Yes, I'm pretty sure of it now. Letting my younger sister, 14 at the time, drive my car while my parents were out of state. I already had a thread explaining what happened and I'm not quite in the mood to retell the story. If someone else wants to, grossly exaggerating the details, go for it.
Posts: 9754 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
I've done many, many stupid things over the years. I don't seem to do them so frequently anymore, so that's a good thing.
It's hard to choose which one is the stupidest, but a contender would definitely be something that happened the summer before my Sophomore year in High School. I had a fascination with knives at that point, and had aquired a nicely balanced knife that I enjoyed throwing. Throwing knives, in general, would probably fall under the ruberic of "stupid" for a teenager who didn't have the greatest hand-eye coordination in the world, but that's another story.
I was home alone one weekday afternoon--both my parents were at work--and was in my room playing with my knife. A girl* that I'd been vaguely interested in the previous semester called me and asked me out for that night, and I accepted. When we hung up I threw my knife into the floor of my room (stupid thing #1), and went to shower. After the shower I ran back to my room to get dressed, and somehow managed to kick the knife, edge on, hard enough to send it across the room (stupid thing #2). Not feeling any pain, I looked down and thought "Wow, there's so much blood I can't see the end of my toe". I grabbed a Kleenex, dabbed at it, and realized that the reason I couldn't see the end of my toe was that it was no longer there. I had struck the blade with the tip of my "index toe", and it had cut along the bone until the knuckle had deflected the blade outward. When I saw what I'd done, the pain kicked in. Remembering my first aid, I immediately dropped to the ground and, holding the foot up in the air (keeping it above the heart to minimize blood flow to the wound), and applied pressure to it (smart thing #1 in stupid circumstance). I lived about half an hour out into the country, so I started calling friends, trying to see if there was anybody who could pick me up and take me to the emergency room. Why I didn't just call one of my parents, I don't know. It just didn't occur to me (stupid thing #3). I finally found a friend whose mother was home, and she agreed to come and pick me up. About 10 minutes later, as I was waiting for them, it occurred to me that I was naked. I really didn't want to go to the emergency room naked.
Did you know that it's incredibly difficult to put on underwear and shorts when your foot is a throbbing, bleeding knot of pain? I finally managed it, and even had time to scoot around on the floor, foot still elevated, looking for the end of my toe. I found it right around the time my friend's mom pulled up. By this time I was starting to not think so clearly--I think I was in a little bit of shock--so rather than asking my friend to get me a baggie of ice or something, I just shoved it in my pocket (stupid thing #4) and hopped out to their van, not even thinking for a moment of stopping to write my parents a note explaining where I was, and why there was blood all over the house** (stupid thing #5).
That's...pretty stupid.
*The girl was in a car wreck that day. We took our accidents as a sign, and never ended up going out.
**As you can imagine, panic ensued when my mother got home from work and found all the blood, but luckily it didn't last long, as the nurse from the ER was calling, trying to reach her so that they could get permission to stitch me up.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Didn't you jump out of a moving car to avoid being squirted with a water gun, T? I'd say that that beats letting your sister drive. Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Yes, while that was stupid, I would have to say that endangering someone else, rather than causing myself harm, would make a better stupid situation.
Posts: 9754 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
Many things. For some reason they all involve psychoactive substances.
Drank around one third of a fifth of Smirnoff. I weigh 125 pounds.
Edit: Perhaps I should make clear that these were two separate instances.
Drive home from this guy's house... while completely gone on DXM. In my (extremely impaired) judgment, I actually was driving fairly well. I just had no sense of direction, and managed to drive to the next county before figuring out I was lost. Luckily I had stayed on one road, so "lost" was an overstatement. I knew how to get back, so I drove all the way back and took another route home that I remembered.
posted
When I was about 10, I allowed a neighbor kid to convince me to hold a coke bottle out at arm's length so he could shoot it with his pellet gun.
