Semen to MySpace - Who said research is a drag?

I'm always torn between blogging about something writing related, or something funny and entertaining. Sometimes I'm lucky and come up with an anecdote that is both, or so I hope anyway. I have a story I want to tell, and that I've promised WordVixen, about my first trip to Walt Disney World. Or actually it's more about the plane ride to Florida than the parks themselves, but it doesn't have a thing to do with writing so I think I'll put it off another day or two since yesterdays Porsche story had no literary merit or slant.

So now that we've established that today's blog will be neither funny nor entertaining, let me ask the few, the desperate, the regular readers of this blog a few questions. Have you ever read a published novel that uses internet chat as part of the story? Like instant messages via MySpace or some other forum? I'm curious the proper way to format such a thing in manuscript form.

Also do any of you know of a good book or internet site for abbreviations and other chat terms. I know the basics lol, roflmao, brb, and such. I have spent a little time on chat rooms in the last couple of weeks and have seen stuff I have no idea what means. Since this is a teenager I'm assuming she would know most of these. I don't want to get too elaborate or I'll confuse the less technical of readers out there but I want the narrative to be believable and fell real. My friend Jennifer Archer used some of this in her novel Sandwiched (A great read by the way) but I would like to find a few other examples and I know they have to be out there. So somebody please help me out.

Bull semen is the other subject I'm researching for this novel so if anyone happens to have some insider knowledge about this lucrative business, especially the duties of a job title semen collector, and are willing to admit said knowledge let me know. Ive got a good angle on a ranch about ninety miles from here where I can go and watch both the collection and the insemination process. Sounds like fun afternoon to me.

Still working on a title for this one, but whatever I come up with should be interesting, given the diversity of the characters and the subject matter.