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Baby-brained Lynn—a reference to present uterine cf. cerebral capacity—has tagged me to propagate a blog meme.

What is a meme?

We all know that genes transmit biological inheritance from one generation to another. Darwinist Richard Dawkins termed the concept of transmitting units of cultural inheritance a "meme". A meme is transmitted (e.g. by imitation or teaching) from person-to-person or group-to-group, as a single (e.g The Lord's Prayer) or related set of ideas/ concepts/ factoids (a "memeplex" e.g. Christianity) and—like genes—may be subject to mutation (the basis of Darwinian evolution). You can read more on this subject here. The term "memetics" is used to denote the study of memes.

Memes seem to spread fairly rapidly on the web, so I guess you could think of them as a sort of ideological contagion. Many of these "ideas" may be deemed to be of passing value, and this would certainly seem to be the case for the chain letter kind of meme propagated from one blogger to the next. Some blog-propagated memes have a specific focus ("What is your favourite...?") while others are more general ("10 random things about me"). In a social networking sense that later type is particularly interesting, because it highlights how little those in the blogosphere know about each other. As an exercise, try listing 10 things you know about each of the most frequent visitors to your blog. Hard isn't it?

I even tried to start a creative writing meme once, but it failed. Evolution is like that sometimes.

On with the game...

Eight random things about me

Herewith the "Bruce memeplex" consisting of 8 random tidbits:

1. I like to research things before giving an opinion or making a purchasing decision. For example, I'll innocently ask a sales assistant a question that I know the answer to and judge his or her response. This will often reveal a lack of knowledge about the product in question, causing me to disregard anything he/she has told me and dismiss them by thanking them for their "help". Does that seem harsh?
2. My favourite actor is probably Denzel Washington. He just has a particular on-screen presence and sincerity that many other actors don't have. See him in Man on Fire, The Bone Collector, The Manchurian Candidate, or Déjà Vu.
3. My favourite movie of all-time is The Matrix, ostensibly about the nature of choice—even though I didn't "get it" until the third viewing. If you haven't seen it, you should—at least 3 times;
4. My favourite drink is tomato juice. Not just any tomato juice; it should be served chilled with no ice, with a healthy but not chest hair-inducing dash of Worcestershire sauce, and a few drops of Tabasco sauce (or salt and pepper). It's an antioxidant meal in a glass (rich in lycopene) and, contrary to my wife's opinion, does not taste like a glass of tomato ketchup. She's never even tried a glass of tomato ketchup!
5. My least favourite work-related task is rectal examinations. Poo just isn't my cup of tea. Sure, it's important to assess prostate size, correctly identify piles or fissures, and exclude cancerous rectal masses, but you can go elsewhere for your manual faecal disimpactions thank you! I get through these examinations only by chanting the medicolegal mantra "Put your finger in now—or your foot in later".
6. Given all this talk about genetics, I thought it would be appropriate to mention my very own congenital anomaly. I have asymmetric cupping of the optic discs. Acquired cupping can be a sign of glaucoma, a common eye disease where the pressure inside the globe may be abnormally high:

   My optic disc on the right illustrates cupping, with a larger pale area

7. I don't sleep well. In fact my biorhythms are seriously messed up. I don't usually feel like eating until about 1030hrs, and typically feel tired after work/ dinner until about 2200hrs, when I get my "second wind"—which can last into the small hours of the next day. These biorhythms (sleeping, eating, digesting, etc.) are all noticeably prone to the effects of stress.
8. In my student days I was an activist, being a member of MedEco (a professional group concerned with the health effects of environmental abuse) and IPPNW. Involvement with the latter led me to France in 1991, funded in part by Rainbow Warrior reparations, where our group gave a series of talks about the health and environmental effects of French nuclear testing in the Pacific. Unfortunately reception of our objectives was overshadowed by the outbreak of Gulf War I.

Eight Five fellow bloggers to tag

Like Lynn I come up short in "knowing" 8 bloggers, and she is 50% of those I know in person. So I'm going to initiate a meme transcription error in order to mutate the number to 5, without resorting to harmful gamma radiation. Assuming their voluntary participation I get a chance to find out more about these guys:

1. Kevin the teacher in China, you'll be first since we have met f2f in Beijing;
2. Ken the musician/ artist from Nottinghamshire, England;
3. Rob, who would have us believe he rides a runaway train somewhere in America;
4. Jasper, who milks triangles for their juice in Antwerp, Belgium;
5. Henk aka BOK, who has visited NZ from Groningen in the Netherlands.

Incidentally, all of these people happen to be Mac users, so they must be good sorts ;-)

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