Name Five Things You've Done That Others Probably Have Not

[HellHound]

1. Got my nipple pierced for a television broadcast about body piercing that went into national syndication. Three times. As in I did it three different times, for three different shows, each about 6 months to a year apart.

2. Got stabbed coming out of an anti-racist punk rock gig at the Metroplex in Atlanta GA by some skinhead who thought I was with the band. Fortunately for me, someone who WAS from the band was right behind me and saved me from repeated stabbings.

3. Was struck by a car at high speed... intentionally. I went over the car, smacked down on the ashphalt, and then my friends dragged me to safety as the driver turned around to take a second pass.

4. Published a book written and illustrated by my children who were 6 and 10 at the time, which then went on to win an award (Indie RPG Awards - best use of the d20 license).

5. Ran a very popular adult BBS back in the days before the internet was big, co-hosted with my wife, who I met through the local BBSs at the time and through S&M fetish events that she ran.

 

[qstor]

1. grew a controlled substance in my college dorm.
2. shook hands with John Kerry, John Glenn and Ted Kennedy at the same party.
3. hiked up and back Half Dome in Yosemite (around 19 miles) in 8 hours.
4. snow skied in eight US states and Canada
5. awarded the highest grade in a single law school class, (Constitutional Law)

 

[Impeesa]

That looks really cool.
What exactly is happening there?

Carl

Well, just moments before the picture was taken, the garbage can had a few things in it: at the bottom was a 2L pop bottle filled to about 1/3 with liquid nitrogen and duct taped to some rocks (so it would sink), and the rest was full of water with a bit of dish soap to make it foam up more when it exploded. A little simple thermodynamics will lead you to conclude that the pop bottle will not remain intact for very long - as the nitrogen boils away, the pressure builds up until it bursts at the seams. That gives you a pretty nice fountain as the garbage can is emptied of all its water. Sometimes it's enough to blow the garbage can open at the seams, too.

More fun facts: When I did that, it was for a science camp - we did classroom visits during May and June to promote the program (the one I did also involved bottle rockets, and imploding a paint can by cooling it with the liquid nitrogen). On more than one occasion, we returned to a school a week or two later to do another demonstration for a different class, and found perfect circles of dead grass where the previous demonstration had been done. Our best guess was that the shockwave was killing off the roots of the grass or something.

--Impeesa--

 

[CarlZog]

Excellent!

Blowing stuff up really is the key to getting kids interested in science, isn't it?

 

[AIM-54]

This talk of coprolites reminded me of another one:

I went on day trip dinosaur digs through the Royal Tyrell Museum of Paleontology in Drumheller, Alberta (world's best paleontological museum. I can't even go into the Smithsonian Museum of Natural Science because it's so pathetic in comparison) three or four years running. Dug up a bunch of bones, mostly hadrosaurs. Edmontosaurus, I believe (Edmontosaurus in Alberta?? Shocking! ) But the coolest thing I found was a claw from a dromaesaurid (same type of dinosaur as a velociraptor, but smaller) on a hill near the dig site. I was told it would go straight to Phil Curry, the curator, who is especially interested in that variety of dinosaur.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

This talk of coprolites reminded me of another one:

I went on day trip dinosaur digs through the Royal Tyrell Museum of Paleontology in Drumheller, Alberta (world's best paleontological museum. I can't even go into the Smithsonian Museum of Natural Science because it's so pathetic in comparison) three or four years running. Dug up a bunch of bones, mostly hadrosaurs. Edmontosaurus, I believe (Edmontosaurus in Alberta?? Shocking! ) But the coolest thing I found was a claw from a dromaesaurid (same type of dinosaur as a velociraptor, but smaller) on a hill near the dig site. I was told it would go straight to Phil Curry, the curator, who is especially interested in that variety of dinosaur.

My jealousy of you knows no bounds! You have no idea how much I'd love to do this.

Heh... a friend of mine has gone with Robert Bakker as a dig photographer a couple times, and has sworn to never let me alone with the man. Bakker has some crazy notion that ceratosaurs were aquatic, and I think he's full of hooey.

 

[AIM-54]

My jealousy of you knows no bounds! You have no idea how much I'd love to do this.

Heh... a friend of mine has gone with Robert Bakker as a dig photographer a couple times, and has sworn to never let me alone with the man. Bakker has some crazy notion that ceratosaurs were aquatic, and I think he's full of hooey.

Sadly, they've ended the program that I participated in this year, though I can't blame them, really. Last time I was there (summer 2000) it was slim pickings indeed. Mostly just moving the dirt for the paleontologists.

Bakker is an absolute character. I have fond memories of his wacky theories appearing in many of the dinosaur oriented programming I enjoyed from the late 80's, early 90s. I always enjoyed his ravings, but then I could always hit fast forward and get to the good stuff.

 

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

1. I was held hostage, at gunpoint, for almost eight hours, helped negotiate the release of my fellow hostages, and was the last hostage released.

1a. I sold the rights to my life story (see above)

1b. Met Freddie Prinz Jr., Henry Winkler, and spoke briefly with Rick Schroeder. (see above)

2. Joined the Navy on a whim.

3. During induction to the Navy, I was examined by the man who was base commander at the Air Force base where I was born when I was born. (Landstuhl, Rhieneland Pfalz, Germany, same as Lavar Burton of Reading Rainbow/ST:TNG)

4. Stayed up all night posting on ENWorld when I should have been doing homework, preparing for next week's final's, tomorrow's presentation, or getting some sleep. (oops, sorry, these are supposed to be things that others here haven't done.)

5. Married the best woman in the world, even if she never does look at this site.

 

[Zander]

4. Toured the entire steam tunnel system of Johns Hopkins University (from 10pm to 4am, ending with a raid on the still locked campus cafeteria).

I'm impressed. I was a student at JHU and I never went down the steam tunnels.

 

[der_kluge]

5. Ran a very popular adult BBS back in the days before the internet was big, co-hosted with my wife, who I met through the local BBSs at the time and through S&M fetish events that she ran.

This says more about your wife than any of us needed to know!