Post 27 – Quotidian: Memes

Urban Dictionary defines a meme as:

an idea, belief or belief system, or pattern of behavior that spreads throughout a culture either vertically by cultural inheritance (as by parents to children) or horizontally by cultural acquisition (as by peers, information media, and entertainment media)

Here are some examples. The one on the top is of Dwight Schrute from the show The Office. The Dwight meme plays on Dwight’s smart alec personality on every day sayings. On the bottom is Bad Luck Brian. A picture of what is considered a stereotypical geek is used to portray random bad luck events.

So I thought to myself: what is common in my life that I could make it into a meme? Well, take a look for yourself…

Really? Memes:

Damn You Drier! Memes:

Crazy Clothes Memes:

Post 26 – Quotidian: In-class stuff

Here are the pics from class!!

The list we came up with for the “common” exercise:

• artist
• little things in life/environment
• weeds in grass
• routine things (class, work, etc)
• common to get behind in this class
• opposite: unique, uncommon –> our posts
• franchises like McDonalds
• a lot of things you take for granted
• boring
• following trends

– – – – – – – – –

Additional ideas with the visual:

• got pepper sprayed
• mysterious
• got high
• put tide in his eye
• tattooed eye red
• punched / got in a fight
• health condition

– – – – – – – – –

As I look back on that class and what we did that day, I think I had a pretty good time. The crayon exercise we did at the time seemed tedious, but now that I look back, it seemed like a neat way to think about things. I might try doing this one day AFTER I catch up with my posts.

I also looked back on the list my partner and I came up with for the “common” exercise. I thought about the “following trends” bullet. I’m not the one to follow major trends because I like to do my own quirky little things. But I did notice I followed the trend of pleasing parents when it comes to school.

Originally, when I applied to VCU, I wanted to get into the art foundation program. My parents didn’t like that I wanted to do art, but they just clenched their teeth and moved on. I didn’t get in, so I changed my major choice to undecided just so I could get in the university. Major change 1. At this point, I wanted a major so I settled with biology. Major change 2. My parents were ecstatic that I changed to biology because they wanted me to become a doctor or something similar. I looked at all the chemistry required, so I switched to pre-nursing just to keep my parents content. Major change 3. I soon realized that anything medical wasn’t for me, so I changed to mass communications. Major change 4. End of story? Nope. My parents were MAD I got out of science and kept breathing down my neck with pressuring words. That’s when I switched to computer science, the major my dad completed. Major change 5. I said all this talk about not switching majors anymore and sticking to computer science, again, parents extremely happy. After ALL that and after taking around 3 computer science classes, I FINALLY realized, why am I even doing this? Why should I waste my time in a major that I don’t have 110% interest in? Lastly, I switched my major back to mass communications. Major change 6.

I do have to say, I’m very happy with my major. I can see myself in the future going into the advertising industry and loving what I do.

Post 25 – Quotidian: Sloan

Hey guys, apparently when I say my name’s “Selam” it magically changes to “Sloan”

>:-| …..

I got these two drinks (sweetened passion tea lemonade on left, white mocha on right) after the last class. As soon as I ordered my drinks, I knew they were going to get my name wrong; they always do…and they did. When I left Starbucks, I thought about all the drinks I ordered with my misspelled name and why I drink so much Starbucks in the first place. This led to a whole chain of thoughts..

I thought about how for me, Starbucks is pretty common to start my day. You see, I’m how you say, NOT a morning person so I need some coffee either in the morning or some time in the day. I wish I could naturally wake up in an instant without any trouble and start my day. Every day for class or work, I set my alarm at the latest possible time for maximum sleep. I started thinking about that and how many times I’ve been almost late to class. Then I thought: what if I could just have maximum sleep by flying? When I say fly, not get on Delta Airlines, more like get a running start and jump into the sky, get to class/work in 2 seconds flying.

I kept thinking about that as I walked home in the cold…how it would feel, where I would go, how much more precious sleep I could get….so much sleep. To me, I think flying would feel amazing because I already love the thrill of roller coasters. I would go EVERYWHERE; class, work, home (here in RVA and Northern VA), Ethiopia, Greece, Mexico. Why can’t we have wings, damn it?!