Day 9, “Zoom”

Ant and I made the decision to invest in Zoom when shelter-in-place first took affect back in March, since the free one cut you off after 40 minutes.

I think we used it three times.

We ended up canceling it last month.

Hanging out with friends on Zoom weirdly highlighted just how socially awkward Anthony and I are, especially in groups where we may not know everyone. At least, in a physical space with lots of people and/or people we don’t know or don’t know well, we can talk to each other or find the few people we do know who are also sitting on the edges of the main group. Or, we can pay attention to the new-to-us person talking and become comfortable that way.

Not on Zoom.

Everyone can see your face All. The. Time.

It was overwhelming.

On Zoom, the boxes light up to indicate who’s talking and then they randomly reshuffle and you have to figure out where everyone is again.

On Google Hangout, the default setting is the box becomes full screen when someone moves. So that was interesting. (We did a Google Hangout for Ant’s grandma’s birthday in May. His aunts and uncle are deaf and many people were signing, the boxes were zooming around there for a minute until someone figured out how to change it so everyone’s faces could be seen.)

We quickly made the move to Roll20, a Dungeons and Dragons online platform, for both campaigns. I’m thankful that it allows the stories to keep going and it offers another virtual way to hangout with our people. There are computer glitches throughout each session, but but we will keep using it until the days of pencil and paper, maps on coffee tables, and figurines come back.

As much as it’s not my cup of tea, there’s a lot of good Zoom (and Google Hangout and Teams) are being used for. Annual meetings for work are being conducted using Zoom. My office is able to keep the clients connected to the staff via two Zoom meetings a week.

What about you guys? Are you uncomfortable with Zoom like me? Or has it helped you during these times of social distancing?

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As always follow along with the greater haiku journey on Instagram.

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Writing Process Notes:

// Poem Writing. 8:30am-8:39am. 9 mins. Dining Room table. Hobbit Hole noises.

// Blog writing: 16.5 mins. Dining Room table. Hobbit Hole noises. Words: 398.

// Overall stats. total time: 50 mins. total words: 412 (blog) + 99 poem.