Or you could just turn it off.

The BBQ Pit
101

[QUOTE=Thudlow Boink]
I have thought for a long time (i.e. well before cell phones) that you ought to be able to make calls at different urgency levels. The callee ought to be able to tell the difference (from the style of ring, or a light display on the phone, or something) between an “I’m calling just to chat if you’re not busy” call and an “I need to get ahold of you” call and a “this is an emergency!” call. They should be able to set their phone so it will ring for some levels but not others. It should be illegal for phone solicitors, survey takers, etc., to call at anything above a low urgency level.
[/QUOTE]

Except people now a days are so conceited, they’ll think all of their calls are extremely urgent.

102

[QUOTE=DrDeth]

As far as I am concerned, once they are off the clock, they are off the clock (Huge disasters aside, but I am “on call” for those myself). They have even more rights to a life of their own, since I expect 99% of all emergencies to be handled by staff already there at the hosital (yes, some are asleep in the “on call” room, but they are still there. They will have to be called of course. ) You seem to think that just because they have an imporant job, they must be “on call” 24/7. :dubious: I hope they can enjoy their days off without a pager or a cellphone.
[/QUOTE]
Some people are on call 24-7. Like my obstetrician, for example. He had a solo practice , and pregnant women just don’t go into labor and have emergencies on schedule. Sure , there would have been obstetricians at the hospital when I got there, but if I wanted to be treated by whoever happened to be on duty , I would have been a clinic patient, rather than his.

103

[QUOTE=Enginerd]
I have a friend who’s a professor. On the first day of class, he explains his policy on cell phones… “If your cell phone rings during the class, I will politely ask you to turn it off or set it to vibrate. If it rings again at any point during the semester, I will mercilessly make fun of you for as long as you’re in my class.”

I don’t know that he’s ever had a student’s phone ring twice, but I don’t doubt that he’d follow through on his threat. I doubt he’d remain employed, but that’s a different issue.
[/QUOTE]

I’ll see your professor and raise you my own, who is perfectly fine with cell phones in class. Thing is, if your cell phone rings, he will answer it for you. I remember being in class once (upper-level class, only six students) when someone’s phone starts going off very quietly in the bottom of a bag, and five students reach into their pockets and bang their off or silent mode phones on the table, leaving one very embaressed student who had been quietly ignoring the ringing.
For that matter, my own phone is almost never actually off, because I use it as a timepiece. But the only time it’s got an actual ring volume on it is when I’m using it as an alarm clock.

104

[QUOTE=TheLoadedDog]
“No, mum. As I’ve told you for the last SEVENTEEN YEARS, I work evening shift. This call is the equivalent of calling a 9 to 5 worker at 5am!”

“Well turn off your phone if you don’t like it!”

“No, because maybe a bank or somebody important might call me.”

[/QUOTE]

I slept on it but…I can’t work out why the bank is important unless they are calling you from a bulldozer in the front yard because you haven’t paid your mortgage.

Levels of importance I guess.

tangential rant

But then, I’m some-one who is intensely irritated by the sound of any phone ringing, any time, anywhere. I don’t pick up the landline. Ever. And at work, I only answer the phone if I see that all the other lines are lit up which means that no-one else in the entire buidling is able to pick it up except me. Yeah, yeah, I know I suck. I’ll add here that my annoyance has only been intensified by an unfortunate crossing of lines at work which means we get a dozen calls a day asking for the local university or a lawyer (unfortunately named “Root”). When we get an incoming crossed line call, the display lights up with “Hunt Ringing” - no prizes for guessing how I translate that - and I am forewarned to answer the phone extra clearly with “Bathsheba’s workplace”. Which invariably turns out to be a wasted effort because aforementioned hunt will always say “haven’t I rung the pay department at the local university? What number did I ring? What number are you? Is soandso there? You don’t have anybody by that name there? You’re not associated with blahblah at all? But I have an urgent phone appointment with my lawyer!”. What is so freaking hard to understand about “you have the wrong number, sorry”? Or worse, they don’t listen at all and launch into a long conversation which is difficult to interrupt or worse still, do all of the above, then before I can explain to them about the crossed line and that they must wait a couple of minutes before trying again they hang up in my ear…and then call me straight back. Hunt ringing infarkingdeed.

/tangential rant

Oh yeah, cell phones. My irritation level with the stream of hunts ringing me would not already be scoring 99/10 if my boss did not have a bright orange cell which rings incessantly throughout the day. Of course, it has a stupid tune (forty lashes for that), but wait! Stupid tune gets louder and louder until the bastard orange thing is picked up and yelled into. It’s a personal phone so these are personal calls about dinner, shopping, tickets for concerts and “Oh my God, he SO did NOT!!”. Always in the middle of us trying to complete a task which requires 100% concentration. I actually don’t do anything with her that I don’t absolutely have to as her obsession with the orange farker means I lose too much valuable work time.

