More Cell Phone Etiquette

Check it out at The Nothing Blog.

Thanks.

Let's get creative!!

Hurraaayyy!  It's Thursday, it must be Shameless Plug Day once again.  Okay, okay, I won't make every Thursday Shameless Plug Day, but it must happen today.

I've been quite impressed with the traffic that is occurring on this blog.  I have a core group of friends that visit the site and I have some complete strangers that are visiting, as well as commenting.  A pat on the back, it's cool to know that people want to read what I have to say. 

Unfortunately, I can't say the same about my Flickr group Suburban Life in Columbia.  A few people are contributing to the group (my campaign to prove artistic people can live in the 'burbs), but overall membership is low.  I guess I haven't really figured out how to get more people to check out the group, to join the group, and to ultimately post photos to the group.  To those of you that are posting to the group, keep it up, you are doing a wonderful job.

So, Columbians (you know who you are), I'm urging you, I'm imploring you to get out and be creative!  For those of you that don't live in Columbia, you should also get out and do something creative.  I know, you are saying, "I'm not be interested in photography", but that doesn't mean that you can't be creative.  So, get out there, do something creative and if it is not a photo, at least take the time to comment to this post and let me know what you did that was creative.  You can do it, I have faith.

A helping hand:

• Use your cell phone camera to take photos of your surroundings
• Make a snowman (should you have snow in your area)
• Make cacti people for your Manger Scene (just for you Mrs. IbStarC, is this sacrilegious?)
• Bake some Christmas cookies

Sad state of affairs.

What ever happened to mailmen/mailwomen that would say "hello" to homeowners, that would give out lollipops to kids?

A few months back I was outside raking the leaves and the mailman pulled up to the mailboxes, got out of their vehicle, started placing mail in the boxes, and then proceeded to get on their cell phone.  A side note, what did we do before the advent and widespread use of cell phones?

So, now I'm using my handy leaf sucker/blower and the mailman is still on their cell phone.  The mailman drives over to the other set of mailboxes and is still on the phone.  Is it proper etiquette for me to turn off my leaf sucker/blower while the mailman continues the phone call? The way I see it is that they couldn't possible hear over my leaf sucker/blower, but they are out in a public space, so anything is fair game.  I decide that I'm in the right and continue with the leaves.  Fortunately, I got all my mail and no evil stares or glaring from the mailman.

When will we take back our lives and rid our addictions to cell phones, Blackberries, iEverythings, and any other electronic device?  I for one could not give up my DSLR or my MacBook Pro.  I guess I'm as guilty as the mailman.

Is it okay to spy on the neighbors?

You all know you do it.  You all spy on your neighbors.  I'm such a sucker for this, but I must admit it's not as easy getting the scoop on the neighbors as one would think.  If I had to guess all of my neighbors have recently seen Tom Hanks in the movie The 'burbs.

To clarify, I have to admit that it's fun checking up on the neighbors, but it's not something that I go out of my way to do.  I'm sure you all understand, you're standing close to a window and you realize that one of your neighbors just got home, so you peer out the window to see what's going on.

Now, what I've found is that all of my neighbors secretly have another life on their cell phones. I don't know about you, but if I'm on the phone when I get home, I usually just get out of my car and head into the house.  Now, my neighbors are quite different, they usually hangout in the car while they complete their phone call.  This to me just doesn't add up.  Maybe they can't do more than one thing at a time, maybe they know that someone is spying on them, or maybe they don't want their phone conversation shared with their family members.

So, what do you think?  Is it okay to spy on the neighbors?