The Eight-Second Shift
Probably she has just experienced The Eight-Second Shift
Let’s say you are sitting at your computer (running Windows), home alone, no music, late at night.
It is very quiet, just the faint whirr of the fan lulling you into a sense of serenity as you lean onto your keyboard and lazily pause your typing to think, with your right pinky resting on the shift key.
You are partly lost in your own thoughts and partly starting to fall asleep. Your pinky is still on the shift key.
Your computer is playing no sound, but the volume is jacked up high after your Beastie Boys constructive self-therapy session earlier in the evening.
Keep that finger on the right shift key. Right through those magical eight seconds.
Try it.
I am grateful for my strong heart and weak speakers.
Update: never mind; I just tried this at work, and apparently it isn’t insanely loud on all computers. On my home computer, it produced in me a reaction similar to that of the young woman pictured here.
(And I hope you appreciate my Ultimate Sacrifice: my friend Vanessa will most likely assassinate me for using this picture. Slide your mouse over the picture to see what she normally looks like.)