stories

As not-total-idiots, we spend a lot of time worrying about making the right decision. Sometimes we can thank ourselves for avoiding a bad situation, and sometimes it's totally up to random chance whether we dodge a huge bullet or not. Everyone has a moment in their lives that the think about "man if that had gone just slightly differently I'd be in some serious pain right now." Hindsight is 20/20 and life is just a constant act of dodging massive bullets.

As smart as you might think you are, you an always accidentally bite into a super heated pizza roll and lose your own self respect in between the dabbing of hot grease and yelping. At least injuring oneself in a stupid way is a basically universal experience. For some real dullards, here are some facepalm moments from the world's beacons of stupid.

As much as we'd all like to think we're perfectly rational, we're all creatures of suspicion and superstition. Sometimes we see strange events that we can't logically explain like having some weird premonition or out-of-body experience, and all we're left to do is sit there and go "alright, that was weird. People aren't going to believe this."

Perspective can change when you realize you've been taking something for granted. In this case it's interesting to think about how there are so many seemingly inconsequential things that color is used to indicate, like locked doors or plant health. It can be enlightening and pretty funny to learn about how everyone interprets the world, like this tumblr thread that appreciates different perspectives.

Every school had it's extremely compelling drama, from ways people rebelled against school rules to weird and wild junk said by teachers. Every class had a quiet kid, and while that kid wasn't always the center of attention, they had their moments. When push came to shove, that quiet kid had something insightful or hilarious to say.

It's hard when something extremely strange or unlikely happens, because you want to tell someone without sounding like a liar or moron. People are right to be skeptical, but why would anyone lie about walking in on a vested goat eating a roll of toilet paper? You've got moments like these strange events people can't explain logically that make you think, "how am I gonna tell anyone about this?" It's so hard to explain rare and unlikely moments that went against the odds. 

Everyone's so into this whole self care thing now, it makes you think that maybe they're onto something. Maybe it is time to spend some money on underwear that has functioning elastic. Maybe it's okay to buy a nice office chair that doesn't make your back look like a candy cane. Judging by how it went for these people, it's not. On the other side of it, here are some very reckless uses of money people don't regret at all.

It's weird that we're surrounded by people all the time, but it's against social convention to have a meaningful relationship with any of them. As rare as it is, people will take time out of their lives to make more of an impact than being just a face in the crowd. Some of these interactions are strange encounters, others are wholesome, but the one thing they all are is memorable.

Many of us have heard some wild and awkward junk said by teachers, but the substitutes are an interesting bunch. They seem to inhabit this weird gray area of accountability, and are somehow absolutely free to not give a rip. For some more teacher stuff, here are kids' hilarious misconceptions about teachers.

Sometimes people think it's the students that ae the most challenging part of a teacher's job. That's only true most of the time. It can actually be the parents trying to interfere too much with their kid's education. Sometimes a teacher can just look at a finished project and go, "looks like dad did a great job." Sometimes it goes the other way. Sometimes teachers have no faith in students but they succeed anyway, like this student who won an art contest to spite their rude teacher.

Karen power tripped a little too hard and made a big, unpopular authority flex. It just so happens there were a lot of employees around to maliciously comply with that authority she brandished so haphazardly. Misuse of authority can backfire, like this VP who got canned for pulling rank.

The rule of thumb seems to be here that if you have to ask, it's probably illegal.

Sometimes people are all-too ready to make assumptions about other people, and those assumptions get in the way of empirical facts. You hope someone doesn't misjudge you so publicly that they make a total fool of themselves. Or maybe you do. Everyone knows wrongful times people were misjudged tend to stick in their memory for years.

Humans aren't perfect, so naturally we're bound to make mistakes at work. It's when we're using expensive tools, or facing ten angry customers that a really big screw-up can have some extreme consequences. In the right field of work, one misplaced screw or faulty measurement can turn into literally millions of dollars of losses. We try not to think about those.

Week by week, we look for the most interesting pictures to present to you. Today, we have found an incredibly popular tumblr blog that reblogs some of the most thought-provoking pictures. The kind of pictures that hold book-length stories within them - ones that cannot simply be captured in anything less than 1000 words. 

From cows in bathtubs to kittens sleeping with turtles, sit back, relax, and enjoy this week's eclectic collection of pictures that deserve nothing less than a whole essay. Maybe they'll even inspire you. Some of them sure are inspiring to us. It's fun to imagine the way this cow got into the bathtub honestly. Maybe its other cow friends are helping bathe it because it strained its ankle playing soccer earlier that day. Can you say for sure that this didn't happen? No, you can't.

Students are curious and motivated individuals especially when it comes to breaking the rules or mocking each other. They'll go to impressive lengths in order to tastefully vandalize restrooms or expertly cheat the system. You can't tell them it's the right thing to do, but it's at least impressive. To give the kids some credit, here's a Tumblr thread on a teacher who underestimated their students during a social experiment.