Turn. It. Off.

105

[QUOTE=SmokinMom]
I see a lot of complaining on this thread. Don’t get me wrong, everyone needs to blow off steam now and again. But it’s always been my philosophy that if you’re not part of the solution, then you’re part of the problem and I think we all agree that these ringing cell phones are indeed **the problem ** , especially if they ring to the tune of the Lone Ranger. But I digress, I think there is a golden marketing opportunity here:

Why don’t we invent a cell phone holder of sorts that could be attached to one’s genitals? Then people, men in particular, would be **MOTIVATED ** to use the vibrate feature to enjoy the fringe benefits of incoming calls. And that fear someone had up thread that the vibrate option might go unnoticed: Dude, if you don’t feel THIS one, then missing phone calls is the least of your problems.

I think this is a brilliant idea and could make the world a much better place. If anyone is interested in partering with me in this new business venture, please advise. I am certain we’ll be retiring in style off the profits.

I’m also looking for a catchy name. Any ideas?
[/QUOTE]

and then you hold it up to your mouth??? I think not!!

Now, there are several restaurants that won’t let me reserve a table anymore because …well just because.

106

[QUOTE=Derleth]
You simply do not get it. I’m talking about the people who get called in case of emergency, not the people who make the calls to notify others.So the people who save your life aren’t allowed to have lives of their own, just so you can enjoy a movie or a meal without the occasional cell-phone going off. My god you are a self-important little moron.
[/QUOTE]
No, I get it. The world does not stop if Dr. A can’t get to the hospital. Dr. B is there. I promise.

Some of the things that worked before cell phones:
Hospitals
Volunteer fire departments
Volunteer ambulances
Disaster recovery operations

I agree that cell phones make all of these more convenient to contact. That said, these people, who probably aren’t the people chatting on their phone while I’m watching a movie, would need to accept 2-3 hours of downtime when going out in public. Either that, or allow the rest of the theater to legally beat into a pulp anyone answering a phone during the show. Shouldn’t happen more than twice…three times tops.

107

[QUOTE=cosmosdan]
and then you hold it up to your mouth??? I think not!!
[/QUOTE]
Bluetooth headsets would become quite popular.

108

[QUOTE=SmokinMom]
I see a lot of complaining on this thread. Don’t get me wrong, everyone needs to blow off steam now and again. But it’s always been my philosophy that if you’re not part of the solution, then you’re part of the problem and I think we all agree that these ringing cell phones are indeed **the problem ** , especially if they ring to the tune of the Lone Ranger. But I digress, I think there is a golden marketing opportunity here:

Why don’t we invent a cell phone holder of sorts that could be attached to one’s genitals? Then people, men in particular, would be **MOTIVATED ** to use the vibrate feature to enjoy the fringe benefits of incoming calls. And that fear someone had up thread that the vibrate option might go unnoticed: Dude, if you don’t feel THIS one, then missing phone calls is the least of your problems.

I think this is a brilliant idea and could make the world a much better place. If anyone is interested in partering with me in this new business venture, please advise. I am certain we’ll be retiring in style off the profits.

I’m also looking for a catchy name. Any ideas?
[/QUOTE]

Sorry, you’ve been beaten to the punch on this one.
It would work for either gender, you just put your phone in the end of it, and the other end in you.

If you’d like instructions on how to make the phone ring longer before going to voicemail just ask. I think you’re gonna have to.

109

I think I’ve read every post in this thread, so please forgive me if I’ve missed it where we ripped Rudy Giuliani a new one for answering his cell phone while giving a speech to the NRA. Is that the height of rudeness or is there still more. They should have turned off his mike and walked out en masse, but I’m sure they were too dumbfounded to react.
Then he plays the cutesy-poo “It’s my wife. Do you want to say hi, dear?” card, as if everyone didn’t know perfectly well that he’s on his third wife and not exactly the picture of a devoted family man.

110

[QUOTE=bathsheba]
I slept on it but…I can’t work out why the bank is important unless they are calling you from a bulldozer in the front yard because you haven’t paid your mortgage…
[/QUOTE]

Well, the bank was just an example. Could be any “grown up”
entity:

  • my boss calls me at home sometimes if he’s pulling a sick day (I need advance warning because I fill i for him)
  • my ex is batshit crazy, and it’s not uncommon for me to get police trying to contact me, or the Sheriffs trying to (sheriffs are different here to the US - they aren’t cop-like, but more like court officials) every time she decides it’d be fun to start legal proceedings against me.
  • I mentioned my elderly, frail father upthread, and I’ve had calls from complete strangers, “Hi. I’m at the railway station. Your dad fell down. He doesn’t seem to know where he is, but gave me your number.”
  • I’m on call 24/7 for my sister, who is on the edge of a breakdown because of a collapsing relationship, failing business, and sleep deprivation looking after those as well as two babies.

