Agreed, Peter, it is fun in a sick masochistic sort of way. I did it a few times when i was wiring the basement, even a couple of breakers in the panel box with the main breaker still on...those i was pretty damn careful on.
Possibly the stupidest thing i accomplished though was giving myself a hell of a shock when the electrical inspector was over to check that the wiring i had done was up to code...."yes you can just ignore these couple of wires hanging from the roof. They are stapled up there and i haven't bothered to pull them down yet because i was thinking i might use the same run to wire something else in." As i grab the collection of wires with my hand to prove to him that they weren't hot i got a very nice jolt. He just looked at me and said, "you might want to put a marrette on that." Tough to get more bone-headed than that.
