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One of my best friends in Junior High, without doubt, was a guy named Brandon. He was a year older than me and therefore not in many of my classes, if any, but we became friends while competing on the academic team. (And we both were freaking good, for the record.) We got along well and it didn't take long before we were hanging out a bunch, working on service projects together, and playing lots of "Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight", etc, etc. And because my best friend from Lake Ridge Elementary, Matt, went to a different Junior High, Brandon was my best friend at Brockbank. No doubt about it. And it didn't take me long to try to get the three of us to hang out together.
The first time Brandon met Matt, we were in 7th grade (except Brandon was in 8th) and Brandon and I were walking to Matt's house from mine. Traditionally, Matt would meet me halfway whenever I did this. And if he were walking to my house I'd meet him halfway. Usually at the intersection of 3100s and 7200w. I somehow convinced Brandon to participate in a prank against Matt, whom he'd never met, and then I told Matt, over the phone, that he should be sensitive about Brandon's "breathing disorder." (Which Brandon doesn't actually have, obviously).
So when we met up with Matt, Brandon played the part perfectly. He made his breathing slow and noisy, it's kind of hard to describe. He wasn't panting, or breathing deeply, more just loudly and obnoxiously--yet in a way that seemed strangely natural and believable. Matt bought into the ruse and I did my best to keep from laughing. I think this prank lasted all of about one minute before one or both of us gave it away.
I'm kind of surprised that I remember that little story, but it's related to a much larger prank Brandon and I pulled on Matt, and I think the above shows our complete willingness to make Matt the unknowing victim of an innocent game. This next story requires a little more background information.
Matt and I, as early as 6th grade when we became friends, would harass "chatrooms" and websites called "forums" for entertainment, these were new and very popular back in the day. In our minds a lot of these people were losers and deserved to be harassed anyway, something easy for us to do thanks to the anonymity of the internet.
This was the time period when The Sixth Sense and The Phantom Menace were new movies, so two forums we harassed in particular were each devoted to Haley Joel Osmet or Jake Lloyd, respectively. (The young "up-and-coming" stars of these movies.)
We weren't interested in just bashing and name-calling, even at that age we thought too much of ourselves to do that. So we came up with other ideas.
On the Haley Joel Osmet Page:
-We posted a fake article about how Haley had recently just been maimed in a tragic car accident. We had people in a fury for twenty minutes before a moderator deleted our post and then stated it was a hoax. (Brandon was there for this one, I remember because I did it from Brandon's house. Using his uberslow "blue-light" k-mart internet software.) [I think this one took place after "The Nintento project."
On the Jake Lloyd forum (earlier than the Haley Joel thing) Matt and I were creating a series of fake e-mail addresses, and beginning a process to try to convince the moderators that Jake (the actor) was going to make an official appearance on the webpage. He was then going to announce how lame everyone was for being his fans, and that they should gets lives. (Of course, this never worked since e-mails from hotmail and yahoo weren't very convincing). But that operation was called "The Nintendo Project" because, I think, someone at the forum had somehow linked Jake to Nintendo playing. Don't ask how because I don't remember. Whatever the reason, "Nintendo Project" stuck. And it got a bit more complex when we encountered a crazy guy at the forum named JMJ1585 (I think--wow why can't I remember something useful like point-slope formula?)
Anyway this dude claimed to have a "database" of Jake Lloyd information, since he was by all appearances an unusually obsessed fan, we wanted the information he had (Or that we thought he had) in order to help us convince the moderators that we were the real mccoy. But, for some reason, JMJ didn't want to share his files with just anyone. (Because, I bet he didn't have any.) So we then had to convince him that we were Jake Lloyd, and that we wanted to admire his tribute to us. (We'd then dig up information and then present our case to the moderators of the web forum, get them convinced that we were Jake Lloyd paying a special visit, and then our crowning achievement would be telling them all how much they suck.)
