The masked webinarian
My mom has had a real estate license since we lived in the city, so 30+ years. She's never used it, but she keeps it up and renews it every two years. She was supposed to take a continuing education class for it, but it got shifted to being a webinar. This...could get interesting. My mother can't figure out her TV remote half the time.
Yesterday, since I was home, we looked over some of what she needed to do. This started by her asking me to print out the slideshow the host was going to use, saying it was 35 pages. Okay, well, forward me the link; maybe I could combine the slides into something that's only a few pages. Oh, no--I was thinking 35 pages meant 35 slides. There were actually six slides per page. Uh, no, I am not printing this out. You do not need a physical copy of this. Save it to your computer, and you can pull it up when the host gets to that part. So now I am trying to show her how she can have more than one window open at a time, and how to resize the windows so she can see both of them, and she is thoroughly confused by what I am telling her, even though I am saying things like "left" and "right." I am also trying to explain things without getting too close to her, as well, which isn't easy. Oy, it was special. And then there was the email from the educational company as well, saying you could either view the webinar through the website, or through the application. I highly doubted she had the app, and if she could view it through the website, that would likely be easier on all of us. So now she's reading the instructions and sees the one for the website, and directly below that is the one for the app, and she starts saying, "Open the app..." Mom. It's either/or, not both. *This* part at the top is if you're viewing it through the website. *That* part underneath it is if you're using the app. They are different instructions. It is not all one thing.
...Yeah, we are *so* not going shopping on Saturday.
The webinar was to start at 9 AM, with a check-in of sorts at 8:30. It was to go until 3:30. Mom settled herself in the dining room, and I hunkered down in the living room with a newspaper, socially distant but close enough to listen in and have her call me over as necessary. She did request that I put a mask on, which I did, and I wore it for much of the day, especially when I was downstairs. I've started coughing. It's not constant, but I'll feel the need to do so every so often. Anyway, she wanted me to wear the mask since she would call me over to look at her screen, especially when she first started. Having never done a webinar myself, it was pretty interesting. The webpage was broken into 3 sections. I'd say the left and right sections were 20-25% of the page each, with the center section being 50-60%. The right-hand side had some general information, while the left side, especially the bottom half, had the comment section where the participants could send questions or answer the ones asked by the host. Occasionally he'd ask everyone to type something so he'd know they were still actively there. When mom first joined, she typed "Good Morning Everyone," then was mad/thought something was wrong because nobody answered. Turns out there was just one person in the room, the host, who likely was still setting things up at the time. Eventually people answered and all was well. The host appeared in a small video screen above the live chat, and the center portion was the slideshow. See, I figured he'd have a way to do the slideshow for everyone. The guy would say that he's done webinars before, but there were always still people in the classroom, too, so this was the first time he was the only one there, basically talking to himself. I didn't always pay attention, but occasionally I caught a few things, like the part where he was telling one person she'd illegally rented a place to someone since she didn't disclose to the renter that it was a broker-owned residence. Nice.
It was sort of like I was her ride to the webinar, waiting out in the hallway for her to finish up; that was the equivalent of what I was doing. She was also fooling around with her phone before it started, and I went, uh, put your phone away! What does the second slide say? Yep, right at the top, no cell phones. She shooed me when I said that, heh. Yes, well, nothing says *I* can't have my phone on me, and Laura and I ended up texting off and on for much of the day. I started it, sending her a picture of me in my sexy, sexy mask. Laura eventually would ask about my symptoms and got kind of worried, hoping if I do have the C-19 that it's the Tom Hanks version, i.e., mild. I replied, the kind that's cured by Vegemite? Alas, all the Aussies replying to Tom Hanks' post about eating Vegemite said that for best results, use hot toast, lots of butter, and the tiniest smear of Vegemite. (They were all up in arms because he'd slathered it on like it was peanut butter--they were like, that will kill you!) It's still Lent, so no toast for me. Laura replied and said something about, they've canceled mass, did they maybe cancel Lent? I told her, I'm hardcore. She said, we're all doing hardcore Lent this year; we've given up leaving the house!
