Happy Holidays from RCPU

It's the last RCPU of the year... Well, actually, it's not. There will be (at least) two more in December. But this is the last RCPU that I'm going to write in 2010, so let's crank up the greatest Christmas song ever (everybody can enjoy this one) and get to doing what we do at the end of every year: passing out holiday thanks. I'll even do this in first person, just because I care.  

First and foremost, a big thank you to our readers. You are the reason RCPU exists. To those who e-mail, who comment on the blogs online, who click on links or who just read the newsletter when it hits your inbox, my sincere thanks for your thoughtfulness, your interest, your participation and your contribution to what we do here. You are the best. Really, you are. I've written for a lot of audiences in more than one language, and I've never enjoyed a group as much as I enjoy you. Thank you.

Now for the folks who dutifully work with me as I ramble and roam over the keyboard all year long. To Doug Barney, editor-in-chief of Redmond magazine, thank you for all your support this year and for getting this newsletter off the ground nearly five years ago. Without your guidance, I was lost. But with your suggestions and influence, RCPU has become not only a lot of fun but (I hope) genuinely worth reading.

To Scott Bekker, editor-in-chief of RCP the magazine, many thanks for your continued friendship and for the numerous times you've filled in writing this newsletter for me at the last minute. (Also, uh, thanks for writing the two editions that will come out over the next couple of weeks.) You are a consummate professional and a great guy, and it's a privilege to know and work with you.

To Chris Paoli, thank you for actually combing through every word of these ramblings before sending them out for public consumption. You make me look smarter and more coherent than I really am. To Becky Nagel, Mike Domingo and Kurt Mackie, denizens of our Web team here at the Redmond Media Group, thank you for your constant support, your willingness to shoe-horn in last-minute updates and corrections and your general good sense of humor about everything. I'll see you all soon (more on that in a minute).

To the great Jeffrey Schwartz, who consistently pulls me out of the fire on the print side of things, thank you for your constant stream of articles that provide so much of the content I refer to here. And I don't just mean the ones you write, although they're great -- I also mean the ones you find online and send almost every day. You make my job easier.

To Wendy Gonchar and Katrina Carrasco, our managing editors on the print side who keep the whole operation running, thank you for your patience and understanding when I, uh, extend the occasional deadline. (It's all in the name of quality reporting, you know.) And thank you for acknowledging that I write RCPU while you're yelling at me to get a feature story filed. Just kidding...mostly. Seriously, though, you're the best. It's a privilege to work with you.

To my office mates in Framingham, of whom I've seen little since my son was born in September, thanks for your continued friendship and camaraderie. Scott Shultz, Lafe Low, Matt Morollo, Brad Zerbel and Kathleen Richards, the Framingham crew, you really are the best people I've ever shared a floor full of cubicles with. And Kate -- thanks for all of your chats with me about your newsletters. You're doing fantastic work over at Redmond Developer News. Brad, keep up the good work designing Redmond. Also, keep cracking me up in art meetings...

To our columnists and freelance writers for Redmond -- Mary Jo Foley, Greg Shields, Don Jones, Brien Posey, Peter Bruzzese, Paul Korzeniowski, Gary Olsen, Jeff Hicks and many others -- thank you for your patience (writing RCPU takes a fair amount of my time...) and for your continued excellent contributions to the publication. And to all the flacks -- nah, PR professionals -- out there, thank you for your help with stories, interviews, contacts and all the other stuff I'm constantly bugging you about.

Finally, thank you to my beloved TCU Horned Frogs for finally making my ultimate sports fantasy come true and making it to the Rose Bowl. We've come a long way from 1-10 in 1997, Frog fans. The Rose Bowl! Win or lose, it'll be a party. California office folks, the family and I are headed to the game (of course), so I'll see you in the Irvine office at some point after New Year's.  

I'm sure that I've left somebody out, and for that I'm sorry. But let me wish all of you a happy, healthy and blessed holiday season. We'll see you in 2011.

Lee

Posted by Lee Pender on December 16, 2010