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Misc Update for 04/16... Well 04/17...

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Near 1 am, getting tired. So it is indeed time to go to bed. But since I havn't posted in a few days, I thought I would post a quick update.

House Life

Actually started working more on the house with my wife. Not that we hadn't been doing anything before but most of it was planning. We've actually started painting this week. Don't like painting that much, especially when the walls are textured but we just have to get rid of those bland white walls! Not too easy decorating a new house when you're flat-broke.

Just not funny how this whole double mortgage thing left us in a pretty deep sink-hole. Feels like every time you manage to crawl back up a little, something comes along draining your accounts over again. Essentially had to borrow against my 401K to maintain cashflow. This of course isn't really good and is only intended as a bandaid until things settle down.

Anyways, we've been trying to keep the renovations as cheap as possible. It's amazing what you can do with a gallon of "oops" paint (at $5/gal instead of $25/gal) if you're not too specific about colors. :)

My Health

My health is pretty much the same as it was. Still plagued by some ups and downs. I am seeing my psy tomorrow and he will probably adjust my meds again. Hopefuly, this will make things better over the next few weeks. Although I do feel better overall than I did a few months ago, my energy levels and mood tend to shift alot doring the day. Which makes it hard on some days to stick to a schedule or game plan.

Besides that, I have a lump on one of my right hand fingers. Had it checked out and as predicted it is a little mass of soft tissue (i.e a cist, which is not uncommon on my mom's side) although the generally don't do anything unless it gets too big, in my case it is right on the knuckle and is pretty much constantly sore. So I will be getting some really minor surgery next week to get it removed.

Projects

Electronics wise, I am still waiting on my Thaoe dev board. Last news is that it is expected to ship towards the end of the month. So I will likely have to wait a few more weeks. In the meantime, I have been looking at LCD options and a few other gizmoes for the intercom system. I am also considering another project (which I may run in parallel) which would consist of developing my own cell phone (or smartphone). Seems somewhat odd considering the components are out there. But I can never find a phone which has only the features I want. And I am curious if such a project could be done with over the counter parts at a reasonable cost. I have ordered some of the parts to get started. I will post more on both projects in the next day or two, but right now I am just too tired and need to go to bed :)

Publishing wise, well I am running behind schedule. Pushing out a new edition of Practical .NET 2 and C# 2 to the printer and working on the edits/layout of two other books. I still need to square a few things off with the distributor and once this is done, I will likely send out a press release and make a more official announcement.

Work

Overall, work has been going well. Still hard to find the focus and energy that I once had. Not that I don't want to work on my tasks, just that I sometimes have a real hard time focussing. Hopefuly with the new med change, if this reduces my cycling this should allow me to be a little more focused and consistent.

I still find it somewhat annoying that there is the big cloud of doubt hovering over my head. I can understand that management is worried about my future performance. But I think they lack understanding about what I went through and that it's not because of work. It was just one drop in the bucket that lead to an uncontroled depressive bipolar episode. I have this feeling and expectation that I should be back at 110% or else I am not sufficently productive anymore any should consider moving along. But this added external pressure is definetly not helping when it comes to self-esteem and self-confidence. Some days, it sure doesn't help me find the energy and motivation to make it through the day.

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