Everything Will Be Alright

Yesterday afternoon Steve Ketter finally paid me the rest of the money that he owed me from working Securty at the Main Event Lounge at Sundance. He claimed that the money that he was pre-paid was not only for me and the other Security guys, it was also for work he had done for Debbie setting up the Main Event Lounge in the months prior to Sundance. His experience reinforces my prior conclusion that in the future, when doing private security, I should get a contract so both parties know what is expected and to help in collecting any money owed. Tomorrow I am going to finally get paid from Harry O's for the security work that I did up there during Sundance. Once I have been paid from Harry O's, I will be completely paid for all security work done during Sundance!

Back when I was working at Club Vortex, I bought Tye Tribbet and G.A.'s latest album, Victory Live! Listening to this CD really helped me through a difficult time. The songs that were especially uplifting were Everything Will Be Alright, G.A. Hymn, Still Have Joy, 1-2 (Victory Check), and Victory.

There are several good Christian events and concerts coming to Utah soon. The Akiane Art Tour and Gallery is coming to the Patrick Moore Gallery in Salt Lake City. The Akiane Art Tour and Gallery will showcase the art and poetry of Akiane Kramarik, a 12-year-old prodigy that has been blessed by God and gives him credit for her gifts. It will run from Saturday, May 5th to Saturday, June 2nd. Click here for more info.

The Jeremiah People will be performing at First Baptist Church of West Valley City on Sunday, May 13th (Mother's Day). They will be doing free concerts at 9:30 A.M. and 11:00 A.M. At 6:00 P.M. they will be performing their drama, Dear Diary. Check out their tour blog by clicking here.

Christian rock group Flyleaf is coming to the Gallivan Center Plaza on Saturday, June 2nd at 12:00 noon as part of 94.9 The Blaze's Viva S.L.C. event. Tickets are only $12.50 and can be purchased at Smiths Tix or any Graywhale CD location.

The Tooth & Nail Tour is coming to In The Venue in Salt Lake City on Monday, June 11th at 5:00 P.M. The Tooth & Nail Tour features several punk/rock bands (most of them are Christian bands). MxPx, Project 86, The Classic Crime, The Fold, and Sullivan will be performing. Tickets can be purchased at 24tix.com.

To find Christian concerts and events in your area check out CCAuthority.com and iTickets.com.

Thought Crimes

Our “First Freedoms” to free speech and religious expression are under attack! There are two imprtant bills that have been introduced in the House of Representatives. The first bill, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (H.R. 2015), would make it illegal to fire, refuse to hire, or refuse to promote an employee based on his sexual orientation or "gender identity". Such acts would be considered crimes subject to severe penalties. This bill would force organizations such as the Boy Scouts, Veterans of Foreign Wars, day care centers, Christian business owners, adoption agencies, public schools, municipalities and a host of other businesses and organizations to hire homosexual applicants. For a list of the co-sponsors of ENDA, click here.

The second bill, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Protection Act (H.R. 1592), is a Thought Crimes law which aims to silence biblical Judeo-Christian speech and beliefs about homosexuality and “transgenderism.” This bill would inevitably create federally protected “class status” for homosexuals, bisexuals, transvestites, “transgender” and “transsexual” persons. H.R. 1592 paves the way to religious persecution – with “hate crimes” laws inevitably leading to “hate speech” laws targeted specifically at Christians and other faith groups who hold traditional beliefs on homosexuality. If this bill passes, it would be illegal for you to say that homsexuality is immoral! This has already happened in Canada, Sweden, Belgium, France, Spain, Ireland, Scotland, England, and New Zealand. Even here in the United States in Philadelphia, Christians have been arrested and jailed under a state “hate crimes” law!

Although these bills might look good on the surface if you just look at the titles, "non-discrimination" and "hate crimes", their goal is to normalize homosexuality and "trangenderism" and to punish those with opposing viewpoints. The vote for these bills could come as soon as tomorrow. If you oppose ENDA (HR 2015) and the Hate Crimes Act (HR 1592), please call your Representative at (202)224-3121 and let him or her know that you oppose these bills. If you don’t know your representative's name, simply give the operator your address and you will be given his or her name and connected with his or her office. You can also click here to send an email to President Bush asking him to veto these bills. Don't wait. Take action now!

