Little m Long a

Memes are habits, skills, songs, stories, or any other kind of information that is copied from person to person. As examples he suggested “tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches”. Memes, like genes, are replicators. That is, they are information that is copied with variation and selection. Because only some of the variants survive, memes (and hence human cultures) evolve. Memes are copied by imitation, teaching and other methods, and they compete for space in our memories and for the chance to be copied again. Large groups of memes that are copied and passed on together are called co-adapted meme complexes, or memeplexes.

The word “meme” has recently been included in the Oxford English Dictionary where it is defined as follows “meme (mi:m), n. Biol. (shortened from mimeme … that which is imitated, after GENE n.) “An element of a culture that may be considered to be passed on by non-genetic means, esp. imitation”.

In the context of web logs, blogs and blogging and other kinds of personal web sites a meme is some kind of a list of questions that you saw somewhere else and decided to answer the questions yourself on your own blog. Then someone else sees them and does the same and so on and so on. Generally these are considered to be actual questions and not some multiple choice quizzes that determine some result at the end; what color best describes your toilet?, what cartoon character would whup you in a fair fight?, what song makes you swerve in traffic as you bob your head to the beat?, toothpaste then water or water then toothpaste? (I actually almost came to fists-to-cuffs over this one once).

By some other definitions memes are viral and propagate around sometimes mutating as they propagate. Someone proposes something on a particular blog post, i.e. they write about something they see, the next person does the same on their blog after reading the first but their interpretation varies slightly changing the story.

Some memes suggest that you get five other people to do the same meme and they have to get five people (and so on), a process called tagging. There is oodles of additional information on this riveting topic all over the web. I would suggest brushing your teeth first and putting on your pjs as it’s very unlikely you will reach then end of any of the articles with your eyes open.

So why am I boring you with all of this seemingly irrelevant information? As a newbie to the world of blogging or the blogosphere I had actually no idea what a meme was. And if I gotta know, then so do you. Thanks to Dana over at Life Turned Upsidedown, I now know, hence so do you. You see, as a blogger I feel it my duty to haunt, er no stalk, er not that….let’s see patronize? Other blogs and bloggers. I now know that there are penalties…no rewards for such behavior. You see, Dana tagged me with a meme: tell us five interesting things about you. Whoa! The last person to ask me to tell them something interesting about myself was my wife and that was 13 years ago. (She married me anyway.) My life is about as interesting as the mystery garden Zoë brought home from her COSI summer camp. It was a jar of dirt that we got to water every day for a week until one day we were able to see a tiny green stem rising upward almost begging us to stop drowning it, which of course we were unable to do. It truly was a mystery garden as we never did find out what was planted there. We killed it long before any positive recognition could take place.

So here we go, 5 interesting (and I use that term very loosely) things about me, Zoë ’s Dad.

1. For some strange reason, I feel it necessary to make my outward appearance resemble as little as possible, the picture on my driver’s license. I had to renew my license last year on my birthday and had completely shaved my head the week before. OK. So it wasn’t completely shaved. I used my handy dandy Norelco home haircut kit which, for the record my wife loathes, and used the #2 setting. I haven’t cut my hair since. Honestly, it’s a nappy mess.

2. In college I used to sing in a Contemporary Christian band that was associated with the BSU. I can’t sing. Really! It was a small school and let’s just say the fact that there were no other tenors that tried out worked very well in my favor. It was a great experience and I’m certain that my fellow band mates have had more than their fair share of prayer circles for my redemption as I may have veered slightly from “the path” since those hallelujah days.

3. I grew up in Louisiana and love, love, love cajun food and cooking. Sadly, I can not make a roux.

4. I am almost out of vices. I quit smoking a year ago in May and later this month will celebrate a year sans the drink. I miss the Goose but realize that sometimes change is both long overdue and for the best. I’ve still got coffee, though and….well, I’ve got coffee.

5. My first car was a 1972 Volkswagon Beetle. Orange. Man I loved that car! POS was breaking down every other day. I actually had a repair manual, The Idiots Guide to Volkswagon Repair that I kept in the glove box. I learned a lot of great lessons about car ownership and maintenance with that little gem. Like for instance, if you fail to replace that black gooey stuff that puddles on the ground any place you happen to park your car, there is a very good chance that the engine will actually seize up and quit on you without warning, usually when you are late to work for your job as stock boy at the local JC Penny because you spent too much time behind the Tic Toc after school. To this day, I still want a Bug. Good Times!

So there you have it, 5 things about me. You were warned. And, I do apologize. That’s three minutes you’ll never get back. Although, I did hear once that every cigarette you smoke takes seven minutes off of your life. So might I suggest one less smoke today. There ya go, I just gave your three minutes back, and if my Louisiana math is correct, you now owe me four minutes.