Bad user, bad!

Ever have one of those days where nothing interests you? Yeah, that’s me today. I wonder what in the world has gotten into me; I don’t want to do anything. I have been possessed by an evil spirit, except it’s not really evil, it’s just extremely lazy and lethargic. It could be a product of the weather—the sun hasn’t shone for days here in the district—but I doubt it. If I was that sensitive to the weather, I’d be suicidal every winter by the time February rolled around. But my mood is as gray as the forecast, so I’ve decided to play with my negativity for this entry. I may be exposing my own psychosis, but it’s at least somewhat amusing. I now speak out against a force that threatens to tear the very social fabric apart. It’s not gay marriage; it’s bad cell phone users.

I spent of much of the morning listening to the girl in the cubicle next to me talk loudly on her phone to various people. Phrases like “Oh no you di’in’t!” and “Girl, whawazzyoo thinkan’?” punctuated the conversation. This wasn’t even a conversation that I would want other people to here if I were her, but the whole set of adjacent cubicles were privileged to hear her side of the discussion in its entirety. I actually don’t own a cell phone, although I certainly would like one once I figure out where I’m going to live for any decent period of time. But plenty of people here have one. I think 90% of the people in DC own cell phones; the other 10% use Blackberries. Every time I hear somebody blab at high volume in the Metro I tell myself I will be a good cell phone user when I finally get one. One of my favorite Dilbert strips was a few weeks ago that showed “Heck” being overcrowded by people who use cell phones in bathrooms. (Yes, it’s called “Heck” in the comic. The ruler of this domain carries a big spoon instead of a pitchfork.) And don’t even get me started on cell phones going off in church or the theater. I went off on that subject a few months ago in one of my postings on the Board. In fact, actor Kevin Spacey was recently reported to have stopped his performance at the Old Vic Theatre in South London because a member of the audience ignored the repeated ringing of their cell phone. In strong words the actor told the member of the audience to shut it off or get out of his theater. (Being the owner and artistic director of the theater, he’s pretty serious: it is his theater.) He later went on record saying that people unwilling to obey simple rules of etiquette were unwelcome in his theater and should not disrupt other people’s lives elsewhere either.

I’m not so cranky that I don’t recognize the polite people in the world who calmly use their convenient devices in responsible ways. It’s not as if cell phone ownership caused this behavior. Bad cell phone users are usually the same people who don’t use the turning signal and stand in the middle of the sidewalk or block the left side of the escalators in the Metro. And more often then not, they’re talking on their phone while they do all three of those things.
This is probably the most unfunny and uninteresting post I’ve ever written, but like I said at the beginning, it’s a blah day.