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Philip Newton ([personal profile] pne) wrote2005-09-20 09:33 pm

Meme: LJ interests meme

Since so many people on my friends list are doing it, I thought, why not.

LJ Interests meme results

  1. brainking:
    A game site where you can play board games such as Five in a Line (my favourite), Chess, Backgammon, etc. etc. Moved there from ItsYourTurn mostly because I liked the BKR (BrainKing rating) -- a bit like Chess ELO ratings that go up and down depending on whether you win or lose and whether your opponent has a higher or a lower BKR than you.
  2. conlang relay:
    Yay! Someone takes a text and translates it into their conlang, then passes it on to the next person, along with a glossary and some basic grammatical notes. Next person tries to make sense of the text and translates it into their conlang and passes it on again. Watch stories morph as people misunderstand things. Apparently, texts tend to turn into creation myths. I have no conlang of my own, but have participated with others' languages (especially Verdurian and Klingon) several times.
  3. fantasy:
    Fantasy! Lord of the Rings, that sort of thing. I like to read it occasionally to distract myself.
  4. japanese:
    I like languages in general. I got into Japanese probably because there were so many Japanese at my school, and because my mother suggested I take a course when it was offered at the local Volkshochschule. Took four years of Japanese until the class had shrunk from 20 students to four (IIRC).
  5. lojban:
    Another conlang. Got into it after following it in a conlang translation relay (vide supra). Is machine-parseable and has, it is claimed, an unambiguous grammar (no "time flies like a banana" where any of the first three words could be the main verb).
  6. opera browser:
    I rather like Opera; it's my main browser. I don't remember who introduced me to it. I actually bought Opera 6 and I think I also paid for an upgrade to 7. It's free now, in case you hadn't heard (or rather, they got rid of the ads in the free version).
  7. sci.lang:
    A Usenet newsgroup that I loved to read, back in the time when I had time for Usenet. People talking about all sorts of topics related to languages. The occasional flame war, especially if it was cross-posted. Peter D. Daniels.
  8. the jargon file:
    Some say it went down the drain after esr took over maintenance (and threw out a bunch of words, introduced some new ones, and discontinued the plain-text version, for example). I first came across it in version 2.9.8, which I printed out and read on the train, then version 2.9.11. Bought the T-shirt when I visited MIT campus. Also got two editions of 'The New Hackers' Dictionary'(?).
  9. usenet:
    I used to spend a lot of time on Usenet -- about the time I now spend on my LiveJournal friends page, perhaps. A wide assortment of topics. Or rather, newsgroups, since discussion often wandered away from the nominal topic. I wished even back then I had more time; I felt that one could really participate in perhaps one or two newsgroups where you'd feel at home, or only sample a bunch of newsgroups. (I chose the latter option.) News groups I read (or tried to keep up with at least by skimming the headlines) include (from memory) such groups as sci.lang, alt.games.the-sims, comp.lang.perl.misc, de.etc.bahn.misc, and alt.pizza.delivery.drivers (back when it was still pizza drivers talking about their jobs).
  10. x-sampa:
    A way of representing the IPA in ASCII. Came across it on the CONLANG mailing list; before, I had been accustomed to Kirshenbaum ASCII IPA, which I came across in alt.usage.english and, later, sci.lang. I tend to use CXS (Conlang X-SAMPA) now, which is basically X-SAMPA but with some borrowings from Kirshenbaum ASCII IPA and some other changes (most notably using '&' rather than '{' for 'æ').

Enter your LJ user name, and 10 interests will be selected from your interest list.

And a poll for you:

[Poll #574183]

[identity profile] muckefuck.livejournal.com 2005-09-20 09:31 pm (UTC)(link)
To me that says "French Canadian grandmother".

[identity profile] wingflutter.livejournal.com 2005-09-20 08:51 pm (UTC)(link)
like i said, no official idea how to pronounce this word, though coming to think of it, if i had to, it'd be as [livejournal.com profile] bacskocky commented... meh-may

what is the correct version anyway?!

