I’ve noticed — and I’m not proud of this — that I have been boiling basically everything I do during the day down to 140 characters in my mind. Anyone else with me on this one?

“Diana Costello is…” keeps running through my brain like an annoying song you wish would just get out of your head!

And it doesn’t help that I recently added the “Twidget” to my Mac Dashboard here at work. Do you know what this is?

It’s a Twitter widget that I can access right from my dashboard, with just a simple flick of the mouse to the bottom-righthand corner of my screen, because that’s how I set up my user preferences. The Twidget is synced up to automatically update my Facebook status, making it waaaaay too easy for me to post all day long.

It’s such a fascinating phenomenon, really, this whole status update thing. Deep down, are we trying to confirm our existence or something; putting ourselves out there as proof that we are actually here, living, doing, status updating? Are we longing for friendship; looking for a response to let us know we’re not alone? Are we self-absorbed; thinking that every little thing we do is worthy of broadcasting to every person we know?

Ok, maybe that’s a little over the top. I don’t know. But still, I’m hooked and I know from the frequency with which some of my Facebook friends post that I’m not alone. (So don’t even try to front!)

As I’m sure people reading this blog are well aware, the federal funding available for students is well below what it actually costs to attend college.

So to help close that gap, students in recent years have increasingly turned to private lenders for additional money to pay for their education. Problem is, many of these private lenders are now backing out of the game.

Of the privae lenders still awarding loans, the credit requirements have tightened, and cosigners are all but necessary, experts say.

I’m currently working on a story about this issue, so if you are a student struggling to secure loans for college, pretty please (with a cherry on top!) give me a ring at 914-694-3528. I’d love to chat about your experience.

Photo caption: Mercy College freshman Maria Burgos of Ossining is helped by student worker Jarrett Hairston of Chestnut Ridge as she fills out a financial aid form in the financial aid office at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry Dec. 12, 2006. (Stuart Bayer / The Journal News)

Anyways, the narrator broke down the Epicurean philosophy into the following components, saying that to be happy according to this view one only needs:

1. Friendship. (Does Facebook count?)

2. Freedom. (Sing it, Aretha!)

3. Self-reflection. (Can’t we just Google the answers?)

As 20-somethings, I wonder how we fare in terms of these criteria. Just something to chew on, I guess. I’m not about to go off on some heady thesis on the topic — or at least not with at least a beer or two in me!

box out there today — and it’s supposed to be for kids for crying out loud?!

You see, the back of the Frosted Flakes box is centered around the compelling question: “What are GDAs?” It turns out GDAs are “guideline daily amounts,” which are “benchmark values to help guide you towards the daily amounts suggested for a balanced diet” and blah, blah, blah, blah!

Tony, take a cue from your pal across the aisle — the one and only undisputed champ of breakfast cereals, Lucky. That little leprechaun knows the deal!

The back of the Lucky Charms box had me scratching my head the other day trying to figure out a sequence of events relating to Lucky stealing a bowl of cereal from some kids in the woods and then making a mad dash off to enjoy his feast. Honestly, I’m not kidding when I say it was tough to figure out! (Well, at least until I realized putting the events in the right order spelled out a word… And no, cheater! I’m not gonna tell you what word!)

Anyways, I guess all I’m saying is that I appreciate a bit of a brain buster in the morning along with my sugary goodness. Is that too much to ask?

So what other cereal boxes do you find entertaining?

I’m 26 years old — going to turn 27 in January, gasp! — and I must say I hope and pray every time I step up to a bar that I will be asked for identification.

I used to get carded every time I went out. Now, sadly, it’s more of a rare occurrence…

Gotta love the bartender at Porterhouse who studied my driver’s license in great detail the other night before finally pouring me a pint of Captain Lawrence. Cheers to that!