Dumbest thing you've ever done to yourself?

[ChadTower]

I don't understand why tennis is a money sport anyways.

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  have.

[shmokes]

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.

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 . . .   

[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.

[ChadTower]

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

Everybody has done that at one point or another.  I did it carrying a baby.  Had to twist my whole body around to protect the baby and slammed my shoulder/head into the stairs hard.  Probably concussed myself (for about the 10th time).

The baby didn't even frown, thankfully.  If I hadn't been carrying a baby I would have just put a hand down and been fine.

[SirPeale]

I think we've all done something like that, Chad.

About three years ago we were going to my in-laws.  We stopped at a rest area.  I was carrying my son Riley.  I went to step over the curb (which was obscenely high - about a foot) and caught my toe.  Completely lost my balance.  Stumbled forward about ten feet, knew I was going to lose it, and didn't want to slam my kid on his head.  So I completely turned my body so I'd at least land on my side.  Hit my shoulder pretty hard.  Kid was fine.  Within seconds I had about 30 people around me, all wanting to know if the kid was okay.  Someone took him so I could catch my breath.  Wrenched my shoulder pretty hard, but nothing serious.

[saint]

Know a guy in JuJitsu class who was walking down the stairs holding his son. Tripped or lost his balance or some such, did the self-sacrifice thing to protect his kid, and broke his leg in 3 places. Ick. Ick.

[Jdurg]

I was getting out of Grand Central station and when I stepped onto one of the escalators down there I stepped in between two steps so when they started to raise I could either fall backward, or fall forward.  I figured falling forward would be less painful so I fell forward while trying not to drop my laptop bag and somehow not smacking my face onto the escalator steps.  Instead, my left hand got chewed up by the steps and after getting up and having everybody look at me stunned, I raced into work and dunked my hand in a huge cup of Listerine in the bathroom to disinfect it. 

Thankfully, no infection set it and the wounds healed just fine.

[stan2323]

I was about 9 years old and was out shooting frogs with my BB gun at a local pond.  It stopped shooing BBs.  I rolled up a bubble gum wrapper and put it in the end of the gun.  Pumped it up and shot it.  It came out just fine.  I tried shooting into the water to see if BBs were coming out.  No BB.  Well I proceeded to pump it up again and put none other than my finger in front of it.  Well it took the opportunity to start shooting again and I shot a BB right through my finger.  I went crying home to mom.  She put a band aid on it and said you’ll be OK run along and play.  She is an LPN and it is a good thing she is or I would have been going to the hospital every month or so.  I was always crashing my bike, falling out of the hay mound, cutting my self with knifes and saw. 

Severn months ago in July, now 34 years old, I was kicking dead branches off a pine tree at a house I just bought instead of cutting with a saw.  I kicked one hard at the wrong angel and it went through the bottom of my sneaker.  Put a hole in the bottom of my foot about ˝ inch deep right in the middle of my arch.  I had to go to the hospital to have it cleaned out.  I felt so stupid explaining it to the doc.
 

[shardian]

I was about 9 years old and was out shooting frogs with my BB gun at a local pond.  It stopped shooing BBs.  I rolled up a bubble gum wrapper and put it in the end of the gun.  Pumped it up and shot it.  It came out just fine.  I tried shooting into the water to see if BBs were coming out.  No BB.  Well I proceeded to pump it up again and put none other than my finger in front of it.  Well it took the opportunity to start shooting again and I shot a BB right through my finger.  I went crying home to mom.  She put a band aid on it and said you’ll be OK run along and play.  She is an LPN and it is a good thing she is or I would have been going to the hospital every month or so.  I was always crashing my bike, falling out of the hay mound, cutting my self with knifes and saw.   

At least you only had a BB gun...

[shardian]

 

 

I think we can all amend our posts to show this.

