Do you share everything with your significant other? Is it assumed within your circle of friends that if you tell one member of the couple you tell “the couple?” Or, do you keep separate stores of information? To what extent is this true?

For those telling *us* information – please assume that the default behavior is that all information will be shared. That’s not to say that there isn’t an override. You’ve got a reasonably good chance that if you specifically give “don’t share this with anyone including your better half” instructions we’ll obey.

I’m just curious what other people do. This weekend I learned that (and here’s the shocker) not everyone is like me. GASP. Now I’m left wondering how out of the norm I am.

If I’m completely out of the norm, please forgive me; I’ve most likely shared your deepest darkest secrets. In any case, let’s have it. I want all the remaining three readers (apparently people stop coming if you, uh, stop writing – who knew?) to share.

Dear faithful readers,

It should come as no shock to the majority of you that posting has been light as of late. Due to both the high cost of gas and the increasing competition from weblog aggregators, the business of original content creation has become quite difficult.

Beginning in July, senior management at “A musing or too much” began the process of cost-cutting. The hope was that through a series of cutbacks and debt realignment we could continue to offer you, the reader, the same high-quality product to which you’ve grown accustomed.

Unfortunately, the recommendation of the management-consulting firm called for massive salary cutbacks. During the month of August negotiations took place between the company and the major labor unions associated with “A musing or too much.” All parties worked diligently to come to a compromise. However, in the end, the parties were too far apart.

Beginning September 1st, “A musing or too much” will begin outsourcing all its content creation to India. In this global economy it’s a reality that jobs will shift beyond borders. To help ease the transition localization teams will train the Indian workers to write in an “American” style. Likewise, all contributing editors will be given “American” names.

It’s our hope that you, the reader, will never know that “Joe D” talking about “which way you eat your corn (in columns or rows)” is actually both writing the content and peddling furiously all the while trying to generate enough power to keep her 386 computer running off the makeshift generator.

We thank you for your patience through this difficult transition period.

Stephen Speicher
CEO

Lately I've found that my fans are getting a little too close. As such, I will be picking up P. Diddy's recently dropped P and adding it to my name.

Thank you for your support

There are those things that make you sit up and ask "Why did no one do this before?"

This is one of those things.

If I didn't a) have a perfectly good (and only one year old) fridge and b) didn't require a shallow-depth fridge, I would get one of these things in a nano-second.

I'm not saying that I run in a geeky crowd, but....

Here's the first Instant Message that I received from a friend following the birth of his second son:

Darren*htpc says:
fry's has a seagate 300GB SATA for $119
Darren*htpc says:
seagate usually has a 5y warranty
Darren*htpc says:
they also have a UDMA one for $99

It’s clear that, despite years of political correctness being shoved down my throat, I still have no idea what it really means to be a woman in today’s workforce. I suppose that it’s also possible that years of “everyone is equal” have caused me to lose touch with the reality that that’s not the reality.

So, why do I bring this up?

Well, the other day I broke down and bought myself a little avatar for MSN Messenger. I fashioned the little guy after myself. He’s got my tussled blonde hair. His eyes, like mine, pierce through you with their steely blue gaze. Heck, he’s even got my washboard stomach and bulging pecks. I, hoping to escape the confines of the keyboard, placed my virtual me on a nice sandy beach. All was idyllic, but soon I grew lonely. My wife, the love of my life, wasn’t there on the beach with me.

“I can remedy this,” I thought. “I’ll get her an avatar too.”

I went to work and fashioned a mate. I gave her a little tan. I slapped on a tasteful, yet still alluring, two-piece bikini. I put her in some high-rise flip-flops (she’s always trying to gain a little height). We were good to go. I proceeded to e-mail the digital pal to her.

“I can’t use this here,” she told me.

After thinking about it, I gave in and got her a different avatar. The new avatar is still spunky. Yet, my little guy is still lonely. It’s a little sad that she even has to consider the ramifications of her avatar choice. These, after all, are MSN-partnered cartoons. Sigh…..