New Wes blog: Wesleyazn

Schuyler Swenson '09 sends in info about her new blog, Wesleyazn:

Wesleyazn is a new blog I've started that I hope will be used as a source for information about Asian American politics, art, pop culture, music, literature, current events, etc. and a place for discussion about the Asian American community and events at Wesleyan. If you'd like to be a contributor, please send an email to wesleyazn@gmail.

We've added it to our blogroll in the sidebar "Wes 2.0"; check it out!

Fresh, free music from a fellow Wesleyanite

Ben Seretan '10 writes:

I recently finished an album which was on AuralWes, and I also just finished another EP this afternoon. [...] They are available for free download here and here.

Ben also has a blog called Mute with Stupefaction. You should check it out. It's now in the sidebar, under Wes 2.0.

The Hippodrome

Ben Bernstein '10 sends in a link to his music blog, The Hippodrome, where you can learn about unsigned bands and download some of their music. As always, all student blogs we hear about we stick in our Wes 2.0 blogroll -->. Check it out.

The Purpose of a Student Blog

Wesleying is an interesting topic for discussion at Wesleyan. From what we can tell from our site stats is that most students read it daily (or some students are reading from six different computers a day which is sort of weird but ok, we'll take it). A lot of faculty and staff are slowly admitting to read it. We can only assume that someone in the administration reads it. I mean, we can assume public relations does--like a hawk.

But most of the success of a blog (any blog) comes from the relationship between blogger and audience. That's the fun part. That's what distinguishes a blog like this from other things we could be doing. It's dynamic. And given this, we can do a lot of things with it.

I'm thrilled at the proliferation of new student blogs like EON's. It's really satisfying watching students find a social medium where limitations are few and the costs are low.

Despite the ubiquity of "the blog" (because god knows everyone has a blog), a lot of people seem to want to relegate "the blog" into something less effectual than it could be. I'm probably more of the mindset to see the blog more than it actually is, admittedly, but at the same time I think it's better to have too much faith than too little, sometimes.

So I'm putting it out there. What do you want Wesleyan's "Blogosphere" to do for you? What can you do for Wesleyan's Blogosphere? What are the stakes in creating a student space that, in many ways, lives and breathes entirely upon student effort. There is no one else to blame if it fails. But what is to gain if it succeeds?

What's your take? What kind of space do you want to build?

How to Destroy a NYT Column by Blogging

When I had first heard about this ordeal, I didn't know whether it would be appropriate to post it on Wesleying. In fact, you might call this my first ethical blogging dilemma. To put it another way, I didn't know whether blogging about another student's blog would help or harm that student's current situation seeing as how readily Wesleying is attached to (though not recognized by) Wesleyan. I feared that whatever I said about the issue at hand would get picked up pretty fast before I had all the facts straight. I admit, I still don't get the facts right because this whole thing is pretty ridiculous and what it seems to be more than anything is the desperate death rattle of NYT's Metropolitan Diary editor Michael Pollak.

In essence, what happened was as follows: Andrea Silenzi '07 runs a blog called Seven Second Delay, which is basically blogged commentary for a WFMU radio show by the same name. On said show, the two DJs, Ken and Andy, joked about the predictable formula of Metro Diary submissions which document reader's anecdotes on life in New York City (think Overheard in New York, but lamer and tamer). A reader of Andrea's blog submitted a silly little made-up anecdote they felt would surely appeal to Pollak. And it did.
When the fact checker called, Andrea apparently "lied" and said the story was true. Pollak then emailed Andrea (read it, it's funny).

Anyway, long story short, the story gets picked up by Huffington Post, Gawker and now our very own Argus. You can read about all the painful details.

The best part of thism though, is that many of the bloggers who picked up this story basically took Pollak's word that Andrea was a liar--without fact-checking. Basically, though they all dismiss Pollak's column as trash, they still accepted the "truthiness" of his word against hers and rather than, you know, say email Andrea (since she's so "arrogantly" all over the internet, how hard could it be for a blogger to find her?), they just published his swill as is. Poor showing, bloggers.

Phew. That was fun. No, wait, no. No it wasn't.

Comics Online

Joe Newman '09, author of the Argus comic series Roomies, has put it online! He writes us:

The blog is on its way to being functional, although there are only two comics on there so far. (The comics page in the Argus is only once a week, you know, so there isn't much else I can put on the site as of yet...)

Perhaps this is an open call for the Argus to put all the comics online! *hinthint*

For the motherland

How To Break Stuff has posted a sick power tool review featuring the boys incinerating stuff with a MAPP gas torch set to music from the USSR.

The fun starts at 2:05 in.

It's okay if it's anonymous

Things We're Glad Well-Dressed Wes Isn't #243: Cornell-based Ivy League Chic.

I guess you can get away with being an asshole if your school is big enough.

Shane, Maude, I am so glad you're back.

The Ultimate Facebook Guide

About 100 years ago, Collegev2 put together just about every Facebook hack, trick, style, blog, site, Greasemonkey and Firefox extension in the book. We're a little slow on the uptake, oops. In case you're wondering where all those annoying ASCII wall posts come from, here's their breeding ground. (And on that note, who does this kind of thing?!?!)

I haven't checked up on Collegev2 since they switched writers, but a quick glance shows that they seem to have retained their tutorial style. Super-quick roundup of helpful posts--Check out their site for more...

• How to avoid the freshman 15
• Transferring college credits
• Applying to grad school
• Scholarships 101

There's also a nifty series on how to search Google like a 1337 h4x0r: 1, 2, 3, and 4

I'm shitting my overalls in excitement over this blog

This is what Ohio Wesleyan University thinks bloggers look like.

Bloggers blogging.

Sideways.

On a yellow legal pad.

Or maybe she's enjoying "daily life"?

Daily life...Sideways? On a yellow legal pad?

OWU, I DON'T UNDERSTAND.

Bring on the Blogs

The enemy.

Joe John Sanchez '07 and Emily Greenhouse '08 have teamed up to bring you a brand new Wesleyan blog (YES.) called Well, You're Dressed Wes.

The blog's intention, according to Joe John, is to "showcase clothed wesleyan students." You know, as opposed to, well, naked ones.