What are the neatest things you've done in your career?

[Razgovory]

Last year's summer class I had the students practice and present "High School Musical".

Why on earth would you do that? 

Because we hurt his feelings and he takes it out on his students.  Every time you insult Tim, some Korean girl is going to go home crying.

[Ed Anger]

Сапожник без сапог.

You are supposed to send that to your handler.

[alfred russel]

In my days on an ambulance, saw some interesting things. Got into a fight that almost turned into a mob scene and the incident was on the local news (won't post this again). Responded to a shooting. Saw some really fascinating injuries with guys crashing motorcycles (a suggestion: if you are going to drive a motorcyle really fast in shorts and a tshirt, you might be better off not investing in a helmet--or at least you may feel that way for a while afterwards).

[jimmy olsen]

Last year's summer class I had the students practice and present "High School Musical".

Why on earth would you do that? 

Because

Watching them practice was funny as shit.

[Ed Anger]

In my days on an ambulance, saw some interesting things. Got into a fight that almost turned into a mob scene and the incident was on the local news (won't post this again). Responded to a shooting. Saw some really fascinating injuries with guys crashing motorcycles (a suggestion: if you are going to drive a motorcyle really fast in shorts and a tshirt, you might be better off not investing in a helmet--or at least you may feel that way for a while afterwards).

I saw the after effects of the motorcycle wrecks on the rehab floor of the hospital when I was getting my leg patched up.

Swore to myself to never get on one of those things...EVER.

[PDH]

My "career" has been varied.  Much of the really fun stuff (sailing around the Pacific on a 58 foot ketch, building a house on a ridge in Big Sur, among other things) have not been part of my job.

Perhaps the most interesting thing is that I discovered that the company I worked for sold diplomas to Chinese students ($5000 for a PhD, $3000 for an MBA) when I was hired to pretend to help an unaccredited university get accredited, there were also Turks and Kenyans involved.  I also got to meet Moldovans who didn't care that the diplomas were crap because of the fact that they were American.

[PDH]

I saw the after effects of the motorcycle wrecks on the rehab floor of the hospital when I was getting my leg patched up.

Swore I myself to never get on one of those things...EVER.

My dad was an ER doctor for decades.  That lesson was drilled into us from an early age.  He could be quite descriptive at the dinner table about the events.

[Ed Anger]

What I kept hearing from the people with mangled legs:

I NEED A NEW BIKE.

me:

[DGuller]

What I kept hearing from the people with mangled legs:

I NEED A NEW BIKE.

me:

What's so strange about that?  If you legs are mangled, then your current bike is probably totaled.

[Ed Anger]

DON'T GET A NEW BIKE.

[alfred russel]

Damn, reading all these accounts makes me realize that actuarial profession doesn't tend to generate interesting neat stories.

My day to day job is probably as boring as yours. But you can still do some interesting things; I spent a good bit of my workdays as a fake internet personality that was both sane and reasonable.   

[Josquius]

I want a career

[Ed Anger]

Coal miner is available in Australia.

[CountDeMoney]

Meh, I've done all sorts of neat things, too many neat things to mention because it won't get me laid here.

But I was thinking about it, and for a variety of different work and non-work reasons, I've been a guest on MSNBC (albeit by telephone) in its early days, I've been quoted on ESPN, responsible for an embarrassingly hilarious (non-work related) quote in a front page piece in the Washington Post that I will never tell any of you monkeys about, sat in on a group "technical advisors" session for a two-part episode of "Homicide: Life on the Street", was in a Russian-made documentary about US law enforcement, and had a one-line speaking role in a never-distributed minor motion picture that let me fill out SAG paperwork.   

Time for my closeup, Mr. Josh DeMille.

[Tonitrus]

Back in the Cold War I developed and proved a method by which US SSBNs could be resupplied for additional patrols using commercial ports rather than their home ports (which would presumably be staked out by Soviet SSNs).  This developed into an entire black programs in which we actually carried out the replenishment of US boomers from various ports which had no existing USN presence.  There was also a 3-day limit on the replenishment, because that was the window for the Soviets to discover what was happening and redeploy their assets.  We had a SEAL team that played the Red Team, so operational and physical security were the two biggest challenges.

It was really neat to see an idea I came up with in a brainstorming session turn into an entire program with a budget and a cast of thousands.  Probably the thing that surprised me most was how readily all of the bureaucratic stakeholders changed all of their assumptions when presented with the logic of the program.

Wow!

That is not just neat.  We need a super cool thread for this.  I am impressed Grumbler.

And it led to this.... 

http://www.stripes.com/news/navy/2nd-man-pleads-guilty-in-navy-bribery-scandal-1.273441