Now the things above aren’t the sort of things that happen every day - or even every month - but I’ve got good reasons not to want to turn my phone off ever, especially when it’s just one or two relatives that DON’T GET IT THAT I’M A FREAKIN’ SHIFTWORKER and call me early in the morning just to talk shit.

I have dozens of friends and acquaintances who know not to call me in the mornings, but my parents refuse to get it - my dad isn’t senile or anything. My mum is sorta getting it now, because after seventeen years of shift work, I kinda snapped at her one morning and she burst into tears, and I felt bad but jeeeeeeez already.

111

I agree that cell phones can be a real hassle. One of my co-workers has a Pirates of the Caribbean cell tone that rings far too often. However, I think there’s a bit too much unfounded anger in this thread. I really don’t see why it’s not okay to talk on the phone in situations where it would be ok to talk to another person. Why is it so horrible to call someone while you’re at the store when it would be perfectly fine to have the same conversation if that person was there with you. I think it’s generally only rude to speak on the phone in situations where it would be rude to speak in general. Movie theaters are a prime example.

Also, to those talking about how we all survived before cell phones. Cell phones have in many instances replaced the solutions used before to reach people. For instance, public phones have been dismantled all over the place, doctors and others who were on call often had to stay home in order to be reached via their land line and so on.

Many people definitely need to learn how to turn off the sound on their phones and that when they receive a text message they do not need to read it immediately, it will still be there if they wait a few minutes. But I like my cell phone, it’s a nice tool to have. I like being able to call home and make arrangements for dinner while on my 1 1/2 hour commute, I like being able to text a friend just to see how they’re doing when we haven’t spoken in a while and I really like being able to give someone the heads up if I’m late meeting them.

112

[QUOTE=Ready_for_my_closeup]
I agree that cell phones can be a real hassle. One of my co-workers has a Pirates of the Caribbean cell tone that rings far too often. However, I think there’s a bit too much unfounded anger in this thread. I really don’t see why it’s not okay to talk on the phone in situations where it would be ok to talk to another person. Why is it so horrible to call someone while you’re at the store when it would be perfectly fine to have the same conversation if that person was there with you. I think it’s generally only rude to speak on the phone in situations where it would be rude to speak in general. Movie theaters are a prime example.
[/QUOTE]
I’ve thought of this same thing. I’ve heard people complain about hearing a one sided conversation and although I’ve been confused by people walking alone and carrying on a conversation I wouldn’t call it rude.
Sometimes people talk too loud in public because of cells and occasionally we’re hearing parts of a personal conversation {like anger and profanity} they should have outside by themselves, but other than that I think your suggestion is fair. If it wouldn’t be rude to have the person standing there talking to you then it’s not rude to be talking to them on the cell.

It is rude to allow your conversation with someone constantly interrupted, just as it would be if someone was there interjecting repeatedly.

Me to. It’s handy. I find just the phone book in it pretty handy.

Unfortunately there are plenty of people with no manners who feel some compulsion to answer it every time it rings and put others around them on hold while they have a conversation that could have waited. There’s a boatload of frivolous conversation out there and now we have to listen to more of it than ever.

113

[QUOTE=bluethree]
I think I’ve read every post in this thread, so please forgive me if I’ve missed it where we ripped Rudy Giuliani a new one for answering his cell phone while giving a speech to the NRA. Is that the height of rudeness or is there still more. They should have turned off his mike and walked out en masse, but I’m sure they were too dumbfounded to react.
Then he plays the cutesy-poo “It’s my wife. Do you want to say hi, dear?” card, as if everyone didn’t know perfectly well that he’s on his third wife and not exactly the picture of a devoted family man.
[/QUOTE]

Rudy answered his wife’s call because of 9/11. (Seriously.) Criticizing Rudy for answering his phone during a speech would obviously mean one spat on the ruins of the TWC and personally hid bin Laden.

114

[QUOTE=cosmosdan]
and then you hold it up to your mouth??? I think not!!

[/QUOTE]

I think it goes without saying that all sexually transmitted diseases should be cured before using the vibrate option (esp those of the crustacean variety, if you know what I mean…and I think you do)

And I would put a disclaimer on the package that good personal hygeine is strongly recommended before using this product.

115

[QUOTE=essell]
Sorry, you’ve been beaten to the punch on this one.
It would work for either gender, you just put your phone in the end of it, and the other end in you.

If you’d like instructions on how to make the phone ring longer before going to voicemail just ask. I think you’re gonna have to.
[/QUOTE]

Dammit already. It seems like everytime I come up with a new and brilliant ‘get rich quick’ idea, that someone else has already thought of it.

