Look Back at 2009

I thought I would celebrate the New Year by looking back at 2009. It is amazing to think that this time last year I was an object of ridicule and now I am an icon.


JANUARY - This is when I was flattened, and became Flat Stanley, and the OTN team first found out that I existed. At the time no-one knew how famous I would become.




FEBRUARY I went to RMOUG and then had my first ever holiday. I was treated pretty badly, but had a fantastic time and am looking forward to going again this year. Here you can see me with Jeremiah Wilton.

MARCH - I went to Sweden and then Israel and here you can see me enjoying the thereputic qualities of the dead sea.



APRIL - I went to Dubai and here you can see me with Debra and Basheer in the Burj Al Arab where we had a great (but very expensive) brunch.

MAY - Here I am at Collaborate with 'IO' the 2nd of the two 'romantic encounters' I have had this year. The other was in NZ.

June 2009 was the ODTUG conference in Monterey and this is where I really moved from an object of ridicule to an icon. This video by Eddie Awad is our way in the ACE program of saying thanks to OTN.



JULY - I actually had a holiday all on my own, I went deep into the cupboard at Dan Norris' home and slept, needed all my energy for diving in AUGUST, here with Moans Nogood.



SEPTEMBER - This was the month I travelled across 'the pond' as an unaccompanied minor and then had trips with Debra and other Apps ACES Karen Brownfield in N Ireland and Sue Shaw in Amsterdam.



OCTOBER was OOW, and here I am with my very own Director's chair. I also finally got my own credentials on OTN and I gave a small piece of my heart for Justin.

NOVEMBER ended as UKOUG started and here I am with my great fan Dan Morgan and Bryn Lewellyn at the ACE Dinner in Birmingham.

Which brings us to DECEMBER and this wrap up of the year and looking forward to 2010 my first outing is to Denmark in January where I hope to spend a bit of time visiting the Oak Table, then it is the user group get together in Redwood, and a great list of conferences where I hope to continue to be a great mascot for the ACE program of which I am very proud.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

May Be Time to Sack Debra

Debra has looked after me well, but it may be time to sack her.

When she is attending an event or conference and has the time to look after me I have a great time and lots of photos are taken, and the fun we get up to!

But when she is busy, I get dragged along, stay inside my bag and don't enjoy myself as much as is possible. So from now on Debra needs to give me up for UKOUG and probably OOW as well.

This year at Oracle Open World I did have my chair, which was then shipped to UKOUG but not even used. I slept in the same hotel as Obama and she never even wrote about it!


At UKOUG, things looked up, Debra mentioned me in her main blog, I went to a great ACE dinner and I got to meet Tom Kyte, but none of it got into my blog.

I was so upset for myself, but mainly for my fans who hang on my every word, so next time Debra is 'busy' I will make sure one of my other friends, Dan Norris or Dan Morgan look after me, make sure I have a good time and write about it!

Merry Christmas

Debra has been so busy and it is beginning to annoy me that she has not caught up with my blog, but I have managed to pull her away from the Christmas Fayre for long enough to say Merry Christmas to you all.

Santa was good to me and gave me a ticket to Redwood in January so I will be able to meet up with some friends again.

"I can't believe Stanley is Here"

I have said before Stanley is welcome wherever 2 or more Oracle users come together, so obviously I will be at UKOUG this coming week, more than 2000 excited people in the ICC at Birmingham.

Debra and I arrived today and we are in our hotel getting ready. Debra has many meetings tomorrow before the ACE Dinner which I always look forward to. Last year however I needed a bath after my trip to Finland and Denmark, so although Mogens bought me I was unable to get out of my bag.


But this post is about last night. Debra stayed with her sister in Gloucester and this morning when packing, her brother in law Chris realised that Stanley was in his house. He was so in awe and shouted out"I can't believe Stanley is Here". This is a special fan, Chris is a Finance Manager in a large government department and more importantly an Oracle EBS user.

Chris will be so 'stoked' to appear on my blog, but to be fair I was more interested in their dog, Tilly. I like animals they are more like me.

Vote for my friend

Meet Miss Molly. She is my friend and lives in Denver with John and Peggy King.



Miss Molly and I go way back, and I want you as my friend to vote for Miss Molly in the Hallmark Dog Photo contest – you can check it out at this link she is kinda cute.

Sharing a hotel with the President

When OOW finished, I made my way to the hotel, only to find myself stopped from entering the road by a policeman.The entire street was closed and people were held behind a barrier. Eventually we were told that Obama was staying in our hotel and that we could not get in until he had arrived and was safely inside.


My friend Basheer Khan (who looks after my brother 'Khanley'), was also held behind the barrier and he had a plane to catch but his luggage was in the hotel! Eventually a policeman came to check if we had a valid reason for being in the hotel and then made everyone put their bags on the road and a dog then sniffed them all. I have to thank Debra for leaving me inside her bag, if I had been pulled out and investigated by a dog it would have been the final indignity.




About an hour after we arrived we were allowed back into the hotel, escorted by a policeman one by one. Well it was a little bit of excitment and I dont think there are many world leaders who can say they have stayed in the same hotel as 'Stanley'.

Then the next morning I had a breakfast date with Dan Norris and Robyn Sands but found myself, locked in! We could not leave the hotel until the President have left, Debra stood up against a window to watch the cortege get ready to leave. There were ambulances, a bomb squad, many dark vans with mirrors to match the sunglasses everyone was wearing, blacked out limos, all very impressive and led away by the original guy from CHiPs.

Meeting my Fans

I have a lot of fans and sometimes I simply don't get time to see them all. At OOW I missed seeing Sean Tucker from Team Oracle, this is a man I admire not only is he famous for his flying skills but he takes time out to spend with his fans, he is 'down to earth' .... well when he is not 'up in the air' something I aspire to be.



So when I missed the chance of catching up with him at OOW, I was still feeling poorly after my operation (see previous post) Sean took time out to donate a signed cap to me. Then to make sure he knew how he felt about me he allowed Steve Romeo to make this little video. It is a bit dark but if you turn it up loud you can hear Sean talk about me, The great Stanley.