Memes

I've gotten some questions about memes.  I will write about it.

Essentially they are culturally learned behaviors that are transmitted either peer to peer or generationally.  They can be learned by observation.  Like seeing someone do something on tv and then imitating it.

That's different than yawning which we all do innately.

Memes are bits of behavior that transmit culture.  If you can affect culture around a brand you have become very powerful.

More later.

Paper Shredder

I bought a paper shredder after work.  I came home, plugged it in and after figuring out the trick to turn it on I began shredding.  Old financial paperwork, some stuff that actually had my social security number on it, bank statements that I don't need.  

It was unbelievably satisfying.  Like I was moving on to a new era.  My shady past was behind me in what is so far three bags of paper--cross cut ribbons of incomprehensible jibberish erased any record of my financial fretting (I uselessly fret a lot).  It's like I never had  a care in the world.

Today I get to shred more stuff.  I have the day off.

Thursday ramble

I talk and write a lot about how stuff shifts before your very eyes.  I mean like the whole culture is on a hinge swinging, creaking and sometimes banging into into itself.  My client's needs are changing right in front of me and I have a front row seat.  I think the whole thing is quite grand but I'm not sure all my colleagues would agree.  They aren't sure how much to charge for some of it, aren't sure about whether this is a blip and things will just go back (not just people I work with, friends in industries outside of my own) and I can't remember a time since maybe 20 years ago when I remember hearing people make decisions based on fear--that kind of thing you do to limit the downside.  That's a depressing way to look at it and I just clamp my mouth shut when I hear it.  No amount of cheerleading is going to get anyone to look at maximum upside because when it doesn't magically appear you get a "see I told you" before your butt hits that Herman Miller chair.  

Good grief.  A man needs to dream.  Sometimes the "what if" needs to be a good thing.

Some others are embracing change--except for themselves.  "You all go out and do your work differently because I don't really want to" oh, and you're responsible for the profit/loss on this risky-ass venture. Here's your rope.  It's like the early 1980s all over again.  I've heard all these scripts before.  Like how art directors don't like the type that comes out of a computer and that airbrush retouching is so much nicer, so much more natural than a computer.   Anyone remember dye-transfers?  I thought not.  For the record, I thought they looked fakey and horrible.  I think trying something new is better than doing the same thing over and over and getting nothing.  

So I suppose if you want to want to learn how to adjust carburetors, someone could teach you.  In the mean time, I'm thinking this fuel injection fad is here to stay.

I feel this way sometimes when I am thinking up ideas.  You just don't know where they're going to live these days so you have to imagine them living everywhere and nowhere.   They need a thread that can tie them together and that can either be a "voice" that is so distinctive and unique that it could be no other or it can actually be a thing.   Like a gecko that represents a brand and gives it a voice or a visual that is unique.

Allow me to digress for a moment.  Things are either unique or not.  Something can't be more unique than another thing.  Friggin' little is unique in the commercial world.  So get over yourselves already.

I like this idea that you can come up with an iconic idea, an idea that represents something in a memorable way.  Something that makes memes (look it up, those are cool) and then takes those little things that string up a story, a narrative and help you shape an adoption of a series of thoughts.  You might reject the string or you might not but you will likely remember it better if it's tied to an icon.  Like a duck.  Or a dancing baby.  Or maybe just the color orange.

Not unique.  Not the most unique.  Just a killer meme.

The New 2010 Taurus | Ford Vehicles

The New 2010 Taurus | Ford Vehicles

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youngnessness

Ok so I'm 48 tomorrow.  But I can still kick your ass, even though I never would.

It's bothered me all week and now quite suddenly don't give a crap.  Things are actually pretty nice.  This economic collapse has all kinds of upsides.  Traffic is actually lighter, customer service experiences at stores have been great and in the nervousness of the times my friends have made a special effort to stay close and stay in touch.  It's nice.  Yes, I occasionally have to work late, even a weekends on projects and most of my vacation was annoyingly peppered with thinking about and managing the finish of some illustrations.  The payback was I got to work with an amazingly talented artist in Berlin who I've wanted to work with for a long while and he did a fantastic job with the project.  I just printed them out and sat there on the floor with them feeling all glow-ey about the whole thing in spite of some pesky nitpicks in the background.  When that satisfaction goes away, I guess I'll be jaded--but I'm not--and don't have a coherent strategy to get jaded and all cynical.  A person needs a plan to get disingenuous because you don't start out that way and only sheer stupidness can make a person deeply angry.  Or mean.  Mean comes from fear.  Being either is not worth the effort and frankly is a kind of poison that the New Testament more or less warns us off of but since most Christians have little idea about any of that a person needs to just sort of avoid most of them.  How did I take that turn?

On another note, having gone to the auto show made me feel bad that I have only driven basic cars ever in my life and at the moment my Jeep is 4 years old and the floor mats, no matter what I do are permanently filthy.  They just make you want that new car smell instead of (this is possible) the smell of salty brackish water all over the bottom of your car.  

So I ordered full set of brand new floor mats for $90. 

Cheaper than a new car and just the sensible thing a 48 year old would do I guess.  But that's not till tomorrow.

Let's play an auto show game.

Name the cars.  Make and model.

oh, I have a blog

I will write more soon.  A vacation happened and now I'm all recharged and happy.  Took three trains to get to the east coast and visited Chicago and Washington along the way.  For the most part, the food and service on the train made me glad to travel instead of dreading the experience as I do with air travel.

That and you can see America's backyard all with a (plastic) glass of champagne.  Love it.