Hey - asshole fuckstain - you're at the gym. Leave the cell phone in the locker. Shitwit.

[Rabrrrrrr]

You don't need to be talking or texting while you're on the fucking machines.

Leave the fucking phone alone for a few minutes for once.

Grow up.

:grr: :mad: :nuke:

[Cant trust em]

1. I don't mind those guys that much since I'm usually listening to my iPod.

The gym guys that I don't like are the ones who come over to give me unsolicited advice.

[pink-o]

2. Yeah, they're morans.

But chances are they're also just the January Joiners--or as my friend calls them, the "resolutionaries"--and they'll be gone by the end of the month.

And think of this: they're prolly wondering why they never lose weight or bulk up when they work out EVERY DAY. Of course, their texting fingers are getting the biggest workout of all.

[JBoy]

7. They're cousins of the guys who spend half their workout

changing channels on the TV.

[rug]

3. Gym membership itself is the fundamental problem here.

[Rabrrrrrr]

6. So what's the alternative, then?

[rcrush]

8. Run in place in your backyard.

[Rabrrrrrr]

19. Yeah, that'll give you a full body workout.

Geez.

Sisko went to the gym.

[rcrush]

23. Dude Sisko was sculpted from the gods

And he worked out by beating up Klingons and Gem Hadar with one hand!

[Kali]

24. actual work

:P

[Skittles]

105. do fitness DVDs in your living room

[blueamy66]

13. you tell em

nt

[nolabear]

4. Dude, put the steroids down!

Seriously, this much anger's bad for you.

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. I AM TOTALLY IN CONTROL OF MY STEROIDS!!!!!!!!!!

:grr:

I mean, "Gee gosh and golly, please discontinue your concern over my health, I am, really, perfectly okay".

:rofl:

[kayakjohnny]

9. Sorry that was me.

I was expecting a call from the wife. Her water was about to break. I was a nervous wreck so she told me to blow off some steam at the gym, which was only minutes away.

Our 3 year old had just gotten stitches from a nasty fall and I wanted to stay in touch about that.

Plus, we had just admitted her mom to a care facility and were expecting to hear from them.

And I was waiting to hear back for a job interview ( the first in four months )... so I decided to have the phone with me for these reasons.

I usually don't bring my phone in there.

Sorry if I bothered your workout.

[blueamy66]

15. If you don't have a job...

how can you afford a gym membership?

[GoCubsGo]

27. Some of us do have savings accounts. n/t

[blueamy66]

68. If I was out of work, I sure as heck

wouldn't be spending my savings on a gym membership.

But that's just me.

[Hosnon]

100. Most people tend to ignore proper fitness when they need it most.

You're excused. ;)

[blueamy66]

116. I have no idea what you just said.

:-)

[Hosnon]

118. People tend to ignore their physical health when they get stressed (whether

from school, work, or personal relationships). But those are times when attention to one's physical needs is most important.

Of course, a gym membership isn't necessary for that but it provides structure and makes it easier.

[blueamy66]

119. Gotcha.

That makes sense.

[GoCubsGo]

106. Yes, that is just you.

Some of us consider it a way of relieving the stress. And, maybe, just maybe, some people actually have enough money saved they can still afford a gym membership--not that they are always that expensive.

[blueamy66]

117. Yeah, but some of us

jog and do sit ups and other forms of exercise.

I'm just not a "gym" person. I think it's a crock. And a waste of money.

But again, that's just me.

So I'll bow out now....

[Rabrrrrrr]

18. If your wife's water breaks, you don't hold a 20 minute conversation.

If your 3 year old needed stitches and you're that goddamned worried that you need constant and immediate updates, you need to be with the child, not heading off to the gym.

Mom in a care facility doesn't make any fucking sense. If you really think it's that time critical, take the call outside.

If you get a call about a job, you don't need to be in a 20 minute conversation on the treadmill. If I call someone about a job, I want them focusing on me, the caller, not their workout or the people around them. That let's me know the person I'm hiring isn't a toddler that can't help suck at the teat of its mommy cell phone. Also, if they really want to hire you, they'll leave a message. Contrary to popular opinion of the childish adults who can't beyond the sucking on things stage, the world won't end if you don't answer the phone.

There's a thing called - wait for it, because it's an important word - ETIQUETTE.

Gabbing on the phone at the gym, in a restaurant, during a movie, or while you're with other people is not proper etiquette.

Take the fucking thing outside. Or, even better yet, actually fucking concentrate on the task at hand instead of constantly wondering "Is there a call? Is there a call? Is there something else happening in the world that might be better than what I'm doing now?"

Fucking hell.

Just because you CAN do something doesn't mean that you MUST or SHOULD.

[kayakjohnny]

32. Well my post was meant as a joke ( I thought an obvious one).

But also to make the point that there are lots of reasons to be on a phone. Anywhere.

Did you ever confront him about your feelings?

Or is ranting to a room full of strangers the best you can do?

[Capn Sunshine]

49. remember Johnny, the lounge is not immune to humorless cranks

they are all over the site. It's only natural that some don't get your jokes.
Which I love by the way.

[kayakjohnny]

53. Thanks, Capn.

That's why you're the capn. People put their trust in you when the seas get rough. You are always a solid one in these parts.

Good to see you around bud.

