9/9/05

What's The First Thing You Think When Your Phone Rings?

Okay, so the car-color question worked out okay. A few people who I was hoping would post a comment didn't (I'm looking at you, Grace and Val) but you're always welcome to go back and add one whenever. And hey, if you don't have any particular feeling one way or another about the exterior finish of your auto (though I'd argue that indifference counts as a feeling), feel free to voice your opinions on the color of your house, or dog, or phone instead.

My lawnmower, for instance, is this sweet industrial shade of orange, and I like it a lot. It actually engenders a sense of trust, mechanically speaking, because I look at the thing as almost a piece of construction equipment - it's that kind of orange. And everybody knows construction equipment never breaks.

My dog is golden brown, and he's awesome.

Cell Phone: navy blue with some silver. Decent. The phone I really like, though, is the old rotary-dial phone I have at home. It's black with a light mist of white paint particles where someone must have sprayed a room without removing the small articles therein, and it weighs about seventeen pounds. It came from my grandmother's house.

*****

On to the next question: speaking of (and into) phones, what's the first thought that goes through your mind when you hear yours ringing? If it's my cell phone, my reaction is almost exactly the same as if I'd heard a smoke alarm: I bolt upright with a look of panic and start fishing around in my pockets. Part of the problem is that I keep my phone in my pocket, and often miss calls because I didn't hear it ringing, so anytime I do hear it, I wonder how long it's been going off. Another part of the problem is that the buttons to turn down the volume on the ringer are on the side of the phone, where they can easily be bumped by other objects in one's pocket, especially while one is operating a motorcycle.

The third part of the problem is that my phone can accept mp3 ringtones, and I have used this capability to download a snippet from an old Ice Cube song, featuring a stompy-sounding drumbeat and crashing cymbals and a baritone African-American booming, "STALKING... walking in my big black boots," so that issues from my pants whenever there's an incoming call.

I think we can all agree this would be offputting to most anyone.

Your turn!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

My phone currently plays Bridge over Troubled Waters and I always get - "I haven't hear that in a long time" from people.

What do I think when it goes off? Nothing really - just the typical who is calling - unless it is during work and then I wonder if something is wrong.

Alison said...

If it's my husband's ring- a huge smile appears on my face....I get an instance feeling of love. Or I think, 'It's about damn time!' If it's just my normal ring- my first thought is usually, 'I hope it's not someone I don't want to talk to.' Is that bad?

Anonymous said...

I hope it's you. If it's not, it's usually a fire I need to attend to. I want to throw it away usually.

-penelope the pope

Easy said...

For the first few seconds I'll ignore it...then panic because I think it might be important...look at it to see who it is...then either answer or ignore it some more.

Voicemail is so much less confrontational than an actual call, especially when you don't want to talk to the person on the other end...am I weird?

Colin said...

Yes, MadFly, you are weird. I would suggest coming up with an extremely confrontational voicemail message, thereby eliminating your safe alternative to answering the phone personally.

Maybe something like, "Sorry, I can't take your call right now, because I... well, because I plain out don't feel like it, and because just seeing your number in the little plastic window on my phone makes me shudder with apathetic disinterest, and, and... you know what? I'm not sorry at ALL that I can't take your call! It's a completely conscious decision NOT to take your call, and frankly you can TAKE your call and ram it straight up your [BEEP]"