To receive alerts via e-mail on similiar issues from the American Family Association, click here to subscribe today! You can also check out the American Family Radio website. If you're a father you should visit the OneMillionDads.com website. Mothers, you'll want to check out OneMillionMoms.com. Also, don't forget about Meet at City Hall and other National Day of Prayer events tomorrow! Click here to email this post to your friends and family.

Life's Getting Better

Life's getting better. I passed the A+ Essentials and A+ 220-603 (Remote Support Technician) tests at my new job at Teleperformance so I am now an A+ certified Remote Support Technician! The money that my Uncle George and Aunt Beverly sent me allowed me to pay Keybank the money that I owed them and catch up on bills. I'm still going to go to the Labor Commission this week to have them try to make Travis pay me for my bounced paychecks from Club Vortex. I'm finally going to get paid from Harry O's on Saturday for the Security work I did there during Sundance.

Last month I saw two other movies that I forgot to mention in my last post, Amazing Grace (A) and Pathfinder (B+). Amazing Grace is the story of anti-slavery pioneer William Wilberforce. It also told some of the story of Olaudah Equiano's life. Olaudah Equiano was a slave who bought his freedom, became an anti-slavery abolitionist, and then went on to write about his life as a slave in his bestselling autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano Gustavus Vass, The African. Pathfinder is the story of a Viking boy who was left behind after his clan raids a Native American tribe. He is then raised by the Native Americans and helps them battle his clan when they come back several years later.

I saw The Condemned (B) with Phil on Sunday. He still owed me $400 when Club Vortex got closed down (not including the 2 bounced paychecks) so I don't mind him paying for a movie every now and then. He still wants me to come back and manage Club Vortex when he gets it reopened but I'm not planning on working for him again. Phil really wanted to see The Condemned. It wasn't my first pick but it was better than I thought it would be. Although the story was basically about a live internet broadcast of several death row inmates put on an island with the last man (or woman) standing gaining there freedom, it had a good moral. It pointed out that people who enjoy watching people get tortured and murdered are the ones that are condemned.

Back when I was working at Club Vortex I ordered START Fitness's Fit to Fight DVD package. The Fit to Fight DVD package is a boot camp style workout on three DVDs. There is the basic level DVD titled Operation Wake-Up call, the intermediate DVD titled Operation Double Time, and the advanced level DVD titled Operation Fit to Fight. I did the Operation Wake-up Call workout once last week and I'm going to do it a couple of times this week. I'm planning to workout regularly starting next week. Hopefully I will be more consistent with this workout than I was with Combat Conditioning.

I'm currently reading Old School-New School: A Guide to Bouncers, Security and Registered Door Supervisors by Jamie O'Keefe. Although I'm not in a hurry to work at a night club again, this is a book that I have been wanting to read for a few years now. It applies specifically to working at night clubs in the UK, but it still has good information for anyone working Security in a night club anywhere.

This Thursday, May 3rd, is the National Day of Prayer. I encourage you all to Meet At City Hall from 12:20 to 12:40 PM to pray for a moral rebirth in our country! Click here to find other National Day of Prayer events near you.

Learning the Hard Way

The situation at Club Vortex continued to get worse. The hourly employees got paid bi-monthly and I got paid weekly salary. About one month ago, the employee's paychecks bounced so some of the security quit since, unlike the bar staff and waitresses, they don't make cash each night. After my 2nd paycheck bounced I told Phil that I was going to quit if I didn't get paid so he started paying me cash.

On Thursday March 29th we had a concert featuring a Mexican gangster rapper. Because of people quitting I only had 7 security with 3 of those on the front door and 1 on the back door. One of my door guys quit half an hour into his shift because Travis had told him he would bring his check down the night before but he hadn't so that left me with 6 security guys.

