James Phillips, co-founder of MemBase. Hi, I'm James A. Valante from Wikibon. You guys look like you're straight off of SportsCenter, I gotta say. That's the idea, we want to be the ESPN of tech. Yeah, absolutely, it's awesome. So I was reading your signs as you guys are related to Farmville? We are the database behind Farmville, so it's a... 250 million people, I mean they're throwing off some serious data. Does your database scale? Yeah, absolutely, I mean it's hard to imagine a better customer if you're trying to prove scalability. I mean those guys are... Yeah, you got any proof points? It's pretty impressive. So tell us a little bit about what's going on with MemBase. How's it that we want to drill into Zynga? Because Zynga is one of those companies that not a lot of people have heard of other than the games, but they're massive, they're massively growing, taking over San Francisco. I heard they're the largest, you know, employer in terms of space in San Francisco. Yeah, so... We want to get into that scale, but let's talk about MemBase first. Sure, so MemBase is a, it's a database, and it's a distributed database management system. In other words, it takes your data and smears it across a lot of servers. Instead of the traditional model where you've got a big box that runs your database and if you need to store more data and serve more transactions, you get a bigger box. With MemBase you just get more low cost boxes and it's designed to automatically spread your data around as you grow and shrink the cluster. And it is optimized for very low latency, very highly responsive access to that data, which is very important in an organization like Zynga, where you've got people who are playing games in real time. Right, if you want to buy a sheep, you want to buy a sheep right now. You don't want to wait five minutes for your sheep to show up on your farm. And frankly, Zynga wants to collect the revenue right now, right, before you leave. And so having a system that is optimized for being very, very responsive is good for the user, it's good for the business that's running the database. Are you guys all pure software? Are you applying as involved? 100% software. And so you don't really care solid state brand? So we are, we have a built in, wow, you're technical for a sports center guy. We have a... I've heard those words before. Yeah. Memcache, Membase, we've had Fusion I.O. on theCUBE. Okay, great, we're actually partnered with Fusion I.O. They help solve a problem. They absolutely do. They start to talk about low latency and locking becomes an issue. Absolutely. Just to scale out. So Membase is a, it's got a multi-tier storage management model. So what happens is, we've actually got a built in Memcache D layer. So the guys that wrote Memcache D wrote Membase as well. And so there's shared, you know, there's a lot of synergy between those two projects. And so Memcache D is actually built into Membase. And as you put data into Membase, it ends up sitting in RAM initially and then it bubbles its way down to an SSD layer. Exactly. And so things bubble up and down the latency cost stack in an automated fashion. So you might use a Fusion I.O. as a server class memory that's persistent. Yes. Another layer in the hierarchy. Exactly. Which supports that. I mean, you're throwing multi-cores out of the data that's coming out of very quickly. Precisely, that's exactly right. Yeah. Which just balances the system out and allows that scale very low latency. And it does it the same way Memcache D has been doing it successfully across some of the largest sites in the world for the last 10 years, right? It uses an LRU mechanism where as one layer in the tier fills up, the least recently used thing gets ejected so the newest, freshest data can come in but it all lives on and each layer does the same sort of behavior. Up, SSD full, let's find the oldest thing that we needed and let it live on just in this. It's really been a lot of innovation.


Well, good morning, radiant, good weekend, radiant. How's everybody doing? You guys doing good? Come on, put your hands together if you're doing well. I don't even know where I am. Who am I? If you have your Bibles, take them out and open them with me to James chapter five. James chapter five this weekend. This is our final installment of the series we've been going through this summer, the book of James entitled Revolutionary Faith. And I just want to encourage you to make sure that on Sunday night, if you have not registered and you have served, volunteered or joined radiant, that you please join us for our virtual team radiant night. I know there's a lot of things going on, but there is nothing more pivotal than the hour that we are in as a church, poised and positioned for what I believe God wants to do in our city. And that's some of the things I wanna talk about on Sunday night just specifically to our volunteers and our members and our team. And we usually do this in person, but we're gonna take advantage of technology to be able to impact and reach everybody from where they're at because there's some people that are out of town. We have some members that don't even live in Kalamazoo. They live in other cities and other states. And so we want them to be able to join in. I'm gonna be sharing some really exciting things. And so sometimes in August, we can kind of have a casual approach to the things that are going on. This is not a time for us to be casual. This is a time for us to press in. So I'm inviting you to do that. And I think the things that lie ahead of us and the kingdom of God are really very exciting, but they're gonna require us to have a very diligent attitude about it. So I'm excited about that. Okay, James chapter five, begin reading here in verse number 13. It says, is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.  And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. And therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working, time out. I memorized most of the scriptures in my formative years out of the New King James translation. And so when I read this out of the ESV, I know it's really good, but can I just go ahead and quote it out of the New King James? The fervent, effectual prayer of a righteous man avails much. That's how it ought to be written. Okay, verse number 17, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. And he prayed fervently that it might not rain. And for three years and six months, it did not rain on the earth. And then he prayed again and the heavens gave rain and the earth bore its fruit.  So in this very last section of this last chapter, James zeroes in on the subject of prayer. Really everything that he's saying in this particular section is encouraging believers not just to pray, but to be people of prayer. And I think that one of the most underestimated, undervalued, underutilized disciplines and realities is that as the church, as children of God, we are called to be people of prayer. We're not called to be people that pray. We're called to be people of prayer. And from the very beginning in 1996, when we planted Radiant Church, Jane and I moved down here with just a few friends and we set up camp in a small little office down in downtown Richland. The one thing that was a priority to us is that we were not going to just be a church that prayed, but we were going to be a praying church. Now let me tell you, we did not have a lot of the bells and whistles. We didn't have buildings. We didn't have members. That's important. We didn't have experience. We didn't have a lot of money, but the one thing that we had was a very clear conviction. And the conviction was that prayer is the foundation of everything that we will do, not because of what prayer is, but because of who prayer is to. And what happens when that connection is alive on the inside of us. And so one of the very first things that we did was we had a small little office area that set about 50 people. We called it the Ministry Center because on Wednesday nights, we would host Bible studies in there. But in that room, we put up a huge map of the world. It was like wallpaper, fill up the whole wall. And on Saturday mornings, before we ever had a church service, we had prayer meetings. And then when we did have church services, we continued to have Wednesday nights, Saturday prayer meetings. We, for 24 years, we've done a lot of things. The one thing that we have done and that we do today that we have done since the very beginning with really little change is prayer. And it's interesting that when COVID kicked in in March, I don't know if you've heard of this little thing called COVID-19, but it took the world by storm, literally. And when it did, on a Thursday afternoon, we all gathered in our conference room and said, okay, what do we do? Well, we can't do live services, so we're gonna go online. How are we going to follow up and care for the thousands of people who call Radiant Church? And we developed a plan. We didn't think it would take real long.   Since I was a little kid, as soon as you tell me I can't, I did. And so we were sitting there and somebody says, well, we can't, we can't do this, can't do this. I stopped and I said, what, okay, let's stop, let's reframe this. We're not doing all these other things, but what's the one thing that we can do that we haven't done in the midst of this? Pastor Caleb Culver said, well, what if we were put a video camera up in our prayer room and capture the morning prayer meetings that we've been doing for years? And we've had a few people that would come to it in the mornings, mostly our staff and RSW students and things like this. But what if we captured it posted online so that people who are at home unlocked and can join us in prayer? I said, oh, that's a great idea. And Caleb's like, who should lead it? My first reaction was, you know, my mornings I have a routine in which I study and I prepare. But I really felt like in the midst of the storm, it was important that we pulled our church together around the one thing that we built it on from the very beginning, which is prayer. I said, I'm gonna lead it. And then I made a commitment to the Lord. I said, Lord, I will lead the morning prayer until the stay home order is lifted. I thought it was gonna be three or four weeks. And the Lord just kind of laughed at me in June. And he's like, are you still committed to that word? I'm like, oh, all right. So all the way up until July 4th weekend. And shortly after that, that was when the stay home order was lifted. And I, so for five and a half a week or five and a half months or however long that was, four and a half, three and a half months. I remember it was 15 weeks Monday through Friday led that prayer meeting. And I want you to know some people have asked me, Pastor Lee, why did you do that? And how did you do that? This has been something that has been a part of my relationship with God since I was 12 years old.  I'm praying Bible. And for those of you who wonder how you memorize all that stuff the night before, you don't.  