Cheers.:toast:

[Amerigo Vespucci]

10. And clear your fucking sinuses in YOUR shower at YOUR HOUSE, too!

Assholes in the shower that you can hear all the way back in the locker room making that deep

SNORRRRRRRRKKKKKKKKKKK

sound to dredge up those fucking loogies so they can hock them on the shower room floor for everyone else to walk around in (although anyone with half a brain would never walk into one of those showers barefoot).

The cell phones are bad. Not as bad as guys hockin' deep, thick loogies all over the shower floor.

[yawnmaster]

11. Thats why its best to always pee in a public shower. Rinses the snot and who knows what else away.

[pink-o]

14. Eww. Dudes are ga-rosse!

In the chick locker room, they just take up all the space with their steamer trunk gym bags, loaded with enough make-up to inventory a small Sephora. They spread out all over the benches, so those of us who're low-maintenance and actually come to work out for our HEALTH have nowhere to put our stuff.

Also, I saw this one woman who had the piled-up Palin hair, the full face make-up, the edgy layered tank top look over the perfect capri leggings and --no lie--flip flops with flowers between the toes. On her Iphone while doing baby steps on the Stairmaster, of course! (A girly, stupid machine, just like those thigh pressers.) Just go home already!

I just freakin' hate January--it's too cold to play outside (which is what I really prefer: running, biking, hiking et al.) and we have to contend with the idiots who've just dumped their bank account on a pipe dream that they can lose their holiday 100 pound weight gain in 3 weeks. SOS every year!

[GoCubsGo]

26. Women can be pretty ga-rosse, too...

Men might hock loogies in the shower, but they don't leave their used tampons in it. I pity the cleaning people at my gym. And, in addition to the idiots who spread out all over the benches, we have the ones who sit around having a group chat, and getting in the way of those of us who want to get into our lockers. This despite there being a nice lounge twenty feet away. There are two nice leather sofas and a fire place, yet there they are...

I hate January, too, for the same reason. Parking is a nightmare. Forget about getting a pool lane, unless you can go at odd hours of the day. If you take classes, you have to get there at least 20 minutes beforehand in order to get a spot or a spin bike. Step aerobics is a nightmare, as the newbies always tend to gravitate toward me for reasons I do not understand. I'm in much better shape than I look, and I guess they think that being next to the fat chick will make them look good or something. I don't know. I am like a magnet to these clowns, and half the time the get right in front of me, so that they distract me because they can't follow directions, and don't know what the hell they are doing. The ones that irritate me most are the ones who leave spin class within 10 minutes--after taking my favorite bike. One more week...

[pink-o]

56. Hang in there! Just got back from 24 hr, and it's already looking less like

Times Square in the middle of the tourist season. They're dropping like flies, soon the machines will be ours again!!:toast:

[GoCubsGo]

103. It's tapering off a bit at my gym, too.

Usually, it's back to normal by Super Bowl time. Last year, however, it took until mid-February. One of our instructors said that someone did a study, and the vast majority of resolutionaries usually quit by the third week in January. That seems about right. You can almost predict which ones are not going to stick it out...

[Yavin4]

44. OMG! Just Last Night

The guy in the shower stall next to me was snorking so loud I thought a cruise ship had docked somewhere.

[blueamy66]

12. Hey, maybe he got lucky

and got a date!

[hunter]

16. How else are they supposed to take movies of nice butts?

:shrug:

[Demoiselle]

17. We have a bond, Rabrrrrr.

As a matter of fact you may have heard me.
I'm the woman walking the two dogs and screaming "GET OFF THE PHONE!!" to the braindead fucks driving very nearly over my toes as they blow right through the red light.
I'm told they can hear me for blocks. It's a good thing I do not carry.

[caitxrawks]

20. i lawled

This made my day. "Shitwit" LMAO. I can just imagine you sitting there stewing.

[dugaresa]

21. ah but the most important phone call of their life might come in at any moment

my son had a friend come over last weekend with a bluetooth ear thingy, he's 12 years old. what parent buys something like that for a 12 year old?

he ended up taking it out when he realized no one was impressed.

[Midlodemocrat]

22. But dude. I was waiting for you to call.

[noamnety]

25. I don't see the problem.

I also don't see the point of a gym membership. I think the reason we need that as a nation is most often because we consider being "successful" to mean "we don't do any real work ourselves." If you shovel your own driveway instead of hiring someone, if you use a reel mower instead of a riding one, if you walk to the store instead of driving, you'll be in fine health. Heck, if you walk or job to the gym and back without going in instead of driving to the gym and using a treadmill, you'll probably be in just as good shape. Gyms are the refuge of the privileged in many ways.

But if you are going to walk a treadmill, what's the harm in texting to keep from going stir crazy while you take step after step after step? I think it might just be that some people have different learning/working styles regarding concentration on one thing at a time versus multitasking. My brain would turn to jello if I had to stand still on a tread mill for an hour without anything to occupy myself. (At least if you go for a walk scenery changes, you are walking through something.)

[GoCubsGo]

28. You must live in a town where it's safe to go out and walk.

Where I live, we have no sidewalks, and pedestrians and cyclists are target practice for the idiot drivers. Yeah, we have a "walking track". It's right next to the busiest street in town, where you get to inhale all the exhaust fumes from the passing cars and trucks. Besides, many of us prefer other forms of exercise than walking (swimming, group fitness, etc.), and the only place to find them is at a gym.

