Tuesday, February 02, 2010

A Silly Specification Experiment

As an antidote to the February blahs, here's a fun little writing experiment I hope you all might help me out with.

Step 1: Watch the extremely goofy 10-second video below.



Step 2:
Without looking at any of the comments on this post, write a sentence describing what happens in the video. You may rewatch the video if you like.

Step 3: Post your own sentence in the comments.

The hypothesis and rationale for this experiment will be given at a near-future date; in the meantime, rest assured there are no wrong answers here. And thank you to all who participate!

74 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Tired velociraptor dumps her boyfriend.

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  3. Woman, animated by tap on head from right hand, blows kiss with left, then turns into a vampire. (I didn't read Lill's comment before I wrote that, really!)

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  4. Beautiful, sexy editor lady throws a kiss to the crowds, who turn on her and scare the bigeezus out of her until she gets very cranky and sends them all away with her evil monster face.

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  5. A lovely damsel demonstrates the result of mixing chaste sentimentality and animalistic urges with a touch of auto white balance.

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  6. Right hand tells Cheryl's brain that she needs more social media, followed by the left hand telling Cheryl's about-to-be-confused brain that she has spent too much time in an imaginary online world and that she might want to kiss her facebook friends good-bye, whereupon conflict ensues with rising tension in a perfect woman-against-self inner-turmoil-filled plot!

    PS Loved the bared teeth and the sound effects. Fun.

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  7. Despite your strongest efforts to resist, the spirit of Michael Jackson has possessed you and for the next 24 hours you must dance the Thriller Dance, no matter what song is playing, even if there is no song playing! Dance, growl and go!

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  8. A girl starts to transform into a glamorous 1940s movie star, but ends up turning into a wild cat instead.

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  9. Girl stares at camera, motionless. Setting her hand on the back of her head, she turns it, tips it back, blows a kiss to no one, and turns into a monster. "Graahhl!"

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  10. She blinks and rests her palm on the back of her head; turning away, she blows a kiss before whipping back toward me with a frightening hiss.

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  11. Woman kisses good-bye to all that.

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  12. Ms. Klein reacts after reading Lisa Yee's latest manuscript.

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  13. It's a dull February day, you gaze sleepily at your partner.

    'Bzzzz' a mosquito buzzes behind your head and then you feel the prickling of a bite. Your hand immediately goes to rub the aching spot.

    Suddenly you feel light headed, leaning back at your hand for support. You are changing you can feel it.

    'Eat something' a distant voice calls to you.

    'Excellent idea' you reply blowing a kiss to the voice.

    You turn back to your partner hissing.

    Bon appetite!

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  14. Cheryl is trying to think of a writing idea, finally comes up with one, blows a kiss to the off-camera music that provided the idea, and then demonstrates the demonic personality of the main character in the story she just thought of.

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  15. Cheryl Klein plays a double role in Beauty and the Beast.

    ?!

    I'm really curious now!

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  16. Cheryl is pushing back the urge, but finally decides to throw caution to the wind and become a vampire.

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  17. Cheryl Klein blinks. She places a hand on her head and strikes a pose. Then she goes zombie.

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  19. Girl blinks twice, deliberately places hand on head, blows a kiss, and suddenly snarls toward the camera.

    Interesting...

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  20. Mission accepted...

    Cheryl Klein, young lady about town, acts up for the camera. Cheryl, Cheryl, Cheryl; you have been reading and watching far too many scarey books and movies!


    ... this tape will self-destruct in 10 seconds!

    Char

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  21. A woman is approached by her lover and turns to kiss him, only to discover he did not brush his teeth after the Wiener Schnitzel.

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  22. A female gladiator dons her helmet, acknowledges her emperor with a kiss, then attacks.

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  23. An audition tape for MTV's newest season of The Real World to be set in Forks, WA.

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  24. After blinking twice, the girl places her right hand on the right side of her head, turns to the left, leans back, blows a kiss with her left hand, and lunges toward the camera with a clawed hand and a viscious snarl.

    Can't wait to find out what this is all about. =)

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  25. She shows two versions of "vamp". First a pose reminiscent of 1920's films, and a kiss. Second, the vampire vamp.

    Why?

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  27. She put a hand to her head, turned to blow him a kiss, and then hissed at me as if to ward me away.

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  28. You stare, blink, vogue, and become a werewolf.

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  29. A bird warrior giving a farewell kiss, and the hand with extended fingers could be audience or tail feathers.

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  30. A female actress tries to convince Tim Burton that she can be in any of his movies.

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  31. The robot is forced to release it's thoughts and explodes with emotion.

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  32. She ponders. She decides. She kisses relevance, meaning, artistry, and character development goodbye. Give me poor prose, VAMPIRES and a hefty percentage!!

