Last night, at my regular west coast swing dance night, I mentioned to a woman sitting next to me that one of the guys in attendance reminded me of Neil Gaiman. She had never heard of him. Shocked, I began asking everyone around, including the young man in question. Nobody had heard of him. Follow me below the fold for an exploration of how this could have been such a shock to me.
And mojo.
As I'm sure is common with most people, my life follows a thread of seemingly random occurrences that link together to build the story I know. My particular path involves small-town Texas, a petroleum engineering career, skydiving, on-line gaming, a move to California for a unix sysadmin career, sex information line volunteering, social partner dancing (west coast swing and hustle), motorcycling, native plant gardening, and nascent political activism. Along this path there are people, places, shared experiences, culture, ideas, all the random bits that make up a life. I doubt I'm unique in any particular way, and like everyone it seems I have frequent "small world" type experiences where people from different places and times in my personal thread come together.
While there are a wide range of people who show up on my personal thread, and a surprising number of people who appear on multiple strands of it, it has always seemed to me that there was a strong common strand of shared experience in terms of culture items like books, movies, music, etc. Of course there are outliers, but there are things you (I) just expect people to "get", like 42 or Jim Morrison's alive or jump the shark. No big surprise here, since we're all immersed in culture all the time.
One strong strand in my particular culture thread has been the work of Neil Gaiman. Not necessarily because I've read him--my experience is limited to a few of his more recent works (and a memorable reading of the entirety of "Coraline"). But he's been sort of a mythical figure in more than one of my social circles, from lovers of science fiction/fantasy, to lovers of writing, to just lovers of Cool Things. In my mind, Neil Gaiman is a cult figure, so it was quite shocking to me to find myself in a room where literally no one else (that I asked) had ever heard of him. I guess this makes two weeks in a row where I've written about feeling myself thrown into a world I do not know. Hopefully this means I'm expanding my horizons ;-)
OK, enough navel-gazing, let's have some mojo!!
Mojo Friday Guidelines
- If you comment you have to recommend all comments. (in order to receive mojo you have to give mojo. It's only good mojo manners.)
- Everything you say may be taken as a joke (so if you ask a question, expect a silly answer)
- You must recommend the diary (and pimp it unapologetically)
- You don't have to comment to recommend.
- You can't steal my idea (right, like that ain't goin' to happen)
- Please, no pictures or YouTubes until after 300 comments. Now, after 300, use a little common courtesy and be responsible in the number.
- Mojo mojo mojo mojo, mojo mojo mojo.
- TexDem (our benevolent sponsor) and MKinTN (that's me) are not bound by the guidelines. Heh.
Mojo Friday Time Shifters Goals (watered down from Mojo Friday Goals)
A. At least 40 different commenters and 300 comments by 2:00 PM PST.
B. 50 recommends for each comment, at least.
C. Get on the Recommended List (this requires some strategic planning by you guys, refer to guideline #3)
D. At least 50 diary recommends. 100 would be better, spread the word.
E. And always, fun fun fun.
F. Have at least 75% average participation rate as seen here in the Mojo Friday Postgame Comment by Yours Truly.
G. Have at least 10 kossacks over 90% participation (see here for some tips).
H. Overload the servers with recommends, not to mention dominate Top Comments Mojo list. (we do tend to mess with the site with all of our recommends at one time)(also, to dominate the Top Comments Top Mojo we need at least 50 comments with over 200 recommends, see guideline B)
I. That's enough for now. (Have a suggestion? Post it.)
MKinTN posted a diary to help everyone achieve greater success called How to Succeed at Mojo Friday Without Really Trying.
For those of you new to MF (Mojo Friday) we have our own lingo about a few things. Thank's to MF'er Jez (the link will explain) go to this diary for a little more fun and explanation. Official Mojo Friday Snecktionary.