Does obeying minor rules basically make you a sucker?

I think its about knowing when you're not being a twunt for breaking the rules.

So perhaps yes, to answer the question.

The root of the qn is how irritated I get when I see other people do this and I wonder if it's rational/sensible to get that annoyed or whether there's a component of envy in there too.

Nothing turns me into a Falling Down-type psycho more than people who pass 17 signs on the motorway saying the lane they're in is closed ahead, speed past a huge queue of barely-moving cars, then force their way into the trafifc as the cones start closing in on their right.

And you only ever see people in giant family 4x4s or company car BMW-type wankermobiles doing it.

Okay thanks. Now I really do hate the entire human race.

Lines suck.

also the thing about my gripe about boarding the bus through exit doors is that it's always a free-for-all to board at the front anyway. those guys were there before me so why am i bothered that they got on before me albeit through unorthodox method?

"FOUR BOTTLES OF VODKA COUNTS AS ONE ITEM!"

a pack of half dozen eggs would break the rule lol

xpost

i used to be a bit more play-fair.

In general, if the line is roped off, ALWAYS duck the rope to get into line. You will cut off anyone who is walking into the line by following the queue path and the line does not actually start until you get behind the last person currently in it.

Dan, you would make a crap Englishman.

What if I stammered in a flustered and lovably endearing way as I cut people in line?

Hello "storing carry-on in overhead compartment", I'd like to introduce you to n/a.

It's just selfish, and there are few things I hate more in the world than selfish people. I just don't understand the whole "hey, if I can get away with it, what's the harm" thing.

stevem: i typed xpost because i can

w/r/t other, minor rules, however: suckers. Or, rather, break them when they merit breaking. I'm rarely impatient enough to jump queues, but I blow stop signs and traffic lights all the time on my bike.

...are English people the kind of people that would stand on a street corner in the middle of the desert, waiting for the "walk" signal, when there's zero cars for 50 miles? My sister is that kind of person.

In fact I try not to do any of the things other folk do that piss me off.

SO YOU WERE THAT BASTARD WHO STAYED SEATED IN YOUR FUCKING AISLE SEAT WHEN I WAS TRYING TO GET OUT

No, of course I wouldn't dream of doing such a thing - I'm too busy tutting and rolling my eyes to have that kind of initiative.

Yes, but what do you use at the airport?

yes. all English people would do this. every single one.

the trolley thing!

That so doesn't count at queue jumping. Ahem.

My brother did this at a zebra crossing when he was about eight. But then he is mildly autistic, so we let him off with only minor piss-taking for the next couple of decades.

"they will eventually die in a twisted ball of flaming metal and glass due to their impatience"

But as they're in SUVs they'll probably survive and just kill everyone else on the road when they crash. Though little Tabatha's viola might suffer minor scratching.

See, when people pull this one in the Tesco near us, I just push their stuff back on the conveyor belt and put my stuff in front of it. Fucking dicks.

My wife is a terror for pulling people up for queue jumping. I've had to back her up a couple of times, once physically.

It would seem that this strategy is increasingly common everywhere. I am such a queue-abider that even when I genuinely have forgotten something I nearly always re-load my basket from the belt before going and getting it.

I don't. Snowball effect. Because you in turn don't obey those ohsosillyminor rules will piss off other people who will say it's silly to follow the rules etc etc etc.

Yes. Although, I don't stay seated once the line has started moving, I just wait until you can, you know, ACTUALLY GO SOMEPLACE before getting out of my seat.

I get pretty Zen when I travel. Which makes things (a) less stressful and (b) more hilarious because most people are FREAKING OUT. Generally speaking, 80% of the population is terrible at flying.

By plane, that is. 100% of the population is terrible at plain old flying.

God it makes me angry. Queues are there for everyone's good. Not obeying these litle rules is not playing fairly, and there's nothign that angers me more than people who don't have the decency to play fairly.

Is this an American “It’s My Right Do Do This, and Screw Anybody Else’s Rights” thing or what?

...are English people the kind of people that would stand on a street corner in the middle of the desert, waiting for the "walk" signal, when there's zero cars for 50 miles? My sister is that kind of person.

No. That’s just crazy... the German’s on the other hand do this, but seem to have no qualms jumping queues.

There's an element of fair play re: jumping the queues at the cinema -- I treasure the sanctity of the moviegoing experience, so if it's sold out when I get there, it's just my tough fucking luck. (If all my friends are already on the inside, though, I'll ask someone if I can jump the queue.)

queues aren't terrible to put up with anyway unless it's raining or really cold, in which case i generally just don't bother with whatever the queue's actually for.

