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@achewood Terrible dream where Bobby Flay came to my childhood home, danced on the table, recited verse, and we had nothing interesting for him to do.

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Author Topic: July 29, 2009 -- Death Just Grabbed Its Car Keys Off the Table  (Read 7018 times)

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littlefallsmets

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Re: July 29, 2009 -- Death Just Grabbed Its Car Keys Off the Table
« Reply #30 on: July 31, 2009, 03:20:17 am »

I guess that I just don't see more freedom or control in being beholden to more people, more of the time, with every new device.
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Choop

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Re: July 29, 2009 -- Death Just Grabbed Its Car Keys Off the Table
« Reply #31 on: July 31, 2009, 05:15:22 am »

i think our difference here is in seeing oneself beholden to one's friends. if you and the cadre of people with whom you associate see yourselves as beholden to each other, that's a dynamic with issues. i see myself as loyal to my friends, and i enjoy their company, so it's a pleasure both to receive and to initiate contact with them.

anyway you can have a phone that only makes calls and never receives them: turn off the ringer and don't pay for voicemail. and you don't have to have a camera in your phone. and you don't have to send or receive texts. and you can have a separate machine to listen to music with. i just don't see why you're pissing on my phone when it's easier and cheaper for you to have what you actually want. nobody's holding a gun to your head and demanding you to buy an iphone are they? if they are, then brother, you got a screenplay in the works.
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AugustWest

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Re: July 29, 2009 -- Death Just Grabbed Its Car Keys Off the Table
« Reply #32 on: July 31, 2009, 12:54:05 pm »

nobody's holding a gun to your head and demanding you to buy an iphone are they? if they are, then brother, you got a screenplay in the works.

Damn you Steve Jobs. DAMN YOU!!!

/shakes fist
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pmcd9

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Re: July 29, 2009 -- Death Just Grabbed Its Car Keys Off the Table
« Reply #33 on: July 31, 2009, 04:35:28 pm »

In a world where everyone is required to own an iphone...
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Cioran

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Re: July 29, 2009 -- Death Just Grabbed Its Car Keys Off the Table
« Reply #34 on: July 31, 2009, 10:00:17 pm »

nobody's holding a gun to your head and demanding you to buy an iphone are they? if they are, then brother, you got a screenplay in the works.

You have a point, no guns are involved, but there is a sort of soft coercion.

Consider cars: on the surface they increase the individual's freedom: he can travel long distances independently whenever he likes. But what are the costs? To own a car you need - besides participation in the money economy - insurance, registration, license, and...a job. The job you need will cost you more things: your time, your energy, possibly your dignity. It will very likely also require you to drive your car even when you don't want to, and prevent you from travelling, or force you to travel, those long distances against your will. The insurance etc. involves giving loads of personal information to various governmental and commerical bodies, not to mention more time spent dealing with them. Furthermore, cars require a network of flat roads, a system of fuel production and distribution, a repair and support infrastructure, and so on, all of which demand more money, more time, more disciplining of populations....now where has the freedom got to?

It's not enough to say "Well I feel free buddy, you're just uptight." That's precisely the kind of winner-takes-all mentality that led to this situation in the first place.

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Many Africans live and think collectively and rely upon sharing rather than individualistic success or achievement. In many villages in remote areas of Africa, one finds people that are generally cheerful, content, and live on a day-to-day basis without much anxiety or stress. An average Westerner's fear of even the possibility of unemployment or reduction in standard of living can be a cause of depression and much anxiety. - Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri

It is that fear of suddenly finding oneself on the bottom of the pile, down there with "them", the unwashed unemployables, that is the gun at people's heads.

And yes I know it's possible to live off the grid.
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Choop

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Re: July 29, 2009 -- Death Just Grabbed Its Car Keys Off the Table
« Reply #35 on: July 31, 2009, 10:25:08 pm »

just shut the fuck up and go away, you. i don't think smets has any concern if he ends up with "them" regardless who "them" might be.
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Lister

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Re: July 29, 2009 -- Death Just Grabbed Its Car Keys Off the Table
« Reply #36 on: July 31, 2009, 10:40:22 pm »

Wow, this thread kind of soured my mood.  I liked the comic.  It's all tense and such, and sassy Roast Beef is one of my favorite Roast Beefs.

