I'm going to take a one-day break from showing off all of the new SharePoint tricks that I've recently learned so that I may share an embarrassing admission for your entertainment. 

Earlier today, I had been hopping around (in separate browser tabs) between different instances of our portal, in order to accomplish various and sundry tasks.  Just a few minutes ago, with the intent of demonstrating a new trick for the blog, I popped back into one of those tabs.  Once in the portal, I selected the My Site link, where I intended to cast my SharePoint spells today.  Imagine my horror when I encountered this:

Regular readers will recall that I've been pimping my My Site for some time now, and it shouldn't look anything like the default, SharePoint-newbie looking My Site image pictured above.  Thus, my feelings of horror upon seeing this abomination.

Seasoned SharePoint users will probably have already guessed, based on my earlier clue about "different instances of our portal," what took me almost a full minute of going through various theories to realize.  Before I reveal the embarrassing solution to the puzzle, however, let's revisit a few of the theories that raced through my head as I gazed at that default My Site with my name on it:

• "Did I somehow unknowingly blow up my own My Site?"
• "Did a server or something get reset that somehow nuked my My Site back to the stone age?" 
• "Is one of my colleagues having a laugh at my expense, and laying in wait (with Alan Funt?) for me to start freaking out?"

After that panic-filled minute, I regained my wits and cooly noticed that, hey, the Bamboo Portal tab isn't appearing either!  And that's when it hit me: You're in your test area, dummy.

The moral of this story?  Location, location, location.  Not only does where you are within SharePoint have potential implications regarding your permissions, but sometimes it may even save you a panic-filled minute of wondering if you've somehow screwed up really bad, or if one of your colleagues is having you on!