Nobody Puts Meme in a Corner *
by kev on November 19, 2007 

(No Ratings Yet)  Loading ...

Over the weekend, Kathy from the very funny The Junk Drawer tagged me for a meme. What’s a meme? Beats me. I had to Google it. The trusted and always-accurate Wikipedia came through with a definition:

A meme comprises a theoretical unit of cultural information, the building block of cultural evolution or diffusion that propagates from one mind to another analogously to the way in which a gene propagates from one organism to another as a unit of genetic information and of biological evolution.

Needless to say, I was still confused.

After a little more research from a more reputable source (i.e. anyone but Wikpedia), I discovered that a “meme” is a set of questions answered by one blogger, who then tags another blogger to answer those same questions. And so on and so on.

Oh, so it’s like a homework assignment I can give to other people? Why didn’t Wikipedia just say so?

Below are my answers to the Five Things About Blogging meme. I will do my best to be serious and answer these questions honestly, but as my readers know that might not be doable.

1. How long have you been blogging? - I began in May of 2005. I had just finished graduate school, the baseball season (I was a coach) had ended, and I was in my final days as a high school teacher. In short, I suddenly found myself with way, way more time on my hands than I was accustomed.

I needed something to fill my time. My choices came down to starting a blog or becoming a male model. After the male model thing fell through because I refused to get a haircut (”Would you ask Mozart to get a haircut?,” I argued), I started a blog.

2. What inspired you to start a blog and who are your mentors? - As mentioned above, boredom (and my refusal to trim “the do”) inspired me to start a blog.

Okay, my love of writing also played a hand in it. I might not yet have a complete grasp of the intrincities of the English language, but I seem to have a knack for storytelling. I love sports, specifically baseball, and lately I have grown to enjoy the topic of personal finance. And my sense of humor, which has been described to me as, “drier than a dry desert,” apparently needed an outlet of some sort.

Blogging allowed me to have a creative outlet for the long-winded stories I like to tell on occasion. And by “on occasion” I mean all the time, 24/7, even when my audience has left the room.

3. Are you trying to make money from your blog, or just doing it for fun? - I enjoy blogging. I would do it for free, and I did it for free for two years. But then the frugal part of my brain spoke up and said, “domain names aren’t free, ya know… we’re losing money here, funny man.”

And so, a few months ago I decided to offset the cost of my domain by putting up a couple of Google Ads and submitting some of my posts to Associated Content.

Are the 43 cents I’ve earned from Google so far worth the blemish on my reputation? You better believe it.

4. Tell me 3 things you LOVE about being online. - By far, I would say the thing I enjoy best about being online is meeting new people. It’s a neat thing being able to sit down and write a silly post about nothing that can be enjoyed by people all over the world. They leave me comments. I visit their sites and leave them comments. Someone sees my comment at one of these other sites, visits my site and leaves me a comment. I visit their site and leave a comment. It’s an endless loop, but the good kind.

Another thing I enjoy about being online is my point of view is able to get “out there.” As you have noticed, I talk about things the media is afraid to talk about. Aliens stealing our socks, for example, is a topic that’s been too hot for anyone else to handle. While the rest of the world was praising Oscar the Cat, I correctly identified him as a serial killer. And if it weren’t for my weekly rants about my affection for coffee, would any of you know coffee even existed?

The third thing I love about being online is the retirement plan.

5. Tell me 3 things you STRUGGLE with online. - I guess the biggest struggle I have with being online is maintaining my low profile. Hypothetically, if I was in the witness protection program, blogging like I do would be a bad idea. I mean, what if, hypothetically, a member of the mob stumbled upon my blog one day? What should I do then? No, seriously. I’m asking, people. What should I do?!?

I guess “spam” would be another thing. I hate all varieties of Spam - be it comments, e-mails or the quasi-meat in a can. Finally, another struggle is blogging has led to insomnia. When you stay up until 3am reading your old blog posts over and over every night (like I do… I’m a big fan) you’re going to suffer from insomnia. There’s just no way around it.

That wasn’t so bad. Thank you, Kathy, for tagging me (and for the great compliment). Be ready, though: the next time I’m tagged for a meme and it’s one you have not previously done, I am going to return the favor. (insert evil laugh here)

Okay, whom to tag? I am going to tag Allison, Erin and Josh for this meme. Josh because he didn’t acknowledge my awesome bluejeans at church yesterday, Erin because she is way overdue for a blog update (and this will give her some handy material), and Allison because she has a blog that dates back to 2004 (thus making it very difficult for someone like me to read it in its entirety).

* I realize “meme” is pronounced like “dream,” but where’s the fun in that?