Thursday, September 10, 2009

It wasn't me Gov!

I thought the ACE community loved me now, I thought we were all now friends but then I read on Twitter the viscous rumour that I could be a criminal.

@markrittman I recognize that jacket! At 1:52, is this an ACE Director (or even Stanley?) robbing an Apple store earlier in the week? http://bit.ly/h07Ks



IT WASN'T ME - PLEASE BELIEVE ME


In fact I have the perfect alabi. I was in transit and here is my US Postal Service Tracking Print out to prove it. Why was I in a parcel? Next posting will explain why.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Stanley's dive vacation

As I've been working very hard and non-stop since leaving my homeland Vietnam, Debra and Dan finally relented and allowed me to go on vacation. It just so happened that Dan was headed on a scuba vacation (surprise!) with my friend Mogens. It was a live aboard trip which means that you board a boat from land and then spend the entire trip on the boat where your only priorities are eating, sleeping, diving, and occasionally having one drink (after finishing diving for the day, of course).

My adventure continued on this trip. I did go on several dives and Dan snapped a few pictures of me meeting some new friends. First, Mogens wanted to have (another) picture taken with me (who doesn't really?).

I got to meet a great looking barracuda who didn't look very friendly, but also didn't seem the least bit interested in me (which is unusual--most other beings are very interested in me).


There was one part of the trip that made me a little uncomfortable, but no one else seemed to mind much. That was when my new friend Anne made her 300th dive somewhere in the middle of the trip. To celebrate, my friends took their scuba gear and me on a "special" dive. They didn't take anything else ifyouknowwhatImean. It was all good fun and I served as a witness and also as a rash guard for Mogens on this "special" dive. Luckily, the water was warm, so I didn't get cold and my friends enjoyed "hanging out" too.It was very strange, but other than Dan and Mogens, most of the people on the boat didn't really have much interest in meeting me or having photos taken with me. I guess sometimes it's nice not to be a celebrity and enjoy just blending in with the rest of the crowd.

Of course, in their endless pursuit to cause me some pain on every trip, there was an incident where I took a little good-natured abuse. See for yourself.


I didn't go on every dive, but if I did, I would have been glad not to have any pants since I would have peed them when Dan caught this video.

I'm very excited about my trip to OOW09 coming up in about a month. I recently spent a few days in a very small space and traveled all the way back to my friend Debra in Belfast, so I'll have to share some of that experience soon.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Stanley saves the day

You may remember how I played a hand in Debra losing her glasses in Monterey. Well she got a new pair and her travel insurance should have covered them so no real harm done.

I don't know how it works elsewhere but in the UK, any reason not to pay up is normally explored. To be fair Debra's insurance (from the UK's biggest supermarket) are normally very good, and I am sure they had a laugh as she explained the old pair was not really lost just flushed down the toilet.

They didn't even flinch at the story but did say she needed to prove she owed the original pair. Unfortunately Debra didn't have the original receipt and had purchased them in Singapore. She emailed the optician but didn't get a response. I thick she should have emailed my friend and fellow ACE Director Tanel Poder in Singaporeto pop round and sought them out.

Debra instead spoke to the insurance company and they did say that as a last resort they would accept a before and after photo showing the 2 pairs of glasses. Debra knew she had these from Monterey and then thought, no need, just send the link to my posting which explains the whole story, has both photos and is time stamped.

Who can argue with Stanley? The cheque arrived just a few days later.

I haven't gone away

Is it really not since Monterey that I have spoken to you? I really am sorry. I would like to say I have been too busy but actually I have not got up to much. Just hanging around in Debra's study (office for those of you in US).

I have signed up to do a session at the Oracle Open World Unconference which I am very excited about, but do you think people will be interested in 'Who is Stanley?', please let others know so we get a good crowd.

I have also been back to HQ, Debra went there, something to do with Fusion Apps and as I hadn't signed an NDA I was not allowed out of the bag, I did sulk but no-one really cared.

However a big surprise was that Dan was also in HQ the same week delivering internal training so we got to catch up. Debra and I have finally forgiven him for missing the diving in Iceland and the diving in Monterey made up for it, but I do miss Mogens. But after leaving HQ Dan was off to Florida diving again with Mogens so I was dispatched off to that adventure. I don't want to spoil the surprise as I think Dan will post a very funny blog soon, but I can say I got 'close' to Mogens.