I fucking HATE cell phones!!

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anarky
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I fucking HATE cell phones!!

Post by anarky »

Who's with me?

I have a cell phone. Why do I have a cell phone? I originally got it because it came with free long distance. And because I drove about an hour on a pretty deserted road every morning and night. And now, well, I don't, and I have long distance on my home phone. But I keep the phone, because I want it for emergencies or for business contacts.

I got my wife one a few years ago. She tends to stay several hours late after school's out and no one's there to answer the school phone. She just doesn't watch the clock. It's nice to have some way to contact her and say, "Okay, you're still at work, and not dead in an alley."

But that's all they're good for. I'm sick of seeing dumb fucks and bluetools (kudos to whichever of you coined that word) talking on the goddamned phone every fucking minute of their lives. Yeah, it's great to interact with people. It's great to have some quiet time alone, too. Like my wife's mother--she's bored to tears if there's not a football game or soap opera on. She won't watch anything else. So she gets on the phone. She's constantly on the phone. Even in the grocery store. It's amazing. Her sister and my brother are the same way.

What makes it worse is that, in the age of cell phones, everyone expects you to be at their beck and call. Idiots will call one of us, leave a message, and immediately call the other. Then they'll ask, "Why didn't you answer your phone?" Um, maybe because I think it's a bad idea to answer the phone and listen to your dumb shit when I'm ordering tacos, maybe?

I give my cell phone number out only to business contacts and people I need to meet "on the go" now. Like I gave it to jjreason when we met up at Comic-Con. I talk to KH and mabs sorta often on the phone, but they don't even have my cell phone number. It's nothing personal. I just know I'm probably not likely to be able to speak for more than a minute if I'm not in a position to answer the home phone. (Hell, you two know that sometimes I can't speak long even when I can answer--especially KH, who has the mutant power to call during dinner.)

I gave the number to family a couple of years ago, specifying it was for emergencies. "Emergencies" means anything, apparently, even "I haven't talked to you in six hours."

So I call them on my cell phone. Since they call so fucking much, we got the same provider so we don't have to pay much. But I still can't get over the "I'm looking at vacuum cleaners and just thought I'd give you a call and see what you had for lunch" mentality. WTF?

And cameras. Why the fuck do you need to carry a phone with you all the time, first of all, and why the goddamned fuck do you need a 0.1 megapixel camera with you at all times? Are you worried fucking Superman is going to save the day in front of you, and you'll be stuck without a camera? Here's an idea: buy a cell phone if you need it, and buy a separate digital camera that actually works! Stupid cockfaced moron.

Worst of all are text messages. Quick history lesson: before cell phones, businessmen carried pagers. Then came cell phones, which made pagers obsolete. Only some clever fucknut decided to market paging as "hip" and it became text messaging. I would like to find out who came up with that idea and forcefeed him his own testicles. Without actually removing them first.

The problem with these things is, aside from the fact that they're fucking stupid as all fucking getout, every goddamned moron thinks they're cute and automatically assumes everyone else is just as stupid. They cost extra, people! Just because you get a plan where you pay $10 extra a month to send a fucking million of these to your retarded friends doesn't mean everyone does. We got half a dozen fucking text messages from various people (my wife gives out her number like candy, and mine just about as freely) wishing us merry Christmas and happy new year. We have to pay for every goddamned inane one-sentence message, whether we read them or not. Worse, we've told every one of these shitheads multiple times that we don't subscribe to this shit and have to pay to read their garbage. And they continue to do it because they're too stupid to see that everyone isn't an idiot like they are. Like one of my wife's friends: she just had a baby. Mrs A's been trying to call her for two weeks to talk to her. She sent a fucking message last night saying just "Happy New Year." Fuck, you're so fucking busy you can't call and say "I can't talk now, but happy new year?" But you can type it out on a fucking 9-key phone? WTF?

Of course, the fucking providers won't let you just not accept the messages. When you call and ask them to block all text messages, they suggest paying $10 for the "unlimited" plan so you don't have to pay per message. This is their fucking cash cow. They know idiots will continue sending them. And, sadly, there aren't any alternatives to these big dishonest conglomerates.