Towards the end of the night 2 Polynesian guys tried to start a fight with one of my security guys, Bushy and me. I called Code Red (the code for a fight that brings all security to that area) and waited for back-up. When back-up arrived we told the two Polynesian guys to leave but they refused and a big Caucasian guy that was with them got mouthy. Then a brawl broke out and one of the Polynesian guys came up behind me and punched me once in my eye and twice in the back of the head. It was at this point in the fight that someone supposedly shot a gun from the upper level but I didn't hear it or see it. I did hear some bottles getting thrown and saw some people throw bottles. Everyone backed up and most of the customers panicked and ran out of the club. My security guys chased after a guy that had thrown a bottle at a mirror. I asked the performers if they were O.K. and they were so I followed my guys downstairs.

Even though I had previously told my guys not to chase people outside of the club, they did. When I got outside I ran around to the side of the building and part way down the street I saw the two Polynesian guys that had started the fight inside attacking one of my security guys, Mervin. He was on the ground as I ran up to back him up. As soon as I got to him a police officer drove up with his siren on. I pointed out the two Polynesians as they were getting into their car so the police officer got back into his car and pulled them over as they went around the corner back in front of the club. At this time Bushy, who had been out there with Mervin, got frustrated and punched one of Club Vortex's windows which resulted in a big gash on his forearm.

Mervin had to go to the hospital for a concussion and broken ribs and Bushy went to the hospital for the gash on his arm. The two Polynesian guys got arrested for Inciting a Riot. The Caucasian guy that was with them got away. After talking to the police for a while, filling out an incident report, helping Ryan repair a door that got broken when the customers fled the building, and locking up the club, I went to one hospital to check on Bushy who needed plastic surgery on his arm. Then I went to the other hospital to check on Mervin who had to stay over night at the hospital but had no permanent injuries. Mervin came back to work on Friday (what a trooper!) but missed Saturday.

Sunday night Phil called me and told me that the owners of the building had locked us out but they had not done it legally because they had not given us an eviction notice. He told me to go down to Club Vortex on Monday morning at 9:00 to meet Travis and the locksmith so I could get the new keys.

When I showed up Monday morning there were two cop cars out front. I walked inside and saw one of the owners of the building talking to two police officers. He asked me what I was doing there and I told him that Travis had told me to meet him there. One of the police officers told me to leave because I was at a crime scene so I left. Later that day I found out from Phil that someone had got into the club and stole the plasma screen TV's and some of the computers. He told me that we were closed down but he was looking for some new investors/owners to replace Travis and he hoped to reopen in a few weeks. I told him that I still needed to get paid for those bounced checks. He told me to talk to Travis since he was the investor and had not put the money from the club into the club account which was where the paychecks were drawn from. Travis blamed Phil for the money not being deposited in the account. Based on what I know, I believe that Travis was at fault because I know how tight he was with his money. I am going to the Labor Commission next week because Travis is refusing to compensate me for the bounced checks.

Although Phil did treat me better than he has in the past, I was still in a situation where I was suddenly unemployed and owed a lot of money. Phil blames Travis for the bounced checks and Travis blames Phil. Although I believe that it was more Travis's fault than Phil's, it still doesn't change the fact that I got screwed over again. I know I said that I would never work for Phil again when he fired me from Club Exchange but I would it would really stupid of me to work for him ever again.

After being unemployed for two weeks I got hired at Teleperformance to do tech support for Dell computers. I started training this past Monday. The training is seven weeks long. The first two weeks are for A+ certification. The third through sixth weeks are for Dell training followed by one week of on-the-job training. I'm getting paid $10.50 per hour during training and $12.50 per hour after training. I started working one day per week at Gamerzz in Taylorsville right after Club Vortex closed down but my current schedule at Teleperformance conflicts so I am now just an alternate employee.

This past Tuesday I went to court for the car accident that I was in back in October that totaled my car. Because I am pleading not guilty to the charge of Failure to Yield (since the other driver ran a red light) but guilty to the charge of Driving Without Insurance, my hearing was rescheduled for July 26th.

Because of the bounced checks and the fact that I was unemployed for two weeks I am in a financial bind but my Aunt Beverly and Uncle George are sending me some money to help me out. I thank God for their generosity!