So while this was going down. (Oh, and for the record, we did manage to convince JMJ that we were Jake Lloyd. And on a later occassion that another one of our identities was his close personal friend. But whenever he did he told us his database was mysteriously "down temporarily") Before we made our push to convince the moderators and while still "in talks" with JMJ, a lot of this "plan" was discussed over AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) which was the shiz before being supplanted by MSN Messenger a year later. (Which is why I'm sure this happened in 7th grade.) [And for you young'ens cell phones and text messaging weren't around yet]
So one day, while having a sleep-over at Brandon's, I somehow got the idea to play another prank on Matt. So using Brandon's AIM name "banaman8" we contacted "entrepa" (matt) with the message: "I know what the Nintendo Project is."
Matt had never heard of "banaman8" before. So he was really interested in this phantom stranger, and somewhat challenged banaman's knowledge of ths subject--which proved thorough of course, since it was me and Brandon at the controls and I knew everything. I gave Matt answers to all of his questions and more.
Before long, he wanted to know how I knew so much and why I was contacting him. I told him I was a hacker, that I'd hacked the chats between Entrepa and Trekmate10 using "Javascript", and I wanted in on the plan. (I didn't know what Javascript was, I'd just seen the term on some websites. Luckily Matt wasn't an expert either at the time.)
When the conversation ceased, Brandon and I had a good laugh, but for some reason I hadn't told Matt it was just us. I don't know if it was because I forogt, or because he signed off abruptly, or if maybe the crappy blue-light internet failed, or ran out of time, or whatever.
But not more than a few minutes later, Brandon's mom shouted down the stairs that the phone was for me.
It was Matt. He had called my house immediately, alarmed and intrigued by this new hacker threat, to which my family replied "He's at Brandon's, here's the number."
So he told me all about the online conversation, etc. And wanted to know what we should do about it. I heard him out, pushing for details whenever I could. (Oh and during this, Brandon was on a third phone listening in, probably biting his tongue.) I kept Matt going for a little while, like half an hour, before finally spilling the beans. To this day I don't know how I managed to stifle an outburst of laughter that must have been on the verge of escape. But I think being on the phone helped, since my red face and fist in my mouth would have given me away in person.
Fortunately, Matt took the joke in good humor. And I still bug him about it to this day.
The first time Brandon met Matt, we were in 7th grade (except Brandon was in 8th) and Brandon and I were walking to Matt's house from mine. Traditionally, Matt would meet me halfway whenever I did this. And if he were walking to my house I'd meet him halfway. Usually at the intersection of 3100s and 7200w. I somehow convinced Brandon to participate in a prank against Matt, whom he'd never met, and then I told Matt, over the phone, that he should be sensitive about Brandon's "breathing disorder." (Which Brandon doesn't actually have, obviously).
So when we met up with Matt, Brandon played the part perfectly. He made his breathing slow and noisy, it's kind of hard to describe. He wasn't panting, or breathing deeply, more just loudly and obnoxiously--yet in a way that seemed strangely natural and believable. Matt bought into the ruse and I did my best to keep from laughing. I think this prank lasted all of about one minute before one or both of us gave it away.
I'm kind of surprised that I remember that little story, but it's related to a much larger prank Brandon and I pulled on Matt, and I think the above shows our complete willingness to make Matt the unknowing victim of an innocent game. This next story requires a little more background information.
Matt and I, as early as 6th grade when we became friends, would harass "chatrooms" and websites called "forums" for entertainment, these were new and very popular back in the day. In our minds a lot of these people were losers and deserved to be harassed anyway, something easy for us to do thanks to the anonymity of the internet.
This was the time period when The Sixth Sense and The Phantom Menace were new movies, so two forums we harassed in particular were each devoted to Haley Joel Osmet or Jake Lloyd, respectively. (The young "up-and-coming" stars of these movies.)
We weren't interested in just bashing and name-calling, even at that age we thought too much of ourselves to do that. So we came up with other ideas.
