Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Everybody saw this coming.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

The willow is too close to the house.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Let’s finish the job.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

We still have time to mess this up!

T R E 4 5 O N

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

I was promised a recession.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Thanksgiving Balloon Juice Zooms – 10am, 2pm, 6pm, 10pm Eastern

Thanksgiving Balloon Juice Zooms – 10am, 2pm, 6pm, 10pm Eastern

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Lots of interest in Thanksgiving Zooming!

Thanksgiving Balloon Juice Zoom – Let's Figure Out Times

We’re thinking of maybe 3 or 4 Zooms at different times, scattered throughout the day and evening.

To keep this simple, all talk of times should be in Blog Time, aka Eastern Time.  Any suggestions that do not include times Eastern Time will be roundly ignored!

Lots of considerations.  East coast.  West Coast.  Late night peeps.  Not to mention our far-flung peeps.

Let the suggestions begin!

Update: Link to yesterday’s thread: Thanksgiving Balloon Juice Zoom, Anyone?

Update 2:  Tentatively landing on 10am, 2pm, 6pm and 10pm – all times Eastern time.  (aka blog time)  Please weigh in.

Update 3:  Mostly settled on 4 zoos: 10am, 2pm, 6pm and 10pm – all times Eastern time.  Chime in below with your thoughts on that.

Reader Interactions

96Comments

  2. 2.

    Suzanne

    Why not just schedule four Zooms scattered throughout the day and then people can drop in as their personal schedules allow? Like 9 am, 1 pm, 5 pm, 9 pm?

    ETA: no theme required, just come whenever.

  5. 5.

    dmsilev

    I could do mid-day Eastern (i.e. morning for me on the West coast); later on is family and then my own meal.

    Turkey breast just went into the buttermilk brine a few minutes ago. This afternoon, make the crust for the tart and then mix up the overnight sponge for the dinner rolls. And try to do some actual work…

  6. 6.

    WaterGirl

    @Suzanne: That’s what I am suggesting, 4 scattered throughout the day.  I am trying to nail down which 4 times that should be.

    edit: I wasn’t suggesting that we have one for East Coast peeps, one for West Coast peeps, etc. Just that we have folks in multiple time zones and some people will want daytime and some will want evening, etc.

  11. 11.

    RedDirtGirl

    I am very flexible. Popping into a family Zoom from 12-1. Other than that, registering microchips for a dog rescue group, which can be anytime, including Friday.

  12. 12.

    RedDirtGirl

    @Suzanne: you make a good point. Trying to work out the schedule of X number of people from all over the world could drive one to drink. Not that that’s a bad thing, but might make the scheduling even harder.

  14. 14.

    namekarB

    Ooooh. Early would be good for me. Pacific Coast here but I get up before the rest of the household so no distractions. I’m an early riser usually around O’dark 30

  16. 16.

    piratedan

    think we need one Zoom to rule them all and pass the baton as needed?  Since Zoom has lifted their time restrictions, no need to confine the room to anything other than allowing people to pop-in and out as needed, kind of like the MST3K turkey day fest, watch and visit what you can, when you can….

     

    at least in theory, with jackals at the control, we could be risking the very existence of the interwebs themselves, but maybe they shouldn’t have dressed so provocatively and given us that “come hither” smoky eye contact….

  18. 18.

    Redshift

    I approve of the plan for several scattered through the day. I will drop in to one or more, but I haven’t worked out definite enough plans with family (for food pick-up time and brief socializing) to have much of a preference. The only other thing that’s scheduled at this point is an extended family zoom at 11am EST, but that could change.

    If it’s true that Zoom has removed time limits for the day, we could also just leave a meeting up all day and night instead of starting and stopping, and people could drop in whenever (taking their cues from people who have posted definite times.)

  19. 19.

    WaterGirl

    Looks like Hawaii is just a little more West Coast than CA, so that shouldn’t be an issue.

    Amir, if you are here, if it’s 9am blog time (Eastern) what time is it there?  Unless you go to bed early, would something like that work?

  20. 20.

    WaterGirl

    @Redshift:

    I’m thinking we need set times.

    Someone is going to have to oversee things, so I think discrete chunks of time, from 1.5 – 2 hours is better.  That way all the zooms don’t need to be set up and watched over by the same person.

    If that turns out not to work all that great, then we can change things up if we do this again for Christmas and/or Inauguration Day.

  21. 21.

    Pete Downunder

    6 or 7 pm EST Thursday would be our Friday at 9 or 10 am Friday AEST (or for Baud 2300 or 0000 GMT) which would work for me down under. Hope it works out.

  25. 25.

