From P.Halls@herts.ac.uk Sun Jun 2 22:46:15 1996
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Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1996 22:46:55 +0100 (BST)
From: "Tall, Dark and Perverse" P.Halls@herts.ac.uk
Original-To: -- Vrrrrrooooom! Crash! ,
Vertically Challenged, C.Ockenden@herts.ac.uk
PP-Warning: Parse error in original version of preceding To line
Subject: 50 ways to scare people in the C.C.
X-Status:
50 WAYS TO CONFUSE, WORRY, OR JUST SCARE THE BEJEEZUS
OUT OF PEOPLE IN THE COMPUTER LAB
1. Log on, wait a sec, then get a frightened look on your face and
scream "Oh my God! They've found me!" and bolt.
2. Laugh uncontrollably for about 3 minutes & then suddenly stop and
look suspiciously at everyone who looks at you.
3. When your computer is turned off, complain to the monitor on duty
that you can't get the damn thing to work. After he/she's turned
it on, wait 5 minutes,turn it off again, & repeat the process for
a good half hour.
4. Type frantically, often stopping to look at the person next to you
evilly.
5. Before anyone else is in the lab, connect each computer
to different screen than the one it's set up with.
6. Write a program that plays the "Smurfs" theme song and play it at the
highest volume possible over & over again.
7. Work normally for a while. Suddenly look amazingly startled by
something on the screen and crawl underneath the desk.
8. Ask the person next to you if they know how to tap into top-secret
Pentagon files.
9. Use Interactive Send to make passes at people you don't know.
10. Make a small ritual sacrifice to the computer before you turn it on.
11. Bring a chainsaw, but don't use it. If anyone asks why you have
it, say "Just in case..." mysteriously.
12. Type on VAX for a while. Suddenly start cursing for 3 minutes at
everything bad about your life. Then stop and continue typing.
13. Enter the lab, undress, and start staring at other people as if
they're crazy while typing.
14. Light candles in a pentagram around your terminal before starting.
15. Ask around for a spare disk. Offer $2. Keep asking until someone
agrees. Then, pull a disk out of your fly and say, "Oops, I forgot."
16. Every time you press Return and there is processing time required,
pray "Ohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease," and scream "YES!" when it
finishes.
17. "DISK FIGHT!!!"
18. Start making out with the person at the terminal next to you
(It helps if you know them, but this is also a great way to make new
friends).
19. Put a straw in your mouth and put your hands in your pockets. Type
by hitting the keys with the straw.
20. If you're sitting in a swivel chair, spin around singing "The Lion
Sleeps Tonight" whenever there is processing time required.
21. Draw a pictue of a woman (or man) on a piece of paper, tape it
to your monitor. Try to seduce it. Act like it hates you and then
complain loudly that women (men) are worthless.
22. Try to stick a Ninetendo cartridge into the 3 1/2 disc drive,
when it doesn't work, get the supervisor.
23. When you are on an IBM, and when you turn it on, ask loudly where the
smiling Apple face is when you turn on one of those.
24. Print out the complete works of Shakespeare, then when its all done
(two days later) say that all you wanted was one line.
25. Sit and stare at the screen, biting your nails noisely. After doing
this for a while, spit them out at the feet of the person next to
you.
26. Stare at the screen, grind your teeth, stop, look at the person
next to you. Repeat procedure, making sure you never provoke
the person enough to let them blow up, as this releases tension,
and it is far more effective to let them linger.
27. If you have long hair, take a typing break, look for split ends, cut
them and deposit them on your neighbor's keyboard as you leave.
28. Put a large, gold-framed portrait of the British Royal Family on your
desk and loudly proclaim that it inspires you.
29. Come to the lab wearing several layers of socks. Remove shoes and
place them of top of the monitor. Remove socks layer by layer and
drape them around the monitor. Exclaim sudden haiku about the
aesthetic beauty of cotton on plastic.
30. Take the keyboard and sit under the computer. Type up your paper
like this. Then go to the lab supervisor and complain about the
bad working conditions.
31. Laugh hysterically, shout "You will all perish in flames!!!" and
continue working.
32. Bring some dry ice & make it look like your computer is smoking.
33. Assign a musical note to every key (ie. the Delete key is A Flat,
the B key is F sharp, etc.). Whenever you hit a key, hum its note
loudly. Write an entire paper this way.
34. Attempt to eat your computer's mouse.
35. Borrow someone else's keyboard by reaching over, saying "Excuse me,
mind if I borrow this for a sec?", unplugging the keyboard & taking it.
36. Bring in a bunch of magnets and have fun.
37. When doing calculations, pull out an abacus and say that sometimes
the old ways are best.
38. Play Pong for hours on the most powerful computer in the lab.
39. Make a loud noise of hitting the same key over and over again
until you see that your neighbor is noticing (You can hit the space
bar so your fill isn't affected). Then look at your neighbor's
keyboard. Hit his/her delete key several times, erasing an entire
word. While you do this, ask: "Does *your* delete key work?" Shake
your head, and resume hitting the space bar on your keyboard. Keep
doing this until you've deleted about a page of your neighbor's
document. Then, suddenly exclaim: "Well, whaddya know? I've been
hitting the space bar this whole time. No wonder it wasn't
deleting! Ha!" Print out your document and leave.
40. Remove your disk from the drive and hide it. Go to the lab monitor
and complain that your computer ate your disk. (For special effects,
put some Elmer's Glue on or around the disk drive. Claim that
the computer is drooling.)
41. Stare at the person's next to your's screen, look really puzzled,
burst out laughing, and say "You did that?" loudly. Keep laughing,
grab your stuff and leave, howling as you go.
42. Point at the screen. Chant in a made up language while making
elaborate hand gestures for a minute or two. Press return or the
mouse, then leap back and yell "COVEEEEERRRRRR!" peek up from under
the table, walk back to the computer and say. "Oh, good. It
worked this time," and calmly start to type again.
43. Keep looking at invisible bugs and trying to swat them.
44. See who's online. Send a total stranger a talk request. Talk to
them like you've known them all your lives. Hangup before they get
a chance to figure out you're a total stranger.
45. Bring an small tape player with a tape of really absurd sound
effects. Pretend it's the computer and look really lost.
46. Pull out a pencil. Start writing on the screen. Complain that the
lead doesn't work.
47. Come into the computer lab wearing several endangered species of
flowers in your hair. Smile incessantly. Type a sentence, then
laugh happily, exclaim "You're such a marvel!!", and kiss the screen.
Repeat this after every sentence. As your ecstasy mounts, also hug
the keyboard. Finally, hug your neighbor, then the computer assis-
tant, and walk out.
48. Run into the computer lab, shout "Armageddon is here!!!!!", then
calmly sit down and begin to type.
49. Quietly walk into the computer lab with a Black and Decker chainsaw,
rev that baby up, and then walk up to the nearest person and say,
"Give me that computer or you'll be feeding my pet crocodile for the
next week".
50. Two words: Tesla Coil.
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In weightlifting, I don't think sudden, uncontrolled
urination should automatically disqualify you.
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