Ever heard of a meme? If you’re a blogger, you’ve probably caught a meme once or twice. They’re easy to catch. You can even catch memes through e-mail. And if you’ve ever caught one, you’ve almost certainly passed it on to someone else. And you probably did it on purpose.
The word ‘meme’ was coined by Richard Dawkins in his book "The Selfish Gene," and later popularized by Daniel Dennet in "Consciousness Explained." It describes any unit of information that can be transmitted between human beings, and that can become self-replicating. The most obvious examples come from popular culture – catch phrases (that’s hot) or snippets of music (shake it like a polaroid picture) that seem to spread and spread throughout the culture until they become totally ubiquitous – but the word ‘meme,’ as Dennet and later meme theorists understand it, can refer to ideas or sets of ideas or religions or ideologies or any form of information that can be communicated and that can (or seem to) take on a life of its own.
Snore. I probably lost you at ‘self-replicating,’ right?
I’ll stop with the lecturing, and cut right to the fun. A meme in the blogosphere is basically just a writing prompt that circulates among bloggers. Somebody writes a post that is entitled, say, "Six Weird Things About Me" (in which they write, um, six things about themselves that might be considered to be weird or unusual). Then, they ‘tag’ a number (say, six, to be poetic) of other bloggers to write their own variation on that post and to then tag six more bloggers, and so and so forth, until you have hundreds upon hundreds of posts on this topic, replicating like a virus. It’s all good fun.
Except, um? Nobody ever tags me any more. Which is fine, because I’m already way backed up on blog posts and have totally neglected my blog to-do list so it’s FINE, really it is, that nobody tags me anymore. Really. It is.
(Pouting and delicate stomping of foot.)
I’m just pouting for fun. Actually, it really is fine by me to not be tagged, because I really am backlogged on posts and am having trouble fitting it all in. Except that a couple of really cool memes have been circulating the momosphere recently and I’ve been finding it hard to resist and have been sort of wishing that I’d been tagged so that I’d have no excuse to not participate. And then I discovered what Kittenpie had been up to and that just tipped me right over the edge of the meme.
Kittenpie recently participated in the "Must See" meme, which prompted bloggers to list (and explain) their ten favourite television characters (her Number One? Jean-Luc Picard. Who is not, technically, Number One on the Starship Enterprise, but… never mind). Which is cool and all, but not what tipped me over the edge. What tipped me over the edge was this: she invented a meme. Her very own meme – a really cool meme – about the forty things that she wants to do before she turns forty years old.
It’s a wonderful post, this list of things to do. She was, she says, idly listening to some discussion about life lists on the television show ‘Ellen’ and thought, that’s all fine and dandy, lists of things to do before one dies, but what about the next few years? What do I want to do in the near future? So she decided to do a list of things to do before she’s forty. A list of real things to do, as opposed to a list of dream-wish things to do, like travel the world in a sailboat or climb Everest or make out with Brad Pitt or whatever. The things that Kittenpie lists are real-life, down-to-earth, mundane desires – things to get done, things that will make her happy, things that will make her already-good-life better. Things like, throwing more stuff away. Having better sex. Learning to knit. Getting into the habit of going to bed at a decent hour. Learning to accept things about her mother that frustrate her. Real life stuff.
It’s real life stuff that really grabbed my attention and captured my imagination, and which might, I think, capture your imagination, too. Which makes it… a meme! So I’m going to list five of my forty things (only five, because I know that you don’t have all day to read this) to do before I’m forty right here, right now – and then I’m going to ask you to list five things that you would like to do before you’re forty, right here in the comments. (And, if you’re blogger, you can consider yourself tagged to do a post about it.)
And then, pass it on! It’s fun!
Five Before I’m Forty:
1) Go scuba diving.
2) Learn to knit.
4) Do a complete purge of all of the stuff that I’ve been packing around for, like, forever. (Thanks, Kittenpie, for the inspiration on this one!)
