cell phones

i had a cell phone a couple of years back and it was really handy whenever I wanted to make a phone call. i didn't want to give my number to very many people as I didn't want to be found or bothered by the continuous ringing of the phone when i was out and about. I carried one for a year and a half for work (i was on call) and i did get used to the convenience.

however, 2 years later i am still cell free and content with it. there is nothing that pisses me off more than being in the middle of a really good conversation, argument, business meeting and having the other person put me on hold so that they can answer the thrice bedamned cellphone. and then continue to hold a conversation on the phone, only to forget what we were talking about to begin with. that behaviour tells me that i am not valued, or at the very least valued less than the phone call. now granted sometimes it is an important call, and a request for a moment's interruption is not at issue. but when the call is nothing pressing could you not just take a message and call them back, like if you were using a wireline phone that you could not take with you every where you went?

and that is just the people i know.

then there is a whole nasty world of inconsiderate strangers infringing on other's auditory lives with their digital pollution ( i'm not speaking of everyone - just the bastards who interfere in my daily grind) . some of us do have hearing that works very well thank you. and we hear YOU, with your grating ring tones that can be heard clear across OHanlon's at midnite on dance night, shitty renditions of popular (to some) tunes or a plethora of digitized noises that range from R2D2 and C3P0 to electronic farts. please exercise a little bit of oh so uncommon courtesy and turn down the volume on the phone and shut the fuck up.

I am sick and tired of hearing all the halves of bad conversations. i do not care to know how sick the buddy got last weekend - especially in graphic detail, nor do i want to listen to some whiny little barstar crying over "Him" or "her". i do not need to listen to half of a story about a game i'm not interested in, or about people i do not know. please just turn down the volume on your side of the conversation or get a better phone.

but now I have discovered "jammers" - some wonderful little devices that fits in a pocket and will jam all cell signals for an area of 9 meters around the jammer. yes they are illegal in North America and so is marijuana. they are being imported in larger and larger numbers and with any luck will soon be available anywhere there is enough of a market - that would be everywhere.

i have asked nicely. nice didn't work. the jammer will solve the noise pollution problem quite handily. all i want for christmas ...