• Anything, anything but calling them "vlogs!" A chat where every line is as good as: "i'm so addicted to video journals, i've got vournal disease" [jaschu's record]

There's a rumor going 'round that lots of reporters are reading blogs. So apropos of nothing (and because it's the middle of the afternoon and I'm drinking at the House of Shields), the Valley journo circuit needs new rules from now on.

Re-educate yourself with this morning's Valleyspeak lesson. Ten points every time you use one in a sentence!

• Tuesday afternoon: Oh boy, just $175 for an afternoon of lecturing designers! At Design 2.0 in SF, BusinessWeek writer Jessie Scanlon moderates a panel including Diego Rodriguez of magical design company IDEO and Peter Rojas of tech blog AOL Engadget. More fun than a barrel of Gillmors! [Core77]

Dorky button-downs, laptop bags, and ten guys for every girl — welcome back to high school chess club! TechCrunch blogger Michael Arrington held a dorkolicious Web 2.0 (TM) party this weekend in Seattle. An attendee and pic-provider says,

Jason Calacanis fancies himself a pot-stirrer. And the rising AOL exec really does twist more panties than a Chinese laundry. But he's a very busy man, so as an act of service journalism, here's a list of whom he's pissed off — this week.

As Michael Arrington frets about disclosure, Valleywag catches a whiff of one of the TechCrunch mogul's unannounced investments. Nothing major — he was in talks with a tasty piece of flipmeat. Those talks broke down when Arrington wanted too much control of the dot-com.

• The New Yorker publishes a followup six years in the making — the wedding of designer Jason Kottke and Blogger co-creator Meg Hourihan. [New Yorker; Photo source: Kottke]

Blogger Tom Morris does, um, something with OPML or whatnot. But bugger that — he makes clever Silicon Valley comics like this nerdhunt:

Right. I just got around to playing last week's Gillmor Gang tech podcast. It's safe to listen.

What's happened since Tim O'Reilly's lawyers attacked Tom Raftery like a rabid shark attacking a kitten? (In other words, sent him a cease-and-desist against holding any "Web 2.0" conferences because O'Reilly's trademarking that name?) THESE THINGS HAPPENED:

Tech publisher Tim O'Reilly's lawyers C&D'd an Irish non-profit two weeks before its "Web 2.0 half-day conference" for violating a pending trademark. Sure, Tim O'Reilly (pictured and also happy to see you) may have every right to register the mark "Web 2.0" for the use of conferences — he did popularize the phrase, and he has been running Web 2.0 Conferences for two years. But dudes, if there's anything to learn from Sensei Cory Doctorow, it's that reality doesn't apply to the blogosphere. Thus:

Today Valleywag slogs through Techmeme so you don't have to, to cover the chatter about Google's video ads. The official story: Google's adding click-to-play video ads to its AdWords program (on host sites, not google.com). The takes: It's either doomed, perfect, or the first step toward AdWords TV.

• TechCrunch blog mogul Michael Arrington (pictured here waving some shock) smirks at pundit Richard MacManus, who decided that Web 2.0 is undead resurrected: "While I enjoy watching Richard struggle with his inner self, and trying to find security in his beliefs, I think I'll carry on as I have - mostly ignoring the debate and focusing on the companies that are defining the new web." Snap. [CrunchNotes]

Everyone loves a pile-on. And when up-and-coming media mogul Michael Arrington posted a screencap — one little screencap! — complimenting a fan redesign of TechCrunch, his paid designer, Rachel Cunliffe, resigned in disgust. And then everyone hated on Michael.

With skills like these, Michael Arrington could nail a job in Google HR.

• Ballmer, Brin, and the other big boys take potshots. Google's Sergey Brin about Microsoft: "We just see the history of that company behaving anti-competitively and not playing fair." MS's Steve Ballmer about Google: "Can you imagine writing a letter to someone. 'Hey, Mom, I am upset with the gun policy.' Then an ad pops up and says, 'Hey, do you want to buy a gun?'" Yahoo's Terry Semel about Microsoft: "My impartial advice to Microsoft is that you have no chance." [ISEdb.com]

It's big, bright, and bold — TechCrunch relaunches mean and green, no more of that weak-ass pastel. And up-and-coming tech blogger Michael Arrington gives a sign of the times:

• Craig "Lemme guess, you got your couch through Craigslist. You're welcome" Newmark cryptically thanks Bank of America for the two CDs worth $22 mil. Is this some clever West Wing allusion, or did Craig just deposit, like, two days' wages? [Craigblog]

Techmeme (TechCrunch's robot friend) got extra-confusing yesterday with all the talk about OPML. Blog-syndication boss Dave Winer opened his blog-sharing project, Share Your OPML, to much fanfare from the technorati.