What the heck is a "meme" ???

Ok, so I know what I think it is - and now I know what it is thanks to "Wikipedia". By the way, ignore the links. They don't work. I couldn't get them to die happily, so here they reside. Forgive me, gentle reader.

Meme

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The term and concept of meme (pronounced [miːm] in IPA; from the Greek word μνήμη for 'memory') first appeared in the 1976 book by Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene. Though Dawkins defined the meme as "a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation," memeticists vary in their definitions of meme. The lack of a consistent, rigorous and precise definition of a meme remains one of the principal criticisms leveled at memetics, the study of memes.

Different definitions of the meme generally agree, very roughly, that a meme consists of some sort of a self-propagating unit of cultural evolution having a resemblance to the gene (the unit of genetics). Dawkins introduced the term after writing that evolution depended not on the particular chemical basis of genetics, but only on the existence of a self-replicating unit of transmission—in the case of evolution, the gene. For Dawkins, the meme exemplifies another self-replicating unit, and most importantly, one which he thought would prove useful in explaining human behavior and cultural evolution.

The smiley exemplifies what some might consider a visual meme. Anyone who has seen a smiley can copy, reproduce, or modify it and then show it to others.

In casual use, the term meme often refers to any piece of information passed from one mind to another. This usage more closely resembles the analogy of "language as a virus" than Dawkins' analogy of memes as replicating units. This definition has come into popular use on the Internet to refer to phenomena such as Obey Giant, "All your base are belong to us", Blogebrity and Icy Hot Stuntaz.

a quiz??

I stole this from Suzanne. And Sharon. Give it a try?? Cut and paste into a comment.

1. Who are you?
2. Are we friends?
3. When and how did we meet?
4. Do you have a crush on me? If no….why the hell not?
5. Do you read my blog regularily?
6. Give me a nickname and explain why you picked it.
7. Describe me in one word.
8. What was your first impression?
9. Do you still think that way about me now?
10. What reminds you of me?
11. If you could give me anything what would it be?
12. How well do you know me?
13. When's the last time you saw me?
14. Ever wanted to tell me something but couldn't?
15. Do you feel like your back in high school now?
16. Are you going to put this on your blog and see what I say about you?

Thank God it's Wednesday.

Well gentle readers, we made it through another week, and are on the downhill slide. I'm thinking this is a good thing. Relatively uneventful even.

Spent the weekend on the Oregon coast. My older brother came down with us, and had a good time. I'm glad - he has had some loneliness and depressive issues recently too. I do need to be careful and set some limits though ... else we will all get tired of each other and wind up where we started... distant.

We went to the Oregon coast aquarium. That's pretty cool! You can see more of it here. The kids had a blast. We also went fishing and crabbing. Caught two red rock crabs that were keepers, but they tasted funny to my wife. Just a bit to "fishy" I guess. If it was easy, they'd call it "catching" ... but all had fun.

And me? I don't like to fish - for the simple reason that I don't eat fish, and if you don't eat it, I say don't catch it. I enjoyed Father's day though, managed to sleep in a bit, and the trailer is starting to come around now. Fixed all the leaks, working on all the lights that don't work. Got the water pump up and running - woohoo! Now I can feel better about "dry" camping.

The Suburban's mileage pulling it though is abominable. My mini-van (a Ford Aerostar) pulls it - ok - and gets about 11 miles to the gallon. My 'Burb pulls it fine, and gets about 5 or 6. Something fishy here... will have to investigate. With the 30 gallon tank on the 'burb, it's at least 65 bucks to fill it. Sheesh. Maybe it's time to try to find a new truck.

Now, a special note for a special person to my wife and I. Thank you. You know why. I hope that someday I can return the kindness. My best to you and yours.

Until our next..........

Another long pause

Well, it has been another long pause in the Blogger world. My apologies, gentle reader. It appears, that sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is actually a freight train headed for you. Sometimes it misses. This time was too close.

We headed out to Coos Bay for our "Sabbatical"... but on the way had to stop at the ER. It turns out that my beloved wife had been sleeping about an hour or two a night --- for the last three weeks. So, she had been dealing with unbelievable anxiety, and was damn near delusional. It was frightening for me. I think what was the most frightening, is that she was able to disguise it from me.

With trailer in tow, we head off to the house with hopes of her getting a good nights sleep, and start in the morning. Which she does, and we do. The trip was nice, and uneventful, but upon her return the anxiety cranked back up to full steam, and not even the sleep aid was working.

On Tuesday morning we return to the ER. This time, she is admitted, and put in a room that looked faintly (from my Corrections days as an employee thank you very much) like a holding cell. She is sedated, and then after a LONG discussion between Dr, nurse, and Good ole PCDoc we get her the meds she really should have gotten in the first place, and head home. I took the week off, and stayed here keeping the rugrats at bay whilst she tries to regain herself.

She improves dramatically over the next week. She was used to 10 hrs sleep a night (I'm lucky if I get 5) and had been so deprived that her body was going ballistic. Now, all is mostly back to normal, her meds changed to a much lighter critter that doesn't make her drool so badly (grin - shades of some movie I saw once) and now only takes a light dose to help sleep. The doc says that this will dissipate over the next several weeks, and hopefully will return to the proper "diurnal rhythm".. which I suspect means life back to normal.

That done, I head back to work. One uneventful week passes by, with hopes for another. Lo and behold, on the way to the in-laws, I have a wheel bearing go out on my little putt putt car. She handles it well, but now I'm ready for the booby hatch. Or at least, a strong drink and another vacation.

Bear with me as this passes, and I become more verbose.

Oh and one more "nail in the coffin" - near the 4th of July I become 21 for the 21st time. Tell me that don't suck rocks :)

Until our next....