So, with the economy struggling so much and my company not able to make payroll for several months, me and a couple friends started a new company!

Basically the idea is to help small and new companies to get the work done that they need, for much less the price of hiring employees.  However, we didn't want it to be like contract work, where the work may be sub par due to a lack of vested interest.  So, although we do some project based work, we are focusing on long-term deals where a company can have marketing, business analysis, branding, technology and development, public relations, HR, and more for less than the price of 1 employee!  

We do this by building a talent pool of experienced workers in thier respective fields,  then managing their time and resources effectively, and basically partnering with our clients.  This is not like a Temp agency by any means, its more like a service based partnership!

 So far, we have a few clients that have signed deals, and have done several other projects.  Its nice to have money flowing back into the bank account after a long hiatus!  Hopefully, the clients and contracts will keep coming, and we will be forced to hire more professionals to keep it going!  

Somebody has got to do something about the cost of health care! I injured a toe in basketball last month, bad enough that I had to go to the after hours insta-care. They had signs all over the place touting their "$60 flat rate for all services." I asked the receptionist about it. "Its only for those without insurance."

"Ok, well I don't want to be fraudulent, plus my insurance will cover this and I'll just have to pay a copay," I thought. Boy was I wrong. My insurance is trying everything to not cover it. The bill is for $550! I received a denial of claim letter pending further investigation. I had to fill out a form explaining all the details, and they still wanted more. For some reason, they thought the injury must have been a workplace injury or car accident. "Retards" I thought to myself.

Anyways, I am sure that they will end up covering it so at least it will go towards my deductible this year, but all in all, I would much rather go the $60 route! Maybe I should stop paying the hundreds of dollars a month and just pay $60 for each visit. I guarantee we don't see the doctor enough to make insurance worth it!

I'll have to look into the $60 fee a little more, because if we really can see the doctor and have all the services and stuff paid for $60, there is no reason to have insurance that I pay $600 a month for! I suspect the insta care is being sleasy though and its just $60 for a doctors visit and you have to pay for extra services on top of that...

Poor little Olivia got really scared on Halloween because of some decorations and costumes. Ever since, she has talked about "Monsters" and sometimes gets really scared. While I don\'t like that she gets scared alot, (I think she has a hard time with shadows at night) I actually love having her run to me for protection!

Coming home from work yesterday in rush hour traffic, cruising along at 70mph with cars all around me, I had a blowout!  This was no ordinary blowout though, and in fact I didn't know what it was at first.  There was a loud explosion sound followed by my car shaking violently.  My first thought was a tire blow out, but my car wasn't running anymore either!  Then I thought maybe my engine finally died, and there was smoke that I thought was coming from under the hood.  Anyways, I was lucky to be able to control the now-dead and shaking car enough to get off the freeway without accident.  Lucky for me, it was just a blowout, that happened on the tire right under the battery and I guess it must've just shocked the battery or cables to cause the car to die.  I got all my tires replaced (they were all in need of replacements, I have just been lazy lately) and learned my lesson about driving with tires that are balding. 

I also learned the following about blowouts from the experts:

• In any blowout situation, it's most important to first remember the 2 things you should NOT do:
• Do not step on the brake. As instinctive as it may be, it's the worst mistake you can make in any tire blowout situation. Applying the brakes will cause an even greater imbalance on the vehicle's stability.
• Do not abruptly release your foot from the accelerator. This is the second worst mistake you can make. Rapidly releasing the accelerator causes the vehicle to transfer more of its weight from the rear tires to the front tires. With a flat tire, this can lead to loss of control of the vehicle.
• Instead, in any blowout situation, you should follow these 3 steps:
• Gradually release the accelerator .
• Correct the steering as necessary to stabilize your vehicle and regain control. Look where you want the vehicle to go and steer in that direction.
• Once your vehicle has stabilized, continue to slow down and pull off the road where and when you judge it\'s safe to do so.
• Remember, no matter which tire blows out -- front or back -- the do's and don'ts for safely maintaining control of your vehicle are exactly the same. The only difference between a front and rear tire blowout is that you will feel the force of a front blowout more in the vehicles steering, while you'll feel a rear blowout more in the seat or body of the vehicle.

So this morning I was doing some work and looked out the window and saw several cops blocking off our parking lot. What is going on, I thought to myself!? Some co-workers and I went down and then knew something big was happening... there were about 30 police cars, a life flight helicopter landing and cops taping off a huge area. As it turns out, the police captain pulled someone over just before 9 am (I had got to work about 15 minutes before that). For some reason, she opens fire, hitting the police captain in the head. Other officers who were just arriving on the scene engaged the woman in a firefight where she was fatally gunned down. So when me and my co-workers go out to the gas station just north of our parking lot, theres a dead lady in the road and a cop being put into a life flight helicopter. Whaaaaaaaat!? I am seriously in dis-belief still. What would possess this lady to shoot a cop for getting pulled over!? There must be some more to this story, drugs, alchohol or something... I will be watching the news tonight for sure. It was kind of surreal to have the police officers scouring our building looking for witnesses and looking for clues to where some of the rounds may have hit!