1st ATPo Zoom Get-Together

[cjlasky7]

Why didn't we do this before?

Granted, it's not as much fun as traveling to Chicago or Toronto (or hosting you guys in NYC), but we can do this a lot more often so we can all have some F2F time. Haven't seen some of you guys in 15 years!

Thanks to dlgood for taking point and acting as ringmaster. (Can we do a Zoom meeting for the first Mets/Nationals game?)

Great seeing the British contingent: Sue, londonkds and atpotch.

Good to see Masq at home and on the mend.

Shadowkat, good to hear your voice, but I want you on screen next time!

Beth, John, Vicky, sheri and Jane, you looked great!

Let's gather some of our other ATPo stray kittens for the next meeting. I want a solid virtual core group together when the Buffy reboot (eventually) airs...

Comments

[shadowkat]

I think Dawn was on as well...Superplin. Not sure who Beth and Sue are though? But that explains the British woman, who I knew wasn't Rah.

Did Alan (Dochawk) join? Or Andrew Jorgensen - he said he was coming. But I didn't hear him. OMN was trying.

I couldn't tell who was who - I did make out Vicky, London, TCH, Dlgood, and your voices.

No, I don't do video on Zoom (I hate it), see my post as to why. I couldn't do it this round - phone wouldn't access it. So had an excuse. Also lovely to be chatting from Greenwood Cemetery.

Note - I'm the only one DW, none of the others you mentioned are on DW. If it weren't for me - you wouldn't know about it, since the rest have kind of abandoned DW for FB and Twitter.

[dlgood]

1. "Beth" is Elizabeth Rambo. Not sure what name she used on Voy Board

2. Susan posted on Voy under the name "Ninerva" - she's a nurse from Stoke-on-Trent and particularly close with Jane.

3. I do check Dreamwitdh, but very rarely. Usually in kind of a targeted way. Like I'll probably remember to look a bit more frequently for a week or two, and then drift away.

[shadowkat]

1. Ah - I know Elizabeth well on FB and I knew her as Elizabeth Rambo on another board. Just never as Beth.

2. "Ninerva" - oh, yes, I remember that handle.

3. I haven't seen you post in about two years...so thought you were gone.
Granted, I could have missed a few posts. I know ann1962 posts on DW occasionally. But the rest are pretty much gone.

[cactuswatcher]

Who is John?

[dlgood]

John Ward. I can't remember if he used a psuedonym on Voy. He may have been at the NY gathering, but did not travel west to any of the others.

[atpo_onm]

John Ward was fidhle. Had to look up the guest list from the NY ATPo meetup. I remember the name, but couldn't recall his ATPo online handle.

[cjlasky7]

I didn't mean to pressure you to do video. I just missed seeing you.

I'm hoping this format will be an umbrella to scooo up the ATPo posters who have split off into seoarate platforms. (Would be nice to get people like rahael in the mix...)

[shadowkat]

I'm hoping this format will be an umbrella to scooo up the ATPo posters who have split off into seoarate platforms. (Would be nice to get people like rahael in the mix...)

You won't get Rahael. We called out to her on FB but she ignored us - she's working hard and not really in contact with any ATPOer's outside of FB nor into meetups. ;-) And not that many FB people are in direct contact with her. We called out to her three times on FB (I did, Vicky did, and someone else did)- she ignored us. LOL!

Same with ponygirl, aliera, Rob, Scroll (her name was on the same email that was sent to you), the Darby's, D'H, (we called out to all of them, and Andrew and Aliera/Anjeya even responded and discussed the Zoom chat with us) ...and Arethusa is long gone. They all knew about it and chose not to do it.

Alan (Dochawk) and Rufus both put down the wrong time - they are on the west coast and had it at 5PM PDT (we had to put it at 5PM EDT time for the Brits, who can't do 5PM PDT).

You were lucky to get me. I don't tend to like group chats. I get a bit lost in them. ;-)

I just missed seeing you.

Ahhh..I miss seeing you too. And our occasional movie meetups.

This is not easy. I miss hanging out with people occasionally. Having a nice in person chat. Somehow the Super's wife and the occasional stranger in the lobby of my building with masks on don't quite feel the same.