I told Mrs A we should see if we can set up an autoresponder, even though it will cost to send it, that says, "We do not subscribe to text messaging. Your message just cost us $0.25. Thank you. In the future, please call." She said we could not do it, since it's rude.

Stupid me thinks it's not as rude as making me pay a fucking quarter for your dumb shit, whether I want to read it or not. Fuck, if you're that obsessed with fucking typing, send me a goddamned e-mail. At least that shit's still free.
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The Congregation
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Re: I fucking HATE cell phones!!

Post by The Congregation »

AMEN!
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Re: I fucking HATE cell phones!!

Post by Senor JabbaJohnL »

I agree about the people who always have to use them, and the people who always have to text. But since I got one, it has been really handy to have, for making plans and whatnot.

I got one of the cheapest models, and it still had a shitty camera. I really only use it to take pictures of the people who are on my contact list so I can see their bright shining faces when they call, but otherwise, they're kind of pointless. My sister and I were sending joke pictures to each other last night, but they didn't go through for like four fucking hours.
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Slicker
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Re: I fucking HATE cell phones!!

Post by Slicker »

American plans should be like the Japanese ones. I only have like 250 minutes (and that's TONS compared to other plans) so you HAVE to text message. I like it for plans but that's about it. My phone also has a translator in it. I get out the camera and take a picture of Japanese text and it translates it into English. My phone also has a 5.1 megapixel camera. :P
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Sleazer
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Re: I fucking HATE cell phones!!

Post by Sleazer »

Nark, some companies do offer Text blocking, in fact on Christmas I sent out some Xmas cheer and got one back saying "The recipient has elected to not receive text messaging."
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Re: I fucking HATE cell phones!!

Post by kidhuman »

Yea, I do call at dinner time, sometimes I dont think about the time difference.

I have never had a cell phone. My wife wants to get one for emergencies only. Only she and I will have the number and the kids as well. No fuckin text messages.

working in a call center is baffling to me. People bitch and moan about being on the phone all day with people and the second they put their head sets down, they are on their cell phone. WTF people??? Give your ear a break. I can not tell you ow many people are texting their friends while on the phone with customers also.

One of my favorite things that pisses people off is when they ask me if I can have a technician call them wen he is on the way to their house so they can leave work. I tell them no because I dont know if he has a cell pone. They reply thats bull who doesnt have a cell phone in this day and age? When I tell them I never owned a cell and dont want one, they get all pissy and hang up. Its fuckin great.
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Re: I fucking HATE cell phones!!

Post by anarky »

Well, my wife complaining about her phone not having enough features finally got me to break down and get new ones. I figured since I had to pay for one, and have to sign a new contract for it, and since they offer deals on both, I got one, too. The reason I did was the integrated MP3 player, which I will probably get more use out of than the 1.3 megapixel camera. Probably? Heh, that's an understatement. Well, at least 1.3 isn't totally laughable, I suppose. Everyone always said, "You should have a phone for when your daughter does something cute." Yeah, that's what my memory is for. I hardly take pictures with my camera. Hell, if she didn't want (and need, until recently) a camera, I probably wouldn't even have one of those.

Oh, and finally after getting some random unsolicited text message from someone I don't even know on Yahoo (which resulted in two messages, one informing me a Yahoo user had sent a message, followed by the actual message), I was able to get in touch with someone at my provider who was able to completely block all messaging services. :yeaha: Yeah, I can't download ringtones for $3 for my new phone ($3? WTF!!!), but I don't have to worry about all these "inspirational" text messages from people I don't know who apparently have the wrong number. (Truth be told, I wouldn't even know how to text them back and tell them the number is wrong. I think so lowly of text messages that I don't even fucking know how to do anything with them.)
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Re: I fucking HATE cell phones!!

Post by jjreason »

I'm looking at canceling my cell phone right now (well, maybe not right fucking now as it's only 0600hrs here - but you know what I mean). I hate paying for it, and i use my work one for pretty much all my talking. I want the wife to have it for emergencies - we do a lot of highway driving here, plus you never know what's going to happen to one of your kids away from the house.

