Misadventures of the 10lees

It seems some people have some strong need to check waiting messages, and often it's the same ones who feel they have to answer the phone just because it's ringing. My voicemail greetings (both at work and on my cell) say to send me an email instead of a voice message if a reasonably fast response is wanted. Most people have learned that the phone just isn't a great way to get in touch with me.

My take on answering the phone and voicemail is a little different. If I hear my phone and it is someone I know, I answer it. If I don't recognize the number, I push it to vm and then I'll get to the vm when I feel like it. Sometimes I'm curious so I'll check it immediately, other times I just don't care so it may be a week until I get to it. If I don't hear my phone and I discover later that it is someone I know, I check the vm within a couple minutes and then get back to them.

See it's not that I don't know who's calling, it could be that I missed a call from TheLoWriter and I see she left me a message. Do I check the message? No, of course not, most often I just call her back immediately or put her on my 'to be called' list in my head.

The only problem for this is when I turn off my phone (say, I'm at the movies), when I turn it back on I have a new message. Do I listen to my messages then? Of course not, because I'll have to wade through the backlist of people who have left me messages for the past two months. Instead I just hope whoever left me the message gives me a call back...

However, I do not generally ignore calls, I do generally answer the phone when it rings.

i'm sure H will put his two cents in when he comes back online, as he's of the same philosophy as you... my only persuasion to listen to vm's came after my dad got sick and it seemed that all the important people's numbers were not in my addy book. if i missed a call, i'd immediately check b/c it could have been very important. now it's sort of a habit to check vm's from unknown numbers, no matter how many backlisted, well-meaning friends & family messags there are.

i do have some friends (and family...) who refuse to text message. it's bothersome that they refuse to even allow texts to be received. but this is what really annoys me: they have picture phones. i know they are fully capable of txting/pixing, they just refuse to do it. are these people the old fogies of telecommunication? YES, i say!!!

if you couldnt guess, that was from me. :o)

So that's why when I ask - "did you listen to my message?" - it's NO WHY WOULD I - she says. well nicer than that.

So just give me your password and I'll clear that off for you weekly. ;)

As for not answering the phone and not checking vm - now that's interesting.

Have you people EVER watched an old movie - before 1985? Well in the OLDE days - if you didn't answer the phone - maybe they didn't call back. In our family we answered the phone. I remember it ringing like one of those olde 40's movies - rinnnnngggg riiiiinnnnnggg - (answer me!!! Answer ME!!! ANSWERRRRRRR MEEEEEEE!!!!! NOW!!!!) That's what completely baffles me about my children I would ask Tenley - someone left you a message - this was when she was in high school - are you going to call them back? NO! would be her response - I'm like - why not? No sense of responsibility of the other persons feelings - I MUST'VE DONE SOMETHING RIGHT - right???

Well in the olde days - if you didn't answer the phone - there was no way to leave a message - there was no caller i.d. - I think that you PEOPLE don't really realize that - if someone wanted to - they could leave your phone ringing for HOURS. No vm for it to go to. HOW ABOUT THAT???

I used to call my own phone in the old days - late 60's - I'd call it long distance and then hang up - then it would ring and no one would be there - now THAT'S A SLOW CONNECTION. Talking with someone long distance from Alaska was like listening to an echo. Whatever you said to them you would have to wait for it to get there - I don't think it was satellites??? Sometimes the connection was sooooooo bad - you'd have to call again. And talk about rates - it was about $.50-$1 a minute. No one talked for longer than about 10 minutes.

Well I can see that you people don't even consider the inconveniences of the past ages. How about a time when there were no phones - now that's another idea. What was that 1920? The Walton's t.v. show may give you some idea of that.

Love you 10 and not leaving messages anymore. Tell your phone company that you'd rather not have the vm ability. Also, you could go to your vm and say - I will never listen to this so just don't leave me a message. I won't even check my missed calls - or maybe this is HOW you know who to call back - and then the people leaving messages would know that vm hell is not that difficult when you just call back. it's called communication!!! ;)

We all appreciate that in our lives well - I DO!

Thanks for how to get to the book worm game - you sent me the info on how to get to it without the link. That was interesting too. :)

if someone wanted to - they could leave your phone ringing for HOURS.

I still do that... if someone does not have voice-mail or an answering machine, or whatever, I will just sit and let the phone ring. I usually give it about fifteen minutes.

I have a tendency to let my email back up... it got me mock-fired from a job once... I had to go work in the kitchen...