Yes, he missed the bottle. Yes, it hurt. No, no permanent damage (other than the effect on my personality).
posted
Guys, now that Danzig has posted on this thread, I think it's a waste of time to even leave it open for more applications. Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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Yeah, I thought that one pretty much took the cake, although zgator does have a point about teenage stupidity being a mitigating factor.
I actually lost the piece of toe somewhere in my friend's mother's van. The doctor at the ER kind of pinched it together and did a little stitching. It looked pretty freakish for a few months, but eventually the nail bed that was left kind of colonized the area that the rest of the nail bed had formerly occupied, and it started looking fairly normal. The nail still grows at about half the rate as the rest of my toenails, the joint is a little weird, and there's a scar, but other than that the toe is fine.
Probably the most painful part of the whole experience was when, about a week after the accident, I was tooling around on a pair of crutches and managed to slam my foot into a concrete planter/curb type thing. I thought that I'd split it back open, it hurt so badly.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
If you're using a weed whacker, I can understand why wearing shoes is a good thing. But can anyone tell me why you should wear shoes while mowing? I haven't tested it, but I have a feeling that if I stick my foot under a lawn mower, the ratty pair of tennis shoes I wear in the yard isn't going to save my foot.
Posts: 4625 | Registered: Jul 2002
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My father woke me up and told me I was doing yardwork. Generally, yardwork sucks. I decide to make it suck less, and take some DXM. So I mow the lawn with a push mower while my brother and dad clean out the gutters. Nothing too risky just yet. Then my father, who is of course unaware of my state, decides to teach me how to use the chainsaw.
I actually did fairly well with it. I was not all that high. No one got hurt. In my defense, I was unaware that I would even be doing yardwork that day, much less learning to use a chainsaw. If I had known about the chainsaw, I would have refrained from using.
Posts: 1364 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
Hmm... seems you'd have a lot less trouble if you refrained from using altogether... call me crazy.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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At what point in the thread did this become a competition to see who did the stupidest thing? I wasn't applying for anything, and wouldn't have posted if I thought it was a challenge of sorts. Is it human nature to make everything a competition? Hmm, that might make an interesting separate topic. Perhaps I'll construct an opinion, and post it. Or anyone else is welcome to (like I'd have any right to stop them in any case) if they already have an opinion.
posted
If this is a competition, who is the winner? I might have done the stupidest thing (according to Tom), but I really would not call that "winning".
Posts: 1364 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
I wasn't viewing it as a competition... but my appreciation for Noemon's story, with it's incredible chain of events, convinced me that, no matter what followed, if ever there was a competition, it would win.
posted
It was not my intention in starting this thread to create a compitition for the the stupidest act ever, but a light subject to help even out the "heavy" topics that have controlled the board as of late. But, if it helps to turn this in to a competition I will return later and tell of the many time that I did stupid things, and you will all see that the fact that I did not die, removing my genes from the cosmic pool, was a miricle.
P.S. Papa my wife will not play monopoly with me because I take it to seriously.
Posts: 1244 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
I think this topic is too broad. I think we need to define stupid. I mean is stupid just careless? or dangerous? did it have to result in a negative consequence? or is just the chance of a negative consequence stupid enough?
I ask because i've done so many stupid things on so many different levels, that it'd be hard to pinpoint the *one* stupidest thing i've ever done. Posts: 8741 | Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
Definitely up there among my stupidest things (honestly, I do think it's at the top) is: so on May Day we had a picnic since everyone was off work (federal holiday), and a bunch of people got together a makeshift softball game while the rest of us lounged on blankets. There weren't enough people for actual teams, pitcher sometimes covered second and shortstop, and whoever wanted to just ran in from their position to bat when needed. They conscripted a couple of us just to bat, since if anyone actually got on base they ran out of people. I explained that they could expect absolutely nothing from me in the way of ability, my last sports experience was failing t-ball fifteen years ago, they said all they needed was a pulse, so I gave in. My first time up at bat I actually hit the ball. I wasn't expecting that. I was caught off guard. I was in shock. In a moment of abstraction I RAN THE WRONG FREAKING WAY. My mind cleared after about five feet and I laughed and switched directions - fortunately everyone ELSE was laughing so hard I actually made it to first safe.