[dstone]

I like fireworks. About two/three years ago, a few days before the 4th of July, my uncle brought home some time delay fuse as a gift from one of his friends that puts on the pro shows. Pretty simple stuff to use, you just cut off the length for the time delay you want and use some electrical tape to tape the fuses of the other fireworks. So, I cut off a length, lined up a series of 5 standard consumer-grade artillery shell tubes out in the field and tied them all together so they would shoot off in sequence. While I was doing this, my father and uncle were putting up some cedar inside the pool house, my mother was running back and forth getting nails and whatnot, and the rest of the family was in the pool. I let everyone know I was about to set off the fireworks and my mother came outside the fence that was around the pool to watch. I lit the fuse and ran to stand next to a tree that was alongside the pool fence. The first shell went off perfectly. Then I noticed I could see the fuse of the second shell burning down inside the tube. Uh-oh. I had barely gotten out "Oh cra-" when it went off, launching the second shell into the tree that my mother and I was standing under. We both take off running. The third shell launches into a perfect arc directly over the fence and into the pool, landing next to my grandfather. It exploded about 6-12 inches under water, sending a massive amount of water into the air. The fourth shell blew up another tree that I was standing under by that time, and the fifth shell blew up on the ground at the launch site. I turn around to see quite a bit of water running off the roof of the pool house and the house and my grandpa getting out of the pool laughing about how he thought he was back in the Navy. Needless to say, I don't use the cardboard launch tubes anymore. I have some nice steel pipes that get buried half-way in the ground and packed with sand bags. A little overkill, but I don't have to worry about the tubs flipping over anymore.

[ChadTower]

I turn around to see quite a bit of water running off the roof of the pool house and the house and my grandpa getting out of the pool laughing about how he thought he was back in the Navy.

Laughing?  My grandfather would have come around the fence and kicked ---my bottom--- for an hour.

[RayB]

I shot a BB gun at rubber tires. If anything guarantees a ricochet, it's gonna be thick rubber! Hit me in the very corner of an eye. Not enough to hurt or anything, but enough to make me realize how stupid I was being.

[ChadTower]

I shot a BB gun at rubber tires. If anything guarantees a ricochet, it's gonna be thick rubber! Hit me in the very corner of an eye. Not enough to hurt or anything, but enough to make me realize how stupid I was being.

I got a BB ricochet as a kid off of a tree I shot.  Hit me in the leg, with snow pants on, so all it did was make a loud slap.  Made me move back 15 feet, though.

[Franco B]

I dont seem to have much luck with cycles 

1) During the summer me and my friends used to have water fights at a friends house. After one battle we decided to go out on our bikes but couldnt be bothered to put our clothes back on as it was still hot so we just went out in our shorts. We started biking down a steep hill at the back of our friends house down a track between two fields with deep drainage ditches either side. Suddenly I hit a large rock hidden amoungst the tall grass and I was catupluted into one of the ditches straight into a huge deep nettle patch. I got stung from head to toe, I even managed to sting my tongue somehow! No amount of doc leaves would help in that situation.

2) Another time me and my friends were out on our cycles and i noticed that if I brushed my trainers against the spokes of my front wheel it made a nice tinkling noise. Pretty cool I thought but it was fairly quiet. I thought if I pressed my feet harder against the spokes it would make a louder noise. I tried this and needless to say my feet dug in between the spokes which were then dragged round the wheel before catapulting me straight onto my head, ouch! 

3) When we were little one of my friends got a transformers BMX that had a sound effects module on it that played various lazer noises controlled by a button on the handle bars. After much begging and pleading he let me have a go on it and we cycled round to my house on it. As I was biking towards the garage I thought I would go in at speed and pull a 'cool' skid. I cycled in at speed and becuase I had been playing with the sound effect unit I somehow got confused and mistaked the button for the back brake. Beep, beep, beep, beep, BANG! I crashed straight into the back of the garage wall.

4) A couple of years later I was biking towards my garage wearing a baseball cap. Unbeknown to me the garage door that swung down from the top was only 3/4 open and was infact perfectly at my head height. Somehow with my baseball cap on I didnt see the garage door and it clotheslined me clean off the bike.

I don't cycle much anymore!

[ark_ader]

Broke up with my "wife to be".

[emb]

I shot myself in the eye with a paintball gun. Back in high school a buddy of mine wanted to borrow one of my paintball guns. I let him borrow a cheap one of mine, since it was his first time. It was a pump-action talon (you could buy cheap these things for like $35) and it took those tiny co2 cartridges. He had his fun and gave it back the next day. He said the co2 tank was not in the gun. I was a complete moron and did not check (but did take off the hopper, but there still was a ball in the chamber).

So here I am cleaning out this gun. I turn the gun around, I lose grip of it, my hand slips and "magically" hits the trigger and *SMACK!* ....right in the eye!