BTW, I am far from "privileged".

[noamnety]

35. I don't go out walking alone

I live in an area where women get harassed if they are walking alone on the street.

Personally, I'm not going to claim I'm in perfect shape, but I get some workout from my job (occasionally hauling 50 lb sacks of sand around), some from gardening (even when I was in an apartment I spent ten dollars to have a ten by ten plot in a community garden because I was having a hard time affording food), at some points in time its been from hauling soup pots around when I've been unofficially running a soup kitchen of sorts. For a while I was more into formal workouts and borrowed tapes from the library for free which didn't require fancy equipment. Now, if you have internet, more than enough videos are online for free. It's maybe not targeted workouts in the sense that it's a thousand dollar piece of specialized machinery that's designed specifically to shape and tone an obscure muscle in the inner corner of my left elbow, but if that's someone's concern they probably are leaning more on the side of privilege anyway.

I've been back and forth a few times in my life ranging from military to being a single mom on public assistance illegally squatting somewhere to having stable job and house, and there was no place anywhere on that spectrum where I needed a gym membership to stay in shape.

[GoCubsGo]

42. And, if you and your walking buddy went walking in my town...

Your self-righteous asses would get flattened. As I said, the problem where I live is that there is no place to walk that doesn't leave you vulnerable to getting run over. As for having a job that allows you to keep in shape, well goody for you. Not everyone can do that. One of these days you are going to dislocate your shoulder from patting yourself on the back so much.

[Rabrrrrrr]

46. Ah, and the truth comes out - you really do see a gym as some sort of elitist rich-lazy-folk thing.

That's too bad, because it isn't.

As the other poster said, be careful of your shoulder with all the patting yourself on the back your doing.

And please, try to show some respect to those of us who live in areas where our only walking option would be on icy/snowy streets with no sidewalks and drunk drivers.

And not everyone has a job that involves physical labor - and not every job like that is the job of a wealthy plutocrat, either.

Your prejudices stink.

[noamnety]

54. I give up.

Gym memberships are apparently for those who are just scraping by and don't know how they are going to pay their bills or feed their family.

Here I thought they were for those with extra money to burn for things they could do in their living room, but they don't want to. I forget that spending money to rent time on fancy machines that target this muscle or that one are a necessity, like food and shelter. I lost track that those who DON'T have money to spend on that sort of thing are the privileged ones. Especially oppressed are the ones who have to suffer through working out on the fancy machines next to someone who is texting. Thank you for setting me straight.

[Rabrrrrrr]

58. I didn't say any of that at all.

Try reading my posts again.

And I do, in fact, believe that my health is a necessity - an given I have a job that involves a lot of sitting and not a lot of movement, my time at the gym is incredibly important to me.

[noamnety]

60. Health is a necessity

I'm just saying that gym membership as a way to achieve that is a luxury. You can do calisthenics and aerobics at home for free, no? For the cost of one year of gym membership, you could even get free weights or a used nordic track, and those would be a one time expense. Maybe you don't like that, maybe there's something in the atmosphere or fancy equipment you like at the gym, and that's fine, it's your choice. I wasn't saying you shouldn't go to a gym if you enjoy it. But that doesn't mean you have to deny that it is a luxury, you know?

[GoCubsGo]

98. Fancy, fancy, fancy, blah, blah, blah

Sorry, but I can't swim in my living room. And, some of us CAN'T do stupid-ass workout videos in our living rooms, either. Believe me, I tried. I have a box of them collecting dust, because the don't give me a sufficient workout. And, they're too dangerous to do on carpeting, which I do not care to rip up, as there is nothing but a concrete slab underneath. As for those "fancy" machines, I don't use them. I use dumbells and barbells. I don't have the room to keep a set of my own around the house.

P.S. I pay more for a week's groceries than I do for a month at the gym. They are not all expensive in most places. And, I shop with coupons and shop by the weekly sale fliers.

[Hosnon]

102. Most gym memberships are pretty cheap. My wife and I pay

$50 per month, or less than $1 per day for both of us. For most Americans, that is doable.

[noamnety]

123. You don't think $600 a year for gym memberships is a luxury?

Wow.

No, most american households can't afford that - most are thousands in debt already.

[Hosnon]

124. Are you defining "luxury" as anything other than that which is absolutely necessary?

'Cause if so, then yes I agree with you that it is one. But then so is just about everything. And most Americans buy truckloads of luxury goods under that definition (e.g., car payments, gas, and car insurance for anyone who can walk, bike, carpool, take public transit, etc; soap; most furniture; televisions; more than one set of clothes; etc.).

Most people spend money on much more frivolous things than $1 a day for a gym membership. And those people who buy nothing more than what is needed to survive and cannot afford the $1 per day are whom I excluded by using the term "most".

[JanMichael]

55. To a point I agree with you. There are a million body weight exercises...

...that if done regularly will build a fine relatively speaking form.

For one there are the new Tabata training techniques that if done in earnest can increase your aerobic and anaerobic capacities by huge margins at home and without a gym.

Toss in some cheap dumbbells (for arms and shoulders and other isolated parts), push-ups, pull ups, dips, running and other full body exercises, and quite frankly you have a MMA type workout schedule.