I've seen a few good movies lately. I've seen 300 (A+) three times. It is one of my favorite movies of all time! I also saw Peaceful Warrior (A+) again because it was re-released in theaters. Peaceful Warrior is also one of my favorite movies that I've ever seen! I've also seen Shooter (B) and Grindhouse (F). Shooter was good but not nearly as good as 300 or Peaceful Warrior. Grindhouse was a total waste of time (more than three hours of time). I'm looking forward to seeing Next, The Invisible, Civic Duty, and Spider-Man 3.

Here We Go Again

In the beginning of February I gave my 2 week notice at Convergys. Actually, it was a 1.5 week notice but my boss, Tony was treating it like a 2 week notice so I would be rehirable (not that I'm planning on ever working there again but why burn bridges). I was looking for another job and Phil had texted me a few times mentioning that he might be wanting me to come work for him again.

On Wednesday, February 14th Phil sent me a text message asking me to come in to Club Vortex and talk to him about working for him, starting that night. I had Wednesdays off so I went down and he basically told me that the club was not being managed properly and he wanted me to fix that. He wanted me to make sure that the bartenders, barbacks, cocktail waitresses, and shot girls were doing there job. In addition to their basic job duties, Phil wanted me to make sure that they did all of the closing work such as cleaning and locking up the liquor & beer. So I was basically a Shift Manager. He also told me that Josh was the Head of Security but that he had not been doing a good job of running Security. He told me not to worry about Security for the first week or two, just give Josh and his crew time to straighten things out but he didn't expect things to improve and thought that I would eventually be taking over Security too. Trent and Ryan were helping manage the club too. Trent was helping Josh run Security and Ryan was handling bills, payroll, cash, & liquor. I told Phil that I could work that night but couldn't work Friday and Saturday that week (the other nights that Vortex is open) because I was still working at Convergys.

At the beginning of the night Phil, Trent, Ryan, and I sat down with all of the bartenders, barbacks, cocktail waitresses, and shot girls and Phil told them that I was their manager. Wednesday went fairly well except for someone stealing some money out of Ryan's office.

That Friday Phil texted me and asked me to quit Convergys so I could work Saturday night. I talked to Tony and he made it so that I could quit and still be rehirable (what a guy!). Saturday was not the best night. It started off with one of the bouncers, Mike, trying to pick a fight with me. I went to Trent about it but he just went up there and talked to him. I felt that he should have been fired but Trent said it was my first week as manager so it was to be expected. It ended with Phil, Trent, and Ryan getting drunk and letting Ed, a promoter, do the close-outs for all of the barbacks, cocktails, and shot girls. Then Trent and Ryan took the money with them when they went with some of the employees to Wendover. They brought the money back the next day but Travis, the investor for Club Vortex, got mad about how things were handled.

After the dust settled Trent was told that he should just focus on Club Exchange and the transportation company that he was co-owner of with Ryan, Utah Transportation Management. Ryan was told the he should just focus on continuing to get the building ready for the Health Code inspection and Fire Code inspection. He was also there to sign the checks since he was on the checking account. Bills, payroll, liquor, and cash were now going to be handled by Brandy, who had been working the front door, handling cover charge and memberships. She would be still be running the front door.

On Saturday Phil had caught two customers that had taken drinks out of the club trying to bring them back in. This meant that the bouncers at the door had not done their job and prevented the customers from taking the drinks out in the first place. So on Wednesday Phil told me that I would now be over Josh straightening Security out. We had an employee meeting at the beginning of the night where Phil told the employees about the management changes that had been made. After the employee meeting I talked to Josh and told him that he wasn't being demoted, I was just over him as a manager. We went upstairs and had a quick Security meeting telling them that I expected them to stay on their post, do what I told them to do, and not use excessive force. That night two of the bouncers, Mike (the one that tried to pick a fight with me) and Tiffany quit half way through the night. At the end of the night another bouncer, Ashton quit.

