matgb | Entries tagged with memes

Well, actually, thirty years and two days ago, the first commercial CD was released^via.

Which got me thinking. I bought my first CD player, and my first 2 CDs, on holiday in France (I'd been saving up for ages to buy one but the holiday cottage Dad'd rented was so horribly remote we were dying of boredom in the evenings). They were:
The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
The Art of Noise The Best of The Art of Noise

I was approximately 16, so this was roughly 1990. I've still got both.

What was the first CD you bought, if any, why, and how old were you?

(yes, the title is inspired by the opening song on the first CD, for those that would otherwise insist on asking the obvious)

(And yes, it's been over a year since I last posted, no particular reason, but, y'know, this seemed like a good idea for a post so I'm posting it)

Crossposts: http://matgb.livejournal.com/457035.html

Meme time:

-Choose a book genre
-Choose five books from that genre
-Tell me why I should read them.

Nice'n simple. I pick history:

An Utterly Impartial History of Britain (or 2000 years of Upper Class Idiots in charge)--John O'Farrell

( Everyone should know at least the basics of the history of these islands )

The Glorious Revolution (1688--Britain's Fight for Liberty)--Edward Vallance

When was Britain last successfully invaded?

( Well, have a guess. The late 17thC is )

Battle Cry of Freedom (The American Civil War) James M. McPherson

( knowing how America came to be the way it is is essential for everyone )

The long 19th century--Eric Hobsbawm

( The modern world was created by the 19th Century, economically, socially and politically. Understanding it is probably a good thing. )

John Stuart Mill (Victorian Firebrand)--Richard Reeves

( If you already think you're a liberal, you ought to have read this book. If you don't think you're a liberal, you should read this anyway )

OK, that was longer than I expected it to be.

ginasketch's meme got me geeking about both books and history. Which has got me writing properly again. I'll try to keep it up. Guess I'd better cut the bulk of the text then...

Silly meme: Choose a singer/band/group — answer using ONLY titles of songs by that singer/band/group.

1) Are you male or female? Perversonality
2) Describe yourself. Unbeliever
3) What do people feel when they're around you? Nausea
4) How would you describe your previous relationship? Nowhere
5) Describe your current relationship? Bowels Of Love
6) Where would you want to be now? Disgracelands
7) How do you feel about love? Don't Expect Roses
8) What's your life like? Deep Sleep
9) What would you ask for if you only had one wish? Die Laughing
10) Say something wise. Potato Junkie

Certain people will find this easier than others...

I aten't dead. I would proclaim I've been busy, but that'd be a lie—I've been doing stuff (currently revamping and adding content to the local constituency site—nowhere near finished) but mostly I've been reading, playing Starcraft and doing stuff with SB. Just lost the need to post at the moment. Ah well. In lieu of actual content, I thought I'd do a meme, might break the block...

The instructions are quite simple:

You bold the things you've done!

So I thought I'd add some commentary to some of them, no idea how many yet, there are 200 of the things...

( List of 200 things with comments )

Meh, can't be arsed to count that, but, y'know, if you want to take the piss out of the list like I did, knock yerself out...

Still not shaken my block on writing Actual Real Content^tm, so in an attempt to write something that isn't linkspam, I'll do this.

that bastard Duncan tagged me for it anyway, so might as well.

1. The rules of the game get posted on the beginning.
2. Each player answers the rules about himself [or indeed herself].
3. At the end of the post, the player tags five people and posts their names as a link ~~then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they’ve been tagged and asking them to read his [or her] blog.~~ [because if you're not checking your incoming links you're crap and off topic comments are rude].

So, to business:
( What I was doing ten years ago )
( Five things on my To-Do list today )
( Things I would do if I were a billionaire )
( Three of my bad habits )
( Five places I’ve lived )
( Five jobs I’ve had )
( Five books I’ve recently read )

Five people or communities I’m going to tag:

OK, I normally leave these things open but I'll make a change.

Jennie,

Alex,

Debi,

Justin and you. Yes, you.

There's a dialect meme (what do I call things) doing the rounds that I'm finding quite interesting, I've seen answers in Aussie, New Orleans, Yorksher, London and Real Places (ie Devon). So I thought I'd compile the common answers into a poll (linguistic shifts interest me). As always, if you don't have a Livejournal account you can login and vote with any OpenID, which everyone's got these days. So, without further ado...
[Poll #1169647]Huge bunch of sources for some of those questions (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7), and some of the differences and similarities are strange. Yorkshire is, from what I can tell, more "different" than most of the other places, Londoners and Devonshire folk speak more similarly to USians and Aussies thanthey do to, supposedly, fellow English peeps. Well, God's Own Country and all that. I still cause confusion calling cakes cakes and dinner dinner (seriously, the word for lunch is dinner ? How does that work?). Ah well, have fun voting y'all.

[*] Two different people who I'm sure don't read each other did the same joke for that one, just for different countries.

Off out now, discovering the joys of Bradford nightlife. Wish me luck.

