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Journal Em Emalb's Journal: IPods, etc... 17

Journal by Em Emalb

I feel that portable music systems like IPods and Rios and all that are killing conversation.

Everywhere I go these days, folks are walking around mindlessly listening to their own music.

It's annoying to have to repeat yourself several times because people have their ear buds in.

Case in point:

I play poker, and recently I played in a tourney with about 50 other people. We had 9 people to a table, and of the 9 people, only 2 didn't have ipods plugged in and playing music. It was really annoying, and to be honest, not fun at all. No one was talking, except to ask what happened, is it my turn, blah blah blah. The usual I'm not paying attention shit.

So, I posit that you Ipod wearers are killing civilization.

(I'm only mostly writing this in jest. It really is annoying. I also don't give two shits what kind of music you're listening to, nor do I need to hear you sing along to it...asshat)

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IPods, etc... More

IPods, etc...

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  • What is the point? That is roughly the equivilent of going to a bar with headphones on. Why bother, you just waste money on beer. Cheaper and easier to get drunk at home.
    • I was about to say the same thing. I have an iPod and I wear it at work. Do you know why? Because I'm here to write code, not listen to the woman across the hall talk about her veast infection nor to listen to the loud-talkers in Accounts Receivable screaming invoice numbers.
      • I actually avoid listening to music at work (unless I need to be in "The Zone") because it prevents me from hearing what people are talking about, and thus from preemptively doing work before I am asked.

        I have found that having a report ready when I am first asked to do it, tends to make me look psuedo-psychic.

        Which is cool. :) One advantage of having very good hearing, I can pick up things that normal[1] people do not, thus surprising people.

        [1]By normal I mean anybody who has ever listened to loud music,
        • We can't do pre-emptive work. In order to work on something I must have an approved project request to log my time against. All files that are submitted to perforce (versioning software) must include the project number. Nothing can be put on any server (development, testing, or production) without being submitted to perforce first.
      • At work is the only place I have headphones on for the same reason.
        I don't care about your grandchildren, what you did today in minute detail, ect...
        Just let me work tickets in peace. If you have a question about work i'm more than happy to pause and talk about it.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • That way you can't read their eyes...
  • i tend to like people more the less i talk to a lot of them. :D
  • Its really impossible to play poker without talking to the other players. You have to key off of how they see things and what they do. I don't think I'd even let someone in if they had headphones on... its just.... wrong...
  • well, for me my ipod serves as a filter. the world moves awfully fast. having my music at the ready when i'm walking to/from the train station, helps slow things down. i wouldn't dare travel without it.

    but yes, i wouldn't ever use it in a social situation. that is just rude, and isn't limited to ipods. cell phones i would lump in that category as well.

    you know, i fucking hate business lunches, where every jackass needs to "throw down" but putting their fucking cell phone or blackberry or whatever on the tab
  • I tried walking around with an iPod on, and hated being insulated from the sound around me: birds, wind, even traffic. It's like being a Bubble Boy. I think it's a generational thing, where those lousy kids today are just uncomfortable without music or conversation, even for brief intervals.

    I love it, though, on planes and in the airport, and sometimes appreciate the Bubble Boy feeling in the subway.

  • Specifically at a poker tournament, they're mostly doing it because quite a few of the professional players do it. The fact that the professionals normally only do it to drown out some of the other professionals, who make a habit of being obnoxious at the table, is lost on a lot of new players. It's not quite as big a crutch as the sunglasses, but that's still what it is.
  • We have a few rules, two of them are no headphones (technology being what it is, they could be receiving practically anything, including cheats, via them) and cellphones off.

    We half agree, I think the two most major contributors to the decline of polite society are cellphones and strollers. Maybe it's because I live in a walking city, but where do these stroller-pushers get off thinking it's perfectly okay to push around a shopping cart sized behemoth and act like no one else sees it or is inconvenienced b
  • "Being Morally Opposed To The Walkman Carries With It Certain Responibilities"
    by Penn Jillette

    I was leaving my business manager's office. The elevator arrived right away and I got on to find there was another passenger. She was black, she had a beautiful smile, her headphones blended with her hair, and she was listening to some pop love song on her Walkman. It was loud, but I couldn't make it out. Maybe I'd never heard it before, but it was a love song. I smiled, slipped on my super-cool candy-red headp
  • Covers this exact topic, as a matter of fact:

    "Sheathed within the walkman wear the halo of distortion,
    Aural contraceptive aborting pregnant conversation"

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