Rick Beeman

It was strange, I came home at 9:30 PM tonight and I thought something was wrong.    I can’t remember the last time I was done with a social activity or work this early.    It kind of felt good.    I went out to eat with a bunch of South Africans at an Indian Restaurant…they like their food hot hot hot…    It was actually my Tuesday small group and this is the last time we’d be meeting with Casper before he leaves Bahrain and travels back to South Africa to start his job.    Casper’s tale is a real success story.    I’m very proud of him and his lovely wife Mariette.    I should probably go into detail…because my son was questioning that maybe I didn’t heard God right when he told me to come to Bahrain.    X is putting doubts in his head as regards to my calling.    But if I need any proof, I just turn to my friend Casper.   I loved being used of God and am open to however and whenever he will use me.    Whether its in Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, Los Angeles or someplace even more remote lik...

Wow am I wiped out.    Its 12:30 am and Im still at the office.    I am enjoying this, but still the mental drain takes it toll physically sometimes.    I have a contact going to Hollywood tomorrow.    He asked me to compile 10 creative projects which he could pitch to some of the Hollywood power brokers.    Our hope is that they are looking for the next “Slumdog Millionaire” and one of the 12 projects we are submitting (I threw in two extra) could be it.    I wrote five of the projects and the other seven I had submitted from various filmmakers in the region.    It’s a long shot, but if we hit with just one of them, we’ll be sitting pretty for awhile.   I didn’t stay at the office too late today.    I had an interview with the minister of works about the new shipping port that is opening.    He was very high up on the ladder of the government.    It’s the equivalent of talking to the Secretary of State in the U.S.    I was very honored to chat with him.    He seemed like a sharp man. ...

X is at it again.    I talked to Max for the first time in a month.    I had earlier written X an email asking for permission to have the kids come out and visit me for four weeks in July, during my regular visitation period.    She responded, “no.”     Max then called to leave a message telling me to stop twisting his mom’s words, and that he didn’t want to go to Bahrain and for me to stop making their house look so bad.    He was crying and very upset absolutely insistent that he didn’t not want to go to Bahrain.    Then he said it was his choice…and not anyone else’s.    No one influenced him.    But he also said…”Mommy isn’t blocking me going to Bahrain, but If I come back the door will be locked”    Meaning he won’t be allowed to return to his home.    So of course Max and the other kids don’t want to visit, if they do…they won’t be allowed to go back to the home they know and their friends…so of course they are choosing not to visit.    All I wanted was four weeks for them to exp...

Whew what a day.    I woke up at 4:30 AM with that still small voice in my head saying get up now…I’m going to need the extra time.    My alarm wasn’t supposed to go off til 5:15 am and that 45 minutes sure seemed good, especially since I didn’t got to be til 1:00 AM anyways.    So I laid there and argued with that voice in my head…is it God speaking to me…or is it my voice.    Im convinced its God as he and I have conversations.    You’d think I’d learn by now not to argue….but no…I laid in bed for an extra 10 minutes then I got up.    Thinking 30 min. early should give me plenty of time.    My father graciously offered to drop me off at the airport, return the rental car, and take a taxi back to the hotel in case I ran into any problems.    I declined at first thinking myself wholly self sufficient…then I second guessed and Im so glad I did.    We left the hotel at 5:30 am…but had to wait for the Valet to get the car about 10 minutes.    Then we found the airport but had to gas up th...

A spectacular day in Paradise.    Did I just say paradise in the Middle East?    Yes, I suppose I did because it certainly felt that way.    I slept in late which felt fantastic, as I don’t get a chance to do that often.    I woke up and went for a swim in the Ritz Pool.    Now this pool is different than most pools.    Its not really wide, but rather its very narrow with many canals weaving around the landscape.    Its actually quite long.    Along the canals are a series of jets and fountains with a giant cascading waterfall at the end.    One swim back and forth leaves you knackered.    So its very very long.    It was a nice morning workout.    After the swim, I went up to the club lounge with my folks and we were treated to a magnificent breakfast.    We had another great conversation…how nice it is that Im friends with my folks.    The good thing about the divorce is that it brought us closer together.    I really love my parents and the last 10 days have been a lot of fun with t...