And if you wouldnt mind, can you kindly offer some detailed instructions as to how I can have my phone ring for about 20 minutes before going to voicemail? I realize that 4 rings or so is sufficient for you guys out there, but we women are a little needier, if you catch my drift. Thanks in advance.

116

[QUOTE=Ready_for_my_closeup]
However, I think there’s a bit too much unfounded anger in this thread.
[/QUOTE]

You are so right. Not to mention a total lack of logic.

Sure, hospitals worked before cell phones. They also “worked”, in the sense that they were functioning economic/business units that provided a service and sometimes saved lives, before antibiotics and CAT scanners. That doesn’t mean that the ability to have certain people contactable in certain situations that they previously could not be contacted in doesn’t make the hospitals work BETTER. And sure the human race survived fine with fathers sometimes missing the births of their children when labor hit out of the blue and the fathers were away from their work phones, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive to avoid that.

Either this sentence is missing some qualifiers or you are (this being the pit) insane. So if I’m at the grocery store and call home and say “hey, (name of my roommate), I’m at the grocery store… need anything?” and then we have a brief chat about cleaning supplies, and you’re standing 5 feet away and can hear this conversation, it’s because I’m an attention whore with an inflated sense of self importance?

117

[QUOTE=MaxTheVool]

Sure, hospitals worked before cell phones. They also “worked”, in the sense that they were functioning economic/business units that provided a service and sometimes saved lives, before antibiotics and CAT scanners.
[/QUOTE]

Tell me he didn’t just compare cell phones to antibiotics, or even the historcial period pre-antibiotics (which few here were alive for) to post-cellphone. Tell me he didn’t go there. :eek:

118

[QUOTE=DrDeth]
Tell me he didn’t just compare cell phones to antibiotics, or even the historcial period pre-antibiotics (which few here were alive for) to post-cellphone. Tell me he didn’t go there. :eek:
[/QUOTE]

Cell phones save lives, on a par with new medical technology. C’mon, everyone knows that. :smack: Haven’t you ever seen an episode of House. Without House himself there, everyone would die. I’m sure its the same in every hospital. You have one super-doc who must always be available.

What some of these numbnuts aren’t realizing is that cellphones aren’t the problem; irresponsible use is the problem. And due to the level of irresponsible use in some area, disturbing the majority of patrons in that area, they should be banned/blocked.

Lastly, public conversations are fine. Talking about your hemorroids at a level that could be heard over a Quiet Riot concert is not. It’s called decorum, and too many people (still a minority, but a really annoying minority) don’t have any.

119

I am not insane. And I am not alone. I made my apologies up front.

NO it’s not okay to chatter away inanely while you grocery shop. Everyone within ear shot doesn’t want to hear it, okay? And yes, they all think you’re an attention whore who is so into themselves they could be arsed that anyone doesn’t want to listen to their every conversation. It makes you sound like a 15 yr old girl and it makes you look like an ass. People around think you are too insecure to be with your own self for even 15 mins while you shop.

Look, I said it again.
You want me to believe that you don’t have a moment to yourself that you can call friends, you’re so very busy you must utilize this time to catch up with friends. I know that’s what you tell yourself. Well, no one buys it, okay.

This is how it actually makes you appear. This is the way a boatload of us see you, when you do this, like it or not. I’m not saying you should do anything other than whatever pleases little old precious you.

People with tattoos covering their every appendage and body piercings by the dozen fall into the same category. I’m not trying to change anybody. Do what you gotta do.

But please don’t act surprised that some choices, behavours, outfits come with baggage attached. Right or wrong.

And, yes, I understand that you have to call from the bus if it’s been delayed in highway traffic, call from the grocery to see which brand of whatever it was, and, it should go without saying that emergencies are a clear given. I’m not talking about that.

I’m talking about the college student across the street who insists on conducting her every conversation out on her porch. Nothing I enjoy more while gardening or housepainting than listening to your sophomoric drivel.

It’s the summer, people’s windows are open, you’re louder than you think. We don’t want to hear all about who you think is hot in Psych 101. All afternoon, with each of your friends. The boy who used to live there actually broke up with his girlfriend back home standing on the front lawn. The entire neighbourhood had to hear it. Bleck.

Spare us all, there’s many quiet spots a few yards from you, where you could have some privacy and, much more importantly we could all be spared being a party to your daily stuff.

That’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it.

120

[QUOTE=TheLoadedDog]
“Hi. I’m at the railway station. Your dad fell down. He doesn’t seem to know where he is, but gave me your number.”.
[/QUOTE]

Nah, that’s just a ruse. I mean, think about it. How many times has he “fallen down” only to put your mum on the line straight after?