My mother comes home from work and drives me to the hospital. They said if I came in any later I would probably have been blind. They put some stuff in my eye and gave me this eye-patch that looked like a metallic noodle strainer for a few weeks. I also remember seeing black "blobs" floating around my eye. I remember walking around the halls, and the kids from the middle school feared me because of that eye patch. Ahhh...great times....

[shardian]

I shot myself in the eye with a paintball gun. Back in high school a buddy of mine wanted to borrow one of my paintball guns. I let him borrow a cheap one of mine, since it was his first time. It was a pump-action talon (you could buy cheap these things for like $35) and it took those tiny co2 cartridges. He had his fun and gave it back the next day. He said the co2 tank was not in the gun. I was a complete moron and did not check (but did take off the hopper, but there still was a ball in the chamber).

So here I am cleaning out this gun. I turn the gun around, I lose grip of it, my hand slips and "magically" hits the trigger and *SMACK!* ....right in the eye!

My mother comes home from work and drives me to the hospital. They said if I came in any later I would probably have been blind. They put some stuff in my eye and gave me this eye-patch that looked like a metallic noodle strainer for a few weeks. I also remember seeing black "blobs" floating around my eye. I remember walking around the halls, and the kids from the middle school feared me because of that eye patch. Ahhh...great times....

At least you only had a paintball gun...
hehehe

I'm seeing a definite pattern, that arcade enthusiasts should not own guns.

[emb]

At least you only had a paintball gun...
hehehe

I'm seeing a definite pattern, that arcade enthusiasts should not own guns.

Are lightguns save?     

[shmokes]

Speaking of gun safety, my Con Law professor said something pretty hilarious today.  He pointed out that statistically the person most likely to murder you is your spouse.  He said that this is the reason he favors gun control.   

[shardian]

Speaking of gun safety, my Con Law professor said something pretty hilarious today.  He pointed out that statistically the person most likely to murder you is your spouse.  He said that this is the reason he favors gun control.   

Well then he should be against gun control. That way he can blow his spouses ass away and get away with it when she tries!

[RayB]

I also remember seeing black "blobs" floating around my eye.

How were those treated? I have "floaters" right now, but from all the research I've done, there is nothing that can be done about them.

[emb]

I also remember seeing black "blobs" floating around my eye.

How were those treated? I have "floaters" right now, but from all the research I've done, there is nothing that can be done about them.

I told the doctor that when I was in the emergency room. It was quite a few years ago, but if I remember correctly he said that it was my blood cells going through my retinal vasculature. He said that the "black blobs" would disappear over a few weeks (and they did).

[Kangum]

was pretty wasted after work one night. went to take a swig of beer and totally missed my mouth. smacked myself in the teeth with the beer bottle. cracked my front tooth in half. coordination was more then a little off that night. i still cant believe it happened. i must have tried to take a sip at warp speed to break it.

[Jdurg]

I also remember seeing black "blobs" floating around my eye.

How were those treated? I have "floaters" right now, but from all the research I've done, there is nothing that can be done about them.

Floaters occur when material such as blood cells, fluid, etc. is moving through the vitreous in your eye.  (Was at the eye doctor a few weeks ago and read up on this stuff).  They usually appear if a blood vessel starts leaking in your eye, or if you get some sudden head trauma and some cellular material detaches from your eye wall, you'll see the floaters.


Back on to dumb things.  Earlier this month I decided to pre-plan a payment on my Visa card so that I wouldn't forget.  I scheduled the payment online and forgot about it.  A few days ago, when I got my paycheck, I went and foolishly made another big payment on my card.  Oops!  I looked at my bank account today and nearly ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- my pants when I saw how low it was.  I saw two payments to the credit card company and realized what I had done.  I immediately called the credit card company and they said "You have a balance of negative something something." They wouldn't refuse the payment, or send it back to my bank account.  All they could do was write me a check for the difference and I'd get it in 4-5 weeks.   

[emb]

Back on to dumb things.  Earlier this month I decided to pre-plan a payment on my Visa card so that I wouldn't forget.  I scheduled the payment online and forgot about it.  A few days ago, when I got my paycheck, I went and foolishly made another big payment on my card.  Oops!  I looked at my bank account today and nearly ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- my pants when I saw how low it was.  I saw two payments to the credit card company and realized what I had done.  I immediately called the credit card company and they said "You have a balance of negative something something." They wouldn't refuse the payment, or send it back to my bank account.  All they could do was write me a check for the difference and I'd get it in 4-5 weeks.   

