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Dumbest thing you've ever done to yourself?

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ChadTower:

--- Quote from: shardian on February 01, 2008, 11:47:02 am ---I don't understand why tennis is a money sport anyways.

--- End quote ---

Mostly because the wealthy kids here play at closed, private facilities with top tier professional instruction from an early age.  There's just no way the average kid is going to compete with them without being insanely talented.  I worked ---my bottom--- off learning on my own for years - and was a far better athlete than many of these kids - but still just broke the bottom tier of the level they were playing on.  It's not a money sport to learn.  It's a money sport to really compete at when you're young.

The odd part about hockey is that where I grew up it isn't a money sport.  It sure as hell is in New England, though.

hulkster:
i dont know if its the dumbest thing ive ever done, but its arcade related so this is definitely the place to post it....

back in 2004 i think it was, i was building my second cab (Mamestrosity), and i was at the point where i had just cut the slots for the tmolding.  i got my tmolding in the mail and was all excited to slap it on my cab.  so...

i sit down, indian style, with my tmolding in my lap, and my trust box cutter knife.  i was cutting parts of the tmolding strip into pieces, and like a smart person, i was cutting TOWARDS me.  one piece in particular wouldnt cut real easy, so i was pulling pretty hard TOWARDS me to get it to cut it.  while doing this i was thinking to myself "i probably shouldnt be cutting this with the blade towards me, but ill be fine".  and yep, when i got to the end of the strip, the knife came forward and went straight into my calf.  didnt hurt, but i think i hit a vein or something cuz blood was squirting up into my face...all over my moms carpet.  i put my hand over it to keep it from going on the carpet, but it was gushing out and seeping out of my hands.  it was about 1 a.m. so my mom was asleep so i couldnt yell for her to help.  i put my second hand over it, but i couldnt stand up. 

...hey, you try putting two hands on your calf and trying to stand up at the same time without letting go.  yeah, not easy....

i hopped to the bathroom, and happened to have my cell phone on me.  called our house phone from my cell phone, and my mom came down with towels.  i still have the scar to this day.


oh and one last thing thats arcade related injury stuff....i dropped a half sheet of mdf at about chest high on my right big toe while trying to put the back of my compartment onto my cab.  woke up the neighbors with my cussing :-)

Mauzy:
I have a couple arcade related that happened on the same day with the same cabinet.

My dad and I drove about 90 miles south to pick up a converted Midway cab (turned out to be a Galaga *actually a Ms Pac but Im not a fan Ms Pac and the sideart was literally gone*) Anyway, we loaded the cab in the back of the truck and hauled it home. It was advertised as dead, but I went ahead and plugged it in. Nothing. Without thinking I reached in the back of the cab to check the PS. It was a little dark in the cab, and I could see the power supply was connected to the power cord. If was toward the front of the cab, so while leaning in to grab it, I put a hand on the inside base of the cab and felt one helluva jolt! The shock surprised me which made me jump. Of course the monitor is mounted pretty low in the cab, so in jumping I smashed my head on the chassis. Luckily No damaged was done. Just a small burn on my hand and a good sized lump on my head. Luckily my parents weren't out there as I had a few choice words for the whole thing.

The Next day...

Dad and I were carrying the cab into the basement. I had the top, and he had the bottom. We got to the bottom of the stairs and placed it in a good spot for dismantling. He left and I noticed one of the leg levelers was missing. I tracked in down and tilted the cabinet back to put it in place. I thought I had it balanced against the wall properly, but turns out it wasn't. The thing rocked forward with both arms under it. Luckily, I had gotten the leg in, so it didn't completely crush my arms, but I had a heck of a time getting it off without the use of my arms...

Ive done several stupid things to hurt myself, but most involve electricity. Ive never broken wany bones, shipped teeth, or torn off fingernails as you geniuses  ;D have.

shmokes:

--- Quote from: shardian on February 01, 2008, 08:13:28 am ---
Ummm...why are you letting this class stop you from teaching her? Rosetta Stone, Pimsleur, etc. Obviously if she didn't apply herself in the first class, she would not have applied herself in the second class. Not everyone can learn a language in a school setting.


--- End quote ---

Well . . . there's two problems with that.  One is that she always has plans to do that stuff.  I have all the Pimsleur French stuff, beginner, intermediate and advanced.  But that sort of thing isn't for everybody.  Some people need the structured classroom to learn effectively, as much for the discipline it provides as  anything else.  In fact, I think about 99% of people in the world fall into this category.  How many people have you met who have intended to learn a language with Rosetta Stone or something like it?  Probably more than one.  How many people have you known who learned a language (or even a substantial part of one) with a program like that?  Probably less than one.

Which brings me to another problem.  I've been through all 30 units of each of the three levels of the Pimsleur system, twice each.  I was very impressed with it.  It taught me almost nothing.  It's good practice, and it does teach some stuff.  It even seems at first to be teaching a lot.  But there's just so much to know.  If you came to an absolute mastery of all the material Pimsleur has to offer, with nothing else, and went to France, you would not be able to hold basic conversations.  You would know quite a few semi-useful phrases, and you'd at least have a small amount of knowledge to work with, but it's not much.  And what I got from all of the Pimsleur I did doesn't even remotely compare to what you get out of a single semester in a university upper-level language course.  What's even funnier is that class isn't even an especially good way to learn a language.  It is a good way to give you a foundation, especially with the written language, but you need to spend a significant amount of time in a place where people speak the language natively if you want to become fluent.  I've got a BA in French, probably with a 3.8 or 3.9 GPA if only looking at my French courses, and I spent a month in France over the Summer and I don't even pretend to be fluent yet.

So, anyway, it's a tough proposition.  I do encourage Stacy to do the Pimsleur stuff, and even to start working through my French text books and let me help her, but that takes dedication.  She comes home from work and then does 90% of the child-rearing stuff while I've got my nose in my casebooks 'till 2 or 3am every day.  When we finally put the baby down around 9:00, she's just not inclined to do much of anything that involves effort.  I ain't gonna nag her after she's been working her ass off for the past 16 hours.  That's probably the quickest route I could take to souring her against living in France . . .  ;D 

RTSDaddy2:
Merciful God, I have never broken a bone or had anything quite like the horror show that's here......but...

1) About age 12, I was chasing a friend of mine around the wooden playground set at our school - some stupid tag game, I suppose.  Anyway, they have those nice 2 x 4 wood beams for the girls to practice walking on at several corners.  He jumps over one full speed....and I followed...or at least, I intended to.

My left leg cleared....my right knee slammed into the board at full speed (however fast kids can run).  I really thought I'd messed it up good, I could hardly walk on it the rest of the day. Then, of course, my father decided he knew what would fix it and immobilized it (i mean totally) in an ACE bandage.  After a day or two it seemed better....but then while kicking a soccer ball around the backyard, I managed to miss the ball and slam the same knee...EXACT same spot of course...into the chain link fence around the family home.

I really should have had it seen about at that point, but never did.  Kinda fun every now and then though, as I can truthfully tell you when rain or inclement cold weather's on it's way.  Sucker will be so stiff I can hardly walk (coupling the injury now with increasing age).

2)  This is easily the funniest, looking back on it, but man did it mess with my pride.  The first job I ever worked out of college required you to traverse steps leading to a basement area where the computers were.  Put the metal tape on the reel, print out your change on the collection form, check it and take the tape back upstairs.

No, I didn't fall DOWN the stairs - I fell UP the things, right in front of my co-workers.

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