cell phone etiquette

i was listening to the latest episode mr. manners podcast and decided that what i heard needed to be shared with everyone.

below is a transcript of his (i think) excellent take on cell phone etiquette.  if you don’t want to read it, listen to it here: http://manners.qdnow.com/   it’s only about 3 minutes long.

Hello and welcome to Mr. Manners’ Quick and Dirty Tips for a More Polite Life.

Many listeners have written in with questions about mobile phone etiquette. We may not be able to cover everything in one episode, so please feel free to send in more questions for a follow up show.

Many people seem to take that <ring> sound as call to turn from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde, in terms of manners. So let’s go through a few basics of polite cell phone use.

If you’re at a restaurant or dining at home with friends, turn off your ringer and don’t answer or make calls. If there is an urgent situation and you must place a call, excuse yourself from the table and either go outside or to a discreet area outside the restrooms. The inside of a restroom is not a good place for phone conversations.

If there is an emergency situation, or you must immediately talk with someone to coordinate the logistics for the rest of the evening, then ask permission or inform your dining companions that you may have to take a call, and let them know the reason. This should only be for time-critical and important calls. Speak as briefly and as quietly as possible, excuse yourself from the table if the call is going to be longer than a few sentences, and then turn your phone off after the conversation. Restaurants, and dinner tables in general, are for enjoying your meal and the company of those dining with you; they are not public phone booths.

If you are out on the street by yourself, you should feel comfortable talking on the phone, but try to keep your voice down and be mindful of where you are walking. If you are out walking with a friend, it is probably acceptable to answer the phone, but excuse yourself and keep your call as brief as possible. Don’t be shy about telling the caller you are with someone, and that you don’t want to stay on the phone and be rude.

If you are in a store, use some judgment about phone calls. It is generally better to step outside if you are going to be on the phone for more than a few seconds, and certainly don’t answer the phone if you are going to hold up the line or interrupt customer service for others.

If you are at the gym, then leave your phone in a locker, or move to a waiting area if you must take a call.

And always keep your phone off if you are in a theater, museum, or lecture hall.

On public transportation, use your judgment. It is not likely that your fellow passengers are interested in listening to your conversation, so keep your voice low and chat only if you can do so without disturbing anyone around you. If you cannot find a secluded set of seats to speak quietly, then it is better to call back later when you have a little more privacy.

Being a businessperson does not give you license to be ill-mannered, whether you are around other CEOs or the server at a local coffee shop. And business situations (such as meetings) do not warrant an approach to phone conversations that is any different from dining in a restaurant.

Bluetooth headsets, although very convenient, are not fashion accessories. If you were having a conversation with someone in person, it is not likely that you would wear a set of headphones, so please take off your headset..

In general, unless it is an urgent situation, take a tip from Mr. Manners and treat your cell phone as a useful tool rather than an appendage.

Thank you for listening to Mr. Manners’ Quick and Dirty Tips for a More Polite Life.

teaching

i taught at core tonight.  if you want to listen, check it out here or on our podcast (search for “core student ministries” on the itunes music store).

the chapman stick

does anyone else remember this? as my roomate samm just said “do the kids know about this? because if not they need to…they need to know about their god-awful heritage.”

below is info on the chapman stick….the instrument that inspired people to write song titles such as “cathartic hypnosis” and create websites with url’s such as www.stick.com.

Chapman Stick

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A 10 string Chapman Stick

The Chapman Stick is an electric musical instrument devised by Emmett Chapman in the early 1970s. He set out to create an instrument designed for the tapping technique of both hands parallel to the frets that he invented in 1969. The first production model of the Stick was shipped in 1974. Superficially, it looks like a wide version of the fretboard of an electric guitar with 8, 10 or 12 strings mounted on it, but it is considerably longer and wider than a guitar fretboard. Unlike the electric guitar, it is usually played by tapping or fretting the strings, rather than plucking them. Instead of one hand fretting and the other hand plucking, both hands sound notes by striking the strings against the fingerboard just behind the appropriate frets for the desired notes. For this reason, it can sound many more notes at once than most other stringed instruments, making it more comparable to a keyboard instrument than to other stringed instruments. This arrangement lends itself to playing multiple lines at once and many Stick players have mastered performing bass, chords and melody lines simultaneously.

Free (as in beer), DRM free album from indie artist

This is a collection of 10 tracks available from independent folk artists Barron and Joel. It may not be up your alley, but at least its free, right?

read more | digg story

dr. who

i’m always looking for geek universes to dig into (comic books, star wars, lord of the rings, harry potter, etc) and i think i’ve found my newest one.

i watched two episodes of dr. who (with the ninth doctor) and really dug it! i love the campiness and the sense of history that it brings with it. you should netflix it.

do you feel rich?

i was playing around with the global rich list today and found some interesting numbers

• the average american (as best as i can tell) makes about $43,000 a year. that puts the average american in the top 2.3 % of income earners. that means that the average, middle class american is richer than 98% of people in the world.
• if you’re at the US poverty line ($9,800 for an individual) you’re richer than 87% of people in the world. that means that even are poor are fabulously rich compared to the rest of the world.
• a high school working a minimum wage part time job (7.25 x 15 x 48) is richer than 86% of people in the world.
• the global median income is $850 US, annually. that’s:
  • $16/week
  • $2/day
  • $0.25/hr (assuming an 8 hour day…i have no idea how accurate that is)

Thoughts?

iphone is real!

the much-rumored widescreen/touchscreen ipod + the even-more-rumored iphone =  amazing!

i don’t know if i’ll buy the initial iteration, but this is what i’ve been waiting for: an all-in-one hand held device.  video and audio playback, camera, pda, cell phone and web browsing all in one package.

check it out here.

budgets

i’ve spent the past few days obsessing over my 2006 budget.  i’ve come up with a system that works well for me (its in excel, its account based, etc).  its probably too boring to go into here, but i wonder: if does anyone have any cool tips or hacks for personal finance or budgeting?

leahdanielle.com

my lovely girlfriend has joined the blogosphere.  check her out here.

she has a really cool category called “the good, the bad and the unmentioned”.  it’s based on the ignatian examen (which you should google).  there are different way of framing the examen (i do it in terms of consolation vs. desolation) but she frames it as help vs. hurt.  very, very creative.  it’s great stuff.  plus, it’s all rendered as a numbered lists, and we all love lists, right?

if you want a fresh read, i’d reccommend it.