I should note that whenever I jump a line, I make a point to eat ice cream, particularly when I'm by myself.

MOOD: ANGRY!

At least; slow moving people post plane/pre-immigration drive me up the wall, especially when they are difficult to overtake.

...are English people the kind of people that would stand on a street corner in the middle of the desert, waiting for the "walk" signal, when there's zero cars for 50 miles? My sister is that kind of person.

No. That’s just crazy... the German’s on the other hand do this, but seem to have no qualms jumping queues.

if we ARE to generalise on a NATIONAL scale, surely it's the Japanese who are always being mocked for this sort of thing?

Narcissistic personality disorder I reckon.

suddenly the coach turned up it stopped RIGHT NEXT TO US and we kinda just got on it in front of everyone. I hated myself for the whole journey back because i knew everyone probly wanted to kill us with knives.

my mates thought it was hilarious.

I really really hate lines too, which is why I avoid them at all costs, so I'm not inclined to break them and perchance run into a nutjob like myself.

What was another relatively innocuous ILE thread that everyone went batshit insane on? Because I do that, too.

He likes to chew up the queue-jumper and then spread the resulting paste between two intact queue-jumpers?

I don't jump lines I don't think, if a friend was in it I might. I don't queue at clubs cos I seldom if ever go unless I am playing or a friend is!

Driving in the bus lane is another one I don't do, it doesn't really have negative effects on others but I still definitely want someone to be caught when I see them doing it.

The supermarket thing, bit of a grey area, it does piss me off if people push the limit, but I think it mainly happens due to senility rather than anything else, at least in my experience.

x-post after Dan's we can now lock thread

This is OTM. Though I would also add to this that people who would never have the chutzpah to cut a line at the post office or a store have no problem cutting someone off on the road. I think being in a car empowers a lot of people to get in touch with their inner assholes.

Right.

This, by the way, was the rofflest thing I've read all day.

"bastard people!"

Here in my car on the internet
I know I’ve started to think
About leaving tonight
Although nothing seems right
In cars on the internet

if we ARE to generalise on a NATIONAL scale, surely it's the Japanese who are always being mocked for this sort of thing?

Do the Japanese really jump queues?

I probably should add that I am one of those people. I don't drive on the shoulder to get around traffic, but sometimes I do see an additional lane even when there are no lines painted on the ground to indicate its existence. However, I rationalize this by telling myself that I am making the traffic flow more efficiently by encouraging other drivers to be more creative in their use of road space.

Something that, surely, should be punishable by death?

Ok with all this back and forth dicking about going on on this thread, is no American going to point out the existance of Southwest Airlines? Jumping the line to get on those planes would basically make your entire flying experience X10000000 better.

Anyway, I don't jump queues. I just hustle, shove, elbow, and snake in and out of people to make sure I'm at the front of a pack constantly. Ethan and Dan, get with the program already and start whacking some bitches with your elbows.

Does anyone think they're NOT the most important person in the world?

Bloody well does if you're standing at the bus stop and it's raining and there's a big puddle. Fucking cunts.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

IT RAINS ALL THE TIME THERE RIGHT?

I find the people who cut drugstore lines so brazenly are very similar in appearance to the people who insist on squeezing themselves into the last 2 inches of space in the subway and yelling at others to "step in" (to where, I'm not sure) and the people who crammed their fat asses into the subway elevators in my old neighborhood (nb: there was no staircase, only an elevator).

NB RICH WHITE PEOPLE, ESP. WOMEN

http://www.livejournal.com/users/raspberrywho/

xpost w/r/t people being "allowed" to cut: sometimes, at the post office, I've gone through a transaction (that I waited in line for) and they say something like "go fill out the address field and bring it back to me." The implication is that you're allowed to cut to the front of the line because (a) you waited once already (b) you're finishing something you already started (c) it won't take that long anyway and (d) waiting again would be totally stupid.

You can use any one of them but there is a person at each one right now.

You stand behind the person at the middle one, thinking you can just move to the one on the left or right if the person there finishes first.

Some fewl behind you decides to queue up behind the person on the left or right instead of behind you.

Person using the machine to the left or right finishes before the person in the middle does. person who was technically behind you then uses cash machine while you continue to wait behind person in middle.

Rage cup runneth over nicely. Stare at British passport (which you keep with you at all times for some reason) in a 'this is all your fault' sort of way.

xpost Stare at British passport (which you keep with you at all times for some reason) in a 'this is all your fault' sort of way.

roffle

i'm not a well man

Person using the machine to the left or right finishes before the person in the middle does. person who was technically behind you then uses cash machine while you continue to wait behind person in middle.

normally that means the machines on the left and right are out of cash anyway!

