What stupid things have you done.

**bobbybovine** · 07-16-2012, 09:55 AM

Last Friday I seemed to be doing one stupid thing after another. Culmnating with hooking up a transformer at work backwards so instead of stepping down from 120v to 24v it stepped up from 120v to 600v... ooooops. A big cloud of smoke, some sizzling and everyone looking at me with a smirk on their face left me feeling...well stupid.

So what stupid things has everyone done lately??

**Big Al Rocks** · 07-16-2012, 01:28 PM

I apologize for laughing about the big puff of smoke, but now I feel better about having a similar experience.

**garageband** · 07-16-2012, 01:30 PM

My list is too long. Someone else please take a turn.

**garww** · 07-16-2012, 02:19 PM

Before, or after I was born. This morning, I ran the coffer pot with the discharge nozzel aimed back into the holding tank. After hearing that continuous perk for 40 minutes, I went to take a look. Sorted and sprayed out the mess and tried it again. This time, I didn't have the pot cover under the exhaust port so the flow was in instant pour mode. Jeez ! It's true, I am getting supider, but I was also preoccupied with sorting out a power outage and heavy storm

**richiebee** · 07-16-2012, 02:27 PM

Bought a Mac Mini for one of our classrooms. I swear its the last time.

**bobbybovine** · 07-16-2012, 08:09 PM

Originally Posted by Big Al Rocks

I apologize for laughing about the big puff of smoke, but now I feel better about having a similar experience.

If I can make you laugh then the $1000 in parts was worth it

.

Originally Posted by garww

Before, or after I was born. This morning, I ran the coffer pot with the discharge nozzel aimed back into the holding tank. After hearing that continuous perk for 40 minutes, I went to take a look. Sorted and sprayed out the mess and tried it again. This time, I didn't have the pot cover under the exhaust port so the flow was in instant pour mode. Jeez ! It's true, I am getting supider, but I was also preoccupied with sorting out a power outage and heavy storm

I can relate, for some reason I have been leaving my coffee pot on till there is a nice sludge in the bottom.

That's it? Come on guys you aren't exactly making me feel better. There has to be at least one story that will make me say "I thought I was bad!"

**garww** · 07-16-2012, 08:18 PM

Well, I made a $1000 mistake in 1974, but you said lately ! Ha ! That was only ten years after payable in silver was printed

**Stan_Halen** · 07-16-2012, 08:32 PM

I have been swatting some big wasps nests (Yellow Jackets) with a stick. I'll feel pretty stupid if I get stung ... but then that's me - living on the edge.

**brandondrury** · 07-17-2012, 12:22 AM

I just about killed a dog, a pregnant lady, and an audio engineer/web guy last night.

This has to be on the Darwin Awards. My office and bedroom are in the same room. We have one of those cheap ass window air conditioner units in the south window. About 3 months ago I put my battery backup uninterrupted power supply think by my computer (on the south wall). The UPS started making some STRANGE noises last night and all power was cut off from one side of it. I noticed it was a little damp. I looked up and saw that the AC was dripping water into the house.

I was a slightly alarmed, but figured the house would have burned down if there was a huge problem so I unplugged it and everything going into it. 5 minutes later the weird noises started (presumably powered by the battery). I picked it up and water POURED out the stupid thing. I mean probably 32 oz or so. I was like HOOOOOOLLYYYYY HEELLLLLLL! My eyes grew 3 sizes. That should have been DEATH.

Needless to say, I won't be putting any high powered batteries under dripping air conditioners any time soon.

Brandon

**Stan_Halen** · 07-17-2012, 02:01 AM

Originally Posted by brandondrury

Needless to say, I won't be putting any high powered batteries under dripping air conditioners any time soon.

Isn't that something Wile E. Coyote would have done in a Road Runner cartoon?

Just kidding Brando. I'm glad you saved the day!

**bobbybovine** · 07-17-2012, 05:01 AM

Originally Posted by brandondrury

I just about killed a dog, a pregnant lady, and an audio engineer/web guy last night.

This has to be on the Darwin Awards. My office and bedroom are in the same room. We have one of those cheap ass window air conditioner units in the south window. About 3 months ago I put my battery backup uninterrupted power supply think by my computer (on the south wall). The UPS started making some STRANGE noises last night and all power was cut off from one side of it. I noticed it was a little damp. I looked up and saw that the AC was dripping water into the house.