Of course it is nice to move up in weight with bench presses, squats, dead lifts and other exercise, but similar results for average people (meaning not the physically superior types) can be had without a gym membership.

[blueamy66]

120. There is nowhere to walk in South Carolina?

No sidewalks? Really?

[Rabrrrrrr]

33. Ah, yes, but you come from a position of privelege and self-righteousness

Not everyone in this country has their own home, a yard to mow, a driveway to shovel, or the wealth or capacity to live close enough to work to walk or ride a bicycle, or are in a place where walking outside is safe and possible.

Sorry to disrupt your utopia, but it ain't that way.

And actually, texting I could live with - though I would love to see those people give up their cocaine for long enough to focus on one thing. My real issue is with the assholes who TALK on their phones while working out, because, invariably, no one can do that without TALKING REALLY FUCKING LOUD and forcing their conversations on everyone, which is just as immoral as playing the music in one's headphones loud enough for a neighbor to hear them.

[noamnety]

34. Most of us don't have a yard to take care of, that's true.

Even when I rented, we still had snow to shovel - including sometimes apartment parking lots so others wouldn't be blocked in, or roadways when people got stuck. I owned a snow shovel before I owned a house. When we don't live in places where we feel safe walking, where do we shop? Those with money to have a gym membership - and who live in areas with gyms - often live in areas where there is a mall that can be walked. We do that sometimes in winter, go to a mall and walk, without buying anything. In more inner city areas where malls aren't around, it's not that hard to find a kitchen to volunteer in where lifting helps keep you in shape. Speaking from first hand experience here, hauling cases of food builds some serious arm strength.

I am laughing at the notion that only privileged people find ways to do physical labor without paying for a gym membership. You understand why that's silly, right?

[Rabrrrrrr]

47. You understand I was being sarcastic at you, right?

:eyes:

By the way, if I drove to a wide open place that I could walk in every day - which for me would be, in fact, the local mall - I'd spend more in gas than I spend on the gym, since the mall is about a gallon of gas away, one-way.

So how does that fit with your self-righteousness?

Whatever issues you harbor toward people who use a gym, you want to squeegee them out of your system.

[pink-o]

57. I don't know about you, but I can't consider mall walking actual strenuous exercise.

I do a pretty physical job, working as ground staff for an airline. I hoist baggage anywhere from 50 to 70 lbs, I lift jetbridges, I run from ticket counter to gate to board flights, and I'm standing at my job about 7 of 8 hours a day. When I'm not working, I'm biking around a very hilly city, or jumping on and off public transpo. I drive about 11 miles to and from work when it's too cold to bike, but I'm not forever in my car. And guess what?? Working out at the gym keeps my chops up for real life. I haven't been injured in years, I have no back issues, I can run after a bus or a purse snatcher and probably catch them. So many of us go from their house to their car to their office parking lot to their desk and then reverse the process for the way home. Without the gym, they wouldn't get any exercise at all.

Look there are a lot of things to get righteous about, but why go after gym memberships? It's a place that can actually do some good!

[Phentex]

80. I feel the same about using a reel mower...

it's not that hard and not a workout for someone in decent shape to begin with. My then 8 year old could use a reel mower with ease. People here throw out the use of a reel mower like some major workout.

[flvegan]

63. Hilarious.

That's some good stuff.

[Hosnon]

101. Did you leave off the sarcasm thingy?

Or do you chop your own wood, make your own furniture, sew your own clothes, gather/raise your own food, etc.? Because clearly, if we all just did real work, all that would take care of itself too.

[dugaresa]

112. while I shovel the driveway, weed flower beds and gardens and

walk countless times up and down the steps there is no way for me to get a concentrated amount of aerobic and weight training with just activities around the house. In fact, I actually painted my house myself and rarely hire out tasks but still there aren't enough of these activities to get consistent exercise.

I work a desk job and to do my job I typically have to remain sitting for at least 6-8 hours of the day, when I finally end that job I go into mother mode which involves making dinner, supervising homework, etc. None of these activities really burn a lot of calories or improve strength, however they do keep me busy.

So, I go to the gym for 1 hour of working on me with no distractions.

Being in better shape has allowed me to do more with my kids.

In fact my strength training, has helped reduce my back pain.

As for distractions a lot of gyms come with TV's attached to equipment so it provides a distraction for those who find it hard to do 20 minutes or more of exercise.

[barb162]

29. And when driving too. n/t

[Rabrrrrrr]

30. Oh, totally - people driving at the gym piss me off, too. All that exhaust

to say nothing of the danger.

:crazy: :silly:

Indeed - people who talk or text while driving are criminals, IMO.

[pintobean]

31. I ounce went into a bar

to meet some friends. They weren't there yet, so I went up to the bar to get a drink. Being a non-drinker, I ordered an O'douls. One of the 3 guys at the bar started laughing and said, "O'douls, what a pussy." My reply was, "Do you need alcohol to be a man? Why in the fuck would you care what I drink?" The other 2 guys laughed their asses off at that.

Why care, if it doesn't involve you?

[driver8]

37. What a dickhead.

Good for you for putting that guy in his place!

