Indoor Fireworks

Damien blew up my magic box (a fun little piece of circuitry leftover from a computer science course) by plugging it into the transformer I use to power my HO-scale model locomotive. I'm not exaggerating either; it really exploded, with loud noises, sparks and smoke. As expected, my magic box circuit doesn't work anymore (my dad once told me that smoke is what makes electronics work. If they leak smoke, they stop working). The explosion looked pretty awesome. Several of the sparks hit Damien and burned a hole in his shorts, so that was exciting. My place smelled like smoke, and for once it didn't cost me a perfectly good tea towel or dinner. The epicenter of the explosion was a capacitor -the top of it was completely blown off -that's pretty cool. And I had the opportunity to use dad's joke about smoke inside electronics.

Looks like the pros outweigh the cons. In the future, when I've got unrelated electronic things on the same desk and someone starts plugging things into other things, I'll pay attention. For now, thanks Damien!