I have a cellphone.  Most of my friends don't even have land lines any more.  A good 60-70% of the people I interact with daily have smartphones.  My phone is dying and I think I'll probably get one with a keyboard on it because I'm finding text messages to be convenient and less intrusive than a full voice conversation in public.  I've had every type of conversation on a cellphone, from "It's 3 AM and you need to come in to work" to "Hey, you want to come have a delicious burger?" to "The person you wanted to spend the rest of your life with is dead, sorry."  I don't think the good would have been better on a land line, and the bad could definitely have been worse.  I don't think technology is the problem, here.

So, uh, yeah.
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Mr Trout

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Re: July 29, 2009 -- Death Just Grabbed Its Car Keys Off the Table
« Reply #37 on: July 31, 2009, 11:13:23 pm »

I find myself very polarized when it comes on phones. On one hand, I like to take long bike rides in rural areas, and having a GPS with me all the time would relieve me of my reliance on paper maps. On the other hand, I like having a phone that I don't feel bad about abusing and shoving in my pockets along with car keys, loose change and maybe a rock or two.

I feel like I will either get an iPhone or that Motorolla F3 phone that is like $30, indestructable, and has insane battery life
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Cioran

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Re: July 29, 2009 -- Death Just Grabbed Its Car Keys Off the Table
« Reply #38 on: July 31, 2009, 11:29:15 pm »

just shut the fuck up and go away, you. i don't think smets has any concern if he ends up with "them" regardless who "them" might be.

Do you not like to be disagreed with? You might find a gun a useful accessory. Fits against heads.
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wombat

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Re: July 29, 2009 -- Death Just Grabbed Its Car Keys Off the Table
« Reply #39 on: July 31, 2009, 11:32:19 pm »

Speaking of cell phones, I would like to stop having this experience where I call the Technical Staff on his cell phone, and he doesn't pick up, and when he finally picks up after I have tried another half a dozen times and I ask why he didn't pick up, he says that the phone didn't ring. This is after replacing his phone with one that we tested in the store to make sure he could hear the ring when it was in his pocket.

I know what you're thinking, but I don't think he's that good a liar. Also, there's the other 75% of the time that I call and he has the phone turned off, so if he really didn't want to answer he just wouldn't have it on.
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Mr Trout

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Re: July 29, 2009 -- Death Just Grabbed Its Car Keys Off the Table
« Reply #40 on: August 01, 2009, 01:02:55 am »

What carrier do you have? Friends of mine have T-Mobile and I can never reach them in certain areas because the coverage is so spotty. This is assuming of course that the problem is technical in nature, and not that he just doesn't hear the phone. If that is the problem, is there a way to set the phone to both ring and vibrate? That is what I have mine set to do.
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wombat

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Re: July 29, 2009 -- Death Just Grabbed Its Car Keys Off the Table
« Reply #41 on: August 01, 2009, 01:21:36 am »

We have Verizon. I think the calls are reaching him - it rings a long time instead of going straight to voicemail. I don't know if the phone can ring and vibrate at the same time. I'll have to check. Which I can't right now because he has gone somewhere that really doesn't have reception.

I'm not sure anything's going to help short of a phone that jumps up and grabs him by the throat, though.
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theinevitable

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Re: July 29, 2009 -- Death Just Grabbed Its Car Keys Off the Table
« Reply #42 on: August 01, 2009, 01:25:11 am »

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In a world where everyone is required to own an iphone...

Canned, Canned, a thousand times Canned.
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greenkoolayd

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Re: July 29, 2009 -- Death Just Grabbed Its Car Keys Off the Table
« Reply #43 on: August 01, 2009, 05:21:33 am »

Canned, Canned, a thousand times Canned.

if only there were a country wherein one could enjoy freedom fries, but not have to put up with e-phones......

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nDed

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Re: July 29, 2009 -- Death Just Grabbed Its Car Keys Off the Table
« Reply #44 on: August 02, 2009, 05:54:48 pm »

The only things I use my cellphone for is making/receiving calls and playing Clarence Carter's "Strokin'" at critical moments.
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