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Hugh MacLeod, who I’ve sorta followed for years, but who I really follow now that we’re Twitter friends, just posted something on his blog that you may not believe, but is so true, I’m going to refer to it forevermore as MacLeod’s Law of A-Listlessness:
“You’re far better off going off to somewhere like Facebook and building your own social network with like-minded folk, based on your own collective interests, your own collective passions and own collective sense of merit, than loitering around the Blogopshere, waiting for some rockstar like Scoble, Arrington, Cory etc to link to you… and hoping in vain that the latter will somehow transform your life. It won’t.”
Observation: When you set up a Facebook account, you’re not weighted down with the responsibility of being a publisher or writer or pundit or whatever it is that keeps most people from setting up a blog. On Facebook, you’re not a Facebooker — you’re just you. You can connect with people based on something other than linking to what that person just observed (like I’m doing here with a link to Hugh).
More on this later.
Later: As this post has generated some drive-by traffic, I’d like to observe that many on the blogosphere are reacting to what they think Hugh wrote, not to what he actually wrote. As for me, I am not opposed to the notion that some people are great at blogging and they draw a big following. My point is this: If becoming one of those bloggers — in other words, being a publisher and media-creator with a following — is your goal, then your blogging needs to be second-nature and a natural flow of the way you process information — or it will quickly become a dreaded chore. On the other hand, if building a strong network of friends and business associates or others with a shared passion, then perhaps there are other approaches than blogging that may be more appropriate to meet that need. For me to say this is not an indictment of blogging. It’s merely an observation that parts of the “live web” are not best understood when applying publishing or “content creating” metaphors to them.
The bad news: Al Gore’s son was arrested in Orange County, Calif., for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana and an assortment of prescription drugs (for which he has no prescription), including Valium, Xanax and Soma, and Adderall.
The good news: When the police stopped him at 2:15 a.m., the car he was driving 100 MPH was a hybrid, a Toyota Prius.
Later: The magazine-tie-in: In a comment, Wayne Smith of MagazineLaunch.com reports that “AGIII” is sales director of a recently launched magazine, Good. While I don’t think getting busted is ever good, it is especially bad if you are the offspring of a highly-visible public figure. As has been displayed over-and-over, this type of situation is not partisan.
Cuban writes today on “blogging’s impact on media credibility“:
“Today traditional media uses blog posts as authoritative. If its written in a blog, it must be true. This creates the opportunity to create “single source” stories. Get one interview, read an interview of the same person on a blog and use that as “confirmation” that whatever your source told you is true.”
For years, Cuban has used blogging to present his side of stories about him appearing in mainstream media. Now, he’s wondering if mainstream media has gone from dismissing blogs, to depending on them too much. Some facts are easily checked, he says. Just because a blogger says something, doesn’t make it fact.
Just a reminder of how far we’ve come.
As for me, unless I hear it on Twitter, I don’t believe it.
 Having a one-day holiday in the middle of the week is confusing me. I didn’t get into the swing of things early enough, or I would have noticed that Nashville had a new “hot chicken festival” in east Nashville from noon until 2. (For those not familiar with this delicacy, one of the most life-changing meals you can ever enjoy is at the North-Nashville eatery called Prince’s Hot Chicken. It will give you an entire new appreciation of life, liberty and the pursuit of anything to put out the fire in your mouth.)
My personal “food festival” today consisted of a drive out Highway 100 to Howell’s Farm (located a couple miles southwest of the Loveless Hotel and the entrance to the Natchez Trace, here’s a Google map showing the location) where I spent some time marveling at what 100,000 tomato plants look like compared to the 32 plants in my back yard. I spoke some with the farmer-in-chief, Johnny, who informed me local watermelons are about a week from going on sale. Howell’s, which I would guess is one of the few family-owned, direct-to-consumer farms operating inside the city-limits of Nashville, sells its produce in several locations (a tradition since 1938), including the Farmer’s Market and a tent behind Hillsboro High School (see this recent Tennessean article for more information). However, I like to go out to the stand on their farm at least once a summer to see all those tomato plants. I asked about irrigation, as this summer has been rather dry. Johnny — who wears a trucker’s cap with his name printed on it — told me that a fire hydrant next to the farm has a meter on it — and that’s where his water comes from. It’s been an expensive growing season.
 One last thought: Over the past decade or so, Nashville’s Riverfront Park has became home to a humongous nationally-televised concert, fireworks display and celebration of the freedom one has to hang out with 100,000 other sweaty people. However, unless it’s to purchase some new gadget or to watch an NFL football game, I’m not a big fan of being in a big crowd, so I’ll be spending a more laid-back evening eating fresh vegetables and wondering why tomorrow isn’t Sunday. Then I’ll stroll a few blocks to see the small but satisfying fireworks display I witness nearly every year.
(Photo: Shot at Howell’s Farm with my iPhone, from a set I’ve posted on Flickr.)
Technorati Tags: nashville, local food
To my American friends: Happy 4th of July. To my friends who read this who live in other countries, Happy July, 4th. If you live in another country, this holiday may be confusing.
The fourth of July is a day for celebrating freedom — so, we blow up lots of stuff and people get sun-burned and drink lots of beer.
Even trains get drunk on the Fourth of July, as I just read that a Tennessee Freight Train Loaded With Whiskey Derails. (The train will be checking into the Betty Ford clinic next week.)
One thing that confuses me is how Martina McBride became synonymous with the Fourth of July. Sure, one of her biggest hits was a song called Independence Day, but if you listen to the lyrics of the song, it’s about a lady whose husband was a drunk so one 4th of July, she blew up the house and murdered him. The song is sung from the point-of-view of the woman’s daughter who was eight-years-old at the time of the murder. I missed it somewhere along the way if that’s what celebrating the 4th is all about.
I’m celebrating fresh, home-grown tomatoes today.
Other people celebrate Independence Day by hacking an iPhone to work without having it activated by AT&T. I wouldn’t try that at home, boys and girls, but an iPhone with wifi, without the phone, is a very compelling product that celebrates independence.
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