5) Have another baby.
Your turn! What do you want to do before you’re forty?
(*Picture above right: NOT how memes spread. Do not attempt to transmit meme by chomping on heads. This will be interpreted as an act of aggression.)
I’m going to do 5 in 5 because I have a decade to go before I’m 40. When I think about all that has happened in the last decade my mind just boggles at trying to imagine what will please me down the road. So 5 in 5:
1. perform a solo belly dance – on a stage, in front of people, everything – and do it well.
2. renovate our bathroom (I really hope this happens sooner than later).
3.get our back yard under control and even make it a nice place to be.
4.hike more of the Bruce Trail — maybe 35%?
5. Go to South Africa at least once more, preferably twice; maybe even see some other parts of Africa like Namibia (I love the way that rolls around the tongue) or Mozambique or Lesotho.
Wow. Now I’m excited.
First on my list will now have to be taking another stab at The Selfish Gene. I knew the term meme had come from somewhere I should know about.
I’ll have to think about the other ones. Perhaps something like not screaming “Nooooooooo” inside my head when real bloggers give out my page address.
For the last time Ali – NOT a pity tag. That’s what it woud be if you tagged me.
An act of aggression is just the way she is… sigh. She tackled my buddy’s child while shopping today and went right for the noggin’. I held her back but every few minutes I’d catch her, mouth wide open, slowing moving toward her cranial target. Thankfully I caught her but oh how she wanted just one bite. She’s just so darn cute, it’s hard to get mad.
btw she totally blushed when she saw her photo – she actually giggled.
So let’s see, in the next five years? Hmmmm… let’s see:
* have another baby
* take the family camping
* get more physically fit
* find a place to call home
* learn to sew
That was fun.
Zoinks. I accidentally became anonymous there. That was me with the 5 in 5.
I almost choked on the chockie I was eating when I saw the “act of agression”. Classic!
5 before 40? Ummm, here goes:
1) Do some volunteer work with children.
2) Go to Teacher’s College.
3) Change jobs (see #2. This is a separate number on my list because it exists even if #2 doesn’t happen.)
4) Have another baby.
5) Lose baby fat from both babies.
5 in 5. Now that I can do. (And Thanks HBM for being such good sport).
1. Take my 2 sisters who have never been overseas to England and Ireland.
2. Rennovate my kitchen.
3. Curb my consumer zeal. (Yup, I know that this stands in stark contradiction with 1 and 2.)
4. Read all the Caldecott, Newbery, and Governor General’s Award-winning children’s books from the awards’ inception until now. (I’ve already consumed a whole bunch).
5. Be more attentive at work and more committed to my career.
OK! I’m changing the meme (with apologies to Kittenpie) as soon as I can. Not ‘before you’re forty’ – because we’re not all under forty, which is, in nay case, the new thirty – but ‘in the next five years.’
What five things do you want to have done in the next five years?
Um, I will be 41 in about a month. I guess it’s all over, eh?
I will say this. So far I have lived my life in a way that I can honestly say I haven’t missed out on life’s little moments.
Oh, and HBM and Kittenpie, I can knit so if you ever want lessons haul your butts down east.
Hmm, things to do before I’m forty, eh???
I suppose, in no particular order, I would have to say:
Go see my best friend in Nova Scotia.
Wear that damn bikini before my boobs reach my ankles.
Finish landscaping my gardens. (That’s a biggie.)
Learn how to ride a motorcycle. (I’m already tattooed and pierced. It’s seems like the next logical step.)
Take my kids on their dream vacation. Before they grow up.
