Apparently Catch Me If You Can was going to include this con but they had to cancel the scene because when they tried to film it people kept walking up and trying to give Leo their money.
So a professor of mine used to work at a bank back in the day. She says one day a guy in professional attire and a clipboard shows up in a big moving truck. He says he’s from the home office and they’re changing all the chairs. He’s needs them to just load all their old chairs into his truck and later he’d be back with the replacements.
And that’s how they gave away their office furniture to a conman whose master plan was “Wear a tie and carry a clipboard.”
Looking professional is just a pass to do whatever the hell you want.
Put a suit on and you can get almost anywhere.
there’s more to it, look nice and ACT LIKE YOU BELONG. If you don’t look like you belong there, people will stop you.
this smacks of a chef i heard of that was tired to death that every single person ordered their eggs ‘over easy’, so asked the waitress to say ‘were out of over easy, we have plenty of scrambled’ and nobody questioned it
How low must your self image be to plan to rob a bank and all you take is some second hand chairs?
I 100% believe this was a former employee with a grudge.
Kid you not, this is how a sister store of mine got their entire dog treat bar stolen.
A couple of guys said they were with maintenance and they were there to replace the old bar with a new one and the employees were like “Seems legit” and they wheeled them out. The staff even helped them do it.
This is called a “Bavarian Fire Drill” and the trick to pulling it off is to have absolute confidence that it’s going to work. If you seem even the slightest bit nervous or hesitant, everyone will see right through it.
Case in point:
In 1906, a German con man named Wilhelm Voigt dressed up in a German Army captain’s uniform and entered the town of Köpenick claiming to be an “inspector” (inspector of what, he never specified). He managed to wrangle ten German soldiers and a sergeant into assisting him, ordered the local police to halt all telephone calls to Berlin for an hour, arrested the mayor and treasurer for nonexistent charges of crooked bookkeeping, and confiscated the town’s entire treasury complete with a receipt which he signed with his former jail director’s name. He only got caught (two weeks later) because his former cellmate blabbed, and was later pardoned by Kaiser Wilhelm II who found the whole thing hilarious.
That Kaiser is a definite bro.
This is why slytherins like to be fancy and professional looking
When you’re a trickster, it pays to be … low key.
I was hired to help test a security system once. I was sent in to a semi-large company and had to go through a list of certain objectives. My favorite one was “take something out of the building that is too big to hide on your body.“ I paired it with “get into a secured facility within the building.”
I walked in in my general business getup. Shirt, tie, jacket, nice pants, not quite “suit” because it was all just a little bit shabby and not exactly matching but not clashing. Nice briefcase. Clipboard.
Getting into the secured part was easy. Learned the name of the supervisor, told the security guard that “Cindy said they’d let me in without a problem on my first day. Something about the badges not being made fast enough.” Sure, no problem, go ahead.
Walked in, unhooked a PC tower, walked to the bathroom where I’d hidden a dolly earlier, went into a stall and changed into the outfit I’d had in the briefcase. It was what I’d consider workman’s clothes but a worker in an office, not like a construction worker.
Blue jeans, t-shirt, worker’s vest (low key), hat, good boots but 2nd hand.
Threw the tower on the mover’s dolly with a couple other things, stacked very slightly precariously but not likely to fall, walked over to the stairs leading down, and started going down to the way out, which I knew had a security guard on it.
As soon as I saw him see me I stumbled and yelled out. He came running over and helped stabilize everything. Helped me down the stairs. Held the door open for me and told me to “have a nice day” as I left. Never asked for my badge or even where I was going with the stuff.
Act like you know what you’re doing. Look like you belong. Be confident.
That’s 75% of it right there.
That is some Moist Von Lipwig bullshit right there and I am fucking delighted.
this guys videos are fucking incredible i really want everyone to watch them
this man is like midas but with knives instead of gold, he can make anything a knife, sicssor knives ,ice knives, cardboard knives, tiny knives if it can be made into a knife he will do it, and if he cant, he will do it anyway because fuck you
This doesn’t even have the best one. One time he made a knife out of ravioli then proceeded to use the knife made out of ravioli to cut up cheese and tomatoes and basil and shit then took the ravioli knife that he had used to cut up his other ingredients and cooked said knife with those ingredients and ate the fucking knife!
The empty fridge that only contains Jack Daniels Chocolate
That one time a bear figurine possessed with a demon would attack him if he didn’t pet it so he had to build a machine that constantly rolled the bear against brushes so he would be safe long enough to finish the knife
You like a language, learn it. Don’t give up on learning it only because it’s not popular, “useful” or your friends don’t like it.
Sticky notes, sticky notes everywhere. If you can’t remember a grammar rule or a word/structure, use sticky notes.
Study daily, even if it’s for 5 min or less.
Learn the first 100-300 most common words, they are like everywhere.
Duolingo, Memrise and Forvo are the holy trinity for every language learner; everyone uses them at some point.
HiNative will save your ass when you have questions.
“Hakuna matata mais quelle phrase magnifique” Disney is your friend, sing disney songs to improve your pronuniation.
Also, watch disney movies. You know the story already so you can focus on the language.
Watch movies with subs in your target language.
Write daily a short text about whatever you want, even about your socks. In 1 month you’d have learned a lot of new vocab.
Talk, talk, talk. If you aren’t a soial person, talk to yourself, to your pet, to a wall; it doesn’t matter. Just force yourself to think in your target language.
If you are busy, Semper is a good app for learning vocab while doing your daily activities.
Use your target language for basic stuff like counting, groceries, complaining etc.
Change your settings on social media. Many people learned English through twitter, facebook, tumblr etc. This can work for other languages too.
Change the settings of your phone too. You use it 24/24, you know what every thing does there so you could learn the name of those setting in your target language.
