No Communication other than Distant...

   I'm still trying to conceptually comprehend the behavior of people almost completely tuning out the people they are in close physical proximity to while they stay in constant text contact with people oceans away via smartphones.  I can't claim complete innocence in this matter, as I spend a bit of time myself writing to people far away (as I am now), however, I still feel like it's good to have some verbal exchanges with people I'm working with and two of the contract positions I have provide an interesting contrast.
   Contract Position #1: Very little smartphone usage - in fact, several of the people I'm working with (myself included) don't even have smartphones and the ones who do usually leave them in their bags.  We don't always have much to say to each other, but since we're not tuned into distant somebodies, when something comes up, we (get ready, I know this is shocking and hard to believe)... we actually *talk* to each other.
   Contract Position #2: Some of the people I have to sit near are in nearly constant electronic text contact with someone far away and even if you say something to them, they just ignore you.  If they're working and their smartphone beckons, they drop their work, pick up their smartphone and respond immediately.  Wouldn't want that someone across the Pacific Ocean to have to wait a microsecond for a response.  Someone they're actually working with in reality?  Ignored.  Frozen out of the loop.  I'll be honest - I'm insulted.  I'm insulted, but I'm also puzzled.  I spend time on-line myself, but when I'm with people, I give the people I'm with priority and turn the bloody devices off.  But not late-twenties people.  Nothing is more important than their bloody smartphones and distant electronic buddies.
   This is anger speaking I suppose, but I'm actually starting to think I hate people in their late-twenties.  I'm hoping to meet some people in that age group who aren't addicted to toxic hand cream and distant electronic communication priority and snubbing the people they are actually with so I won't condemn an entire age group.  Just rotten luck, I'm hoping.  It can't be that an entire age group is so self-centered, rude, and myopic... can it?  (As I typed "can it"? the toxic hand cream came out again....)

- LHS

Toxic Stinking Hand Creams...

   I suppose it's just a coincidence, but it seems like all the women I work with who are from 26-29 years old are smearing on hand creams several times a day.  What typically happens is this:  I begin work just thinking about what I have to do on the screen, and after a certain amount of time passes, one of these mid-to-late twenties women around me pulls out some hand cream, and then proceeds to lather it all over both sides of their hands (typically spending 45-60 seconds on this process).  As they work the toxic goo all over their hands, the air is filled with a noxious, horrible smell, my eyes start burning, and it becomes difficult to do my work.  After 20-30 minutes, the toxicity dies down enough that my eyes begin to not hurt so much and I can resume working normally... until, that is, one of this category of bipeds pulls out their bloody horrible-smelling noxious toxic hand cream again and poisons the air all over again.
   Smoking and noxious hand creams should both be illegal.
   And, while I'm on the topic, these same mid-to-late twenties women I work with generally can't keep their hands off their smartphones (for personal use, not business) for more than five or ten minutes or so.
   Must just be coincidence, but that's how things are around me this year.  I suppose I should have written this with gender-free vocabulary, but with the people around me, it really is one side that is toxicating the air with hand creams and constantly texting when they should be working....  It's bloody irritating.

- LHS