    Either that, or she eats us all for lunch. :)

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  33. How Cheryl Klein would have responded if Scholastic had passed on Harry Potter.

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  34. Once a lovely lady, Arden sat staring into the void of an unfinished novel when suddenly a bump on her head gives her enough energy to blow one final kiss to kith and kin before she becomes immersed with the 'lifeless ones' and hisses a welcome to WRITERS BLOCK!!!!


    Aunt Carol

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  35. Cheryl demonstrates the importance of having fresh breath before kissing.

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  36. Wrong decision to kiss that stupid boy...

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  38. Cheryl Klein herein confirms that she has the most delightfully deranged sense of February fun in all of kid-litdom.

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  39. She blinked twice, and then in her best Betty Grable pin-up pose, blew a kiss, hissed, and waved.

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  40. You are trying to master one of the dance sequences from the classic "Thriller" video.

    ~Elizabeth

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  41. Something's amiss.
    You fake a sweet kiss.
    Door slams and you hiss.
    Life's such an abyss.

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  42. A young woman with a migraine self-medicates.

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  44. She stares at me with smoldering eyes, then turns her head, puts a slender, long-fingered hand against her long, blonde tresses, blows a kiss to the wind, and -- VAM -- Vampire.

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  45. She blinks her eyes in an abbreviated morse code signifying the start of her automated ultimate kiss-off, which fellow editors aspire to duplicate, and fearful writers dread worse than a blank page.

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  46. Pondering some lovely drama, ah perchance to kill.

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  48. Bored editor responds to one-too-many query letter that attempts to appeal to her goodness as a benevolent publication-happening-maker instead of offering a decent manuscript.

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  49. BTW, any news of Leaf and Tree, AKA Second Sight?
    Eagerly waiting ...

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  50. Formerly nice editor kisses her kind, empathetic ways goodbye and becomes mean, alien-dragon editor.

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  51. And with a kiss her inner demon is unleashed.

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  52. auntie cheryl is teasing her best friend's baby boy--and he giggles hysterically at her antics.

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  53. Blinks twice, puts right hand on head and vogues.

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  54. A cannibal nerd has a Wuthering Heights attack.

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  56. Princess turns into a (what? a vampire?)
    Scary ending -- I jumped back from the screen.
    -wendieO

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  57. (WHAT FUN!)
    Two decades pass with eye blinks.
    Handsome young prince kisses spinster princess with promised magical results. Ut-oh. Naughty prince lied.
    -- Sandy Carlson

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  58. The right hand represents a suitor who takes cheryl by the head and kisses her. Cheryl is offended and morphs into her vampire state.

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  59. a response in haiku:

    blink blink hand on head
    turn left blow a kiss red flash
    dinosaur attack

    jmh

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  60. "This video currently not available. Please try again later"

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  61. Blink, blink, nudge, yank, kiss
    and hooyah HI !

    topangamaria

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  62. Video was unavailable...is it on YouTube as well???

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  63. Shellshocked editor finally comes to pieces after the industry shuts down, leaving her alone to edit, copy-edit, print, market, and carve through truckloads of slush.

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  64. One woman play in which the actor silently summarizes the entire "Twilight" series.

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  65. Woman strokes her glossy straight hair (curly-haired woman watches with envy). Woman blows a kiss at real or imagined lover (curly-haired woman watches intrigued). Woman gets frog in her throat and attempts to cough it up (curly-haired woman thinks, Eew, hope I don't catch what she's got).

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  66. Kissed by an evil red spirit, the kitten hisses, transforming into Cat Vampire.

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  67. After blinking twice, Cheryl puts her hand behind her head and turns to look to the right, before blowing a kiss and abruptly turning forward to snarl at the camera.

    And clearly my love for observational science is coming through, because goodness, it never occurred to me to be clever like everyone else!

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  68. My first response was the literal option. The second response is my poor attempt at cleverness after reading everyone else's genius.

    :) Lindsey S

    Literal Option: You blinked twice, placed your right hand on the back of your head, turned your head to the left with your neck arched backwards, blew an air kiss with your right hand, and the turned to the screen to hiss with the fingers on your right hand splayed out at the same time, and the clip ends with your face scrunched up for your goofy hiss while the fingers on your right hand remain splayed in the air.

    Other Option: Cheryl Klein pretends to be a cheerleader from Bring It On and decides after blowing a kiss that she would be better off as a hissing Catwoman.

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  69. So 800 bucks was a lot to pay for a used DV camera but look what I can do with it.

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  70. A young lady kisses garlic breath goodbye.

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  71. Woman invents new cure for hiccups! Blink! Tap! Turn! Kiss! AAAAHHH!

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  72. Puts right hand on hand, turns to left, blows a kiss, and then turns back to front and makes vampire scary face!

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  73. The lanky alien sang, "Take this job and shove it I ain't working here no more!"

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