Just like there’s never a cop when you need one…

…I can’t find a conversation to eavesdrop on. The same day I used my camera in Annenberg (Friday), I attempted to listen to 2 different phone calls on the train into Temple. Since the two subjects were too far ahead of me, I moved up a few seats until I was next to them. I made myself look busy checking out my camera while I recorded with the lens cap on. But if I couldn’t understand them, the audio surely wouldn’t pick it up.

So on Tuesday on my train ride home, the guy in front of me answered his phone, and I tried to catch his conversation. Since the train was packed, I couldn’t very well dip into my backpack and get out any recording equipment, so I used the highlighter I was using for the article I was reading and jotted down the few words I could hear.

The conversation seemed to be about plans for Saturday and then finished up with a discussion about job searching. I missed a few comments because it was very noisy, and the guy was (surprisingly) not talking too loudly. Here's my highlighted words:
This phone hasn't stopped ringing
what's up?
wanna do something on Saturday?
50 inch LCD
come on over
I'll keep my eyes open
check out jobs.com
call you later
Very oddly, I felt paranoid that the riders to either side of me were looking at me jotting down my comments, and that they would think I was stalking the guy on the phone. Here’s one case that if I had any equipment, instead of being invisible, I would feel like there was a spotlight on me. The only way I could “get away with it” would be if I had started the trip with my camera already out, and just started recording with the lens cap on, not looking into the camera at all.