The best example of this comes when there is a queue of five or six people happily breaking off to which ever machine comes free first, and then some gimp wanders up, looks in a slightly baffled way at all these people waiting for one machine when there are two others free, and then promptly goes straight to the first available one...

And everyone in the queue tuts and mutters under their breath, but nobody does anything...

And everyone in the queue tuts and mutters under their breath, but nobody does anything...

Yeah in this respect it's probably best just to pick one and stick with it. The single queue thing never really works.

I hate the people WHO GO MISSING AT AIRPORTS!

I really, really despise free seating flights though and refuse to fly on an airline that uses them again.

I do this. But, xpost, I haven't really travelled in a group of people in, oh, 6 years.

I have to purposefully calm myself on occasions like this, though, because I'm so impatient that I can start freaking out in lines and/or crowded places unless I work on just not caring.

Haha I'm such a sucker that I do this, then let all the people who started walking before me past.

passive aggressive needledickery

I don't see much passive.

Anyone cut in front of me will get a very terse "What the fuck are you doing?" ala Madonna.

Minor rules that I break? Just last night, I cut through a gas station to get to a sidestreet. I sometimes park on my street facing the wrong way. I used to dump broken appliances at my old apartment's dumpster before I realized that my new city's sanitation department will collect anything.

Southwest's no assigned seating system WAS a way to save money. 25 years ago or whatever, when Southwest was born and computers were pretty crap and the procedure to do all of that check-in nonsense was excruciatingly slow. This is not the case anymore and Southwest has made a business out of ripping off the consumer with a false sense of "we cut corners on 'unnecessaries' so you can ride for like free!" when the reality is, they're just scamming their consumers.

Though if you quite frankly cannot see this and actively CHOOSE Southwest when the option to fly Jet Blue or Independence exists, you deserve what you get, which is a 6 hour flight to Sky Harbor with no goddamn food and barely any drink or entertainment in shitty, tiny seats that you got herded into.

This kind of behavior is not uncommon, apparently.

haha one time this couple was blatantly line jumping and there was a murmur building throughout the rest of the line, and when the couple got on the ride the whole crowd shouted and pointed and those fuckers got booted the fuck out.
If you do this you're an asshole, end of story.

Or which two-seater's head you are going to accidentally drop your very heavy carry-on on top of.

Check in online at midnight and you'll be in the A line of cattle, guaranteed. So at least there's that.

there are lots of places that southwest flies to, that other carriers don't.

i don't mind waiting, usually.

If I do not assert myself at a bar, I am not getting served. Ever. Experience has proven this to me.

Not in my experience. We didn't assign them b/c that was one less place kids could stash drugs/guns.

To answer the question, obeying minor rules makes you Canadian.

big time xpost

You do NOT putt-putt down the left-hand lane UNLESS you are in a country that drives on the left-hand side of the road. EVER. Doing so is punishable by death.

pedestrians who walk on the green arrow!! the lights on campus here are ridiculously short (5 cars MAX on the arrow, and that's if the first driver is on top of it) and EVERY SINGLE DAY i find myself, at the same intersection, on the verge of plowing through a boatload of students who, emboldened by one or two fucks who get the ball rolling, mass together and walk slowly as they like. left turns stop completely. this seriously adds like 10 minutes onto my commute. i've taken to barrelling ahead full speed and laying on the horn. i don't know what i'd do if they didn't actually scatter...

Me too. My GOD these people fucking suck.

That would never happen in my automobile-friendly town. The crosswalk lights even feature timer displays to taunt, perhaps dare any pedestrian stragglers to take their chances against the machines.

are English people the kind of people that would stand on a street corner in the middle of the desert, waiting for the "walk" signal, when there's zero cars for 50 miles?

In Sweden they are, apparently. That was weird. I liked it in France where nobody seemed to take lines seriously or be orderly about it & most minor rules apparently are only made to be broken. Walking very very slowly to hold open subway gates (I had an unlimited pass) so people could sneak through for free = classic.

Just FYI.

My saga with delta was...interesting. It was very soon after 9/11 and I was travelling with an ex who was from a "suspicious" part of the world...it was funny how many flights I was put on long before he was, despite a rewquest to travel together!! Or how many times he was stopped by the security (we kept leaving to go smoke) while I wasn't! If they only knew I was far more likely to blow up their plane with the amount of anger + plane fear...

Are you my MOTHER? Jeez. Although the highway limit in MI is 70, which means everyone drives 80, which is nice.

Anyone ever worked up the gall to key a car (or SUV more likely) taking up two spaces? Whenever I see that, something in the back of my mind wants to puncture all four tires, but I successfully beat back my primal urges.