    Pete Downunder

    Amir is probably asleep – it’s 2:15 am now in KL (4:15 am here in Brisbane), so I suspect later in the evening is better for him, but he can let you know when he gets up.

  29. 29.

    Ruckus

    @WaterGirl:
    Early does mean a lot different to a lot of people.

    Early for me is 9 am my time, just like late is way different. Late to me is after 2 am. Always  had a bit different clock than most. BTW I start work at 8 am. And yes, that’s early. It’s not that I can’t do this, it’s just not natural.

    And others are the exact opposite. Oh well, to each as they roll.

  32. 32.

    zhena gogolia

    @WaterGirl:

    Yes, discrete chunks of time would work better.

    I’ll wait and see what you all decide. My only definite no-gos are 3-4 PM and after 7 PM.

  35. 35.

    Pete Downunder

    @WaterGirl: So do Australians. It’s crazy here. On the east coast, Tasmania, Melbourne  and Sydney are on daylight savings now, but Brisbane is not – we stay on standard time all year. In the middle of the country South Australia (Adelaide) is on daylight time but is a 30 minute time zone so right now even though it is west of us it is 30 minutes ahead! Northern Territory stays on standard time but is also a 30 minute zone so it’s 1/2 hour behind us. The west (Perth) stays on standard time and is two hours back. I think alcohol was involved when they worked this out.

  39. 39.

    feebog

    My suggestion for times:

    10:00 a.m. (EST)

    2:00 p.m.

    6:00 p.m.

    10:00 p.m.

    That should make it easy for everyone, and leaves plenty of time to extend any session from an hour and a half to two or more hours.

  41. 41.

    H.E.Wolf

    Thanks for orchestrating this! I’d be happy to drop in whenever (in order to accommodate various as-yet-unscheduled phone calls with family), so no worries about time zone.

  45. 45.

    WaterGirl

    @feebog: I’m beginning to think 10 is better than 9, too.

    If it’s 10am blog/Eastern time, that’s 7am in CA.  Folks are more likely to be up at 7 than at 6, I would think.

    Same for 10pm, it’s not too late for the Eastern time night owls, but still late enough for “after dinner” for a lot of people.

    If we set those, then 2 and 6 are also the most logical so they all start 4 hours apart.

  46. 46.

    geg6

    Anything from 6pm ET will work for me.  We’ll be settled in for the evening by then.  Fat and happy.

  47. 47.

    Other MJS

    Introvert and (mostly) lurker here — no time constraints, just a thumbs-up. Set times sound wise.

  49. 49.

    WaterGirl

    I am tentatively landing on 10am, 2pm, 6pm and 10pm – all times Eastern time.  (aka blog time)  

    Does that work?  Is there anyone that doesn’t work for?

  50. 50.

    Rob

    Any time would work for this Eastern Time lurker. My wife and I will be at home (unless we’re outdoors watching birds) all day and dinner looks to be a simple, non-gallinaceous affair.

  55. 55.

    Rob

    @WaterGirl: Those all work for me, though the 6 pm one I would be late to as the In Lieu Of Fun videocast that we watch usually extends some minutes beyond 6.

  56. 56.

    Amir Khalid

    @raven:

    Maradona was one of the most gifted football players ever; some consider him GOAT. But if he had “scored” his Hand of God goal in the VAR era instead of in 1986, it would have been a red card for him and no goal.

  58. 58.

    WaterGirl

    @debbie:  In order to have as many people on the zoom as want to attend, someone is likely going to have to use a business or educational account.

    It can’t just be a free-for-all, and someone will have to watch over each zoom.

    This way the zooms don’t all have to be hosted by the same person, who is then tied to the zoom for 12-16 hours.

    There’s no practical way to do that if we start early and run it for 12-16 hours.

    Folks will still have 6-8 hours where they can join and leave as needed.

  60. 60.

    narya

    @WaterGirl: Those work for me. I’m likely to drop in on more than one, at this point. Planning on doing oven-stuff tomorrow (roast squash, roast potatoes and rutabagas, make some muffins and cookies) which doesn’t require all that much attention once it’s prepped and ready to go.

  61. 61.

    CaseyL

    2:00 PM Blog Time is 11:00 AM Casey Time – works great.

    10:00 PM – is a maybe; depends on how long I stay at the neighbors’ house.

    2:00 definitely better.

  62. 62.

    WaterGirl

    Okay, we are mostly settled on 4 zooms:  10am, 2pm, 6pm and 10pm – all times Eastern time.  

    Still open for discussion – you have about an hour to chime in below with your thoughts.

  63. 63.

    Another Scott

    @WaterGirl: Thanks for doing this!