Heh, another amusing "best ever" list that, for the most part, concentrates on the last few years only at Empire Magazine. Aint it Cool smugly observes: Britain’s Empire magazine has chosen the 50 best TV shows ever made. Turns out they think only 39 of them are American shows! which partially reflects the nature of Empire's readership and the point that until recently British TV didn't normally even try to make the sort of shows listed, let alone get given a decent budget. As Film Fodder points out, and as you'd expect from Empire, about 40% of the best TV *ever* was in our genre. with "our" meaning SF&F there, naturally. It's actually not a bad little list. So, y'know, couldn't resist...

Bold the ones you've got some DVDs of
italicise the ones you'd happily watch, rent or buy the DVDs for
strikeout what you didn't like or actively avoided
leave the ones you have no knowledge of blank.
Bold and italic for not got everything but would like.

NB: I'm including SB's collection (I'm sat next to the combined shelves), but our likes/dislikes don't exactly coincide—she'd put multiple strikethroughs on #42 whereas I'm a bit meh having previously liked a fair bit. Feel free to tell me how wrong headed I am for liking something and/or not having watched something already, The Wire is italicised despite never having seen it, purely on strength of recommendation from the last time I saw this sort of thing.
( list of 50 shows )

Original story via, meme by me because, well, why not?

ETA: A bit of digging reveals this to be from a poll of Empire readers. I've bought the mag once or twice for a special feature, buying it regularly? Takes a very special type of person...

Heh, guess what? Yup, little bit of a malaise when it comes to the will to write posts at the moment. I think it might be linked to being too happy (sorry): I need a little bit of anger in my soul, and despite the perpetual money worries, life is good right now. I even have a few potential clients for the part-time consultancy I really should already have set up. Anyway, a few people are doing this meme:

Everyone has things they write about. Everyone has things they don't write about. Challenge me out of my comfort zone by telling me something I don't blog about, but you'd like to hear about, and I'll write a post about it. Ask for anything: latest movie watched, last book read, political leanings, thoughts on yaoi, favorite type of underwear, graphic techniques, etc. Repost in your own journal so that we can all learn more about each other.

So, y'know, go on, suggest something--promises to actually write the post may or may not be kept for lack-of-motivation or distracted-by-Jennie reasons (especially if she's got the new top that

claire_wain made for her on), but it might happen.

There's also the fair warning that many of you might get the "political leanings" request if you don't normally post about such things--this is me, after all.

Oh OK then, I was going to do this when I first saw it, but I finally got my round tuit supply in.

Rules:
+ Pick 15 of your favorite movies.
+ Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
+ Post them here for everyone to guess.
+ Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
+ NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search functions.

( 15 film quotes )There's at least one trick question, a few sillynesses, and one so obvious that I expect you all to get it.

In a little twist, comments screened, you have between now and whenever I get bored to answer as many as you can, points awarded for bragging rights, etc...

ETA: ( Results so far... )
ETA 2: Comments still going to be screened, answered ones (and therefore some hints) are unscreened. And no, 7 has nothing to do with any Terminator movie.
ETA 3: All done after I dropped a few hints.

John Peel Gravestone

Steve points us at The Guardian's gravestone meme inspired by the news that John Peel's grave has a line from an Undertones song on it. The mind boggles as to why the Telegraph had a picture of the actual stone but none of the other media sources did, I assume stupidity? Anyway, the questions:

1) Which lyric would you have on your tombstone?
2) Which song has been the soundtrack to your life?
3) Do you have any suggestions for the pop-music epitaphs of world figures?

I answered on his post but, y'know, I was going to link the picture anyway because, well: Dude! John Peel!

And it is a most excellent gravestone. So I guess you want my answers, right?
( Tribute to John Peel meme )

Ah well, any more takers?

Isn't actually that bad to complete, and I've enjoyed reading the ones others have done, so here goes.
( What I was doing X years ago )
Tomorrow
To be decided, probably Exeter to see the sites, meet people and possibly look at the new Princesshay. We'll let you know if you've expressed an interest.

BBC - Radio 4 - Word of Mouth

Talking about the origins and usage of memes.

ETA:It's finished, he was on for about 5 minutes at the beginning, and it's available on listen again. He got the word from the Greek word mymeme(sp?) apparently, and seemingly approves of the usage in quiz memes—it's become a meme in its own right, but thinks it might be a misuse. He even referred to the meme pool, but not seriously.

Apparently blue tits pecking milk bottles was a meme as well, how cool is that? The whole country was covered by this memetic epidemic...

That places where I've lived meme. Better plan.

Not a bad little tool that, updated it now, hadn't touched it since

susumu linked to it, oh, 6 months ago?

Silly meme from SB:

1. Go into the archives of your LJ.
2. Find your 42nd entry ever. Yes, this may require some counting and basic maths. Deal with it.
3. Link to that entry in a new entry. This is the meaning of your life.

OK then. My return journey from Athens. So, the meaning of my life is to return home from a nice break and fall asleep for 24 hours? Sounds like a plan...

Here's a hint :

The number in the URL is generated by:

N = 256E + R

where N is the number in the URL, E is the number of the entry, and R is
a random integer from 0 to 255.

