Well as for the communication skills dropping. I highly doubt that, if anything you are just picking up on things you never noticed before (and your communication skills far surpass the average person that writes anything in todays' society).
A good example for me is that I am noticing that I seem to type the like hte often, yes a spell checker picks it up but when writing code it's sometimes not available. Also I think the fact that you think your were diteriating just goes to show how dedicated you are to detail, and making sure you give the right advice or ask the right question. Jeff -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list