[atpo_onm]

I'd be happy to join in, but after doing a bit of Zoom research-- and finding mostly confusing things-- I decided to hold off this time. I'd prefer to not meet up without video, but there's no camera on my PC and I don't own-- nor intend to own-- a smartphone.

When I get a chance, I'll consult my IT guy (fellow I used to work with who's very computer savvy, both built and repaired them) to see if I could link my digital camera up via its USB port. Adding a microphone should be simple.

Meanwhile, hey, ya'all are welcome to post here occasionally at DW. Costs nada, and I'm guessing you could simply paste from Facebook to cut down on typing if you wish.

Did anyone by chance record the session? (audio or audio/video)?

[shadowkat]

I joined with a phone line - I didn't do it with Zoom, and there was no video capability. All I did was have the phone dial into one of the numbers listed and I was in, kind of similar to how I do work conference calls via webinar.

[cjlasky7]

Unfortunately, as far as I know, nobody recorded the session....

There was talk about doing this once a month or so, although nothing definite. Regardless, you should be notified in plenty of time to iron out technical difficulties.

[shadowkat]

For security reasons, it's best not to record. Also, we don't own the platform, Sheri was hosting off of a site through her work. Nancy K and Sheri were the ones who had hosting platforms.

[dlgood]

This was a lot of fun. I'm one of our louder folks, but Sheri (and Mamcu earlier) were the ones who truly hosted. Sheri has an account, which allowed us to stay on longer than the base time. (We were on for almost 2 hours)

And, yes, CDL - I'll be very happy to talk baseball with you. Pandemic and trash football team aside, this has been a very good last two years as a DC are sports fan. The Capitals finally didn't choke in the playoffs and my baseball team had a "staving off elimination until you win" postseason for the ages. So I've got a grace period of a few years where I can just enjoy watching them without the feeling of dread.

[cjlasky7]

SO you were the "East Coast Coordinator," not the host.

I watched the first Mets/Yankees preseason game with my son. Cardboard cutout "fans" behind home plate. Home run ball landing in the cheap seats and nobody running to get it.

Weeeeeeird.

[dlgood]

Yeah - there was a fanless game between the Orioles and the White Sox after the Baltimore Cops murdered Freddy Gerey. That was odd too... The players said that from the field, they could hear everything the broadcast teams were saying.

The lone positive was that the game went by a lot faster. The players didn't dawdle as much, and the stadium staff wasn't holding up the games with in-between-inning promos.

Now granted, I understand that a lot of those promos enhance the fan experience. I mean, I like the Racing Presidents as much as any DC sports fan. But they're also not essential to the game. And I don't know that it makes sense running them out there without fans.

[cactuswatcher]

I'm in the same boat with ONM. The idea of just calling in felt like lurking, and I didn't feel like that was appropriate. I looked into getting a camera with a microphone, but they were all sold out of anything I could afford in my area. It sounds silly but I'd really like to get them locally and support my local stores. Tucson is one of the places stores get closed down first when the chain is having trouble nationally. And the stores we have don't tend to carry everything. Even in a much bigger, more stable marketplace like Phoenix, I noticed it didn't take a lot of purchasing locally to get stores to carry more items on the same vein I was interested in.

[dlgood]

Without the camera/video, it's basically like being on a conference call. Which, I can;t speak to your comfort level, but it's something I've had to do with work for awhile. (Work disables out laptop cameras by default) It's not as good as seeing and being seen, but it's okay.

There's also a chat window - though I think only Masq, Sheri and I were using that

[shadowkat]

It's how I did it - no video, and just as a conference call on my phone, I didn't even have the chat box or the names, like I usually do on my lap-top. It is confusing, I had struggle to figure out who was talking, and I lost the thread of the conversation several times.

It's almost easier if you can see who is talking and see names. So if we do it again, I'll probably use the lap-top and not the cell phone.

But it is possible to use a phone line - it's just a little confusing. We do Staff Meetings through work via phone line - but those are facilitated, and everyone puts themselves on moot, unless they are speaking, and calls out their name to let people know who they are. My boss has a military background and runs it like he would a military briefing. LOL!

[cjlasky7]

Whatever you land on, cw, we'd love to have you next time.