...High five, Laura. High five. Well, okay, without actually using your hands.
Yesterday, since I was home, we looked over some of what she needed to do. This started by her asking me to print out the slideshow the host was going to use, saying it was 35 pages. Okay, well, forward me the link; maybe I could combine the slides into something that's only a few pages. Oh, no--I was thinking 35 pages meant 35 slides. There were actually six slides per page. Uh, no, I am not printing this out. You do not need a physical copy of this. Save it to your computer, and you can pull it up when the host gets to that part. So now I am trying to show her how she can have more than one window open at a time, and how to resize the windows so she can see both of them, and she is thoroughly confused by what I am telling her, even though I am saying things like "left" and "right." I am also trying to explain things without getting too close to her, as well, which isn't easy. Oy, it was special. And then there was the email from the educational company as well, saying you could either view the webinar through the website, or through the application. I highly doubted she had the app, and if she could view it through the website, that would likely be easier on all of us. So now she's reading the instructions and sees the one for the website, and directly below that is the one for the app, and she starts saying, "Open the app..." Mom. It's either/or, not both. *This* part at the top is if you're viewing it through the website. *That* part underneath it is if you're using the app. They are different instructions. It is not all one thing.
...Yeah, we are *so* not going shopping on Saturday.
The webinar was to start at 9 AM, with a check-in of sorts at 8:30. It was to go until 3:30. Mom settled herself in the dining room, and I hunkered down in the living room with a newspaper, socially distant but close enough to listen in and have her call me over as necessary. She did request that I put a mask on, which I did, and I wore it for much of the day, especially when I was downstairs. I've started coughing. It's not constant, but I'll feel the need to do so every so often. Anyway, she wanted me to wear the mask since she would call me over to look at her screen, especially when she first started. Having never done a webinar myself, it was pretty interesting. The webpage was broken into 3 sections. I'd say the left and right sections were 20-25% of the page each, with the center section being 50-60%. The right-hand side had some general information, while the left side, especially the bottom half, had the comment section where the participants could send questions or answer the ones asked by the host. Occasionally he'd ask everyone to type something so he'd know they were still actively there. When mom first joined, she typed "Good Morning Everyone," then was mad/thought something was wrong because nobody answered. Turns out there was just one person in the room, the host, who likely was still setting things up at the time. Eventually people answered and all was well. The host appeared in a small video screen above the live chat, and the center portion was the slideshow. See, I figured he'd have a way to do the slideshow for everyone. The guy would say that he's done webinars before, but there were always still people in the classroom, too, so this was the first time he was the only one there, basically talking to himself. I didn't always pay attention, but occasionally I caught a few things, like the part where he was telling one person she'd illegally rented a place to someone since she didn't disclose to the renter that it was a broker-owned residence. Nice.
It was sort of like I was her ride to the webinar, waiting out in the hallway for her to finish up; that was the equivalent of what I was doing. She was also fooling around with her phone before it started, and I went, uh, put your phone away! What does the second slide say? Yep, right at the top, no cell phones. She shooed me when I said that, heh. Yes, well, nothing says *I* can't have my phone on me, and Laura and I ended up texting off and on for much of the day. I started it, sending her a picture of me in my sexy, sexy mask. Laura eventually would ask about my symptoms and got kind of worried, hoping if I do have the C-19 that it's the Tom Hanks version, i.e., mild. I replied, the kind that's cured by Vegemite? Alas, all the Aussies replying to Tom Hanks' post about eating Vegemite said that for best results, use hot toast, lots of butter, and the tiniest smear of Vegemite. (They were all up in arms because he'd slathered it on like it was peanut butter--they were like, that will kill you!) It's still Lent, so no toast for me. Laura replied and said something about, they've canceled mass, did they maybe cancel Lent? I told her, I'm hardcore. She said, we're all doing hardcore Lent this year; we've given up leaving the house!
...High five, Laura. High five. Well, okay, without actually using your hands.