Monday Miscellany - Misplaced Meme Edition

Dyre42 at Dyre Portents is starting to piss me off. First he tagged me with the Page 123 Meme about six weeks ago. Although I politely indicated I would follow-up, I studiously ignored the meme thinking it would just go away. Then, he tagged me again! Can you believe that guy? This time it was the Rated E for Excellent Award, singling us out as "woefully unappreciated". Ok, well that part is true - but - regardless, now I have to deal with this flood of awards/tags/memes before I drown in them.

Getting tagged by one of these tag/meme/award things is like getting a homework assignment. It just sits there, hanging in the back of your mind, weighing on you, draining all the joy out of life. You know you have to get the homework assignment done, but would much rather go outside and play baseball with the other bloggers.

As luck would have it, today, only one thing happened in the entire world. A muckraking New York Governor got caught boning an overpriced hooker. This item immediately made my "Items I Will Never Blog About, Even If You Waterboard Me" list. Since this was the only thing that happened in the world today, my schedule was clear and I could finally get to the meme/tag detrius that keeps washing up on the beach.

I will respond and forward these tags per their rules later in the post, but first I have a very special present for Mr. Crapomatic (Dyre Portents is located at crapomatic.blogspot.com and no - I don't know what the connection is between Dyre Portents and Crapomatics).

I hope I do not seem ungrateful, but - you see, I spent too much time once before on the question of Memes and Awards. Specifically this post:

"Now some might think this has something to do with a pyramid type scheme for trafficking in the primary currency of the blogosphere - links. But as any thinking blogger knows, these schemes are unsustainable due to the mathematics of geometric progression.This chart from Wikipedia illustrates the problem of geometric progression when one blogger tags six other bloggers and asking each blogger to tag six more - etc. If each blogger acts within one day of getting tagged, then inside of two weeks the entire population of the earth will be tagged... "

But, upon further reflection and research, I decided that I was being a little too hard on the meme creators and promoters, and after further meditating on the unappreciated status of the blog as reflected by the pathetic DWSUWF technorati rating, I had an epiphany and we were inspired in that very same post to create the:

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Partisan Reflection on a Pissant Provocateur Award.

Let's get the terminology straight. We are not using the Merriam Webster definition of a pissant. We are instead using the Urban Dictionary's second definition:

Pissant - Little person blog with big attitude.

Which I think, pretty much covers the entire blogosphere. Recipients should also feel free to substitute, at their discretion, definition 3:

Pissant - Any person who is incapable of consuming as much alcohol as you can. Generally someone who has arrogantly been boasting about how much alcohol they can consume but then falls far short of the trumped up expectations.

That cleared up - on to the rationale for the award. This blog is in the service of promoting the notion that our government runs better when congress and the executive branches are divided between the major parties, and that people should vote to keep it that way. Further, we have refined this notion to assert that if the electorate remains polarized, and equally divided, a relatively small number of libertarian or independent swing voters can have a disproportionate impact by consistently voting for divided government. To that end, it is in our enlightened voting interest, to insure that the electorate remain polarized and balanced along partisan lines. This award is offered to further those ends.

The Rules of the Partisan Pissant Provocateur Award:

1. Copy and link to this post (meaning these rules and the Award icon).
2. Reflect on five bloggers who cause you to gnash your teeth when reading their posts, but who you nevertheless feel compelled to return to and read time and again. Write a short sincere (or not) paragraph about each one.
3. Make sure you link this post so others can read it and the rules.
4. Go leave your chosen bloggers a comment and let them know they’ve been given the award.
5. Put the award icon on your site.
6. Did I mention you should link this post?

This award should make you reflect on five bloggers who have motivated you to unleash fire breathing partisan posts of your own. Carefully crafted logical arguments and good writing are a bonus but don't overlook particularly sharp satire, biting snark, or a high octane flamer. Try to keep the quality high, but in a pinch, feel free to substitute your basic journeyman partisan hack.

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Congratulations Dyre42! - you are now the proud recipient of not one but two Pissy Awards! As you now have two awards, you are obligated to forward this award to double the usual number of recipients. Congratulations again!

WARNING: To all bloggers. The DWSUWF Award/Meme defense policy is to immediately award a Pissy to anyone nominating DWSUWF for any awards or memes whatsoever. Full stop. This policy takes effect immediately. There will be no additional warnings.

That out of the way. I will fulfill my obligations for these meme/tags - The rules ...

The "Page 123" Tag

1. Pick up the nearest book ( of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

RATED "E" Tag

And the "This Blog is rated E for Excellent Award" simply requires it to be passed along to ten others. Apparently Dyre42 was rated by Carrie at Carrie's Nation who was rated by Archcrone. who was double rated by Drinking Liberally and Moes/ROTUS and that is as far back as I'll take it. My recommendation to Dyre42 is to start there with the Pissy. Remember, if we fight this meme scourge over there, we will not need to fight it here.

