Last Night Was Great...

... except for the technical difficulties that eventually made my ear ache.

And not everyone had the best time...

And I guess I might as well say what was going on...

Last night, I did my first Skype conference call. It took a bit of planning and arranging, but it connected three countries. It was myself here in the US, Sam Milazzo in Maroubra, Australia, and Al Cook in Glasgow, Scotland. This also meant three very different time zones were to be considered. For me, it was 5PM on Sunday night. For Al, it was 11PM, also Sunday night. And for Sam, it was 10AM on Monday morning! (But when Daylight Savings Time begins, that's going to mess up that system...)

I did record the conference call, but out of respect to Al and Sam, none of it will be online without their full permission. (We did record Al reading a line from The Patchwork Girl of Oz that will be used in an upcoming video.) The call lasted about forty-eight minutes. Al took his leave at about 33 minutes into the call.

We did discuss a few Ozzy things, and Sam brought up an interesting point about Jack Pumpkinhead's house. In The Road to Oz, Baum describes six steps leading up to the house. In Neill's frontispiece illustration of the house, there are only five. In The Patchwork Girl of Oz, Baum describes only three, and Neill didn't draw the house again.

Al replied that when you're writing a series of books, sometimes you forget little details like that, and these inconsistencies help make the books a bit more endearing. I just commented that maybe the house was sinking into the ground.

What I wonder about Jack's house (but didn't mention) is the stovepipe. Why does Jack Pumpkinhead need a stove? Wouldn't something to make the place cooler be better suited to his purposes, for keeping the pumpkins fresher?

Al was having some technical difficulties that resulted in an echo and delayed audio, which was one reason why he left early. The lad may have also been feeling poorly.

Sam and I talked a bit more, and wound up debating on the correct pronunciation of "Kalidah." *Sigh.* We agreed that there is no definite pronunciation. Ah, well...

EDIT: Looking over the recording, which saved into a split stereo track with me on one track and Sam and Al on the other, they sound great, I sound awful. Just plain awful. Okay, not that bad, I am audible. But there's background noise that I didn't get filtered out from my microphone.