That weekend Phil promoted one of the bartenders, Melanie, to Bar Manager. She was responsible for scheduling bartenders, barbacks, cocktail waitresses, & shot girls and ordering beer, liquor & bar supplies. Since I had been over the bar staff and bouncers, I thought that I was over her and the Head of Security. After a week of working together Melanie and I were having problems because I thought that it was my place to tell Melanie what needed to be done. To resolve this Phil called a manager meeting (he took Brandy, Melanie, and I out to eat). He explained that I am the Security/Building Manager, Brandy is the Front Door/Payroll Manager, and Melanie is the Bar Manager. So basically, in my opinion, I was hired as Shift Manager, promoted to General Manager, and then demoted to Security Manager. I'm on salary and I'm barely getting paid enough to do Security, much less run Security, so I guess I shouldn't complain. The problem is that Phil, who is an owner and the Promotions Manager, wants me to do things that are things that a General Manager would do but won't give me that title because he doesn't want to offend Melanie. Not to mention the fact that I'm the type of person that fixes a problem if he sees it, even if that means stepping on some toes in the process.

Melanie has been busting her butt with ordering beer, liquor, and bar supplies (which is very difficult because Travis is worse than Scrooge when it comes to money) but when it comes to scheduling & cutting cocktails & shot girls and making sure that all of her bar staff do their closing work, there's room for improvement. When I point out these things or tell "her employees" what to do, she gets offended. When Phil complains to me about things that aren't getting done with the bar staff, I tell him to talk to Melanie about it because it's her department, not mine. No more of the telling me to do more than my job and not giving me the title or authority to do it.

To make a long story short, a month later, I've fired several bouncers, had a few walk out mid-shift (including Josh), hired some new bouncers, promoted a new bouncer with some experience and training to Head of Security, fired a few of the new bouncers, and then demoted Sonny (the new Head of Security) this past Friday. On a positive note Phil has been treating me better than the last time I worked for him (he even apologized for how he treated me before), but he still isn't the best boss in the world. I pray that things will get better. Please pray for me.

Sundance 2007

During the first week of January I called Steve Ketter, co-owner of Big Money Island Productions, to see if he needed any security for any events during the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. He told me that he did. There was a luxury connections lounge, called the Main Event Lounge, that he was providing security for. He wanted me to do security for the Main Event Lounge from Jan 18-24. He also wanted me to do security for some private parties in the same building that the Main Event lounge was in, the Montgomery-Lee Fine Art building. I agreed to work for him.

On Wednesday, Jan 17th the truck my roommate Dave had been letting me drive was overheating really bad so I couldn't use it to get to and from Park City. On Thursday a friend gave me a ride up to Park City. When I got there I met the lady that was producing the Main Event Lounge, Debbie Durkin, her publicist, Aunny, and her assistants, Adriana, Kara, & Mike and a couple of Steve's security guys (actually, one guy and one lady). Then we got set up for our first private party, the Xango Party. Xango was one of the sponsors for the Main Event Lounge. There weren't any celebrities at the Xango party but it gave us a chance to warm-up for the other private parties.

Friday was the Grand Opening of the Main Event Lounge. The Main Event Lounge was a luxury connections lounge where celebrities, V.I.P.'s, and media could come get gifts from our sponsors - Yellowman tattoo shirts & alternative clothing, Juvenesse skin care, Peninsula Hotel Chicago (with their world famous Chocolate Bar), Hint flavored water, Ginn Resorts, Gold Toe socks, Quintessentially (the world's leading private members’ club), GLAM jewelery, Polar Bear Diamond, Bob Hurley's six-star restaurant in Napa Valley, CA, Green and Black's organic chocolate bars, Seneca & Belden-Stratford Hotels, Boatman Geller luxury stationery, Millstone Coffee, Spa 415, Cherella USA clothing & handbags ,Patron, and Budweiser Select/Budweiser Peels. Turnkey Furniture provided furniture, DayNa Decker provided enviroments candles, Artichokes & Co. provided flower arrangements & rocky road popcorn, and Culinary Crafts Inc. provided catering. The Main Event Lounge also hosted the underground talk show, Indie Appeal, and was one of the venues where Poull Brien's Sundance Celebrity Swag Hunt was filmed.

