I don't have a cel phone. When I tell people that, they look at me like I'm some freak of nature or Amish. "How can you not have a cel phone?" they ask. Simple - I rarely leave my house. Well that's gonna change soon, so I'll probably be forced to get a cel phone. Naturally as a Mac guy, the iPhone seems like what I'd get, especially with Mrs. Chief having an AT&T plan. Plus there's all the cool iPhone apps, like this....
Now here's what's crazy - wanting a phone which is just a phone. Then you're some geriatric old coot...
What a pain in the ass. My choices seem to be remain cel-less, pay through the nose for a thing which sometimes is a phone, or be a geriatric old coot with a Jitterbug.
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30 comments:
I'm one of the old coots who wants a cell phone that's just a phone. I'll have to replace my current low-tech cell phone soon. I probably won't be able to get "just a phone" anymore.
You said you're a Mac type of guy, didn't you? Paying through the nose for something that you'll surely get addicted to is the "Wozniac Way". It would only be PC to go with the Jitterbug instead....actually, I've got a Sprint Samsung myself, which is closer to Jitterbug than iPhone.
Of course, you could always do what the rest of us old coots do -- which is buy a cell phone and then NOT use the special wipe-your-ass, blow-your-nose features. One thing they don't tell you about those teeny tiny phones is that if you have regular adult-size fingers, you're gonna be losing all kinds of time trying to avoid pushing/touching wrong buttons.
Me, I'd like to go back to those old kinds of wall phones they used to have on old-time TV shows, where the caller turned a crank and then said, "Gertie, I'd like to be connected to Joe, please. I can't imagine why Jeff and Lassie didn't come home for supper."
You say cell phone and I think you are talking about sharing a phone with someone named bubba, or Ben Dover.
We call them mobiles here.
Don't start complaining about mobile phone costs until you have been absolutely butt raped by phone companies in Australia.
Nothing worse than having a phone that is more expensive to use than a laptop with a wireless card.
I can't imagine why Jeff and Lassie didn't come home for supper.Perhaps because Lassie belonged to Timmy.
I'm gonna have to get a laptop. That's pretty much a done deal. Now why can't some clever bastard come up with say a usb phone attachment so that you can have something like Skype running yet control everything with the phone? Has anyone come up with this? I'd pass on the "mobile" then.
Ex, the phones with a crank are a little before my time, but I do remember when phone numbers started with a word, like Claymont-7723, and that's what you'd say to an operator (a real person, too).
"How can you not have a cel phone?".
OK, maybe I should go back and read the rest...
First of all (clear how clueless you are in this area) it's called a cell phone, not a "cel" phone.
I can definitely see you with an iPhone. Me? I have a 7 year old Nokia. It's fine for me. I can talk and text. Would I like more? I suppose. If I could afford it and I can't right now. Plus, I get a yucky feeling whenever I act like a conspicuous consumer. We have to stop the madness somewhere.
Many years ago I had one because I thought I could use it as my work phone here, especially since I was getting work from out of state and it would have freed me from long distance fees. Problem was I couldn't get decent reception, so I went with Vonage.
There's something that's just very off putting with these companies. My alarm goes off at anything I have to sign a membership to which carries a requirement to pay for an extended period of time. Gyms, cable tv, phones, I don't care. I want out when I want out.
Verizon fucked me twice on early termination fees. First there was the early termination fee. Next was wringing a couple of extra months of service payments out of me when I wanted the number transferred to my Vonage line. At that time (I don't know about now), they were legally obligated to fulfill such a request, but there was no time limit for how long they were allowed to take to do so. Naturally then, Verizon went with the "someday, perhaps when pigs begin to fly" timeline so while I waited, they wrung more payments out of me.
I really hate these "service" companies. I never feel like I'm getting serviced. More like getting served
There's something that's just very off putting with these companies. My alarm goes off at anything I have to sign a membership to which carries a requirement to pay for an extended period of time..
As on any number of things, we agree 100% on this one. It's the ONLY reason I didn't switch from cable to Direct TV. I don't know about you, but I have no contract with my cable co (maybe they do it now with new customers, but they don't ask long-time subscribers to "sign on" with them). Direct TV wanted to give us a 2 year contract (like a fucking cell phone). Meanwhile, had I terminated my cable that day, I would have had to pay them nothing.
I'd love to have a cell phone that's just a phone. However, it looks like this summer I'll be forced to upgrade to a smartphone, not that I want one, because Palm no longer supports their handheld platform and I have to have a handheld database available.
I know that the majority of features I'll never use. I have never sent a text-message in my life, can't imagine ever doing it, I've never posted a message to a forum from my phone, I've never read e-mail on my phone... all entirely pointless and worthless. If someone needs to get ahold of me, they can CALL me like the phone is intended for.
Oh, Directv. They piss me off, too. I added that years ago just to get the NFL ticket. It used to be that you could do that, carrying no other service, no channels, just NFL games. No more. Now you have to get the base service and add NFL.
I'm grandfathered in it seems, but I think that ends if I move, but then it could end tomorrow too, since there's nothing in writing. The customer service people don't even understand it, and tried to cut my service when I had a problem because I'm not supposed to have the deal I have. Fuckers. And the damn NFL signed an exclusive agreement with them through 2012, meaning that's the only way you can get NFL games. ARGH!
