Put yourself in the cool "Mad Men" avatar

I don't like it on Facebook when people "recommend I become a fan" of something. I kind of already know if I'm a fan of something. Grrrr...

-- The new avatar creator for AMC's "Mad Men" is cooler than its Simpsonize Me ancestor from the "Simpsons Movie" a few years ago. The "Mad Men" site is all cool early '60s period and less heavily endorsed. (The Burger King loomed over the Simpsonize site.) And you can actually make the thing look like you. Charlotteans -- @pinqueencity, @mamasnark, richcba

rrett, @crystaldempsey (of course) have jumped on it. Here's mine. 

-- It's Follow Friday on Twitter, and if you ever wanted to know what that was all about, the social networking blog Mashable did a very nice job of letting the originator tell how he came up with the idea. 

-- Speaking of #FF, here are my favorite tweeps this week, and why:

@mmcgovern -- elegant boston photographer is a poetic voice.

@smashadv -- Charlotte ad guy thinks well on his tweet.

@alexandrialeigh -- Charlotte author is funny and smart.

@wfae -- Public radio feed is more than a headline blast.

@rthurmond -- Charlotte mag ed has that Davidson mafia cool.

-- I need to start a MySpace page, and never have. Any advice?

-- Apparently I'm heading down to Spartanburg on Sunday for Panthers training camp. Should be fun. My goal is to tweet from the huddle. Wait, do they even have huddles in training camp? Maybe I can get in the ice tub the linemen cool off in.

-- Speaking of which, make sure you check out @insidepanthers, The Observer's inside-the-huddle tweet stream. Real reporters (not like me) who know the team like no one else give you the best inside news now.

-- An old friend inside Twitter tells me the little company that's rocking the worl

d is very proud of the new home page. I think most of us kind of looked at it and went, "Oh, OK." Times like this remind me that, despite all the buzz and pub, this is still a little 50-person company in a loft in SF. Here's a pic inside. The staff eats catered breakfast and lunch on real china every day. Nice.