[Chris]

Well, I am back from a several month absence. I really never went anywhere, but I did have an SVX forums burn out. It’s a bit hard to explain. I suppose its easiest to say that I took a step back, looked upon the success of what has become, and tested its need for a babysitter. I understand that there is still MUCH work to be done, but it was nice to be able to walk away and only worry if I got a page on my cellular. I am pleased to say that normal operations are pretty much automated and the only thing that requires active participation is when some punk hacker wants to screw with things or bring down the network with attacks. I am going to enjoy a few more breaths of fresh air then return to a more active role as administrator again and get some more necessary work done here. I/we still need to buy a server, and there are other issues to deal with, but all in all…. Things are good. To be honest, I really did not think this would be the success that it is today. With the help of many people (Aredubjay, Mr. Pockets, Mohrds, Seraph, Sith, Laryiii, the entire backend staff, and others… please don’t take offence if I didn’t name you here… there are so many!) Yahoo even helped with the transition of members when their experience on the egroups became less enjoyable. Month after month we have set new records in bandwidth used, hits, and overall usage. I am assuming this means that the service here has become even more of an asset to the SVX community. This was my overall goal.

As more of an update, things are going a bit better with me. I have been employed now for just over six months and this is slowly allowing me to get my life back on track. It is taking some time due to the amount of time I spent unemployed as well as the fact that my job is of rather poor pay. Actually the pay is good for the job, its just not my type of work. But, its starting to pay the bills and debt. I am hoping that the technology market will soon pick up, but until then, I am still working at the state capitol as a dispatcher and security officer. If work was not sucking up most of my time, the rest was spent at the track. As most of you know, I just finished my third season of bracket racing at the local track. I am proud to say that as a representative of the SVX community, I took a season 3rd place win in the Import racing series. In the club series I finished 1st overall in my club (qwk racing) and my club took 2nd overall for our class. That is the good news. The not so good news is this; I did so well throughout the season, AND since this was my 3rd year of racing, the techs and officials at the track have asked me NOT to run in any of the amateur class events next year. The odd news is this; I have been invited to challenge that big boys. Yes, next year I am running the Gold Cup professional racing series. There are many plans for the car, but it all takes money. I have a few sponsors lined up and I am still seeking more. Whether or not if the work gets done or not is regardless. I am racing Pro next year. If the work DOES get done, I will have a much faster car. If not, I will still run, but the big boys will just have to sit patient on the start line a little longer for the time difference handicap. Too bad, so sad. I will keep you all posted. As of right now, I get my season trophy at the awards banquet November 23rd. I am a overjoyed at this and look forward to becoming a menace to the PRO guys in the year to come. Oddly, some have already had the displeasure of meeting me at the staging light at the end of season Halloween Classic. I wish I had a camcorder when an 8 second dragster had to wait for 8 seconds after I got to leave the tree to play catch up. As a general rule, door cars ( no matter their speed or time) rarely beat dragsters in the electronics class. I ran this event for grins and giggles at the end of the year. With a .514 reaction time (.500 being perfect) I hurried down the track with a 16.27 dial time. The 8.45 second dragster no so patiently waiting for his time to play catch up. In the end, I broke the finish beams perfect to my dial (to the thousandths) and won with a margin of victory being .004, or 4 thousandths of a second. I went to the next round, and he loaded his PRO race car back into his trailer. He was quite a gentleman and sportsman when he came over to congratulate me and inquire about what just beat him. When I showed him the consistency of my time slips for the day, he said he would not be looking forward to meeting up with me again next year.

On other notes, I ask for some prayers. My grandfathers health is failing and needs a few thoughts and prayers to help carry him safely and painlessly to the other side. Doctors say he has less than a week of time left. For anyone interested, he is a retired aeronautical mechanic/engineer from Lockheed in California. He has many great projects he has worked on though out the years including the P-38 Lightning, SR-71 Blackbird, and even some early Space Shuttle work in his last years with the company. I only wish I got to spend more time with him. His legacy will live on through work achieved by his youngest son (my uncle) whom continues to develop aeronautical designs of amazement at Lockheed in the Skunkworks (Military Secret designs) program.

In other news, activity on the server has reached record levels again. After closing the logs on October, 13.9 GIGS of data was sent out for the month and the server processed over 2.1 million hits! As I investigate this more, it shows a daily average of 519 unique visits. What a party house. You all have made this SVX network a huge success. Thanks.

In closing, I am eager to see what new achievements we all can make to improve the SVX experience. I am overjoyed to see all the work invested into the 5 speed conversions as well as after-market parts being produced by vendors at our members requests. I hope to see this trend continue. I may be wrong, but if I remember right, Rev Hard was probably the first to start in major projects with the carbon fiber hood. Now there are bumpers, headlight projects, Koni shocks, leather seat kits, aluminum dash cover kits, NOS systems, and so many other custom projects. I think its great. I also am seeing lots of new names. I am sorry to be late in saying so, but welcome to the excitement (mad house). I am sure you probably already got a warm welcome from the regular post count war contenders. In the beginning, Aredubjay was concerned about longevity. We are only a few short months from our SECOND year! That has to be a reason to party.

OK, this post is getting to long. So in short, like a bad dream, I’m back!