Dad, I love you dearly, but holyfuckinshit you need to learn how to use a phone in 2010.
1) Call Waiting is not the epitome of rudeness and your phone will tell you who is calling on the other line so that you can decide whether or not you want/need to answer. It’s been, like, fifteen years. Accept the beep. This is how phones work now.
2) Carrying around a cellphone is USELESS if you leave it off all the time. Turn it off in situations that call for it, and put that motherfucker on vibrate the rest of the time. If the vibrating is too much of a sonic intrusion, there is an ignore button that will dump callers into your voicemail. If you’re going to only turn it on “in case of emergency”, then stop telling people you have a cellphone.
For the love of Pete, get with it. Phone technology HAS changed a lot since your heyday, but it isn’t rocket science. Answer your phone!! —Vince Coleman, Dispatcher
This article appears in Apr 29 – May 5, 2010.
Love your handle Vince. Maybe Dad considers that Alexander Graham Bell’s little marvel has done the world more harm than Robert Oppenheimer’s and only carries one for emergencies. Personally , I don’t own a cell and if it weren’t for my folks living in Upper Canada and ordering pizza I wouldn’t even keep a landline.
LUDDITES UNITE!
some people hate fucking phones, except when you have to use one, in an emergency. i am one, who hates the constant ringing, and idiots just asking how i am. i am pissed off.
My dad would call & never leave a message on the machine & later get pissed at me for not calling him. I finally got him to call & say” jesus, I hate these machines” & I then got the message, recognised his voice & called him back about 10 minutes later…he still hates machines , but at least he now says so & I call him right back 🙂
yes the bizarro world of the lonely luddite…united i am
Maybe he’s avoiding you. Maybe you’re adopted.
My phone stopped working a week ago, and I didn’t bother calling to have it repaired until yesterday–after my children, mother and neighbours sent angry and threatening messages to my e-mail = ). When it does work, I don’t answer beeps…that’s what my message service is for. In fact, half the time I don’t even answer the phone and I only pick up messages at the end of day. If there is a real emergency, I know that person will call two or three times in a row…I won’t ignore it then. Although, I think I have had only one call in 20 years where each minute counted (and I happened to have answered it first ring).
I refuse to get a cell phone.
First, call waiting IS rude. I’m talking to the person that I need to talk to. You, asshole, can wait. You’re not that important. Leave a message.
Secondly, I really wish cell phones would go away. Having had one for my job (bank-issued cell) and my personal one, if I didn’t turn off one or the other, I never got a bleeding moment of rest. If it wasn’t a client calling, it was a friend call with this little gem: “dude, you wanna play Call of Duty?”. So if I wanted a night alone with the wife, I either left the phones at home, or turned them off. Worse part was that the bank one was a Crackberry, so even when I left work, I still got got phone calls and emails related to work. We as a society need to get past the fact that you need to be reachable at all times. Besides, I imagine that your call wasn’t all that important. More along the lines of: “what are you doing this weekend?” and less of the “your mother died today” variety.
I hate call waiting – I don’t have it. I get especially disguested when I’m talking to someone and I get “oh, just a minute” and then they leave me hanging there in silence… ruuuuude.
I feel pity for people who can’t disconnect from their crackberry’s at special events/family stuff – what a waste of their time/attention… anything besides those who you are with should be able to wait.
Listen, sometimes the call you’re on is not important and you are waiting for an important call and that is when call waiting is useful. Some of us live in buildings where we have to buzz people in using our phone lines; this is another situation where call waiting is useful.
I have no qualms with people who choose to not have call waiting or a cell phone so long as you reliably check your messages and return phone calls. Also, if you don’t have a cell phone, try not to be late all of the time. Those are the two circumstances where I will swear and wish you had a cell.
Don’t worry OP, your dad will answer just before the explosives go off. Why do you need to reach him so bad anyways, do you you need your baskets back or something?
I basically live by my cell.
had a land line.. never answered it… hell, never even hooked up the buzzer to the building.
you want in, call my cell and i’ll come down to let you in.
this past month, I lost my cell for about 4 hours and everyone lit right up…
“CALL ME BACK”…. “WHERE ARE YOU???”…. and on and on.
thank god for vibrate or no-one would be able to stand being around me with all the beeping.
the isle i live on doesn’t get a signal so i have an excuse sweet sassy molassy 🙂
hey dumbass you’re Dad sees it’s you calling and doesn’t want to answer because your a prick. You probably bullied him into getting the cellphone and since you’re the only one who has the number he leaves it off so you can’t call him.
He can use the cell phone in emergencies and to talk to people he chooses to. I’m guessing you didn’t make the cut.
Call waiting IS RUDE. If someone is talking to me and puts me on hold to take another call I hang up. I’m not sitting around waiting to see if you’ll ever decide to come bcak to our conversation. I’ll go about my day and you can call me back when you want to talk.
My dad’s the exact opposite of your dad, OP.
He LIVES on call waiting, which is supper annoying, and he’s also quite annoying with the cell phone thing. He demands my mom and I have our cell phones on when we go out and gets pissy when we don’t (though, he does recognize for himself and us that cell phones on during meetings/appointments is just rude and turns his off/doesn’t bitch when we turn ours off). Trust me, OP, the other side of the coin isn’t that great either 😛
I agree 100% though with the cell phone thing you pointe out — if you’re going to give your number out WHY would you keep your phone off except for an emergency? I’m certainly not the poster child for cell phone use (pay as you go phone — maybe use 10 b ucks a month worth of minutes, don’t really text, etc…), and my phone hasn’t actually been charged in a week or so, but I don’t give anyone my number. It’s for me to call out for the most part. There are like three people who know my number — my parents, and like the only friend I ever actually call on my cell. When people/places ask for “another” number besides a home number, I just say I don’t have one.
I hate the phone.
he doesn’t know how to use a phone ,but is reading this bitch on the internet