Meme: A relatively newly coined term, identifies ideas or beliefs that are transmitted from one person or group of people to another. The name comes from an analogy: as genes transmit biological information, memes can be said to transmit idea and belief information. (From the Wikipedia entry)
Jillsmo over at Yeah. Good Times has created an award, The Memetastic Award, which has now made the rounds to yours truly. Laura over at Life in the House That Asperger Built has selfishly inflicted graciously bestowed it upon me.
Here’s what Jillsmo has to say about the profound and mysterious origins of the award, along with the rules visited upon its victims its illustrious recipients must follow:
*Jillsmo says*
I’ve created an award!! You know those blogger awards that go around the blogosphere, I’ve gotten a few before. It’s nice, to get these things, it means that somebody likes you and wants to spread your word. (That actually sounded kind of gross, “spread your word.” Please don’t spread my word, I like my word the way it should be, the way nature intended, in its original unspread state. But you know what I mean). So, I figured there aren’t enough of these things around, at least, I haven’t been given one for a few months, surely the blogosphere needs another one! (Is “blogosphere” the right word to be using here? It doesn’t look right to me.)
So, I present to you all: The Memetastic Award! Named as such because these things are memes and its purpose is solely to celebrate the memeness of the award giving process. Let’s rejoice in our memeocity by passing this award on to other people! It will be memelicious! Okay, mostly I just want to see what happens, and how far this thing goes. Wouldn’t it just be so cool if an actual meme was created from this? Not very likely, but a girl can dream, right? At this point I’m just hoping it makes it past my own blog.
Here are the rules:
1. You must proudly display the absolutely disgusting graphic that I have created for these purposes (put it in your post, you don’t have to put it in your sidebar, I think that would seriously be asking too much). It’s so bad that not only did I use COMIC SANS, but there’s even a little fucking jumping, celebrating kitten down there at the bottom. It’s horrifying! But its presence in your award celebration is crucial to the memetastic process we’re creating here. If you need a higher resolution version… I totally have one!!
2. You must list 5 things about yourself, and 4 of them must be bold-faced lies. Just make some shit up, we’ll never know; one of them has to be true, though. Of course, nobody will ever know the difference, so we’re just on the honor system here. I trust you. Except for the 4 that you lied about, you lying bastards! But don’t go crazy trying to think of stuff, you’ll see by the example I’ve set below that we’re not really interested in quality here.
3. You must pass this award on to 5 bloggers that you either like or don’t like or don’t really have much of an opinion about. I don’t care who you pick, and nobody needs to know why. I mean, you can give a reason if you want, but I don’t really care.
4. If you fail to follow any of the above rules, I will fucking hunt your ass down and harass you incessantly until you either block me on Twitter or ban my IP address from visiting your blog. I don’t know if you can actually do that last thing, but I will become so annoying to you that you will actually go out and hire an IT professional to train you on how to ban IP addresses just so that I’ll leave you alone. I’m serious. I’m going to do these things. Starting with the 5 of you I’m about to pass this award on to.
5. This one isn’t actually a rule, but once you do the above, please come back here and link up to the Memetastic Hop so that I can keep track of where this thing goes.
*Jillsmo stops talking now*
Okay. So. Ready? Here goes:
1. I feel so honored to receive this award, I cannot tell you. Truly. You shouldn’t know. I’m plotzing. I’m practically delirious. I would pass out, but I’ve got three more lies four more things to list about myself.
2. I did so totally know what a meme was when I first saw this award on Jillsmo’s blog, and I absolutely did not need to look it up on Wikipedia for myself. I just posted the Wikipedia entry out of pity for you poor shleps who didn’t know either.
3. When I was in the eighth grade, I skinned a raccoon. (Hey, it was roadkill! It was just lying there.)
4. When I go on vacation, I love jumping from the hot tub to the swimming pool, over and over, just for the cold rush.
5. I’m so happy that it’s only January, and that the snow is still on the friggin’ ground, aren’t you?
And now, while you’re trying to figure out where the truth lies (Get it? Truth? Lies? Hahaha!)…
The moment we’ve all been waiting for.
Envelope, please.
Pause.
Pause.
Suspenseful pause.
The Memetastic Award goes to:
1. Aspergirl Maybe at Aspergirl Maybe
2. Bruce at Born 2b me
3. Clay at Comet’s Corner
4. Diane at Don’t Panic
5. Lili Marlene at Incorrect Pleasures
Congratulations, suckers lucky recipients!
© 2011 by Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg
I like “jillsmo stops talking now.”
As if!
I know. Irony is my specialty.
Those are GREAT, Rachel! The lies/truth AND the nominees/suckers!!!
Love you!
It’s a rare friendship that can survive the bestowal of The Memetastic Award. Love you, too!
You skinned a raccoon? Well, it’s not quite how I’ve always pictured you (kneeling by the roadside with a knife!!!) but yeah, I’ll go with that.
