It's time for me to step forward.  I want to publicly declare that I have a problem.  I suffer from an exclamation point addiction.  At the end of many sentences, my finger automatically goes to the SHIFT key and begins the process of placing an exclamatory symbol after my latest thought.  Why do I do it?  I really don't know.

Maybe it's an effort to add the inflection I know you're missing by not hearing me speak these thoughts, maybe it's because I want to be sure you read what I said.  I just don't know.  But I am catching myself doing it all the time, so I want to come forward and ask for help.

And this does not stop at (!).  It applies to several other overused punctuation marks and things.  I also overuse the (...) and the (-).  Now, as a former English major, I know it's wrong, but I just can't seem to help myself.  I have had minor success eraditcing the :) from a lot of my work, but I have a long way to go.

I am going to consider this post my first.  There is not one exclamation point in here... until now!  I just had to sneak one in.  Do you see what I mean?  They're just infectious, they love to sneak in and sometimes where they don't belong.  I fought hard to not put one on that last sentence.

I know there are other punctuation junkies out there, so take this post as your intervention.  Stop the abuse of our readers and make sure we are not over-taxing them by saying everything with emphasis or undue pauses.  Make your posts as easy to read as they are full of excellent content and thougtfulness.  I've seen you, I know I'm not alone.

Good luck getting "clean."