Ion easter eggs
After double clicking in just the right spot, Lil John’s “Turn Down for What” plays on the Ion login screen as the icons start dancing.
June 1, 2022
While many students use Ion every day to sign up for 8th periods, to stay up-to-date on upcoming events, or even to check the status of their bus, not every student knows of the secret easter eggs the sysadmins leave scattered across the Intranet.
“There are several fun phrases that you can put into the search bar in order to reveal some fun behaviors. I encourage anyone who’s interested to hunt for those,” lead sysadmin Lauren Delwiche said.
These easter eggs come in many forms such as loud music played at the click of a button on the login page, or little messages popping up while searching for a bus. The senior destination page shows seniors with obscure majors going to relatively unknown universities. According to this easter egg destination page, 16 members of the class of 2022 are studying bowling management. These are just some of the easter eggs that the sysadmins have left across Ion.
Creation of the easter eggs are not limited to just the sysadmins. Anyone with a humorous idea and a knowledge of JavaScript can create one.
“There isn’t a particular process to coming up with ideas – Ion is open source, so anyone who has an idea can add something,” Delwiche said.
These easter eggs have existed within Ion since its creation and have passed down through the sysadmins over the years, with more and more easter eggs bring added every generation.
“Easter eggs are just little pieces of humor that we like to leave behind knowing that both us the developers and our users will get a laugh out of them,” Delwiche said.
![Mr. Wormwood, one of the antagonists of Matilda played by junior Gabriel Ascoli, grins at the audience. During part of the musical, Matilda puts bleach in Mr. Wormwood’s hair product, which turns his hair green, a gag which is difficult to pull off mid-scene. “[The] set [crew] built a sink with a big basin for him to stick his head into. There was a green wig that was set in that sink. While he stuck his head in the sink, its like 10 seconds or 15 seconds, he puts the wig on,” Abraham said.](https://www.tjtoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/IMG_1203-475x317.jpg)
![Mr. Wormwood, one of the antagonists of Matilda played by junior Gabriel Ascoli, grins at the audience. During part of the musical, Matilda puts bleach in Mr. Wormwood’s hair product, which turns his hair green, a gag which is difficult to pull off mid-scene. “[The] set [crew] built a sink with a big basin for him to stick his head into. There was a green wig that was set in that sink. While he stuck his head in the sink, its like 10 seconds or 15 seconds, he puts the wig on,” Abraham said.](https://www.tjtoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/IMG_1203-300x200.jpg)
![Kai Wang conducts Symphonic Orchestra as the first Jefferson orchestra performance composed and conducted by a student. Everyone in the ensemble dressed in red to symbolize good fortune and joy for the Lunar New Year. “I was just proud of him, because [the piece] was such quality,” orchestra director Allison Bailey said.](https://www.tjtoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/IMG_0893.jpeg)
![Sophomore Holly Huang twirls a ribbon as she performs her dance, “Joy of the Dragon.” Chinese ribbon dance is a traditional art form originating in ancient China. Her ribbon dance was inspired by the revered mythical creature and this year’s Chinese zodiac sign, the dragon. “My ribbon symbolized a dragon flying in the air. My outfit was [also] inspired by the dragon, the color was the same color as my ribbon, but on the shoulder there were some details like dragon scales,” Huang said. “I liked how there were a lot of people in the audience and it was just really fun to perform.”](https://www.tjtoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/IMG_0964-1-600x387.jpg)