My Wife's Blackberry is trying to kill me.

Mrs. Magill got a Blackberry for work two weeks ago. It’s really neat. She can send email from meetings, and she feels like she can get work done while she’s stuck in the conference room. Her stress level went down. That’s good.

She has a major release this weekend. She is now receiving a couple of emails per hour, even at night. In the evening, before she goes to bed, she plugs in the blackberry and puts it on the counter in the bathroom, where it sits quietly. Waiting. Waiting for me to come to bed. Then it starts. BUZZZZZ-BUZZ-BUZZ. Once or twice an hour. I think she has an automated system sending her emails, because no sane person (even the guys in San Diego) would be sending her emails at three in the morning.

1:45 AM BUZZZZZ-BUZZ-BUZZ. Robots are breaking into the house (through the bathroom) - no wait - it’s just the Blackberry.

2:30 AM BUZZZZZ-BUZZ-BUZZ. Fang! What’s wrong with Fang? - no wait - it’s just the Blackberry.

3:00 AM BUZZZZZ-BUZZ-BUZZ. The robots are back! - no wait - it’s just the Blackberry.

3:30 AM BUZZZZZ-BUZZ-BUZZ. Whazzat?

4:30 AM BUZZZZZ-BUZZ-BUZZ. Someone’s sending me email. Why can’t I read the email? Oh, yeah. That’s my alarm clock. I can’t read email on that.

By the time I got up at 5:30, I was so pumped full of adrenaline, I thought I was going to have a heart attack.

I’m wrapping that frappin’ thing in a towel tonight. Maybe I’ll get some sleep.

Methinks zee Blackberry needs to be plugged in at the other end of the house!

It’s the darndest thing but mine never buzzes at night after I hit that little button that I think dispenses insect repellent.

You do know you can turn the radio off on those when you want? It won’t recieve mail till you turn the radio back on. The version I supported (a year ago) it was a icon of an airplane on the main menu. It would turn into a radio tower that you would select to turn it back on.

It will still charge, and you can still read email, and even write it, but you won’t get any new mail, and the ones you write won’t get sent till you turn the radio back on.

Slightly off topic, but I found them to be useless devices. The ones we had were one of the first models and all they did was email, and appoitments. Every person that had one also had a PDA, cell phone, and a laptop. The excuse they were using was they had to be in touch all the time. Always wondered what the cell phone was for. I refuse to have one, if it is so important you need to reach me right now call me. Email is for less urgent stuff. YMMV of course.

-Otanx