I'm never living that down.
Posts: 2762 | Registered: Sep 1999
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posted
Well strider since I started this thread, my goal was stupid yet funny, though Danzig's story would rank closer to the dangerous stupid. But I left it open because what is stupid to me is different than to yourself. Feel free to tell all the stories.
Posts: 1244 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Hey Liss, that's the kind of family-friendly stupidity you can get money for at Reader's Digest. All you have to do is structure it the way they usually structure their little blurbs, and bam! Hundreds of dollars!
posted
l, this is my first post at Hatrack and I think this is a suitable topic for my first post. (You know, put yur worst foot forwardor something like that.) Well, it happened about two years ago wen I was playing with a scalpel. Of course that right there is stupid by itself. Anywa I put the cap back on and then realized that I wanted to use it some more. However, I soon found out that the cap was stuck so I tried to pry it off using my thumb. I didn't look which way the blade was facing and it went right across my skin and made a very deep lacertion. The blood came out so fast I started to get dizzy. Isomehow stumbled into the kitchen and found some towels to put on it. Now I have a scar that sends a shiver down my spine every time I look at it. This isnt quite as bad as Noeman's but it is still pretty bad.
Posts: 1 | Registered: Jun 2003
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posted
We had a conversation like this in class the other day, and my rabbi told us he once set a toilet seat on fire. He was lighting fires in the toilet because he was a huge pyro, and his fire started to get out of control, so he flushed the toilet in an attempt to put it out. The problem was that the water level rose when he flushed it, and the toilet seat was wooden, so the seat caught fire. So now the fire in the bowl was out, but the toilet seat was on fire. Then he had to explain to his parents why their toilet seat was all burned.
posted
Stupidest thing I ever did was go for a drive, slightly hungover on boxing day wearing my glasses.
You see, I usually wear contact lenses, and wasn't used to the glasses. So when I was doing a reverse-three-point-turn in an totally empty and incredibly wide street, I thought I saw this huge black thing rushing towards me out of my peripheral vision. So I tried to hit the brakes, missed, and got the clutch. Tried again and hit the accelerator - and because I'm in reverse, the wheel spins out of my hands and I start to lose control. I keep trying for the brake, getting more and more frantic every time I miss, always hitting either the clutch or the accelerator.
I end up driving backwards at around 60km an hour into the side of the only car parked within 3 kms.
The huge black rushing thing was my glasses.
I felt pretty stupid.
Posts: 2245 | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
I was reading through the posts and thinking 'Oh, I haven't done anything really THAT stupid.. Maybe I shouldn't post...' Until I remembered...
OK, so I was in shop class, and I'm pitifully bad with my hands when it comes to making things with tools. Tools don't like me... But I was having an OK time in the class, getting everything done, and I liked it, right? Well, after you finish your main project, you can use all the tools and stuff to make a cookie cutter out of metal, so I made one, and it was pretty easy, and it came out looking like what I wanted it to look like. (Even if the shape I picked was really stupid...)
So this was all well and good. Then a girl who I didn't particularly like, one of the popular ones that exploits us smart kids for their own well-being, comes up to me and asks me if I want to help her make her own cookie cutter. (I think this was the part where I was stupid, really.) I accepted, being so polite and kind.
I helped her through it, (she made a heart, a pitifully unoriginal pattern...) and finally she finished, and held out her cookie cutter to show me. I took it. (No, there was my mistake) It took me a moment to realize that the skin on my fingers was burning off. She had just finished welding the handle to it, and it was superhot.
