Howdy People!
Every one in this world wears their ‘Devil’ hat to spoof people on April Fools day. Some are good and some are bad, but then its ‘April Fools Day’, what else do you do?
Well, this is no spoof but some thoughts on how you can avoid getting spoofed on April 01. If you have already been spoofed, then you probably can avoid further embarrassments. I would like to call it the ‘April Fools Day Shield’.
- Don’t react to anything
- Don’t listen to anyone
- Don’t get carried away
- Don’t read newspapers either the paper version or the electronic version
- Don’t respond to IM Status Messages( I was able to fool a few with this idea today)
- Don’t dig deep into totally different announcements or offerings
Now to the fun part (enough sermon for personal development or self help): Some of the spoofs so far:
- Google every year puts a new offering announcement in its home page. yeah, they do a lot of work to make the spoof look real. But then if you look at it, Google generally does not do any announcements on its Home Page except new tool bars etc(extensions of existing services). That’s the catch. More about it here…
- Another one from Google Australia: gDay with MATE
- From Virgin Blue: http://www.virginblue.com.au/nochairfare/
- Sachin Tendulkar announces retirement from Test Cricket
I would like to summarize my suggestions as follows:
- If it is too good to be true, it is too good to be true.
- If something surprises you more than ever before, let that just be a surprise.
- If you are amused by something, ignore it.
Bits and Bytes (interesting reads for today on April Fools)
- Also, be on alert for really annoying/uneasy spoofs, pranks, practical or financial jokes. Here is an article on similar lines.
- Here is an interesting article in New York Times/Health Section on the ‘Psychology of Pranks’.Wow, the psychologists study everything!
To Summarize:
In short, just shut your self off from the world and go about doing your work. It probably will be more productive day for you if you dwell within yourself.
For others, get creative but be gentle on your targets.
The ‘Saint’ in Me (how humble!?):
If you think of it, this defense mechanism has deep rooted significance in all forms of life. It can be the ‘Mantra’ for ‘Happy Life’. May be one day, I will write a book on it. Until then Enjoy!
Tags: 2008, April Fools Day, Interesting Reads, Practical Jokes, Shield from Pranks
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