As it is now officially the Christmas Season I find myself in a festive mood. Especially as a couple of months ago I thought I would only have one more Christmas. And okay, there are obviously no guarantees, but I am a lot more hopeful than I was. Which is wonderful because I really do love Christmas. This weekend the tree and other decorations are going up at casa az.
So I had an idea. I was thinking that some of my blog friends (that’s you!) might like to get together some time on Christmas day for a short conference call on Skype with myself, Nog and other blog friends. I did this once with zoomer, Anneke and others – there were five of us in total – and it was quite fun.
Anyhow, just throwing the idea out there. If there is anyone in particular you’d like to chat with let me know and we can organise times based on where everyone is. And if you don’t have Skype yet you can download it by clicking on the link below and choosing your country.
Download Skype
My Skype name – azahar.sevilla
casa azahar 
I’ m in!
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Interesting proposal. But with any luck I will be out of town and away from my computer on Christmas. And did you know it’s snowing on your blog?
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So it is!
I think this is a great idea.
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I’ve got Skype on the new laptop but I don’t have a headset yet.
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I’ve got one of those one-ear thingys that only cost about 9 € and it works quite well, Rain.
In terms of time zones, I think California/Vancouver is 9 hours behind me and Australia is about 9 hours ahead. This will mean some people will be still partying on Christmas Eve while others are having their morning coffee or have already finished Christmas dinner. Once I know how many people are interested then I can start organising chat date times.
Matt must have turned on the snow again! It certainly wasn’t snowing when I left here this morning. Shame it doesn’t show up so well here. You can see it better on a darker theme like my travel blog Viajando – it looks really pretty there.
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Hmm. I’ll have to check into this. I’ll get back to you; if there aren’t too many issues from the spousal side of things, I’m in. Sounds like a lot of fun.
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Raincoaster, you might not need a headset.
Recently I discovered by pure accident my laptop was fitted with a microphone, and thus able to use skype without headset. I just had this laptop 4½ years… 😳
However, dragonprincess finds the sound quality worse than when I use my headset, so there might after all be a reason to buy a such.
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Most newer laptops appear to have a mic built in, to go with the camera. Mine does. I have skype but I hate talking on the phone so you might have to convince me.
PS, love the snow, how did you do that?
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Our new computer has a microphone built in as well as a video camera. I guess we’ll be downloading Skype.
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When I used to talk to a friend in NZ and he used the microphone in his laptop I could here all sorts of whirring and clicking from the machine. But if you don’t have a headset it’s better than nothing.
Just one wee chat, Beth?
If you want it to snow, do the following:
(from 43 degrees, but it’s snowing)
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Mine has a camera and a mic, but the quality is such that the pros say NEVER use that for Skype; it has a way of magnifying all of that crap. I’ll just trot over to ReBoot or somewhere and get a wireless headset; I want one anyway, so I can do my aerobics at three in the morning on the balcony. My neighbors are gonna think I’m even more insane than I am.
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Having had experience with Skype and Stickam (a video and audio chat site http://www.stickam.com ) I know that when you have a mic not attached to a headset and use your speakers there is often an echo which can make it difficult for yourself and others to chat. Everything that comes in over your speakers goes out again over your mic and them back out your speakers, again.
The ideal is a headset. However, using headphones and a non-attached mic and turning your speakers off is fine.
I will likely be at my sister’s for the entire day but can likely get on there for a while.
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That makes sense about the echo. I wonder what mine sounds like? I’ve never actually used Skype. Guess I’d better find out.
My compu-diva.com wordpress is the independent version that is hosted on another server – doesn’t have the same control panel at all, and does have a zillion more configurable bits.
mybigfatgreekbd.wordpress.com may soon be snowing, however.
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I would love to, but I only have access to skype via my mac at work, not through my iPhone which is my only internet access outside office hours… so I’ll have to pass. Bummer.
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Nope. I’ll be shitfaced by midday.
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I’ve just discovered that Skype is available for Linux, which I must say surprises me. So I might be in. If I carry my laptop to England to visit my granddad, which I probably won’t. He has broadband internet access, but a remarkably slow computer, so using his would be rather difficult.
So … probably not.
TRiG.
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