Thursday, August 21, 2008

what's a meme?

i've been tagged for a meme. first off, i am not sure what it is, or worse yet, how to pronounce it. and, rather than going to bed, which i should be doing (since babies can come at any hour of any day or night), i am going to figure it out and try to do it. here goes:
wikipedia says a meme is:

A meme (pronounced /miːm/)[1] is any thought or behavior that can be passed from one person to another by means of imitation. Examples include thoughts, ideas, theories, gestures, practices, fashions, habits, songs and dances. Memes propagate themselves and can move through the cultural sociosphere in a manner similar to the contagious behavior of a virus.

so, it rhymes with theme, apparently. nice that i can still read the phonetic alphabet. college ed is good for somethin. boy, what else wikipedia says is pretty interesting, too. i guess blogging itself is a meme. not to mention everything else, pretty much. what a concept.

here's what this particular meme is, from lisa:

Quirky Meme
Mention six quirky, yet boring, unspectacular details about yourself. Tag six other bloggers by linking to them. Go to each person's blog and leave a comment that lets them know they've been tagged. If you participate, let the person know who tagged you you've posted your quirks!

1. i can't think of anything, so i guess that must mean i am totally NORMAL, which is something i have been actively trying not to be since about the age of, oh, whenever it was that i first read Anne of Green Gables, and decided i wanted to be quirky in exactly the same way she was, imaginative, creative, forgetful, prone to catastrophe, dramatic, and someone who used words like 'kindred spirits' and 'bosom friend' and 'we almost perished.'

2. i cannot tolerate caffiene very well. it makes me way too talkative (even more than my normal babble speed), then grumpy and then i just want to nap, and, if i have coffee today, tomorrow at exactly the same time, i will want coffee. this is too much! even if i live in the land of a starbucks on every corner, i will not give in to the coffee devils. resist resist resist.

3. i like toaster ovens. is there any more that really needs to be said about that? i think not.

4. i'm good with language. is this boring? is it quirky? well, what it means is i have, in my short (getting longer all the time) life learned bits of several languages that i've retained a fair bit of, majored in language studies in college (japanese) and can remember lyrics to songs so well i will drive pretty much anyone riding in a car with me insane if we listen to the radio and they don't like people singing along. i am not japanese, at least not in this incarnation.

5. i balk at regularity. i don't like to have the same breakfast 2 days in a row, or any meal, for that matter. i don't like to keep the same schedule week to week. it seems boring and stuck. this causes problems in parenting. i like to fly by the seat of my pants. it's crazy-making for children, i think. i guess it's why i like to travel so much. travelling in places where the countries change every few hours is really interesting. not the same breakfast or lunch, or even language! wow! in my old age, i see how rhythm and discipline are helpful to me. doesn't mean i gotta like it, does it?

6. i have worn glasses since i was 7 years old. maybe 8. i started out with a patch, for a lazy-eye situation. would that i had that patch now. it was a really good one with green on the inside. i hated wearing it. i have tried to wear contacts, never with much luck. so, i wear glasses and attempt to keep the finger prints off them. they're quite dirty right now, better fix that.

well, i don't know if i did that right, but, there it is.

addendum: i would tag other people but that feels too much like a chain letter to me. so if you read my blog and want to do this meme, go right ahead. and tell me about it so i can find out just how quirky you are in a boring way. do you, too play the oboe, own an autoharp, collect handkerchiefs? dig on origami? wonder why toenails don't just grow in colors, since they look nicer that way? i wanna know, i really do.

4 comments:

Kigozi Petero said...

What you did was probably more like a survey, but the notion of linking your habits and preferences aligning with someone else's come closer to being mimetic. "Meme" rhymes with "theme," and there's an anthropologist named Michael Taussig who wrote a book on Mimesis and Alterity: A Particular History of the Senses.

Not everyone agrees with Taussig on the definition of mimesis, but in web2.0 culture, the term has come to describe hypertextual processes.

My two cents . . . If you want to read more, I've got a cool book on Tuvan music that describes mimetic musical representations of the landscape, or musical "toponyms." The author is brilliant, and he's even been to FSU!

Karen Skinkis said...

Okay Sarah - we would make perfect traveling partners, as I too love to sing along and can hardly stop myself from doing so. Only difference would be that I would be doing my singing with a cup of coffee in my hand.

Kathy P. said...

Yes, you are good with language, Sarah; you are exceptionally good with English. In fact, I think that you -- and Robert, too, for that matter -- could write for a living. I find your descriptions and thoughts nothing short of delightful!

Love from the Midwest -- "Aunt Kathy"

lijhe said...

Hey, I just found you through Kat! And you have had a blog since 2006! I guess I ought to start asking people I know if they have blogs. I can't believe this.

Well, I really enjoyed reading your meme. I can never manage to complete one since I have this phobia about talking about myself, I have been working on this quirky one for ages to no avail. But I sure like reading others, it is so interesting.