Wednesday, May 11, 2011

She Speaks! - a Vlog Meme

Around 4am this morning (my time) I was catching up on my favorite bloggers, as I often do in the wee hours. Carolyn, one of my favorite bloggers who is located in Perth, Australia, posted a vlog (video log) for a meme.

This particular meme is intended to capture dialectical variations of the English language throughout the world. I have always lived within an hours drive of San Francisco, so here's my version.

While I am comfortable taking and posting pictures (usually after doing minimal editing, such as cropping, resizing, or lightening), videos are a whole 'nuther matter. It took several attempts for me to complete the video questionnaire on my Mac using PhotoBooth. I'm not sure why it kept ending the recording, but I finally gave up trying to get it all in one go and am posting three separate short videos.

The following shows what this meme is supposed to include. First are the words to repeat:

Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught

And then these questions are answered:

What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?
What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
What do you call gym shoes?
What do you say to address a group of people?
What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
What do you call your grandparents?
What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
What is the thing you change the TV channel with?

And here are my results. Note how my transition glasses change. They get darker as I'm outside and slowly lighten back inside.

Part 1 was captured outside, because I wanted to be like Carolyn, with her beautiful tropical birds and gorgeous trees. Unfortunately, though it was noon, it was windy and cold, causing the recording to be very poor quality. You also get to see a bit of my neighbor's housekeeper, which I didn't notice until I was done. :)

Part two, in my living room, also quit halfway through the questions:

Note that I misspoke when I said I grew up in "north San Francisco." What I meant to say was that I grew up north of San Francisco, about an hour away. I have always lived within an hour of SF. First to the north, then to the east, then to the south, and now smack dab in SF.

And, finally, part three, the end!

If anyone out there understands why PhotoBooth kept quitting, please let me know. I like having the option of doing a video from time to time and I did learn from this process, but I'm obviously doing something wrong.