Things I Like This Week

The internet contains many things. Some of them are likeable.

I'm planning on a new weekly feature for this blog that will highlight news and fun from around the internet. I'm still playing with format, but the end result should look something like this.

Things I Like This Week

1. Mysterious UFO-Shaped Object Found on the Ocean Floor 

Treasure hunters found a UFO-shaped object on the floor of the Baltic Sea. Its identity is unknown at this point, although some speculate that it is a collection of Russian ships known to have been sunken near there. The funny part is that one of the first pieces of speculation put forth was that it was the Millennium Falcon.  Is this a sign of people wanting to use the familiar Star Wars phrase to bring attention to their article, or does a fictional ship ending up in our world really sound more plausible than one from an unknown, extra-planetary location? And what the heck is this thing?

2. Tumblr

Tumblr is social media pared down into flashes of words and pictures. It is an entity that, as a friend of mine says, "freaks out and then forgets". It's also a hotbed of memes and fandom. You don't have to be logged in to find cool Star Wars pictures or fanfic, but doing so does enable you to see the rapid-fire way in which information gets passed around. The format of the site means that you can see pretty much exactly how a meme develops and how fast it moves: and then, it's gone.

3. Red vs Blue

I always like Red vs Blue. You can assume a quiet, high-energy current of me liking it behind everything I say. I've thought about writing posts on RvB's plot line, character development, female characters in particular, or the way it's pretty much the best piece of fan fiction ever, of all time. These may still be forthcoming. Red vs Blue is a piece of fan media that has grown large enough to provide its creators with an entire company of their own, as well as official endorsement from the owners of Halo, upon which their videos are based. It's a brilliant example of how fan narrative can take the original canon and expand upon it, play with it, and change its tone while still paying homage to the original. You can start at episode 1 season 1, but if you don't like the tone then the miniseries "Out of Mind" provides another entry into the darker second half of the series.