We have a BJ zoom scheduled for 7-9 pm blog time (Eastern) on Monday, Feb 15. Doors open at 6:30.
Send me an email message if you want to attend – I will reply with the zoom link and other info.
Has everybody who wants to attend sent an email RSVP?
Open thread.
Update on Monday morning: Zoom link sent out at 10:00 am Eastern this morning. Please let me know if you didn’t receive the link.
Another Scott
Have fun, everyone!
In other OpenThread news – Nancy LeTourneau on the 1910 Slocum, TX Massacre, Or why we need white history month.
Cheers,
Scott.
Redshift
Have fun, everyone! I’ve enjoyed other BJ meetups, but I had a zoom conference this weekend (for fun, the Planetary Society’s PlanetFest!) and I’m zoomed out.
zhena gogolia
Well, I seem to have scheduled a first shot for March 5, but they say you have to bring a QR code with you. I do not own a smartphone. How am I supposed to bring a QR code with me?
Just Chuck
@zhena gogolia:
Print it?
zhena gogolia
@Just Chuck:
Will that work? I guess it does with boarding passes.
I hate this world we live in. I want to call a phone number (on a landline) and talk to a person and make an appointment and say have a nice day.
Just Chuck
@zhena gogolia: Sure, it’s just a 2D barcode.
M31
one more hearty FUCK YOU to Donald Trump and his lickspittle enablers
I would like to get back to my regularly scheduled programming of Biden, Harris, & friends kicking ass and taking names and governing the fucking country because DOING SHIT RIGHT is important
thanks for coming to my TED talk
zhena gogolia
@Just Chuck:
Thanks.
zhena gogolia
@M31:
I’ll subscribe to your newsletter.
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
This, times a kajillion.
Gin & Tonic
@zhena gogolia:
People cost more than machines.
WaterGirl
Last night and today, I keep thinking of the house impeachment managers. I am so proud of all of them; they did such a great job. There is always a letdown after a big push like that. I’m sure they have all been consumed with this for the past month.
I feel particularly bad for Jamie Raskin, who is surely in for another round of grief over his son, now that he will have more time on his hands. Life is hard, and he deserves nothing but good things.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl:
Yes.
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
Amen to every word. Whenever I see Jamie Raskin, I think of that book When Bad Things Happen to Good People, by a rabbi whose name I forget who also lost his adult son*. I imagine Mr. Raskin is familiar with it.
ETA: Rabbi Harold Kushner. AFAIK, no relation to Jarvanka.
*ETA 2: His son wasn’t an adult, he was in his early teens and died of progeria (the premature aging disease). I couldn’t recall, got curious, and looked it up.
Brachiator
@NotMax:
@zhena gogolia
I want to call a phone number (on a landline) and talk to a person and make an appointment
I want efficiency. I don’t know why Apple Google FaceBook Whoever resources have not been tapped.
Local resources here in Southern California have broken down.
I tried recently to make a vaccine appointment, but the system collapsed and then I tried to get through again only to be told no appointments were available.
But here is the good part of what they were trying to do.
You log onto a site and instead of having to enter tons of address information, you click a single button to let the site use your location.
The site then searches for every pharmacy and vaccine site near you and gives you a range of locations and appointment times.
In theory, then you pick a location and a site and sign up.
This is in theory more efficient than having to talk to a person who will then use a computer to do the same damn search.
If done well, it is cheaper, faster, more efficient and lets humans be deployed to do other stuff, like help give a vaccine jab.
And yeah, some people want to make a phone call. But even a phone is technology. And you can do this from a cellphone.
ETA: Also everyone complaining about wanting to call someone has a computer. What’s the problem?
Jeffro
@M31:
mind reader! ;)
NotMax
@Gin & Tonic
Told the story previously but seems to fit in. In earlier days of computers –
One grandmother, born in the 19th century, had to go to the Brazilian embassy to get a visa prior to a trip there. Clerk took all the information and duly entered it. Upon which a message came back that a visa could not be issued because she “has not been born yet.”
The system allowed entry of only the last two digits of the birth year, assuming it a given the first two digits would be 19.
Ended up having to make a second visit set for a day when the embassy could arrange for someone who had retired and knew how to handle the paperwork by hand could be called in.
