What's in a Meme?

www.permies.com

This winter has thus far not been the cabin-fever rich, house bound, pile of free time I thought it would be.  I suppose this means not only that can be wrong occasionally but also that there is really no rest for weary me just yet.

One of the many things I have been spending time on is the forums over at permies.com (click the farmer to check it out).  There are lots of things going on over there, but the recent "most fun" thing is Paul Wheaton asks me to make memes for him.

I have some issue with the use of the word "meme" here, because these are not "ideas spreading through large numbers of people through our culture" but instead are memes only in as much as they are words over images that we hope will be "ideas spreading through large numbers of people through our culture".  Proto-memes then? Sure.  I am making proto-memes for Paul Wheaton by request. See the thread and participate here or (continue)

Labor Day

Busy busy bumblebee

Happy Labor Day.  Unlike some other holidays it seems like I'm always actually laboring on Labor Day.  This year has turned out to be no exception.

Time is always working against the homestead.  Really it's an obstacle we all face I think, part of the human condition itself.  With high temps in the 80's this week summer hasn't given up on us yet but really in my mind it is already Fall.  Many of the things I wanted done before winter are still not finished and at this point more than one may not make it into the "done" column before the snow flies either.

As long as I'm making some progress though it counts as a win, a good day.  Any day you aren't making progress is a day you are losing ground.  (continued)

Casting Iron

Seen some better days.

The old adage "they don't make them like they used to" gets thrown around a lot.  In my opinion the blame for that can be laid as much on our collective attitude towards our things as the construction or workmanship.  That and maybe just how much more "stuff" we surround ourselves with.  I'll have to think about that angle some more.

Manufactured obsolescence may exist (I know of more than a few cellphone manufacturers likely guilty of that) but there are still some things out there that seem to last and last and last.

Cast iron cookware is a good example. (continued)

...and bleed and bleed and bleed.

Buckwheat volunteers -
Tall as the mulberry (almost)
A two season story by itself.

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” ― Ernest Hemingway

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Once upon a time there was a person who wanted a thing.  After deciding to overcome obstacles and objections, facing down an adversary or several and achieving their goal (and reaping rich reward) they lived happily ever after.

Sounds pretty terrible right?  There's no information about 'who' so we can choose to love them or hate them, no details about why so we can decide if they are 'good' or 'bad', no 7th son of the king with no prospects, no simpering princess waiting for her emergency "rescue marriage", no faerie godmother, no goofy sidekick, no musical number, no evil stepmother, no magic... no story.  Maybe if we knew what the protagonist's goal was or what kind of adversary stood in the way?  Maybe the story isn't about whether it is a prince or a princess, not about the once upon a time or the happily ever after? Maybe it's the details that are important, the difference literally between a hackneyed formulaic cliche and an engaging narrative?  No maybe about it, I think. (continued)