• MapForUS.org
  This is so funny, it almost makes it bearable to watch the heavily YouTubed trainwreck of an answer Miss Teen SC gave.
  (tags: humor)

I started blogging about Katrina two years ago, yesterday. A year ago, I looked back at a year of Katrina posts. This post was going to be longer, but I trashed it. It drifted into too much cynicism. I’ll just leave it at this: When the big one hits, let’s help each other. Don’t expect much from the bureaucrats and politicians.

Observation #1: The page about Hulu.com on Mahalo.com will be the Mahalo-hulu page. In other words, are Hawaiian-ish “wiki”-sounding words on their way to replacing dropped-vowel spelling as the new trend in branding web-services?

Observation #2: If Newscorp/Universal didn’t purchase Hula.com, they’ve just added a zero or two to the value of that domain name.

Observation #3: Is it a trend story that people hang stupid names on Internet startups? Stupid names for web-stuff is old skool.

Later: TechCrunch discovers some translations for “hulu,” including “butt” in Indonesian and “cease and desist” in Swahili.

Despite my contemplative look at the debasement of the word and concept of friend, the reality is this: I’m still going to use the word. I’m still going to describe as friends the people who I make connections with in a wide variety of ways. I’ll continue to say “business-friend” or “blogging-friend” or “Nashville-friend” or “Twitter-friend,” but the word friend is firmly entrenched in my vocabulary. When I don’t use such adjectives, it’s a clue that I may consider that person more than a hyphenated friend. If I don’t hyphenate you and you feel that’s stepping over the bounds, sorry. If you want to call me a friend, please do, I need all the friends I can get. However, if I don’t know you, I may not friend you on Facebook. However, my definition of know is fairly broad. If your remind me how I know you, it helps. Also, if you’re a Nashville or media/tech-blogger or you’re someone I know through an industry-connection, then, in a Facebookian way, I’m pretty sure we’re friendable.

And while I’m at it, let me publicly give-up on another debased, unfortunate word: content. I don’t generate content, I write words or take photographs or shoot video. However, as certain powers-that-be (translation: people who write checks) seem hellbent on jamming all forms of human expression into one jar called “content,” then, hey, whatever. I’ve been writing some copy for the soon-to-be-relaunched Hammock.com website and it has the word content all over it. We’ve even thrown-in a few “user-generated-content” phrases to clarify what I mean when I say that people engage in conversations and personal expression.

Just think of me as your user-generated-content-friend.

Bonus: Back in February, I blogged about friendstitution, the practice of “renting” MySpace friends lists.

• The history of American declinism | realclearpolitics.com
  As they have for 300 years, a lot of people — liberal and conservative — believe America is declining. (via Rich Karlgaard)
  (tags: history)
• How to Eat (and Read) Close to Home | New York Times
  Article about Edible Communities. Quote - Tailoring a single prototype to multiple cities or regions is a popular publishing format, adopted by magazines focused on weddings, society and restaurant menus.
  (tags: magazines)