0 0 * 0 QUOTES OF THE WEEK 11What if she had eaten it or "When I see him starting taken sick or died?" crying (those) things, I - WANDA WHITE, a daycare worker in Baker, really feel bad for him." k', a - ,_ - , .. a . 1 1- ABOUT CAMPUS LLUSTRATION BY JOHN OQUIST La., expressing her concern when she found a $10 bag of marijuana stuffed-inside a two-year- old girl's shoe. White had found the bag after the child began complaining that her foot hurt, and after confiscating it, White immediately called both the police and Child Protective Services. Michigan life, accordingto MBlog What the University's blogging site tells about campus life Back when the University hired student bloggers to attract pro- spective students, entries were limited to overly enthusiastic testimonials from model Wolver- ines. But the University's MBlog, a blogging service for current stu- dents and University faculty and staff, offers another, more telling side of the University experience. With no guidelines dictating who can write or what they can write about, the website www.mblog. lib.umich.edu is a smorgasbord of everything from wacky campus anecdotes to constructive lessons on communication skills. Some students use MBlog to reflect on class subjects in entries that are too personal for CTtools responses but too academic for per- sonaljournaling. One student in the School of Art and Design uses her blog, eye pea, as an online work- shop to plan and chronicle her art projects - such as the construction of nine 7-to-12-foot moth costumes. But the blogger also portrays cam- pus through the eyes of an artist, writing about the time she and a stranger drew on the sidewalk with chalk and the time she played Bob Dylan on her ukulele with a street musician on State Street. "I think the minute I saw him playing I understood realized (sic) that I was not trying to get somewhere," she wrote. "I was not racing the clock, I didn't have a goal or desire other than to be where I was at that exact place and time." other students use MBlog more as a personal journal instead of TALKING POINTS - MOHAMMAD SOHAIL, owner of a con- venience store in Long Island, describing an episode a few months ago when a man entered his store with a baseball bat and demanded money. Sohail pulled out a rifle, which prompt- ed the man to start crying and say, "I'm sorry, I have no food. I have no money. My whole family is hungry...don't shoot me." using a paper diary or a better- known blog host. On a host site as obscure as MBlog, one must won- der how public the bloggers really intend their writing to be. Take the blogger behind "My Little Space on the Web," who writes about working as a secret shopper and discovering her grandfather has had a hair replacement operation, but hardly receives a comment to confirm any sort of readership. The blog does express the unpredictable nature of student life at the University - even if this blogger's life is stranger than most. Recounting a free palm- reading session, the blogger said the psychic told her she needed to see a doctor. Spurred by her friend's superstition, the blogger followed the psychic's advice and found out she was experiencing an ectopic pregnancy that could have killed her. If you're a fantasy sports fanatic and spend all your time checking up on the latest statistics, there is an MBlog for you, too. Or, if you like to deck out your dog in the latest fashions for strolls around Ann Arbor, an MBlog about stylish dog carriers can tell you what's in for your pet. For budding foodies, there is an MBlog with recipes for dishes like oriental coleslaw and stir-fry. And if you're into insects, there's also a blogger who posts close and personal pictures of creepy crawlers. MBlog hosts many single- entry blogs, too. Perhaps these authors have a burning desire to express just one particular pro- found thought that's been itching at their psyches for quite some time. or maybe they tried out the whole blog thing casually and for- got to do it again - who knows? But some of these one-hit won- ders definitely add entertainment value to MBlog. The "Golden Fisticuffs" blog, for instance, contains as its sole . entry an explana- tion of the blog's name. The blog- ger reasons: "Why Golden Fisticuffs? 'Fisticuffs' is my favorite word. Gold- en sounded OK with it. That's about it." Another single-post blog that resonates with poeticism con- tains a single word: "bleh." That one lit- tle word does seem '1 -- cC to say a lot. Some blogs are more informative than others. For instance, MBlog hosts blogs focused on drug importationp laws, internship opportunities, event listings for students interested in sta- tistics, articles on ways to quit smok- ing and financial aid advising. Schools at the University lib like the Nursing School, the School stt of Social Work and the School of Of Information, as well as student sio groups like MichigandEngineer- fin ing Enotrepreneurs and Alterna- tive Spring Break, use MBlog as ,tra a resource to spread news and an knowledge. You can even watch th, podcasts from University alums wI on the "True Blue Podsquad" blog. ge: Certain classes require stu- In dents to use MBlog as part of their up assignments. On one such blog, a he freshman blogger complains and fin rants about her homework while les she blogs as a requirement for that en same class. Oh, the freedom of MI 1. -f Yf CT )CT Cs 01 - rsVr -----. -'I-' J{ , ~ "I'll think about it." - VLADIMIR PUTIN, 57-year-old former president and current prime minister of Russia, on whether he will run for president again in 2012. Putin was speaking at an annual question-and-answer session, during which he answered nearly 90 questions in a period of four hours. eral arts classes! A high school udent surfing the University's fice of Undergraduate Admis- ns blogs would definitely not ad that. Some use MBlog as an online avel journal, posting pictures d itineraries, and blogging about e things that happened to them hile they were abroad. One blog- r who desperately tried to diet in dia writes about how she ended doing the exact opposite, when r "little pudge at the end of als ... morphed into a decidedly ss cute bloated disaster." Appar- tly, nothing is too personal for Blog. ILLUSTRATION BY JESS LAX No matter what you are inter- ested in reading, MBlog offers a colorful range of perspectives on the University experience. Between personal anecdotes of freak pregnancies, recipes for home-cooked meals, information on University schools and clubs and tips for how to quit smoking, MBlog seems to cover it all. With the freedom on the Internet to publish anything you see fit, it's easy to see why so many decided to take a chance and get their voices out there. You can write whatever comes to mind, and the best part is that you can do it anonymously. -MALLORYBEBERMAN Three things you can talk about this week: 1, Climate talks in Copenhagen 2. Anesthetic execution 3. Surge in Afghanistan And three things you can't: 1. Climategate 2. Foxy Knoxy 3. "Jersey Shore" BY THE NUMBERS The number of jobs lost last month, the lowest figure since the recession started two years ago The unemployment rate last month The unemployment rate in October Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics YOUTU BE VIDEO OF THE WEEK Voicemail with soul By this point, the Tiger Woods scandal has become banal and stu- pid. The sad reality, though, is that gossip-lovers will keep talk- ing about it. Given this unfortunate situation, you might as well look for the more clever commentary on the scandal. This video is a good example of an artful take on Woods's "trans- gressions." Called "Tiger Woods Voicemail Slow Jam Remix," the video features a montage of pho- tos and an R&B song set against Woods's notorious voicemail mes- sage, in which he asks one of his mistresses, Jaimie Grubbs, no change her voicemail message to an automated greeting, just in case his wife calls and hears her voice on the message. The video beginswith a picture of the backdrop of a city at night. Then Woods's face appears on the screen, and the slow jam starts, with the voicemail playing softly in the background. "Hey, it's, uh, it's Tiger," Woods says in a breathy tone, while a chorus of voices chimes in with "Name off your phone...off your phone, she may be calling you." Some of the chorus members perform beautiful solos, which makes Woods's plea seem oddly sentimental, as if he doesn't bear responsiblity for his own adul- terous actions. That may be the most amusing part of the video. BRIAN TENGEL THEME PARTY SUGGESTION "But is it art?" fair - Actor James Franco is in the midst of a two-month stint on "General Hospital." Why? Because when a movie star acts in a cheesy soap it's art, at least according to Franco's editorial in the Wall Street Journal. If you throw a gallery event to exhibit your everyday activity, you can claim it is performance art, too. Then you and your friends can stand around asking each other the last line of Franco's editorial: "But is it art?" Throwing this porty? Let us know. TheStatement@umich.edu STUDY OF THE WEEK Loneliness can be infectious in social networks Loneliness can be contagious and disseminate through social net- works, according to a study published in the journal Personal and Social Psychology by a group of professors. The researchers defined loneliness as perceived social isolation, and they said it is not deter- mined by how many people are around you. For the study, the researchers used information from the Framing- ton Heart Study, analyzing the data on the 5,124 people who are in the second generation of study participants. The researchers made contact with the group of people every two to four years, and asked them ques- tions about loneliness, depression and other matters. The researchers discovered that if a direct connection in your social network is experiencing loneliness, you are 52 percent more likely to have similar feelings of loneliness. Moreover, if you are either two or three degrees removed from a lonely person, you are 25 percent or 15 percent, respectively, more likely toexperience loneliness. - BRIAN TENGEL WWW.MICH IGANDAILY.COM/SECTION/BLOGS