Malygris on 7/11/2006 at 07:11
Used to have degus. Let them run around on the floor now and then when they were young, before I realized just how much they enjoyed chewing on things. Not sure how I failed to make the connection between rodents and electrical cords, but I did, and in a very short time the old Koss subwoofer I had connected to my computer was no longer functioning. Checked out the power cord and sure enough, it had been well chewed.
Letting the degus run loose like that wasn't the stupid part of the story, however.
The damage had been done about midway up the wire, between the transformer and the subwoofer. Simple enough to fix, just cut the wire, take out the chewed bits, strip it down and splice. Grabbed some scissors, grabbed the wire, KAZAP-BAM-FUCK, and ever since then we always remember to unplug the cord before we start fucking with anything.
doctorfrog on 7/11/2006 at 08:08
Internal dialog:
Well, I'm tired of putting the disc in every time I want to play UT2K4, I'm downloading a crack.
...
Hrm, nothing found on Google, let's check *crack site I used a bunch of years ago*
...
Hrm, i'm getting bored. I'll just download this one.
...
Well, looks good. No need to scan it with antivirus or antispyware. Someone who always logs in as Administrator doesn't need to do that sort of thing!
...
Ah, so that's what three virii and multiple spyware apps look like!
Fafhrd on 7/11/2006 at 09:09
most hilarious thing about that is that a fully patched UT2k4 doesn't require the disc to play.
Paz on 7/11/2006 at 14:31
I invaded Iraq as a bit of a giggle. Boy, was my face red! :o
Not my fault though, I had to capture Europe, Asia and a third continent of my choice.
Dia on 7/11/2006 at 14:53
One summer's day I had hooked up the metal wagon for our lawn tractor and had enlisted the aid of my kids to help pick up fallen tree limbs & detritus caused by the previous night's storm. My son, who was about ten at the time, had been learning to drive the tractor and I had sufficient faith in his abilities to let him be the pilot. Then I did a Very Stupid Thing; I didn't want to sit in the wagon with my daughter, so I perched my ass on the rear fender of the tractor (the manual for the tractor severely warns against this type of behavior). My son then popped the clutch (something his father had shown him how to do the week before, unbeknownst to myself) and I immediately did a backwards sommersault off the fender. My ribs struck the metal edge of the wagon and when I landed on the ground I couldn't get up for about five minutes because I'd had the wind knocked out of me and the pain was excruciating. Scared the hell outta my kids, let me tell you.
I ended up with 3 broken ribs. Broken ribs take an inordinately long time to heal. Never did that again.
Ghostly Apparition on 7/11/2006 at 15:08
My wife left a plastic disposable lighter on the console of the car on a hot summer day. When she came back to the car she found all these little plastic parts lying all over the car. Fortunately noone was around when it exploded and nothing was really damaged but still... ya gotta be careful of those things.
Fingernail on 7/11/2006 at 15:11
I once left the hob on low heat (so I didn't notice it was still on) under a pan which was basically empty but still had some bits of food that I had cooked.
Then I went out for a few hours.
When I came back, the pan was too hot to touch, smoking, and the leftover food was totally ashen. I had to take the pan outside with oven gloves, and literally hose it down on the patio to cool it down, it produced a hella steam.
It needed a very high pressured hose and washing liquid to get the burnt food off it.
Oh yeah, the smell wasn't very pleasant either.
Printer's Devil on 7/11/2006 at 15:11
Never forget the cardinal rule when working with knives--cut away and down. The reason for that, of course, is that reversing the rule turns cut into fillet. One swipe and your hand does a very good impression of a fresh steak. In the case of my own blunder, the emergency room surgeon was quite impressed--I managed to avoid every nerve, tendon and artery on the way to the bone. That was about a year ago, so it proves an old safety slogan correct--"You're Never Too Old To Be Dumb."
Fingernail on 7/11/2006 at 15:15
Oh yeah, another one.
I almost sliced the tip of my finger off on a letterbox, just pushing some mis-delivered mail through a neighbour's door.
I don't really blame myself for this, as whilst yes, my reactions didn't pull my hand out quick enough and I didn't catch the flap, only a VERY over-sprung not to mention SHARP letterbox could've done that. The one on our house, by comparison, has rubber on the inside edge.
I still have a fat scar across the pad of my right hand middle finger, and don't have sensation in every part of the tip, but it didn't affect my guitar playing, thank fuck.
jimjack on 7/11/2006 at 15:35
Stupid things were best done in groups. But we did stupid pranks and we were stupid enough to get caught.We used to rearrange the letters on a readerboard of the local church to read shite like Be Horny Suck A Goat, Have a Shitty Xmas, Hello From Satan, etc. We eventually got caught and had to clean up the churchyard for two months thereafter.
Stupider: we used to gut firecrackers and put the powder in public ashtrays outside of non-smoking buildings like the library. They eventually removed the ashtrays.
Stupidest was when I was about nine and with some friends we lifted a storm drain cover off from the side of the road. Later that evening I hear my mum fretting away with a neighbour who is having a fit because her man managed to step on one leg waist deep into an open drainage hole on his way home that evening. He didn't break anything but he did get a massive groin pull Im sure, he was seen stoating about on crutches for weeks, he must have missed alot of work. I felt pretty badly. Loads of stupid things done.
