Rick Beeman

Well…I get the feeling that my six weeks of challenges are just about over. It seems like a heaviness has been lifted. If this had been a test, I think I passed it for the most part. I fell asleep while writing my blog last night. So I woke up at 4 am finished it up and by then I was awake. So I watched part of movie, did some emails and went to bed when the sun came up at 5 am. I slept til 10 am and felt a sickness coming on. I had flu-like symptoms when I went to bed and I think I had the chills in the morning. But I prayed it away…and about an hour after I named my sickness and claimed victory over it, it was gone. I really haven’t been sick since I have adopted this method of prayer. It really works. Though I am still a diabetic, and I’ve tried to pray that away to no avail. This is where the “God’s grace is sufficient for me” part comes in. I woke up and went to my favorite little Mexican restaurant for breakfast. I was really sad when they told me they were going to...

It was a very good day today. I think I’m nearly coming to the end of the 6 weeks of suckage. Not a moment too soon either. I stayed out last night way too late. After drinks at my friend John’s house, a bunch wanted to go to swanky club. I truly hate clubs which is a shame, because of my connections I could get a lot of perks. So I got to sleep really late. I got up early for church. I so wanted to sleep in and skip it. But last week I did sleep in and Pastor Graeme noticed. So this week I had to make sure I was there. But wouldn’t you know it, Pastor Graeme wasn’t there. After the service I met these two really interesting characters. They are both coaches for a professional basketball league in Bahrain. We went to lunch together afterwards and really had a great time. I invited my friend Mr. Harlem over, Art, and we all had a great time talking and getting to know each other. One of the coaches is looking for a new place to live and Im looking for a roommate. So he c...

Im pretty tired so I don’t know how long this will be. I was invited over to my friend John’s house for drinks. I met a lot of people my age…30’s-40’s. It was a night full of interesting conversation. I really enjoyed it. Today was an up and down day for me. God was really speaking to me in the morning that I need to spend more time in silence before him. My meditation time is way off especially since I’ve been so busy I haven’t had time to kayak. I try to tak the advice of Paul and pray constantly. So I always strive to be a in a spirit of prayer. But taking the time and just being with God I haven’t been doing enough of. Oh…I’ll take five-10 minutes in the morning and at lunch, perhaps listen to a podcast of a sermon back home or have my CD of prayer music. But actually just stopping and being still before the spirit…is something I need to much more of , and not just for a few minutes at a time. If this was new year’s I’d make it a resolution. One benefit of living alon...

I actually have been debating and praying whether I should write this blog all day. I don’t want to use this forum to always detail the actions and justifications of X. I certainly want to be fair, honest and forthright. I don’t want this to be perceived as a platform for me attacking another person or being petty. So this is the petition I talked with God about. Should I write about what has recently transpired or not. The answer was very clear. I don’t think this blog, or the life Im living right now has anything to do with me or selfish ambition at this point. This is part of me having to deny myself daily. Im writing and living my life as tool that hopefully God can use to inspire others and sow seeds for His kingdom. Im hoping that my life will be an example to others. Perhaps this is one of the main reasons why I wrote this blog. I have had so many people say to me…I thought my situation was bad…but yours is much worse. Somehow this revelation helps them put what the...

Well I had a meeting with the client today to go over our video for the 8th time. Im so flustered by this. Next time Im going to do it a lot differently but we are kind of stuck on this one. So we go to the conference room and it starts off poorly. They complain that the quality of video is not up to standards and then detail of how I have failed and how others have done so much better. They compare me with other projects that had half the budget and were much better in quality. Now I have a pretty good esteem and am objective, so I stood up to the client to defend myself and it got worse. I reasoned that Im proud of this project and it really is quite good. They said they are abandoning the deadline and are going to work on the project til they feel satisfied. What???? More re-edits. I talked to several other people and this sort of tactic is common. So I said lets get started with the video. About two minutes through they had me stopped it and again pointed out how unp...

It was an up and down day for me. It started out bad the night before. Now you remember that I didn’t let the outburst of my boss affect my joy and it didn’t. But I let something else do just that. Right before I went to bed I spoke with my Middle son. I love that kid. I tried to talk to my other two children (whom I also equally love) and they didn’t want to speak with me. Plus, I was informed that neither my oldest or youngest plan on spending thanksgiving with me when I come back to the states for 10 days. Now that hurts…bad. I know X will spin it like this is all my fault like she spins everything to be my fault and say this was their choice and she did not influence them whatsoever. If you believe that, I have some desert sand over here in Saudi Arabia I’d like to sell you. It’s a textbook case of parental alienation. X will probably even let them see this blog to prove that she is doing nothing to alienate the kids, but the proof is in the actions. I love my children...