Before 40 top 5
1)go away on holiday
2)career change – be my own boss
3)flatten my tummy
4)get my motorcycle licence
5)save money
tagging is a delicate, delicate thing.
you don’t want to tag someone who doesn’t WANT to be tagged. and you don’t want to tag someone who has already done the meme. and you don’t want to tag someone that will never get around to doing it.
in case anyone out there is wondering…i love to be tagged…even if it’s lisab pity tagging me because she knows how badly i want to do the meme.
my god, i really am a giant loser.
also, the life list thing is amazing. i saw that Ellen episode too and thought it was such a fantastic idea. maybe one of these days i’ll get around to doing one.
As many of my friends cross the 40 mark I often think about this particular milestone. More because I remember thinking how uncool and old my own mom seemed to my child’s eyes on her 40th birthday…could I really be almost THAT old?! Yet, 40 is the new 30…right?
Anyway, here are my 5 in no particular order:
* Run a marathon (doing a 10k this fall…getting there)
* Ski Whistler (been there, skied in B.C. but…)
* Get out of debt
* Renovate my kitchen
* See my 22.5 year old niece who has lived with us for years move out, become independent, and financially self-sufficient! OK. This one better happen long before I turn 40!
Doodoodoodoo…doodoodoodoo (hopefully that transmitted properly from the twilight zone jingle in my mind into text! Otherwise WHAT will people think?)
Anyway, funny you should mention Dawkins, Dennet and memes all in one sentence! I am currently reading Dennet’s “Breaking the Spell”, and on the weekend saw Dawkins’ documentary, “The Root of All Evil: The God Delusion” on CBC’s “The Big Picture with Avi Lewis”. Learned about memes for the first time in Dennet’s book.
Anyway, that’s all well and good and not relevant at all…
So here are my FIVE BEFORE FORTY (I only have 2.5 years left, so keep that in mind, LOL)
1. Be happy with my body (for once!)
2. Get caught up in my scrapbooking
3. Sew the pyjamas, dresses & snowsuit for my girls that I bought patterns & fabric for years ago.
4. Paint again
5. Pay off debt
Phew…looks somehow ambitious, pitiful and satisfying all at once. Well, wish me luck, anyway!
Heh heh. The funny thing is – that was MY tag you missed!
Can’t believe you turned this into a meme, you crafty little bugger. And I keep just grabbing other people’s memes instead of politely waiting to be tagged. So ill-mannered… but they’re just too fun not to jump in.
(and um,the TV one was in no particular order, just FYI, everyone. I’m not that big a geek!)
I LOVE being tagged! LOVE! But, every time I tag someone, they get so MAD! Well, most of them do. Those who don’t get mad have usually already been tagged with what I want to tag them with. Boo. Since you tagged me, and I love being tagged, I’ll post my 5 things on my blog tomorrow. 🙂
To learn to knit, go to my sidebar on Cheaty Monkey. I have a link to the book I used to teach myself to knit. Knitting and Crocheting for Dummies. Trust me, it’s hard to find a good knitting book. This was the best I could find.
Oh, god, horrendous breach of etiquette! I missed a tag?!?! It had to have been during or near New York week – I missed a ton of posts that week! I have to find out who it was and apologize on hand and knee…
Waaaay back in the day (February), when I started blogging, people would often let you know when they’d tag you, and meme’s would often be accompanied by the instruction to let taggees know that they’d been tagged. Which I still think is a good idea – in the event (ahem) that regular readers miss that particular post (for very good reasons, of course…)
You’re not allowed to complain about not being tagged, HBM! ‘Cause I know that somebody tagged you a few weeks ago (can’t remember now who it was – one of the T.O. bloggers, anyway) and I thought, “Gasp! You can’t tag her – she NEVER does memes!”
It’s surprisingly stressful, the whole tagging-people-by-name part. At least for me it is. You get this immediate sinking feeling that actually this person has decided never to visit your blog again, and will never see the tag. Then you think, “Oh no, she probably HATES that meme and will resent being tagged.” Then you check your comments and everybody is thanking you for the tag and it’s all good again.
That Bumper! She’s the only baby I can think of who can give Wonderbaby a run for her money in the world domination category.