And that's not only true of me, that's true of all of our worship leaders and musicians and anybody that I've ever met that is a person of prayer. It's not something that you just, that you just decide one day I'm gonna jump into the fray here. It's something that for years and years and years has been a part of your foundations. And for me, that foundation began when I was 12 years old, 13 years old. I started going to a youth group and the youth group was on Wednesday nights. And so many of us grew up going to youth ministries like on Wednesday nights. But it wasn't the youth ministry on Wednesday nights that so radically changed me. It was our youth group met with some college age, college and career in high school in junior high were all pushed together. And so afterwards I noticed all these kids were leaving and going to this guy named Greg's house. I'm like, what are you guys doing at Greg's house? And they said, well, we have a prayer meeting. I'm like, really a prayer meeting? Really? More prayer? And they said, yeah, we, oh man, yeah, come to this prayer meeting. I'm like, tell me about it. He says, well, we all get in the basement, get in the circle, share testimonies. We put a Hosanna integrity tape in the boom box. Anybody remember those things? Hit play and we all just worship.  We're praying for the loss. We're praying for our church. We're praying for our city. I'm like, can I come? And they said, yeah, I mean, it's all college kids, but you didn't come. 13 years old, I'm hitching a ride with college students going to a prayer meeting. The only time I got grounded in my teen years was coming home too late from a prayer meeting. My mom's like, I don't care who you're with and what you're doing. I gave you a 10 o'clock curfew. And I got grounded for that. And it became formative in my life. Why am I telling you about our prayer meetings? Why am I telling you about a teenage kid who grew up in that environment? It's because of this. It's because this is not meant to be the exception. Prayer is not meant to be the exception for a few Navy SEAL, really smart or people that have memorized huge swaths of scripture or, you know, our Billy Graham's or Mother Teresa's. Prayer is not meant to mark a few or an elite group of people. It's meant to be a defining description of the people of God. That's why James is writing here. He's like, pray if you, if he starts off, if you're suffering, what should you do? Pray. In the words of the great theologian MC Hammer, we got to pray just to make it today. We need to pray. Some of you are like, who's MC Hammer? Because you're still learning. You're still learning the best era of music on the planet, 80s and early 90s. After that, you're on your own. Anyone suffering, let them pray. Anyone cheerful, let them pray. Is anyone among you sick? Call for the elders in. Yeah. Verse number 16, confess your sins to one another and? And then he begins to talk about Elisha or Elijah as an example for us of prayer. Charles Spurgeon, who was one of the great preachers of the 1800s in England. In fact, tell you a little story about Charles Spurgeon. By the way, if you've heard of Charles Spurgeon before, raise your hand. Okay, most everybody in this room. Charles Spurgeon had the first podcast because he would preach. And number one, people would line up in front of Metropolitan Tabernacle on Thursdays for a lottery to get a number so that they would have a seat in church on Sunday. Because it only sat 5,000 people. And people wanted a seat so they would line up to get a ticket so that they could come to church. And he preached for an hour and a half. Come on, somebody. So they would pack it out.  Then they would take it, telegraph it to the New York Times in the United States, and they would publish it in Monday's edition. It was the first podcast. The whole nation, Chicago Tribune, would post it as well. The whole nation of Americans would read word for word this preacher's sermons. But it's interesting, people thought that the secret of what God was doing through Charles Spurgeon and Metropolitan Tabernacle was found in his preaching. One time a man from America was over there. He's a journalist. And he went to Metropolitan Tabernacle and he wanted to meet Mr. Spurgeon. And he met his assistant. And his assistant said, what can I show you? What would you like to see? He says, well, I wanna see the secret behind what is happening in this church. And his thought was it would be Pastor Spurgeon's office. But instead he said, well, let me show you the, I'll show you the engine room of what God is doing in this church.  He said, this is the furnace room of this church. And everything that happens in the pulpit is fewed by what's happening in the prayer room. He was a person of prayer. He was a man of deep prayer. He was a great theologian, great scholar, amazing orator. But he was a man of prayer. And here's what Charles Spurgeon said. He who knows how to overcome with God in prayer has heaven and earth at his disposal. He who knows how to overcome with God in prayer has heaven and earth at his disposal. And it's not just for preachers. Listen, God's desire is for each and every one of us to be a people of prayer. Not just people that pray, because a lot of people pray. A lot of people say prayer changes things. Well, not all prayer changes things. Because you can pray a miss and you can pray to an alternative God and it's not the same. Prayer is not the thing that actually changes things. What changes things is the dynamic between a child of God who is confident in his relationship with Father God who comes into an agreement on the fulcrum of his word and it tips the scales in the favor of the child of God and the resources of heaven become a reality in the earth and it changes and it shifts realities. That's the difference. And listen, you don't have to be a preacher. You don't have to be a scholar. You don't even have to be loud in order to be an effective person of prayer.  You have to have a burning heart for prayer and James is giving us some insight into prayer. So let me just share with you a couple things about prayer before I give you reasons why we don't pray as we ought. Because I think if I were to ask you in this room, let's do a little poll and those of you who are online, those of you who are watching today, raise your hand in response to this poll. How many of you would say that Christians should be people of prayer? Raise your hand.  How many would say second question?  Raise your hand.  How many of you struggle with prayer? Raise your hand. Isn't that interesting? The one thing that when you go back to Acts 242, describes the early church in the midst of revival that they were continually together in prayer. Go through the book of Acts, highlight how many times you see prayer in the church.  The son of the living God in the flesh needed to pray. Luke 517, Mark 135, he got away into the wilderness. He went into a desolate place and he prayed with God. John 519, I only do those things that I hear my Father saying and only do those things that I see my Father doing. He's working until now, therefore the Son is also working. I can do nothing of my own. We all know that we should be people of prayer, but let me tell you who else knows that you are supposed to be a person of prayer. The devil knows that. And all of the legions of hell know that you are marked to be in close intimate relationship with God and that prayer is the inhale and the exhale of that relationship. And so in a moment I'm gonna share with you some reasons why we don't pray, but let me just start off by sharing with you some things about what prayer is and is not. Number one, prayer should be our first response and not our last resort. And a lot of times when we think about prayer, it's not that we don't pray, it's just that we don't pray first. A lot of times we treat prayer like, I've done everything else and so now I should pray. Instead of prayer being our first response and not a reaction, not a last resort. You see, Jesus commanded us to pray without ceasing. To live a lifestyle of prayer without ceasing. And Luke 18 verse one, he told them a parable to this effect, and I love these words, that men ought to always pray and not lose heart. Always pray, which means there should be no beginning and there should be no ending of our prayer lifestyle. It should not be our last resort. Sometimes it's how we treat it though. It's like, well, I've tried to figure this out on my own. I've tried to resolve the issue. I've worried, I've stressed out about it. Anybody ever been stressed out about a situation? And then all of a sudden go, I should probably pray about that. It's more fun to worry about it. I'm gonna think through all of the different ways this could be the end of me. And I'm going to let the emotions rise up on the inside of me. And we forget what Paul said in Philippians. And he said, bring all things with prayer and supplications. Make a request known unto the Lord and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and mind. Do not be anxious about anything he says. But in all things with prayer and supplication. Well, I pray, but after I've done everything, what would change in our lives if we looked at prayer, not as our last resort, but our first response? Second thing is this, effective prayer or prayer in general is not an invent. It's a lifestyle. Prayer is not an invent. We got to stop thinking about prayer as an event. You know, one of the things I love is over the years, going to people's homes for dinner. So especially in the earlier years when church was small and we would meet new people as they were coming in, you know, we would have them over for dinner or they would have us over for dinner. And it's great because you get to meet people and some of the meals were incredible. Some of them were, and it's always interesting though as a pastor, when you go to somebody's home and they put dinner on the table, it's like, pastor, would you like to pray? It's like, my answer typically is no. It's like, I'm not like, I pray all the time. I want to hear you pray because you can tell the spiritual health of a household when people pray. Prayer is not an event. It's not even a prayer meeting. I love prayer meetings. I've been in a lot of prayer meetings. Let a lot of prayer meetings. I've been some terrible prayer meetings. When I say, and by the way, no prayer meeting is terrible but I'm just saying sometimes they can be slow. And when you say prayer meeting, Leonard Ravenhill used to say, you can judge the health of a church not by the attendance on Sunday, but the attendance and engagement of the prayer meeting on Wednesday. And I've been to some prayer meetings that, I know God was there but it's only by faith because it's, how many have ever been to a prayer meeting where somebody goes, I have an unspoken request? Unspoken request. It's like, by the time you get around you have 20 unspoken requests. It's like, I don't even know what to pray for. Let's just unspoke. We're all just unspoken. The whole point is we're supposed to speak it. But listen, prayer meetings are awesome but prayer is a lifestyle. It's the way we live. It's not just an event that we go to or a one-time prayer that we pray. It's meant to be a lifestyle. Pray without ceasing. That's what Paul said in 1 Thessalonians, chapter five. He says, pray without ceasing. Give it all you got. Live a lifestyle. A prayer. My great-grandmother, Wilma Norton, I've talked about her I think before, but she was in her 80s, 89 when she passed away but I was about 15-year-old kid and I was in the formative years of really growing as a believer and so I would go to my great-grandmother's house and she couldn't get up and walk.  