I was in Nashville last week, and my boss and I went over my performance review and annual bonus. When I found out how much my bonus was, what do you think I did?

I spent about half of it on a new phone.

Right after I was employed by my present company, I found out they have a BES (Blackberry Enterprise Server). This means they can get my company emails to my Blackberry. They only approve of certain phones, and the iPhone is NOT one of them. So, I bought an 8330 Curve, and have enjoyed it for about 13 months now.

Last Wednesday, I went out and bought a new Storm 2. It has a touch screen that “clicks” when you press down on it to select what you’re touching. UPDATE: I finally beat WordPress into submission and got an image of the Storm 2. Here it is:

I’ve only had it a week, but I like it a lot better than my old one. It has room for all my songs, and lots of applications. I’m still exploring and tuning this phone. I’ll keep you apprised as I figure out the neat things this can do.

UPDATE 2: I’ve had it now for 2 1/2 weeks, and I still think it’s the neatest thing since sliced bread. It has its idiosyncrasies, but I still think it’s great. I’ve installed several apps that make my life easier, and I think it’s just plain cool.

I was checking my Twitter feed on my new Storm 2 (you did read the above post, didn’t you?) and came across this link: Rhode Island District Fires All Its HS Teachers.

The teachers union balked when the school superintendent asked for 25 minutes a day work. The teachers were getting paid *3* times the median income of the district, and still had a 50% high school drop out rate. So, when the union said no, what do you think this lady did.

She fired the teachers. All of them. This lady has a pair of brass cajones the size of shotputs, and they go clang clang clang when she walks. I think I’m in love.

Now, why can’t we do that here in Memphis? I mean, just fire all of the teachers and start from scratch.

Too much effort is being wasted on those who don’t want to learn. Just get rid of those who don’t want to learn. Don’t give them a diploma, and they are not entitled to social services of any type. Let them starve. They don’t care about putting effort into themselves, so we shouldn’t put any effort into them either. I am sick and tired of watching the schools on the news to the point I have turned the news off. They try different flavors of the same failed formula and wonder why it doesn’t work.

Hitting the reboot button and starting over from scratch I think is the way to go.

There just aren’t enough hours in the day any more. If you know of a way for the human body to get by without sleep and stay effective, please tell me where I can get it. Here’s what I mean.

First, I now have two jobs at work. They are intertwined, but I don’t have any free time any more at work for perusing the internet looking for interesting tidbits to comment here about.  The new job has actually crowded out the primary job for the time being. More staff has been hired, and hopefully my load will decrease over time, but right now I’m getting hit with 10-15 cases a day, each taking 30-60 minutes to fully process and close. Right now, I’m waiting on callbacks on 5 cases, which allows me the time I am using to update you.

Then comes other responsibilities. For one, I am following in the footsteps of my father, grandfather and at least one great-grandfather. I am in the process of becoming a Freemason. That requires time, because they don’t just wave a wand and go *POOF!* you’re a Mason. There are things you have to learn, things you have to know, and stuff like that. I’m sorry, but I can’t go into any more detail than that. 

And then there is Gamerz Depot. Yes, it’s still there, yes, I’m still pouring my heart into it to try and keep it alive.

I was counting the hours I’m doing everything throught the week, but I decided that sounded too whiny. I’ve made the choices to do these things, so I should either quit doing them or man up and shut up and do them. So, I’m shutting up and not whining.

I have the Flames of War Nationals coming up in 148 days, and I have to prepare for that. Painting (which has it’s own story), detailing, double checking details, making sure I have the right number of models on a stand (which if you have the wrong number of guys on a stand, you could lose the use of that stand, or worse yet, get you tossed out of the tournament. Yeah, these guys don’t dick around. They take their historical accuracy very seriously.

So, I am investing a lot of time in a lot of things. Some will pay off, some the results are still up in the air. All I know is I am very tired at the end of the day. I go to bed late, get up early and hard charging all day long. I’ve even taken to shaving my head at night just so I don’t have to spend the time doing it in the morning and saving myself about 15 minutes. When you have less than an hour in the morning to wake up, eat breakfast and groom yourself to look presentable, saving 15 minutes is a very big thing.

So, I’m done with my whine. I just wanted to say that I don’t have a lot of time for this anymore. I’m not stopping, but I’m not going to do 2-3 posts daily like I did when I started out. My life has moved on, and I have changed a lot over these past almost 8 years.

One of the concepts of recovery is when your illness is no longer the focus of your life. I have reached that point. My illness, while still present, is not the overiding force it was, that would drive me into the closet for 10-20 hours a week. I have filled my life with enough things, good and normal things, that I don’t have time for my illness any more. I hope to keep this blog as part of my life. It allows me to say things I cannot otherwise say. While not being quite anonymous, I can speak my mind and not worry too much about it. Anybody who wants to really dig can find out who I am, and I ask you not to do that. I don’t want to be “outed,” for that surely spell the end of this blog. I don’t want that to happen.

Let me sign off this post by saying that I have places to go, things to see and friends to make. I am no longer defined or confined by my illness. I am a person first, followed by many things like husband, father, and many more descripters before I get to “someone with Bipolar Disorder.” I’ll talk to you soon. As soon as I learn to give up sleep.