Stunt pineapple for work zoom meetings?

[Stronger76]

Light-hearted...
I'm just about to sign in to my very first online meeting. I'm in my kitchen/diner, dressed (well, not in pjs) and hair brushed. Took a look at myself via zoom to check if I was clear on the screen. Whirlwind clear-up of the kitchen followed, along with strategic placing of fruit bowl with pineapple...

Tell me what you've added/removed from your background before video calls!

Heaved a tottering mountain of magazines off a table and, at the last minute, put a couple of the smartest ones back in view.

Use the virtual backgrounds -

Do the meeting from your basement red room.

I will have to buy a stunt pineapple 🍍🍍🍍

Now I want a stunt pineapple

generally we have tastefully decorated backgrounds on the grounds we have been using zoom for the last year so have already set up our areas before this. However one colleague inexplicably ends up in the shed regularly (she claims it's nice out there....we dont believe her and reckon she keeps being evicted by her dog) it always encourages excitement when she is let back into the house and we discuss which room she is in and the ways and wherefore of where she is placed.

Actually it's because her and her MIL and DH are all working at home and space themselves out on different shifts etc. She is also more than happy to discuss this (especially the day of drama that involved her ddog flying past the screen ...actually flying, she claims it was a large jump , we claim she owns superdog) poor colleague has become the focus of our background business.

She loves it though

Also been appalled by how many people look down into their laptop camera, thus accentuating their double chin(s).

A colleague told me that a very senior colleague did a Zoom meeting with her from his study and it was a tip, piles of paper and books everywhere and a random shirt hanging up in the background. She said to me "I knew I always liked him"

People are weird about the backgrounds thing. We did a zoom quiz with 3 other families - everyone on tablets or laptops in their kitchens/relaxed on sofas together - all apart from one family who were all on dining chairs in front of their bookcase in their study . I’ve been to their house several times, they have sofas and a dining table they could have put a laptop on but a coffee table at an odd angle and a badly lit bookcase back drop was definitely a winner for a kids quiz

This morning Dh was in a meeting on Zoom - his background life is very calm compared to his colleagues - no young children burping or running in, no noise, no cats licking their balls in the background

So I decided to appear behind him with the dog lifted up above his head a la Lion King

Dh didn't notice, colleagues utterly pissing themselves

The dog ^^

My cowshed (kitchen) caused some giggles from colleagues when it was used as a background last week 😂

We all put on the funny backgrounds today in our Teams meetings. Tbh, we’ve not really got much to say at the moment so it always ends up in a chin wag for an hour (much like in the office) with a quiz on Fridays 😂

Not intending to change background in team meeting. But I will be wearing a viking helmet. And not mentioning it. For next week’s meeting I am planning on a large ginger beard (from kids dressing up box)

Oh, EFF!

We are going to have a Church team meeting by Zoom very soon - I hadn't even thought about the background.

@MrsAJCrowley

Aww, they're really sweet! I love cows (on the other side of a stout fence!)

if you are using zoom, you can set a background up from a jpg. I am recently retired, and we did not use zoom for work, but have used it recently with adult DC, who had a background of a tropical beach.

I was a bit intrigued by this, and have downloaded some pics from stately homes, to use as background next time.

@Pickles89 I agree! The ones in my kitchen are a lot less rowdy than the ones out in our yard! 😂

Added a candle! Removed all the crap

We use Teams for work calls and I've been resisting turning on my camera due to messy house but last week I discovered the virtual backgrounds and how to add your own background to the library and it's been a revelation! One day I'm sitting in front of floor to ceiling windows that look out onto a landscaped garden, another day I could be in front of artistically set up book shelves. Might be a beach this week, who knows .

Following the politician/journalist/specialist home interviews currently on tv, surely the must have is a huge bookcase? I’ve really enjoyed nosying at everyones reading choices.

Why aren't you all using virtual backgrounds?!

In zoom at least - I don't know about meetings.

We've got football personalities, beautiful landscapes, sweets, animals...

Also been appalled by how many people look down into their laptop camera, thus accentuating their double chin(s).

Oooh! Thanks for the warning!

I will be wearing a viking helmet. And not mentioning it

I like this idea VERY MUCH! This is the first Church team meeting we have had since lockdown. I only know the priest - we have recently been joined to another two parishes and I have briefly met, but not had a chance to get to know, the other Readers. I want to start as I mean to go on with them, and a Viking helmet (or similar) sounds ideal. (I used to have a WWII gas mask somewhere, but it may impede conversation.)

I love cows (on the other side of a stout fence!)

I also love cows on the other side of a fence. I am terrified of cows because they are big and have pointy things on them. I crossed a field once (right of way, I was being agriculturally appropriate), and to my horror found myself being milled around by what I can only describe as "teenage cows". They weren't properly BIG, but they weren't dear little calves either.

They obviously found me fascinating and kept nuzzling me. They surrounded me and lumbered after me the entire length of the field. They all had dear little topknots (which I found rather charming, I must admit) and some of them had little horn buds. I felt very much at a disadvantage. (I really needed that Viking helmet.)

And Laurie - your dog is gorgeous

@Bercows red room like Hancock? shudders at thought - that man has as much sex appeal as a soggy lettuce

I am half-wondering whether to deliberately be that person that you can only see the top of their head, from the bridge of the nose up. There is always one - why shouldn't it be me?