It's pretty cute how John thinks I'm an early adopter, given that I actually started blogging less than a month before Clancy wondered whether blogging had jumped the shark, and that I only--just moments ago--hung up from my first skype conversation. And also it was E who skyped me rather than the other way around; and at the conversation's end, I 'hung up.' As in my land phone. At least it was cordless.
I know this has been pointed out many times, but it seems to always be the case that with new voice technologies the earliest conversations in large part tend to be about the technologies themselves. Were we an exception? Oh no, no we weren't.
Here are some snippets, beginning a couple moments after E emailed me to say she would skype me if I emailed her right back.
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[ring!]
Me: Oh, my god. Are you skyping me?
E: no. I'm in my office. I'll call you right back.
[ring]
Me: Oh, my god. Are you skyping me?
E: Yep. How do I sound?
Me: You sound great--much better than you did on your cell phone earlier-- but I can also hear myself. I think my voice is bouncing off your speakers (speakers).
E: OK, let me hook up some headphones. [rustle rustle] How's this?
Me: Let me see, I'm talking and talking and talking. Yep, totally gone; totally better.
E: Oh. my god. You know Chad and I just sit and watch television with our laptops and say whatever. [Chad is currently on a fancy humanities fellowship at Emory in Atlanta, far away from E at her fancy new job in Rochester]
[long relevant conversation about Spencer's writing technology class today which was great and about his blog getting cited on IHE--not just on Around the Web, folks, but in an article, as an authoritah--w00t!]
Then a lull
Me, picturing E with both a telephone headset and a pair of headphones on over the headset: So, what are you talking into? Do you use like a cell phone headset or something?
E: No. I'm just talking. [long pause] Like, into air.
Me: Oh my god.
Hey, there's a book called Speaking into the Air. We're reading it in our reading group. I don't think it's about skype, though.
So, do we know how this works?
E: I have no idea. Oh, sorry!
Me: what?
E: I just burned a cd and I thought the finished noise might be loud.
Me: I didn't hear anything.
[lots of jokes about how all her computer noises in all probability sound themselves into my phone: "Ouch! Are you surfing the internet inside my ear? Get off there!" etc. And then I do actually hear static. ]
Me: Wait, is that static?
E: Yeah, it sounds like static.
Me: How can there be static? Did somebody walk by with a microwave?
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That's right. Early adopter. As Borat would say, "I'm an Early AdopterNOT."
[E also sent me the must see Borat movie trailer linked above. Thanks E! Bock! Bock!]
