So, I got up on April 1st, and while I checked my e-mail I remembered exactly what day it was, and that most of my favorite websites would be running all kinds of prank-articles and such. And then I realized that I run one of my favorite websites, and I was completely unprepared for this momentous day. I headed out to work with no idea of what I would (or could) post on such short notice. Shortly before lunch, I had an idea, but I had to drive home to get my two signed photos to scan at work. Then the scanner freaked out on me. I decided to try Kinko’s on the way home, and while I was okay with the $0.40/minute to use a scanner, I was not going to pay them $19.95 to burn the images to a $2 CD-RW that I’d carried in with me. So I cheated and photographed the photographs, since I had to photograph the poster anyways.

Shortly after posting the article (and continuing through the night. and the morning. and on into the evening. and even as I type this article.) the flood of e-mail responses started coming in. Sadly, only FOUR of the people who wrote in got the joke. A slightly larger number of people wrote in asking if it was a joke (usually pleading for it to be so), but the vast majority of responses I got were from people who were not happy with the impending ‘change of focus’. I think my favorite of those was the person who wrote in saying something to the effect they would no longer be visiting MoD, and making sure that I clearly understood that this decision was not an April Fool’s Joke, evidentally not considering the possibility that my article might be one. Oh, and one person took it completely in stride and submitted a bit of GALIDOR™ news to be posted on MaskofGorm. Thankfully, having given the MoD staff a short bit of warning, I didn’t have to deal with the flak that I’m sure I would have received over how it would have conflicted with a certain somewhat expensive software purchase that recently took place.

Looking at the way this turned out, I suspect that the two biggest factors in how many people fell for it were that the article was posted late in the day (meaning that most people read it on April 2nd) and that we have posted a smattering of GALIDOR™ news over the last few months, which meant people were not able to immediately write off the possibility. On that subject, I do watch the show. I don’t think it’s the absolute best thing on the airwaves, but I grew up on the original Star Wars trilogy, and with the exception of a single episode from late 4th season (victim of the badly bobbled network-switch), I’ve watched the entire run of the original Babylon 5 series. I love sci-fi and given my thought that all sci-fi is worth watching (except the X-Files, which has literally caused me to dive for the nearest method of turning the TV off on more than one occasion) I don’t have a problem with dragging myself out of bed at such a horrible time in the morning and watching it. I don’t plan to collect it (though I love frogs and will probably pick up Euripides as a result) nor do I plan to split the focus of MoD between BIONICLE™ and GALIDOR™. Being that MoD is a LEGO® fan-site, I feel that it’s worth mentioning any significantly new directions that they are taking as a company. After all, BIONICLE™ is one of them.