It was really different day today emotionally for me. I think it was proof that Im living my life right, right now, even though things are difficult. I was so focused on finishing my projects. I keep mentioning that because at the same time I still have to focus on the day to day aspects of running the business. The frustrating thing about the first year here was the learning curve. The Arab business culture is just different. They are very demanding and very particular about the little things. So my problem is they keep making minor changes on edit 3, 4, 5, 6. Everytime we screen the supposed final product they find something else they want changed about it. If they would have made all the changes at once like they are supposed to, we would have been done with it. So these two big projects were supposed to be completed weeks ago, but because of the changes they’re still not done. The problem with this, is we can’t invoice until the projects are completed. That has put us i...

Today was a whole lot easier than I thought it would be. Which hopefully is a good omen. I’m hoping this week will be a whole lot easier than I anticipate. October is almost over….Yay!!!!! I had a conversation with God today (boy I know how strange that must sound, but we really do have conversations). He let me know that the worst of the six weeks is over whew… So today I got up to do the new voice over for project #3. We went into a very old but workable studio. They recorded the session on ¼” reel to reel. Are you serious? Yes..I am serious. It felt like I was in the 1960’s. The VO guy was great. I was following along the script in Arabic, and remember I don’t speak, read or write it. But I could tell when he was making mistakes and cut in, and it turns out I was right. Im learning so much about communication. Words are not that important when you communicate. Being over here is really helping hone my listening skills. So we got the project done in half the time...

I really needed this day. I woke up early and got ready to go to church. Now I wasn’t that sleepy, but I really heard God’s voice tell me to go back to sleep. I know that sounds crazy. But I heard it quite clearly over and over again. But I tried to ignore it. So I got in the shower and got ready to go. Then I heard the voice again, to go back to sleep. I know this sounds crazy because if you are a Christian, you are supposed to go church. We go on Fridays, the first day of the weekend here. So finally I heard the voice again, Go back to sleep. Then I realized why. I set my computer clock to West Coast PST time. We are about 10 hours ahead here. So I always subtract two hours and I know what time it is here. Well every once in awhile I forget that my clock is set this way. So as I walking out the door, I grabbed my cell phone. It wasn’t 9:30 a half hour before church. It was 7:30 am…2.5 hours before church. No wonder the voice was telling me to go back to sleep. So...

Well…I think last night was the turning point for me. I mean that the laughter is the best medicine part. I’ve had so many people all throughout the day approach me and congratulate me on what a great show it was last night. They just rave and rave. It really feels good. So I feel partially like a proud papa and partially like a very good director. As I was coaching them the night before It hit me…I am a great director. Its important that I say that because as an artist I sometimes doubt myself. With the instability at work this past month I’ve been doubting myself a lot. The cast wanted me to give them more criticism so they could hone their craft. So during the walk through for the show, I did give them a lot of pointers, tips, and tricks. They all responded to them really well. I told them which technique worked and which technique they were having troubles with. They really do trust me. What is amazing is the comments I got about the people that a few weeks ago were...

Laughter is the best medicine, some say. I guess Im living proof of that. I have gone over and over this past week the heaviness that has fallen upon me. Now that is so contrary to my character, its hard to take. The pressures at work of having to use my left brain (analytical) far more than my right brain (creative). Im much happier and fulfilled when I can be completely creative. But having to bring a company out of the financial mess we’re in is proving to be quite daunting. Now part of this mess was my fault because of not hiring the right people and not preparing for the dry months of summer I was warned about. I know we’ll pull out, but its just getting there that is the hard part. So I took a break from all the pressure tonight with round 4 of the Funniest Person in Bahrain. I think everyone will agree that this was the best Funniest Person night so far. The comedians were on, and I gave them plenty of scenarios in which to shine. Im very proud of them. The energy...

Whew…what a tough day. The pressure is so thick at the office you can really feel it. Or maybe I can just feel it. It is suffocating. There is so much pressure to get work in, but then I have to finish the work we do have. I have to finish, and have it approved before I can access the funds. Im finding it much harder to get that process done over here. I had two meetings today to hopefully get the two big projects Im working on signed off so we can get the cash in. But the one meeting was postponed for another week. Then the big meeting didn’t go as well as I had planned either. They are caught up with the minute details. They wanted a lot of little things changed. Overall they were happy with the project. But then one person chimed in at the end questioning the philosophy of the main aspect of the project. I held my breath, because if he would have gotten his wish, we’re talking major major changes. But they all realized that they are up against a real deadline. There ...

Nice day today. Lots and lots of pressure at the office, but I have so much more peace today. Did anything happen to make that peace a reality? No, in fact things got worse. Instead I had an attitude adjustment. Im just looking at things through my Christ-shaded rose colored glasses again. Im trying to look at things with a new perspective. God has seen me through so many things before, Im sure he’ll see me through this now. All things work together for good. I got the day started with a great breakfast with Raimond, Tanya’s husband. I was partially able to convince Nader to bring Raimond on board as a consultant with us. We are in such a cash flow crisis, I volunteered to give up some of my salary to help offset the costs. I am not saying that to bring praise to myself, rather to show you how dire the situation is, and how desperate times call for desperate measures. The reason why I think Raimond is so good for the company is because he really excels at the things Im poo...