That was the worst I have ever been burned, and I think the stupidest thing I've ever done. The skin on my thumb was gray for a very long time after that, and I got into the habit of only using the side of my thumb to press buttons and such. I don't think I ever regained full feeling in the tip...
Posts: 4816 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
BTW, I'm American, and Boxing Day is the day after Christmas, and I believe a Canadian holiday. (Correct me if I'm wrong)
Posts: 4816 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Servants were required to work on Christmas. They were responsible for making the holiday run smoothly for wealthy landowners. They were allowed to take leave on December 26th and visit their families. The employers gave each servant a box containing gifts and bonuses. In addition, around the 800s' churches opened their alms boxes (boxes where people place monetary donations) and distributed the contents to poor. Few people have servants but the custom of giving gifts or money to those who provide service continues. It is also popular to visit grandparents and shop (the after Christmas discounts begin). Many people get the day off from work. Boxing Day is also celebrated in places where the English have settled: Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Our friends in Scotland tell us it is also celebrate there! Some places observe Boxing Day on December 26th and some celebrate it on the first weekday following Christmas, so, if Christmas falls on Friday or Saturday Boxing Day would be on the following Monday.
Now, the actual origin of this holiday is debatable and has been debated, one idea being more popular than the other at a given time.
quote: Boxing Day is also called St. Stephen's Day. Stephen was a martyr who was stoned to death shortly after Christ's crucifixion. Boxes that were placed in the churches throughout the year are opened this day. Payment for special services that were done during the year are distributed on this day. Children also go from house to house asking for contributions.
quote: The holiday may date from as early as the Middle Ages, but the exact origin is not known. It may have begun with the Lords and Ladies of England, who gave there Christmas boxes/gifts to their servants on December 26, or maybe by priests, who opened the church's alms (charity boxes), and distributed the contents to the poor and needy.
* During high school (about five years ago), some friends of mine and I were over at buddy's house. Kid was rich, and had huge house and all sorts of neat stuff, like two authentic swords Mom had bought for this kid and quasi-adopted roommate (longer story). We get drunk, then decide to fight with swords. Swordfight begins at 1 am, but soon after . . . boredom. Someone comes up with idea of throwing beer cans into air, then slashing through them with swords. Spend 45 minutes slashing every can and 2-liter bottle in house; laugh at cool "explosion" effect and flying shrapnel. Refill all empties with water, and repeat. Somewhere in middle of this, grab smaller sword with plain wooden handle (soaked with beer and water, as am I). "Batter up!" I say, striking batter's stance with sword. Buddy pitches beer can to me. I take wild swing and miss--sword flies out of hand. Head swings to follow sword, and when vision catches up with it, see my best friend bend over to grab another can, and sword whirl through area where head and neck just were. Sword sticks 3" into wooden deck five feet behind best friend. Everyone freezes. Best friend stands up, looks at sword stuck in the deck, looks at me; we realize one second either way would have meant a very, very dead him. Lesson I'll NEVER, EVER forget.
* Allowed above friend and other friend to talk me into doggy-paddling out to nonexistent "second sandbar" in just-melted Lake Huron. Not a strong swimmer, not wearing desperately needed glasses--wore myself out getting to them. Took ten seconds of screaming for help before they realized I wasn't pretending. Remember looking up through the water and extending hand . . . hand wasn't anywhere near surface. Decide then and there I wasn't leaving Mom and girlfriend, and kick until I get to surface. Friends finally show up--three of us yell at each other the whole way back to the shore.
* Walked into steel door I was in the process of opening, then dropping to floor and blacking out for little bit. Funny thing--head hit door closed. Finally got back up and opened door. On other side, entire family was frozen in faces of horror, for having witnessed such stupidity and pian.
I apologize for the article-less narrative style, but I was trying to be brief, so I was getting all the details in while keeping the word count down.
I'm also drinking Guinness and watching Cops, so that might have something to do with it.
posted
So many stupid things, such a short thread.
