I guess we just have to wait 15 more minutes before 'POP' Mars will appear in all of its greatness!"
Person 4: "Maybe we are looking in the wrong direction."
*everybody turns to look at the other side of the sky*
Person 4: "Nope."
*everybody turns back to look at the moon*
15 Minutes pass...
Person 3: "I don't think Mars is going to come out. Who sent that email?"
Me: "Someone in France."
Person 5: "Oh no!"
Person 6: "Maybe Mars is showing up there? You know the whole rotation of the earth and all that stuff."
Me: *stifling a laugh*
Person 3: "Whoever sent that email is going to be soooooo sorry! I have to wake up early tommorrow!"
Me: "Everyone who is here came out of their own free will. That is what makes it so funny!" *bursts into laughter*
Everyone: "What is so funny?"
Me: "You!!" *rolls on the floor*
Everyone ended up walking off complaining loudly that they had been tricked into staying up late. I just could help myself but I haven't had something that funny happen in a long time.
No offense to all of you who still believe those kinds of things can happen. I have just seen one to many forwarded email to read them.
Later on I was discussing with John C. how people believe in anything they read online (Or anywhere for that matter). So much so that we even thought of coming up with a prank like that one again, just for another round of laughter.
But keep on believing folks! One day one of those emails might actually prove to be true. *snicker*
* * *
I have some pictures from a party, but both my computer, and another one caught a virus, so I spent all day fixing it.
I'll post pictures tomorrow.
Normally this post would be saying something about how Skype was offline for over 24 hours, but tides have changed, and things that would normally be a calamity is now just a minor inconvenience.
It doesn't seem like the issue is 100% resolved, as only 3 of my Skype contacts are online, when normally there are over 40!
Just have patience and Skype will eventually connect, although by that time you won't be at your computer but when you get back it will have disconnected, and if you were lucky enough to be sitting at your computer the moment it did connect, you would have thrown your hands up in frustration at the sight of no one else online, because Murphy's Law states that, "If person #1 is trying to talk to person #2 on Skype, person #2 will never be online the moment that person #1 is." (How is that for a run-on sentence?)
So don't give up hope, people of the world. There will soon come along another new technology start-up that will take the world by storm, winning awards and the affections of all the internet users, only to be bought out by a multi-national corporation and little by little turn into bloat-ware while degrading quality and one fine day it will crash on you, leaving all its users scratching their heads and weeping bitterly, until a new technology start-up appears, and it will take the world by storm...
PS. Happy Birthday Fifi! Have a great year!
It doesn't seem like the issue is 100% resolved, as only 3 of my Skype contacts are online, when normally there are over 40!
Just have patience and Skype will eventually connect, although by that time you won't be at your computer but when you get back it will have disconnected, and if you were lucky enough to be sitting at your computer the moment it did connect, you would have thrown your hands up in frustration at the sight of no one else online, because Murphy's Law states that, "If person #1 is trying to talk to person #2 on Skype, person #2 will never be online the moment that person #1 is." (How is that for a run-on sentence?)
So don't give up hope, people of the world. There will soon come along another new technology start-up that will take the world by storm, winning awards and the affections of all the internet users, only to be bought out by a multi-national corporation and little by little turn into bloat-ware while degrading quality and one fine day it will crash on you, leaving all its users scratching their heads and weeping bitterly, until a new technology start-up appears, and it will take the world by storm...
PS. Happy Birthday Fifi! Have a great year!
Labels: Birthday, Fiona, Murphy's Law, Skype, Technology
One of the 3 year olds found this nest somewhere in the garden a few days ago, and it got put on this hedge. (Which wasn't flowering at the time)
After the hedge broke into bloom, this nest was all but forgotten till I was roaming around the house yesterday with the camera in my hand looking for something interesting to shoot, when i saw this empty nest in the middle of this colorful hedge.
Some post-processing.
I am still not happy with the color balance. I probably will work on it some more later.
Same photo-shoot as Nesting Grounds.
Labels: DeviantART, Nest, Photographer's Block, Photography, Photos
After a short blogger outage here in São Paulo, it has been normalized. So back to (trying to) blogging.
Following up on my commitment to fight "Photographer's Block", here are some photos I took this week.
I am quite happy the way these turned out. I was expecting them to be much worse, since I had already been eying these posts/sculptures for months already, but always put off photographing them for fear that it wouldn't come out as good as I wanted them to. Thankfully I didn't botch them up too much.
Will continue to post new pictures as they are taken and processed.
Following up on my commitment to fight "Photographer's Block", here are some photos I took this week.
I am quite happy the way these turned out. I was expecting them to be much worse, since I had already been eying these posts/sculptures for months already, but always put off photographing them for fear that it wouldn't come out as good as I wanted them to. Thankfully I didn't botch them up too much.
Will continue to post new pictures as they are taken and processed.
Labels: Blog, Blogger, DeviantART, Photographer's Block, Photography, Photos