*shudder*

The solution to not knowing who called because the phone was off is just to not turn it off - the silent mode is there for a reason. You can come out of a movie and see that someone tried calling you a dozen times, and know to call them back. As for the blocked/unknown (not in phone book) numbers, the phone sends those to vm without even notifying me. If I get a voicemail from that I usually check it quickly, as it's usually someone who needs to reach me (usually either a certain person forgetting to unblock his number, or the result of my eccentric purchasing patterns setting off fraud detection again).

ok this is really stupid: i dont have a fully silent function on my phone. it's the only thing that really bugs me about it. and i'm jealous of people who have "airplane" function. now that's genius.

Now I feel dumb: what is 'airplane' function?

Also, I did not have a fully silent feature on my phone for years. Now that I do I find it hard to remember to use it, but that is a better idea!

Dr G, are you dissapointed Verizon lost out on the Apple i-phone? I won't go back to Cingular even though they got it. I am bummed it didn't go to TMobile...

I hate the phone. There are few things less personal than the use of a phone. I believe the phone is there for coordination purposes and/or to keep me aprised of unfolding events.

Therefore messages are creations largely wasted on me (at one point I had 40 messages on my phone). I love text messages as it gives both parties the opportunity to truly think about what they are saying prior to sending; it also affords us the opportunity to have our say without being cut into or interupted.

If we can land a man on the moon we should be able to train everybody not to leave voice messages. I will call back... maybe

Airplane mode just shuts off the antenna (wireless services) so that you don't have to shut off your phone on a plane. This is great if your phone has games or music on it.

Mr i dislike the phone: how is a phone not personal? It is direct interaction with vocal inflection and real-time communication. The only thing missing is body language. It is sure of a lot more personal than text messages. Half the time I can't tell if people are joking or being serious because it is just words on a screen.

True you get the inflection with voice mail, but really if someone texted me 'bitch pick up the phone' I'd still probably assume it was a joke (especially if it was littlebmouse since she always talks to me like that).

However, isn't like 70% of communication non-verbal, 20% tone and 10% what you say? Some such figures exist out there... of course 38% of such figures are made up on the spot.

Ok, so the really cool thing I heard was that the Apple i-Phone is going to allow you to choose voicemails left by specific numbers and then you can listen to just that voicemail. Isn't that the greatest invention ever??

Ok I know this is going to come as a complete surprise to all of you, but I agree with your mom tottally. If you don't want to check your voice mail why even have it. On most phone plans you still have to choose to have voice mail, so why not just choose not to have it. Or if you don't have the option leave a message that says your not going to check your messages so text instead. Now this might not work if your say looking for a new job, but if you are looking for a new job your not going to get very far if you don't check your messages ever.
I'm not a huge leaver of messages. For example I'll never leave H a message. But somethings are not text messages. For example now instead of getting a voice mail that says my grandma had a major stroke and I going to have to get that in a text message.
I'm just saying. Get rid of voice mail if your not going to use it.

Well, apparently I am alone in this, but I think it's rude to not check your voice mail.

I love getting voice mail. It makes me feel loved.

I use the text message frequently (hooray 500/month), but usually, if I'm calling, I want to talk, and by the time it goes to voice mail, I've already gone through the minutes involved in placing a call. I'm not going to go then waste time making a text message on top of it. My time is worth something, too.

littlebmouse, I know on home phones they charge extra for VM, but on most cell phones it is standard. Or at least the one I have it is, there isn't an option for turning it off. And I do check my messages at home - or rather Scott does...

Lo, I also have the 400 text messages a month and it is AWESOME - I definetly enjoy the sending of lots of text messages, and I haven't ever gone over my limit which seems rather amazing. I should work on sending more text messages. Though I would say pretty much everybody is in agreement that if you aren't going to check your voicemail you should either a)not have it or b)say you aren't going to check it on your message. At least, I think we all agree on that...

we keep having to up our text quota. and what's scary is my sister texts more than we do, combined.

So here's a funny - how's this for an indicator that you have a text message? "You have a text message which means you're not worth the minutes."

The other one is: "You have a voice mail - aren't you special!"

Lucky for me, my plan has unlimited texts. If I was on the 400 plan like you 10, I'd be going over a number of months a year. January I was close with 380. My phone has a keyboard though so it is a lot easier and faster to type them then the num pad a lot of folks have. How many did y'all send this month?