The Shack

Happy new Year to you and yours. The holidays are behind us and it's a brand new year. All is well with Synchro32. I was afforded the luxury of having a two week holiday and took full advantage of it. Didn't do my usual of heading to West Texas and the Big Bend region. I'm planning on being in Big Bend in march. Did go camping with some mates down at Double Lakes and went to Dallas Christmas shopping and saw some more mates. Then went to Austin and saw a dear friend of mine who was in from Colorado and visited more friends down in New Braunfels who bought a new true Texas spread - five acres just outside of town - very rustic. It's good to have a lot of friends. You can never have too many. It's also good to have a lot of free places to stay when traveling.

It's going to be an incredibly busy year at Synchro32. The entire team has a lot on it's plate. Lee, the task master, keeps me on track and chained to my desk with my porta potty :). Simon will be on the road a lot in North America the first quarter of the new year - business is good at Synchro32 and he has many installs to complete. Barrie is fully up to speed at Synchro32 and is a highly valued member of the team and is handling a lot of the custom programming work that customers require. Of course, the leadership team of Barbara and Chris are doing well and keep everyone on task and up-todate. Chis is extrememly busy on development work and wrapping up the work on the exciting new shop floor data collection module. Barbara has her plate full keeping Chris on task :) and also heading up the marketing and sales effort for Synchro32. All in all, Synchro32 is composed of a lot of great people that I have the privilage to be associated with. Lee, well I can't say enough good things about him. He is a fantastic boss, best I've ever had - hands down, and he is also a great mate that I can talk to and he is also my Wingboss and I'm his Wingman. We look out for each other, watch each others 6 O'clock, and keep each other on task. It's just too bad I don't get to see him more often - I'd really like to drag him across the pond to North America during 2009 so he can experience some Texas hospitality and enjoy the night life of Austin Texas where the home office of Synchro32 North America is located. Well, that pretty much covers the management side of Synchro32 - the remainder of the Synchro32 team that stays pretty much hunkered down hard at work is also doing very well.

My dance card is full for the first several months of the year. I'll get to take off my shoes many times at the security checkpoints - heading to the blizard frigid conditions of Milwakuee for the AFS Wisconsin Regional in February, then off to the land of Seattle in March for the AFS NW Regional - I've never been to Seattle so it should be a real treat, then in April I get to go back to one of my fav haunts - Las Vegas - the town of "Lost Wages". It's really a wild town, a town that never sleeps - and you can have a great time even if you are not into gambling. Las Vegas is also the town without clocks. The proprieters don't want you to know what time it is so that you will stay out and spend your hard earned money. Vegas involves lots of "hiking". I've walked end-to-end on the strip many times. Good shoes are essential. A mate of mine is going to be in Vegas at the tail end of the trip so I'll catch up with him and spend a few extra days after the show. As soon as I get back, then I'm off to Fort Worth for the Texas Regional Expo in Fort Worth. Finally, a break in the action, but don't tell Lee, until September/October when I will go to the land of down under for the Australian Victoria show in Melbourne. Always wanted to go to Australia so I could see the southern night sky and see the water flow down the drain in the "opposite direction". Then, I'm back for the final expo of the year up in Indianapolis. Hopefully at least once - maybe even twice - I'll get to head over to the home office over in the UK to catch up with everyone.

The Shack - an outstanding read - a real page turner that I just finished it up. I shan't spoil the story for you - but in a nutshell a man experiences a horrific tragedy and spends a weekend in a shack with god. If you read the book you will know why the letter g is in lower case. :) That's all I'm going to say.

Well, until next time, I've got to get back at it before Lee notices I'm not hard at work. :)

Cheers,

ShaneA

BTW - here are some pics from my holiday activities. http://tinyurl.com/8bp46q