First, the Sushi Social at Alumni House on Tuesday. Boasting both sushi and socializing, but delivering neither. OK, so we got there 40 minutes late because we had class, but this was no excuse for the decimated trays and the awkward remnants of mingling that ensued. The fallout from a sushi war, the dismembered and indistinguishable remains of fish parts didn’t resemble even a distant relative of sushi and the five or so people in a cluster in the corner didn’t quite constitute socializing. It looked like everyone else had the same reaction to free eats: get in, feign interest, get sushi, get out.

The Dance and Casino night on Thursday, probably the largest (and most generous) of the Homecoming events kept it classy with endless platters of various breads and cheeses, but because of “funding issues,” only one iPod shuffle (come on, not even a full-sized iPod?) was given away, along with other prizes conveniently wrapped up in cellophane. We asked them what was inside but they claimed not to know, leaving us to wonder whether the prize was just the cellophane itself. After racking up almost $10,000 in faux dough and some glory at the Blackjack table, we were forced to stay the entire duration of the event in order to collect our prize at the drawing. Four hours later, we walked away iPod-less, despite putting over 10 grand in tickets all into the iPod drawing box. At least we got to spend some quality time reliving our high school days on the dance floor (ah, the days of the high school formal, how we don’t miss thee).

We should have known the Fenton’s ice cream giveaway on Friday, which promised “gallons and gallons of free ice cream” to be given away, was too good to be true. Picturing ourselves carrying away gallons of various flavors of ice cream and wondering how we’d refrigerate them, we were shocked find that the reward for waiting in the 20 or so minute line wrapping almost all the way to Doe library was a teensy plastic cup of ice cream, about the size of those sample cups at Yogurt Park. Apparently the gallons were to be distributed amongst a bazillion plastic cups. Right. Not willing to wait this long in line even for Space Mountain, we turned to the free coffee table nearby for consolation. Cup in hand, we were sternly told that the beverages were only for Alumni. Oh yeah, that’s why we have Homecoming.

Guess we’ll have to wait a few more years for that cup of coffee. And so concluded a less than impressive week of giveaways. We’re guessing the economy’s probably behind this somehow. Well, at least the old people, er, Alumni, had fun, we hope.

Image Source: Mc-Q under Creative Commons

Way back when, we reviewed a particular messenger bag donated to us. The G-Tech iPod-Enabled Messenger Bag works just like a normal messenger bag, but it can also hook up to your MP3 player of choice and crank out your tunes.

The bag is valued at $129, in case you’re cheap and want to sell that sucka on eBay. Hey, it’ll be your bag, and you can do whatever you want with it.

This raffle is open to UC Berkeley students only (sorry, we’re cheap too, and we don’t pay for shipping). Fill out a comment below, leaving your full name, your e-mail (so that we can contact you) and your year at UC Berkeley. No one but us will be able to view your e-mail address, so you don’t have to fret about spam.

At 12:00 a.m. Tuesday (that means the end of Monday and start of Tuesday), the raffle will be closed. We will draw a name out of a hat, and that name will be the winner. We’ll contact you lucky SOB and then you’ll walk away with a free book bag for the new school year.

Questions? Email us at clog@dailycal.org.

The company recently released iTunes U, a platform for universities like Berkeley to share its recorded lectures and events. It’s just like webcasting, but this stuff will go straight to your iPod. Or it will be lost with all those thousands of music tracks you’ve downloaded while “studying.”

Now iTunes can actually help you study. The Daily Cal reports that iTunes U houses “more than 10.6 million MP3 files from the campus, including 3,000 hours of lecture from more than 80 courses.” If you’re a science major, this is good news for you.

Berkeley separates its section of iTunes U into courses, events, research and campus life. Under courses, the section boasts:
* Computer Science, 436 tracks
* Chemistry, 137 tracks
* Physical Sciences, 383 tracks
* Arts & Humanities, 110 tracks
* Engineering, 433 tracks
* Social Sciences, 585 tracks
* Biological Sciences, 253 tracks
* Natural Resources, 150 tracks
* Information Science, 53 tracks

Like we said, science majors, good game. Humanities never gets webcasted. Sad face.

The Berkeley page is a little bare bones right now. And we hate to say it, but Stanford’s page looks so much more organized than ours.

But never mind that. We quickly browsed the offerings and made our selection: an arts lecture entitled “Ballet and Sex.” We dunno. It sounded good at the time. Stop judging us.

Oh, man. Only Berkeley students would listen to a lecture during summer break. We need a job. Perhaps iTunes will need a dominating henchman. Who likes ballet and sex.

Apple Venture Lets iTunes Users Listen In On Campus Lectures [Daily Cal]