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This might seem a little hypocritical, but what’s with the word meme anyway?!
Sure, it’s not like I don’t know what it is or where it came from, but the fact that you’re probably sitting there in a smug little voice going “He doesn’t know what it is or where it came from” is enough to make you think there’s something about the word meme, don’t you think? You can think about it, but don’t blog about it, propagation isn’t in my game plan here. I mean if I say what’s with the word “obstetrician”, you don’t sit there thinking “He doesn’t know what obstetrician means”, do you? Not that the dictionary is particularly helpful either.
Then there’s the hesitancy of people to use the word. You watch, whenever someone says “meme”, heads look up. “Did someone say meme?” And the expression on the person’s face, it’s obvious they’re embarrassed to say it. In fact I don’t think I’ve ever said the word meme, or even obstetrician for that matter.
In fact I’d thought up this amusing rant about how meme’s are so up themselves, but of course that’s already been done to death.
The concept of memes is itself a meme. Even the idea that the concepts of memes is itself a meme has become a widely spread meme. However, the idea that the idea that the concepts of memes is itself a meme, is not yet a meme.
I could always get on the I hate memes bandwagon, but again meme propagation somewhat defeats my purpose.
Instead, I learnt a new word today: absoloodle. Apparently you can’t use it on its own, you have to use it in conjunction with chicken noodle. i.e. absoloodle chicken noodle. First I thought it some strange Cairns term, but no, my nut bar sister made it up, and it supposedly means what you think it means: yes, that’s right!
The beauty of it is that absoloodle chicken noodle doesn’t even pop up in Google yet, which is scaring me, because that implies its a meme. Perhaps the dictionary should have that next to the definition “meme, n. Not yet in Google.”
So there you go, a veritable smorgasboard of memes. Do I hate memes? Absoloodle chicken noodle!
As much as I appreciate the traffic, I wonder if j1332.inktomisearch.com could stop crawling my home page every hour, and actually crawl my whole site every week. Is that too much to ask? Geez, Google gets it, can’t you copy them, they’re supposed to be the benchmark?
I don’t get the whole perfume thing. Never have. Probably never will. I mean, I like to smell nice, but I don’t like drowning in stench. Also, your olfactory sense adapts to constant smell, meaning any constant fragrance or stench around you, will soon be filtered out as if it were no longer there. I don’t know about you, but I’d prefer 100% of my smelling ability, not some 90% filtered version of it.
Anyway, simple perfumes are made up of between 10 to 30 different chemicals, whereas more complex perfumes can contain between 50 to 100. Perfumers have about 500 natural aromatics to choose from, and about 1000 aroma chemicals. Check out the International Fragrance Association for more details on how they’re made, and the various codes of conduct.
The main point about perfumes, and I’m not just talking about womens’ perfumes, but mens’ aftershave and deodorant as well, is that you select the perfume you think will attract a partner, whether that be the opposite or same sex.
So regardless whether we actually like a particular scent, the idea is to pick the one the best improves our chances of getting laid. We sacrifice one of our five important senses, for the sake of a root. I’m not so sure that putting up with some putrid stench all day justifies the 5 seconds of elation that it ultimately leads to, but your mileage may vary. Perhaps a hand job would be more appropriate than olfactory torture.
So turning this on its head, are we saying that we could tell a good root by their inability to smell, and we should be looking for partners with terminally damaged olfactory nerve endings? I wonder why Darwin never spotted this. An inability to smell of course means that they’re not affected by our overtly sexual fragrance, which means the best roots are in fact the ones that don’t actually try to come on to us. Interesting. I can attest that this is certainly my experience, no good root has ever come on to me.
In theory then, because the fragrance is selected to attract an appropriate partner, you could probably also tell the sexuality of someone by sniffing them. Now there’s an interesting exercise for your Saturday night out on the town. Let me know how you went.
As many pop psychologists will tell you, it is easy to win friends and influence people, if you know how. At work, we play a game we like to call “how to win food and influence people”, where we try to outdo each other in getting the best deal we can for lunch. Usually this involves the local Bakers’ Delight, because they’re such nice yet gullible people.
Today the stakes were raised when I stupidly bragged that I could get a 1/2 BBQ chicken from the local chicken shop, but made up of two drumstick pieces. This came out of a comment I made a few days ago that the place always gives me a drumstick for my 1/4, and not the breast, and that they must have chickens with four legs if that’s the case, because what are the chances?
A 1/2 BBQ chicken though is of course cheaper than two 1/4 chickens, and theoretically two drumsticks is two quarters, even though they actually weigh less and have less bulk than a 1/2 chicken. However they are more popular, as a quick whip around the office shows, which of course raises their value somewhat. The defining characteristic though, seems to be the fact that a 1/2 chicken isn’t cut into 1/4 pieces. Pretty obvious, but so long as your chat with the shop keeper steers clear of this fact, you’re probably fine.
Anyway, not to refuse a challenge, today I duly walked out with a 1/2 chicken, consisting of two 1/4 drumsticks. The question of course is will they allow me to get away with it again tomorrow?
This posting is a community experiment that tests how a meme, represented by this blog posting, spreads across blogspace, physical space and time. It will help to show how ideas travel across blogs in space and time and how blogs are connected. It may also help to show which blogs (and aggregation sites) are most influential in the propagation of memes. The dataset from this experiment will be public, and can be located via Google (or Technorati) by doing a search for the GUID for this meme (below).
