Tonight was the Hanukkah Shabbat Service at Shir Hadash, and I was pressed into service as camera operator for our livestream. The service was outside because of Covid, so we couldn’t use the cameras and microphones in the sanctuary; instead, the whole thing was streamed from my iPhone (mounted, fortunately, on a tripod).

It worked surprisingly well – the audio was clear (thanks to the PA system), and the video was mostly acceptable. I had to back away fairly far to be able to fit everyone into the shot, and that meant people were in front of the camera at times. And I couldn’t resist the urge to try to zoom in or pan occasionally – luckily, the app we used (Switcher) limits the speed of the zoom, and having the phone on a tripod mount made it pretty easy to move slowly and steadily when I panned.

It was windy, so the candles in the various menorahs didn’t burn too well, but that’s probably the worst problem we had by being outside. They’d set up a tent over the chairs, and there were enough patio heaters to make it quite pleasantly warm in there.

Shabbat Shalom!

I was the Toastmaster of the Day today at the Cats; I chose “Food, Glorious Food” as my theme, and people seemed to enjoy it. We only had two speakers, but I’d warned the Table Topics Master and she had enough time to ask nine different food-related questions, ranging from “What is your favorite food?” to “What was your most disastrous cooking experience?” (the answer to that question won the “Best Table Topics” vote).

Yesterday, I mentioned that Facebook wasn’t letting me tag Diane (or Jeff, or quite a few others) on the computer, no matter what browser I used. Today, it decided to see if it could get me in trouble and offered me this new service:

I was especially impressed that there’s no way to tell them “no” – and the ad showed up at the top of the screen every time I opened the app or went to the site. Good thing I can’t keep a secret!