She had a steno notebook that just was full of prayer requests from people and she didn't just write prayer requests down and tell people that she was gonna pray for them. She prayed, she lived a lifestyle of prayer. She would wake up in the mornings and I remember she would get up and when I would stay at her house she would walk into the kitchen, thank you, thank you. Thank you. I'm like, grandma, what are you doing? I'm just thanking God. I'm just thanking God. He says, give thanks. He said to give thanks. Man, that convicted me so much because easier to just walk around your house, not ceaselessly praying but ceaselessly complaining. You see the default setting of your heart is revealed in the default words that flow out of your mouth and if what's automatically coming out of our mouth is complaining, then something's wrong with our heart. But if what's flowing out of our mouths, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks is thanksgiving, it speaks to the health of our heart. Okay, moving right along. Number three, effective prayer is not dependent upon your nature but on God's. It says right here in verse number 17, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours and he prayed fervently. In other words, we can look at Elijah and we can think, wow, Elijah's the guy that called down fire. Elijah's the guy that squared off with the prophets of Baal and the prophets of Asherah. Elijah's the one who took out Jezebel. Elijah, I mean, he's powerful but yet he was also a human being, a man just like you and I and he got depressed and he ran and he got intimidated when things were difficult, when things were hard. He was hungry and so God said, I have a widow who's gonna take care of you for the duration. Think about it, Elijah's like, God, I did your will. I called the rain to stop and now there's a famine in the land and guess what, I'm doing your will and I don't have any food. And God's like, don't worry, I got a widow. Then he had to go to the widow of Zeraphath's house. He goes over to her house and says, make me a cake and she says, I don't have anything. I got a little bit of oil, a little bit of flour.  Positive mental attitude. Elijah could have just gotten angry, but he didn't. He said, well, make me a cake first. He had confidence in who his God was, but yeah, he was a man with a nature just like ours. A lot of times we can think, I've gotta be super spiritual to live a lifestyle of prayer. I gotta be Mike Bickel or I gotta be, you know, Billy Graham or I gotta be Christine Cain to live a lifestyle of prayer. But no, it's not about your nature that makes prayer effective. It's about the nature and the character of the God that we serve. In fact, I believe this, real prayer doesn't begin until you've run out of knowing how to pray. A lot of times we think we know what we're supposed to pray for and then you get to that moment where it's just like, I don't know, I don't even know what to say, I don't know what to do, but what comes after that is actually out of your gut and out of your spirit and then the Holy Spirit partners with that. It's one of the reasons why in Romans chapter eight when it talks about the Holy Spirit, it says, when we don't know how to pray as we ought to, the Holy Spirit prays on our behalf with groanings and utterances, praying in the spirit. Part of my daily relationship and communication, communion with God is I pray in the spirit in a spiritual language, I pray in tongues. Somebody's like, are pastor prays in tongues? Yeah, so did all the writers of the New Testament. So if you don't like that, tear that part of your Bible out. It's not weird. I'm not frothing at the mouth, rolling on the ground. It's the Holy Spirit who dwells on the inside of me. Says, are you at the end of yourself? And I'm like, yep. He says, now let me pray for you. Because it's his character. He knows the will of God. He knows the heart of God. The Bible says in first Corinthians, he searches out the deep things of God and he knows how to pray with me. And sometimes all you have is a sense or a feel, but it's based on the character of God.  I mean, I don't know the right scripture or the right formula and I don't have a huh in the midst of my prayer. And is God really gonna hear, huh, when I say, huh, oh Lord, I need you to answer me. We don't have that in our prayer oftentimes. Sometimes it's just a, oh God, help. Sometimes it's just tears. Sometimes it's just Thanksgiving, but it's his character. Now, let me tell you some reasons why we don't pray as we ought to. Because we all feel this way. And here's what I know about how our human nature works in relationship to prayer, in relationship to God, generally, is we are incredibly insecure for two reasons. Number one is we're insecure because of shame and guilt and not understanding our identity in Christ. So we think, I've done so many rotten things, God's not gonna listen to me. Or God's angry with me. I used to think that when I was growing up, I used to think I'm gonna set my alarm and I'm gonna pray at five a.m. because all holy people get up at five a.m. and pray, so I'd set my alarm back when you had like alarm clocks on your nightstand, not your phone, and I'd set that thing. Five o'clock, I'd hit it, snooze, snooze, snooze, snooze. And then I'd totally miss it. I had to get up and go to school. I felt rotten that whole day because I had let God down.  And I remember thinking, oh, God's mad at me. And I had this idea that I can't pray effectively and it produced guilt and shame and condemnation in my relationship with God. That's one of the reasons that we get hung up on not praying. The other reason is because we don't really believe that God's listening or that he cares because we just kind of believe God's gonna do whatever God's gonna do. We're fatalistic, which is actually closer to Hinduism than it is to Judeo-Christian understanding of who God is. So why don't we pray as we ought to? If we know that this is who we're called to be, why don't we pray as we ought to? Well, number one, we underestimate what we can do. We overestimate what we can do in our own strength. We put far too much confidence in ourselves to resolve issues, to handle issues, to carry the burden, to carry the weight of things that we're going through when we see a problem in a friend's life or in a family's situation, we search out all kinds of other things in our own strength. But listen to what God says in Jeremiah 17, verse five. It says, this is what the Lord said. Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord. We overestimate what we can do in our own strength. It's one of the reasons why we don't pray fervently and effectively the way that James tells us our prayers are. I want you to hear me, Saint of God. Your prayers before God, the fervent effectual, which means passionate, faith-filled prayers before God are effective. They are powerful. Hell trembles when the weakest saint prays. But I'll tell you, he wants to do everything in his power to keep you dependent on your own strength and not turning to the Lord and his strength. Paul writes in Ephesians 6, now therefore be strong in the Lord and then the power of his might. How many times do we engage in spiritual warfare in the power of our own might? And that's when we're overwhelmed. But it's one of the reasons why we don't pray as we ought to. We overestimate what we can do in our own strength. And what is that? That's pride. I can do this. We don't see through the eyes of faith, but we rely on the arm of the flesh. And we're used to operating out of our own intellect and we're used to operating out of our own strength because the flesh or the sinful nature is our default setting. And let's be honest, we've got lots of practice in it because I don't know what age you came into the faith as a follower of Jesus and we're born again, but up until that point, you were trained in self survival and to operate according to the flesh based on what you see, based on your five senses.  We've got all these mechanisms that are flesh oriented and there's times where God just said, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. In other words, see through the eyes of faith, know that God's at work and that when we pray, he hears us. Second reason why we don't pray as we ought to is we underestimate what God will do if we do pray. We underestimate what God will do if we, well, do you really think God's gonna do anything if I've prayed before and God hasn't done it? Here's what I can tell you, you ready? This is profound. 100% of the prayers that you don't pray will not be answered. 100% of the prayers that you don't pray will not be answered. If you are going for consistency, just don't pray.  God's not in heaven going, wow, that's gonna be tough. Jesus, what's this guy praying for? I mean, can he just be happy? He's praying for a generation to be saved. He's praying for a building downtown Kalamazoo. Doesn't he know you can't get buildings downtown Kalamazoo?  Who are these people praying? Don't they know that that's too hard? Listen, is anything too difficult for the Lord? God's not in heaven going, whoa, God's in heaven going, come on, ask of me and I will give you the nations as your inheritance. When did we become convinced that the goal of being a Christian was to live nice, safe, soft lives and arrive safely at death? You were created to be irratical, to pray bold, audacious, earth-shaking, nation-taking, generation-changing prayers. But we underestimate what God will do. We underestimate what prayer is. Prayer is a weapon in the arsenal of every believer. Second Corinthians 10 says, we walk in the flesh but we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but they are mighty in God to the pulling down of strongholds. A couple of weeks ago I was driving down Gull Road and pulled up to a stoplight right in front of Myers and looked over and it had to be the 16-year-old kid. He's driving a Porsche Carrera, had to be dad's car. Maybe not, I don't know. But I'm looking over at him and this kid, I mean, he could just tell he's like 16 years old, maybe 17 and he's waiting out the light and I'm there with my Jeep. I'm just looking over at him and it's like, I wonder what this kid's gonna do as soon as that light turns green. I mean, just in the back end, you can tell it's got a stabilizer kid that back end. He was showing off for the kid that was on the other side of him. And I just thought, that's exactly how you should drive a Porsche. That is how a Porsche was meant to be driven.   