If you lost motivation, take a break and remember why you started.
If you hit a plateau, that’s most probably because you don’t know enough vocab.
Understand that your progress will be slow after a while. Accept it and keep going.
Lang-8 is a great place if you want natives to correct your texts.
Langblr community is amazing, if you need any advice/explanation, ask a langblr.
Try out many resources but choose a handful that you’ll use daily.
If you don’t know a word in your native language, you don’t need it in your target language.
Accept the fact that you can’t translate every word one by one. There are special structures, word order, particles etc. your target language might not be as your native one.
If you’re bored, look around and name in your target language what you see.
Try to find a language/motivation partner. You will support and help eah other.
You’ll make mistakes, love that! That means you’re learning and you’ll have funny stories to tell in a couple of years.
If you don’t remember a word, make a mnemonic or write it with your other hand; you’ll focus more then.
Learn words in context; you’ll remember them easily after. Clozemaster and WordBrewery are 2 great sites for this.
When you want to read if you are a beginner, choose a book you know. If you are an advanced learner, choose a new book.
Find online a native to talk to. Tumblr is full of natives and langblrs will love to help. Another choice is to find a chat group.
For slang words check out the youtube comment section. Twitter is a good alternative though.
Don’t waste money on fancy programs. Some can be found for free and some aren’t so good as they claim they are.
When you learn a new word, try to make a couple of examples in your head.
Read articles. They use simple structures and actual expressions; also, they aren’t boring.
Youtube is your friend, don’t be afraid to use it. Watch movies in your target language so you can get used to how real people talk; most programs/apps speak slowly and they try to make themselves clear but that’s not real life.
You’ll have an accent; don’t worry, it will go away after a while.
Age doesn’t matter, everyone can learn a language; you can be 5 or 50, the only difference is how you learn.
Don’t just learn, revise as well.
As a beginner you will translate everything from your native language and that’s okay. People will correct you and you will learn.
If you like to read fanfiction, read it in your target language and use the ReadLang extension when you don’t know a word; it’s faster than google translate.
Beware of those vocab lists you see on tumblr. Not everything might be right.
Flewent is an extension that translates a certain % of what you read in your target language. It’s a fast way to learn new words while doing your homework or whatever.
Prepositions are a nightmare to everyone. To have a more pleasant life, try to find a list with verbs and what prepositions they require.
Children songs are catchy, use them to learn vocab faster.
Pay attention to false friends. They might look the same with a familiar word but they have another meaning.
Try not to learn 2 languages at the same time, especially if they are from the same family. (e.g. French and Spanish)
If you decide to study 2 languages at the same time, try to study in different places and use different colors for your notes.
You learn faster if you use your target language than if you learn Nth vocab lists.
Try to avoid making the same mistake until it becomes a habit.
Idioms can impress anyone but don’t start learning them too early or too late.
If you have to learn irregular verbs, try to find patterns and part them in groups.
Hard work beats talent but when it comes to learning a language, there’s no one who has talent. There are people who have a good memory or can figure out patterns but that can be improved so no need to worry if you progress slowly.
Don’t compare yourself to someone who studied a language for years. Everyone progresses in their own way.
Everyone has another method, if it doesn’t work for you, it’s not the end of the world. Just experiment and figure out what works for you.
Classes are a waste of time, don’t think to pay for one.
Try to learn vocab that interests you. You’re a Harry Potter fan? Learn magic terms. You like cooking? Learn cooking terms. etc.
Flashcards are a nice way to learn vocab. Make some and study them before going to bed.
Learn chunks of vocab, not single words. (e.g. Buy a bottle of milk; Brush your teeth; Wash the red car.)
Learn cognates.
Use the diglot weave technique. Basically you
insert foreign words into a sentence of a language you already know
Taking breaks is fine but try not to take a break of Nth months.
Decide what skill you want to improve first. You can never improve everything equally so try to focus on what you need/want the most.
Set a big goal (e.g be advanced in French) but remember to have small goals too. (e.g. read Harry Potter by the end of this season)
Watch people talking. Join a chat and “spy” others if you don’t feel like talking yet.
Associate word – image – sound. Don’t just learn plain words, if you learn the word for tree, think of a tree or search an image with one.
Learning a language takes time, don’t expect to know it perfectly after only 1 week.
Immersion is hella frustrating but it pays off in the end.
Don’t study when you are too tired. You have many chances to learn nothing then.
Find someone you admire so they can motivate you.
Use a bilingual dictionary not only for finding specific words but just for the sake of reading.
After you’ve read 1 page/chapter from a book, try to make a summary in your target language.
When you read books, try to see if you can find the audiobook as well. (Youtube might have it) In this way you know the correct way of saying certain words.
Try to make it fun. If it’s fun to have a schedule do that, if you enjoy more watching movies, do that. Don’t make your learning journey a burden.
Break study time into smaller chunks
Know your learning style.
Try to have a notebook/diary/agenda where you write down what you did daily to improve.
When you feel like giving up, think how many new stuff you have learned.
Your attitude plays an import role. Try to avoid thinking how “difficult” a language is, instead think how good you will feel after you learn it.
ReadLang and Linguarana have videos with subs in many languages, if you like learning with videos, give them a try.
Anki is an amazing app with flashcards for several languages so you don’t waste time making them and they have a daily limit of cards so you don’t burnout.
Physically writing down a word can help seal it in your memory.
Say new words out loud and pay attention to your pronunciation.
If your target language has another alphabet or a writing system, don’t be afraid to learn it. Take a couple of days and master it.
Always have an app or a dictionary/notebook with you. While you wait for a taxi you can study a bit.
If you don’t understand a grammar rule, search some articles about it, take 2-3 days to understand that concept.
Ignisfilimundi 