Web Cam

Yesterday I got a web cam!!! I came into the office yesterday entirely so I could pick up my package from the mailroom, a new Logitech QuickCam Deluxe for Notebooks. I'd been hoping for ages that Accenture would spring for it and buy me one, but after they never did, I finally just bit the bullet, particularly after I found one on Amazon for just £17. I've had one built-in for ages on my Mac, but that doesn't help me when talking to work people and using our internal IM client.

Now with my new high-tech toy, of course I immediately wanted to go out and play with it. So I e-mailed everyone at the company I knew who had a web cam, and we started having pointless conversations just so we could laugh at each other and say, "Oh my gosh, I can SEE you!" Of course, given how many of the people I work with work from home, everyone kept going on about how they didn't shower. Basically though, I think as long as the video resolution never gets too good, nobody will mind, because you can never really tell if anybody washed their hair or not anyway.

Hysterically, it doesn't really seem to matter whether you have a web cam or not, as shortly into the conversation, you generally just open a PowerPoint presentation and start looking at that, instead of the video of the person you are talking to, but still it's just a pointless fun web toy. You have no idea how much fun pointless technology really is. This has totally made my work day!!

Of course, modern technology cannot be without its hang-ups... So since the web cam came with a free headset (just a little earbud with one of those microphones on the wire), I of course used that too. Although on the downside, the earpiece isn't exactly super comfortable, so when I wasn't talking to people, I kept taking it off and unplugging the earphone jack, just letting the sound instead go through the speakers on my computer (i.e. can be heard by everyone in my office).

So then a colleague mentions Gossip Girl to me, and I remember that it's FINALLY returning on September 14th. Hurrah, I've gone for way too long without my Chuck and Blair fix!! And so then I get the brilliant idea to check the website, where they have a promo clip for the season premiere. Yay, I must watch! Except I'm in the office, so it's a no go, right? But I'm thinking, "That's okay, I have a headset now, so I'll just watch it with my headset on, so nobody can hear it, and people are very unlikely to be watching over my shoulder and seeing that I'm watching a Gossip Girl promo."

Safe in the knowledge that I can get away with a 30 second Gossip Girl break, with the sound turned up on my computer, I click "play" on the promo clip.

Note to self: MAKE SURE YOU'VE ACTUALLY PLUGGED IN THE HEADSET BEFORE YOU CLICK ON GOSSIP GIRL CLIPS.

Oh my gosh, wanted to crawl under my desk and die with embarassment, and the shrieks of Chuck, Blair, Serena, Dan, Nate, and all the rest of them reverberated throughout the office. Hit the mute button as quickly as I could, but I still had quite a few people turn around and look at me, asking, "What the heck was that?"

Obviously, this whole "working in the office" thing again is going to take some getting used to. Have to remember that when I goof off, it's much more apparent to the people around me!