Between cells & home phone, internet & cable I'm spending nearly $300 fucking dollars per month - that shit's gotta stop. :frus:
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anarky
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Re: I fucking HATE cell phones!!

Post by anarky »

Dayum.... Of course, we're around $220, so it's not a huge difference between us.

After fighting with that motherfucker for TWO HOURS last night (seriously, why advertise something as a fucking MP3 player if it doesn't simply plug into the computer and work?), I got my first "test music" on it. I'm now the only guy I know who can play the Speed Racer soundtrack anytime I want on my phone. Except for ringtones. Verizon apparently nixes any making of ringtones because they want $3 each for them, so it's the good old "brrrrring, brrrrring" for me.

Seriously, man, you can connect the phone to a computer, and the computer knows what model it is and everything, but there's no driver. To get the driver, you have to download either it ($40, direct from the manufacturer), or download the free Verizon music software, which comes with the driver. Hmm, not much of a choice, is there? To make it worse, the driver is in about six parts, and only one loads each time you connect the phone! So you have to plug in and unplug it multiple times before it's fully installed! WTF? Once I got it working, and was dealing with Verizon's proprietary software (I downloaded Speed Racer and burned the disc with text, but apparently no software, not even iTunes on another computer, can read it for track title info... stupid), when I discovered that Media Player can do the same thing once the drivers are in. So I killed the Verizon software. No need having two mostly useless piece of shit programs for music. (Maybe one day all these guys will stop feuding, and I can do everything with iTunes. For free software, that is the shit.)
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Re: I fucking HATE cell phones!!

Post by Antropov »

Anarky wrote:Of course, the fucking providers won't let you just not accept the messages. When you call and ask them to block all text messages, they suggest paying $10 for the "unlimited" plan so you don't have to pay per message. This is their fucking cash cow. They know idiots will continue sending them. And, sadly, there aren't any alternatives to these big dishonest conglomerates.
Mine are blocked. I had enough after I received one spam text for ten cents and called Sprint to get texting deactivated on my line.

My wife is the texting fool in our house. We live in townhomes, meaning the neighbor is literally on the other side of the goddamn wall. My wife will sit on the couch and text with the neighbor, who is probably sitting on her couch separated from my wife by drywall and electrical wires. Besides the back-to-back texting, I still can't figure out why they don;t just call each other or even go out onto their respective back decks, which are separated by maybe five feet, and *GASP!* talk face-to-face.

When I went to get a new phone a few months ago, I specifically asked for a model that didn't have a phone in it and was told that I could PAY EXTRA to get a model without one, as the free ones all had the pieces of shit in them. Leave it to a cell phone company to have the backward ass mentality to charge more for less. Fucktards.
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Re: I fucking HATE cell phones!!

Post by Diabolical »

Antropov wrote:When I went to get a new phone a few months ago, I specifically asked for a model that didn't have a phone in it and was told that I could PAY EXTRA to get a model without one,
You wanted a phone without a phone?
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Re: I fucking HATE cell phones!!

Post by vynsane »

Diabolical wrote:
Antropov wrote:When I went to get a new phone a few months ago, I specifically asked for a model that didn't have a phone in it and was told that I could PAY EXTRA to get a model without one,
You wanted a phone without a phone?
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Antropov
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Re: I fucking HATE cell phones!!

Post by Antropov »

BAH! I meant to say "camera". Fuck you guys.
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anarky
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Re: I fucking HATE cell phones!!

Post by anarky »

Consider me fucked. Too bad your post wasn't last night, or it might have been eligible for a new award I've heard about. :)

My current problem with my phone is coming up with 4 gigs of music to put on it. Not that I don't have that much (ha!), but trying to limit it down. Do I go with strictly my big favorites, or a good mix of stuff? I'm leaning toward the second; I could probably fill the damned thing with Aerosmith, Queen, and Tom Petty, easily.
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Re: I fucking HATE cell phones!!

Post by Ran »

4 gigs is a lot of music. I had trouble filling a dvd full of mp3s. It got to the point where I just started dumping entire collections of artists on there. Floyd, Zeppelin, and Metallica filled up a lot of space.
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