The new school year means all sorts of changes, and probably one of the last of them on your mind was the official convening of the new ASUC senate. The first senate meeting of the semester took place last night, and while we’re assuming it’s not still going on, it wouldn’t be a record if it were.

Th ASUC also seems to be making a bit more of an effort to be hip and cool, launching a blog and a twitter feed. Now, we’re not entirely sure how reading Will Smelko’s tweets about the chancellor’s reception is supposed to usher in a grand era of hope and change in the ASUC in the face of a largely apathetic student body, but we suppose that remains to be seen.

Image Source: jonas_k under Creative Commons
ASUC Elected Officials Blog [ASUC]
ASUC President [Twitter]

Just kidding, dudes. We were actually pretty stoked to hear about In Berkeley

, a brand spankin’ blog that covers “news, events and issues in our city,” with what appears to be a bit more, er, what’s the word we’re looking for here … seriousness (Depth? Intelligence? Life experience?) than your loyal Clog–not to mention a smidge

less sarcasm.

Bloggers Dave Winer and Lance Knobel have only been posting since the beginning of June, but they’ve already done some pretty comprehensive blogging of everything Berkeley … except, it seems, things pertaining to that little chunk of land overrun with young hoodlums mucking up what would otherwise be a quiet hillside town, sometimes known as the University of California. But we suppose that’s our territory.

In any case, the Clog earnestly welcomes In Berkeley to the neighborhood–or, uh, the Internet equivalent thereof. Neighborsphere? Bloggerhood? Consider this an e-bundt cake of sorts.

Image Source: Rich Anderson under Creative Commons, edited by Evante Garza-Licudine
In Berkeley [Website], via Eye on BlogsNever Surrender buy Jab We Met on dvd Keane move

Why? Well, if you’re reading this, it means you’re reading a newspaper blog post about a blog about a play about a newspaper. Isn’t that awesome? That’s like, metashit right there.

At least they’ll have an easier time coming up with content than, say, the last Berkeley blog, as the Rep is planning to use their blog as a way of connecting with its readers and audience and to provide info on what literally happens behind the scenes.

But if you’re into entertainment-related blog stuff, check the Daily Cal’s own arts and entertainment section. It’s what’s for blog!

Image Source: Felipe Micaroni Lalli under Creative Commons
Berkeley Rep [Blog]

The blog’s looking to hit that hot casual college style. From some e-mail communication, though, it sounded more like a slightly tamer CollegeHumor.com target. We guess we’ll see how their blog pans out … when it shows up. But in the meantime, we’ll just rest on our laurels.

Image Source: Felipe Micaroni Lalli under Creative Commons
Job: Guerrilla Media [Berkeley J-School]

Did you see the the goodbye squirrel on the Daily Cal’s Friday front page? Yesterday was the last day of Daily Cal publication for the year, but that doesn’t mean the world stops spinning.

The Clog, for one, will post throughout winter break. Starting Monday, we’ll switch into winter mode. You’ll notice 1) a different design soon and 2) less posts until mid January.

We’ll still be here, but we’ve got to suffer through finals too. Then it’s off to continue blogging on our “vacation.” Such is the life of a blogger!

On Saturday morning, the Clog attended a blogging workshop hosted by the Asian American Journalists Association. We stepped into North Gate not knowing what exactly happens in a blogging workshop. Really, we were there because (1) the Daily Cal paid for us and (2) we wanted to meet Tim Goodman, the Chron’s awesome TV critic.

We started with a panel of four blog people: the Chron’s deputy managing editor for online Eve Batey, Curbed SF editor Sarah Hromack, food blogger Amy Sherman and aforementioned Tim Goodman (who also blogs on Bastard Machine and podcasts).

They threw out some words, most of which the forty-year-olds were struggling to catch. One panelist, in discussing Movable Type, mentioned its parent company Six Apart.

“What was that again?” one of the fogies asked.

“Six Apart.”

“Six … of Hearts?”

“Six. A. Part. It’s run by a husband and wife, whose birthdays are six days apart.”

“Oh.”

Keywords for the panel: Flickr, Moo cards, Vox, open source, RSS.

The best part of the workshop, barring the technologically challenged older people, was Goodman’s tips in the blogging packet we picked up. Here they are, in entirety:

1. Get the money up front.
2. If you don’t get the money up front, you may feel pressure to blog anyway because everyone else is and if you already have a newspaper job then you might not have it tomorrow unless you’re a blogger, so maybe you should blog first and ask for money later.
3. Blogging first and asking for money later never works. I’ve tried it.
4. If you blog, you may get interested in or be asked to podcast. Just know this–there is no money in podcasting. So don’t ask for it.
5. If you podcast, you’ll discover that it’s like radio without the listeners. But at least you can alert your blog readers to the fact you’ve posted a podcast as well. This may be the only reason to have a blog, which is actually kind of sad.

Other great moments, during the actual workshop portion:

“Have you all opened up your Web browser?” Batey asked.
“You’re speaking Greek to me,” a techtard said.
“I only speak English.”

Or:

“OK, you’ll need to be able to access your e-mail to register (for a Vox blog). Can everyone do that?” Batey asked.
“How do I know if I can do that?!” The same techtard.
“Have you ever been able to access your e-mail from another computer?”
“You mean now? In here?” She was freaking out.
“Like ever. As in your entire life.”

Pwned.

Image Source: Felipe Micaroni Lalli under Creative Commons

Often, people will come up to us and say, “Clog, what is blogging? What is this Intarwebs?” We refer them to Gabe and Max. And then laugh. Not at them, but mostly because we’re watching that lolcats video on YouTube again.

The sad thing is we could totally do a legit blog post about some dude on the bus because, hey, it’s Berkeley. Especially if we’re talking about the 51 here.

Gabe & Max’s Internet Thing [YouTube]

Does he know we’re still looking for summer writers?

His blog looks kinda promising. He’s been doing a bit about Telebears scheduling for a few weeks, focusing on a different major each time. Right on.

On his site, the up-and-comer claims that

he never reads the Daily Cal because it requires him to actually go to lecture, and also entails that he has to read words. He decided to start up his own cutting-edge media service to get in touch with the students of Cal, the nation, the world (and those aliens he knows exist out there, I’m looking at you Protoss).

Recently, though, he linked to Carnal Embrace, a conglomeration of Sex on Tuesday’s column blurbs. We guess having stuff online just makes it seem so much sexier, eh?

It looks that Kunnath is trying to start another CalStuff, may it rest in peace. He will later be looking for writers for the blog when he leaves.

He says his blog is different from newspaper publication because “we use the f-word if we can.”

Where did this royal “we” come from? Who does he think he is, the Clog?

Plus, he really shouldn’t be throwing f-bombs just because he can. That’s so fucking balls.

OK, we admit we just want him to link to the Clog once in a while. Let’s be friends.