I worked the Main Event Lounge on Friday and Saturday. Since we didn't have any private parties on Friday and Saturday, I did Security at Harry O's on Friday and Saturday night. It was extremely busy at Harry O's. I had worked with a lot of the same bouncers at Club Vortex. I worked the Main Event Lounge on Sunday and then I worked a private party that night for Slamdance that Debbie had scheduled that day.

On Monday I worked the Main Event Lounge. Steve didn't agree with the way that Debbie was handling some aspects of her business and he was busy doing other things for Sundance so he was not there at all on Monday. Debbie was not happy with him being late on Friday or with him coming and going on Saturday & Sunday. The result of this was that by Monday both Steve and Debbie had told me that I was now in charge of Security.

Steve showed up late Monday night, part way through the Vox 3 Films private party for the films Broken English and Never Forever. Because I was in charge and he was not working, he drank a little bit. Debbie had told me how late the party was going but it was longer than she had originally scheduled Steve's Security guys to be there. Around 2 A.M. Steve came to me and was upset because the party was still going on and it was supposed to be over. While I was calling Debbie to sort it out, Steve told all of his other Security guys that they could go home which meant that I had to stay at the door (2 floors below where the party was taking place) and wait for people to leave. Steve came and told me that he was quitting and if I wanted to work for Debbie I could but he was done. Debbie wasn't happy with his job performance anyway, and she had already told me that I was in charge, so she wasn't upset about him quitting.

Tuesday I worked the Main Event Lounge during the day. Tuesday night I did Security at Harry O's. Wednesday day I worked the Main Event Lounge. Then I worked a private party that Debbie had booked for the film King of California Wednesday night. Adriana & Kara left on Wednesday. Mike left early and flew home Thursday morning. Thursday was the last day that the Main Event Lounge was open. Thursday night Debbie took Aunny and I to dinner and bought us some Sundance clothing. Then we went back to the suite and I helped Aunny pack the DayNa Decker enviroments candles so they could be shipped the next day since she was leaving Friday morning. She gave me a few of the candles to thank me for all of my help during the past week.

Friday and Saturday I helped Debbie clean up and pack everything that needed to be shipped out. Debbie paid me for working for her from Tuesday through Saturday. She also gave me some swag, a bunch of Hint water, and some cases of Jolt cola. Steve was pre-paid for providing security for Debbie at the Main Event Lounge. He finally got around to paying me a little more than half of what he owed me last Thursday. Hopefully I'll get the rest soon. Whenever I do private security in the future I am going to get a contract up front. I need to go up to Harry O's soon to fill out paper work so I can get paid from them. Check out my MySpace page for pictures from Sundance.

I would like to thank several people that I met during Sundance - Aunny, Debbie's publicist, for helping me get through the Debbie/Steve conflict and for being a beautiful, charming person; the people from Yellowman for the cool Yellowman shirts they gave me (one of which was stolen); Jeannette & Delores from Juvenesse for being there to brighten my day and for giving me a gift certificate; Kristen from Turnkey Furniture for supplying volunteer hosts & security; the couple from Peninsula Hotel Chicago for also being there to brighten my day (sorry, I forgot your names - email me so we can keep in touch), Johnny Smiles, an awesome photographer, for some great pictures; the employees at Clockwork Cafe for serving delicious breakfast sandwiches and Chai tea every morning; the ladies that work at Face and Envy (they are in the same building as Montgomery-Lee Fine Art) for being great neighbors; Greg (who is in charge of the security ministry at my church, Calvary Chapel - Salt Lake City) for helping with security at the King of California party; and Chester's Blacksmith Shop for selling me a really cool House shirt. I apologize for forgetting anyone else - it's been a while since the event and I am not very good at remembering names.

I canceled my membership with Blockbuster Online and got Dish satellite service. I got a DVR so I can record my favorite shows - 24, Prison Break, Heroes, House, & Bones. I've seen a few movies in the past two months - Apocalypto (A), Ghost Rider (A-), and Bridge to Terabithia (D+). I am looking forward to seeing Amazing Grace, 300, and The Ultimate Gift.

I know I said I would never work for Phil again but I am working for him again. Check back soon for details.

