tragic flaw number 57
Mar. 14th, 2007 04:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eiriasNo exciting person is without flaws, right?
My SO is trying to convince me that we should get cell phones. We have discussed it numerous times and I fear I won't be able to stave it off much longer.
It's not that I'm opposed to the devices in general; when I've lived abroad I've had them (still have my GSM hardware from the last trip, actually) and found them extremely useful. In Finland there's not really another option, as the country is basically not wired for land lines and if you want one you have to pay the phone company to physically put it there. So I am not the Luddite sort of cell phone abstainer, the kind who doesn't want to be reached at any time that is not convenient to me. I like being reached, in general. I am also not (terribly) afraid of brain cancer.
No; the issue here is that, in some circumstances, I am cheap as hell. Specifically, the paranoid, competitive part of me that is the closest our social instincts come to reptile brains -- that part is cheap as hell. It's the part of me that, when playing the ultimatum game, wants to reject any offer that's less than 50%. When I read the various plans offered by cell phone providers, this bit of me just starts a giant caterwaul. THAT'S TOO MUCH MONEY! it says. TEN CENTS FOR AN SMS? OUTRAGEOUS! I know, I say, but... THAT'S TWICE AS MUCH AS YOU PAID OVERSEAS! AND FOR WHAT?? HOW CAN YOU EVEN THINK OF SPENDING SO MUCH MONEY ON FRIVOLITIES?! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW LITTLE YOU MAKE?!
By this point the rational part of me that realizes I am (A) part of a family that makes more than I do and (B) essentially powerless in this situation and so I might as well give up and fork over the cash has tuned out and wants to go back to reading LiveJournal. Or maybe even doing work. Anything but reading about cell phone plans.
My SO is trying to convince me that we should get cell phones. We have discussed it numerous times and I fear I won't be able to stave it off much longer.
It's not that I'm opposed to the devices in general; when I've lived abroad I've had them (still have my GSM hardware from the last trip, actually) and found them extremely useful. In Finland there's not really another option, as the country is basically not wired for land lines and if you want one you have to pay the phone company to physically put it there. So I am not the Luddite sort of cell phone abstainer, the kind who doesn't want to be reached at any time that is not convenient to me. I like being reached, in general. I am also not (terribly) afraid of brain cancer.
No; the issue here is that, in some circumstances, I am cheap as hell. Specifically, the paranoid, competitive part of me that is the closest our social instincts come to reptile brains -- that part is cheap as hell. It's the part of me that, when playing the ultimatum game, wants to reject any offer that's less than 50%. When I read the various plans offered by cell phone providers, this bit of me just starts a giant caterwaul. THAT'S TOO MUCH MONEY! it says. TEN CENTS FOR AN SMS? OUTRAGEOUS! I know, I say, but... THAT'S TWICE AS MUCH AS YOU PAID OVERSEAS! AND FOR WHAT?? HOW CAN YOU EVEN THINK OF SPENDING SO MUCH MONEY ON FRIVOLITIES?! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW LITTLE YOU MAKE?!
By this point the rational part of me that realizes I am (A) part of a family that makes more than I do and (B) essentially powerless in this situation and so I might as well give up and fork over the cash has tuned out and wants to go back to reading LiveJournal. Or maybe even doing work. Anything but reading about cell phone plans.
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Date: 2007-03-15 01:08 am (UTC)However better a deal I could get overseas I do keep my cell phone...