[Rabrrrrrr]

50. You draw a very false analogy - I agree that what you drink is, in fact, no one else's business.

BUT, if you're at the bar and bashing away at a drum (or blowing an air horn, or spitting beer on people, or exposing yourself) while you drink your beer, then it IS other people's business.

People being obnoxious in public space IS an issue that involves everyone in the space, because the obnoxious person is affecting everyone in it.

[pintobean]

61. Got it.

bashing away at a drum or blowing an air horn, or spitting beer on people, or exposing yourself = talking on the phone or texting.

[Fleshdancer]

36. I want designated phone areas

Wanna chat on the phone? Fine, just go into the lobby area or outside and do it instead of huffing/shouting on in front of everyone on the machines. For the person on the phone, it's a conversation, but for the people not on the call, it's just a crazy asshole screaming.

[retread]

38. Probably the same "members" who will drive around the gym parking lot looking

for a space close to the entrance.

[Rabrrrrrr]

39. And bitch and moan when the escalator or elevator are out of order, and they have take stairs

[Blue-Jay]

40. So what?

I'm no big fan of cell phone addicts (they're mostly idiots, in fact), but as long as they're not doing it during a movie or a concert, I could give a fuck less.

SHITFUCK! TAINTLICK! CRAPDOUCHE!

[Taitertots]

41. The Cell phone Nazi is here

My conversation is more important than you wanting silence. My text message is more important than your poutrage.

If you want silence go to a library, the gym is not a quiet place.

[Rabrrrrrr]

48. And there we see the problem - my my my my my my my.

All about you, not about the community or the setting.

Just me me me me me.

Reminds me of some of the boom-car assholes and loud stereo at home assholes and loud stereos in the park people when I've asked them to turn the music down - the response is invariably "It's MY car/stereo/boombox/headphones". Or some parents with loud kids at the restaurant/movie/etc. - "It's my child" or "I paid for my ticket".

Ownership was never the issue. The issue is failure to use in a responsible, civil way that doesn't interfere with other people's enjoyment of the same space.

[Taitertots]

51. As if crying that you don't get silence isn't all about you

The gym is not supposed to be a silent place. My phone call is more important than your wanting it to be silent.

Get over your selfish insistence that you don't hear people talk. Me, me, me, I can't deal with people talking. Me, me, me, I demand silence when I work out.

Now your whole OP is just a temper tantrum because you don't get your way.

[Rabrrrrrr]

59. Considering that people on cell phones draw many looks of irritation,

and people who aren't on cell phones don't draw those looks, I'm pretty confident in saying that it isn't about me - it's about the whole space. And I seem to be in good company of people who believe that having loud phone conversations in public is a breach of etiquette.

But another major concern is that I wonder what is the pathology that makes so many people find it impossible to let go of the goddamn phone for a half hour. That's a mental illness, and I think it needs to be addressed.

Maybe if the folks on the cell phones could talk at a normal, inside volume, it wouldn't be so bad - many people at the gym have conversations that I can barely hear, even when they're next to me. But the assholes on phones? I can hear them from halfway across the place.

And so can everyone else.

Put the fucking thing down for a few minutes during the day. It makes everyone else's time more pleasant.

Your argument is no different than the loud talkers at movies who say "Hey, I paid for my ticket! I'll do what I want."

Sorry, but there are very good reasons that we have some social standards of etiquette. It's not selfish - it makes all of social living more tolerable and pleasant, and it's good hospitality.

[Taitertots]

62. There is no such social standard of etiquette

You are selfish for trying to invent one to funnel your poutrage into. It should be obvious that no such standard exists because people are constantly doing it. Oh no, you will have to hear the voices of the people around you, get over it.


What part of your brain doesn't work right that you can't understand how a movie theater is different from a gym? Do I really need to explain this or are you just being obtuse?

[Fleshdancer]

70. I believe there is a standard of etiquette for cell phone use

The reason why it annoys everyone around the cell phone talker is because they're usually yelling. Everyone pays to be at the gym (just like the movies) and it can be difficult to concentrate on your own workout when the person next to you is screaming (just like it's difficult to concentrate on the movie).

[Taitertots]

71. Cell phone use at the gym is not a social faux pas

You can work out with people talking.
You can NOT hear a movie with people talking.
Do you really fail to understand how a movie theater and a gym are different?

Here is the difference:At the gym, people who are not on phones are free to talk, sometimes quite loudly. At the movies people should not be talking at all in the first place.

[hippywife]

72. Cell phone use anywhere

that is not outside of a gathering of people for other purposes is a social faux pas. And you are wrong about the people wanting silence being the selfish ones. The cell phone user is the selfish one because they are just being downright fucking rude.

I bet if you took a poll of people sitting in a restaurant trying to have a meal or in a gym, which many people also look at as a stress release from the everyday workings of life, the result would fall against your position by a wide margin.

No one wants to hear your conversations when they are trying to have a meal, discussion, workout, whatever the fuck. The cell phone is the intrusion in any and all situations. If that were not so, then there would have long ago been land line phones installed everywhere one looked, but you know what, there weren't.

I hope people who are so obtuse about their cell phone usage would learn some etiquette before someone teaches it to them the hard way.

[Taitertots]

74. Unrealistic

"Someone teaches them the hard way"
That is really at the bottom of my concerns.