I had such a wonderful night with Khalifa, Tanya, Raimond’s Parents, and my parents last night it was fabulous.    Raimond is Tanya’s husband.     Raimond was out of town for business.      His father looks just like that guy with the moustache from the Monopoly game.    He is from Holland.    He was telling stories about World War II when the Nazi’s occupied Holland.    If I remember right, he lost his father, sister and brother to concentration camps.    One time they were there and the next he never saw them again.    I just can’t imagine the lifelong impression that would leave on someone.    He also said, that he had to go to food lines to survive.    It was a very humbling experience.    To this day he can’t go to a buffet and hold his plate out for food, it brings back too many bad memories. I like hearing stories like that…about how people overcame adversity and lived productive lives.    We all go through the crap..but its how we handle the crap is what defines our character. ...

What a full day it has been.    I knew that we were going to Dubai on Thursday so I had to get in two full days worth of work in one day.    I had an incredibly productive six hours.    Total non-stop amazingly efficient.    Once I got to the end of the day…I just mentally crashed.    I had an interview with a lovely South African girl this morning.    This is the second beautiful south African blonde with dazzling blue eyes I met in two weeks.    What is it with these South Africans?     Most South Africans I have met absolutely love their country because of its beauty, but won’t return because of the high crime.    Many South Africans I’ve met think its dangerous to live there.    So they are bit melancholy about their past.    This South African girl actually set up the interview.    Her dad read about me and KSDi in the paper and encouraged his daughter to call us up.    She did, and im so glad she did.    She is a real entrepreneur and a good sales person.    Im not sure what we c...

I woke up this morning with the strangest impression.    God wanted me to spend some time listening to his voice.    So I did, and I got the impression I was supposed to go to Dubai.    I’ve learned to recognize strong impressions from God.    This was certainly a strong impression.    I also felt like everything would fall into place making it easy to go.    So I made mental preparations to go.    We were going to send some equipment that would have cost about $250 to send over from Dubai for work.    So for the price of my plane ticked $80 RT, I can bring it on the plane with me and save all that money.    So that justifies the trip.    Plus my parents wanted to spend a few days in dubai while they were out here but didn’t want to sacrifice any time away from me.    So with me going to dubai that satisfies the best of both worlds.    My father gets to see the architecture of Dubai (its amazing) and my mother gets to stay in a five star hotel.    But I think the real reason Im suppose...

What a great night it has been to finish off an even better day.    It all started well when my father and I went to breakfast.    Im glad I have a good relationship with my dad.    We went to a place that had real pork bacon. They allow pork over here but only at specially licensed restaurants and grocery stores.    In the butcher shop its like a special section you walk in…like the old video stores and the porno section.    It says rather blatantly…for non-muslims only.    The bacon this morning was delicious.    You know you don’t really appreciate a good ham sandwich till you can’t have a ham sandwich.   I knew I had a lot to do in a little bit of time.    I work 6 days weeks now with the acting class and last night I was at the office til 10:30 p shooting a promo video.    So I didn’t feel bad about taking part of the afternoon off to visit with my parents.    So I got a lot of work done in a very short amount of time.    I was really efficient.    My parents came by and they saw ...

A little bit of a frustrating day today.    I went out to breakfast with my father at Senor Paco’s my favorite Mexican restaurant for breakfast.    They have a delicious and cheap breakfast.    Much to my surprise my regular waiter wasn’t there.    I was disappointed as I’ve come to like him very much.    So I was a little bit put off by the new guy, until he told me that He saw me in Highlights magazine and that the other waiter told him what I liked and prepped him.    Then all the kitchen staff wanted to wave at me.    This is pretty cool.    I feel like it is totally not deserved.    I am gracious still.    I was really looking forward to quiz night tonight.    My parents wanted to go with me.    So I was trying to get everything done early at work.    My shoot at 2:00 almost got cancelled.    The client thought it was too expensive.    We renegotiated and came up with a number.    We scheduled the shoot for 5.    But there was a problem with the make up, so that got us running lat...

