Ah, April Fool’s Day.
It used to be one of my favorite holidays.
The world kind of steps back for a moment, lets itself laugh for a day, and everyone smiles together.
How can you not love that?
Except in their old age, I have found a lot of people lost their humor in the glovebox of their first car, and who knows where it is now. No more laughing at silly things, no more glitter bombs, no more sleight-of-hand-misdirection. Just a lot of grumps.
Which is a shame.
For instance, there is a very grumpy journalist named Paul Tassi over at Forbes who not only dislikes April 1st, but he has some harsh words for the day:
“The Internet Has Murdered April Fools’ Day“
“As I sit here staring at my screen, trying to bring myself to write yet another round-up of all the “zany” April Fools’ Day stories in the gaming industry, I just can’t do it. I hate April 1st, and I hate it more than ever since I became a journalist.
Perhaps that’s misguided, as today is practically a national holiday for anyone who makes their living reporting on news online. The internet is awash with a literal flood of jokes, and everyone from tech giants to random blogs is determined to get in on the action. Congress could declare war on Iran this afternoon and everyone would just laugh it off. No actual news is allowed to happen today, that’s just how it works.
I’m not trying to be the fun police here, but after about a decade of this, I think we can all admit that the internet has effectively taken this “holiday” and beaten it to death with such fervor all the other months are cringing in horror…”
Good heavens, man! Cheer up! Look around! There is still sunshine in the sky, birds in the trees and joy in the air! The world has not fallen upon its sword! Oh, sure. The Internet has hoaxes, and spoofs and downright bad humor… every day. But today is different. Today is special.
Come. Come Paul. Let me show you.
1) Google Maps
made PacMan out of their maps for us for April 1st! Thank you Google Maps!!!!
This is London, UK. I think I love seeing PacMan getting stuck in the RoundAbout far too much.
2) Slashdot
has always been one of my favorite sites on April 1st. I remember one time, many many moons ago, they jumped the shark and made the site for girls…and the whole thing was PONIES! and glitter, and sparkling lights….and it was AWESOME. That was the best day in Slashdot history, in my book. I remember vividly their big, balloon-animal fonts and pink hued website for the day. Buuutttt, I can’t imagine they could get away with that again. Too many angry women who don’t love ponies (they are lying to themselves, they love ponies).
These are the kinds of articles on Slashdot today. I love this stuff 🙂 A Coup in Arrakis Capitol. Classic.
3) Reddit
is…Reddit. So there is weird, random stuff there every day. I wasn’t sure if there was going to be anything worthwhile left for today, but there was!
There is an AMA with a Toaster, which is pretty nice.
4) Gmail is bringing back Snail Mail
5) MineCraft: Now With Love
They rewrote the whole page, and it is kind of hard to summarize…but, basically, they made everything positive. Instead of killing “monsters”, you share the world with “inhabitants.” No more hunger. No more pain. Now you have a love meter. And the animals are different now:
Animals
- Bats are now 20% cuter. Squeek.
- Chickens can now be ridden by any player less than two blocks tall.
- Cows will now alert you to important events that you may have missed by means of an audible notification.
- Pigs can no longer fly, but can now climb on walls.
- Rabbits are fluffy.
- Sheep will, if asked nicely, share their wool to keep you warm.
- Squid changed, but we’re still trying to figure out how or why.
Squids are always changing the game on us.
So, there you go, Paul. The world isn’t so gloomy and grumpy as you think 🙂
Go, and enjoy the day.
#pieintheface
The Platypus Directive 
I love it that Google Maps did that 🙂