Now that I’ve created that visual, I’ll never live it down. Truth or lie? Sorry, I’d love to tell, but I’ve gotta run. There’s prep work to do at The Road Kill Cafe.
I love that you’ve included the bit about plotzing/feeling honored in the truth-lies list!
Since bbsmum already guessed roadkill, I’ll guess that it’s true you didn’t really *need* to look up “meme” on Wikipedia. Surely the term has been around in a literary context for a while?
Wow, look at Jillsmo. Hunted you down immediately, and you FOLLOWED the rules!
I know! The woman is SCARY! I hardly slept last night.
This as well as cyclones and floods.
Just hoping to give some respite.
Rachel,
I love this! Confession: I had to look up plotzing. You’re going to education this southern country hick yet! Seriously, I think the correct answer has to be 2 because I can’t imagine you not knowing the definition of any word, so thank you for posting the definition for our benefit.
I haven’t gotten much further in your book, but I plan to read more this weekend. Sending you hugs for all you’ve endured and gratitude for sharing it.
Aloha,
Sue
Thank you, Sue. I will take care to scatter more Yiddishisms throughout my writing. I had no idea it was so edifying!
Aw shucks, Rachel, ya shouldn’t have!
I mean, ya really shouldn’t have!
But since you have, I’ll send my PayPal info so you can forward the $10,000 that accompanies the award, okay?
I hope I haven’t misunderstand something here. You know how fragile I am and how terribly disappointed I’ll be if the money doesn’t come. It would irreversibly crush me and totally ruin the rest of my life.
Now let’s see,
– you give away that 1) is a lie;
– 5) is unlikely to be true given the tone;
– my sensory sensitivities mean I just can’t relate to 4) and suspect you’d feel the same;
– you’ve ruled out 3) by saying “It was just lying there” so that’s not true;
– and so by a process of elimination I arrive at … TAH-DAH … number …wait for it … SIX!
Oops…. er… I mean …. lemme see… I think it’s 2! It’s two that’s true! Is that too true?
LOL, Bruce!
Did you consider that I might have adopted a sarcastic tone for #5, just to throw people off? I could have, you know. Then again, maybe not.
Jillsmo is responsible for the cash prizes, so if she’s lying through her teeth about the $10,000, your therapy bills should go directly to her. After all, I didn’t start this.
We’ve been caught in the same snare, my friend.
That’ll teach her to start a meme. Poor Jillsmo will soon be in the hole for millions
We gotta save her by unpropagating this meme, Rachel.
Now how does one unpropagate a meme anyway??
Hmm, maybe I can’t “unpropagate” a meme, but after thinking about it I’ve decided to not let this particular meme replicate through my blog. It will have to find other channels.
= disappointed meme.
But thanks for the fun! I enjoyed playing detective trying to find the truth in your five items!
I hope you’ll let us know.
You are a brave soul to incur the wrath of Jillsmo, my friend. A brave, brave soul.
Too bad you’re on your own there. Bwahahaha!
I guess now that two people have nominated me I have to play along, or there will be double hell to pay! Thanks.
Hey, what are friends for?
[...] I have had the dubious honor of being given The Memetastic Award by both Sue at dswalkerauthor and Rachel at Journeys with Autism. [...]
I’ve been rather preoccupied today listening to some noisy synaesthete paintings by the likes of Kandinsky and Mondrian. Still no idea who I’ll inflict this prestigious award upon.
Take your time. The victims must be chosen carefully.
Hi Rachel,
What, me worry?
I always wondered where Rocky Raccoon went. Now I know.
Cheers,
Bruce
Poor Rocky…But then again, not every piece of roadkill ends up being the centerpiece of such a good story.
Um, I’ve just gotten back online after being offline for nearly 4 whole days, (which I spent moving, ugh!), my back is sore, I have a huge backlog in my inbox. I have to figure out where everything goes, and then I have 6 big boxes of books to put back on the shelves. Also have to finish building my new computer desk, (movers demolished the other one, not their fault, just not enough space on the stairs), so while I’m happy to receive an award, it’s going to have to wait until I can catch up on a few things and my back stops hurting, so I’ll be in a better mood. I have just way too many things to do before I can get to this one.
That’s totally cool, Clay. All in good time. I can hold off the wrath of Jillsmo till you get settled.
And mazel tov on your move to a quieter environment!
I love this post for so many reasons. . . .
Hi Jennifer,
So good to hear from you. I was just thinking of you, in fact!
Is it because you can read my mind just like Jason can? haha
If yes, get out of my head =) You DO NOT want to be in there.
I just love the hidden humor in this post. I feel like only someone on the spectrum or a true loved one could get the funny.
P.S. Loved the word play. Hilarious.
No, I can’t read your mind. I just sensed your presence.
I ADORED your lies
So funny