6 - Friday, February 17, 2012

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Spreading memes
across campuses

LSA freshman
mixes Internet
humor with
Maize and Blue
By BRIANNE JOHNSON
Daily Arts Wrtier
One does not simply launch
an Internet phenomenon in a
matter of weeks ... unless one
is LSA freshman Alex Lee, the
creator of UMich Memes. The
increasingly popular Face-
book page - and the source of
an endless stream of procras-
tination-friendly, University-
meets-pop-culture references
-hastakenthe Internet (and the
classroom) by storm, prompting
the launch of the interactive col-
lege meme-base CampusMemes.
com.
As a frostbitten "Man vs.
Wild" star Bear Grylls desper-
ately gazes into the arctic tun-
dra, he's framed by a caption
many can relate to - as long as
those many wear Maize and
Blue. "CTools is down," the
meme reads. "Better drink my
own piss." Since its launch on
Feb. 3 UMich Memes has been
driven by the shared frustrations
and obsessions (hello, Denard) of
fellow Wolverines.
Lee spent his first semes-
ter at the University interning
for Saif Altimimi, co-founder
of the note-sharing platform
NoteWagon. Due to the high
caliber of Lee's work, Altimimi
approached Lee this semester

about expanding his company
into the U.S., initiating the
cyber craze. According to Lee,
Altimimi had already amassed
a following of students to gener-
ate meme pages for universities
across Canada.
"He approached me to make (a
page) for the University of Mich-
igan ... so I was a moderator for
our page and it kind of spread out
to make meme pages across the
nation," Lee said.
Soon after the creation of
UMich Memes, its popular-
ity soared, eventually resulting
in the creation of the company
Campus Memes, of which Lee is
a co-founder.
"For Michigan, I make the
memes. I would have a contact
with the school and I would ask
them to make a couple memes
first and then invite everybody,"
Lee added. "Then ... it kind of
blew up from there and started
getting all the (Facebook) 'likes.'
Once you have about 500 people,
it kind of spirals from there, and
then people start making their
own memes."
Students are encouraged to
submit their own memes through
the UMich Memes Facebook
page, e-mail or CampusMemes.
com, an expansive collection
of nationwide college memes.
Launched on Feb. 7, Campus-
Memes is reported to have reg-
istered 30,000 users within the
first 10 minutes of its launch.
The website is a collaboration
between Altimimi, Lee, web
designer Cheryl Wu and devel-
oper Charles Cary of GREEDY-
TREES.com.

"(The overwhelming amount
of users) shut down our servers
... then obviously we got noticed
because a lot of people were
using it, and we got attacked by
4chan.... They started uploading
gore and porn all over the web-
site (and) all over the Facebook
pages, so we actually have, as of
now, a manual moderating sys-
tem," Lee said. "Any meme that
wants to get on the website, we
moderate it."
In an effort to further moder-
ate and filter submissions, Cam-
pusMemes.com allows users to
rank each meme, awarding a
grade of "pass" or "fail."
"One of the reasons why
people are getting angry and
annoyed with the whole meme
situation is because we make
memes mainstream, but people
don't understand how to use
them right and it's just not good,"
Lee said. "Our website fixes that
with the downloading system,
but it's still really annoying ...
my number one piece of advice
would be to know the meme.
Understand the meme."
But for Lee, the site's popular-
ity stems not from the Internet
meme itself, but its personal con-
nection with students.
"It's like a revolution," Lee
said. "The whole process to get
something viral is that you need
to create something that has
value. The whole point is that it
connects with people on a per-
sonal level. To be able to create
something that affects you on a
personal level and that you can
understand ... that's really the
important thing."

*I

"No, pretty sure it's your turn to be bait man."
'Dead' walks tall in
Mid season premier

By KELLY ETZ
Daily TV/NewMedia Editor
Zombies, the infected, "walk-
ers," what-have-you. Their run,
or more accurately, their hap-
hazard shuffle,
hit a popular- *
ity peak back
in 2009. It's The Walk-
hard to hate
something that ing Dead
might start Midseason
happily eating
some flesh at Sundays at9 p.m.
any moment, AMC
but even that
gets old after
a while. So how has AMC been
able to keep our interest alive
and pumping in the midst of a
zombie apocalypse with their
series "The Walking Dead?"
Though we're in the middle
of the second season of the
acclaimed drama, there's no
room for any "been there, done
that" grousing. "Dead" keeps
us firmly grounded in our seats
with some truly hair-raising
moments, not the least of which
came during the midseason
finale back in November. The
finale left us with a shock-
inducing final scene in which
Rick (Andrew Lincoln) makes
the paramount decision to

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BEATS, RHYMES AND LIFE: AWARD-
WINNING NIGERIAN MUSICAL "FELA!"
COMES TO DETROIT.
READ ABOUT IT ONLINE:
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Sophia (Madison Lintz), of action besides mourning,
Imbified daughter of fel- as characters are hit with the
urvivor Carol (Melissa "where-do-we-go-from-here?"
ne McBride) - a shot- dilemma. Now that the search
round-the-world moment for Sophia is over - and as
left viewers frantically Glenn (Steven Yeun) accu-
ring what was going to rately reflects, we're all a little
n next. glad that the mystery is finally
cleared up, even with the not-
so-kosher conclusion - Rick
raking News: and the team have some deci-
sions ahead of them.
zombies on The episode seems closely
tied to Rick, as he's running the
levision are emotional gamut, from guilt
at his helplessness at protect-
11 super cool! ing Sophia to the resistance
he faces from the group on his
every decision. Yet Rick's judg-
ment is top-notch in his assess-
urally, the midseason ment of the three foreboding
picks up where the finale strangers who make a sketchy
and there is a lot of emo- appearance during the episode.
muddle through at first. Their shadiness brings about
is stricken with grief at the some tense moments and drives
f Sophia, and the begin- home the fact that in this post-
f the episode is shrouded apocalyptic world, no one is
pall of depression. This trustworthy, not even the other
necessary, however, and humans.
ies to remain realistic as This sense of forebod-
s emotional. There are the ing, which stews throughout
able, ugly tasks that must the hour-long episode, sets in
ded to - burning the bod- motion the next couple of epi-
emost among them - and sodes leading up to the sea-
scenes bring in the needed son finale. They are sure to be
nt of plot progression. action-packed, with the remain-
re is certainly plenty ing survivors facing threats
from all sides.
The return of "Dead" certain-
ly had its gripping moments, and
pulled in an astonishing number
of viewers for its efforts. The
episode aired to about 10 mil-
all us: (734) 418-4115 lion viewers, even with some
stiff competition - namely, the
Grammys - bumping this epi-
ICK'SNOW HIRING allpo- sode of "Dead" to the fifth most
or Spring/Summer/Fall F/PT. viewed episode in basic-cable
323-5021. history.
ENDING** $300/DAY PO- The numbers only offer fur-
.L. No exp. nec., training ther proof that AMC's "The
B 18+ 800-965-6520x125 Walking Dead" isn't one to be
:AL RESEARCH COORDI- missed, especially now that
PediatricHOrthopaedic action is brewing and future
Full-Time. Position is perfect episodes look to be absolutely
dical school/residency candi- fierce with conflict. Bring on the
ested in bolstering his/her CV "walkers," the twists and the
illing to dedicate at least two
fore applying for medical mayhem. We can't wait to see
sidency. You will need to in- what's next in store for Rick and
ll with patients, particularly his gang of survivors.
To learn more/to a l visit

0

RELEASE DATE- Friday, February 17, 2012
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
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page (c)2012 Tribune MediaServices,Inc. 02/17/12

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