OK another great day in the land of Bahrain.    I went to breakfast with my father at Chili’s.    We walked there and had a great breakfast feast..the two of us for $12.    I came back to work out and prepare for my class.    Its nice having family around.    Its been awhile since I had that.   The classes went very well today.    Its nice seeing the development of the children and teens as they improve.    What really rocked was the adult class.    One of the exercises I had them do, was bring in a sentimental object.    They talked about the object and a few got a little emotional.    Then, I had them do a sense memory exercise on that object.    Sense memory is a type of guided meditation I do in the class that is very effective.    I went first…and my personal, sentimental object was my old and beaten up Bible.    I’ve had it for 25 years and its been around the world a few times.    I explained the story of my divorce how I lost all hope…and the Bible and its promises of hope was ...

A fascinating day today.    Got my parents up early and went to church.    I dropped them off with Reji, I get reji and take him every Friday to church.    So they had someone to sit with when I went and talked with the youth.    I really am enjoying this group.    I wish I had the same forum to share with my teenagers, but I don’t at this point.    I pray that changes in the future.    X has made me out to be a bad guy in their mind.    I think she tells them things that are 10% truth 90% embellishment so she’s not the bad guy and everything is my fault.    I can’t argue with them or defend myself because if I do, essentially Im calling their mom a liar.    So I have decided not to fight. I so miss my kids and wish I had them with me.    If they could only visit for a couple of weeks so they could see what my life is like.    I think it would be a tremendous cultural experience for them.    But X simply won’t allow it.    I have been talking about X a lot the last couple of days.    I...

A good day that turned into a bad day that wound up being a great day.    What a roller coaster day its been.    We’re really busy with the last minute commercial shoot, but everything seemed in order.    The client came in and was happy with all the work that we were doing on the project.    I put the project over to Guy since the it had been cast and the cast had been approved.    I took the afternoon and decided to work from home since my parents are visiting.    I figured since I work 6 days a week at about 10-12 hours a day…I deserve a mini break every once in a while.    But my mini-break was cut short.    My lead actor called me and said…”Um I work for a competing real estate firm.    If I do your project, I’ll probably get fired.    Now first of all I totally understand that,.    I wouldn’t want to lose my career over a measly $200 photo shoot.    But...having to find another cast member in less that 18 hours was going to be difficult.    The agent that I talked to couldn’t fin...

Last night was one of the first nights in Bahrain that I had a hard time sleeping.    Its strange while I was going through the divorce and up to two years after…I couldn’t fall asleep without two sleeping pills.    I took them regularly.    Otherwise I would lay awake for hours.    Now it wasn’t like I was living my life wrong…I just couldn’t sleep.    Then something weird happen.    The night that I was called to leave Texas, that was the last sleeping pill I ever took.    Im not sure how much it has to do with having peace in my life or not.    But I do have a lot of peace and the sleeping pills are no longer needed.    Leaving Texas in 2007 was the beginning of my healing process, X’s marriage to new hubby was the culmination of the healing of it.    I mentioned this before but the night she got married….was such a horrible night not just for me but for my parents as well because of what it represented.    We all secretly held out hope and prayed for a miracle of reconciliation.   ...

Wow…another one of those day that so many good things happened to me.    I should add these “spectacular” days up…because they certainly seem to be piling up on me.    I’m absolutely convinced, its just God’s favor shining down upon me.    The first meeting was with a lady from Ministry of Social Development.    My pastor set up the meeting.    She was soooo exciting about meeting me.    It was really encouraging…what we specialize in at KSDi is exactly what she needs.    I don’t think she’s a believer…but I kind of felt like I was an answer to her prayer.    She was so enthused that she brought by her husband and colleague a little bit later in the day to come by our office to see our work.    It was all pretty exciting. We are going to work closely together in the future as she is very well connected.    We can both be of great benefit to each other.    She wants to change the world too.    The more I tell people that…the more they believe it.    I think it inspires them to try to ch...

