matt foley "living in a div down by the navmenu" dept
(c)opyleft
1995-2008
Matthew Lewis
Carroll Smith
A Footnote on the History of the Dogcow
Suffice to say, we got it done, and not a moment too soon, for the clock had struck 12 while I was putting on the finishing touches with a black magic marker. It was time to plant our masterpiece and see what hilarious fruit it would bear.
Dave, other Light Software people, and I piled into cars and drove our artwork over to Apple. Our timing was perfect or the Joke Gods were smiling on us that night, for we arrived just after the lawn sprinklers had shut off.
While John and I prepared the tools and various implements of mass destruction, Dave went right up to the security guard and told him what we were going to do. The guard thought it was a good joke and told us to proceed. In a weird, unofficial way, we got Apple's blessing on our enterprise.
Positioning and affixing the PowerFeCes in place was a simple task and our dirty deed was quickly done - albeit for the time we took out to run around and act like total fools. I climbed on top of the dogcow, straddled it like a horse, and yelled, "C'mon big fella, HEEEEYA!"
My last finishing touch was to proudly affix a sign to the back of the foamcore that gave our credits. Dave thought it was a good idea, too. After all, if we were going to be so audacious to put giant turds on Apple's front lawn then we might as well be sure they know it was us. God, I'm great at guerilla marketing.
The next day Dave and I returned to Apple to see what kind of discussions our work had created. Since our early morning foray, the Apple campus had been transformed. It almost looked like every Apple employee felt it was necessary to contribute something in the April Fool's madness.
In front of one building there was a very large System Error dialog proclaiming: Sorry, a system error has occurred.
Amongst the sculptures wandered a very difficult miniature golf course. A Jolly Rodger was flying from one roof. A dummy was dangling out of one window.
Many people had not noticed it at all! Passing by it at a good 30 feet, if you were accustomed to seeing the icon-sculptures, it just blended in!
The word got around, so by the afternoon more people had noticed it than in the morning. The responses to our work were enthusiastic. Some members of the System 7.1 engineering team even condescended to saying hello to me. It still gives me a warm feeling to this day.
Supposedly, there was a picture of the dogcow and the PowerFeCes with credit to Light Software on the May 1994 Developer's CD. I have never seen it myself, by then I was already dreaming of other things.
Mainly, getting back to Memphis.
<<< Matthew's Room in San Jose
Although living in California and hanging out with Apple employees was really cool, other things began bothering Matthew. Namely, why were there so many boxes in his room? Why was there no carpet on the floor? Finally, in a flash of brilliant insight - after he found a car parked on his bed - Matthew realized that he was living in a garage.
Matthew realized that perhaps it would be best to return to Memphis. He called Baseline and begged for his old job back. Or Baseline called him and begged him to return. Either way, everybody was pretty pathetic. >>>
- from An Imaginary Quest Tale
it pays the bills dept
here is something I hope is doing no evil.
could be worse dept
there could be more of them