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DakotaDawg was hanging very close yesterday. I thought that maybe she wanted to have a real conversation. I was having difficulty communicating with her. My old English to German, German to English dictionary did not have the term Meme in it so I was having more than a little trouble trying to explain the concept to her.
Our ancient unabridged Funk & Wagnall’s New Comprehensive International Dictionary of the English Language, Deluxe Edition was of little use. It skipped right from membrane bone to Memel. Not one word about Meme.
I picked up the pRotable that is connected to our wireless network and jumped on Google. I entered Meme in the Google Translate Gadget English text box only to find nothing showing in the German translation box other than: No definitions found. I thought I knew what a Meme was. That is definitely not it.
DakotaDawg was hanging very close yesterday. I thought that maybe she wanted to have a real conversation. I was having difficulty communicating with her. My old English to German, German to English dictionary did not have the term Meme in it so I was having more than a little trouble trying to explain the concept to her.
Our ancient unabridged Funk & Wagnall’s New Comprehensive International Dictionary of the English Language, Deluxe Edition was of little use. It skipped right from membrane bone to Memel. Not one word about Meme.
I picked up the pRotable that is connected to our wireless network and jumped on Google. I entered Meme in the Google Translate Gadget English text box only to find nothing showing in the German translation box other than: No definitions found. I thought I knew what a Meme was. That is definitely not it.
I picked up the pRotable that is connected to our wireless network and jumped on Google. I entered Meme in the Google Translate Gadget English text box only to find nothing showing in the German translation box other than: No definitions found. I thought I knew what a Meme was. That is definitely not it.
When I asked Google to “define Meme” in the search box I got many definitions. Of all that were offered six looked most promising but these four were best:
• The term Internet meme is a phrase used to describe a catchphrase or concept that spreads quickly from person to person via the Internet, much like an esoteric inside joke. ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme_(Internet)
• Richard Dawkins's 1976 coinage, on the analogy to gene (with a little aid from mime and mimic), for a cultural copying unit, such as the word or melody that is mimicked by others.
http://williamcalvin.com/LEM/LEMend.htm
• An idea or concept that attains online popularity. Popular Internet memes include “All your base are belong to us,” and the goatse man.
http://www.harvestseo.com/seo-glossary-m.html
• An idea that self-reproduces like a virus; a catchphrase or concept, or other unit of social currency. Example: "Where's the beef?"
http://www.oskoui-oskoui.com/glossary/M
DakotaDawg and I were still at a standstill.
Then the thunderstorm stopped and I realized she was not attempting to figure out what I was talking about at all. She left and took up station on top of the lateral file in the Sun Room where she could observe the comings and goings of the neighborhood dogs and warn their owners without the plastic bags of our new statute.
Since I have been reading a lot about Memes AND the New York Times jumped on the bandwagon the day before yesterday with a story, I am sure that this phenomenon is about to break wide open like when they did the story on Julie and Julia. Thank goodness Richard Dawkins coined the term so that at least I know what is going on.
I wrote about Huh on May 21st and how Wired Magazine had crowned him the new King of Cheese way back in February 2010. Apparently The New York Times is a little slow on the uptake. Maybe they are getting their story ideas from this blog.
Father’s Day is coming up so we went to Borders to find a present that was not a shirt, tie or a wallet. There sitting on one of the current release tables was Justin’s: “Sh*t My Dad Says”. I plugged his new book on May 20th: “Before I do I am going to give a published author a free advertisement and post a link. I do not receive any money from Google or the author but just think since I believe in the “what goes around comes around” theory; it was what I ought to do."
http://twitter.com/Shitmydadsays ... That was before the i turned to an *.
I did not bother to check out the book too closely to see how many other changes there were from the original Twitter but if the i became an * for mass consumption then I am sure other changes were quite extensive.
I did check it out on the Borders website and found out that it had a Hardcover List Price: $15.99 and a Your Price: $8.79. That is quite a savings almost half price during an introduction and right before one of the biggest gift days for dads in the year... (save: $7.20 45%) . Used copies were available for only from $11.23. I guess sometimes it is better to buy new. Of course that is before shipping and handling and you can always read it on Twitter for free.
Although the new book is nonfiction, since there are so many changes, I wonder if the book should now be considered fiction.
The New York Times story was: “Once Just a Site With Funny Cat Pictures, and Now a Web Empire” By Jena Wortham. Mr. Huh who works very hard for his money had his entire empire outlined in the brief article. Ms. Wortham did a quite respectable job: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/technology/internet/14burger.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
The thing I found most amusing was how most of the folks with Memes are turning them into big bucks, or trying to. In Jason’s case he is the inspiration for many things his dad does say… but for the owners of other websites, blogs or Twitters that are Memes these entrepreneurs let other people do almost all of the work.
With three books, greeting cards and calendars in production, five books already published and a long list of T-shirts and other consumables for sale plus the huge revenue generated by ads on the sites; Mr. Huh and his angel investors and Venture capitalists are doing rather well.
I wonder if they are considering having Google translate http://icanhascheezburger.com/ or http://failblog.org/ into Chinese or Hochdeutsch. Think of the additional revenues!
DakotaDawg mentioned some interest but I doubt she will be making any contributions. She just doesn’t need the hassle when Meme employees check whether she actually owns what was submitted if they put that image into some book or calendar they are hawking.
Since I get about half my ideas from DakotaDawg I had better add her name to the copyright because she does not need a T-shirt or a calendar for her contribution. She told me she prefers residuals.
That’s what she said.
© 06.14.2010 steven d philbrick and DakotaDawg SR+
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