[identity profile] leora.livejournal.com 2005-09-20 10:00 pm (UTC)(link)
I first encountered the word "meme" in what I believe was the book that discussed the topic and coined the word, _The Selfish Gene_. The word "meme" was created to act similarly to gene, but with ideas rather than physical things. As such, the correct pronunciation should be close to "gene" and thus I say meem (rough phonetic version).

[identity profile] denial-land.livejournal.com 2005-09-20 08:52 pm (UTC)(link)
A while ago I learned the correct pronunciation from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme), which I use obsessively to look up just about anything all day.

[identity profile] kamara.livejournal.com 2005-09-20 09:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Meeeeeem. :D
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[identity profile] pne.livejournal.com 2005-09-21 06:50 am (UTC)(link)
But of course!

I was a bit surprised when I saw in your entry that there were people who pronounced it differently.

[identity profile] elgrande.livejournal.com 2005-09-20 11:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Yay for Kirshenbaum IPA! I knew the most important symbols in Kirshenbaum before I knew any other ASCII IPA and in parts also before I knew the corresponding symbols in real IPA. I sometimes had to check what a real IPA symbol is supposed to mean by looking at the corresponding Kirshenbaum symbol which I knew.

(I wouldn't even have known what '{" is supposed to mean. And I also love Kirshenbaum IPA because you can spend ages discussing with other people whether ot not German "ü" is ever pronounced [Y] until you finally find out that "their" [Y] is what is [I.] in good old Kirshenbaum IPA.)

[identity profile] node-ue.livejournal.com 2005-09-21 02:07 am (UTC)(link)
Don't you mean même?? Having said that, I don't actually pronounce it.

I used to say "lol" when I thought something was funny... it sounded so dumb... sometimes I would say "ell oh ell" and other times I would say "lull".

To me, même is either a French word or an internet word that is to be typed only, NEVER to be pronounced.

Having said that, if I were ever to pronounce it (B-tton forbid!), I would say it "meem", "maym", "mehm", or "meh-may". Not sure which.

[identity profile] node-ue.livejournal.com 2005-09-21 02:08 am (UTC)(link)
I just thought about it, and "maym" is a bit ambiguous as it sounds the same as "maim". Thus, I would never pronounce it "maym".

[identity profile] node-ue.livejournal.com 2005-09-21 02:09 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, and, could you post a poll asking people how they pronounce "laissez-faire" (as an English word)? That would be faskinayting.
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laissez-faire

[identity profile] pne.livejournal.com 2005-09-21 06:51 am (UTC)(link)
What other ways have you heard besides "lessay-fair"?

Re: laissez-faire

[identity profile] lexabear.livejournal.com 2005-09-21 07:37 pm (UTC)(link)

I've sometimes/often heard it more like "lazy fair." Definitely more often with the voiced z over the unvoiced s.
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[personal profile] pthalo 2005-09-21 06:58 am (UTC)(link)
the conlang relay thing sounds rather fun. I don't have a conlang, except for the visual gestural one i made up at age 10 which i've mostly forgotten and didn't have a written form anyway, but i do know hungarian. it'd be kind of fun to participate it one.
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conlang translation relay

[identity profile] pne.livejournal.com 2005-09-21 07:18 am (UTC)(link)
I think it's fun, yes!

The current one is a bit disorganised, because nobody's running it and enforcing the time limit for each stage, but maybe someone will step up again in another few months or so and offer to run the next one.
ext_21031: (Default)

[identity profile] schnurble.livejournal.com 2005-09-21 08:10 am (UTC)(link)
Actually, I've never thought about what could be the correct pronounciation. In my mind, I always pronounce it as if it was German, so it would rhyme with Seele (soul), the first e a bit longer than the second.

[identity profile] squaringkarma.livejournal.com 2008-05-02 12:29 am (UTC)(link)
Hahaha. Apparently I'm not the only one to poll about how to pronounce meme. I did it a few weeks ago. (http://beppergirl.livejournal.com/316110.html)

..Random passerby because she googled how do you pronounce meme poll livejournal like a crazy person.

And wow you did it in 2005! :o
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[identity profile] pne.livejournal.com 2008-05-02 07:25 am (UTC)(link)
Hehe :) Blast from the past!