PSN going down for maintenance until 11:30 p.m. EDT [update]

Once again, it's come time for Sony technicians to bust out their hi-tech feather dusters and get to work on sprucing up the PlayStation Network servers -- a process which will take those servers offline in a few minutes, and keep them offline until around 11:30 p.m. EDT.

We know what philosophical dilemma you're currently pondering -- what happens to all of our Home avatars when the PSN is taken offline for such an extended period of time? It's impossible to know for sure, but theistic scholars postulate that these avatars are suspended in a purgatorial state of un-life, where relative time loses all meaning, and mere hours are stretched into lifetimes of nightmarish staring contests with the eye of oblivion.

So, yeah, maybe buy them a shirt or something once the PSN comes back online.

Update: It looks like some PSN functionality has been restored. You should be able to sign in, update and play games now, but the PlayStation Store is still down.