#471 – Closed

When I’m working on comics my wife is frequently in the next room over about 15 feet away. There’s a short wall between us so she can’t actually see me. Consequently she will ask me questions that I don’t respond to because she has no idea that I’m wearing headphones.

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9 thoughts on “#471 – Closed”

  1. Ziggy Stardust says:

    I hate it when people assume I’m ignoring them and get all huffy when in reality I haven’t heard their queries.
    Conversely, I hate it when people seem like they’re ignoring me.

  2. ZeoViolet says:

    Despite technology many people haven’t yet moved past the point where they’re under the impression someone is talking to themselves or deliberately ignoring them due to bluetooths or earbuds….or talking on the phone in bathroom stalls. (YUCK FOLKS YOU DON’T NEED TO DO THAT….can’t your phone call wait till you wash your hands?)

    1. jared says:

      “many people haven’t yet moved past the point where they’re under the impression someone is talking to themselves or deliberately ignoring them due to bluetooths or earbuds….”

      eegads ZeoViolet! while i agree with your sentiment, the misnomer in the middle just screams at me.

      refering to a wireless headset as a bluetooth is equivalent to referring to someone’s laptop as a ‘wifi’. as in “bob was engrossed in some stupid youtube flick on his wifi, he was listening on his bluetooth so he couldn’t hear me but i flicked the switch on the wall to toggle his electric and that got his attention; in the end i handed him the language we got in the mail and he visual’ed it. it was good news, i think, because he emotion’ed positively. he then picked up his audio and dialed his gene pool in Europe to share the logic”.

      bluetooth is the name of a wireless technology EXACTLY equivalent to “wifi” in a linguistic sense. i blame verizon for the misnomer’s popularity but as an engineer who works with bluetooth i take personal issue with its misuse.

      now feel free to continue reading the maximumble internet and if you like return language via the html you are currently braining.

      1. ZeoViolet says:

        jared….holy god. Chill.

        I don’t even OWN a cellphone, and never wanted to. (Only did once eleven years ago and that was enough of that choke-chain!) I had to read your rant three times to fully understand what you were going on about.

        If you want babytalk, here it is in a nutshell: People walking along looking like they are talking to themselves because those little bitty pieces of technology in their ears can barely be seen, or not be seen at all. Not everyone even at this point is going to stop and automatically think, “Oh, okay, just chatting via something stuffed into ear canal.” Or if they don’t respond, it might be because of those tiny pieces of audio-transmission equipment also stuffed into said ear canal.

        Geez.

  3. kingklash says:

    What is it about ‘phones of any type that makes people want to talk to you? Even if you’re out of sight, you put them on, and suddenly you become the font of all wisdom for your entire ZIP code, and everybody has to talk to you now!

    1. Dirk Gently says:

      Try books. I think we still have something instinctive which makes one want to immediately get into a conversation with someone holding a book.

    2. Charlotte says:

      I get this all the time: It doesn’t matter how many other people without headphones on are waiting at the tram stop, every confused person decides to ask the zoned out woman listening to music standing at the furthest point from the info poster which tram they need to take.

  4. At work, the managers and leads all have radios. Half the time I don’t know if they’re talking to me or calling someone on the radio.

  5. pbarnrob says:

    When cell phones first came around JPL, I’d see someone walking next to SAF talking to themselves (uh-oh, another crazy!) and then see they were holding something up to their head.
    Decided it would be fun to just rant going down the street, holding up maybe my wallet to my ear…

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