My son, age 15, is talking to me about school. One nice thing about teaching is that I'm home to speak with him. I know so much more about his daily life than I did with my two oldest, even though I am very close to both of them. He is telling about mentos and diet coke and how if combined, they explode. He tells me there is a website. I said it must be some urban legend, but he is going to connect me to the site. Now we're talking about the French Revolution and he is laughing about his teacher's drawing stick figures on the board. All of this is happening while I sit in my living room thinking about memes.

I realize our conversation is meme centric - the story about the mentos and coke, the legends about the French Revolution. Yesterday, on the way home from school, we talked about Napoleon and if he were a better general than Wellington (my son is a history fan). I assume the meme in France would favor Napoleon while the meme in England would favor Wellington. That is where I have questions on some of the meme theory. If memes are like genes in a natural selection process, than they must also tend to be local in nature. The meme is a creature of the environment in which it exists. So a meme in France, the same fact, morphs within the limits of its cultural context and becomes altered from the meme in England.

My post also reflects the appeal of blogging. My conversations with Sam are now captured for anyone who chooses to read it, and, more important, to the future me that will read it again some day.

I'm reading the Rapaille interview with "Frontline" and I'm outraged. How can he make a blanket statement about a culture or country, telling us " The ideal life for a German person is when they just have to obey; the administration is in charge of everything and controls everything, and you don't have to worry about anything," and "American culture is a very basic instinct." How narrow and absurd. If Germans and French are controlled, why are the sections of the country heavily populated by them not controlled in the same way- do they all of the sudden change when the arrive in America? American culture is so diverse, with all sorts of people, some newly arrived, some going back to the Mayflower and beyond. Is a New Englander like a Georgian or Californian? I understand that people share common characteristics, but it smacks of bigotry, racism, to make the type of blanket statements he is making. I think of Lincoln's comment about fooling some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time. You can replace 'fool' with manipulated. He uses the Hummer and PT Cruiser as examples to prove his point because he is caught up in his own perception that short term cultural popularity equates to success. How many of these cars were actually sold relative to the market. They made the news, a short term flash and profit, but they don't prove that his theory is correct. Maybe a small Cadillac won't sell because it is overpriced, underpowered, ugly and poorly built, not "off code." I am teaching archetypal literary theory to my classes at this time, so I believe there are primordial and universal codes in our DNA. However, I am having trouble with the way in which he is using these ideas.

OK, this is getting a little easier to do.

Ravings is the appropriate verb for the semi-sane madwomen. Ironically, while her blog was more visuall interesting, it's content reminded me of the ultra conservative e-mails my father sends me. For sure, they are the polical opposite, but their anger and extremes mute their effect. I was surprised to see her positive comments about Governor Rell. It would seem that someone so into conspiricy and the wrongdoings of govenment would be repelled by the Governor. I am surprised by Rell's popularity - how she has avoided being tied to the wrongdoings of her and Rolwand's administration is a mystery. Perhaps, it is a function of having few other choices or the simple acceptance that politics function that way.

I read "Nonsense Now" and "Coffee Rhetoric" for the past week and think I prefer the Nutmeg and Raving blogs better. At first, I found "Coffee Rhetoric" interesting because I could not understand why someone would put so much of their personal life into the public domain. I found it kind of sad. Then I found the year review where she explains her motivation for blogging, for the opportunity to write with a purpose, to help unblock writing energy. This made me realize that much of what we read is more purposeful and audience directed than simple ramblings. "Nonsense Now" strikes me as very self aware and directed toward the class and friends.

I have been sampling all the different blogs and the word that keeps popping up is 'different.' I went back to Nutmeg Grater and imagine this is a morph of the original weblogs that were designed to connect to sites or information the blogger found interesting. Nutmeg certainly has a wide range of interests and her comments can be amusing. How could you not like a blogger whose heart was broken by the "traitor" Johnny Damon. As I viewed this blog and others, I can't help but ask why they do what they do. It's as if they, or we, have so much to say and no one to say it to, so we blog.

I still find blogging uncomfortable. I'm embarrassed to say I lost my blog for a while and then it took me a long time to figure out how to ceate a new post. For a blogger it might seem laughable, but I realize how little I know about this area of technology and how my mind works differently than the blogs I've read.

little about little

Yikes! I'm in.

It is really interesting to think that this will be floating in space. There is the sense of intimacy yet the understanding that one is out in the world for all to see. The analogy that comes to mind is that this is like a person in an interview room with one of those huge, mirrored walls. They are alone looking at themselves in the mirror. They can't see beyond the mirror, only their reflection, but they know someone could be looking in, yet they never know if, when or who. I sit in my easy chair typing away, never knowing who or when someone will read this. At some point in time, since there will probably be little feedback, the aloneness, the intimacy, of the medium might seduce one into saying what they would not otherwise commit to print. This could be dangerous and fun.