So, following on from our discussion on the Welcoming New People thread and being that we haven't had a hangout for a while, I thought we could try to organise something again, and maybe carry through the plan we mentioned during the last hangout and have a theme around reading Alice In Wonderland/Through The Looking Glass? (If you have time of course, don't feel you can't participate if you don't or haven't read it, no doubt conversation will go in all different directions but I liked the idea of some kind of unifying theme - or in this case 'reading group' - to kick off a conversation )

I'm not actually sure what the best way to check who's available at what time is - does anyone have suggestions? Google docs spreadsheet? In-forum survey? Some other online tool I haven't been able to find with a quick google? I'm happy to set it up (as long as I understand how it works) but am open to suggestions for best method.

In order to give people time to have a look at the book if they can/want to, I'd suggest maybe in two weeks' time ish, so sometime between Sep 11-18 ish?

I'm on AEST, which is GMT +10.
Good times for me are any week morning except Wednesday between 6:30 and 8:30, or week evenings between 7:30 and 10:30 - at a pinch I can do afternoons Mon-Wed, from memory I think our last hangout was in the late morning or around the middle of the day my time.

There's a tool for figuring out time zones here: www.scheduleonce.com/time-zone-comparison

Those who are not going to read the book, or haven't read the book should at least take a read through the wikipedia page or something (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Adventures_in_Wonderland) so they have a general overview of the story. Maybe read a random chapter, too, or a few pages here and there.

It's free online here: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19002

Per the hangout how-to, I think that you, as organizer have the luxury of dictating certain parameters, such as date and time. Obviously you cannot be too heavy-handed, but you probably want to simply plant a flag or two and see who salutes. If that turns out not to work, then you can be more open about canvassing other options. Otherwise you will spend a bunch of effort going back and forth, and still have one or two bail at the last minute for various reasons.

That would be my suggestion, too, Rowan - use the time zone thingy to choose a time that is as civilized as possible for as many time zones as possible and then let who can participate. It's really nearly impossible to find something that works for everyone, but we can do another hangout another time that works better for Europe or the Eastern US, for instance. Better more frequent smaller hangouts at a variety of times than holding out for some perfect grand gathering.

I browsed the available versions of Alice in Wonderland available in movie form. I hadn't realized how many there were! There's a version fro 1933 with Cary Grant and big song and dance routines. There's the version I recall from my childhood, from 1972, which is slow paced and quirky. And there's the very weird version by Czech animator Jan Swankmajer, which I highly recommend if you are into surreal stop-motion animation. I went through a phase of loving his films.

Anyway, fwiw.

OK, I have a suggestion:

the time which for me is the morning of Wed 18th of September. This should be the evening of Tue 17th in most of the US, I think.

My initial suggestion is for what would be my time (GMT +10) Wed 18th 9AM, which, say for US EST would be 7pm on Tue 17th, and say for US PST would be 4pm on Tue 17th. But I'm flexible an hour or two either way, and I realise not everyone else is in the US either.

Could people who are interested let me know if they'd be free then?

Rowan.

Uuuuuh, this sounds great. I'd like to join in if allowed

I live in Japan (GMT+9) so if possible I'd appreciate the time to be a little bit later than that. If it has to be at that time tho I can wake up hehehe so don't worry too much.

Works for me (including an hour or so each way).

Sounds great, would be great to see you both and anyone else interested. What if we make it my 10AM? (AEST = GMT +10)

That would make my life easier! Thanks

Not sure if I will make the hangout but I started reading Alice and have to say it's pretty amazing. There are little nuggets on every page that could be good pointers.

Agreed, i need to read it again. It has been a while.

Okay, so what time are we looking at? There've been suggestions, but has anything been decided? I'd like to participate if I can.

I'd be interested as well. I'm in EST, but am flexible about the time.

Great! So our decision has been for Tue 17th/Wed 18th (depending on which timezone you're in), in my time (AEST which is GMT +10) 10AM Wed morning. Does that make sense?

Oh mods, would it be possible to change the title of the thread to reflect this? I don't know how/if I can do that - hangout Tue 17 Sep/Wed 18 Sep, GMT 00:00. Cheers!

I think I can make it. Have something at 8 central, but I think the time you're proposing is 7 central on the 17th.

Cool!