I was a slightly alarmed, but figured the house would have burned down if there was a huge problem so I unplugged it and everything going into it. 5 minutes later the weird noises started (presumably powered by the battery). I picked it up and water POURED out the stupid thing. I mean probably 32 oz or so. I was like HOOOOOOLLYYYYY HEELLLLLLL! My eyes grew 3 sizes. That should have been DEATH.

Needless to say, I won't be putting any high powered batteries under dripping air conditioners any time soon.

Brandon

Now that's what I am talking about. But I can't say that I wouldn't do something like that either. I am sure your wife would have been thrilled about you killing the pregnant lady.

**Phlipper** · 07-17-2012, 06:45 AM

I went to get coal for the fire once and thought, "I'll just stoke the fire up, then I'll have a pee". Went outside, filled a large bucket with coal, came back into the house and threw the whole lot down the toilet!

**Big Al Rocks** · 07-17-2012, 06:46 AM

Last week I was chainsawing a huge branch from one of my trees and even though I knew it was going to happen, I kept on sawing until the branch fell off and damn near took the ladder out from under me.

**Big Al Rocks** · 07-17-2012, 06:53 AM

Oh, when I was 9 or 10, I had no idea the concept of how a fireplace should work. At 2 or 3 in the morning, I threw a couple pieces of wood on the fire because it was really cold. When they didn't burn instantly, I threw kerosene on the fire. That made me scream at a volume and pitch I didn't know was possible and made my dad jump straight out of bed and run through the house like a maniac. How I managed NOT to catch myself or the house on fire is a true miracle. And how my parents managed not to beat the living shit out of me is an even bigger miracle.

**bobbybovine** · 07-17-2012, 07:26 AM

Now that's better. I am literally laughing my ass off.

On to being a kid, I used to take steel wool and rub in on my electric race track producing sparks and lots of burn marks on the carpet. I never thought about burning the house down or electrocuting myself, still don't know how I didn't do the later.

Oh and my friends an I were building a cabin in the woods when I was about 10, I decided to throw the hammer in the air and catch it to be a cool guy. Well it hit a tree branch and I lost sight of it and it landed square on the top of my head, that landed me in the hospital for a couple of hours.

**garageband** · 07-17-2012, 07:40 AM

Originally Posted by Big Al Rocks

Last week I was chainsawing a huge branch from one of my trees and even though I knew it was going to happen, I kept on sawing until the branch fell off and damn near took the ladder out from under me.

The whole chainsaw-on-a-ladder thing scares me silly. It always feels like some sort of dangerous circus trick, programmed just after the car full of clowns.

**Big Al Rocks** · 07-17-2012, 07:52 AM

Well now you've one upped me. The thought of the SOUND of the hammer hitting your head is making me giggle like a little girl. I know I am a terrible human being. Now all these memories of stupid things I did as a kid are starting to come back to me.

**John Lance** · 07-17-2012, 08:09 AM

Originally Posted by Phlipper

I went to get coal for the fire once and thought, "I'll just stoke the fire up, then I'll have a pee". Went outside, filled a large bucket with coal, came back into the house and threw the whole lot down the toilet!

Brain on one track (pee). Other brain tracks are floating in and out along with the main track and none are fully functional. Whoops! This is priceless.

**John Lance** · 07-17-2012, 08:32 AM

#1
Some years ago I had set up the PA for a large theater production for an out of town touring group.

The main production people (whoever) decided we didn't need any room to set up the console and racks, so we were cramming things in as decently as possible into what was essentially an impossible situation. Well, we got it all in. Barely. The main and only real problem was that the the power supply for the console was going to be near the sound engineer's left foot if he slid left too far and slightly up. He was notified. We would have placed the cover for the rack holding the power supply back on the front but that thing really did need front to back ventilation.

We had to have the main gear to be easily accessible by eye and hands, and turning the console on and off was way down the list.

I'll be danged if the sound engineer's left foot didn't find that darned power switch right in the flippin' middle of the show. I was subsequently to be found jumping over seats to get the thing turned back on because he had totally forgotten about it, and I immediately knew what he had done.

Flipping the rack around could've exposed the switch to other feet. It was a no-win situation.

