Is anyone else experiencing new site growing pains that are amusing?

I just read all of my alerts, clearing them out of my alert cache. That somehow left me with -2 alerts (yep, a "-2" showed up next to my alert/bell icon). That caused me to pause to ponder the significance... had I just inadvertantly created an alert vacuum? If so, is it potentially dangerous? Can it spiral into a dreaded alert black hole? If so, what are the possible consequences?

I also just discovered that being first to comment gives us double leveling points. (yep, I just received this illustrious notification and am damned proud of the accomplishment!). I foresee some commenting brawls in my very near future...