My phone call is more important than a few people being moderately bothered. Any phone call is more important than a few people being bothered.


No such social boundary exist, especially not as totalitarian as what you think it is. You are being absolutely selfish because you are saying your convenience is more important than my call.

[hippywife]

75. It is NOT unrealistic

to ask that someone keep a cell phone on silent, and to take a call when it is received out of hearing range of others that are gathered at a place for another purpose. It's disturbing the peace and purpose of that place and the people there.

It's just plain rude to not consider the people around you in a given situation.

Someone's not had manners taught to them in their formative years, apparently.

[Taitertots]

77. You are just excessively fickle

Manners doesn't mean bowing to whims of the excessively fickle and overbearing.


I have the manners to know that people need to take phone calls for work and family. You are being rude for acting like your moderate inconvenience is more important than their calls. Get over yourself. I'm not going to bemoan someone for having their phone on, or taking calls that may be of any degree of importance.


Maybe nothing in YOUR life in important but I need to take phone calls as the come in. Not keeping my phone on silence and calling back is not acceptable. It is so rude that you think your convenience is more important than my work and family.

[Name removed]

78. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Fleshdancer]

97. No shit the theater and gym are different environments....

but do you really fail to understand why yapping loudly on the phone in a public place is annoying as hell to everyone else regardless? Same with restaurants. Sure I can eat when someone is yelling just like I can eat when there's a crying, screaming baby, but that doesn't mean the cell phone talker isn't being rude to the people around him/her.

That's basically what it boils down to. Loud cell phone users in public places are like crying screaming babies. It takes literally two seconds to take your private call somewhere private. Why not do that?

[Burma Jones]

114. My Club restricts cell phone use to a designated area

So, I figure enough people already get annoyed at cell phones at the gym.

Also, the Sports Club Network the club airs regularly runs spots showing some guy on a cell phone with a bunch of fellow Gym Members giving him the stink-eye. I doubt if the club management would care about cell phones to the point of spending the money to produce an anti-cell phone Public Service Announcement unless it annoyed gym patrons enough to give up their gym membership.

So at least at the My Sports Clubs chain, which runs around 150 clubs in Boston, NY, Philly and DC, there is such a social standard of etiquette, and it is embraced by the membership.


I've noticed that nobody uses their cell phones at my club. I have been to another club and used a treadmill next to someone yakking away about all sorts of trivial personal stuff and I found it annoying enough to go to another machine.

[hippywife]

121. That's because there are people

like our little friend here who do not have the sense to know what manners, consideration or etiquette are. You can see that no one can convince her of the error in her thinking. :eyes:

I see signs everywhere in doctors offices, hospitals, lots of places. Businesses have gone to great efforts to have some very elaborate signs made because people are so inconsiderate.

:hi:

[GoCubsGo]

104. If you can't beat 'em join 'em....

I'm not saying you should start yakking on your own phone. Rather, just join in their conversation. If they want to talk loud enough for everyone to hear, I say the conversation is fair game for anyone who has to listen. Shuts 'em up every time.

[Yavin4]

43. Someone Was On A Cell Phone Next To Me Giving Away A Plot to a Movie

Now, that person should be sent to GITMO.

[Yavin4]

45. Here's My Pet Peeve: If There's A Whole Row of Unoccupied Lockers, Put Your Stuff In One of Them

Don't put your stuff next to a locker that's occupied. I know it's your favorite locker, and your OCD compels you to put your stuff there.

However, I don't want to have to climb over and bang into you when I am getting dressed. Go on the other side of the lockeroom and we can both have some personal space.

[Ikonoklast]

52. Unless the rules of the gym prohibit it, I'll talk on my cell phone all I want.

I might just do it to piss off the control freaks that just can't understand that they don't run the world.

[flvegan]

64. People that don't take a workout seriously have that cellphone, Rabrrrrrr.

Granted, I can see that for an emergency having a phone with you. Don't use it unless that emergency arises, though.

Form and focus. Can't have either if you're thinking about that phone. Never mind intensity. Never going to have that. Might as well stay home.

And if you're sitting on a machine doing nothing but talking on a phone? You're keeping people from using it. Take your ass to the parking lot to take up space.

[snagglepuss]

65. I second that. I get irritated at Starbucks with the same thing.

It such an invasion of personal space, it is so rude. It gets me so angry I have even come up with a diabolical plan to get back at these jerks.

The plan I comtemplate would be to read something irritating like sound poems aloud into a cell phone (no one need be on the other line) and every few poems I would introject "sure I could read some more, aren't they great?".


(I love poetry but sound poetry I can totally live without and I certainly wouldn't want to be subjected to it if I was one of the millions who don't appreciate any kind of poetry.)


Example:

Dysmorphexia

roughshod bastard teeters
a stale basket she felt
the prod rape paper cup
the morsel brass tacks
swallowed back hanging
by neck in closet by wardrobe
necking the walls of scraps
newspaper debris wicked
on the floor sweeping
cane from my pocket
concealed from closet
garments of exposed fashion
alleged legible leg stockings
snug on the pregnant calf
heavy petting in a pen surge
that slithers past a military call
perforce the future of story
the tall tale talent of recipe
off burnt kitchen shavings
tomorrow’s phantom stomach
digesting the throat of a
pinky’s curled over grope

[Taitertots]

66. As if they would care

I'm sure no one would think you are insane if you screamed non-sense into a phone that is not connected to anyone.:sarcasm:

[snagglepuss]

67. There is no way that someone could tell that no one was one the other line.

Your lack of of civility speaks volumes, you'd be a perfect target. Dollars to donuts you'd crawled up walls if you were subjected to poetry screamed into a cell phones.

