[lumberjim]

i am sitting about 6 feet above jinx right now. She's downstairs, I'm upstairs. I could yell " get me a beer, bitch!" but that might wake up the kids. Instead, I send her a cute little IM, complimenting her beer getting ability, and voila!.... I still go get my beer myself anyway.....but at least I didn't wake the kids up.

I like talking with IM sometimes. sometimes I find that I just fade out ......it's not like the phone where you have the awkward silence.....if there's no quesion floated, or comment expecting a reply, you can just go back to your work.......It's very good in that respect. What I don't like is when you have a lot to say, or questions to ask. I invariably end up in a dual threaded conversation because i'm talking to fast. The phone is much better for that kind of thing. I don;t see how it can be "a waste of time" though. people chit chat. this just increases their range, and probably saves lots of long distance charges for a lot of people, too.