Adventures of a tribal dancer...

With webcams sold out all over the place, dance instructors are struggling to know what to use to teach online. While using your phone or iPad is tempting, it limits your options for sound and controls, and you aren't able to harness the real power of Zoom: seeing your students and offering feedback.

Some have looked into DSLR cameras as options, because so many YouTube videos about online streaming have focused on that as a solution. What this fails to consider is that most web streamers are sitting still for their work. In fact they are sitting still, often with headsets, in brightly lit semi-pro to pro filming studio-like environments, directional mics and equipment which only need to work within a limited radius and limited motion. Dancers? That ain't us.

In short, that ecosystem was made for primarily for gaming streamers who sit still most of the time, not for dancing instructors who move around a lot. So their focus and intent is very different, and the lowest end DSLR with clean HDMI you're gonna get with decent autofocus options for movement is going to run you in the neighborhood of $400-$500 to start.

Since most high quality webcams you're going to manage to get your hands on are similarly spec'd (namely created for sitting still in an well-lit office environment), and are being sold for 2-3X more than their usual market value, you're going to be spending $150-$200 for a webcam which won't even suit your needs to begin with. Don't do it! Time to spend a little bit more, and get something more appropriate for bodies in motion.

I started looking up low-cost set ups for streamers-in-motion and found a wealth of information by looking to (of all places), church streamers. They have preachers on stage, music, perhaps even liturgical dancers. All kinds of motion and sound to contend with in their streams. So it was a much better scenario to consider when comparing it to dance.

Hands down, the number one recommended camcorder that came up in this space was the Canon Vixia HF R800. Right now they sell for about $250. For $330 I was able to get a 64 Gig capture card, spare battery, a small tripod, a carrying case, cleaning kit, card reader and some other small items in a bundle on Amazon. I also purchased a wide angle lens for about $25 to better capture me in the space I was shooting in, so I could have the camera closer and still catch my arms at full extension.

Just like the DSLR set up, you have to run it through an HDMI video capture card. These can be spendy, and the low end ones can effect your video quality. I was able to find one that cost about $80 that delivered good frame rates, from HornetTek.

So far it's a good setup, though I admit the focus sometimes struggles with the mirror behind me. Still working on that.

The reason we are in this mess is partly because Inslee RESPONDED TO THE EMERGENCY BY IMMEDIATELY RELEASING EMERGENCY FUNDS to unemployed folks. He waived the waiting week so people could get their money faster. And the scammers saw this and preyed on that generosity (generosity is seen as a weakness by morally corrupt humans) and here we are.

The computer systems we have in place have only been in place since 2017. And guess what? They suck. I have been reading about them and it turns out the database queries are opaque and proprietary. So going in and fixing a lot of the issues that, say, a typical SQL database might experience is not so easily done. They have been running into issues where errors that were corrected re-introduced themselves when the database refreshed (anyone who had to go through ID verification twice know what I am talking about--that we computer issues, not human issues). The computer system is so broken it is off the charts, and it is not fixable on the fly, is a huge issue at hand.

All this on top of an insane number of legitimate unemployment applicants, and entirely new categories of unemployment applicants with taxonomical complications the system and the employees of ESD did not yet know how to deal with, and it's a perfect damn storm. This wasn't them not trying to deal with a crisis, this is a CRISIS ON TOP OF A CRISIS. Do I think it could be handled better? Yes, but primarily in the realm of communication and training of their staff in this regard.

Do you know how many claims were filed? Over 1 million. At its peak there were 1.6 million claims going through the system. For more complicated cases in adjudication, they require research to be done.

There are actually charts you can check out in their weekly updates if you want to see exactly how many claims they are processing at a given time, including how many they cleared each week. Keep in mind this is total number of claims by the department, and does not parse out just the adjudication; which, remember, does NOT just include people dealing with ID fraud. It can be Suzy Homemaker who underreported her earnings last year from a part time job, requiring they cross-reference her employment records with her reported hours and earnings.

It can be Johhny Sludge, an rig worker who worked across several state lines and has a confusing set of employers from the previous year, requiring they pick apart some of his employment records to figure out if he should really be collecting unemployment in WA or if he should be collecting from one of the other states' companies he worked for, or both.

Adjudicators are not just working on ID/Fraud cases, that just mucked up and ALREADY overrun department during a crisis where record numbers of workers went on unemployment, including entire classes of workers who were never eligible before (like gig workers and self-employed, which also took up a ton of adjudicators' time, by the way, in checking records!)

https://esd.wa.gov/newsroom/initial-unemployment-insurance-claims-for-week-of-june-14-20-2020

Also, there were only 200 adjudicators when this all began. They only increased the work force fairly recently. They were working 5 days a week when this began, and they upped their hours to working as much as 7 days a week to try and work this out.

I know we all like to think we know what is going on behind the scenes and fuck them and their failed system, but do you think they really are not doing everything they can to fix this? Do you think they want this all to fail, for everyone to be angry and suffering? The people working there are humans, like us. Workers, like us. This is terrible for them, too (and yes there are always going to be some little shit employees who don't give a damn, and I am SO SORRY for those of you who had to deal with them. I hope they get fired with prejudice, and I hope you get someone better next time!!)

And before I get accused of these things: no, I don't work for ESD. No I am not friends with anyone there, a relative of anyone there, paid to say any of this, blah blah blah. I am a small business owner, these thoughts are all my own, and based on research I have done entirely on my own here on this group, via articles written both by professional media and hobbyists in fields attached to various industries connected to the work involved.

For instance, I found articles and blogs dated back to 2014 and 2017, written about the last two times the Washington State Unemployment systems back end and websites were updated. I was curious what the complaints were then, what changed, who was reporting on it, and how those changes may be in play now. I like understanding things. That's why I have all this information: I like knowledge, and I hate all the blame-game bullshit I see all the time where people are just angry for the sake of being angry without thinking about the WHY. Understanding why helps me find empathy and balance in the world. So there ya go. Not and ESD shill.