Here we are as the people of God, we've got this 450 horsepower engine under the hood of our faith called prayer. We're driving around with minivan faith. We're praying minivan prayers. Cause you know that's good. All right, so, so we underestimate what God will do. Let me give you the last three real quickly. Number one, we feel unqualified to pray, that's one of the reasons why we don't pray as we ought to. We feel disqualified or unqualified. Well, who am I to ask God? I'll tell you who you are. Colossians 112 says, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints. You know what the inheritance of the saints is? Romans says that we are co-heirs with Christ, which means everything that is Jesus's to inherit the nations, the resources of heaven, we're equally rightful inheritors of those things. Who's qualified us? The Father has qualified us. You can't qualify yourself. If it were up to you, you would be disqualified, but it's not about you. Jesus's blood has qualified you to approach the mercy seat and to not just call him God, call him Father and to ask him for whatever you desire. Number four, the reason why we don't pray is because we pray once and then we give up. We're not persistent in our prayer, but Jesus said, ask and it will be given. Seek and you will find. Knock in the door, we'll be open unto you. That is a continual sense. Ask and ask and ask and ask and you shall receive. Seek and seek and seek and you shall find. Knock and knock and knock and the door will be opened unto you. Don't ask one time, but keep asking. Be diligent, just like Jesus said, because when he tells the parable about the friend who comes next door to ask for bread in the middle of the night, it says because of his impudence or his shamelessness, he will rise and give the neighbor what he's asking for. And in the same way, God's looking for persistence. How many times do you have to ask? Keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. And then the last one is this, reason why we don't pray and this is huge. It's because we allow our lives to get distracted. We get distracted. Listen to what Jesus said in the parable of Matthew 13. As for what was sown among the thorns, the seed, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke it out. And it becomes unfruitful. This can be about salvation, but it can also be about prayer because what happens is we get distracted and our focus gets off of what's really important. This is what happens. Listen, the enemy, if he can't keep you from praying, if he can't keep you from being saved, he wants to keep you from being victorious. And the way that he keeps you from being victorious and fulfilling God's purpose in your life is to keep you distracted. Because if you're distracted, you won't ever read this. And if you never read this, then you'll never pray. And if you never pray, nothing changes. But Jesus is the one who said, ask anything in my name and it will be done for you. In your name, in his name doesn't mean, listen, this is so important. Because sometimes we get discouraged thinking, well, I prayed and nothing happened. When Jesus said, if you ask anything in my name, he's not saying that you tag on his name to the end of your prayer. It's not a formula that you get to go in Jesus' name. In his name means in union with him, fully aware of what his will is and in agreement with him. In my name, it's like if a dad were to give you his credit card and say, I want you to go shopping and I want you to spend this much and I want you to get this. And you go and do those things, that credit card will work. It's your dad's credit card, but you're doing it based on his permission, his will and his parameters.  But as long as you do it within the parameters that dad gave you, dad's paying the bill. That's what Jesus meant. But so many of us spend so much of our life distracted that we don't pray. Well, I'm busy. The things we get busy with will not last for eternity. The prayers we pray will. You know, in just a few weeks, radiant is stepping into a season called seek. We did it in January. We do it for 21 days in January. We do it for 10 days in September. And this year, we're going to be able to do it, at least some of it, in our brand new upper room prayer room in downtown Kalamazoo because we're a people of prayer. Somebody asked, but what do you pray so much? Why does the church got a prayer meeting every day? Why do we have Seek January and September? It's because prayer shapes history. And can I tell you what else it shapes? Shapes us. Shapes us. If we want to live revolutionary lives as followers of Jesus, then we need to revolt against status quo and become undistracted seekers of His presence. People of His word, people of prayer, this is what defined the church from the very beginning and it's what needs to define us here at the end. I want to invite you to stand with me wherever you're at. God's so good. Just thinking about my grandma. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Can we just take a minute and just thank God? Right where you are, just by your heads. Just between you and the Lord today. Just thank Him. Find something to thank Him for. It's counter-intuitive because we take things that are good in our lives for granted and we obsess about the things that are not good. And what we ought to do is we ought to obsess about the things that are good. And we ought to have holy confidence in God about the things that are not. Come on, I just want you to take a moment, 30 seconds. I want you to find something right now to verbally just thank God for. And just watch what happens.  Wherever you're at, even in line at home, just say thank you. And just feel the flood of His presence. Enter into His courts with thanksgiving in your heart and into His gates with thanksgiving in your heart, into His courts with praise. Praise and thanksgiving is access. What I want to do before we close today is this. I just want to ask God to anoint us to pray. I want to ask God to anoint us to pray. Because some of us still believe the lie. I'm not cut out to be first in prayer. It's now, you were, this is like in, it's like saying, I'm not meant to breathe. The way you're designed physically is to inhale and exhale. The way that you are designed spiritually is to inhale His word and it's to exhale His praise and prayer. That's how you're designed. I just want to ask God to anoint us because there is an anointing to pray. When we're hungry, God responds to that. And if today the desire of your heart is God, I want a grace and an anointing on my life to pray. I'm sorry for the times I've been distracted. Today I'm making a decision I want to live my life as a person, as a people of prayer. God, would you anoint me for prayer? If that's you, I just want you to raise your hand right wherever you're at, even at home. Just say, God, I want an anointing to pray. I want the kind of prayers that when I pray, you hear them. I want the kind of prayers that when I pray, they shake things, change things. I want to partner with you and what you're doing in the earth. I don't want to become so micro and so distracted that I live my life in my own strength of power. I want to be a person of prayer. God, anoint me to pray. If you've not raised your hand, raise it right now. And we're going to pray God's about to anoint people to pray. Father, in the name of Jesus, because I know it's your will. I know it's how you've designed us. Lord, I'm praying today for a revelation, our eyes to be open, to see, to understand the secret place, to see you waiting for us, that you love us, you're for us, and that we have audience with the God of the universe. With all the strength and the power of heaven, would you right now anoint those with their hands raised? Who are reaching out to you saying, God, here I am, I want to be anointed as a person of prayer. I want to be anointed in the way that I commune with you. And Lord, you know all the reasons why we're distracted and we don't pray. But right now, God, it doesn't matter. What matters is one moment in your presence changes everything. And I'm asking Holy Spirit to send and anoint to pray, intercessors in Jesus' name, warriors in Jesus' name, healings in Jesus' name, words of knowledge, words of wisdom in Jesus' name, the ability to pray scripture in Jesus' name, an anointing that actually stirs up a famishing in our soul for your presence, God, that we will never be satisfied with the cares of this world or the work of our flesh or the deceitfulness of riches. But Lord, we will be captivated by the unfathomable depths of your presence and the beauty and the treasure of your promises. Your presence, God. Marcus, we pray as a people of prayer in Jesus' name. Amen, and amen. Come on, if you believe that, let's put our hands together and thank God. One last thing before we go. What did James say to do? Any of you is suffering, pray. If anybody has something to give thanks for, praise. And it said, pray for one another that you might be healed. Before we go, this room is a giant prayer meeting. It's what I love about church. We are, whenever two or three are gathered, we're a prayer meeting, with every head up and every eye looking around. Doesn't matter what it is, but if you need God to heal you, body, soul, or spirit, or you're going through a battle, and you need God to move on your behalf, or tonight, if anxiety and fear and depression have gripped your heart, and you wanna be free from it. Any of those, I just want you to raise your hand right now. You're not alone. I want you to hear me say that. You are not in this battle alone.   If you raised it the first time, everybody else right now, join me. We're gonna pray. I just want you to point towards them with your hands. If you wanna do that, just direct your focus and your attention at them. This is us inviting the Lord today to come in and break chains, set people free. Right now, in the name of Jesus, Lord, I stand in the authority of the name of Jesus. And I pray right now, Father, for healing in Jesus' name, whatever sickness, infirmity, disease, people came in here with, Lord, we drop it and we're leaving without it. I just speak to sickness, disease, and infirmity of the body, cancer, lung disease, spinal issues, thyroid issues, joints, arthritis, eye problems, ear problems, TMJ, in the name of Jesus, bow your knee to the name of Jesus. He is the God that heals us. So right now, Lord, release healing into these bodies. Holy spirit right now, move up and down every row and every aisle, touch everybody. We declare healing in Lord, I break the power of depression and anxiety and the spirit of fear that has gripped your people right now, fear, go, holy spirit, come. Depression, like a heavy blanket, be lifted off and I decry a spirit of praise and worship, an anointing of worship to replace it in the name of Jesus. Darkness, go in the name of Jesus. You file demonic spirits of oppression in the name of Jesus, we break your power and we declare the kingdom of God is here right now in Jesus' name. Broken hearts, Jesus, you said you came to bind up the broken hearted Lord, I'm praying for healing of the emotions right now in Jesus' name. Thank you, Father, for your goodness, your nearness and your heart towards us in Jesus' name. Amen, and amen.


