[quote=“Spud, post:20, topic:730972”]
I saved a kid’s life (teen) who then tried to punch me because he thought I was trying to drown him (scuba panic where he tried to swim to the surface holding his breath and I grabbed him from behind and forced him to exhale).
Are you not supposed to do that?
[quote=“half-elf, post:21, topic:730972”]
Not sure what “supposed to do that” you mean… forcing him to exhale, yes, holding your breath while ascending, definitely not. When scuba diving your air in your tank is under pressure too compensate for the pressure of the water. It doubles every 33 feet. If you have a full lung full of air at 33 feet and you hold your breath and rapidly rise to the surface the air will expand and you will likely get an embolism. I was (I guess technically still am) a divemaster which is basically a lifeguard (I was one of those too) for scuba.
[quote=“Spud, post:22, topic:730972”]
Yes, that’s what I meant. Thanks for explaining.
I haven’t saved any lives or anything, but I’ve had a few interesting experiences in my life so far;
My high school English teacher let me teach the class one day as a way to make up credit for assignments I’d missed during a long illness.
I once served lunch to a world-famous UFC champion and had no idea who he was until after he’d left.
In 1998, I emailed Douglas Adams to ask him about the truth of a report that Jim Carrey had signed on to star in the Hitchhiker’s Guide movie. He responded as thus; “[NAME]: This is absolute rubbish. -DNA”
The bass player of one of my favorite bands once deliberately stabbed me in the chest with the neck of his bass during a concert.
Short stories I’ve written online have been cited in multiple articles on TvTropes and translated into several foreign languages.
I helped set the current Guinness record for the world’s largest snowball fight.
My picture prominently displayed on the front page of a local free newspaper when I was 7 years old.
Last month, I jumped off the top of the tallest building west of the Mississippi.
Was the first person to take a sailboat, solo, sail only, no engine from the Port of Catoosa, OK to the Mississippi River via the Arkansas River Navigation Chanel.
Went for a sail.
Let down through a 4000 feet of clouds in an old trashed out early square tail C-150 with no IFR gauges, just airspeed, altimeter, turn ball, and basic compass for flight instruments.
Flew in a 20+ T-34 formation at Oshkosh one time.
Many other ARMY & flight things. Car things, boat things, just a lot of things that were unusual, exciting at the time, stupid, smart & lucky. Gun stuff, being on both ends of the barrel.
Did calf roping and steer wrestling in small local rodeos as a teen.
Helped take a 40 sloop from Norfolk to St. Martin.
Been clean & sober for 24 years.
Lived with Ranger Jeff for a time.
No pic but in the late 1950’s we local kids at Ft. Gibson Lake East of Tulsa built a 4-3-2-1 pyramid on water skies behind a Higgins inboard. 4 bottom guys, I was one of the bottom guys, outside left, were on a single rope/bar rig. Row 2, 2 boys, 1 girl, third row, 2 girls, and the top was a 10 year old fearless little brother ( monkey boy ) of one of the families.Took 4 boats total to get everybody hooked up and to speed to make each try.
Took many falls and all summer but we did it. Miracle no one was killed. Several of us also skied at 70 MPH along a bank, pulled by a car.
Unbelievable flying stories no one ( but a few here ) will understand & none will believe ( excepting the one above as I was impressed I got it done. ) so I won’t bother. 
Lot of motorcycle club stuff best left in the past.
Worst wreck I ever had was on a motorcycle.
Oh yeah… Jay Leno called me a nerd.
I thought I’d be a little weird, strange or impressive … but after I read these posts, nope.
The artists I’ve worked with? My fake tooth from rugby? Those not-as-difficult-as-I thought hikes? That not-as-deadly-as-I thought accident? Or, how about my curling career? (hey, that was quite the “bonspiel”…)
N’yeah, pretty tame.
As kids, my brothers and sisters and I chewed a bunch of gum, balled it all together and stretched it from the kitchen counter, out the front door and across the lawn to the other side of the street. It had to be done.
When I was about 14, I was lost in a forest for about an hour. I got out only because I had happened to notice the sun rising when I crawled out of the tent that morning. I was on the verge of panicking when that image popped into my head and I knew then which direction to walk.
When I was 20, I was picked out by a Cincinnati Reds scout who told me to work on my techniques and he’d be back the next year to look at me. By then, I had moved away to go to school so I never got to play center field in the majors (or much more likely, a single A team in Buttscratch, Wyoming). The closest I got to pro ball was catching a foul ball as a spectator at a Blue Jays game.
All in all, not that exciting, but at least it beats this English dandy:
I once made Reggie Jackson laugh.
I got hit in the leg by a ball batted by Tom Seaver.
I’ve seen many celebrity corpses.
The MUD where I used to play and write was mentioned in a Russian book about the internet as being very friendly and a good place to practice your English, thus getting us a surprising and unexpected wave of Russian players.
It was dedicated to the writers and to several of the author’s favorite players. I’m listed as both 
All I did was be friendly to newbies!
I visited and wrote about 100 different museums in one year just for fun while also being a working single parent. Not including minor art galleries or stately homes, just museums.
A few other little things but nothing that’s actually impressive to me.
I’m a piker compared to most, the only thing I can come up with is having breakfast with a Nobel Prize Winner (Murray Gell-Mann).
Other than that, nothing much.
Some of these are pretty impressive accomplishments; I’ve had to think long and hard for a few of my own, but none of them match up to those upthread:
I got to meet the King of Thailand when I was 6 years old. My dad was US military and became good friends with the Thai officer who was the personal physician to the King.
As mentioned in another thread, I am among the last to have been required to learn to use a slide rule. My high school chemistry teacher insisted, even though four-function calculators were just becoming affordable in 1974.
I was in Wenceslaus Square during the Velvet Revolution in 1989.
I worked as part of the DOS security team for the 1988 Moscow Summit talks with Reagan-Gorbachev.
I met Ambassador Shirley Temple Black in Prague and Hillary Clinton in Uganda.
I’ve been charged by elephants and hippos. And by a cow moose.
An impala watched me pee.
I spent a New Year’s Eve on the Serengeti Plain.
I’ve climbed to the burial chamber in the Great Pyramid; it was hot, sweaty and empty.
Another guy and I had an impromptu drinking contest with a couple of Japanese businessmen in a bar in Yokosuka, trading shots of Suntory whiskey and tequila. We “won”.
I’ve driven to both Deadhorse (Prudhoe Bay) and Inuvik (NWT), the farthest north you can drive in both the US and Canada.
I guess none of that is weird, strange or impressive, but I’ve been to more places and done more in my life than any 100 people that I know.
I killed two rabbits with one bullet. I shook a hand that shook Jimi Hendrix’s hand. I was in a high-speed car chase. I skied Mt. Chacaltaya, the World’s Highest Ski Resort.
I flat tore that place up!
I snapped off my left wrist bone clean off, and could see it sitting about half-way up my arm. The doctor said it was only the second one he’d ever seen.
I’ve served two-thirds of the R&B group TLC, during the height of their fame, and been completely unaware that I was assisting a celebrity.
Taken the Graduate Record Exam twice, and scored perfectly on the Verbal section both times.
Briefly piloted a blimp.
Other than that, and that don’t sound too impressive, I got nuthin’.