50 WAYS TO CONFUSE, WORRY,
OR JUST SCARE PEOPLE IN THE COMPUTER LAB
Log on, wait a sec, then get
a frightened look on your face and scream "Oh my God! They've found me!" and
bolt.
Laugh uncontrollably for about
3 minutes & then suddenly stop and look suspiciously at everyone who looks
at you.
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.
Type frantically, often stopping
to look at the person next to you evily.
Before anyone else is in the
lab, connect each computer to a different screen than the one it's set up
with.
Write a program that plays the
"Smurfs" theme song and play it at the highest volume possible over & over
again.
Work normally for a while. Suddenly
look amazingly startled by something on the screen and crawl underneath the
desk.
Ask the person next to you if
they know how to tap into top-secret Pentagon files.
Use Interactive Send to make
passes at people you don't know.
Make a small ritual sacrifice
to the computer before you turn it on.
Bring a chainsaw, but don't use
it. If anyone asks why you have it, say "Just in case..." mysteriously.
Type on VAX for a while. Suddenly
start cursing for 3 minutes at everything bad about your life. Then stop and
continue typing.
Enter the lab, undress, and start
staring at other people as if they're crazy while typing.
Light candles in a pentagram
around your terminal before starting.
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."
Every time you press Return and
there is processing time required, pray "Ohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease,"
and scream "YES!" when it finishes.
"DISK FIGHT!!!"
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).
Put a straw in your mouth and
put your hands in your pockets. Type by hitting the keys with the straw.
If you're sitting in a swivel
chair, spin around singing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" whenever there is processing
time required.
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.
Try to stick a Ninetendo cartridge
into the 3 1/2 disk drive. When it doesn't work, get the supervisor.
When you are on an IBM, and when
you turn it on, ask loudly where the smiling Apple face is.
Print out the complete works
of Shakespeare, then when its all done (two days later) say that all you wanted
was one line.
Sit and stare at the screen,
biting your nails noisily. After doing this for a while, spit them out at
the feet of the person next to you.
Stare at the screen, grind your
teeth, stop, look at the person next to you, grinding. 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.
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.
Put a large, gold-framed portrait
of the British Royal Family on your desk and loudly proclaim that it inspires
you.
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.
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.
Laugh hysterically, shout "You
will all perish in flames!!!" and continue working.
Bring some dry ice & make it
look like your computer is smoking.
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.
Attempt to eat your computer's
mouse.
Borrow someone else's keyboard
by reaching over, saying "Excuse me, mind if I borrow this for a sec?", unplugging
the keyboard & taking it.
Bring in a bunch of magnets and
have fun.
When doing calculations, pull
out an abacus and say that sometimes the old ways are best.
Play Pong for hours on the most
powerful computer in the lab.
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.
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.)
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.
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.
Keep looking at invisible bugs
and trying to swat them.
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.
Bring an small tape player with
a tape of really absurd sound effects. Pretend it's the computer and look
really lost.
Pull out a pencil. Start writing
on the screen. Complain that the lead doesn't work.
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 assistant,
and walk out.
Run into the computer lab, shout
"Armageddon is here!!!!!", then calmly sit down and begin to type.
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".