...Even an evening chat to your Mum can end in internet porn.
When you're dealing with six different time zones for work, most of them nearly opposite to your own normal business hours, inevitably someone needs an immediate answer about something at an odd hour. It means that from time to time the phone will ring at 7am, 10pm, 11pm. The major difference between my job and most of my friends can probably be summarized by the following: last Thursday night, I got a call an hour after I went to bed and had already been asleep. Most people who wake you up would apologize and tell you they'll speak to you first thing in the morning. In my case, they must have thought 'well you're awake now so I may as well ask you some questions' because I was told "oh, well I'll make it quick then." Twenty-six minutes later the call finally ended. Twenty-six minutes is an eternity when you've been woken up and just want to shut your eyes again.
Anyway, I digress. Most of my calls oversea are done via Skype on the computer which lets us IM, have regular voice conversations or video conferences and the cell phone is reserved for calling you should you venture out and aren't online. We use Skype everyday everywhere because it's free and cuts down on international calling expenses. So as a result my laptop is pretty much on 24-7, getting a brief rest whilst I drive to my office and home again each day. My mother has discovered that Skype is a great way for her to keep in touch with my brother and I since were both so far away from her these days and so now we can chat to our folks via Skype when we call home as well. Win-win.
Now here comes the really pertinent part. I hate video conferencing. I don't really want other people to see me roll my eyes, grimace, doodle and such while we're talking so I don't use my web cam. I didn't actually want a web cam truth be told but my mother bought my brother and I web cams because she doesn't just want to speak to us, she wants to see us. This is her mother's way of gauging how well or unwell we may be. "You look tired, are you getting enough rest?" "Your eyes look puffy, how are your allergies?" I know it's very sweet really. And it took me ages to actually hook the thing up and use it and because it makes her so happy, I agree to use this silly camera when I speak to my mother so we can see each other while we chat.
Tonight I'm tired and I'm chatting to my Mum, whilst propped up on my bed with my laptop. I've had dinner and I've got my drink, and I'm pretty relaxed as we chat away. So. I get another Skype call coming in and it's a work call from California. Their office is working on something for me so I decide to take the call in case its urgent. I switch over to accept their call completely forgetting about the stupid bloody camera being turned on. And these normally very chatty and easy going people have this shared look that says "Oh, we've interrupted you in a private moment, look at the time out there on the East coast, we're terribly sorry. We just wanted to tell you this....ok, bye!" And then it hits me that people have just seen me on video which in and of itself is unusual and added to that they see me with a drink in my hand, looking rather relaxed with my dress shirt open perhaps more than usual [I'd been cooking dinner and it was warm, okay?] reclining against a pillow in what is obviously a bed room.... yeeeaaahhhhh.
So now these very nice people I have to work with are, I'm quite certain, under the impression that I was just getting under way with a pornographic web cam party or some such similar thing.
There is to be no doubt that this is obviously and unequivocally my mother's fault and she ought not be allowed on the internet any more. Nothing is innocent on the internet these days, even an evening chat with your own mum.
[Editor's note: Okay, she can play on the internet but I'll never live this down at work.]
