We grow up being told what to do and what not to do and can’t wait until we’re adults and can do whatever we want. When we finally get there, there are new people like bosses, cool people on TV, and the government who try to tell us what to do again.
I don’t mind getting into a little trouble here and there, so I tend to push the envelope a bit. However, even if you want to stay on the right side of the law, here are a few things that you probably THINK you have to do, but don’t really.
- Write in tip amounts You can just put the total amount and completely ignore the top box. Do you really think they’re not going to figure out how much it is? If you have super messy writing you might want to write it in to make sure they understand the amount, but if you aren’t a 2nd grader, you’re probably fine.
- Stop at stop signs in parking lots These signs aren’t actually legal signs. Have you noticed how they’re often not the same size or material? That’s because they’re made by the property owners. They’re as legally valid as me putting a crosswalk in the middle of my living room. So if it’s late and no one else is in the parking lot, just drive past them. It’s exhilarating.
- Check out at hotels There’s no real benefit to checking out at hotels. You’ve paid for a night and they’re expecting that you’ll be gone by the time you said you’d be gone. Just leave.
- Letting stores check your receipts You know those stores like Best Buy or Fry’s who treat you like a potential shoplifter after you leave and want to verify your receipts at the door? They have no right to do it! The worst is when there’s a huge line and they expect you to wait there. Just walk past and say “no thanks” when they go to look at your receipt. They legally have to let you go. The one exception are “clubs” like Costco where you’ve agreed to allow this in your membership agreement.
- Signing credit card receipts with your real name You’re probably supposed to sign it, but do you really think you’re not going to get charged if you write something else? I once drew a mountain range, a lake, and an indian in a canoe that was being eaten by a huge shark. When the cashier insisted I sign my name I just wrote “artwork by Tynan” at the bottom. The charge went through.
- Give your phone numbers and address when buying things This is a pet peeve of mine. Stores (RADIOSHACK!) always ask for your info so that they can send you tons of junk. I just tell them that I don’t want to give it to them, and they never refuse to sell to me.
- Writing out the numbers on checks How annoying is it to write out “Four thousand three hundred fifty two dollars and XX/100″? I hate it. Instead just write “————–4352.00———–”. The chances that someone is going to try to tamper with your check are basically nil. Especially if you’re writing a check to some company.
- Get oil changes every 3000 miles The ideal amount of time between changes is actually about 4000-5000 miles, but motor oil companies have pushed the 3000 mile thing to sell more oil.
Have any more to add? Put them in the comments and I’ll add good ones here!
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I agree with all of these except the first. When we adjust the tips at the end of the night, that is, we manually enter each tip amount on the receipt, we enter in the actual dollar amount of the tip. Not the tip + price total. Sure we could do the math, but it’s really helpful that you enter it in, in the standard format.
9. Let cops into your house/car. This is more of a civil rights thing, and if you’re good you’ll probably never have to deal with it, but unless the police have a damn good reason to search your stuff you can tell them no.
10. Drive in gear. If you have a manual transmission, you can coast along in neutral to save gas. Actually, I have no idea if it really saves that much gas, but I like to think it does.
11. Show I.D. to get on airplanes. I’ve never not done this (i.e. I always have shown I.D.) but there’s no law saying you have to have it. You have rights! They will, however, look through your crap and hassle you, but feel free to give it a shot if only to make a point.
I’ve always wanted to try that airplane one. Never had the chance, though.
Tynan
I love these kinds of tips! Thanks, Tynan.
One to add: Some people believe that your vehicle has to cross the intersection before the traffic light turns red, but that’s not true. As long as the front of your car ENTERS the intersection before the light turns red, you’re fine.
Fall down if you get shot. Most people think bullets literally knock you off your feet, but it’s not true. Just psychological baby! Zing.
Lets see here, I do the stop sign one at a parking lot here in the town that I live in. This particular stop sign is completely stupid to have where it is as there is no sane way that some one would hit you any ways.
I’ve had some fun with signing credit card receipts and no one has ever said a thing, even when I wrote “this is not my name.”
I also follow the rule of about 5000 miles before an oil change, my step-dad started me on this and I figured since he does work with construction machines and does the same with his trucks I can trust him about it.
I looked up Tennessee code on the stop light issue and found this: “(2) Yellow alone or “Caution,” when shown following the green or “Go” signal:
(A) Vehicular traffic facing the signal is thereby warned that the red or “Stop” signal will be exhibited immediately thereafter and such vehicular traffic shall not enter or cross the intersection when the red or “Stop” signal is exhibited;”
This is Tennessee code 55-8-110 from this website: http://michie.lexisnexis.com
Wouldn’t this mean you can’t cross the intersection when the stop light is Red? Therefore, if you were in the intersection (entered while yellow) and it turned red you would be violation of this code.
Of course, I know someone who fell in this situation, defended themselves in court by saying how can someone possibly time the yellow? They were in the intersection while the light was yellow and the light turned red before they cleared the intrersection. If they tried to stop for the light, they would have stopped in the middle of the intersection. The judge agreed with them and gave them the ticket anyway.
I’m not disagreeing with Wolfy’s comment. I think what Wolfy is saying should be the interpretation of the code. However, this situation seems to fly in the face of this. Or the judge interpretated the code incorrectly.
I have a friend who likes to sign his credit card receipts as Marcus Aurelius.
About Wolfy’s comment- I know in Los Angeles at least, they have those photo-enforced intersections, and if the light turns red while you are still in the intersection it snaps a picture of your plates and costs you 300 bucks. So, I’m not sure about that one.
Respek.
