Ring Ring

Well the year is 5 days old and I am sitting in a new office. I have so much to write about. I guess it will all come out over the next few weeks. It is amazing what a holiday and a change of job does for the spirit.

I also got a mobile phone (cell phone in other parts of the world). This is not the first but the first in six years. It plays tunes when some one calls and it vibrates when you tell it to be discrete. It predicts words as you poke at the numbers and even has a version of Tetris on it. Oh joy.

I handed my last one back with glee when I changed roles in the company I was with at the time. It was a burden, a chain around my neck and was causing a chip on my shoulder. You see I was responsible for the maintenance of the technical bits of an oil refinery at the time so when something failed or when one of the shift bosses didn’t understand something at 3:00 in the morning I would get a call.

It got to the point where I was having a physical reaction hearing the phone ring, any phone, I new it wouldn’t be good news. Anyhow, given that carrying the phone (burden) was not getting me any more cash I became fairly resentful of it. I transferred myself out of the position and moved into a more project orientated role. I posed the question to my new boss “I don’t really need this phone, what do you think?” He naturally agreed (given a managers role is to reduce costs in his department) and so I happily handed the evil device back.

Over the next few years I got over my teleophobia and could happily ignore a ringing phone once more.

So I have the new unit all sparkly with lots of functions to explore. I can swerve all over the road just like the other drivers in my fair city as I chat. I can talk loudly in quiet places in a simplex conversation. I can even interrupt the person I am in earnest conversation with to answer a call from “unlisted”. Truly enabling technology.

I have set the screen saver to the smiley face (with head phones on ‘cause that is way cool) and the format of the displayed time. The only this I am unsure about is which polyphonic tune will mark my presents at meetings – Do I go with a classic like la cockaracha or something more subtle like The Ride of the Valkyries or maybe American Idiot (I do have a lot of meetings with those)…oh just too many choices…

Now all I have to do is wait for my first call….