On the Haley Joel Osmet Page:
-We posted a fake article about how Haley had recently just been maimed in a tragic car accident. We had people in a fury for twenty minutes before a moderator deleted our post and then stated it was a hoax. (Brandon was there for this one, I remember because I did it from Brandon's house. Using his uberslow "blue-light" k-mart internet software.) [I think this one took place after "The Nintento project."
On the Jake Lloyd forum (earlier than the Haley Joel thing) Matt and I were creating a series of fake e-mail addresses, and beginning a process to try to convince the moderators that Jake (the actor) was going to make an official appearance on the webpage. He was then going to announce how lame everyone was for being his fans, and that they should gets lives. (Of course, this never worked since e-mails from hotmail and yahoo weren't very convincing). But that operation was called "The Nintendo Project" because, I think, someone at the forum had somehow linked Jake to Nintendo playing. Don't ask how because I don't remember. Whatever the reason, "Nintendo Project" stuck. And it got a bit more complex when we encountered a crazy guy at the forum named JMJ1585 (I think--wow why can't I remember something useful like point-slope formula?)
Anyway this dude claimed to have a "database" of Jake Lloyd information, since he was by all appearances an unusually obsessed fan, we wanted the information he had (Or that we thought he had) in order to help us convince the moderators that we were the real mccoy. But, for some reason, JMJ didn't want to share his files with just anyone. (Because, I bet he didn't have any.) So we then had to convince him that we were Jake Lloyd, and that we wanted to admire his tribute to us. (We'd then dig up information and then present our case to the moderators of the web forum, get them convinced that we were Jake Lloyd paying a special visit, and then our crowning achievement would be telling them all how much they suck.)
So while this was going down. (Oh, and for the record, we did manage to convince JMJ that we were Jake Lloyd. And on a later occassion that another one of our identities was his close personal friend. But whenever he did he told us his database was mysteriously "down temporarily") Before we made our push to convince the moderators and while still "in talks" with JMJ, a lot of this "plan" was discussed over AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) which was the shiz before being supplanted by MSN Messenger a year later. (Which is why I'm sure this happened in 7th grade.) [And for you young'ens cell phones and text messaging weren't around yet]
So one day, while having a sleep-over at Brandon's, I somehow got the idea to play another prank on Matt. So using Brandon's AIM name "banaman8" we contacted "entrepa" (matt) with the message: "I know what the Nintendo Project is."
Matt had never heard of "banaman8" before. So he was really interested in this phantom stranger, and somewhat challenged banaman's knowledge of ths subject--which proved thorough of course, since it was me and Brandon at the controls and I knew everything. I gave Matt answers to all of his questions and more.
Before long, he wanted to know how I knew so much and why I was contacting him. I told him I was a hacker, that I'd hacked the chats between Entrepa and Trekmate10 using "Javascript", and I wanted in on the plan. (I didn't know what Javascript was, I'd just seen the term on some websites. Luckily Matt wasn't an expert either at the time.)
When the conversation ceased, Brandon and I had a good laugh, but for some reason I hadn't told Matt it was just us. I don't know if it was because I forogt, or because he signed off abruptly, or if maybe the crappy blue-light internet failed, or ran out of time, or whatever.
But not more than a few minutes later, Brandon's mom shouted down the stairs that the phone was for me.
It was Matt. He had called my house immediately, alarmed and intrigued by this new hacker threat, to which my family replied "He's at Brandon's, here's the number."
So he told me all about the online conversation, etc. And wanted to know what we should do about it. I heard him out, pushing for details whenever I could. (Oh and during this, Brandon was on a third phone listening in, probably biting his tongue.) I kept Matt going for a little while, like half an hour, before finally spilling the beans. To this day I don't know how I managed to stifle an outburst of laughter that must have been on the verge of escape. But I think being on the phone helped, since my red face and fist in my mouth would have given me away in person.
Fortunately, Matt took the joke in good humor. And I still bug him about it to this day.