[Taitertots]

73. Screaming non-sense is a good indicator that no one is on the other line

It is hilarious that someone advocating screaming in stores to annoy people is calling me uncivil.

People talk on cell phones everywhere I go already.

[snagglepuss]

79. Reciting poetry, nonsense? Hardly. The content of most conversations

is nonsense and utterly inane. Furthermore cell phone users are notorious for screaming into cell phones which is why they are so loathed by people who have a modicum of civility .

[Taitertots]

83. I'm sure your loathing makes you so civil

You are complaining about being civil while intentionally doing something you think will bother people, to get revenge because they actually have a life.

People with the modicum of rationality don't get enraged that they might hear other people's voices when they go out.

[snagglepuss]

84. I don't vent my loathing. I have simply imagine a scenerio that would

teach people who abuse public spaces a lesson. Hell I could just start reading newspaper aloud in cafes, matching my volume to those who are barking into phones. Your animosity illustates the view that using a cell phone gives people a right to impose themselves on others. The issue is not hearing other voices. The problem is the volume, people having face to face conversations are not as loud as someone using a cell phone.

[Rabrrrrrr]

86. Taitertots is all about reverse etiquette - instead o f me making a pleasant space for others,

it's up to others to put up with my bullshit.

It's a selfish kind of social interaction, that's becoming more common, sadly, especially with the advent of cell phones, iPods, boomboxes, boom cars, and other devices that make noise.

They like to use the argument, "Dude, it's up to you to accept my obnoxious behavior and be civil to me". It's never "I'm so sorry - I didn't think I might be disturbing you. Let me turn this off."

And they'll never, ever know why the second option is the civil, mannerly one that cultured, decent human beings would use.

They're the types of folks who come to your house, and instead of treating your stuff with respect, put their muddy feet on the couch and say "Hey, I'm the guest, it's up to YOU to accept whatever I do."

Reverse etiquette. "Everything *I* am doing IS SO FUCKING IMPORTANT that I *have* to do it, and YOU *HAVE* to make space for me to do it, or else YOU are the rude bastard," they say while pouring beer down your shirt, shitting in your potted plant, or screaming into their cell phone at the gym.

[snagglepuss]

90. You deserve a Pultizer for this nugget of wisdom. So much, if not all , incivility is

explained by people not caring about making a pleasant space for others. :applause:

[Taitertots]

92. Your etiquette is just catering to the fickle

I don't care if you get disturbed over nothing. I'm not going to apologize that you are fickle. Talking on a cell phone in a public place isn't doing anything more than moderately inconveniencing you.

Your idea of etiquette is bow before the most fickle in the bunch. I'm not going to cater to your unrealistic demands.

That you would even compare cell phone use to shitting a plant or pouring beer on someone just proves that you are excessively fickle.

[Rabrrrrrr]

95. Ah, the unrealistic demand of wanting people to show respect to others.

I'm not surprised you think that an unrealistic goal, given your comments in this thread.

For people like you, it is always up to the other people to make a pleasant space for you, but never your responsibility to do the same for them.

It's not about your bullshit rubric of "comparative" rudeness - shitting in a planter and talking on a cell phone in an inappropriate place are both rude, period. It's not "Hey, at least I'm not shitting in your planter!" It's that they're both rude.

Rude is wrong, no matter how much one might think "Oh, this isn't very rude" or "I could do something more rude than this!"

Bullshit.

The role of a gentleman or gentlewoman is to make a space that is pleasant to others - gabbing loudly on a cell phone in a way that forces your noise on other people is NOT making a pleasant space.

Zappa said it really well in The Real Frank Zappa book - etiquette isn't about knowing which fork to use, it's about not forcing your bullshit on other people.

That is, it's about not invading other people's space with your garbage.

Obviously, you feel that etiquette is about making other people accept your bullshit, and so we're never going to agree. But, at least I have the majority on my side, as well hundreds of years of social tradition.

Of course, you will refute on this because you refuse to accept that you might be acting boorishly, but your refutation will only belie the selfishness of your position.


It's frustrating because I would think that liberals and progressives, of all people, would understand the necessity of considering others first- pedagogy of the poor, so to speak, if we might expand the term "poor" into a rather large metaphor for anyone in a position of powerlessness - which is, of course, the position that rude people force their neighbors into. Not very liberal, that.

[Taitertots]

96. It is unrealistic to cater to the fickle

Demanding other people don't offend your fickle sensibilities isn't respect.


You are so fickle that the tiniest offense is elevated to shitting in someone flowers. No one cares when you are inconvenienced by an insignificant amount. That who think this way clearly shows that you are being unreasonable and fickle.


You have hundreds of years of social traditions about cell phone use? And the majority are still talking on phones or not complaining, clearly demonstrating they are on my side

[pintobean]

109. I would agree with this,

but you included texting in the op, which, IMO, makes you a hypocrite. Going by various comments you've made, volume wasn't the problem. It appears that what got to you was the guy's attitude about working out. He doesn't take it serious enough for your liking. Your argument has evolved into being about noise.

