You are visitor to John Balderson's Homelessness Diary web page.

Thank you for visiting this section of my web site.

Thanks to the 1400+ visitors to the website in 1999, and I hope to see a continued interest in the problem of homelessness in Fort Lauderdale in the year 2000.

I am chronicling my experiences for those interested in learning about "breaking the cycle of homelessness", a quote I like from the resource development director of the HAC, Ezra Krieg.

Below is a diary of my activities.

I have complete my first week of working with Paul Castagna of Castagna Specialty Risk who I am building a web page for at www.castagnains.com. This is based on a referral I had received in my guestbook, and so far everything is going great.

As soon as I have a few dollars to throw to my landlord, I will go to the pawn shop and retrieve my laptop computer, so that I can do the work at home as well.

As this web page project is keeping me busy, I may not have as many diary entries as usual, but keep checking back.

I have now been working at the insurance comapny for about a week and a half. I will be working on the web site probably for another month, and Paul (the owner) has even said that there is a possibility for a full-time position of some kind. My landlord is going to pick me up from work and go over to her daughter's furniture store at the Festival Flea Market mall on Sample Road to discuss building a web page for them as well.

There apparently will be a house cleaning, and I will be the only one left for a while, so when I get my computer back from the pawn shop, I'll have to take it with me again, even though I have a lock on my bedroom door.

The detective from BSO was at the house last night, and he took an official statement from me, with regards to the person who stole my laptop computer and pawned it. In addition, it turns out he also pawned a TV set and microwave oven from the garage that belongs to a friend of the landlord. I saw the thief last Friday on a bus on Sample Road, and when he saw me, he bolted from the bus at the next stop.

I am hoping that these continued business opportunities will give me some more presence in the business community and lead to a permanent computer job.

Work is continuing on the Castagna website. I will be meeting with the BSO officer at the pawn shop to finally retrieve my laptop computer. I went to the Windows 2000 launch yesterday in Boca Raton with my landlord and her husband. If you would like to watch a video presentation of the launch, you can see it at my regular web site Windows 2000 Launch.

I had an unfortunate encounter at Las Olas Riverfront last Saturday. I was at the Ugly Tuna outside bar talking to the bartender who was interested in my Sunshine article. I was approached by a member of the security staff, and was asked to leave, because I supposedly had been warned to leave the property previously. When I went downstairs to the security office to ask why I was kicked out, the Fort Lauderdale police arrested me for trespassing. I was able to bond out for $25 after spending about 4 hours in the jail.

I called the security office on Tuesday asking why I was treated in this fashion, and their explanation was that they can ask anybody to leave their property without giving a good reason.

I'll take my business elsewhere and continue working on the websites and be thankful for the kindness of those around me and be thankful that I have a roof over my head.

I have had my laptop back for a little over a week now, and I used it tonight to log into the MSNBC website and watch the live broadcast of "Summit at Silicon Valley".

I also have been working on the Castagna Insurance website as I am expected to finish it by the end of this week. Since I lost a couple of days last week due to illness and attending the Windows 2000 launch in Boca Raton (which you can see by going to my Windows Media Player Clip Library page.) I will not be paid for last week's work until Wednesday. I also have been going over to Nina's daughter's house in Coral Springs troubleshooting her computer by reinstalling Windows 98, and installing drivers for the new sound card Nina bought her.

I will probably be working on the Galaxy Furniture (Nina's daughter's boyfriend) website soon and working with Nina on other special projects.

I also understand there were some letters to the editor in the Sunshine magazine today in response to my article that appeared January 23.