LJ-fu from

rho in the comments on a very old entry, for which my Gmail search string was label:lj- from:rho 256 because I just knew. So that means you're lookingfor the entry numbered between 10752 and 11008.

Oh, might as well, posted to

ihasatardis earlier, it may or may not have cleared the moderation queue: ( Casting spoiler for the Doctor Who Xmas special (plus it's a big pic, which is more important) )

Guess what? Yup, it's that interests meme, round 3. I suspect this one will run and run, but hey, I'm enjoying writing the posts so we're good. OK, two batches, both from

innerbrat at hers:

ancient civiliasations, black, thirty years war

And also in a comment on my last post on this subject:

Evolutionary theory, flimsy moral standards, jaded old goths

So, once more unto the breach dear Friends...
( Ancient Civilisations - Im in Ur, makin ur pots )
( Black - because moonless midnights are cool. )
( Thirty Years War - defenestrate this! )
( Evolutionary Theory - because geekery science rules )
( Flimsy Moral Standards - It may surprise some friends to know I have moral standards )
( Jaded Old Goths - Narcissism ahoy! )

Ah beejezus. I have something like 6 icons that would suit this post. Hmm...

OK, more answers to the interests meme.

two_brains asked me:

Old Harry's game
the checkbox tyranny resistance
thursday next

And then

the_vin proposed:

Devon, Germany, Single transferable vote

So here we go:
( Old Harry's Game - (and how I met Jennie) )
( The Checkbox Tyranny Resistance - and more on how Six Apart sucks )
( Thursday Next - books by Jasper Fforde )
( Devon - I was born there )
( Germany - I wouldn't mind living there )
( Single Transferable Vote - the Best Electoral System in the World )

Well, Doctor Who is now at 70% complete on the download, in the meantime, anyone else want to ask me about my interests, or want me to ask about theirs?

Right, I've finished work and am about to leave the office, but my 'net connection last night was awful, it's been mostly OK since we got the new router but last night just, well, no.

Which makes looking at profiles and pics really hard work; hopefully I'll be ok tonight, it was fine this morning, but if it's bad, um, you'll just have to wait a bit.

Having said that, I had meant to edit the instructions for the meme to allow people to respond on my post with answers, and also to ask me for extra ones to write up there, but I gave up editing - I dislike being told what to post by a meme, and I dislike the idea that by commenting somewhere you're obliged to post something else, so, y'know, asking me stuff doesn't mean you then have to post, etc. I actually really enjoyed writing that up, it's not a bad little meme really, talking about stuff you're interested in that others want to know about. So if you don't want to actually do the meme, but want me to write more about interests and/or icons, ask away; I'm a bit lacking on the inspiration front for stuff to write anyway so, assuming I can get online, it'd be cool.

I, am knackered. Utterly exhausted. Coherent thought may follow later, or tomorrow, or something. In the meantime, here's a silly meme nicked from

rowanberries :

If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, even if we don't speak often, please post a comment with a memory of you and me. It can be anything you want - good, bad, neutral, random, or whatever. When you've finished, post this paragraph on your blog and be surprised about what people remember.

Because, y'know, when you're exhausted, comments = cool.

First full week in the job, enjoyed it, have pictures of the neighbourhood to follow (and we all know that means they'll never get uploaded), but am listening to Any Questions and trying to backread a very swamped friends list...

Oh yeah; happy birthday Mr

mapp!

Oh, ok then. Four separate people that I like have done this meme now, and I have commented, so here we go...:

We all have things about our friends that make us slightly envious. Not in a bad way, but in a 'Wow! I wish I had that person's hair/eyes/money/relationship/toenails/whatever.' So tell me what about me makes you envy me. . . ~~then post this in your LJ and see what makes me envious of you.~~

I've struck out that last bit so you don't feel obliged to, I know a lot don't anyway, but I'm never keen on the whole "you must repost this" style instruction; feel free if'n you want. OK, comment me up...

OH, all right then, haven't done this sort of thing for ages. Silly quiz meme:

Use the 1st letter of your username to answer each of the following...They MUST be real places, names, things...NOTHING made up! If you can't think of anything, skip it. Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial. You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question.

( List of things beginning with M )

Current Music: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

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Mat Bowles

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Mat Bowles

Dreaming in Digital

Entries tagged with memes

It was thirty years ago today...

Books sah! Faahsands of 'em. Well, five, actually...

Guess that band

200 things I might've done

An attempt at content: meme time

Five people or communities I’m going to tag:

[Poll:] Dialects, word patterns and lingusitic shift

50 best TV shows "of all time"

Inspire me: what should I write about?

Guess the film in 15 quotes

Teenage Dreams so hard to beat

That 30/20/15/10/5 years ago meme

PSA: Dawkins on Radio 4 [when I posted]

Where I've lived and worked

The meaning of [LJ] life: 42nd entry

Crazy turtle ladies and the interests meme again

Questions on my interests (again)

'Net problems and that icons/interests meme

And relax...

If everyone else is I guess...

Multiple Madness and a Multiplicity of Ms