Welcome to the Commenting Pixie Party!
How cute is LG?!
I was trying to explain the day's importance to Miss M as we were waiting for the elevator, but I found I couldn't really express it in simple enough language. In 2008 it will be easier. I hope.
I'd hate (HATE!) a phone-centered job. The internet is infinitely nicer!
I'm not a huge fan of the phone either. I mean, I like to talk to my friends but I HATE calling people I don't know. I often have to do that for my job and it's my LEAST favorite part.
I also feel you on the wanting to contribute more but not really knowing where to start or how. Sometimes I wish I was more like my sister who isn't afraid to speak her mind. Me? I feel bad imposing my thoughts on someone else.
Anyway, gotta take a shower, make Mr. LS a peanut butter sandwich, and GO VOTE!!!!
Happy Election Day everyone! Let's hope it stays happy!
I, too, hate the phone. I have a hard time even calling friends, not to mention making appointments, ordering pizza, etc. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one!
The map coloring is so adorable!
And the freaking out? Yeah. Ever since 2000, when I was living abroad and went to sleep and Gore had won, and woke up and the world had gone to the dogs... it's a tense, tense time.
I hate the phone too, which in middle school, I would never have believed since I was one of those girls who spent hours on the phone. No more.
We read "Duck for President", one of the "Click Clack Moo" books, a lot in the past two weeks, so that my girls would understand the election craziness. I'll be at an election party tonight, so won't get to catch much of the coverage, but love the map-coloring image!
You don't really see me here cos I am supposed to be working on a manuscript...but just HAD to say: the sqvirrel and I are exactly the same when it comes to the phone. We call it "phone jite" and have to trade off making household and doctor appointment phone calls. HATE HATE HATE the phone. I am bad too about calling family and friends, although the sqiverrel much better at that (hmmm, maybe this is why he has more friends than I do!). I usually won't even answer the phone unless it is my mom, my brother, the sqvirrel, or my best friend.
I so love LG. It's all about the choice.
Yep. I hate the phone so much that I haven't called to set up dentist appointments or a much needed hair trimming.
I treated my call-out-the-vote time as a Dr. Phil-esque "face your phone fear" thing. I don't know that it helped, but I got through it.
Yes! I hate the phone too. Isn't it crazy that we have such visceral dislike for something so routine and non-confrontational as ordering pizza? When the call involves something confrontational, it's nearly impossible to motivate myself to do it. Like today--my grant is apparently mismanaged and the funds have been locked, and part of the reason nothing has been done about it is my fear and hatred of the telephone. This is bad.
LG is a wise soul, far wiser than a lot adults when it comes to proselytizing!
I have some phone issues, too. They've gotten better with time, but I have a hard time envisioning myself calling strangers to talk to them about voting. Like you, I wish I could do better. Let me know if you have any editing overflow you need help with someday...
Though I was one of those who blogged about having made phone calls, I perhaps failed adequately to stress how very uncomfortable it was for me. (I guess that would have been a different kind of post.) Two things made me close my eyes, take a deep breath, and do it anyway: 1) My husband, not being as sensitive to my issues as Mr Blue is to yours, shamed me into it; 2)I realized that the Republicans' relative comfort with exhorting strangers over the phone, which I'm sure has everything to do with their greater tendency to embrace absolute truths, also has everything to do with their winning elections of late.
Also, I do want to mention that MoveOn, at least, emphasizes the importance of "having a conversation" in which you say why you're voting the way you are, rather than simply exhorting. (Though I assume most people, like me, were neither comfortable nor very successful with that strategy either.) And their lists presumably target people who tend to vote progressively, but might need extra prompting to get themselves to the polls.
Anyway, I have the utmost respect for your desire and choice not to phone bank, believe me.
One more thing I wanted to mention and then I'll shut up. At the phoning party I went to, all but one were doing the phone call thing for the first time in their lives. And they were almost all my age or older. So maybe we phone averse folk have to hit our mid 40s before we can stomach it.
I hate the phone, too! With a great and burning passion. It's kind of funny how many of us bloggers are phone haters. Coincidence? Me thinks not.
My disorder might be a slight variation on the theme though: I actually have less anxiety over making calls then receiving calls. Every time the phone rings, my heart sinks. Caller ID is my friend. But that damn answering machine is definitely not. I can't wait until we're both employed again and can re-retire the lousy thing.
I would say that the blogging is a pretty good way of reaching people, Phantom. And though I think a lot of the pixie regulars have similar views, I also think that Wednesday Whining brings in a more diverse crowd that might reappear later. And in terms of getting the message out, you do it year-round.
It's more than I'm doing...
Margi, my moveon calling party was similar. A bunch of 30-40something moms, nervously standing around for a bit before taking a collective deep breath and getting into it.
I did try to engage the people I spoke to directly, and eventually lighted on winding up my "make sure you get out and vote" spiel with "Because if there's anything we learned from recent elections, its that every vote really *can* make a difference." Which usually got a laugh, at least.
Eh. Well, today I'm reaching, via Google, two people who do not exactly make me feel confident about the elections. One who searched on "Deval Patrick sucks" (he does not, and you're a poopy-head!), and another who searched on "you is poopies." Sir? You ARE poopies.
Hurrah! I thought I was the only one who had serious phone phobia as well.Thankfully you have Mr. Blue to assist! I just never go to the Dr., order in or have the super come to fix things! I'd be hard pressed to dial 911 in an emergency.
Phone Phobics Unite!
omg. All these people who don't like the phone? And I thought I was the only one.
Phoning potential subjects to be in my dissertation study was the hardest part of setting the study up for me. I could never admit that to anyone in grad school though.
