What important life lessons have you learned recently?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Most of the time, my “life lessons” involve sharp, cutty (and/or stabby) type objects. Not in this case, so no stitches were required.

I have a projection TV, and it likes to overheat due to dust buildup on fans, etc.
I bought a can of compressed air cleaner from Wally World to spray it out.

My son was watching TV, and I decided it was a good idea to blow it out while the fans were running - hence having power on. I’ve used it on running computers previously with no problems.

Not so much. Just so’s you know, that sh!t’s flammable.

WHOOMPH!

Giant fireball ensues out of back of the tv, blowing the cap off the can, removing most of my upper and all of my lower eyelids, giving me 1st degree burns around my eyes, and a swell taste in my throat. I luckily still have my vision.

Luckily, the TV still works perfectly. The searing pain around my eyes will soon go away (I hope). I’m used to getting burned on my torso, arms, hands, legs. It’s almost a matter of fact occurence for me. Not so much around my eyes.

Lesson learned? Use dried air from my air compressor, don’t spend $5 on canned cleaner for the tv, and fer the love of all that’s holy, turn the friggin’ TV off when you clean it.

/*The More You Know *

2

Cat’s don’t change their minds. nuff said.

3

I make a fireball in my living room, burn off my eyebrows, and all I get is a cat response?

Come on people, my pain is your pleasure. Inundate me.

4

Holy sh*t!!!

Did you really burn off your eye LIDS??? Did you mean eye LASHES I hope???

That’s scary.

Bet your kid loved it though… :smiley:

5

Ok, Ok, I burned off my eye lashes but did also burn my eye lids. You know how people wear those little goggles when using tanning booths, emerging with little untanned patches around their eyes? Picture that, only in reverse.

I shave my head, otherwise I would have also lost muh bangs due to the, erm … Bang?

Boy, did it sting putting in my contacts. Nothing like pulling on burnt flesh.

6

I recently bought a PC cleaning kit with one of those compressed air thingies. I had a go o my keyboard.

It was doing fine, but starting to blow out sort of stuff like dry ice.

And then it started making a rattly hissing noise. Fearing for my life I quickly put the can somewhere that would partially contain the blast.

[sub](there was no blast. I was just being a wuss)[/sub]

7

What did your son say when you created this giant fireball?

I think mine would have said “Sweet!!” Do it again!

8

I learned not to put a ton of rice down the garbage disposal (yeah yeah, now I know that EVERYBODY knows not to do that). The only pain was wallet related.

9

Here is a doozy…now of course I was in Seventh grade at the time, so I have somewhat of an excuse.

Was into model rockets. Had a book on em. They had this longggg list of things they did to model rocket engines to try get them to ignite/explode accidentaly. In all but one case nothing happened. And in that case they only ignited, which is no big deal.

Okay, so now in my mind I am thinking they are pretty safe.

I had some C sized engines, which is about the size of a shotgun shell. When you used the special ignitor placed in the nozzle the solid fuel burned from one end of the cylinder to the other. There was another type, the “Super C” engine. it had a small hole down the center. That way the fuel burned radially outwards as well linearly down the length of the engine. This meant the fuel burned much faster, which in some cases was an advantage.
Well, I wantzs me a super C engine. I know, I put a hole in my C engine…easy peazy.

Go out to the shed. Put that engine in the vise, with the nozzle facing upwards. Think about using a small drill bit…no too much friction that way…might IGNITE the engine.

Wait, I know. That fuel is kinda soft. I’ll just put a nail in there through the nozzle and tap it very gently. Hammer and nail are ready. A very light first tap. Okay so far. A second tap just as light as the first…then it happened.

The engine did NOT ignite…it done EXPLODED.

The force of the explosion blasted the hammer from my hand and across the shed. Even more interestingly, it blasted the nail THROUGH the roof of the shed. I always wondered how high that nail got.

Even more impressive than that was what it did to the engine casing. Yeah, its “just” tightly wound waxy cardboard, but that stuff is STRONG.

The high pressures had split the side. And not in some half hazard sorta way. The rip was perfectly straight and the edges were so smooth it looked like they had been cut with a laser/surgical knife.

My ears rang for days and I used eye drops for a week or two.

If only the Mythbusters high speed camera had been there…

Blll

10

That would be the aerosol gas cooled by the change in pressure. Basically you just witnessed science happening and it scared you.
Not really a life lesson, but I thought it was funny anyway. At my last job I was bored so I turned a couple of PC cleaner cans upside down and blasted one of my buddies with supercooled freon (or whatever they use these days).

Mostly he was just pissed. He didn’t freeze solid and shatter like I hoped. :frowning:

11

Do NOT stand on a chair that has a wobbly seat when you are changing a light bulb. Hitting the back of your skull hard against the floor isn’t pretty.

I only got a permanent case of tinnitus from it.

12

I learned after the fact that you should not open your computer tower on a carpeted floor and then to make matters worse to vacuum out said tower with a dust buster.

Not sure which did it but I fried my mother board.

13

If you tell a three your old to move a chair (small toddler chair but made of pretty sturdy wood) so you can clean the playroom, they will not interpret this as “place it in the corner”. There is a good chance they will simply pick it up and swing it.

Also, never turn your back on a three year old swinging a chair.

14

I just learned that there is a tiny battery inside my car key remote! It hasn’t worked in months and I was googling around looking for something else and I saw a wikianswers link about how to change it!

15

Is that along the same lines as “never bring a knife to a gunfight”?

16

I never learn.

17

I learned that the only way to know for sure if a girl is attracted to you or not is to ask. Don’t spend three years looking for clues in her behavior to see if she wants you. Just ask.

18

I learned that you shouldn’t attempt to cook for anyone, even yourself, if one of your eyes is swollen shut from shingles. The lack of depth perception can lead to bits of fingers getting cut off. Ouch!

Oh, yeah, and you really do need to exercise every damn day. sigh I’m still getting used to that one. Just five years ago, I could eat whatever I wanted to still lose weight. Now that I’ve had a baby, it doesn’t matter what I eat - if I don’t exercise, the weight won’t go anywhere but up.

19

I learned that no matter how you react to it, shit’s going to happen, so you might as well react peacefully and with gratitude.

20

It will, however, permanently damage your eardrum. A kid in my high school was hanging out with his friend, and thought it would be funny to do this. Unfortunately, he thought it would be funnier to direct it at his friend’s ear. The poor kid has permanent hearing loss. :frowning: