when ringtones attack

[burntcopper]

snow falling outside in tiny flakes and there was pavement ice in Shepherd's Bush/Kensington. But not settling. Bah. Apparently it's deep, deep snow back home. Hoping like hell I can get back tonight since I want to mess around in the snow. 'Specially considering tomorrow is birthday. (snow is normally only a february or Easter thing in Berkshire, so I'm used to it being bitter or frost-laden on my birthday, but no snow.) But still going to stop at River Island and New Look at lunch to grab another emergency change of clothing.

Question for the Colonialists : Does anyone ever use 'Ta' to say thanks? (thought they didn't use eejit either, but since I just heard Bobby use it on Supernatural, am guessing it's a matter of location.)

Changed ringtone post-christmas. have learnt my lesson - don't use a popular christmas song since you'll just think it's on the radio if it's not in your pocket. Subjected Meg to the first 20 secs of a bunch of stuff in a quest to find something that walked that fine borderline between irritating and penetrating. Which includes the final test of stuffing it in my bag on the other side of the room while something else is playing on the stereo and getting someone to ring me. Surprising how many songs that you'd think had really distinctive intros fail this. So now, I have the Theme from St Trinians by Girls Aloud.

Forcing self to listen to mp3 player on shuffle in effort to cull the mediocre stuff as I have a habit of shoving albums/concerts on there, as well as stuff you think you'll listen to and never do. One day I really need to go through every single version of Barrowman doing 'I am What I am' and cull them.

Comments

[silly-swordsman.livejournal.com]

I can recommend "Engel" by Rammstein as a ringtone. Intro is whistling, so penetrating and non-grating. And if you miss that, the guitars kick in after a little bit.

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

I have Sir Duke by Stevie Wonder as a ringtone, and I recommend it. Noticeable right from the intro and awesome. Has the advantage of completely earworming one of my colleague, who ends up singing it almost all the time at work.

[sbp.livejournal.com]

For a long time I used the theme from Buffy - starts off quiet and gets more urgent and loud.

[peterjevans.livejournal.com]

Mine just rings. Like a phone.

Because it’s, you know, a phone.

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

Pah. you, sir, are not living in the future.

As several have put it, they may have predicted tiny communicators but they didn't predict that we'd be using them to look at badly-spelt captioned pictures of cats. Or that porn would drive most of the media innovations.

[peterjevans.livejournal.com]

Ah, but are you sure? We have no idea how many LOLcats Kirk kept on that little flippy-cover communicator of his. And why else would Mr Spock have that hood over his monitor so no-one on the bridge could see what he was looking at? Hot Vulcan-on-Andorian action, betcha.

Anyway, my lack of a ringtone is my protest at the future being, so far, a big disappointment. When my jetpack and my giant robot arrive, then I will make my phone play ‘Vin-Da-Loo’ by Fat Les. Until then, it shall be Bakelite.

[gmh.livejournal.com]

Mine plays a sample of a church bell from Spain. It's a shame my phone has such a tiny speaker, or it would make impressive 'CLONG!' noises when people rang me.

However, anyone who didn't see porn driving the mass media has no-one but themselves to blame; the French Revolution was built on pornographic libelles.

[cidercupcakes.livejournal.com]

We don't use "ta" where I am, or at least not in my circles -- lower-middle-class mid-Atlantic -- and I don't think I've heard it much if at all amongst people from other regions/sets. "Eejit" is more dependent on the accent, so that's a regional thing.

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

I predict 'Ta' will be the next thing that American script-writers have the English stereotypes using. Since they're steadily burning through cheers and bollocks.

re: eejit, that makes sense because it is just 'idiot' filtered through regional accent. But more satisfying to say. Any idea what part of the country Bobby's supposed to be from? I don't think it's Illinois, Oklahoma or Kansas.

[delle.livejournal.com]

I've never heard an American say 'Ta' and I've lived in the Midwest (Chicago), Pacific Northwest and South.

'Eejit'.... is that a variation of 'idiot'? Various regional accents might sound similar, as cidercupcakes says. I can't recall ever hearing it with a long 'e', but closer to 'ijit' with a softer 'i'.

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

yeah, it's 'idiot', but the northern england/irish accented version. (see Father Ted)

[genarti]

I've never heard an American say "ta," except as an acquired Britishism. It's not an American regionalism anywhere I've heard of. (For reference: from Ohio originally, the Northeast thereafter, but with friends from a bunch of different areas around the country.)

"Eejit," though, yeah. "Idjit" also, and various other spellings that amount to the same thing. (Edit: idjit, with a shorter i like in "did," is more common I thiiiiink, but really it just depends on the region and how your vowels come out.) It's definitely a regionalism, and something of a "hick accent" thing -- I hate that term, but I'm not sure how else to say it. One of those things you'd edit out of your vocabulary and pronunciation in a formal register, or if you were trying to lose or minimize a regional accent.

[xenaclone.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Heather
Happy Birthday to you

[littlerhymes]

Happy birthday! :)

Some Australians use ta, mostly older. Mostly ex-pat British, probably.