Memes of Perception

It's a tribute to what reality TV and transparency-obsessed culture have done to us that we've now got memes like this: tongue-in-cheek productions that let you see all sides of what we do. Our perception is pitted against others', and however successful any perception is at proliferating, the reality remains, fixed, stark, and laughable from the outside. You know it, everyone else knows it; it would be embarrassing to pretend like it's not there.

All great dramas are about this but the context has never been more perfect to pare it down to bare essentials and consume it raw.

Finally, in trademark self-deprecating style, the meme more or less begins to die when people start mocking the format. This last is by Len Kendall:

On Living with a Geek

"Ang, come here. Come listen to my mouse."

I approach the screen. Benj pushes a button. I hear a high-pitched Beep.

"What's that?"

"It's my mouse. Isn't it amazing?" Beep.

"Why would you want it to do that?"

"Don't you remember the modem days?" Beep. Beep. Beep.

"...Yeah." I've got a look on my face that tells him I'm not making the connection.

Benj sighs laboriously. "What was a modem?"

"A modem was a little box that sat by my computer and brought me internet."

"Right. And how did it work?"

"You plugged it into the phone line, and pushed the 'connect' button on AOL, and then you'd hear all kinds of swishy noises."

"Right!" He throws his hands up in the air and smiles triumphantly.

"I still don't get it."

"THIS--" Beep "--is ONE of the sounds from that sequence!"