In this video we're going to talk about the six must know signs and symptoms of depression so you can find out if you're struggling with depression or maybe somebody that you know. So stay tuned as we discuss. What's up everybody this is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution. We currently live in a time where more people are struggling with depression than ever before but a lot of people unfortunately don't get help because they don't know if they're just struggling with some sadness or if it's actually depression and they need to seek out help. So let's go over the six must know signs and symptoms of depression. All right starting out with number one. The first one is not finding pleasure in the things that you used to find that were really fun and enjoyable. So for example when my depression was at its worst I used to like just like having fun and just goofing off and singing in the car and like I remember these feelings of being completely numb and that wasn't fun for me. I was also someone who liked to play video games and go out and hang out with friends. These things that used to be very enjoyable for me they just weren't anymore. So think about is there anything that you used to really enjoy doing but now you just don't really care for it. Sign number two is either overeating or a loss of appetite but when it comes to depression this is something that has changed. Okay so this has nothing to do with an eating disorder or anything like that but when you get depressed you might find that you start either binge eating just overeating a ton or you just find that you're not really hungry all that much. Symptom number three is restlessness or irritability or maybe even both and this is just really just everything's just kind of getting on your nerves and you don't really like people like I when my depression was going rampant like I didn't want to go out in public like I just disliked everybody and even the people closest to me they really irritated me like I didn't like spending time with my son or my family or my friends or anybody but I also had this kind of restlessness where I just really felt uncomfortable being in my own skin. Symptom number four is when you have any kind of physical symptoms that that kind of persist okay so one thing that we've learned through a bunch of scientific research is how the mind and body are really really connected in this way so when you're feeling depressed and your brain's not functioning properly it's not getting the right neurotransmitters you might have some aches or pains or some other kind of physical illness symptoms that you can't really pinpoint and when we're talking about them persisting like for instance you've gone to the doctor or you've taken medicine or whatever the case may be but these symptoms just aren't going away. Symptom number five is having suicidal thoughts or ideations okay and if this is the case right here I'm gonna put the number for the national suicide prevention hotline as well as their text line so if this is you I highly suggest that you stop this video call or text them right now and just get somebody on the other line talk to them a little bit and then we'll figure out the next steps but this ties into the next symptom that we're gonna talk about but when you're going through all these different symptoms these thoughts start to come into your head and whether it's you know just feeling down all the time or it's this feeling of numbness you know this is when these thoughts start to come I'm somebody who's struggled with them for a very very very long time so this this is something that happens a lot for people who are feeling depressed and this is one of the key indicators so again if you're struggling with suicidal thoughts please make sure that you reach out to the national suicide prevention hotline. Finally symptom number six is feelings of hopelessness or constant pessimism so when we're feeling depressed we feel like this is never going to end we feel like it's never gonna change I'm always gonna be down I'm always gonna feel like this nothing's ever gonna get better it doesn't matter what happens in my life and just constant negativity so a lot of us you know just as human beings we have this kind of negative bias but depression is so so so much different it's where we think every single thing in our life is gonna have some kind of negative outcome we're extremely pessimistic about it and when talking about you know the fifth symptom of suicidal thoughts that hopelessness that things are never gonna change sometimes we think that there's only one way out of this thing but I'm here to tell you as somebody who has survived through depression many many times it does get better and it can get better when you get the right type of help so like I said I will also put a link into the description for the national suicide prevention hotline but if you're somebody who is struggling with depression one of the best things that you can do is simply talk to a therapist talk to a therapist therapists are there and they go to school and they get licensed in this thing to help people who are struggling with depression so this isn't a sponsored video but an online therapy program has hooked me up with an affiliate link to give you all some cheap affordable online therapy so if you would like to check it out there is a link to online therapy in the description below basically you'll have access to hundreds and hundreds of different therapists around the country we're pretty much at your beck and call 24 7 so if you want to check it out if you feel like you're struggling with depression or you know somebody who's struggling with depression please click on the link below check it out and see if there's anything they can do for you all right but anyways if you liked this video please give it a thumbs up and this will also let me know if you want me to cover more videos about depression and if you have any questions please please please leave them down in the comments below and if you think you know somebody who's struggling with depression please share this video with them so they can kind of pinpoint and see if they are struggling with these six different symptoms of depression okay but that's all the time we got for today if you are new here make sure you click that little round subscribe button right below my entire channel is to help out people with their mental and emotional well-being and if you'd like to check out some other videos on my channel click or tap on one of the thumbnails to the left of me all right thanks so much for watching and I'll see you next time


Good afternoon, everybody, and thank you for joining us on Condo Insider today. I'm Raylene Tenno, I'm your host. And along with me is my guest, Loree McGuire, with Porter McGuire and Keokona, LLP. So today we're going to be talking about debt collection. So, thank you so much, Loree, for joining me today on this topic. Kind of a sensitive topic, but it's an important topic. So thank you so much, and welcome. My pleasure. Thanks for having me. Okay, so we're going to really talk about delinquencies. And it's a, like I said, it's kind of a sore subject, but it's an important subject because AILs still need to, even PUDs, HOAs still need to collect their maintenance fees because their budgets are all dependent upon that. So when someone doesn't pay, then, you know, they're going to have less money to do what they need to do. And some of them are like fixed expenses, you know, like if they have utilities, sub-metered utilities, or the building actually has utilities to pay, right? And then employees, because employees have to upkeep the landscaping, and you can't just let the landscaping go and let the weeds grow, right? So they still have the standards of that they have to comply with 514B and maintain the property. So, so let's talk a little bit about when a homeowner goes into a delinquency situation. So generally, your maintenance fees are due at the beginning of every month. And typically, most of them will give like a grace period, like 10 or 15 days. So, but if it's not paid by that grace period deadline, then typically it would go into a late fee will be assessed, right? So what happens after that? So they haven't paid like February's maintenance fee? Well, typically what will happen is they will wait the full 30 days. And if they haven't received the funds by the end of that 30 days, then the management company will send what they call a C1 letter. And that is a letter to the owners, letting them know that they are now 30 days late. And if they do assess a late fee, they will often place that late fee on the notice as well. Not all condominiums do assess a late fee though. Same with HOAs. And at that point, depending on what their structure is, certain HOAs and condominiums have a policy to where they will typically, let me back up, typically they send a C1, a C2, a C3 letter, and then it comes to the attorney. But oftentimes the C2 letter will come at the end of the second 30 day period. That being said, some associations will send it on the 15th day of the second month. They'll send out the C2 letter. And if they don't get a response within 10 days or by the end of the second month, they'll send out the C3 letter. So it depends on the association. Some send out these letters on the 30th day of each month such that the C3 letter will come out on the 90th day of being delinquent. Okay, so if we can go to step one of our PowerPoint, it would be the third slide. So the C1, 2, and 3 letters, is that's the responsibility of the managing agent to send those out? Yes, exactly. Okay, so how long should an AO condo or an HOI wait before they actually pursue debt collection methods through their attorney? Well, it depends on what their policy is, but typically it's either at 60 days or 90 days. You know, they have different policies depending on, for example, how large their maintenance fees are. If their maintenance fees are really large, they don't want to wait a full 90 days. You know, for example, we represent an association that their maintenance fees are $1,800 a month. So you don't want to wait 90 days before you begin collecting on that. So, you know, we will get that at the end of 60 days, but I would say typically we get it after 90 days. 90 days, okay. So with the exception of that big condo, so like some condos are average maintenance fees between three, 500 maybe. So, you know, it's been now six months. And this condo does not have policies in place as to how they go about their debt collection procedures. So what do you recommend that the condo do prior to sending it to you? Because, like I know that they can, like if it's owner occupied, you know, that's one thing but if it's tenant occupied brings up another issue. Can you elaborate what if it's a tenant occupied property and the maintenance fees are delinquent? Well, let's back up a minute. I'd like to cover the collection policy. So when our firm initially takes over a project, one of the first things we do is we recommend to the board that they adopt a collection policy. And basically that policy is that they will send out the first three letters and then it comes to us either at the 60th day or the 90th day. We will then send out a demand letter and giving the owner 30 days to pay. If they don't pay, then we file a notice of lien on title to that unit and send them a post lien demand letter. So we recommend that the board adopt a policy wherein they lay out exactly the time periods they intend to follow, meaning when those C1, C2, C3 letters go out and when it comes to us. And then when it comes to us, we have the policy of us sending out the first demand letter, filing the notice of lien and sending out the post lien demand letter. Okay, all owners are treated the same and you don't get into the problems that boards will have if they don't have a collection policy and that is wherein owners will allege claims of selective enforcement or discrimination. So let's say an association doesn't have a policy and they start collecting on one owner after two months it goes to the attorney, but another owner they wait four months to send it to the attorney. Well that's selected enforcement and they would be right to assert those claims. So we basically recommend that collection policy as a protective mechanism for the board. And then you go to your point about what do you do if they haven't paid for over 30 days and they have a tenant in the unit. Under 514b 145, you can do boards can do what they call a rent intercept. So in that regard, what they have to do is adopt a policy that allows them to intercept an owner's rent from either the tenant or the managing agent. And then once they adopt that policy it has to go out to the ownership for a vote, and it has to pass by a majority vote. Once it does that then they can enforce that policy going forward. And once an owner is 30 days delinquent, you can then send that owner a rent intercept letter and you also send that letter to the tenant or a similar letter to the tenant, notifying the tenant that the tenant will now be paying their rent to you until such time as that debt has been paid in full. I would say you need to keep accurate records because as soon as the debt's been paid in full, you have an obligation to notify that owner and the tenant that the debt has been paid and you are no longer entitled to that rent. Okay, so here's a question for you. So should any member of the board or an employee, such as a resident manager general manager, whoever it would be, have a conversation with the homeowner regarding the homeowner of record regarding that delinquency. No, never, ever, ever do not do that. Number one, it's, you would never get your resident manager involved in something like that. The resident manager is not a debt collector, and you don't want to involve any of your employees in that process. Likewise, no board member should ever talk to an owner about any situation, whether it's debt collection or covenant violation, because typically all members of the board, their sole authority is with the board as a whole. No individual director has any authority to act on their own.  