Frying stuff naked cause it was hot and I was too damn lazy to put some clothes on....bad call, wont happen again.
Taking a cast iron skillet from the oven with oven mitts, carefully placing it on the bench, then attempting to move said skillet out of the way sans mitts..... bad call, only did that three or four times.
Setting fire to a piece of plastic as a teenager to watch it burn cause I was toasted and it seemed like a good idea at the time. Plastic melts people and it sticks. Bad call, wont do that again.
Are we seeing a pattern??? FIRE BAD!!!! Posts: 90 | Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
oooh, yeah I cooked bacon topless once. ONCE!
Other things I am not game to mention... being a noobie an' all. Can't have my reputation ruined before it's even been created...
Posts: 1111 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
Cut and pasted from the rather old "embarring moment" thread at GreNME:
I was performing in this halftime show with the MOB, and another girl and I were inside an small model of the Astrodome. We were supposed to run backwards with the Astrodome as more people outside carried it, and at a certain point in the script we were supposed to spray fire extinguishers so that it would look vaguely like a rocket sort of thing. Well, the fire extinguishers were heavy, and it was really hard to see in there, and it's hard to run backwards, and the boys who were running on the outside were running faster than they had been in rehearsal that morning--and I ended up falling down while spraying the fire extinguisher. I sort of rolled out of the dome, which crashed behind me, and one of the boys fell on me, and the other girl fell down, too. They both injured their knees. All the while I'm still spraying the fire extinguisher--on my hand! But I get up, pick the dome up, and keep running on the outside.
All of this happened in front of a large crowd of football fans, and was caught on the jumbotron. It also appeared on a brief report of sports bloopers the next day. At least the fans really seemed to enjoy it--they were laughing, at least.
After the show, I had time to stop and realize that my hand really hurt. It was also somewhat red. I ran it under some warm water, and it felt a little better, so I ignored it for the rest of the night. The next day I woke up and my palm was bright red and hurting like, like, like something that hurts really bad. But it was Sunday and health services wasn't open, so I ignored it for another day. On Monday I went in and saw a doctor, and he told me I had first-degree frostbite. He couldn't really do anything about it, but he gave me an ace bandage so that I wouldn't keep banging it on things or grabbing cold sodas when I forgot about it. The kicker: the doctor had been at the game and seen the whole thing. He thought it was just the greatest thing in the world, because he never gets to see the injuries he treats. I, however, was less than amused.
After a few days, my palm blistered, then peeled. [By December it was] almost completely healed, although it [was] slightly pinker than it should be in places. [By the middle of January it had completely healed.]
The really annoying part was the repetitive explanations for the bandage/peeling. And the weird looks everyone gave me when I told them I had frostbite. In Houston. In October (70 degree weather, maybe?). And the even weirder looks when they asked me how on earth that happened and I had to say that I sprayed myself with a fire extinguisher, and no there hadn't been a fire.
Sigh...the things I do for the MOB.
Posts: 3801 | Registered: Jan 2000
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posted
Once I was attemptimg to make mushrooms out of meringue. I had all the "stems" arranged nicely on a cookie sheet, covered with plastic wrap until it was time to put them in the oven. Yes, I put them in the oven with the plastic wrap still there. That's really hard to explain to your mother, I promise.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
There are so many moments to choose from. I think my crowning stupid moment took place in February, 2001. I was visiting my girlfriend in Toronto when her mother decided it was time for me to leave. By which I mean she threw me out of the house. I knew several people in the city, but as chance would have it I couldn't get in touch with any of them. Now, I do have an uncle in Toronto, but I didn't go there. Why? I didn't want my mother to know I was stranded in the streets. Looking back on it, it doesn't make my sense to me either. After 3 days of being cold I finally went to his place. Stupid stupid stupid. Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
I'm pretty good at conveniently forgetting things. I've conciously done some pretty stupid things without realizing how stupid they were.
