Calling electronic nerds on the tin-can!

[DrakeMaiden]

BB, I just noticed your siggy line and that is a quote that I used to have hanging up over my desk. I still like it, I just cleaned up one day and happened to take it down. :/

I don't have any advice really. I thought at one point that it would be better to get an internet phone service than keep a landline, but we never made the switch over.

I really just wanted to get on my soapbox and say that it seems like most city folks are living in a completely different world techonologically speaking than I am these days. I heard some young adults on NPR laughing about postage stamps that have "funnies" characters on them (they didn't know what "funnies" (newspaper comics) meant and then they were laughing about "who reads newspapers anymore anyway?"), and then they made a joke about how the next generation of stamps -- again "who uses those anymore anyway?" -- is going to have pictures of landline telephones.

It also reminds me that a good friend of mine told me about a book he had read (sci-fi?) that was postulating that humans would evolve in two directions . . . one the technologically equipped/infatuated types . . . and two the back-to-the-earth, low-tech types. The two types, of course, do not get along or co-mingle and each has its own advantages. I could see how that would be an interesting read.

So . . . sorry just keeping my soapbox warm.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

here is the easiest-smeasiest thing...

go to The Dollar Store and buy a 'by the minute' phone for like $10. it comes with a certain amount of mins on it. use it and see if you think you need a "real" phone. easy, quick, wont hurt if it doenst work.

i have one of these and all you do to get more minutes is go to the grocery store and get a card (looks like a gift card) and they give you the instructions how to load it up. they even roll the mins over - i think i have 3200 mins and i'll never ever use them. even if i call Sally and talk to her all nite while watching tv and eating Taco Time soft tacos.

and you can text (it just takes off a fraction of a minute used).

me, i'm so old school i almost wrote a letter the other day. and used a stamp. really. i know. but then i heard that email is really "old fashioned". then i felt very old and bad about myself. so i watched some 80's music videos and cheered myself up.

i'm the anti-cell phone person and even i can handle one of them tracphones.

however, if they get all the bugaboos worked out with (video) skype on your phone... i might just gets me one of those fancy ones....

but i still wont know how to take a picture with one of the darn things....
;-)

 

[Wifezilla]

sorry just keeping my soapbox warm.

Well you have to keep the spider webs off it somehow!

 

[DrakeMaiden]

Well you have to keep the spider webs off it somehow!

Ahhhhh . . . if you tell me there are spider webs on it, I may be afraid to get up on it again.

 

[Blackbird]

I enjoy your soap-box DM!

Yes.. Getting a phone is kind of contradicting to my sig, huh? I'll be an hour and a half away from home and I still need to talk to my mom somehow.

Um.. What is NPR?
National Press Release? I don't watch or read any news.. I prefer to stay outta that. (Too depressing - Ignorance is bliss! LOL)

The other thing about this big city is that there are many different nationalities living there, and if they speak English, they prefer not to. I worry I might accidentally offend someone by trying to be nice or something like that.

I am going to be SO out of my element that it's not even funny. But I like to think it will be for the better.

OFG, my mom had a tracphone thing, I didn't like it at all, I admit.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

I hadn't thought about how the quote is contradictory to your thread topic. Ha ha Well, we can only do the best we can, and that's the best you can do. Besides . . . ability to talk to your mother is priceless.

NPR is National Public Radio. That is where I get most of my news these days, since we gave up TV. We just have the radio in the barn on that station all day and all night (as a predator deterrent). I sometimes don't pay attention to the news segments, but often find myself really enjoying the human interest stories during the mid-day hours.

Yes, ignorance is bliss. Especially on those weeks when all they have to talk about is Tiger Woods or whomever.

I think you will enjoy being around people of different ethnic backgrounds. Most likely, they won't assume you are being offensive, unless you truly put your foot in your mouth. I find mostly people like that are easy going and more interested in just getting along.

Being out of your element can be a good thing. You will learn and adapt quickly. Just keep your cool and don't walk into it feeling intimidated.

 

[abifae]

I am moving to the city at the end of the month.

The apartment I'll be staying in has a phone jack, so I could purchase a phone and hook it up, BUT I've been suggested to get a cell phone.

I know nothing about cell phones, only that when your car is broken down on the side of the road and you're being chased by a mad man with an axe - they never work.

I've never been big on the connected-by-the-hip thing either..

So what can anyone tell me about them? What are the pros and cons? What is a good brand? I can barely work a regular phone as it is. Maybe I'm not cut out for it?

My step dad got me a phone. 6 people have the number. I mostly only text. It has a keyboard. I leave it at home most of the time LOL!!! So I am NOT attached to it at the hip. I do like to have it with me if I will work that day so if I get in trouble or run late or hide from an axe murderer, I can let my supervisor know.

I got it entirely so that I'd be able to contact jobs while job hunting.

Pros: when power is out I still have phone/texting. I can text while I'm at work >.>

Cons: if you get too many gadgets it ends up really expensive. Get something flexible that doesn't charge you if you have to lower your rates!!

eta: NPR: national public radio

 

[dragonlaurel]

Getting a MagicJack and using it for the main line would save you lots of $$$. Then a trac-fone or something similar for emergencies. If somebody calls on the cell and it looks like a long conversation is getting started, just say let me call you right back - from my other line.

 

[xpc]

Same here I have $5 a month cell phone for emergencies and a $2 a month magic jack, I have only used the cell phone twice this year and the magic jack once in the last 2 months.

 

[Blackbird]

Hmm, I do like that idea. What can you guys tell me about the magic jack?