Saturday, September 24, 2005

To Meme Or Not To Meme?

When I first starting running across the "tag, you're it" memes, I felt those were a little beneath my dignity. What I really thought is that no one would ever bother to tag me, so I could feel smuggly disdainful of the whole phenomena. This is a defense mechanism finely honed by years of being picked last in gym class after the fat girl with her hand in a cast.

Then of course, I got "tagged" and had to reasess my smugness. A loyal reader, mercuryfern tagged me with this meme:

Rules:
1. Go into your archive.
2. Find your 23rd post.
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
5. Tag five some other people to do the same.

This particular meme was more intriguing than the typical "truth or dare" tell-me-someting-about-yourself meme because it forces you to look back at what you have written in the past. So in a way, it is a self-referential meta-meme. And here at Foma Central we are all about meta.

So I played along and found my 23rd post, and the fifth sentence was:
We haven't had any new roll-outs of Cafe Press items in a while which has to mean there can't be that much cash in them.
which is pretty meaningless out of context. But, like mercury fan, I decided to cheat because the sixth sentence
The difference between a job and a hobby is that a job is what people pay you to do and a hobby is what you pay to get to do.
is so profound that it can't be possibly be original to me. But since I can't remember where I stole it from, you have to take my word on this.

I guess the second part of "tag" memes that I have trouble with is forcing people to do things that they may not have wanted to do. In which case, I offer that memes have the moral authority of a chain letter. You have no obligation to play along unless you find it interesting enough to follow through.

I hereby in a non-binding, no-recriminations-if-you-don't way, "tag" trusty getto, mean girl, wickwire, geekwif, and any volunteers that care to play. Don't wait to be tagged if you want to go ahead and join our reindeer games. Leave a comment saying, "OOOOH! OOOOOH! Mr. Kotter! Tag me too!" and I will add you to the tagees in the main post. Thanks for playing along and not picking me last.

Update: Keb had the best Ron Palillo impression and gets added to the tagged list. I'm glad everybody had fun.

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20 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was hit with this one last week.

Michele sent me. :)

Anonymous said...

I love this one! Here from Michele's

Twisted Cinderella said...

Hello, Michele sent me. Cool post! Very cool to read about tags

Anonymous said...

Hey, I'm here from Michele's. Good morning. I love memes! Maybe I'll get lucky and Geekwif will tag me. If not, I guess I'll just have to play anyway.

Anonymous said...

Hi, here via Michele. Liked your post, I am glad you didn't tag me since my blog has as many entrances as days old, meaning two... have a nice weekend

rashbre said...

Write details of the time traveller convention with dates on a piece of acid-free paper, and slip into obscure books in academic libraries where they can be found in the distant future!

Here's the original entry Time Travellers have been here before.

Michele and your meme sent me.

Geekwif said...

I got picked! Yay! I think I suffer from the same syndrome, as I was always the last one picked too. I want to hate memes, but I've resolved myself to loving them instead.

I'll be posting this one today. It will be interesting to see what I had to say in that 23rd post!

Olyal said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Olyal said...

I've never quite got the whole meme thing. They seem to be an entirely different category to quizes, which I totally understand.
Some of the ones I've seen are kinda cool, but others seem like a total waste of time. :o)
Michele sent me today!

Anonymous said...

23/5 for me is the following:

I'm willing to bet that nowhere on that list will you see the hundreds of soldiers who died in Iraq.

Context? It was December 23 and I was talking about lists of famous dead people that appear in the newspaper during the Christmas/New Year's interim.

I bet they don't appear this year, either.

utenzi said...

Michele sent me, Yellojkt.

That meme has really taken the blogging world by storm. I haven't seen more penetration in a shorter period of time by any other meme. I don't see the appeal of this one, but since it's so popular it's obvious I'm in the minority. Blog on, I guess...

Kim said...

I did this meme on someone else's blog, and my 23rd post turned out to be one of my favorites. It was actually an essay that I wrote for a contest, which, I did not win, oh well. It's still my favorite.

Michele sent me!

Anonymous said...

Hello, Michele sent me.

Interesting post on birth control on Thursday.

Your Mother said...

Utinzi said penetration. he he he he

Bonvallet said...

Haha, fat girl with the hand in a cast eh?

I had fun going back to see what mine said, "Now he'll be with a bunch of other snot swinging kids getting new colds." When I read that I figured I better not meme and I better start trying to talk nice.

Your Mother said...

Lacking for material today, Keb raises hand and says "Oh, Mr. Kotter. Oh Oh Oh"...

trusty getto said...

ALL DONE! Interesting meme. Not so interesting sentence from my blog!

:D

paula said...

*ack!* and I was just doing the "I'm exempt Cha-Cha over at TG's"

.... goes to look.... I just put a big post up for the next day so I'm not going to put the meme answer up yet, but I'll make sure I do it soon ;)

Anonymous said...

I was tagged to do this last week but when I went through my archives, it happend to fall on like an audioblog testing entry. It was only a word.
Testing.
LOL
pffrrttt!
You got something interesting on yours.

BTW, Hi! Michelle sent me!

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