Also, people who talk on their cell phones while driving deserve to have a really shitty day. (sorry Hurting) (my dad does this too. Sorry Dad). Especially that woman who almost sideswiped me because she was lost in Asshole Land jabbering away on her cell.

People who cut in line also deserve to have a really shitty day.

I despise people who take up two parking spaces in crowded parking lots.

I hate queue jumpers, though I will sometimes exit one queue and go to another if I see it moving faster than the one I'm currently in. I still won't cut in line, though. I do prefer what has been called "bank lines" and am happy that my neighborhood CVS does this. They make a lot more sense than what has been called "supermarket lines". Oh, and I too get into a deeply passionate (though not murderous) rage whenever there's queue jumping while driving EXCEPT FOR when there's been no clear signage or even much of an iota of what's waiting for the driver up ahead in the lane he/she is currently in. I've seen a few examples of this before and am always sympathetic toward the driver who's trying to get into the neighboring lane. But everyone else? No excuse.

Oh yes, and people driving while talking on their cell phones drive me up the wall. As do people who speed in school zones or in residential areas (though I feel people are free to drive however fast they want to, within reason, on major thoroughfares).

(xpost) I've seen people jumping the queue at supermarkets before, though the last time I saw that happen was maybe ten years ago, and I've never seen it occur at my neighborhood supermarket or the one close to where my parents were raised.

This is the one thing that'll send me into a rage, esp a BMW/Mercedes/Porsche SUV who backed into the spot.

The only thing that sends me into real, fantasising-about-murder levels of rage is people talking in cinemas, but that's also the thing I'm probably least likely to ever do anything about, annoyingly. That these people must be destroyed is probably the least controversial example of this sort of thing, I suppose.

I think it's sometimes quite useful to be angry because you think everyone around you is a complete dick, anyway. Has a sort of galvanising effect.

I was in the supermarket one day and a woman just came up to me and said "do you mind if I go in front of you? I'm in a hurry." I was in such a bad mood that I pointed to the queue of people behind me and said "we're all in a hurry too. Sorry." She looked really pissed off. Fuck her.

(Every now and then I'll encounter another driver who shares this point of view and we exchange a mystical kind of knowing glance which simultaneously says nothing and everything at once.)

As an experienced pubcrafter you know how to be sure that you're not going to get ignored: make sure you catch the eye of whoever's serving as early as you can, smile or nod at them, don't hassle them, never wave banknotes at them. This knowledge leaves you with a problem, though: what to do about those unfortunates who don't know?

Some say it's a jungle in there and you're best getting your beer and getting away from the bar as fast as possible. I tend to feel that, if someone's been waiting for longer than you, deferring to them will get you served soon asnd civilly, and accepting this brief delay you will be served sooner and better the next time you're at the bar.

Extreme busy-ness in the alehouse, or gross inefficiency on the part of the bar staff means all bets are off and it's every drinker for himself, or herself.

Mostly, the pub's not supposed to be a battle, it's supposed to be a refuge. Being generous is mostly better than the alternative, even if it does cost you a minute or two. Your friends will probably be glad of the chance to bitch about you for a bit longer while you're at the bar anyway.

god bless other drinkers who recognise you've been stood at the bar for ten days.

Because when their pint's ready, they're CALLED TO THE BAR!!!!

*pause*

**tumbling tumbleweeds**

I'll get me coat.

I've noticed an increase in standing-on-the-left on Tube escalators this week. Must be something to do with half term.

OTM

I make it a rule not to let my credit or debit card traverse the sacred divide which is The Bar and I tend to be a little sniffy about anyone who does. This sniffiness is probaby bad pubcraft on my part but paying by card does seem a lot more bother for everyoe than thinking ahead enough to wander to the cashpoint pre-pub.

Also, if it was true, why would pubs be installing those cash machines which are such a rip o... oh, OK ignore that.

It meant people could purchase several coupons in one transaction (and hang on to them from week to week. It meant the barstaff were freed up to serve beer rather than take money. It worked so well that there was no queue at the bar, even in such a rush environment. A marvellous thing, which was made possible by a very limited range of products on offer.

Then god punished me by getting "Nice Guy Eddie" and "Tattva" in my head.

the MASSIVE MASSIVE FLAW here is that horrible queues will just develop around the machines instead!

they had a token system at sónar this year. it was horrible and confusing and the bar was a heaving scrum of panicky/irritated European ravers. BAD.

hahahaha. Dan, what's a Nubian?

