That's one interesting tidbit in the post of the day: Michael Arrington's lament for the good old days of 2005, before questions about Bubble 2.0 began in earnest.

Apparently he's a victim of his own success.

He misses the time when he thought people wanted to appear on his blog merely to start a discussion, before TechCrunch was profitable, before he became Web 2.0's kingmaker and a mandatory stop for startup promo tours bringing wine, flowers and "hot PR chicks."

He misses having burgers and beers with entrepreneurs, and hashing out business ideas in his living room:

"I left Silicon Valley at the peak of the insanity last time around, and I was pleasantly surprised when I returned in 2005 to see so much goodwill and community surrounding innovation. Now, it's just like the old days again, and Silicon Valley is no longer any fun. In fact, it's turned downright nasty. It may be time for some of us to leave for a while and watch the craziness from the outside again. In a few years, things will be beautiful again. The big money will be slumbering away, and the marketing departments will be a distant memory. We can focus, once again, on the technology. And the burgers and beer."

Will things be idyllic again after the bubble bursts? Who knows.

In the meantime, the tip of the day is that there's a cheaper way to get on Arrington's billboard, with no PR firm retainer required:

More than once I've had a CEO break down and cry on the phone when we said we weren't covering them. And more than once, I folded and wrote about them after those conversations.

Another way to get on Arrington's radar: Register for the tech conference he's holding in San Francisco in September. Tickets are $1,995 until July 15, when they go up to $2,495. For that price, the burgers better be good.