Do you ever feel like you want to read about interesting things but you aren’t sure if you can handle the standard amount of interesting? If so, the subreddit “Mildly Interesting” is for you! This subreddit is is the perfect place for people who want something a little more than the subreddit “Not Interesting” and a little less than the subreddit “Interesting“. You can expect things like potatoes in the middle of the woods, a carrot pile found by a dog and his owner in the middle of the woods, a pile of (alive) dogs found by a carrot and its owner, and coupons that don’t expire for 90 years! My all-time favorite is a submission is pictures of George Orwell’s 1984 book cover, which becomes less censored with wear revealing the title. When I first saw that I thought, WOW, how mildly interesting. If you thought this post was mildly interesting, you’re in for a treat when you go to this subreddit.
About four years ago, I used a program called Rainmeter. The program is a manager for add-ons that accessorize desktops. It allows users to fully customize their computer desktop to their liking.
Users can easily download other users add-ons through places like DeviantArt and Reddit. Or they can code their own plugins and create an entirely personalized one-of-a-kind desktop.
Most people share their creations and submit their skin, which is the entire desktop, to the sub-Reddit and the individual plugins to Deviant Art. Four years ago, I did not realize its potential and saw it as a handicap slowing down my computer.
Now that I have a computer with a solid state drive, Rainmeter is a lot easier to run. So I started using it again. I love it so much I change my skin almost every week, but for the first time I have made my own skin. I used a lot of other people’s plugins, but I still had to do my own coding.
I customized things like font size, colors, and positioning, and I also made my own basic plugin after reading several guides to learn how to do this. The skin is pretty simple and I posted an image with a guide on Reddit.
Now that I am more familiar with the programming of the plugins, I know I can make better ones, and I most certainly will. Instead of asking for help now, I can give the help to the “noobs”, like the mid-level skin makers did for me.
Even though my skin will probably never be the most popular skin, it’s nice to know that my contributions have added to the giant pool of creativity that is the Rainmeter sub-Reddit.
Just the other day I was browsing some dank memes on Reddit.
I got really bored so I went to “reddit.com/r/random/” which directs the user to a random subreddit.
After three attempts I finally stumbled upon a decent-looking subreddit that I had never even heard of: /r/urbanexploration.
I spent the rest of my evening on that subreddit. The subreddit is dedicated to exploring ruins in urban areas. It’s all about people’s findings of abandoned monuments frozen in time.
Spanning from secret basement doorways that lead to a massive tunnel system that were likely used by Al Capone, to old Yugoslavian monuments from the 1960s.
Photo credit to Michael Mehrhoff
The subreddit is mostly crap, but every few posts is an amazing story. The stories are really just a bunch of captioned pictures in the order of their findings.
My favorite was the post titled “Bad Ass Bunker.” The album is a series of 31 pictures with detailed captions.
The person who explored the bunker was visiting his old friend in northern Germany, which was formerly GDR.
They found a massive bunker. Some of it was already explored and had been tagged by teens. But the further and deeper they went, the more they found.
Eventually, the bunker was flooded and they had to turn back.
Photo credit to Johnny Joo
Urban explorers find a thrill in going through these abandoned buildings. Some even travel around the world.
They love it because the building tells a story and they get to be the ones to figure it out. Like what is this place, who was here, why was it abandoned?
Urban explorers are each like a modern-day Indiana Jones. Some of the explorers are photographers that actually take photos of abandoned places for a living.
Photo credit to Daniel Barter
For those who want to get started, the subreddit is a great place to get advice and learn of new locations.
Keep in mind, in most cases breaking into abandoned places is trespassing, and a lot of people on the subreddit have been arrested.
But there are websites that can be found on the subreddit that help avoid this issue.
Panic ensues as protests begin to outrage across the Ojai Valley School campus in response to a recent SonicWall block that forbids students to access Reddit. Mobs of enraged students flip cars and siege classrooms as they plea for the unblock.
Alright, it’s not that bad, but it’s getting serious. I am even thinking of sending a letter asking for Reddit back; a serious, formal letter.
Asides from that, only about 1.5% percent of the students, that being 3 people have complained about this major inconvenience.
Yes, Reddit does possess some adult materials in certain subreddits, but its no excuse to block the website. In fact, Reddit has more positive impact than negative. For example r/worldnews, r/funny or my personal favorite, r/doge.
OVS Journalism Blog 
