>>A .Net long (Int64) is never null (unless you use a nullable type) - it's a value reference. Are you confusing it with the DBType (which can be nullable)
>
>The event viewer object I receive has it as null, in a new environment we are using. Under 2008, I use to have a numeric value in there. But, under 2012, it is null. So, when this is transfered into the table, it ends up as a null. So, I thought I would detect its null value, before saving, and adjust accordingly. However, the event viewer object is a beast on its own as not everything is accessible in conventional ways. I cannot even compare .HasValue as it will not detect it is null. So, even with that, I ended up with a null value in the table. For now, I had to put it in comment.

Didn't realize you were using System.Diagnostics. The most likely cause of your problem is that you are attempting to read a log entry where the relevant log is not found. Try something like this to test (It's a C# console example but easily converted to VB):

            EventLogReader loEventLogReader = new EventLogReader("Application");
            EventLogRecord loEventLogRecord = null;

            while (true)
            {

                try
                {
                    loEventLogRecord = (EventLogRecord)loEventLogReader.ReadEvent();
                    if (loEventLogRecord == null)
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine("End of Log");
                        break;
                    }

                    Int64 result = loEventLogRecord.Keywords ?? 0;
                    Console.WriteLine(loEventLogRecord.TimeCreated.ToString()+": "+result.ToString());
                    string final = string.Empty;
                    foreach (string lcString in loEventLogRecord.KeywordsDisplayNames)
                    {
                        final += lcString + ",";
                    }
                    if (final.Length > 0)
                    {
                        final = final.Substring(0, final.Length - 1);
                    }
                    Console.WriteLine(final);
                }
                catch (Exception Ex)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("EventLog not found at {0} for {1} ",loEventLogRecord.TimeCreated.ToString(), loEventLogRecord.ProviderName);
                }
            }
            Console.ReadLine();

If you break on the exception you will see that Keywords and KeywordsDisplayNames both throw an exception....