Wow it was a really tough day. I can’t wait for October to be over. It seems like its hitting me from all sides now. I know this is a season of testing for me. I must be a slow learner because it seems like the season has dragged on and on and on. There are certainly some good points out there but its hard to see the good through the muck. So Im sure in a couple of days I’ll bounce back and be just fine. I am nearing a year’s completion here at KSDi. While we’ve accomplished a great many things, the cash flow issue is very troubling. That’s my bottom line responsibility as a General Manager. I have to make the company money. Its hard to maintain a positive cash flow when you’ve had very little productivity from your sales department, you’re in the midst of a recession and you’re learning that business culture here is much different that that in the West. It has been a real learning experience for me and I’ve grown in so many ways. Have I accomplished what I set out to acco...

(Im having internet problems, couldn't post yesterday...sorry) I had a very nice and relaxing day today. It was almost like I was aggressively pursuing the relaxation. I know next week is going to be very very busy, so I wanted to make sure I was well prepared for it. I got to bed somewhat early and was able to sleep in. I met Russ for racquetball on the Navy Base at 11, that was good exercise. Then I came back and took a nap. My internet connection is off, so sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t work. It’s a little bit frustrating. So I don’t even know if Im going to be able to post this blog tonight. I woke up at 4, just in time for a sunset Kayak ride. The water wasn’t as calm today, but still its great exercise. There is just something incredibly therapeutic about the monotony and rhythm of paddling out there. I never see any other kayakers, only jet skis and yachts on the weekend. But during the week there is nothing. Today I had to dodge a big yacht that was...

I’ve been thinking about this blog post for two days as I didn’t want to react impulsively. Even now, I might write the post and then delete it as I’ve done numerous times before. I have nearly been in Bahrain one year now. I remember very clearly on my flight over here Oct. 21, of last year God spoke very clearly to me. He said while you are in Bahrain I want you to start a church and I want you to write your book. I started arguing with God, much like Moses did. How am I going to start a church when I don’t know anyone, and who would ever want to read my book, my story? He very clearly told me leave all the details to Me. I believe that the church is my small group on Monday nights, while this blog has taken the form of a book. Will it ever find a publisher if I decide to compile it? I don’t know. Would people want to read it? Well, I do have you reading this, and for that Im grateful. Im not really sure why your read but from tracking the statistics the blog has now gon...

It was a different day for me. I think partially it was because I was at the office til 3:30 am with the guys. But we did get the project done. I gave them all the day off today which im sure they appreciated. I slept in a bit, and didn’t come into the office til 10:00. I had my important meeting at 12:30 and needed to prepare just a bit for it. I had the meeting and it was actually better than the first. They liked the content. But there were still a lot of minor changes to be done. Now sometimes with these projects the more changes you make, the more changes they want you to make. It can be a never ending cycle. Its quite frustrating, especially when you consider the first version you gave them is the best. What was frustrating for me. We are now on the third or fourth edit on these projects and people are just now getting around to giving their comments, which are quite substantial. If only they would have given the comments at their deadline when they were supposed to...

I am sitting in the edit bay with Saji my brilliant editor. It’s a little frustrating as Im used to doing the editing myself. So I have to verbalize what I need done. Saji doesn’t speak a lot of English, but he understands it well. I think we both respect each other as editors. Manoj was first working on the project but Saji is much faster. So I had to ask Manoj to relinquish the editing chair to Saji. That was a little hard, but we are up against it and need speed. We’ve been cooking ever since. Its 9:30 pm and I don’t think we’ll get done for another couple of hours. Wow what a long week. What feels good is telling Saji to make several changes and then being able to walk away knowing that he’ll get the job done. I’ve had to be so focused today. We have to have the video done by my meeting with the Ministry of Works by 12:00. Then I have my other big client coming it at 3:00. So while Saji was editing away on that project, I was finishing project #2 and all their chan...

All in all it was a pretty good day. I have all these looming deadlines. We did one yesterday, and I have two coming up on Thursday. These are all big projects. The sooner we get these done, the sooner we can invoice and get the cash flow flowing again. Im optimistic. Its nice that I have a team of good people around me and we are starting to be very efficient. I know if I can delegate a job off to my graphics or editors that the job will come back well done. Its hard to keep track of three different projects at once. One is in Arabic only, the other is in English with Arabic Subtitles and the third is in Arabic with English subtitles. In having to make changes on each one individually, I have to remember which project is which as they are all running together in my head. Now that the one project is out of the way Im focusing on the other two. I do my best work when I only have to do one thing at a time. Im so not a multi-tasker. That’s a challenge too when you have A.D.D...