Jeffro
WaterGirl, I sent an email to you for the Zoom (at least I think I did!) Please RSVP me when you have a chance – thanks!
Jeffro
@Redshift: wait…this Planetary?
Raoul Paste
@M31: Best TED talk ever
NotMax
@Brachiator
At least here in Hawaii one can dial 211 and talk to a real person. It’s a set-up co-run by the state Health Department and United Way.
WaterGirl
@Jeffro: I have your email RSVP but I don’t have the link ready to send out yet. Is that all you need to know?
gwangung
@Jeffro: Are you suggesting our blog lord as Elijah Snow?
Jeffro
@WaterGirl: yup, that’s it – thank you! Just wanted to be sure I hadn’t missed anything. =)
Jeffro
@gwangung: er…it’s been a year or two since I last re-read the series, but wasn’t Snow pretty sharp, dapper, and powerful?
Phylllis
Fixing to email you now Water Girl. Missed the New Year’s day meeting due to poor clock management.
WaterGirl
@Phylllis: I once missed a good friend’s wedding because I thought it was the following weekend
edit: got your email.
Brachiator
@WaterGirl:
Here! Here! Absolutely.
Well said.
I did not know about this and only recently saw something about it. So, so sad.
gwangung
@Jeffro: But a hell of a curmudgeon.
Brachiator
@NotMax:
I don’t want to talk to a real person. I wanted to get a vaccine appointment as soon as possible, as efficiently as possible.
Where I live there has been a slow down in availability of the vaccine. There are also at least 4 numbers that you can call.
The shit should be freaking more effectively centralized.
NotMax
Because some may want to know beforehand, will the Zoom meeting be recorded?
NotMax
@Brachiator
Arranging appointments is one of the primary tasks the real person is trained to do.
SiubhanDuinne
Apropos of absolutely nothing: Why do so many people seem to think hearing aids are somehow shameful or embarrassing? Glasses come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, colours. Why not make designer hearing aids? I’ve never understood this.
#BringBackEarTrumpets
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
Only when you are speaking, the better to capture your every verbal morsel for posterity.
:-)
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Oh sure, pile on the pressure. As if having to don pants isn’t enough.
:)
WaterGirl
@NotMax: That and other info will be in the email message that includes the link. Most of the previous zooms have been recorded.
Brachiator
@SiubhanDuinne:
That’s a damn good question. I have a couple of friends who are really weirdly vain about increasing loss of hearing.
Maybe part of it is that some eyesight issues happen early in life, while hearing loss often happens later, one of the many infirmities that afflict us in our older years.
I have worn glasses since I was maybe 10 years old.
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Too small for the designer logo or signature to adequately display.
;)
Phylllis
@WaterGirl: Ha. I have a really bad habit of looking at items that are a week or so away on the calendar, but because they are in the following month, dismissing them as ‘oh that’s next month’. Which apparently in my mind is some amorphous date in the future that will never arrive.
zhena gogolia
@SiubhanDuinne:
The greatest ear trumpet I’ve seen is in the movie Topsy Turvy, used by W. S. Gilbert’s mother.
Brachiator
@NotMax:
Some people want comfort or hand holding. I get that.
But whether direct computer/smart phone access or “dial a person,” the system in Los Angeles County is balky and unreliable.
And we are dealing with a spotty or insufficient supply and distribution of vaccine.
I hope that things are better where you are.
Gvg
@SiubhanDuinne: I don’t know, but based on my mother, they aren’t a total solution. Hers were expensive even with insurance, apparently don’t fit well, and so she is afraid she will lose them and hardly ever wears them except for company of church meetings. She gets her feelings hurt if you yell to be heard. (After 3 failed attempts) because you sound angry with her. I am not looking forward to having the need.
satby
@Brachiator: I think it’s also because hearing aids have only recently, and at great expense, become good at filtering ambient noise for just conversation or just the TV. Deaf clients and friends find them nerve-jangly and uncomfortable. One student with a cochlear implant said the noise from heating/cooling systems was very distracting. I know young deaf people who consider the silence a refuge.
NotMax
@Brachiator
Hawaii is still getting through those age 75 and up, not exactly the most tech savvy slice of the populace.
