Behind the Eight Ball: The 8 Random Things Meme

I’m behind the eight ball in more ways than one these days, so when Greg Verdino at Crayon (one of my Age of Conversation colleagues) tagged me for the meme game to get to know his fellow authors (or to make it easy on himself to pick eight bloggers, not sure which, but the idea deserves swiping!) I decided that the ‘8 ball’ analogy, (his photo, the whole shebang) could be a swift way to make my life a little LESS difficult, so consider ‘imitation the highest form of flattery’ so I can cut to the chase, ‘k?

To make it fit our Shaping Youth theme of media and marketing’s influence on kids, I’ll toss out a new angle here, since parents are always telling kids not to send out chain letters. (kids love them and do it anyway. And with memes? So do we…) When I wrote Shaping Youth’s post about kids using social media like Library Thing as a ‘MySpace for booklovers’ or Shelfari and such to bond, one comment jolted through me like a lightening bolt, “5 random books say more about me than any profile ever could.”

I heartily agree. (Someone needs to give that meme a go prevalently…I’ll play. Ping me! Love that concept!) Meanwhile, what’s the difference between a viral internet chain letter and a fun meme, other than the latter sounds more intellectual?

I could go all lofty on you and put my ‘name generation’ hat on to delve into the etymology of meme, stemming from memetics, and Richard Dawkins’ popularization of the gene-centered view of evolution, but that’s more Nancy Friedman’s turf at Wordworking and Visual Thesaurus. (tag, you’re it, girl!)

But…to me, it’s much more basic and primal than that.

Memes like this enable us to gain intimacy and connect on a human, non-digital level; much like kids playing ‘truth or dare’ at a slumber party or getting to know each other the first day of class by ‘interviewing’ each other about their favorite color, movie, music, or book.

The internet is just a distribution tool, the discourse opens up with what’s revealed, n’est ce pas?

So no more stalling, here goes:

“Eight Random Things About Me:”

1. I lived in Japan for 3rd & 4th grade; udon, ginzas, & trains are still a fave, all things Asian bring me peace, and it’s my ‘comfort food’ of choice.

2. I’m currently part of an eco-community in Roatan, Honduras (Bay Islands dive spot) called Seadancer Villas.

3. I worked as a security guard on the graveyard shift in college (A+ in self-defense) and was always sent in to break up the big parties as the only woman on the force because their theory was no one would ‘punch and pummel me’ (though I did get thrown in the pool)

4. I was stranded on a roof top with Uzi toting ‘peace-keepers’ during a Greek political student uprising w/CNN correspondents at the tender age of 22 during an Adriatic ‘fam’ trip from the ad agency as Sr. copywriter on a cruiseline account. (yes, I’ve been working since I was a teen; go figure)

5. I sent in a prelim application to the FBI much to the amusement of my counter-terrorist Naval intelligence father who claims I’d never be able to ‘take an order’ to save myself. (ok, I admit, ‘question authority’ should be tattooed on me somewhere)

6. I’m known for my loyalty, responsibility, and general disdain for all things cruel, with a tenacious desire for justice.

7. I served for nine years as a volunteer ‘dog whisperer’ at the Humane Society to deal with all the ‘tough case’ large animals (Newfies, pitbulls, shepherds, danes, abused critters) because I have absolutely no fear of same.

8. Finally…to answer the ‘teaser’ comment I left on Greg’s blog, saying I’d get back to him soon as I had to “pick up the other delegates at SFO”…

I am honored to represent the United States as one of the Women Leaders for the World (www.gwln.org) for our big summit next week in Santa Clara.

I haven’t blogged it because it seemed like blowing my horn, but Shaping Youth (ok, me, myself and I) was selected as one of the “women worthy of support” to participate in next week’s intensive leadership training on site at the university to see our full vision actualized.

Currently, I’m hosting Simi, (pg. 5, gwln.org) Pakistan delegate; a TV media personality/producer) as my home stay visit (she’s sleeping in the other room as I write this, poor jet lagged dear) and I’ve spent the day with Southeast Asian women and African delegates who as Gandhi would say, “are being the change we wish to become.”

There you have it! That’s my eight!

Now I’ll ping some of my NextNow collaboratory group from Digital Earth and our thinktank crew: Sky, Bill Daul, Laurie Clemans, Robert Scoble, as well as some random Age of Conversation bloggers to tag in order to continue Greg’s co-author AOC theme: G. Kofi Annan, Stanley Johnson, Carolyn Manning. One more, Sticky Figure’s Steve Woodruff. Go to it gang, looking forward to hearing from ya!

And to those who’ve been bugging me about my YPulse conference post recap, hold your horses, I’m getting there!!! Just been swamped, okay? This Women Leaders for the World comes with huge responsibility. Standby!