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stella41b -> RE: On My Way Out/ Going to look for pay phones today! (6/14/2008 4:17:26 AM)
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I have a cellphone but what we in the UK call a brick, meaning an older type minus camera, mp3 player, Java games and whatever else can be found on a cellphone. I carry it with me, but I don't like using it. I don't like people calling me on it - as I'm usually in the wrong place, i.e. public transport, the bathroom, or at the front of the queue in a supermarket when someone does call. If you need to contact me by cellphone text me.
Cellphones irritate me, as do some people using them. Some people have idiotic conversations on them, they have moronic conversations on them on public transport. I was sat behind a man recently on a bus in London who over the course of a three or four minute conversation managed to use the phrase 'strategic financial planning' no less than about twenty times. You are going along an aisle in a supermarket but your way ahead is blocked by a trolley keft by someone who needs to call someone to decide what tea bags to buy. I've also been forced to overhear someone talking about their father's ingrowing toenail for 20 minutes. My prize would go to a woman who about three weeks ago spent around fifteen minutes explaining to someone, again on public transport, why she felt her husband's dick was too small.
This is true. Recently I received a call on my cellphone, but had put it down somewhere. It starts ringing. I look around, I cannot find it, the general location is my desk. On desk are CDs, papers, letters, and a mass of other things, and so I'm sifting through looking for my cellphone. I find it at the precise moment it stops ringing. I put it down. I go to the bathroom, it starts ringing again, I swear, I swear profusely. I emerge from the bathroom, pick up my mobile phone, catch the call.
"I'm here," announces a voice.
"Where?" I ask.
"Standing outside your block." comes the reply. WTF!!?? I have a fully operational intercom system, there's a button beside the front door to my block, there's a phone like receiver stuck to my wall, all you got to do is use your finger and press a button. I pick up the receiver, press a button and let you in. Simple.
If there's one thing that gets on my tits it's people using a cellphone whilst driving. Not only is it illegal, it's moronic, dangerous. I live near a busy road close to Central London, and I've lost count the amount of times I've had to leap out of the way of what I call the 'stupidity combo' which means some wassock in a 4WD talking on a cellphone. I don't care, the brain is the common factor, you CANNOT maintain proper control of a car and talk to someone on a cellphone.
But this isn't as stupid or dangerous as riding a bicycle and using a cellphone at the same time, on a busy road with moving traffic.
It's my personal prediction that the next feature to be added to a cellphone together with the camera, Internet, mp3 player, calculator, Java games, will be a satnav system similar to Tom Tom working on GPRS for people who talk on cellphones whilst walking along the street. A voice will interrupt the call to announce 'Look out, lamp post! Turn left! Turn left!' or 'Watch out! Fellow human approaching on collision course! Turn right! Turn right!'
I mean why have all these features on a cellphone anyway? I have a digital camera, I have a collection of mp3 songs and the Internet on a computer with a decent monitor where I can play all the games I want in comfort and at the appropriate time. Someone who was trying to sell me a cellphone recently was trying to get me to buy a phone simply because it had 'surround sound speakers' and that I would 'really notice the difference'. Why the hell would I need a 5.1 speaker system on a cellphone? 'Well the quality of the sound of the ringtone is much better with this speaker system' came the reply. Oh yeah, as if when someone's calling me I'm just going to sit there to enjoy the ringtone. I mean what do I say to people? 'Er excuse me, but when you call me on my cellphone can you b so kind as to wait up to ten minutes before I reply because I want to listen to Lynyrd Skynyrd's Freebird which I have as a ringtone'... ?
And isn't it the case that people use cellphones as an excuse to be rude or irresponsible? I mean you get a text 'Sorry I can't make it' or 'Sorry but I'm running a bit late' allows people to escape taking responsibility for their actions as they can then switch off their cellphone and hide from your wrath. I've just ditched an actor from my theatre for doing this.
How many times are you with someone and they say 'Sorry I just need to check this' or 'Sorry I just need to take this call'.? No you don't. At least not with me. I may make an exception if someone's sick or announced that they're waiting for an important call. But if I can switch my cellphone off or ignore it so can the other person.
Cellphones tend to make people stupid when it comes to dating. Texts are over-analyzed for hours and some people get friends involved trying to go over all the possible interpretations of a five word text message (or two half words and three letters if txtspk has been used) and this can go on for hours even though the person who as your feelings didn't even spend a minute thinking about the text they sent. The wrong tone, or even the wrong word in a text can create major drama and stress and please don't get me started on the issue of whether they've sent a kiss or not, or they were meant to or not. I'm sure there's been countless hours of real time spent discussing what was sent in one minute of texting, or even what wasn't sent.
Am I the only person who resents other cellphone users for introducing txtspk to the English language?
Oh and then there's that incredibly asinine feature, T9 or predicative text. I can't stand it. I don't understand it.
I've sent messages which didn't come out right. For example:
'I'm at the doctor, might be ages' which came out as 'I'm at the doctor, might be aids'
'Why don't you let me look after your puppy?' sent to a lady who lives downstairs came out as 'Why don't you let me look after your pussy?' She still gives me funny looks, even a year later.
Sorry I got carried away... I meant to also go onto payphones.. We still have them. Funny thing is the last time I used one was to send a text message which cost me 50p.
stella
who has a cellphone and a bit of common sense
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