Page 123 of Timbuktu

First the book. Timbuktu by Marq De Villiers & Sheila Hirtle. The book was given to us by fellow travelers on a recent trip to West Africa and yes... Timbuktu. It is sitting nearby because I have been intending to finish up my blog trip journal with some pithy quotes from the book. I am only three months behind schedule on that project. The page 123 quote:

"I had once spent a morning in Mopti and had seen the stack of salt slabs piled on the cobblestoned wharfside. The merchant I talked to didn't know or care, exactly where they came from. "The Taureg bring them in them in from the desert." he said. "I don't care to go and see myself."

Actually, this is quite a good quote. We visited Mopti, saw the slabs, and walked that very wharf.

Now the winners - I cannot deal with choosing 10, so instead, I will choose six, and simply triple the number of meme/awards. Everyone on this list gets an "E", a "Reads Page 123" , and a "Pissy". Congratulations one and all.

Award/Tag/Meme Winners

First up HDW - who has been quite the nag in the comments here lately. He posts at HDW Mobile blog, with an emphasis on trout and wilderness management policy and his kids. He is also my brother and a co-blogger here, but you probably didn't know that, as he has never actually posted anything here in two years. He already has a Pissy - so - HDW - enjoy your 123+E.

Blogenfreude at Agitprop. A cynical and profane bastard. And funny as hell (your mileage may vary). But he believes in Unicorns. Go figger. One Pissy, One E, One Page 123.

Mark at Publius Endures - A like-minded small "l" libertarian trying to figure out how to make some sense out of the remaining choices for President. He is working to derive a logical freedom based voting rationale for this years election. That, at least, is his intent. But like most people, the emotional choice comes first, and the rational justification for that choice second. He apparently doesn't know it yet, but it is clear he is voting for Obama. I'll be interested in his final rationale/justification for that vote. One Pissy, One E, One Page 123.

Steph at Death Chic - because she coincidently has the the same first name as Steph from Queen of Dysfunction, who was directly responsible for the creation of the Pissy Award and I am still bitter about that whole sorry situation. Also because I know that Steph's Page 123 meme will come from a Mortuary textbook, and who doesn't want to know what is on page 123 of a mortuary textbook? Finally, because she wrote a truly great letter to her Dad as he was deployed to Afghanistan. One Pissy, One E, One Page 123.

Stormwarning - because I have been arguing with him for years, and because I need to bring a little rational right wing ballast back to these pages, as we have been listing to port in recent months. One Pissy, One E, One Page 123.

Ok we have a right winger, a left winger, a moderate, a libertarian, and a mortician mom. How about one more -

Jeff at The Dominican - Because he is the best of the Blogging Deans of Small Midwestern Theological Colleges Who Are Also Fans of 24 And The Chicago Cubs. He is also my brother-in-law. One Pissy, One E, One Page 123.

Enjoy your awards, everyone . See you at the apres award ceremony party. Time for a celebratory drink.

Divided and Balanced.™ Now that is fair.

Technorati tags: divided government, blogging , Pissy Award, meme.

DWSUWF takes a holiday.

Today MW and Mrs. MW begin our second great travel adventure in Africa. Our first was more than a dozen years ago, and also marked my first effort creating a web page. The end result was a travel journal on the (then) new World Wide Web. That time it was Southern Africa, this time it is Western Africa - Senegal, Burkina Faso, and Mali.

Why West Africa? You got me. I asked Mrs. MW the same question about our trip to South Africa, and it was one of the great experiences of my life. I don't ask any more. Mrs. MW is a closet anthropologist/archaeologist, always wanted to explore this part of the world, so we are going. I am just along for the ride. I think it was Kurt Vonnegut that said "Unexpected travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God." Cue the music.

I am informed by Verizon that my TREO 700 will not work anywhere we are going to be, including London - so it stays home. I am bringing an old laptop, will attempt to maintain a journal on the mobile blog as we go, but am not optimistic once we leave Dakar. I may even feel compelled to post on DWSUWF - infrastructure, time and technology permitting. For the most part, I expect it will be a political blogging holiday, which will make Mrs. MW happy.

In the meantime, my brother HDW has agreed to blog-sit DWSUWF while I am gone. Where I consider myself a libertarian leaning to the right, HDW is a libertarian leaning to the left. Actually he is more solidly left, but leaning libertarian. Well, he might really be a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat, that just thinks he is libertarian. Whatever. While an enthusiastic supporter of the divided government thesis in the 2006 mid-terms, let's just say that he is considerably less enthusiastic about voting for a Republican President in 2008 to keep the government divided. He can explain himself. The point, is that if/when he posts anything here, I am likely as not to disagree with it, and may need to rebut it on my return. It'll make for a more politically diverse and interesting blog.

On a less political note, HDW has done the trailblazing for our trip to Mali. It was through his participation in a Northwestern University NUAMP's project, that we learned of the great historical libraries of Timbuktu, and the project to digitally document some of the thousands of ancient texts that still reside there. Hopefully we will meet some of the team he works with in our few days in Timbuktu at the end of our trip.

Back in December. Out.

Divided and Balanced.™ Now that is fair.

Technorati tags: divided government, blogging,2008 election, libertarian, HDW.