Yak yak yak…
Sometimes I’m a really talkative person and sometimes I’m a really shy person. I’ve always tended to be more of a listener than a talker, and other times I’ll get a bit stroppy if I don’t think people are listening to me. I may not talk much, but when I do talk, I like to feel that I’m being listened to.
When talking on IM I have a bad habit of just replying to people with a single emoticon. This has gained me the nickname of “emoticonaely” (thanks Aisling), and my overuse of emoticons instead of words has become somewhat of an “in joke” amongst the people in my buddy list.
When communicating via text message (which I don’t do nearly often enough) I never ever use “text talk”. Text talk makes me really angry. I’ve never had a problem fitting a complete message (complete with proper spelling and grammar) so I really don’t know why people “need 2 rsrt 2 txt tlk”. It’s not that quicker, and it’ll lead to much confusion on my part.
One thing I’ve always wanted to do more is talk to people on the computer. My laptop has a built-in microphone, and a built-in camera, and it would be a shame to waste those features in my laptop. However, I’ve never been able to work the microphone properly and the webcam stopped working a few weeks ago.
Cue Maren stepping in! After a bit of pansying about trying to get a windows computer working (because her Mac OS hates my Vista) she finally helped me to set up a remote desktop connection. It was very bizarre and a little unnerving to see someone else using my laptop. But, with her help I managed to get the webcam working.
Unfortunately, even Maren was stumped when it came to getting my mic working. So, I finally tried what people normally refuse to do - I went back to my laptop case and hunted out everything that came with the laptop when I first got it. I found a disc titled “utilities”, stuck it in the computer, and lo and behold it contained all the drivers needed for my microphone.
That means I can now have video calls with my contacts on msn, and I can also finally use skype! However, I’ve found that my microphone doesn’t really pick up my voice unless I lean in really close to it. Anyone know anything about upping the volume when it’s already set to 100%?
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You sound just like me Rachael. I go through very talkative stages, and then get very introverted and un-talkative, it’s quite bizarre. I also have a friend who does the single emoticon thing, it drives me up the wall sometimes, because it makes me think they just can’t be arsed to talk, so I just close the IM window and get on with something else :P.
I really think that it’s impossible to judge someone’s character and tone over IM, so I agree that using things like Skype and web cam is a great way to get over that faceless aspect of IM. I’ll have to try and get Skype working on my Mac so we can use that, seeing as msn on my mac is appalling and won’t let me use my mic/webcam.
I’ve always felt more of the ‘talker’ in my relationships. But I find that unless I ‘talk’ they don’t ‘talk’. Must study further.
I mean, you gotta love the convenience of IM and text chats but having no real facial expressions really cause misinterpretations of meaning sometimes. My text messages are complete too! 
And is your microphone an in-built one or external? My in-built mic on my laptop is really bad. I haven’t tried my webcam mic but I use the mic on my headset, which is really the best.
I’m more of a listener than a talker as well — which is why it always stumps me when people say I’m a great conversationalist!
I hate text talk too — but maybe I obsess a little *too* much with it… I’ve been known to text massive paragraphs to my best friends.
Hahah, sometimes I do that too. Replying to IMs with a single emoticon, I mean. Sometimes it confuses people, but it’s funny.
Try to see if you have a program called mixer (run -> mixer) and if you do, see how high the volume is set for “mic”.
I’ll be sure to pester you from now on, on Skype. Bwahaha!
I could talk for England. Probably why our conversations work so well!
Maren’s reply, lol.
There’s usualy a ‘boost’ slider for microphones in the control panel, though where exactly it lives depends on your drivers.
Also, you sound a lot like me three years ago ( http://mattwilcox.net/archive/entry/id/409/ ).
Listening, by the way, rocks. It’s what too many people don’t do (I’m just the same as you, mostly quiet and listening, every now and then super confident). I am almost never on MSN because I don’t like being disturbed by random chit chat. A habit I’m trying to break by loading it up more often.
Hope you have fun with your video-chats 
Yeah I am much more of a listener than a talker. I generally listen and think about things through much more than talk which I guess can be seen to be quite stand-offish although it’s not meant that way.
Text talk and predictive text are things that bug the hell out of me. I have been known to do the occasional 2 or U but that is really about it just because it takes me too much brain power to decode it all.
Three cheers for Maren
I am technologically challenged, and have never used Skype. 
I don’t really talk much though, I mainly listen most of the time.
Aisling said:
I don’t like talking to you on IM anymore, because I always feel neglected.
And I use text talk sometimes, because my friends do, and my phone has a crappy keypad. Good job getting your mic and cam working again, though. That’s always nice to have everything functioning properly. I’m not sure how to boost your mic volume, and I’ve never had sound issues before, probably because I naturally project my voice whenever I’m talking on the phone, with mics, whatever.