Or, you know, you get that about a number of items and that's very dangerous. Typically, that board member does not have any authority outside the board to do something like that. Moreover, you don't want board members getting involved in debt collection, because then it becomes personal with that board member. You don't want your owners all coming up to your door and knocking on your door and trying to get you to make side deals with them. That would be a disaster on many levels. So no, never, ever. So if a delinquent homeowner came to a board member because they're like, you know, neighbors or their friends are friendly to each other. So as a board member, they should really redirect that homeowner to the managing agent for that conversation. Yes. And if it's been referred to council already the managing agent will tell that homeowner that they now have to deal with council. Because typically the policy is once a matter has been referred to council, the managing agent and the managing company will no longer communicate with that owner until the debt has been paid in full. And that's to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks. What you don't want is to have both parties, meaning the managing agent and the attorney trying to deal with that debt collector with one telling them one thing and one telling them another. That's a disaster. And that's why they have the policy that once it's been referred to council, you no longer deal with the person that has been paid in full. Okay, so the managing agent when it's when the when they given direction by the board, and that direction will more than likely be in executive session, right. That they're going to give the direction to the managing agent to refer this debt to the attorney so the managing agent will now take a copy of all their ledger showing all their payments and the delinquencies and the late fees that has been assessed. They're going to forward that information to you. Correct. But typically, at that point the board is no longer involved once the board, once the board adopts a collection policy in the managing agent and the accountant, or that management company follows that collection policy. So, typically what will happen is the, the accountant for that particular project will send the case the matter to the paralegal, and the paralegal will then begin collection on that particular matter. So the board's not making a decision at that point their decision was made with the collection policy. Right. Okay. Okay, so one of the things I wanted to address to is as a board, when they're looking at their financials are looking at the delinquencies, because this kind of came up in a case, and someone homeowner kept getting late notices, but he kept saying I keep making my payments and he had proof of this and he had no checks. So how can he be getting all these delinquency notices. So, as it came out, when they actually started to look at the financials, they had noticed one homeowner had this huge credit in relation to on their on her account for her maintenance fees. So as it comes out, so that's why I tell everybody you've got to look at your, your delinquencies and, along with everybody else's, because what happened was the person transposed his unit number on his checks. So they weren't being posted to his correct unit number. There are being credited to somebody else because he transposed the unit number. No one can see anyone else's accounts. You can only see your account, but as an owner, you should keep tabs on your account. So I would check my account statement on a monthly basis. So whether or not you've been assessed any late fees or fines. But for example, if you've been sending in your payments, and some people send have their bank send in the payments automatically so you're expecting that your payments are going in timely. But with the mail these days, you know the mail is slow so maybe your payments haven't been getting in there on time. And now you've got a late fee. If you don't know about that late fee, you're going to continue to be hit with a late fee every month. And that can rack up for years if you're not paying attention. So that's why you should be looking at your statement every month. And if there's something on there that you don't agree with, like a late fee, you should question it immediately and resolve it before it gets any worse. Okay, so in that case they when the board was looking at, you know, the delinquencies right, but they had noticed one account was had like overpaid, you know, so when they actually started to look at it. And then they compared it with the guys checks they had noticed he put the incorrect account unit number, which was this persons. So that's why I try to tell people, you know, you got to look at the financials to make sure it makes sense. You see these huge credits on the maintenance report, you got to figure out what's wrong with that, you know, right. So make sure you investigate those before you even send it to debt collection. And it's your responsibility as the owner to track that because there are owners that don't live here year round. So they will pay in advance. And, and so having a credit is not necessarily unusual, because you have so many out of state owners that will pay in advance. Right.  Because, if you're going on vacation or something right. Right, right. Okay.  Yes, absolutely. Okay. What about, okay, so we covered the collection of rent from a tenant. What about the termination of utilities or being able to use common elements. Yes, that is another asset for purposes of collection. What you can do if an owner has been delinquent for 30 days. If an owner lives in the unit. Then the board again must adopt a policy that will allow for the termination of services, which would include utilities and or the access to the common elements. The majority of the owners have to pass that resolution that was adopted by the board and once it's passed, and you can implement that resolution, and to do so. If an owner's been delinquent for more than 30 days, you have to give them 60 days written notice of your intent to terminate their utilities. The utilities would often include internet service. And it's my experience that when you terminate someone's internet service they tend to pay very quickly. Likewise, you know their electricity if you know, but the problem with utilities is oftentimes they're not separately metered.  You can't terminate access to the common elements, you can't terminate someone's access to their unit. So for example, they may not be able to drive their car into the into the complex. If it's if the entrance is if you use a fob to get in right so they would have to park their car outside. By terminating their ability to use their Bob, that could be very inconvenient for people and it's my experience that this termination works really well if the people can pay they tend to pay at that point. And at the end of the 60 days, boom, you terminate their services immediately, and you're not required to turn them back on until they have paid in full. So, let's talk about this new law that went into place, believe in 2019. It was SB 551, which is now HRS 514B 145-146-5. Yes, and also 146, and that's that's my fault I had told you 146-5, but it's actually the new law comprises both statutes, certain sections in both statutes. Okay. So this one has some new provisions and also has some some pretty consumer protection issues. So, like the homeowner now gets starts to really get serious about, you know, getting this current, and they're looking at all these fees. And some of them they don't agree with and they would like to try to like, you know, reduce his obligation right as much as he can. So can he request mediation. Yes, the owner can, but they must first pay their common assessments, and then they can mediate. So it's paid first dispute later that applies to all common assessments, anything that's not a common assessment, you can dispute first, pay later. So for example, if you're talking about fines, late fees, legal fees, you can mediate first, and then you'd be required to pay those fees after you've gone through mediation. However, you've got to watch the process closely because what happens is, whenever the association or rather council, send you a demand letter. If you then dispute that demand letter and you ask for a debt verification letter, they will then send you typically your ledger.  And that second letter triggers a 30 day deadline by when the owner must request mediation in writing if they want to mediate that dispute. From the time of that request, their request, they have 60 days to complete the mediation. So for example, if they don't request mediation within that 30 day period, the association can move forward. If they do request mediation in that 30 day period, but they don't complete it within the 60 day period the association can move forward. So it's a very fast process and the owners need to follow that closely and move quickly towards mediation. Okay, so what if they're a lot of their their issues are not only what they may not be so much maintenance be involved, but how school violations and fines and all that kind of stuff. So, well, typically, if you're dealing with a house rule violation, associations have an appeal process. So if you issue someone a fine under the law they have a right to appeal that fine. And so, you know, some associations that processes is all in writing in others the process is both in writing, and then they have a right to basically appear before the board at the next board meeting to appeal. Appeal that fine, whatever it may be, and then the board makes a decision. There's no appeal process once that decision is made. So, you know, it is what it is once the decision is made, but the owners can go to the board to appeal that fine. And sometimes the board agrees with them and they remove the fine other times they don't and the fine remains. Okay. Okay, so, you know, the board has gone through all the steps you sent out your initial letters, right as an attorney you guys, you said that the initial letters. So what happens if the board there's no communication back whatsoever. So what happens next. Well, depending on the policies of the board. You basically have three options. You can do a judicial foreclosure. You can do a non judicial foreclosure. If the association has a, as adopted a non judicial foreclosure policy in their governing documents, or you can do an assumption action, you can file a an assumption action to protect the debt. However, with regard to an assumption claim, you can only collect up to the amount that had accrued as of the date of the filing of that complaint. So the problem with filing an assumption action is if that person continues to live in the unit and continue to incur maintenance fees, then later on you'd have to file another assumption action. What happens is, if the association can't collect through a rent intercept, or through termination of common, access to common elements, or utilities, then they will file either a judicial or a non judicial foreclosure to pursue the debt. Okay. So, because of the pandemic, I think there's some people that are misunderstanding because there's a moratorium on foreclosures and or addictions. Correct. So, does that apply to maintenance fees. No, it does not. Definitely. People have to continue to pay their maintenance fees. And the reason for that is, as you mentioned earlier, associations are on a zero based budget. So each year is a new year and they budget according to the assessments that they believe will be coming in that year. At the end of the year, that amount should be gone. They should be at a zero based budget by the end of the year. Right. Right. And so they have to collect those maintenance fees or they can't pay their bills. And it's that simple. Okay. So what do you have as best practices for condos, like start off with stop step one, like making sure they have their policies and procedures in place for debt collection. And that's why whenever we get a new project, the first thing we do is send them certain policies that we feel will protect the board, and we'd be beneficial to the association as a whole. Okay, so you technically even a new project but even a new client. So it could be an old project, but you will go over what their whatever existing policies and procedures they have in place. Yeah. Well, when I say new, I mean new to us, not a new association. We look at their policies and we make recommendations to them in terms of the policies that would be beneficial to that association. Okay, so you go over their policies and procedures. Do you try to give the board a little bit of education of do's and don'ts on debt collection like making sure they don't have conversations with the delinquent homeowners and things of that nature. Well, I prefer to actually meet with the board when I first come on board with a new project so I can educate them about collection and things that they should do and should not do because it's a protective mechanism for them and they hire me to represent them and to educate them. That's my job. So yeah, absolutely. Okay, any other suggestions you have for boards. Do they do their debt collection. Well, you know, right now we're in the midst of this pandemic so I know certain of my projects have been allowing their owners to have a two year payment plan instead of a one year payment plan. And oftentimes at the end of the payment plan if the owners have made their payments on time, then they'll waive the late fees. But you know, other projects, it just depends on their financial situation as to what they can afford to do or not do with regard to their owners that are having financial difficulties. But we do our best to try to work with people. Okay, so they've established a payment plan. What happens if they miss a payment on that payment plan. Or they're even struggling because I know everybody says that you have to make it. The homeowner has to establish a reasonable payment plan. So what is considered reasonable are we looking at their financial condition as well. 12 months pursuant to statute is a reasonable payment plan. And if an association, or rather if an owner asked for a reasonable payment plan and you're in the process of doing a non judicial. Under a law, you have to allow that owner that reasonable payment plan. Okay, so they can offer two months. So what happens if they default on their payment plan. We try to work with them. You know, if they miss one month we still we will send them a reminder letter. If they miss two months, we will often send them a reminder letter depending on what their history has been. You know, but if they start to miss four months, three months, then oftentimes we'll send them a default. It depends on if they're communicating with us. Right, we know what's going on but if we haven't heard from that person in in four months, then we'll send them a notice of default. Okay, and then what happens in a situation where. Oh God, it was on top of my head. I forgot what I was going to say. I think we're out of time. Maybe that's why I went out of my head. Thank you. This is really good. I mean, it was very, very easy to understand. And I'm hoping that the, all the boards take the opportunity to review that these this video, so that they can, if they have to reeducate or reeducate themselves with debt collection procedures, because I know sometimes we always have to re educate ourselves, because things change over the years on practices. So I really hope the condo boards take this, this video, this tutorial. Take it to task. Thank you so much for joining me today and having been here. And I hope to see you soon. Yes, I'm sure we will. Okay, thank you everybody.