The original posting for this experiment is located at: Minding the Planet (Permalink: http://novaspivack.typepad.com/nova_spivacks_weblog/2004/08/a_sonar_ping_of.html) — results and commentary will appear there in the future.
Please join the test by adding your blog (see instructions, below) and inviting your friends to participate — the more the better. The data from this test will be public and open; others may use it to visualize and study the connectedness of blogspace and the propagation of memes across blogs.
The GUID for this experiment is: as098398298250swg9e98929872525389t9987898tq98wteqtgaq62010920352598gawst
(this GUID enables anyone to easily search Google or other search engines for all blogs that participate in this experiment, once they have indexed the sites that participate). Anyone is free to analyze the data of this experiment. Please publicize your analysis of the data, and/or any comments by adding comments onto the original post (see URL above). (Note: it would be interesting to see a geographic map or a temporal animation, as well as a social network map of the propagation of this meme.)
INSTRUCTIONS
To add your blog to this experiment, copy this entire posting to your blog, and then answer the questions below, substituting your own information, below, where appropriate. Other than answering the questions below, please do not alter the information, layout or format of this post in order to preserve the integrity of the data in this experiment (this will make it easier for searchers and automated bots to find and analyze the results later).
REQUIRED FIELDS (Note: Replace the answers below with your own answers)
(1) I found this experiment at URL: http://mentalized.net
(2) I found it via “Newsreader Software” or “Browsing the Web” or “Searching the Web” or “An E-Mail Message”: Newsreader Software
(3) I posted this experiment at URL: http://www.kashum.com/blog
(4) I posted this on date (day/month/year): 04/08/04
(5) I posted this at time (24 hour time): 01:50:00
(6) My posting location is (city, state, country): Sydney, NSW, Australia
OPTIONAL SURVEY FIELDS (Replace the answers below with your own answers):
(7) My blog is hosted by: My own custom software
(8) My age is: 37
(9) My gender is: Male
(10) My occupation is: Software Architect, COO
(11) I use the following RSS/Atom reader software: Sauce Reader
(12) I use the following software to post to my blog: My own custom software
(13) I have been blogging since (day, month, year): 10/10/01
(14) My web browser is: Safari
(15) My operating system is: Mac OS X
Sydney is a small place, even though we have a population of 3 879 400 people. And the centre of Sydney’s small placedness is Impro Australia.
My wife (at the time “to be”), got me into Theatresports, although I’d seen it many a year ago on the ABC in the 1980s, as did everyone else so it would seem. I figure that’s half a point for my wife, and half a point for the TV. Her brother is a bit of a Theatresports legend, as is the school friend of my last ex-girlfriend, that’s gotta be two points. Then there’s the degrees of separation, the Theatresports guy who works at an R&D lab where a friend of mine used to design graphics imaging chips, another’s brother has done work for our company and knows my boss who in turn now purely coincidentally plays as well, and our excessively overskilled accounts chick used to play with my aforementioned brother in law. My best friend, who I got into Theatresports, at one time shared a court with another friend and main stage player. Then there’s the coincidences, the friend (and player) that snuck into the Midnight Oil Goat Island gig when I was stupid enough not to*, the Mac-centric guys who started their own impro troupe, the list goes on…
But none of this helps when trying to get ahead and get roles in impro shows. If you’re not consistently annoying people for stage time, or you accidentally (or intentionally) get overlooked for a certain show, then you’re set back for up to a year before you can continue the climb. And of course lack of stage time means lack of experience, which makes the job even harder. Throw in the politics, and well, it’s tough…
Anyway, all this started when I got an email this afternoon from a friend/player saying they were looking for a solution to a spell check problem with Microsoft Word, and coincidentally my site popped up in Google with the answer. Small world…
Then there’s the intra-work coincidences. I’m at the MC5 gig on Friday night, and who do I bump into, but a Canberra based client of ours, rocking away as I was. Small world…
Speaking of Theatresports, this Friday 6th August 2004, I’m extremely lucky enough to play with some of the nicest and most talented new players around, when we compete in the St George Theatresports competition. 7pm, at the St George Bank Auditorium, Montgomery St., Kogarah. Come along and check it out, you’ll have a cack.
* 2JJJ ran a contest back in 1986 as part of their ten year anniversary, asking listeners to write in listing their 3 favourite bands. Midnight Oil was my favourite, but I wanted to support my fave indie artists, so I put The Celibate Rifles, Lime Spiders and someone else who I’ve forgotten. What they didn’t mention was that anyone who said Midnight Oil, got a free ticket to the secret Goat Island gig. Since then I’ve always been honest about my favourite artists.
Part VIII in the collection of miscellaneous bits and pieces.
I’ve just added another synthetic feed, new releases from Chaos Music.
As a follow on from an earlier post about Krispy Kreme Sugar Rings, I notice they have a drive through store at Sydney airport. So let me get this straight, drive through doughnuts. So like you drive up and the checkout chick says “Doughnuts?”, and unsurprisingly you respond with “Yep.”
Sydney taxi charter:
Your rights as a taxi user are to:
have the radio on or off
OK, fair enough.
Your responsibilities as a taxi user are to:
have the radio on or off
Uhuh… Now the pressure’s on…