Almost everybody, everywhere has been throwing the line “ain’t nobody got time for that” around like there’s no tomorrow. Having been oblivious to such phenomenons (I was late with Gangam Style too), I never really got it.
Until now…
memes
out here in the blogosphere, we’re quick to call a jig a meme. copy it, paste it, tag some peeps and forget about it. sharp! it’s a meme…
yeah well no fine. so let’s call it a blog-meme.
or meme2.0
but it’s not a real meme. remember my post about Mark Twain’s meme?
that’s the ticket. it’s like a brain worm. it gets into your mind and stays – endlessly looping.
its stuck.
its stuck.
its stuck.
Andrew Johnston’s requiem is a real meme.
he’s been singing in my head since I saw his video on cb’s blog.
i’ve played it for my parents – who’ve been humming it ever since.
i showed the video to a neighbor. she sings it at work.
i sing/hum the requiem.
i watch Andrew over and over again.
i’ve posted his video on my facebook profile.
i pray for him every evening at bed time.
i’m blogging about him again!
let him sing some more!!!
Andrew: record and release the track on the web – your magic is changing the world! your voice makes me happy. your song melts frozen hearts. from what i’ve seen – your song reconnects people to the Divine. sing, Andrew. sing!
to the Brits: vote for him!
… and a lot easier than running around the school yard!
So there’s this meme floating around the blogosphere – let’s call it 8Tagg, seeing as how it requires you to reveal 8 things about yourself that people don’t know.
First you list aforementioned 8 things.
Then you “tagg” a string of your blog-buddies. (This is apparently done by hotlinks, pingbacks and somesuch. I’m placing my hope on Technorati to inform those I tag, seeing as how Blogger doesn’t support pingbacks – as far as I know.)
Tagging someone makes them “It” (fond memories right there…), which means they now have to do the same.
So, in the spirit of Twain’s first meme, here goes:
1. I never ended an educational phase (pre-primary, primary, secondary, tertiary) in the same school I started it. With my Dad being one of the few Land Surveyors in SA, we moved around a lot. I guess it became a habit.
2. I’m a Geminian Earth Horse (Gemini sun and rising, Sagittarius moon, year of the Horse etc). This apparently also explains my bouts of wanderlust.
3. I love writing, but I suck at correspondence. (Okay, maybe you knew that *lol*)
4. I have an immense urge to snap my fingers over the flame when people light their cigarettes with a candle. (Somewhere deep inside, my inner child still believes that fairies die if you don’t.)
5. I joined AA at the beginning of 2008. (Not very anonymous of me, is it?)
6. I’m addicted to puff pastry – especially if it’s baked around a Russian. (But I try to avoid all starch in my diet.)
7. Quitting smoking was harder than quitting alcohol or starch. (1 month and 20 puff-free days now!)
8. I fall in love with faces. (Flickr breaks my heart every week ;0) hehe.)
Now, who’ll be “It” then? checkitout:
– Geoff – my best blog-buddy, all the way from Idaho,
– Jayx – one of the zaniest characters to’ve lit up my life since my move to the Garden Route,
– Tresblue – he who got me blogging for real,
– Jockohomo – I’m a fan! A giant of the online world and my daily dose of provocation/inspiration,
– Warrior Scout – he who’s kickin tina and inspiring me along the way.
I’ve tried not to tagg people who’ve already been 8Tagged. If I inadvertently did so, please accept my sincere apologies.
(Please advise if I’m somehow not adhering to proper online conduct in tagging you, or transgressing in any other way for that matter.)
Not sure how memes work?
This Wikipedia entry might help as well:
“A Literary Nightmare” is a short story written by Mark Twain in 1876. The story is about Twain’s encounter with a virus-like jingle, and how it occupies his mind for several days until he manages to “infect” another person, thus removing the jingle from his mind. The story was also later published under the name “Punch, Brothers, Punch!”
The story is significant in that it is a fairly accurate description of a meme, and how it can replicate itself in a short time, thus acting like a virus in some respects.
(In a nutshell, the story goes a little something like this)
The narrator, Mark Twain, sees a catchy jingle in the morning newspaper. The jingle promptly attaches itself to his mind, such that he loses concentration and can no longer remember what he ate for breakfast, whether he ate at all, and what words he was going to use in his novel. The jingle mentally incapacitates him, until, a few days later, he takes a walk with his friend, the Reverend, and inadvertently transfers the jingle to the reverend’s mind. As this happens, Twain experiences a sense of relief, and returns to his normal life.
Some days after Twain was cured, the Reverend visits him; he is in a terrible state, as the jingle, which keeps on repeating in his head, has already disabled his concentration. He tells Twain of some incidents where the rhythm of the jingle influenced his actions, such as when churchgoers started swaying to the rhythm of his homilies. Taking pity on the man, Twain decides to cure him, and brings him to a meeting of university students. The Reverend successfully manages to transfer the jingle from himself to the students, curing himself and, at the same time, continuing the diabolical cycle of the jingle.
I’m not too clear on the series of fortunate hyperlinks that led me to the blog of AtomicMrX – but I’m glad whatever happened, happened! I found this cool meme-post on his page (which he got from This Boy Elroy, who, in turn, got it from… you know how memes work).
The idea is to combine the following steps (chaos theory anyone?) to create a brilliant new album:
1. The first article title on this (random) wikipedia page, is the name of your band.
2. The last four words of the very last (again, random) quote is the title of your album.
3. Finally, the third (you guessed it, random) Flickr picture – no matter what it is – will be your album cover.
Easy.
My band, Render Plus Systems, will soon have an awesome cover for their debut album “Taking hold of it” – based on this photograph by »Ŗǿćҝ ĢĩяŁ«™:
I’m too lazy to fire up Photoshop right now – but you get the picture ;0)