Follow those damn yellow speed limit signs like on on and off ramps to the freeway. They are suggested, only white speed limit signs are enforcable. Floor it.
You don’t have to use checks from a checkbook. as long as whatever you use has your bank acct and routing number, the bank has to honor it. I’ve heard from multiple people about a block of wood someone used at the local bank (one of them is chairman of the board for the bank too!)
Sorry, maybe it varies from city to city, because here’s San Diego affirming precisely what I said (4th question down): http://www.sandiego.gov/engineering-cip/services/public/rlphoto/faq.shtml
Russel: Good question about the use of the word “cross”. I’m not sure.
It may vary, but for the sake of drivers everywhere this should be agreed upon by all cities/jurisdictions everywhere. Drivers should be focusing on driving and not on what the rules are for that particular area. Brings up the whole whether the rule is for safety or revenue for the jurisdiction. Sorry, I’m pulling this comment thread off topic…
You don’t have to…
…be Responsible in order to be successful.
…solve all your problems in order to be happy.
…clean your house that often.
…be nice to your boss (even if you want to keep the job).
…work much.
…be honest without a good reason.
…sleep 8 hours a day to feel rested.
…drink 8 glasses of water a day to be hydrated.
…be married to be fulfilled.
…have kids to be fulfilled.
…use your turn signal when nobody’s behind you, or when you’re in a left-turn-only or right-turn-only lane.
Yikes, once I get going it’s hard to stop.
But I’ll stop.
ps: obviously these things have exceptions and devils in details and what not. I claim no responsibility for lost jobs, dehydration or anything else in that goes on in the lives of people I don’t know for that matter.
pps: good post Tynan
Oh, remembered another traffic one:
You don’t have to wait for a green light to make a left turn from a ONE WAY street onto a ONE WAY street. As long as you come to a stop first, and there’s no sign prohibiting such a turn, you can go for it.
I didn’t realize that one until I looked it up a few years ago. And, again, it’s possible some city somewhere doesn’t allow you to do this, so check with your local authorities first.
I don’t know about #3. Personally I’d want to check my bill before leaving the hotel to make sure there are no strange charges. Some hotels just slip a receipt under the door at night and let you leave your key in your room anyway for quick check out.
As for #5, you should. Or I should put it that the store should enforce it because if you don’t you can contest the charge. The store would lose as they don’t have your signature on file as it matches your credit card.
As for #4 and #6, YES, YES, YES! No one should do these things. Except at Costco as when you get a Costco card you sign an agreement stating that you give the store permission to check your receipt. Anyplace else, EVERYONE should refuse to give over personal info or their receipt as it’s an invasion of privacy and there is nothing the store can do to you if you say no.
Take too much shit from anyone. Don’t buy into their frame and mentality. Snap back to what YOU believe in and tell them to stop trying to fuck with you. I’ve called out 2 people in a lost month who tried to claim some bullshit on me..both are now much nicer. People are usually afraid of (especially bosses and strangers) so they don’t keep these guys in check like everyone.
- another one is take anyone’s opinion too seriously. I wear red pajama pants (ty’s seen em) ..they have a hole 12 inches long in my thigh..and martini glasses pained on em. I wear them to school/gym/dates. I do not care. Girls especially love them, but if someone asks me how i can do this - I say “because I can”..what kind of silly question is this?
Dennis, you’re right (with not taking shit from anyone). Sometimes you can change people by calling them out. Other times people are so stubborn (or stupid) that you just have to dismiss them if they don’t acknowledge that you called them out.
One I just figured out…
You don’t have to pay traffic tickets. Just fight them every time and you’ll have a really good chance of not paying it.
I got pissed at the cop who wrote me a ticket because he was rude. Once I get set on revenge watch out! >:-)
So, I waited until I was notified of a court date and then proceeded to use the open records act to request to see his radar detector (he refused to show it to me), to review his notes (there are none), calibration logs for the gun (there are none), request training logs for when he was last trained on the radar gun (there are none), etc…
Then, whenever I get a notification of a court date I fax the court clerk with an excuse as to why I can’t make that court date and ask for another date. They court dates are every 2 months. After 3 times now it’s been about 7 months since the ticket was written. I plan on delaying indefinitely. If they call me on it, I’ll show up at court with my notes (written the evening of the ticket) and, if the cop still happens to work there and he happens to show up at the court that date…I’ll object as soon as anyone mentions my speed since the evidence is inadmissable (no training on the gun, not calibrated, no notes about an event that occurred a really long time ago).
Ergo, I don’t have to pay if I don’t want to and either do you!
Joshua
Josh - Great one! I’m just waiting to get a speeding ticket so that I can do that too. There’s an awesome web site somewhere that tells you everything you need to know about it.
Too bad 99% of the time none of that shit actually works.
Sorry guys. Some cops will laugh in your face if you ask them when their gun was last calibrated
The coasting in neutral thing can be a very bad idea. Many transmissions have their lubrication pumps attached to the drive shaft, so will be running dry while in neutral.
… obey private speed limit signs, especially if they are not divisible by 5 or 10.
… wear shoes while driving. It is an urban legend that it is illegal to drive barefoot.
… write your account number on checks that you mail. What a pain. I did this for a year or 2, haven’t in decades.
I change my oil every 7000 or so miles. The rental car companies use 6500. My RAV4 has 225,000+ miles, still running fine (routine repairs only).
Regarding speed gun calibration (and the poster who said the cop would laugh), the cop doesn’t matter (duh). You bring this issue up in court. It works fairly often.
I have heard the same warning about driving in neutral that was brought up.