SiubhanDuinne
@zhena gogolia:
One of my favourite movies, but it’s been a while since I’ve watched it. Shall have to revisit it, and look for Mamma Gilbert’s ear trumpet.
Brachiator
@WaterGirl:
I will be hip deep in tax work, but I hope that there is a session and that people have fun.
Maybe some folks still need to decompress after the impeachment trial.
zhena gogolia
@SiubhanDuinne: It was on YouTube a little while ago, maybe it’s still there. But you probably own it, I don’t. I think it’s one of the greatest movies ever made.
SiubhanDuinne
@zhena gogolia:
I do own it, yes. But at the moment it’s in storage, so inaccessible right now. I’ll check YouTube, thanks.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@SiubhanDuinne: I don’t like glasses either, I wear contact lens when I go out.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax:
I believe that’s known as “tactical gear”*.
h/t to Steep.
Brachiator
@NotMax:
For some seniors, even having to make a phone appointment might be a challenge.
I have argued in various threads that health authorities need to send teams out to get to some people. I have also seen local communities attempt to reach out to seniors using various methods. This can be a complicated issue, especially when it comes to actually getting the vaccine to seniors. Fortunately, some community agencies have been good at doing this, particularly, I think, Long Beach, California.
Also, for example, many seniors could not get to Dodger Stadium when that was a main vaccination site. They could not drive themselves or have someone take them.
Getting the vaccine to some seniors and other vulnerable people, especially those with disabilities is a very big deal.
Heck, I do not drive currently. But some pharmacies are slated to offer the vaccine and I use Google maps to detail routes to possible sites not within walking distance.
NotMax
@SiubhanSuinne – @zhena gogolia
An unexpected Mikado, of a more sinister vein.
:)
Gin & Tonic
Boy, does this make me feel good.
LuciaMia
Whenever I, on an endless loop with some customer service number, I laugh at the repeated, “Your call is important to us…”.
If our calls were so important, youd hire more people.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax:
Pretty damn good!
Ruckus
@NotMax:
That’s not snark, it’s likely a lot truer than we’d like to think.
zhena gogolia
@Gin & Tonic:
Lovely!
Ruckus
@LuciaMia:
Your call is important. After all you might buy something else.
Servicing the product the customer bought, not so much.
Brachiator
@LuciaMia:
It is sometimes difficult to staff for peak call periods. And it can be expensive. When I worked to help implement a customer service operation for a big newspaper, a decision early on was that hold times be as brief as possible during peak times, and non-existent during non-peak times.
And instead of hold music or an annoying banter, I would love it if the message said, “You know the procedure, Hold the fuck on until we get to you!” Maybe a Samuel L Jackson voice.
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
Wow! One of the best performances of “A More Humane Mikado” I’ve ever heard! Had no idea Christopher Lee could sing like that! Will have to track down that entire villainous album.
SiubhanDuinne
@Gin & Tonic:
Barack and Michelle exchanged heartwarming VDay messages too. Barack’s had a fabulous new photo of the family. (Malia and Sasha are just stunning — as anyone who’s seen their parents would have predicted.)
zhena gogolia
@SiubhanDuinne:
Beautiful — thanks!
SiubhanDuinne
@zhena gogolia:
Found T-T on YouTube, thanks. Will watch it tomorrow or Tuesday — have a date with Die Walküre on the Met’s streaming service tonight, and that will eat up several hours.
tom
@NotMax:
That is wonderful! I had no idea Christopher Lee could sing. He’s clearly having a great time.
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Try to avoid internally hearing Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire.”
:)
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
B-b-but then how will Brünhilde stay safe from non-heroes?
Alison Rose
WaterGirl, if you’re still in the thread, I emailed but haven’t heard back.
WaterGirl
@Alison Rose: I have not sent the zoom link to anyone yet – no worries, you are on the list.
Alison Rose
@WaterGirl: Got it, thanks!
phdesmond
i sent an email as well, for the record.
WaterGirl
@phdesmond: I got it. You’re on the list to get the link.
karen marie
@Gin & Tonic: Then why is there often a surcharge for using a machine?
Dave
What’s the email link I would like to attend
WaterGirl
Zoom links have been sent to everyone who has already sent an RSVP by email.
It’s not too late to sign up, though, so send an email if you want to attend.