Back in the mid-1990s, I learned that startling someone is not the best way to teach them how not to do something. And by “someone” I mean my dad. And by “mid-1990s” I mean like 6th-grade or so.
The year the Lion King came out on VHS (showing my age) we got a computer with a sound card that included a mic line in. That meant I could take a couple of wires I got at Radio Shack (remember them?) and splice them together with an adaptor to get sound from our VHS player into the computer. Trust me, it was cutting-edge stuff at the time for this middle schooler.
I decided, with this awesome new upgrade, to change the famous Windows 3.11 error sound with the audio from this clip out of the Lion King.
It only got to be used once. I was in the living room watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and my dad was in the bedroom down the hall working on a college paper. I don’t know what he did wrong, but he caused that clip to be played (at full volume mind you). Hehe.
A few seconds of silence then passed and my dad shouted for me in one of those tones that required immediate attention, “Joel! Get in here and change this back, right now!”
He was not nearly as amused about the new sound effect I had added to the computer.
It was basically the equivalent of the computer scolding my father for an honest mistake. Poor guy.