#2
I traveled to a client site. Have a drummer in, have no time at all for a properly checked setup, and get the routing wrong for the toms, routing one tom to two tracks and another tom to no tracks. Crap. Don't discover this until after all recording has been completed.

Those are the only two I know of, with neither of them likely to ever be repeated. #1: make sure I always have enough room. Period. #2: templates & stick with them.

**John Lance** · 07-17-2012, 08:42 AM

#3
Not so stupid as it was funny.

Rep comes in to a music store I did repairs and sound installs at. Demonstrates new speaker line he has. Leaves a pair of what seemed to be pretty nice ones. Said we couldn't blow them up as long as we weren't clipping into them.

Well, the main sales guy and I promptly blew them up after the guy left. This was back in the late 70's when Disco was taking hold. I forgot which music we had up, but the BGW750 we used toasted the crap out of the low frequency drivers in those speakers and it didn't take but 15 seconds of thump, thump, thump. No, we didn't bottom out the drivers. The voice coils fried up. The rep went back to the mfr & they came back with an improved product.

**garww** · 07-17-2012, 09:46 AM

Originally Posted by Stan_Halen

Isn't that something Wile E. Coyote would have done in a Road Runner cartoon?

Just kidding Brando. I'm glad you saved the day!

I learned a lot from Wile E. At around five-six years of age I was going to make a Indian Bow and grabbed the hatchet in the garage to slot the ends of my stick. Aways ask someone else to hold the nail while you hammer. So, I look at the scar everyday, but I'm not sure I learned a lot from it. There is the proverbial toilet seat falling on the wee wee during toilet training. And, my mother wrote in my Baby Book occasional insightful remarks. For the summation of my life at one year of age, there is a space to write in baby's favorite toy. For me it was electrical cords, and I do remember getting zapped( and have kept that fine tradition over the years). It's a testiment that any of us are still here ! Ha !

**kakeux** · 07-17-2012, 09:50 AM

Recently, watching a episode of Jersey Shore....

On a more serious basis, spending 2 hours of debugging/troubleshooting a quite complex audio IP streaming system that wasn't giving audio, to finally figure out that the portable CD-player (used as my main audio source) run out of battery approximatively 30s after I turn it ON...

When I was 6, I was running back home from school and was very happy. I just didn't saw a house (about 6x6 meters) and ran into it...4 days of hospital for an awwful concussion.

**bozmillar** · 07-17-2012, 09:51 AM

This was a couple years ago, but I still look back at it wonder how so many parts of my brain were able to turn into retard mode all at the same time. I was showing my kids how I could throw a banana in the air and cut it in half with a steak knife. Even if it had turned out well, it would have made the stupid list. But it didn't turn out well. For some strange reason, I didn't let go of the banana and put a nice deep gash in my finger. Of course my immediate reaction was to yell to my wife "don't come in, I don't want you to know what I just did," but the kids ratted on me.

The worst part is that my retard brain triggered this weird reaction to where I cringe every time I pick up a banana. Knives have no effect on me. But bananas? I still feel uneasy holding one.

**bobbybovine** · 07-17-2012, 10:01 AM

Originally Posted by bozmillar

But bananas? I still feel uneasy holding one.

So does my wife

**Stan_Halen** · 07-17-2012, 11:23 AM

Originally Posted by bobbybovine

On to being a kid

My neighborhood friends and I, at about 10 years old, got into a dirt-ball fight with the kids on the next block - over the backyard fence. This went on for awhile ... then, one of their guys runs around their garage and comes back with a trash-can lid and boasts that he has a "shield". He's taunting us that the dirt-balls can't hurt him. So I get the bright idea to pick up a loose chunk of concrete ... I'm gonna hurl it at his shield and freak him out since he's not expecting a big heavy "bang". [Keep in mind, he's holding this shield in front of his face and chest so he can't see anything that is happening.] The concrete was REALLY heavy, I could barely throw it, but I was right on target. One second before the concrete hits his shield, he pulls the trash-can lid away to the side so he can see what's happening: the concrete hits him square in the face and he falls to the ground!

Knowing that things just got serious, we all scattered like the wind. Predictably, I ran home and pretended like nothing happened ... his family came marching down the street with their bloody-faced kid and knocked on our door. My dad fielded the angry mob and probably said I'd be punished or something. Afterward, I didn't get in trouble that I can remember, he was just pissed that I didn't give him a heads-up what was coming.