This is an optocompressor, specifically a so-called 2A style of compressor, and given its wide use in popular recordings over the past few decades, it's arguably the king of compressors. That's why I think you should know why, when and how to use it. Hi folks, I'm Mike and I hope you're well. Optocompressors use a light element and an optical cell to alter the dynamics of an audio signal, and the great news is you don't have to understand any of that sentence to know how to use one. In fact, I'd suggest that this style of compressor is both the easiest and the most useful to learn. Renowned optocompressors include the Avalon AD2044, and much more familiar to you most likely is the LA2A, and it's that style of compressor that I'll focus on in this video. It's no surprise, of course, that this has been cloned into many plugins over the years, but in this video I'll be using the warm audio WA2A. We'll talk later about why I've chosen this specific model, and I'll also be playing some comparison demos. Now before we dive into why you would use this style of compressor, let's just have a quick recap on what compression actually does. Audio is made up of quieter and louder parts, and the difference between the two is called the dynamic range. Now let's say I want to make those quieter parts louder. I could just raise the whole level, yeah, but eventually those loudest parts are going to reach a point where they start to distort. This is called clipping, and particularly with digital recordings, this can sound very unpleasant indeed. So let's turn things down again. Now this is one of the problems that we can try to solve with a compressor. We can say to the compressor, hey, once we reach a certain level called a threshold, let's turn the signal down. Now how much we turn it down by is called the ratio. Now once we've done this, we can see that the dynamic range has decreased. The difference between the quietest and the loudest parts gotten smaller. That means that we can now raise that signal again, but it's going to take longer before those loudest parts reach that peak where they'll distort. Consequently, it means that we're able to turn the quietest parts up louder before the signal gets distortion. This is one of the uses of a compressor when we use it in two stages like this, as well as increasing things like sustain. Now how quickly we turn that signal down is called the attack, and how quickly or slowly we allow it to return back to its normal state is called the release. Now these two timing factors can have a great effect on the character of the compressor, and it's one of the reasons why you may choose a 2A style of compressor. In fact, with a 2A style of compressor, you have no direct control over attack and release. So you won't find any knobs on the front for that. Attack is set to around about 10 milliseconds, while release happens in two stages. The first over 60 milliseconds, and the second over a much longer period of time, depending on how long the signal has been above the threshold. Now on this particular model, that's between 0.5 and 5 seconds. Now it's these characteristics which really give this compressor a part of its unique style. The other is ratio. Again with ratio, we have no direct control over its value, although we can affect it with the limit compressed switch. When we're in compressed mode, it's somewhat dependent on the source material, but it's generally considered to be about 4 to 1. When we switch to the limit mode, it's much closer to infinity. However, if you're just using small amounts of compression, you may struggle to hear the difference between these two. Curiously, it's this combination of limitations which makes this compressor so useful. It all adds up to a rather fluid and natural sound. And although we've changed the level of the signal, we're generally with this style of compressor not aware of the compression at all. And that's one of the reasons why you would choose this style of compressor. More specifically, this style of compressor is known for being useful on vocals where it can gently smooth them out. It's also really well known for being used on bass, and I particularly like to use it on acoustic guitar. And we're going to hear examples of all of those uses later on. With so much being taken care of under the hood, there's actually very few controls left for us to use. On the right hand side, we have our main control. This is called peak reduction. And this really controls the point at which compression starts to occur. In other words, this is kind of a threshold control. Now on the left hand side, we have a slightly confusing control, because on many models, this is simply labeled gain. And some people confuse this for input gain. In fact, this is output gain. And this is where you would apply your makeup gain, which we discussed earlier. And really, that's it in terms of the main controls, which actually control the sound. We do have another control, which just selects what the VU meter will show, but it doesn't actually affect the sound. Now on this particular model, the WA2A, there are another couple of controls at which we will discuss later. So how does it sound? I've made a demo where I've applied the warm audio WA2A to vocals, acoustic guitar and bass guitar as well. Now, fortunately, my audio interfaces routing allows me to record both the dry and the wet signals. So I'll be switching between the two and indicating on the screen when I do so. Now I have matched the peak levels of these two signals. So any changes in loudness are because of the compression itself. Now, let me know in the comments down below if you can hear any differences in the character of the sound apart from the change in loudness. Was it the way that I stand too close that kept you running? Was it the fear of my touch? Was I too near too much too soon that kept you running just gone? Of course, apart from the loudness changes of compression, running our audio through tubes and transformers is where a lot of the subtle magic occurs. This is what hardware does and plugins try to emulate. The WA2A has a lot of that magic inside, but at a fraction of the cost of the LA2A. In fact, let's take a closer look at the warm audio WA2A. The WA2A is certainly heavily inspired by the LA2A, although I'd stop short of calling it an actual clone. It uses four quality swappable tubes, premium input and output transformers and achieves its opto compression using a USA made Kenetech opto cell attenuator. There are no compromises here with a fully discreet signal path. Apart from the controls we discussed earlier, the WA2A also has a pre emphasis control on the right, allowing us to make the compression more or less responsive to high frequency transients. Conveniently on the left, we also have a control to calibrate our VU meter. On the back, we see balanced inputs and outputs either via XLR or TRS connections, as well as connections and controls for stereo linking to units. All in all, you feel this is a well made quality piece of hardware. Okay, let's face it, I don't actually have an LA2A available to compare this directly with, but even if I did, LA2As are renowned for each unit sounding a little bit different. So any comparison would have quite limited value. In any case, it's more likely that you'll be wanting to move to a unit like this from plugins. With that in mind, I've made some demos available on my website of dry hardware and plugin versions of this recording. These differences can be quite subtle. So I wanted to avoid the YouTube streaming quality on this occasion. So just follow the link in the description down below to download, listen to and compare those demos. Of course, you can decide for yourself about the differences in sound between a piece of hardware like this and a plugin. But I feel like it's my job as a reviewer to let you know about the experience. And this is where I feel using a piece of hardware like this is really quite different. Of course, you can use this on the way in while you're recording, say an actual singer, and you can make adjustments to the control and just listen to the difference in the sound. This to me is where you have a completely different relationship with a piece of hardware. And it just feels so much better to be honest with you using a control like this. It's even better than the onboard DSP effects I have on my audio interfaces. Of course, those can also be used on the way in. But there's something subtle about the changes in the behavior of the compressor as you make those adjustments in real time using an actual knob that I just can't quite put my finger on if you'll pardon the pun, but is definitely a nicer and better experience in my opinion. Don't forget to follow the links in the description down below for both the WA2A and the demos as well. Now, if you're still confused at all about compression, you may want to check out a video I made aimed at beginners where I explain all about compression. Just follow this thumbnail here to watch that. Thank you so much for joining me today and I'll see you in the next video.