As much as I disagree with Taitertots, I'll have to give this one to him. At least he's being honest and consistent.

BTW - You called this guy very juvenile and nasty names, then told HIM to grow up. Unless I've missed it, no one has called you on that hypocrisy.

[Taitertots]

122. I thought no one else would notice

The person bemoaning cell phone users has been continuously streaming insults and swear words.

[hippywife]

93. Bingo!

[datasuspect]

69. you shoulda took that phone and straight up inserted it in their ass

and then you could have done some 1980s era WWF "OHHHH YEAHHHHH" shit over their busted up, cell phone assed body.

[davsand]

76. A cell phone in a restaurant is pretty annoying too.

You've covered the topic of gym cell phone use fairly well already, but I gotta say that cell phones in restaurants just piss me off to no end. Some asshole gets a call in a restaurant, proceeds to spend the next 20 minutes screaming into a damn phone, and it can really put me off my dinner.

We were out with the kids at a Chinese place a while back and some guy sat there SCREAMING into his cell phone. The entire restaurant knew within a short time that Bob and Edna had not arrived yet, and they were not gonna come due to bad roads. "YOU SAY THEY DIDN'T MAKE IT?" was repeated several times. Finally, my husband yells "Hey, Bob and Edna aren't COMING! ENOUGH already!"

The kids about died laughing along with about five other tables.



Laura

[snagglepuss]

85. I have often wanted to comment on overheard conversations. And why

not since I have been made party to it? I recall hearing someone dissing their boss and naming the company. I wanted so much to say something to the effect that "hope it works out, Johnson can be such a bastard."

[GoCubsGo]

107. Do it!

Seriously. It shuts them up.

[snagglepuss]

108. I suppose I am constrained by rules of etiquette, that in such situations you must

pretend not to have heard the conversation so as not to embarrass the person.

[GoCubsGo]

115. My whole point is that people like that NEED TO BE EMBARRASSED

They already threw out the rules of etiquette by having a conversation that is so loud that everyone else is forced to listen in. If they were so concerned about being embarrassed, they would take their one-sided conversation to a place where others wouldn't have to overhear it.

[petronius]

81. Now that loud-cellphone-guy has been dealt with, can we next eradicate the

dudes who give out a loud unnecessary grunt before/during a lift, just to make sure that everyone looks to see how much weight they've got on? And once we've dissolved all those douches in a vat of lye, we can hunt down the people who don't wipe off equipment after use...

[Phentex]

82. I can't stand Grunt Guy and he also slams the weights...

as if maybe they are too heavy for him!!!

[Rabrrrrrr]

87. I'd love to drop a rack of free weights on grunt guy. Stupid fucking assholes.

[BuelahWitch]

89. Whack the yakking shitwit with a free weight too, just make it look like an accident

Then when you're acting all concerned about knocking shitwit out, accidentally drop the free weight on his fucking phone. Then when no one is looking, shove the phone in shitwit's gaping yakhole and make him choke on it..

[BuelahWitch]

88. What did shitwits do to entertain themselves befor the invention of the cell phone?

:shrug: People got on just fine for years without yakking on the phone while working out, driving, shopping and sitting in restaurants. My personal beef is with the dumbshit in the grocery store with a cell phone glued to her ear. All of a sudden she stops in the middle of the aisle because she's so engrossed in a discussion about what type of pickles to bring home for tonight's party with dumbshit #2 on the other end. I have to say "EXCUSE ME!" very loudly before dumbshit can tear herself away from her conversation to move her bloomin' arse.

[davsand]

91. Oh Gawd YES! Cell phones in grocery stores piss me off too!

Unscrew the damn phone outta your ear and just buy your fucking groceries already! I recently got stuck behind some yuppie bitch at the seafood counter who was DETERMINED to chat on her phone rather than place her order. They got her what she had already ordered and then proceeded to ignore her and wait on other people until she could get off the phone.

She actually made a shitty remark about it. What made it too funny was the one she was bitching to was the Manager who was waiting on me at the time. Cheong just looked at her and said, "You were busy. We didn't want to be rude and interrupt your phone call."

:rofl:


Laura

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

94. It's a gym! and you're concerned with noise?

Metal banging, speed bags slapping, people on adjacent machines yakking, gyms get loud.

How does that interfere with your workout routine? Just ignore them.

:wtf:

[La Lioness Priyanka]

99. LOL. of all of your rants to turn into a flamewar,...

:hi:

[sakabatou]

110. I don't have that problem

They gym is seated underground where there is no reception.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

111. Hey - Rabrrrrrr - does your gym have this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc381zH_IeU&NR=1

Try that exercise while on a cell phone call, trying to convince a prospective employer that you're the man for the job!

:hi:

[carlyhippy]

113. but...but....I have to carry mine

I have kids who may call...but yes, I was at the gym, a loud boistrous man was on a machine talking loudly to the receptionist, a girl was beside me talking incessantly on the phone while on a machine, I had mp3 player with earphones on and could still hear both of them, I want to sweat in silence.

[MilesColtrane]

125. I'd rather someone was being a cock on a Nautilus, then behind the wheel of a half ton of metal.