Zoom, Zoom, and more Zoom

LA ghost town

LA with no people, from a drone.

With everyone working from home, schooling from home, celebrating from home, and in some cases

mourning from home, Zoom has become a commonly heard word.  Zoom this Zoom that, I typically find myself attending a minimum of 3 Zoom meetings each workday and I think my record is 10 Zoom meetings in one day, but who’s counting because I’ve completely lost track! My mom was supposed to go to Austin, TX for a wedding, but that was changed and was also on Zoom with quite a few folks in virtual attendance.

Last week my aunt Rachel passed away and there was a memorial over the weekend.  (FYI, we don’t know if she had COVID, she was in Williamstown Commons but was not tested as she didn’t meet the criteria.) My mom and I attended her service via Duo, another video app similar to Zoom but made by Google. My brother was nice enough to help out while wearing a mask and social distancing by holding his cellphone for us to see.  We couldn’t hear what the priest was saying as he was so far away, but that was OK.  This was still the safest way for everyone to attend.  We are planning a full memorial for everyone in the family at a later date.

There’s lots of concern for privacy with Zoom, and rightfully so.  Zoom is super easy to use, and that’s it’s main weakness while at the same time being it’s greatest strength.  Here’s an article from the New York Times that explains pretty well.   Some students have reached out to me and the school with concerns ghost me!around using Zoom, but it’s just as safe as Facebook or Instagram or any of those other “free” things  Speaking of those, there’s are some ways to have fun with Zoom.  For example, you can use fun filters like on Instagram or Snapchat by installing this fun program described here on CNET.  I tried it and it works, but it can be a resource hog on your system.

Saturday Night Live had a great skit about and filmed entirely within Zoom from the SNL At Home show this past weekend hosted by Tom Hanks – a COVID survivor.  It’s out there for free on YouTube and here it is for you to enjoy! (Tom Hanks isn’t in the skit sadly, I could have used a cameo from David S Pumpkins!)

There’s many options for staying connected while we all practice social distancing and stay at home.  Now if only the weather would improve so I could fly some drones!

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