Ringtone Madness

Normally I'm not really interested in what kind of ring-tones people have for their cells. Normally. But Christmas is coming and so is the WHAM "Last Christmas" ring-tone that makes me want to kill people. Slowly. Painfully. Repeatedly. (Richard from "Looking for Group" might want to assist with that.)

I don't think the song itself was created by the devil to torture me, but what I can't stand is the repeated use of it every year, starting in mid-November. By the sixth of December I'm so sick of hearing it, I start to growl whenever it is played somewhere.

In the past I could avoid the song by not listening to the radio and avoid music television of any kind (MTV and VIVA in Germany). But with the invention of ring-tones above the build-in sounds that once came with a cell, I can't avoid it any longer. The first ads for the "Last Christmas" ring-tone (full length and original sound) are out and soon a lot of people will either have bought it or remember they have it already. That's how I sometimes imagine Hell to be: being forced to listen to "Last Christmas" for eternity. Scary idea, almost makes me want to be a good girl.

But even beyond "Last Christmas", ring-tones can be a curse. I have to admit I'm not free of this madness myself, either. Currently my ring-tone happens to be "He's a Pirate" from "Pirates of the Caribbean" - and with the many TV melodies I've finally transformed into mp3, it might soon change. (I got the program for the transformation for one measly Euro, you can't get a professional program any cheaper outside the internet.)

But, as I don't get all that many calls anyway, I don't think I really torture anybody with my ring-tone (whatever it might be). But spent thirty minutes in a public transport and you will hear anything from rap to pop being played by cell phones. Most of the time the sounds are turned up rather loud, too. That's not so bad, as long as there's just one phone ringing, but usually it's three or four at the same time - and that just sounds dreadful. It wasn't half as bad in the past, when it was just the Nokia-sound and some others.

I wonder what the next stage will be? Can it get any worse?