Ah man...that really sucks

[mountain]

Back on to dumb things.  Earlier this month I decided to pre-plan a payment on my Visa card so that I wouldn't forget.  I scheduled the payment online and forgot about it.  A few days ago, when I got my paycheck, I went and foolishly made another big payment on my card.  Oops!

I've done that too!

[shmokes]

This isn't something I did, but the fireworks story reminded me of it.  I was up at my in-law's cabin in Island Park, just outside Yellowstone.  We went to a professional 4th of July fireworks show that they have on the golf course up there every year (used to have, anyway )  I remember being really surprised they would do a fireworks show in the middle of a forest, but whatever.  Anyway, we're sitting there in our lawn chairs and such when the show starts.  A firework shoots up and explodes.  Pretty.  One or two more.  Nice.  Then something really strange happened.  The next explosion wasn't shaped like a circle.  It was a perfect half-circle . . . AT GROUND LEVEL    .   Immediately I said, "I don't think it was supposed to do that."  About the time that I said, ". . . that," every other firework set to be exploded that night, exploded.  On the ground.  At the same time.  It was ---smurfing--- amazing.  Seriously.   ---smurfing---.   Amazing.   I can't begin to describe how spectacular it was.

Once it was over there were a couple of trees engulfed in flames.  Luckily, and surprisingly, nobody was seriously injured.  Minor burns only.

[knave]

I was at a fireworks show once when a few of the rockets wond up hitting the ground before going off.  It was kind of neat but also a little scary.  For us they just went off in a field but a few degrees in another direction and it could have hit the crowd.

[dgordon86]

Next to my childhood house was a summer church (for tourists visiting our area, etc, etc). Well, it was on a hill  and was perfect for bike riding. So one day after not riding a bike for a couple years (probably about 13 at the time) I take my brother's bmx bike, which has no breaks and start to go as fast as I could humanly pedal down this hill. BIG mistake. I was going so fast I couldn't even bail when I realized was going non-stop! So I took it like a boy and slammed head on into the church, taking off a huge ass chunk of the  siding.  When I came to I couldn't even see straight (handles weren't straight either). So all cut and bruised I stumble home, and my mom thinks I'm faking. I finally convinced her when I told her I needed to take a nap.

Straight to triage.

Another time at that same setting, but a few years earlier I took a old style 80s skateboard (95'- I was about 9) and put a plywood board on the top to coast down. Didn't expect one of the wheels to come off...dragged my hand under the board for a few feet. infection, infection, infection. yum!

How about masterbating with soap and  not rinsing? that was pretty dumb. Balls flaked like there was no tomorrow! To be young again. lol. 

[javeryh]

Going to law school (instead of grad school for architecture) is by far dumbest thing I've ever done to myself.

[knave]

Going to law school (instead of grad school for architecture) is by far dumbest thing I've ever done to myself.

Well if we're gonna go there, I left a nice county job to go work for a tech company...then Crash!  Boy that sucked...I thought I was on the fast track to management when I ended up on unemployment. 

Now I have a different nice county job. 

[vorghagen]

How about masterbating with soap and  not rinsing? that was pretty dumb. Balls flaked like there was no tomorrow! To be young again. lol. 

Too. Much. Information.

Although, nice touch with the soapbox smiley.

[shmokes]

Going to law school (instead of grad school for architecture) is by far dumbest thing I've ever done to myself.

Ouch, that's a toughie.  I think being an architect would be a much more rewarding job than being a lawyer, in most situations.

[Thenasty]

Looking at this pic........... It hurt my eyes for a couple of days.....   


Had nightmares also 

[shmokes]

Jesus!  A couple days?  Why didn't you look away for Christ's sake?   

[javeryh]

Going to law school (instead of grad school for architecture) is by far dumbest thing I've ever done to myself.

Ouch, that's a toughie.  I think being an architect would be a much more rewarding job than being a lawyer, in most situations.

yeah, it's part of the reason I love building arcade machines and furniture and stuff - it's in my blood. 

[havic626]

while trying to clean out a auger, i slipped my finger in it while it was operating.  A small chunk of my pinky came off.   good times!!