Aside from the convenience of having the game on my own tv, if I had to go to a bar to watch, there goes at least $20, probably more, and you get no audio. Total crap.
Anyway, I think any tv service which is adversely affected by mere rain should be more humble and accommodating. Damn Directv
If someone needs to get ahold of me, they can CALL me like the phone is intended for.Indeed.
I hear the new iPhone will have video editing software on it. Now why the fuck do I need that?
Philly quotes and then comments: Indeed..
Which shows up in the comments crammed up against his italicized quote. This has been happening lately (apparently to everyone) on blogger. What the fuck is THAT all about?
As you can see above, I've figured a way around it, but it's kind of lame. I just put a period after the italicized quote, THEN do my normal space and start writing. I shouldn't have to do that.
John:
Thanks for the tip about the quote thing. That's been bugging the crap out of me.
Be careful with a cell phone. A pal of mine got a new cell phone which can be plugged into a computer (why? I have no idea (neither (((Wife))) nor I have had cell phones since she sold her cleaning business (now she just works a street corner, so she doesn't need a cell phone))) and discovered that the company did not support any Apple applications. He could not plug it into his Mac. Bummer.
That (in case you didn't guess) was me. Sorry.
iambilly, paranthesis inside paranthesis can be eliminated by using more commas or sometimes you don't even need the paranthesis.
QF - don't be silly. Then he wouldn't be (((Billy))). Come on, you're a bright guy. Suck it up!
QF: It's been my writing style (not that it actually has any style, of course) since I began commenting and, as it is rather distinctive, I kept it. Yes, I do understand the use of commas. I even have a copy of Strunk and White next to my computer. I just choose to be parenthetical to be different.
(((Billy))) The Atheist
paranthesis inside paranthesis can be eliminated by using more commas or sometimes you don't even need the paranthesis.
First of all, why would anyone take punctuation suggestions from someone who can't spell parenthesis? Plural: parentheses.
Second, you're not right about eliminating parentheses by substituting commas. Your statement is far too general, and most often will not work. Not to mention that parentheses have a different meaning and -- if you're reading aloud -- intonation than commas. That's a fairly simple feature of writing which only literarily unsophisticated types could fail to notice.
I thought atheists were supposed to be clear thinkers. Sheesh.
Chappy -
You're welcome. Guess what else I found out? When you hit "preview comment", it shows it the right way! So I just let a comment on another of Philly's posts and it looked fine in preview. Then I submitted it and it was fucked up! I had to delete it and use my little trick. Fucking blogger!
chappy:
I said: I can't imagine why Jeff and Lassie didn't come home for supper.
You said: Perhaps because Lassie belonged to Timmy.
The TV Lassie belonged to Jeff for a few years before she (actually he) belonged to Timmy.
Tip to all atheists: Know what you're talking about before shooting off your mouth.
Ex: I guess Chappie just doesn't have your years of experience. She's just a young 'un.
Chappie, (showing my age)before Timmy there was a Jeff and the show was called "Jeff's Collie". Tommy Rettig (or Rentig, it was over half a century ago!)was 'Jeff' and the collie, Lassie, did all the things it did with Timmie, ie; fight forest fires, bank robbers, and bears, save the farm from natural disasters, and a myriad of other things.
Americans are not alone in this sort of thing, while in Germany one of the kids serials was "Hundfuhrer Walchak". This was a kids program that came from Poland, and it was about a policeman who was a dog handler and his dog, Civilist (Civilian) who was always on the verge of getting the heave ho, but always saved the day and so redeemed himself. Actually, it was pretty good.
Philly, when I was a kid and we lived in Blue Ridge Summit, MD (Dad was stationed at Ft. Ritchey) we actually had the hand crank phone, and our ring was short, two longs, short, long, short. A lot of the line was actually barbed wire fences which worked quite well until the grass grew too high or it rained. Plus, if we were talking long distance, everyone would pick up and listen and the voice would get fainter and fainter.
I don't have a cel phone, either, and I don't want one. Accessablilty really sucks. I still remember the idiot who ran me down with her jeep a couple years back actually stayed talking on her cel until the cops got there and made her hang up.
I am not a Luddite (they had some very good points, knowing the poor laws of the time) and my wife and I are both HAM operators. So, we do use technology, and if she needs me she can usually get me on the radio if I'm within fifty miles.
Otherwise, it'll keep.
Maybe I should just tell Mrs. Chief to send smoke signals
Couple of cel observations.
I was doing something in a mall, and there were about half a dozen high school age girls walking ahead of me.
An older geezer than me stopped me, looked me up and down, and told me something.
The young ladies were walking together, they had a bottle of wayer in one hand and a cel phone in the other with which they were talking to persons other than those they were with.
I, on the other hand, had a concertina under my left arm, a banjo in my left hand, and a cup of coffee in my right hand, nodding to passers by.
He found my combination and activities unusual, but at least understandable.
But, last night...
Our local municiple band was playing at a nursing home, and in the clarinet section, right in the middle of a piece, a cel phone goes off, the guy stops playing, answers it, and glares around himself angrily because the band didn't stop playing while he was on the phone. He commented on "rudeness.
I've never encountered a musician's phone going off in the middle of a piece before, but I've seen it occur in the audience plenty of times, in between sounds of rustling candy wrappers, coughing, chirping hearing aids and talking.
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