A lot of very good things happened today.    Had to get a lot of things done early for the marketing of our new Legacy, personal biography series.    This is going to be our latest product roll out and I anticipate that it is going to be big.    We were also busy getting ready for the marketing of the St. Christopher acting class material which I reviewed yesterday, I think, with all of you.    I was already feeling good about the prospects of the future when I got a call from Gallery One.    They were the gallery that was interested in buying our collection…which could be amazing cash flow opportunity.    So I have been waiting for these guys for nearly two months and finally, after I had forgotten about them…they came into town.    So I dropped everything and met the owner of the gallery (he owns 13 across the Middle East with plans of expansion into the U.S.) and the Operations manager for the galleries.    These guys were sharp.    So we had coffee together and got to know each oth...

I had a lot of positive feedback from my acting students last night. I was very enthused. I didn’t think it was a great session, but some of my actors sure did. Here I thought I was brilliant waxing poetic about acting and psychological philosophy early in the classes. It really is quite advanced level thinking when it comes to acting as a craft. Yet they didn’t really want that. Leave theory to the university, they want practicality. So I gave them a few tools and they really liked it. So that’s what I need to do from now on. I can keep these unique philosophies to myself and just give them what they want. Well part of me feeling good is that I sent around a questionnaire. I was trying to find some marketable quotes to put in our flyer that is going to about 2000 kids at St. Christopher school. Now this St. Christopher thing is significant. What I want to do long term with the film and television is going to take by my estimation about 18-24 months to develop. In the mea...

What an eventful day for a day off…not really on the day off part. I met the South African blonde…that isn’t really interested in me…but just as a friend, for breakfast. It was a lovely chat. My daughter even asked me the other night when I spoke to her…Who’s the South African? She’s headed back to Australia…so there is nothing happening…but just a friend I met quickly. We had an article published in the paper about us today. That was kind of exciting as it was in the main national paper. If you would like to look at it…please go to: http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=245642&Sn=BNEW&IssueID=31359 I got a lot of positive response already from friends. It is kind of a big deal. Im not sure what the financial impact will be, but I guess we’ll find out on Sunday (our Monday). All this positive press is great for long term branding…but really need short term cash flow right now. The acting school is certainly helping with that. Speaking of which the acting c...

Its getting harder and harder to gratefully accept solitude. Sometimes I want to be alone, othertimes, I wish I had someone. No…I wish I had someone special a lot. I have soooo many acquaintances here on the island, and I have soooo many online cyber friends. But I don’t have really a best friend here yet, or a go to group that I’m always a part of. I miss that. Its hard resocializing after the divorce. Before I never had to worry about what I was doing on a weekend night, or any social activities. I was always with my family and that is the place where I always preferred to be. But the divorce changed everything. Now I have to get back in the dating scene. I enjoy going out and talking getting to know people better. But I miss the emotional intimacy. I miss holding hands and kissing. Its been awhile for that for me. When you have that for 15 years then its gone in the blink of an eye…its takes some adjusting. Oh, I know I’ll meet someone eventually…but I get tired of w...

Im still kind of buzzing from my talk with my kids yesterday.    Max sent me a video from a magic show he performed for his class.    I was so proud of him.    He is an entertainer.    He was pretty good too.    What makes me sad about being over here is noticing how much he’s changed in just 6 months.    That is one of the downsides of being here.    I miss that daily interaction.    But it was my choice being here…so im not blaming God.    I planned my way…God directed my steps.    I still feel like Im supposed to be here 100%.    Im able to help so many people.    I was talking with Max about this yesterday.    I have friends here from over 30 different countries.    I don’t have a lot of American friends.    That is fine by me, I have plenty in the U.S.    It was interesting talking with the South African…a white guy bagging on the U.S.    It’s a weird sensation having someone the color of my skin, not hold the same patriotic allegiances.       I feel my life is balanced.    What I...