My Generous Roommate

A few weeks ago my roommate, Dave, went to Montana and his car broke down. He took a Greyhound bus back home and bought an old pick-up truck. Last week he got his car back from Montana and got it fixed. Last Tuesday I got my Driver's License renewed (it expired on my birthday, September 26th, last year). Last Saturday I asked Dave for a ride to work. He gave me the keys to his truck and said, "Go ahead and take my truck." Then he explained about his car breaking down and getting it back. I said, "O.K. I'll have it back around 3:30 or 4." He said, "Don't worry about it. Use it when ever you want to." So for the past 5 days I've had wheels (yes, the vehicle is insured).

I've seen a few good movies through my my membership with Blockbuster Online - End of the Spear (A+), In the Name of the Father (A), and Crank (A-). I'll be canceling my membership to Blockbuster Online in a couple of weeks because I'm all caught up on watching last year's seasons of 24, Smallville, and Alias (I just started watching the last season of Alias today) and I'm getting Dish satellite installed this week. Yes, I do Tech Support for DirecTV (which means I get free installation and free programming) and I'm getting Dish. The reasons for this are:

1. Dish doesn't require a phone line for their DVR service; DirecTV does. This means I don't have to get phone service just to get DVR service.
2. I probably won't be working at Convergys much longer. I'm going to use my benefits there to get some dental work done, then I'm going to find an Armed Security job.
   
3. I'm sure that some of Dish's DVR's have problems too but doing Tech Support for DirecTV has tainted my opinion of the DirecTV DVR's.
   

I'm currently reading Jerusalem Countdown by John Hagee. It talks about the escalating conflict between Iran and Israel and the resulting effect on America and the rest of the world.

I will be doing security for some private parties at Sundance Film Festival from January 18-28. I might also be doing security at Harry O's during Sundance. I will be making good money for those 11 days which will allow me to get caught up on some of my debt.

A Crazy Year

It's been quite a year. Last December I started working at Teleperformance doing Tech Support for TurboTax. At the beginning of the year I made two resolutions: 1. To read the Bible in 2006; 2. To exercise on a regular basis to get fit in 2006. I didn't stick to either very well but I did attend church fairly regularly. I'm currently volunteering for the Security & Information Desk ministries at Calvary Chapel.

On Feb 1st I found out that my cousin, Amber, got in a really bad car accident in December and was in a coma. The doctors gave her a 0% chance of recovery; a 0% chance of ever coming out of the coma once the narcotics were lifted; and if she somehow did come out of the coma, a 0% chance of ever regaining any cognitive or physical control of her body. Well, my God performed a miracle - she is now completely recovered!! She is driving a car and working a new job! Her story was aired on Christmas day on CBN's 700 Club. I recorded her story on my friend's DVR and watched it in the evening on Christmas day. You can read her story here.

On February 10th I bought my first car. I joined the Patriot Guard Riders on March 3rd. In the middle of March I was planned to go on a mission trip to Reynosa, Mexico but ended up not going. On April 18th I got transferred to the Clearwire project at Teleperformance. I got hired on part-time at The Depot on April 20th. I bought a Springfield Armory XD 45 on May 22nd. On May 29th I had the pleasure of meeting Yarah Bravo. I was fired from The Depot on June 2nd for no good reason. On June 7th I met a lady named Chere and ended up spending way too much money keeping her and her kids off of the street over the next two weeks and eventually found out that she had been lying to me.

In July I flew to Florida for surgery on my gums and shoulder. While I was down there I saw my dad for the first time in 9 years. I also quit working at Teleperformance and made the mistake of working for Phil for the last time. In August he did me a favor and fired me. In September I went to New York for my brother, Peter's wedding. When I got back I started working at Convergys doing Tech Support for DirecTV. I'm still working there. I also started working at the new Club Vortex (I quit working there a few weeks ago). Over the next 2 months I got in two car accidents. The second one totaled my car.

This year I want to improve my relationship with Jesus Christ. I also want to get in shape this year. Hopefully I'll be more committed to these goals this year than I was last year. I also want to get my concealed carry permit, my Armed Security License, and an Armed Security job. In a few months, when I am done paying off my totaled car, I am going to get another car. I pray that this year will be better than last year.