    I hope that there will be simultaneous OpenThreads on the blog as well for those of us who like typing and reading better than actual real-time interactions with fellow humans.  ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  65. 65.

    Nyrobbin

    @WaterGirl: definitely interested. I’ll be alone except for a 3pm zoom call with the family. So I’d be good with 6pm and/or 10am. How will this be done? Supplying the zoom links on the blog?

  68. 68.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    No, that doesn’t work for me, I need them to be 7-1/2 minutes before or after the hour. Just to be difficult.

    Who wants a pancake, sweet and piping hot?

    Good little Gracie looks up and says, “I’ll take the one on top.”

    Who else wants a pancake, fresh off the griddle?

    Terrible Theresa smiles and says, “I’ll take the one in the middle.”

    • Shel Silverstein, “Pancake?”

    Seriously, that sounds great. Have family zooms and turkey-eating mid-day, but I might try to drop in on the 10 am and the 10 pm. Are you going to publish the password here and are you prepared to squash trolls? I understand zoom-bombing is getting to be more and more of a problem even on passworded meetings.

  74. 74.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Will probably pop in and out throughout the day. I expect to have four separate phone conversations with cousin and siblings, and at some point I’ll need to pay attention to my own stab at a solitary Thanksgiving dinner, but I love the idea of a kind of Jackal Open House.

    Thank you so much for organising this! You guys, and I say this quite sincerely, mean almost as much to me as my close relatives do.

  75. 75.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Amir Khalid:

    @otmar:

    I’m very pumped about the prospective international participation! Looking forward to the possibility of (virtually) meeting you both, as well as any other members of our vicious little pack who may check in tomorrow.

  77. 77.

    feebog

    @WaterGirl:

    If you need any help setting up the meetings or moderating, let me know.  I conduct numerous meetings throughout the month for our Neighborhood Council.  We get 50 to 60 people at our board meetings, so a lot of moving parts.

  78. 78.

    WaterGirl

    @feebog: Yes!  Imm and I have been talking, and it looks like he can do one of them.  So I will definitely need others who can set up the zoom and do any moderating that needs to be done.

    Can you send me an email message so you and I can work out some details?

  79. 79.

    mali muso

    This is awesome!  Hoping I can show up for the late night one.  Kiddo will be in bed and hubby watching Netflix, so that should work.

  81. 81.

    JaySinWA

    When I run Zoom meetings I try and assign a co-host, It helps to have a second pair of eyes, or more to catch things happening in chat or seeing people show up in the waiting room.

    I am hosting a short family Zoom at 7 eastern. I could help host if you need it.

  86. 86.

    RedDirtGirl

    Apologies if this has been addressed above, but I’m thinking of the fact that our zoom accounts are in our IRL names, and not our nyms. How will we know one another?

  89. 89.

    J R in WV

    @WaterGirl: 

    . I am SO good with numbers in every other instance, but I struggle with timezones.

    Me too. I can’t tell you how many times I F’ed up EPA or other state DEP phone meetings over my career. I did a good job otherwise, and had help from co-workers, so all is well that ended well, but still, embarrassing to me. I would count the wrong way and show up an hour late, etc…

    I’ll join at least a couple of those times. 10 am is too early, but any of the others will work for me.

  90. 90.

    J R in WV

    @Pete Downunder:

    I think alcohol was involved when they worked this out.

    Pete, it’s Australia — we ALL know alcohol was involved with everything down there!!!

    . . .     ;~)

  91. 91.

    JaySinWA

    @NotMax: The people hosting can turn off the rename feature in settings. One thing you can do is sign out and not sign in when joining a meeting. You can set your name then IIRC. But most hosts don’t do that unless it is important. Probably teachers and convention presenters who need to prevent I P Freely from joining a serious event.

  92. 92.

    Sloane Ranger

    I’m going to try to be there for the 10am Eastern meeting. That’s 3pm GMT I think.

    I assume someone will be posting a link to to it here? Can’t wait to meet up face to face .

  93. 93.

    banditqueen

    I would like to blend into the virtual wall for a zoom-meet–there won’t be a dull moment :)

  95. 95.

    mvr

    FWIW, Hosting from a large commercial account like my University gives us, you can designate co-hosts from those at the meeting without having to have decided whom it will be ahead of time. The for pay but cheaper accounts let you switch the host but then you lose your host status yourself. I’ll bet the more expensive plans allow you to designate a co-host and I would also bet you could do that just based on who is there in the meeting so it would not really require pre-planning,
    I’d volunteer my work account but I work at a State University and hence for the state and this is too close to politics to be good for that.

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