Thomas Friedman, you were right . . .

It is indeed a flat world in which we now live.

I took a personal day to get some work down around home before winter sets in. Namely, moving our patio furniture into storage at Gail's in Mayville.

On my way up, I ripped the new Biography episode on Edgar Allan Poe I ordered from amazon onto my laptop and then uploaded it to my iPod classic.

So on the way to Mayville I listened to the biography. I was also able - thanks to my BlackBerry - scroll down (or voice record if I wanted to) questions that I would later turn into a worksheet (sorry Schmoker!).

The previous night I had received a few anxious texts from students nervous for their large novel tests. So just before turning at Neilsville I texted them and asked them how they thought their tests went. Before I got to Mayville, I had the responses.

On my way back, I received a call from one of my College Comp students. He didn't have part of his novel test. Sure enough, I had printed it, but I forgot to grab it and put in the pile for the sub. So we were able to fix that problem.

Then I got another call from a College Comp student wondering about her assignment. She wanted to know exactly what was due on Thursday.

Here I was most certainly not at work, yet I was getting quite a bit of 'work' done! This is exactly what Barry Schwartz talked about in his TED podcast called "The Paradox of Choice": we now live in a world where, for most of us, it is possible for us to work 24 hours a day from almost anywhere.

Is that exciting? Or depressing?

If you have the greatest job on earth, as I do, then it is awesome.