Now the Kid answers the phone, because I hate to. I heart caller id b/c I don't have to answer it if I don't know who is calling. (And that's pretty funny b/c I said for years I didn't want caller id).
And LG--I hope you're still blogging when he grows up b/c I can't wait to see what he's like then!!
wow. it is a relief to read all the pixie comments and find others who despise making this type of call. I'm fine w/friends and family (quite a phone-a-holic that way), but calling for appointments, reservations, etc? Ick. And in my job for my dad I need to make lots of this type of call. Painful.
Very cute about LG. My son, who is 7, likes to graph his Halloween candy in categories. He did it once and now it is tradition LOL.
I thought I was the only one who hated this. I was just telling someone the other day that when I was little, my mom made me call the library (not the most threatening place on the planet, no?) and ask them what time they closed. I refused to call. I still hate it.
I wonder where we get the idea that "grown ups" can do/should do/enjoy doing this sort of thing, when there's 15 comments of people who absolutely hate it.
I did vote already--I love early voting--fewer people to crowd me. But I certainly didn't make any phone calls about it.
I have a phone phobia too. Very similar to yours, in fact. Interestingly enough, whenever I had a job which required answering the phone to talk to someone, I could do that, but I can't call someone else. When I used to work on campaigns, I enjoyed going door-to-door with the candidates and meeting people. But calling people on the phone to ask people for donations, or to get out the vote -*shudder* gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.
Is there anyone who likes the phone? I call strangers all the fireplacing time -- hard to be a journalist without doing so -- but I will answer email, take the dog out and even (gasp!) clean my desk to avoid making the first call on a new story. Once I get going I'm fine, but I hate, hate, hate the first call. And I make D call for takeout, too.
LG is so adorable, and I love that project!
I think that your blogging about tons of political issues is actually doing more than phone-banking would do. You inspire your readers, and those of us who are up for phone-banking are therefore more likely to phone bank. I know that you make me more enthused about doing my poll-working.
Big hugs and thanks for being here.
Turns out the sqvirrel - despite his confirmed and long-standing aversion to calling strangers - made 80 (80!) get-out-the-vote (just reminding people to vote not who/what to vote for) phone calls yesterday! I used to do the same when I worked for a union. I think perhaps it has to do with believing 100% in something, having absolute conviction that you are doing the right thing. Although I dunno... I love our chinese take out place and believe that ordering it is absolutely the right thing but I still hate calling them!
*whispers*
Um, I once faked laryngitis in college to get out of working on a state-wide telephone survey (working as a caller was a requirement of my major).
I don't have phone phobia to the degree you do, PS, but I know from which you speak.
It's nice to know so many people are not phone fans. I'll join the club.
PS, maybe you should consider getting back into freelance, because with my very sparse experience of people writing articles on me and mine, lately much interviewing has been done by email.
I just needed to chime in again and say I got an assignment from the office today to call all the students I work with...ugh! Luckily I have the smallest number with about 160 but I am NOT looking forward to this. My boss even called to see if I had any questions...gulp.
I don't hate the phone. I like the phone when it's someone I like to talk to. For example, CCW and I once spent about five hours on the phone together, talking about anything and nothing. If it's someone I'm avoiding, or telemarketers, then I'm with you on the phone hate.
I hate that the phone has become the must-have accessory, though. I mean, I understand when people carry cell phones for emergencies, or if they have to for work, but the 24/7 cell phone usage? Why? Is it SO important that you have to be glued to the phone all day? I have a friend who would be completely at odds without her cell phone. She could not function without it. I would hate having an electronic leash like that. (Says the blogger with the online gaming addiction.) 
So umm, maybe I should not even bring up this line of discussion, but, uh... I officially LOVE phone phobics, and I am GRATEFUL to each and every one of you who hates the phone enough to avoid bothering total strangers with your political views. I KISS YOU, as Mahir [reincarnated as Borat] would say.
I live in a state that is almost never of interest to big-money campaigns, except for this year. And boy howdy, do I empathize with people in swing states... The last few weeks have been absolutely intolerable with the political phone calls.
I contemplated keeping a running tally of how many calls I got for each side, and then smugly voting for the person who called me the least. Alas, liberals called me the MOST, so I had to abandon that idea on principle.
Yes, a lot of them are robo-calls, which is nice (I guess!) because I don't have any compunctions about hanging up immediately. But although I am nice(r) to real-live callers, I'm not any more appreciative of the intrusion.
Is this even cost-effective? I'm going to change my vote based on a brief conversation with a random stranger who calls my house when I'm trying to convince my daughter to eat something that isn't fried? Come on!
Phantom, this is so NOT guilt worthy!!! With all respect to the activist pixies, my two cents is that you did many harried innocents a major favor by leaving them the fireplace alone.
I volunteered to make calls yesterday, but my day ended up being squeezed too tight. I have to say that after getting SO!MANY!ROBO-CALLS! I'm kind of glad I didn't add to the noise pollution.
The phone is my enemy. I resent its intrusion. Me first! Me first! Answer me now! I don't understand people (like the one I married) who cannot let ringing phones lie.
Caller ID and the answering machine are the greatest inventions! Loooove caller id.
And I can order pizza from Papa John's via the interwebs, so I do.
CNN just called Mass. for the non-poopyheaded candidate! Hooray! (Assuming we believe exit polls.)
Good for LG
And I hate the phone calls so much I wrote a blog post about THAT, but I have horrendously failed this year on doing much of anything political, or putting much of my own mental energy into it even.
I didn't even vote in the primaries (shhh!), but I'm working on filling out my ballot now so I can rush it over to the polls before they close.
(Of course, you'd probably rather I didn't make it to the polls in time, LOL, :-p)
Commenting by HaloScan
