Challenge . . . Accepted!

Earlier today I was posting this most important thought on Twitter and I noticed that my program was not responding as I confidently struck the ENTER key. Naturally, I thought it might be a problem with my ancillary Twitter-related program, so I CRTL-C'ed the tweet, shifted over to the Web and signed in to Twitter.com.

The non-responsiveness continued and when the tweet in question did not load, I got an error message saying that Twitter was OVERCAPACITY.

Because I thought it was funny, I OVER-REACTED to this and breathlessly told my cube/row-mates that TWITTER WAS OVERCAPACITY. (Much arm-waving ensued.) As I designed, they thought this was funny . . . but the (to some degree, at least) miscalculated my sincerity. Because they immediately challenged me to a weekend challenge.

The terms of the challenge are:

1. The duration of the challenge is from this Friday at 5 p.m. until Monday at 9 a.m.
2. I am not allowed to view any Web sites.
3. I am not allowed to use any social networking, i.e. Twitter or Facebook.
4. I am not allowed to read emails.
5. I am not allowed to play any online games.
6. I am allowed to use my iPhone for phone calls only.
7. I am not allowed to use my iPhone to listen to music or podcasts.
8. I can listen to music on the radio or from CDs, but not from iTunes.

If I successfully make it through the challenge (and I presume Lynda is responsible for verifying that I do so, since my Challenging Colleagues don't live with me and are therefore not positioned to effectively monitor me), my Challenging Colleagues agree to come and baby sit for us so that Lynda and I can go on a much-needed date.

If I do not succeed, I must provide an assortment of delicious, homemade baked goods for their exclusive enjoyment.

 Really, though, the not succeeding bit is only academic because there is no way I'm losing this bet. First, they think it's gonna be harder on me than it will be and B.) did you see the part about the "much-needed date?"

Seriously . . . it's needed, okay?

I'd walk through fire to get a babysitter these days.

But ANYWAY . . .

as I said at the beginning, my friends are overstating my "dependence" on Twitter. Sure, they've made noise this afternoon that I immediately tweeted a teaser to this post. But I'm only using the tools that are available to me. And I can quit anytime.

Just watch and see.