Where You Are Photos (2019)

A penny or screwdriver and an electrical outlet will teach them about electricity and you won’t need to keep replacing those outlet plugs.

Wheels

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Ha. When I was 5, I stuck a fingernail file in a 220V outlet at my grandparents’ house that was powering an old air conditioner while they ate TV dinners on little folding tables. In my grandmother’s words, there was a bang and a flash, the power went out, and you came staggering out from behind the sofa crying with a black hand. I guess since there was a slot the same size as the file, it seemed like a good thing to do at the time.

You are correct in assuming that I didn’t do it again :smile: They never fixed the wall and it was still black when I would visit them in later years.

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I guess in these days of modern cars where keys are a thing of the past kids don’t get the idea to put a key into the socket like the good ol’ days :slight_smile:

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Yup did a tour around the house putting these things in…

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It’s like children are trying to get themselves killed at times.
I also installed outlet covers everywhere when my daughter was born. I know why.

…yes I also put a metal object into an outlet as kid. Just because it fit. Nothing severe happened. My hand was… numb and hurting at the same time. Man I was scared but I knew enough to wait a bit and not tell my parents. It got better.

…not something I would recommend to do though.

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Those electrical socket protectors are great. However, the person who invents something to keep a kid from sticking their tongue on a metal flagpole on a freezing cold winter day…they will make a fortune!

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I arguably did more stupid things. For example I once used a 3mm² copper wire I found in the basement to build a makeshift heating element by stripping it and winding it up into a coil. I was smart enough to use one of these extension cords with an on/off switch to power it, but stupid enough to test it in my bedroom.

I unplugged the extension cord, inserted the ends of my device from hell into one of its outlets (it wouldn’t sit firm but I didn’t care), plugged it in and turned it on. The coil started glowing immediately, sparks were coming out of the contacts of the cord and scared little Me pulled out the plug and the glowing coil dropped to the wooden floor and left some nasty burn marks as well as black scorch marks on the outlet of the extension cord.

I also had two little transformers for my electric trainset which put out 16V AC (can’t remember the power rating but you could create beautiful sparks with them) that I used and abused when I was alone. I remember I tried to power something by connecting one to the mains and then the 16V outlets of the transformers. The only thing I remember is that I burned some resistors (probably something like 100 Ohm, 0.25W resistors). A lot of times I tripped the RCD. I guess I was careful enough not to touch any of my creations while they were running and there might have been an element of luck involved. But yes, 10-12 year old me was really stupid.

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It’s a wonder you are alive… I was clever enough to use 1.2V batteries :wink:

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I knew it was dangerous, just not how dangerous. Luckily I stopped experimenting with 240V electricity when I discovered that you could build little rockets from sparklers and matches and that batteries where enough to ignite the rocket motors.

Edit: To be clear, during this experimental phase I was careful enough to stay away from my experiments while they were plugged in and I have never been shocked but yeah, if you’re a parent - don’t let your kid play alone with electricity, even when it’s just a model train set.

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I did, but 12VAC isn’t that dangerous with Marklin trains!

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Oh, but I was very crafty when it came to making things spark and go bang. You don’t need a lot of power to set something on fire, even simple batteries will do the job. Plus I had two 240V → 16V transformers and I did experiment with them. I remember that I took one of them apart at some point and played around with it - that can be very dangerous.

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You were a bit mad as a kid eh?

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Let’s just say I had a bit of a ‘mad scientist phase’ when I was around 10-12 y/o. I played with electricity, I build rockets, I took apart children’s fireworks that you can buy as a 12y/o and made bigger fireworks with the contents.

It was good fun as long as I had no idea how dangerous it was.

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New Bern, NC and the temp was so high today that the seagull size mosquitoes are out!

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I also grabbed a mains once when I was like ten or so. Ne er did me any harm. When my first came, I didn’t baby proof Jack schnitt. Just told him sternly and repeatedly NO, that is not ok to play with little dude! It worked. Works for my daughter too. And by the time they go “mad scientist” well I’ll facilitate them. Go on, learn, experiment, find out. Play dangerous. They ain’t made out of sugar.

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Yeah no need to overdo it, but… it depends I guess. Sometimes kids have really stupid ideas and you might be distracted for just a moment.

My daughter’s Christmas present. Tickets to UNC vs NC State game.

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SO jealous right now.

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I’m in Boca Raton for likely a few weeks (Unfortunately not a vacation. Mom passed away) and evidently the blimp is based just south of here. It went up ad down the coast for a couple of hours yesterday.

I’ve got more pics if we think DCS might want to do the blimps their next aircraft…a good addition to the National Training Range map…some “Black Sunday” like missions…:slightly_smiling_face:

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So sorry to hear that Will. My sincere condolences to you and your family.

I met a blimp pilot when I was living in Ohio. They would bring the MetLife blimp to Zanesville and hang around for a week or so each year. She told me that there are more active NASA astronauts than active blimp pilots. The whole team were neat people and I really enjoyed watching them ‘land’ it. Not a job I would like much though. Always on the road and it would take ages to get anywhere!

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