I am in love... with voice mail.

Thank god Verizon stinksadoodle.

With the switch to Cablevision for our phone and internet service, we have been educated on a lot of the technological changes that have occured over the years. I apologize if you already know about these technological advancements, but they are new and fascinating to me.

Is anyone else truly aware of the recent advancements in telephone service? As you know, we got our phone through Cablevision, and we couldn't be much happier. The reception is crisp and clear, and we can make unlimited phone calls to anywhere in the United States for one rate each month. That's a pretty cool deal in itself, but we get so much more...

Call Waiting
Caller ID
Call Forwarding
*69
3 Way Calling
and... the most exciting new feature... voice mail.

This represents a major change in my life. I have always had an answering machine, and I have always been sort of been morally opposed to voice mail on some strange level of technological defiance.

This is also seen in my efforts to fight electronic payments. Jesus... I am the guy that loves to write checks... virtual payments? hell no! Let me write checks for one cent out all day. That would just make me soooo happy....

Technology isn't a problem for me as most of you know, but voice mail has always seemed to be some level of commitment to technology that I wasn't ready to make. I need my internet connection for checking sports scores and managing my fantasy football teams. I love buying and selling crap on Ebay. I even met someone I care about through a mutual friend of ours on the internet! Technology isn't something I should oppose fundamentally... it was just the voice mail component of technology that always intimidated me.

Regardless of my opinions, I was bodyslammed into the 21st century this week. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out why my trusty answering machine -- that has been a major part of my life for over 10 years -- wasn't working with the new system. I went online to study what our features were for our new phone service.

Voice mail was one of the features that I had to get! Machines don't register! Something about the signal not being able to be identified by the machine. CRAP! I would have to hook something up that I didn't want to! I bit the bullet and set us up with voice mail.

I then looked into it greater. Not only do we have voice mail, but we can access our voice mail in a variety of methods! At least four that I can think of.

1. When I am home, I can pick up the phone and get my voice mail.
2. When I am on the road, I can call the voice mail number from afar, type in some codes, and get my messages that way.
3. When I am in front of my email, I can listen to the message that has been forwarded to my email!
4. I can also log into my voice mail through a web browser and listen to them there!

THIS IS INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love it and muh honey can attest to the fact that I spent a good hour trying out so many different possiblities.

Hell... I must have called us about 10 times that night. I can only hear myself say ..."Test... Test... Teeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssssssssssssssstttttttttt... Buh Bye." so many times.

I still call home once in awhile... just to see the emails pop on my messenger.

My co-workers think I am nuts... they hear my voice coming out of the computer and I have a shit eating grin on my face.

I might very well be insane... but then again... would an insane person enjoy listening to himself leave fake messages on the answering machine?

I don't know...

I will say one thing though...

Verizon stinksadoodle and cable rulesadoodle.