Not too long ago I was stuck in traffic and this one douchebag just kept honking his horn. So I rolled down my window and yelled "YEAH, THANKS! THE HONKING IS REALLY HELPING THINGS HERE!" and the guy yelled back, "IT'S NOT ME, ASSHOLE!" What could I do? I was the asshole now.

Sorry, long tangent. BACK TO PEOPLE WHO NEED TO BE KILLED.
God. I forgot.
I'll get back to you.

I refuse to believe that was the work of god -- only the devil calls forth Kula Shaker songs, as part of his punishment of a weary world.

Back in my more passive-aggressive days, I'd pull their windshield wipers into the "up" position. Comepletely harmless, but also completely violating.

Besides the fact that it was a ninny thing to do, I also stopped doing that when I realized that IT DIDN'T SOLVE A DAMN THING.

(So I started unscrewing their gas caps....)

One should always publicly scold people who are rude to retail workers. The worker would get in trouble, but you, as a fellow shopper, can vent wrath at will. Once this woman at the market brought a pound of butter to the register but only wanted a stick. She asked the incredibly busy cashier to return the rest of the pound to the dairy case! This while her husband was loitering around with his thumb up his ass! I was very severe.

As a retail worker myself, I concur wholeheartedly. Although I received a complaint from a customer on Monday who considered my shouting at my volunteers to be appalling. The volunteer in question is 82 and had accidentally put her hearing aid in the spin cycle at the weekend, so I had to shout at her or we'd have got nothing done all morning. But customers aren't to know those things.

Also Pubs: cash-registers: many on the front bar or fewer on the back bar, which is better.

I once called someone a cunt for patronising a kebab shop worker. Fortunately, he was as posh and cowardly as me and didn't kick my face in. I was the moral victor there, I felt.

The Goose opposite Brixton station is very bad for that.

A motorist who wrongly parked in a disabled bay had his throat slashed by a genuine disabled driver.

Recovering hospital patient David Williams, 49, was furious when he could not find a disabled parking space in a Tesco supermarket car park.

He spotted shopper Christopher Barrell sitting in his car in a disabled bay - and saw there there was no disabled sticker on his windscreen.

Williams jumped out and shouted at Mr Barrell, 42, who called back: "Sorry, I won't be long." But a court today heard Williams pulled out a four-inch lock knife to slash Mr Barrell across the throat.

Prosecutor Harry Baker said: "Mr Barrell was sitting in the front seat of his car in a Tesco car park.

"He was parked in a disabled space.

"Williams reached into the car and slashed Mr Barrell's throat.
"Alarmingly he went back to his car, lit a cigarette and waited 30 minutes for his wife to arrive."

Former civil servant Williams had a genuine disabled sticker for himself, his wife and his son who are all registered disabled.

Williams was arrested after police viewed CCTV footage and found Mr Barrell's blood on his lock-knife.

He told police Mr Barrell had been "cheeky" but claimed he could not remember the attack.

Married father-of-one Williams, from Newport, Gwent, admitted causing actual bodily harm and having a bladed weapon in public.

Cardiff Crown Court heard his medical problems included depression and treatment for psychiatric illness.

Simon Goodman, defending, said: "His memory of the incident is completely blank." Judge Roderick Denyer told him: "If you put a knife to a person's neck there is a serious risk of killing them.

"Your wife and son are also disabled and you have to care for them.

"If I locked you up it would have a devastating effect on them." Williams was given an 18 month jail sentence suspended for 18 months

parking in a disabled bay is a minor rule?

The article's really confusing as to what actually happened. When Mr Stabby went back to his car, did he move it into the disabled space or was he in a normal space already?

Bars in America: less likely to tell the barman another person is next (unless the person is cute and I'm interested). The barman is working for tips, after all, and will ignore drinkers who've tipped low or forgotten to do so. The only way to tell if you're a good tipper in the US is to see how fast you get served for the second round.

Bars and pubs in Britain: in my local, I am next unless there is another regular looking hopeful and I've spotted them or whatever. Anywhere else, the bar staff are good at this discernment but I do tell them when others have been waiting longer.

Clubs: usually on guestlist so the first port of call is the door itself (if the person who invited me is on the door I get straight in). If I am then directed to a heaving guestie queue I do not mind so much.

Airplanes/ports: GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY WAY. Last journey featured slothlike Americans who had not been to Gatwick before. In some cases, Minneapolis cyclist style, I have been known to call out "on your left" while speedwalking by at 25 MPH.

It's looking like I am going to have to pay to get it towed away.

The tow company lost interest when they heard it was currently untaxed - I guess they think they are unlikely to be paid by the owner.

Oooooohh! La-de-da.

https://i.imgur.com/44tFNQQ.jpg