Random thoughts

[Garren Jacobsen]

Going through Netflix and saw that they listed The Hunchback of Notre Dame as a movie based off a children's book, which is true if you want to both confuse and traumatize your child. So, you know, classic Disney fare.

 

[Philster401]

[video=youtube_share;GWdh-fujOb8]https://youtu.be/GWdh-fujOb8[/video]
Any Yugioh fan new movie notice Yugi's new duel disk.

 

[Gryphos]

Do you ever think that in the future memes will be studied as part of history. Like, will Memology become a serious field of expertise? Will you be able to get a PHD in Memology? Mad ting.

 

[Svrtnsse]

I'm slightly confused by the whole meme thing. When I first heard about it I got it explained as if it's a pattern of thoughts or ideas, shared among a large group of people. It's nearly fifteen years ago though so I might remember it wrong.

These days, when people talk about memes they mostly seem to refer to picture with a funny caption - or a picture that's used for putting captions on in order to emphasise the message of the caption. This may very well fit with my initial impression fo whart a meme is, as you need to be familiar with the picture and the context it's used in. I'm still uncertain about how that relates to the original meaning of the word.

It's funny how things like that change. It's my guess that few people these days think about what the abbreviation LOL stands for, and just use it as a word for expressing how something is funny/silly.

On that not. I'm pretty sure memes as we currently know them (funny pictures) will be studied, and probably already are. It's a big part of online culture, which is a big part of our lives (or well, my life at least), and it's sort of becoming a language of its own. Looking at Facebook it's not uncommon to see "conversations" where the majority of the exchange is made up of captioned pictures rather than text.

 

[Gryphos]

Memes don't necessarily have to be pictures with captions. In fact, some of the best memes nowadays take the form of a specific phrase originating from a video source (usually a vine or something similar).

For example, if you're chilling with the mandem and one of them rocks up with questionably footwear, you might point at the shoes and say "WHAT ARE THOOOOOOOSE?!!!!" And that is a meme.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

My daughters (ages 7, 5 and 3) experienced loss today. Ginger the betta fish died today. We went apple-picking to cheer the girls up, then they were mentally prepared to have a little cremation ceremony in the fire pit. Amelia (7) and Sabina (5) helped gather dry leaves, pine needles and hay to make a tiny funeral pyre. In went Ginger. After a prayer and a few words, I lit the pyre. Hannah (3) sang, "Happy Birthday to you / Happy Birthday to you / Happy Birthday dear Ginger / Happy Birthday to you."

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

My little dude had his first birthday party. He loved being the center of attention and eating the frosting of his cake (not his cake). He also played the paper airplane toss game I made. He may have walked so close to the 40 pt hole where he could just push his plane through, but hey he's one. (Cheatin' little stink beating everyone by 100 pts.)

 

[Gryphos]

Deleted for content.

 

[Svrtnsse]

I went and looked up meme in the end: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme

A meme (/ˈmiːm/ meem)[1] is "an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture".[2] A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols, or practices that can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena with a mimicked theme. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate, and respond to selective pressures.[3]

The studying of memes is called memetics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memetics

The meme, analogous to a gene, was conceived as a "unit of culture" (an idea, belief, pattern of behaviour, etc.) which is "hosted" in the minds of one or more individuals, and which can reproduce itself, thereby jumping from mind to mind. Thus what would otherwise be regarded as one individual influencing another to adopt a belief is seen as an idea-replicator reproducing itself in a new host. As with genetics, particularly under a Dawkinsian interpretation, a meme's success may be due to its contribution to the effectiveness of its host.

Memetics is also notable for sidestepping the traditional concern with the truth of ideas and beliefs. Instead, it is interested in their success.[2]

The way I understand it, the pictures, expressions, or actions commonly referred to as memes today are more akin to "physical" representation of a meme. Then again I may be putting too much, or too little, thought into it.

 

[Tom]

I'm slightly confused by the whole meme thing. When I first heard about it I got it explained as if it's a pattern of thoughts or ideas, shared among a large group of people. It's nearly fifteen years ago though so I might remember it wrong.

Yeah, that's the general definition. In my writing/literature class this semester, we're studying The Odyssey in-depth. One of the things we're looking for is memes in the poem--universal, repeated themes or ideas that resonate across cultures. So far most of the memes have related to the Hero's Journey pattern. It's really cool, actually.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Just cleaned the lofts today. My wife and kids and I now live in the house I mostly grew up in. When I was 21, I scaled the loft over my ex-bedroom in about one second. It was slap-jump-kick-jump, the slap and kick both hitting the top of a six-foot-tall bureau to get me on the nine-foot-high loft. It was only a level or two below the agility of a Jackie Chan corner wall kick.

Today it was more like grab-pull with hand-push wall with foot-grab loft-count to three-stop thinking about what happens if you fall-jump and pull and pray and say three really loud because it makes the physical feat more effective-promise yourself to just bring the damn ladder next time-ah, screw that, I still got it-sort of. It was a level or two above a fireman muttering Danny Glover lines like "Only three days until retirement" and "I'm too old for this shit."

42 is only twice as old as 21. Why does it take me ten times longer to go up the goddamn loft?

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

The Utes just crushed the Ducks by 42. I love college football.

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

What I don't love is when your train is late by a minute to a hub station and the bus, which has standing orders to wait for the train until it is five minutes late, decides to leave right on time. Which will make you an hour late to your job. Fantastic.

 

[Tom]

You know it's going to be a bad week when you have two exams on the same day.

 

[Incanus]

I've worked on my novel's first draft for exactly 20 straight days now. Just shy of 12,000 words so far, so a little under 600 a day on average. Compared to some around here, that's pretty terrible, but compared with myself historically, it is a decent improvement. It's junky, first-draft stuff, but I think some of it is not too bad--mostly I think the novel is 'working' like it is supposed to. I expect the first draft to be around 70 to 85 thousand words, give or take a few, so I'd say I'm fairly well underway.

 

[Russ]

The real accomplishment there is the 20 straight days of work. Even if you are not producing large volumes of words that kind of consistency is what will get you over the finish line.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

I agree with Russ.

I'll add though, it takes most people 2-3 months to form a habit. Keep at it. Keep your foot on the gas. Keep tracking.

Your current pace is two manuscript drafts a year. Doesn't sound slow thinking of it that way, does it?

 

[Incanus]

Thanks guys. I should point out that the 'daily work' part of the habit had already been formed over the last year, writing shorts and a novella. I've been working about 5 to 7 days a week on writing for over a year now. Really, I'd almost have to say it's less of a habit and more of an addiction at this point--I get a little grumpy and out-of-sorts on days I can't write. Thank goodness I've got clear skies ahead--There should be only one day in Oct. that I won't get any writing in. I'm pretty happy with the way things are working at the moment.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Awesome, Incanus! Keep it up!

 

[ThinkerX]

(Very) rough draft of the current novella 90% finished as of a few days ago, enough to tell a coherent story. Some chapters stand in dire need of expansion (hence the 90% finished bit), and somehow I ended up with three minor characters sharing the same name (note to self, look a little further down the list when picking names on the fly). All in all, though, it can stew for a few months.

This novella is the third is a series of six...at least six is the current number. Looking over the ending, though, and taking a look at the end of the first novella, I have been wondering as of late if I am really writing a series of novellas or a trilogy of two part novels. For the time being, to preserve sanity, I firmly tell myself these are novellas.


Been doing a bit of outlining/idea bouncing and editing on other projects.