Cheers!! I'm here again, finally, after a long hiatus. Sorry folks, but you know the typical story....got really busy with things. So what's happened in the life of Dreamer these past bunch of weeks? ALOT!

First and foremost, I've been working non stop, seems like it's been day-in, day-out, early in the morning to late, late at night on a huuuuuuge project for work. Atlast, after months, I've been putting the finishing touches on it by debugging it for errors. What is it you ask? A huge marketing system that can maintain itself with self-registration. This is probably one of my greater accomplishments since I've been in the programming/designing field. But you know, I'm not really burned out on it. I mean, sometimes, If I'm working on a project for so long, near the end of it, I get pretty burned out on it. But this project, I'm surprised that I'm still enjoying coding it, designing for it and debugging it. Hmmm...... oh well.

In other news, I've been slapped with a lawsuit! Yup, you read it right! Poor innocent Dreamer (that's me).... who does nobody any harm....(except for a few of my buddies), got hit with a suit! How and why do you ask? Well, read on.

It all started when I was about 18...right out of High School, my buddy (whom I'll call Bob for this tale), and I moved to a certain town, (which I'll call Shit-town), and rented an apartment... (which I'll call Hell-hole). After only a few months, we had an argument with the landlord, at which point, we decided to move out. So we payed our last rent, packed our stuff and split without telling them we moved. Infact, we were so pissed that we didn't even ask for our deposit money and said, "Screw it, let them have it". All that took place almost 10 years ago.

Now let's fast forward by about 10 years to the present. So here I am, living life, minding my own business, working hard like any other upstanding American citizen, then all of a sudden, BAM!. A levying officer comes into my work to hand me some papers saying that a judgement has been filed against me and ruled in their favor and that I owe $2,000!!! I said, WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!??? After reading the papers, I found out that those sons of bitches, at Hell-Hole, had sued me by saying that Bob and I didn't pay the last two months of rent and that there was damages to the premises!! I couldn't believe what I was reading!! It almost sounded so surreal for the fact that it was nearly 10 years ago, an utter and complete defamation to both Bob and I by saying we never payed the last 2 months rent, and even more defamation by saying we left damages to the property!! And again I said, WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!???

After obtaining copies of the filed suit at the courthouse up in shit-town, I found out some stuff that really had my head spinning! First off, those sons of bitches had filed a lawsuit back in 1997 "AFTER" we had moved out. And according to the papers, they mailed certified papers to "serve" Bob and I in regards to this suit. For those of you who aren't familiar with this method, in the U.S., a filed lawsuit must be addressed to the opposing party and most the time in person by some officer or such. This is by law. That's what it means to be "served". Anyhow, back to the story. Now here's the part that really had me blazing hot! According to records, they had certified the serving papers to the same address that we had moved out from!! The fact is, they knew we had moved out, yet, they mailed the IMPORTANT papers to that same address!! IN ESSENCE, THEY CERTIFIED THE MAIL TO THEMSELVES SO THAT WE WOULDN'T KNOW ABOUT IT!!!!! Okay, now you're saying, "but that doesn't make sense". It really doesn't but let me shed alittle more light, then you'll see how it really does make sense and how REALLY crooked they are.

I spoke with a legal assistant at the courthouse (and with an attorney) regarding how they could do that. Well, according to the lawbooks, if you file a suit against someone, of course, you must serve them so that they have a chance to oppose the lawsuit. HOWEVER, if the suing party cannot get in contact with those whom they are suing, then they can file additional papers and SHOW PROOF WITHOUT A DOUBT, that they TRIED to serve the papers numerous times and failed. At which point, they can file those additional papers, present them to court and the judge will determine if the suing party will win by default on grounds that I FAILED TO APPEAR IN COURT. And that's exactly what happened here! So they won and I lost EVEN THOUGH I HAD NO CLUE WE WERE IN A BATTLE!! BUT HOW THE HELL WAS BOB AND I SUPPOSE TO KNOW ABOUT IT IF THEY MAILED THEMSELVES THE PAPERS!! The attorney said that Hell-Hole had walked a very fine line between what was legal and illegal by; that is, they were aware of the laws, so decided to deliberately mail themselves the papers to do 2 things. 1) to show proof they "tried" to serve Bob and I; 2) to hide the suit from us so they can win by "default" without giving us a chance to fight it. Now, after almost 10 years, I have no proof that we infact did pay our rent. I mean, c'mon, I was barely 18! What 18 year old would keep records of such things? And for 10 years to boot?! WE GOT ROBBED BIG TIME AND REALLY RAPED IN THE ASSHOLE! DAMMIT AND IT DIDN'T FEEL GOOD AT ALL!!!!

Finally, the attorney said that we can't appeal it since it was a "small-claims court" matter. Appeals don't work in this case. However, he did say that we could file a counter-suit on grounds that they mailed themselves the serving papers; in essence, that they abused the laws to win by default. But he brought up a really good point. It may take months, alot of personal time from work, and most of all, additional money to fight it. He said, "Are you willing to pay all that just to get back your $2,000?". Wow, he really had a good point. Bob was hella pissed and wanted to go through with the counter-suit but I on the other hand, thought about it more carefully.

Well, after contemplating it seriously, I decided to call them up, those assholes from Hell-Hole, and threaten them with a counter-suit unless they clear the jugdement. In the end, after a few hours, we agreed upon me paying $1500.00 upfront. I didn't like it at all but I had nothing else to fight with. So now that it's all over and my check for $1500.00 (of which now my account is butt-naked), is on it's way to Hell-Hole, I'm feeling left empty, miserable, cheated, raped and abused by a money-hungry corporation that has no compassion for a poor working-class citizen. God this sucks!! My only recourse is to report them to BBB and Consumer Affairs; of which I'm doing as we speak. Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh.......!!!

Well, such is the life of Dreamer here. However, there is one thing I've learned from this experience and that which I'll be practicing more than ever. And in closing let me tell you, KEEP RECORDS OF EVERYTHING IMPORTANT!! You just don't know what may happen in the future. Without records, you may have already lost!