I was going to start a new thread to give an example of this, but someone bumped this thread and I decided to post it here. After this particular example, I wondered what the heck I was thinking at the time. I think it must have went something like this..
I was riding my bike at the local high school with my two brohters and two of my cousins. They were riding other things like scooters and rollerblades, or even just walking. I think I parked my bike near a doorway of one of the buildings to put my shoes back on, and while doing so I studied the useless brick catwalk above the door. In the past I had tried to jump up and hang on this catwalk but failed, and ended up with several shallow scratches from the chipped bricks. I found my curiousity had not learned it's lesson however, and I was interested to see if I could find another way onto the catwalk.
Curiousity: Hey Dio! I was wondering if you're skilled enough as a climber to reach that catwalk thingie..
Brain: Yeah, I'm still wondered that myself, but I can't forget what happened last time..
Curiousity: You don't even know if the same thing will happen, this is a different door than last time!
Brain: Yeah, I guess you're right, but I think I remember some sort of rule-.
Curiousity: I bet you could stand on you're bike to reach the ledge!
Brain: *Becomes infected* I'm willing to bet that would work.
Curiousity: Then why don't you try it?!
Dio stands on bike, asks someone to steady it for him while he climbs onto ledge.
Brain: Woohoo! This is AWESOME!
Curiousity: Well, you did it. Good job! I knew you could do it all along!
Dio enjoys view, feels proud of his climbing skills, and thinks he must look very brave. He walks along catwalk impressively, and flourishes imaginary cape. Then he decides to measure his height in relation to the rest of the building.
Curiousity: Well, would you look at that roof! It's alot closer than it was before!
Brain: Hey, you're right! Isn't that dandy?
Curiousity: I wonder if you can get up there now that it's so much closer!
Brain: *Is tempted* I don't know..I'm almost certain I remember something-.
Curiousity: Bet you can't get up!
Brain: Oh come on, it's almost certain that I can get up there!
Curiousity: Then why aren't you doing it?! Afraid?!
Brain: No! Don't insult me! It's just that I'm almost certain there's a rule about-!
Curiousity: *Beats brain mostly sensless*
Brain: Ok fine, you've convinced me. I can't really argue with those terms..
Dio climbs onto roof.
Brain: WOW! This is even better than before! Have you ever seen such a view from the top of the school building?!
Curiousity: No, I can't say that I have.
Brain: You know what really sweetens the deal though, the knowledge that we got up here all on our own.
Curioustiy: Yeah, that's true.
Dio observes an official looking person walking toward the building.
Curiousity: Hey, who's that?!
Brain: *revives completely* You mean the spanish guy with the walkie-talkie?
Curiousity: Yeah, that's the one.
Brain: That's a security guard.
Curiousity: !!!
Panic: Hey guys, how you doing?
Brain: We're alright.
Curiousity: ... *temporarily ceases to exist*
Panic: I couldn't help but overhear something about a security guard..this doesn't seem like a very good situation for that.
Brain: Yeah, it's that character down there.
Panic: WE'RE GONNA DIE! IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD! FLEE!! FLEE IMINENT DESTRUCTION OF OUR SOULS!!!
Brain: Calm down, you're scaring me.
Panic: Doom! DOOM!!
Brain: Please calm down!
Panic: I greive for thee! It's the end! Farewell my friend!
Brain: *Becomes infected*
Dio exercises haste as he flees his current haunt.
Well anyway, once I was safely on the ground I tried very hard to look inconspicuous and unsuspiciuos, because I knew I was caught and was unwilling to run. I ignored the security guard with all my might though as I repaired my bike and he stood accusingly before me. My brain also eventually remembered that it was wrong to climb on public buildings. The security guard asked me if he could call the police and I said yes, but they let me go with just a warning. Probably because I didn't try to run.
Posts: 14 | Registered: Mar 2003
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