Now, it's official. The Gawker sites are totally over-exposed. There's a profile in the New York Times today. It's fine, could have been a lot more overblown. But the piece is still embarrassing, and I'll pay some kind of price. Call it buzz karma. First they lift you up; then they knock you down.
   Honestly, I liked the recession better. No one cared about blogs except for the under-employed lunatics who wrote them, and their under-employed friends. There was all the time in the world, to find under-appreciated writers, and develop an audience. Maybe it would take a decade for mainstream media to discover that, somehow, blogs had developed a following. Whatever. There's no advantage in premature recognition.
   And now, in just a few months, it's all changed again. I've come to the conclusion that the US is just naturally exuberant. Irrationally exuberant. All it takes is a bounceback in Nasdaq stocks to bring back the boom. The press is interested again in embryonic businesses. The venture capitalists give ludicrous valuations to Friendster and other frothy companies. The madness is back again.
   Oh, and what's with the photo in the NYT piece? The Gothamist is running a competition to come up with the best caption. "Meg, look, a 'hyper-link'!"