#4 Instant Messaging

This task was pretty easy as I am familiar with both MSN messenger and GoogleTalk. I used to use Trillian, but you had to download the software and that won't work in internet cafe's out of country. I used ICQ for about five years. I loved that one as the friends I had that were out of country found it easier to access, and you could have all your friends on it.

I had never tried Meebo but it was easy to set up and customize. I added my MSN and my Google accounts, then had fun with the skins. None of my buddies were online at the time I set it up, but I have sent out invites and we will see what happens.

I go through a kind of love/hate relationship with IMing. On the one hand, it IS a great way to keep up with friends and family who are far away and I am better at IM than I am at talking on the telephone.

However, if I am online at the "wrong" time of day I can spend so much time answering the IM's of some bored buddy with nothing else to do, that I get nothing else done or get too distracted to get necessary tasks done. When I was in school this last couple of years, I would keep "invisible" during finals week so I could stay on task. On my MySpace account I usually let folks know when I am online, as my family keeps in touch through their MySpace pages. With my son Lukas in the Navy and spending most of his time overseas it has sometimes been the only way I can get updates on how he is doing.

I guess overall I like IM.