Well I think I was tested today. Im pretty sure I came out on top. We had another positive living group tonight at my flat. We had seven show up tonight. Its not the same people every week, I usually get a good mix of Christians, Muslims, and Agnostics. Im still hoping my resident Hindu friend comes back as she really likes the teaching. The topic was avoiding stress. Right after the video is when I was tested. I should tell you its 11:15 and Im writing this from the office. Let me give you a little background to this problem. One of the deadlines we were facing was this particularly long project. The client called with changes yesterday that needed to be implemented by 10:30 am today. So not a lot of time to waste. We implemented the changes and the tech guys went to work making it happen. I stayed until 9:00 finished what I had to do then barely made it to quiz night. I was starting to get worried…I hate missing quiz night. The boys ran into some technical issues and...

I just knew October was going to be a tough month…and it has been. Today was particularly difficult. We are having real problems at work with the cash flow situation. We have projects and I’m as busy as I’ve ever been, but that just isn’t translating right now. We had a client call in with changes to their video and they needed them all done by 10:30 tomorrow morning. There were technical issues to deal with as well. We operate both on Mac’s and PC’s at the office. So there is conflict sometimes. Plus I was working on my own deadline for yet another project. I was extremely efficient today. The good thing, is the client initially liked my project with a few minor changes. I was worried about one section of the video which turned out to be ok. So I guess I have to get a better attitude. Two deadlines today, and positive reviews on one…and I anticipate positive reviews when we find out about the other project tomorrow. I am in a funk I think. I don’t know if its related, bu...

A very low key day today. I kind of liked it that way. I don’t have much to write tonight as Im going to try to get in bed early. I have a big week this week with deadlines. I tried to bring home work with me this weekend, but I put it off until just a couple of hours ago. I got most of it completed. I went kayaking for the first time in two weeks. I thought the water was getting too cold but I was wrong. The water in the middle of the day its pretty nice. The weather is starting to get very comfortable here. When I say comfortable, I mean 90. It feels wonderful. So I went out today and the water was great. Because the Arabian Gulf (The whole of the Middle East doesn’t call it the Persian Gulf anymore…it’s the Arabian Gulf) is so shallow the water temperature rises and falls very quickly. Most of the time in the summer the water is upwards of 90-95 degrees…now its down to 80-90 degrees, its still very comfortable. It was low tide, so I paddled to the other end of the ba...

What a great day it was for me. I got up early to have breakfast with Darren. Then I made it to church. Its still weird doing church on Friday. This was the first day we were allowed back in our school, where we normally hold the services. We have a fairly large church at around 300. Well its large for an international church anyway. The had closed us down due to the swine flu. So that means this was the first session back with the teens. Im volunteering to teach them. I really like interacting with the teens. I feel like I can really speak their language. Im not sure if it’s a special anointing or not, but Im real with them. I guess part of me is a little sad that I can’t have the same influence with my own teens. But hopefully, through time and prayer that will change someday. I really have been missing my kids lately. Everytime I see a dad with a teenager, my heart sinks a bit. While I am doing very well over here, there is a hole in my heart. After church I met Da...

I was reflecting more on yesterday. I really did feel like George Bailey. There were about 100 people that wrote me happy birthday on facebook. I guess I should go back and respond to each one individually. Is that online etiquette? But for now, I just wrote a blanket thank you on my facebook update page and that triggered another 25 or so well wishers. It certainly was not my intention to do that. Now what made me feel great about all this, is that I didn’t have my family to celebrate it with this year or for that matter the last few years. I think God was making up for it yesterday with all these people besieging me with well wishes. Its never really been that important to me to be popular. But yesterday It kind of hit me…I am popular. Its not like Im doing things to make a lot of friends…Im just trying to be nice. To care about people. People are drawn to that. I mean its amazing, people I don’t even know and others I barely know approaching me. It is really amazing....

It’s 8:00 about an hour before our third round of the Funniest Person in Bahrain starts. Im a little nervous about this one. We are missing three of our performers who are traveling for business. Plus this is our first contest in nearly two months. We’ll get in a regular routine after this. Im waiting on the chairs to be delivered and two more stage pieces. In all the worry about deadlines, cash flow and managing a company, I have to remember I have to perform too. Our show is very similar to Who’s line is it anyways. I’d be the drew carey without the glasses. If you want to see clips of the past two shows, they are on the facebook group page “The Funniest Person in Bahrain.” Im really using Facebook to promote the show and our company. Almost everyone in Bahrain with an internet connection here is on Facebook. Its an amazing phenomenon. Speaking of facebook…its my birthday today. I am 41. I didn’t really advertise that it was my birthday. Last year everyone, except my ...