around somebody for an extended amount of time you can start to walk like them talk like them and really just be like them in more ways than one and one of the things that you can pick up from them is their thinking habits the way they think about things the way their brain processes things the way that they receive and take in information and the way they even give out information to but having their thought process it can be a gift and a curse and I think for a lot of Ravens fans it has become a curse with one Miles Boykin and the reason I say that is because something that I've seen throughout this off-season is a lot of Ravens fans talk about Miles Boykin and when they do they say oh he just ain't got it oh he ain't it oh no he gonna be a bus oh no he's gonna be this he's gonna be that and we don't know what Miles Boykin is gonna be but a lot of people just base his entire career off of last season now last season when you look at the numbers they aren't anything spectacular he had 13 receptions 198 yards and three touchdowns so it's nothing crazy as a matter of fact some people even get that in one game now that would be a pretty good game for a receiver but it is definitely possible so again looking at the numbers you would think okay that's it but you got to also realize that Miles Boykin last year he didn't really get many passes thrown his way he didn't get many opportunity so we never really got to see a consistent body of work from one Miles Boykin we saw a little little flashes here and there and again 13 catches that's a tiny sample that's not even a sample size so Miles Boykin when he said yesterday on the Ravens Facebook live shout out to Cassie Calvert she was running it and thank you for answering my question by the way to Cassie I appreciate it but when the Ravens were doing that Facebook live and they were doing a Q&A with Miles Boykin he said he expects to break out in his second season he expects his second season to be a lot better than the first as do a lot of us Ravens fans because Miles Boykin we already he got the tools he got the tools he is 6-4 he ran what a 4-4 I believe and catching wasn't a problem for him in college so it isn't like Miles Boykin is some project wide receiver to where it's like oh well he did okay in college and let's just hold that a workshop on the NFL for him now it's not like that and it's not like he was a receiver that had drop issues in college or something like that and then the Ravens are trying to fix up a big problem and do something that they tried to do in years past when they take on these receivers that had dropped issues in college and just hope that somehow the receiver forgets about it once they translate to the NFL no that wasn't his issue but I think Miles Boykin I think his biggest issue going into year two from year one it's two things and they both actually have a lot to do with each other one of those things is being raw he is obviously not a polished receiver I mean it is only gonna be his second year in a league but another thing to go along with him not being polished is the opportunity and he like I said he didn't receive much opportunity last year now something that definitely goes in his favor is his blocking ability and we all know that boy can block his behind off Miles Boykin is a great blocker and that was probably his biggest contribution to this Ravens offense and I expect the Ravens to take full advantage of that and just expand on that too yeah he's a good blocker but let's get him involved that much more and we can really tell from the way that the Ravens drafted we can really tell that from the way that the Ravens winning free agency so far even though I do still expect them to get another wide receiver I know I've been saying that for a while now but I really do feel that way I think they're gonna get a veteran guy not an old guy not an old veteran I don't washed up veteran but somebody that still got some real good years left in them and I think they're gonna bring them on but by the way that the Ravens drafted by the way that the Ravens went about free agency so far the Ravens made every single move and they didn't make every single move that lets you let let you know how they feel about one Miles Boykin and it lets you know that they're like okay Miles we want to see what you can do in your second year we believe me we ride with you because the only receivers that the Ravens signed were special teams guys that were here last year they re-signed Chris Moore they re-signed the Anthony Thomas and even though they re-signed both of those guys there's a high chance that neither one of the two even make the roster because I know the Ravens could have those two more roster spots this year as does every NFL team but roster still gonna be pretty crowded still gonna be pretty tight and you got to feel Hollywood is a lock Boykin pretty much a lock Willie Snead pretty much a lock crochet and Duvenay they'll be there that's that's five receivers right there so do you run with six receivers and a run heavy offense you could because you still got special teams too and the return duties because you don't want to have a receive out there that's gassed so you could run but how often do you run for receiver sets because for example if you do have a receiver or save or you got a receiver that's doing kick or punt return okay he does a kick or punt return and then you want them off the field for a couple plays you still got four receivers left how often in your offense are you gonna be running for receiver sets in this run heavy offense not saying that you can't do it and I saying that you shouldn't do it because I expect the Ravens to expand this offense I definitely do and again Lamar in that spread hey that's even more dangerous because he could throw to any one of his guys and now he has guys that can make the the plays after the catch get that yak the yards after the catch because that's what we've been lacking but now we got that Hollywood coming stronger faster bigger we got Willie Snead coming back for another year but Boykin Boykin I think Boykin going into this year he is the biggest question mark out of the entire receiver group because no he's not a rookie we know what Snead can do Hollywood showed us plenty of flashes last year so it's like with Boykin what's it gonna be but this is not all on him a lot of it is but it's not all on him he was definitely out there a lot last year definitely out on that field a lot last year but the ball just him and Lamar just were not on the same page so a lot of that has to do with Lamar too just as much as it has to do with Boykin Lamar got a fine Boykin got a hit Boykin and stride throw some fade routes to him get get him involved because you you can't have this guy this receiver six four and fast not just six four night he's not just some big giant walking around the field oh I'm six four that's it I can catch no he's six four and fast his voice does kind of sound like that you know his voice is super deep but he can move so Ravens have to get this guy involved you have to and if you even whether you bring in a camp body at receiver a veteran that's been there done that not somebody that will stay with the team but somebody get somebody in there that could teach him how to sort of box people out use that body man use all six four to make those cornerbacks know like uh-uh if I don't catch this ball ain't nobody catching this ball nobody straight up let him know box him out be physical again we know he can block we know he can block and I think with Miles Boykin since he is so tall his speed is sort of um I think it's a underrated because we usually with taller people when you see them running they don't look that fast because they're so tall because their legs they're taking long strides so their speed if you look at a smaller person they look a lot faster because their feet they're going but a taller person when they're running is and they can be running just as fast as that small person but for the small person since you see their feet it makes them look like they're faster so don't sleep on Boykin's speed but one thing that I just want the Ravens fans to do with Boykin as a whole just don't don't sleep on him don't sleep on him and and don't count him out yet I just I've seen that a lot this offseason too a lot of people counting Miles Boykin out like this dude was just so terrible in his rookie season again we didn't even get to see anything his rookie season so we cannot count this dude out we can't if he was a safe instance he was out there his rookie season and this dude was dropping everything he was missing on blocks he looked lost all the time he just if he wasn't doing anything at all and making no contributions okay even though it would just be one season you can't count his whole career like that but that wasn't the case and I'm not saying that last year he was some all-star anything like that but again we only had we had less than a sample size for Miles Boykin's body of work so now going into this second year let's see Miles Boykin another year in this same offense with the same offensive coordinator that's big with the same quarterback that's big and with possibly the same role but even an even more expanded role than he had last year because he's gonna be as of right now when you look at that depth chart Miles Boykin is gonna be one of the Ravens top three receivers he's gonna be one of their top three receivers so Hollywood Snead Boykin then there's Devonay and Proshay and then of course Chris Moore and the Anthony Thomas are still there for now and there ain't no disrespect to either one of those two but just the way that I see the Ravens business right now I don't see Chris Moore or the Anthony Thomas making it because I think Proshay will be the punt returner and I think Duvenay will be the kick returner and let's Proshay do that too but I think Duvenay is going to be involved a little more than Proshay is on offense but hey we'll see when we get there but I just I don't I'm not I wouldn't I wouldn't really count on those other guys making the roster as of right now but we'll see anything can change and you know things can change like that circumstances happen stuff happens and things get shifted in a heartbeat so we're just waiting to see what happens but don't count Miles Boykin out man give him a chance give him a shot because Ravens drafted him in the third round for a reason he was out there a lot on that field for a reason and Ravens only added two new receivers to this team for a reason and I'm not counting any undrafted free agents any undrafted rookie free agents well y'all know what I mean so anyway team keep it clean I appreciate y'all I love y'all again um make sure you check out if you want a face mask you know my aunt she's she's been hooking y'all up hit up MySecretDwelling.com whether you want a Ravens face mask or you just want any other type of face mask too just let her know what you're looking for just let her know what you're looking for MySecretDwelling.com you can get yours tell her engraving viz sent you and there's a phone number where you can contact it there's an email where you can contact and there's even snail mail where you can contact her so she wanted me to let y'all know that she's really appreciates everything it's been a lot because a lot of y'all been hitting up but it's a good thing so and I appreciate y'all um just really uh really being family man because that means a lot man so I hope all of y'all doing good right now um I hope all of y'all are just because I know things are not getting back to normal but things are starting to open up more and more now um I just I hope all y'all doing good man hope all y'all doing good uh and again if if any of y'all ever just got stuff on your mind if stuff is just bothering you uh don't be afraid to reach out don't be afraid to reach out to somebody if you want to hit me up in the DM or something I for me it may take a little longer to respond but don't be afraid to reach out so I love y'all I appreciate y'all team keep it clean um thank you for just always being positive uh thank y'all for just being great people man I appreciate you all thank you for always being willing to listen every single day um because I do really appreciate it a lot so I love y'all and like you can't do with Miles Boykin like you can't count with Miles Boykin you cannot count him out