Keeping Schtum
Schtum: adj, slang. Keep quiet, maintain confidentiality
Working on a secret project at Telligent has made it tough to blog on technical subjects this year. I'm a big fan of open process and loved to talk openly about the development of Dozing Dogs CMS but that's not been possible with the new product in this higher stakes world unfortunately.
It's hard, especially when I develop something really cool and want to start beating the drums. I'm used to being naive and telling everyone what I'm doing. 
One day soon though, one day soon. The last step is to throw it at a technical writer, right? Should only take a few weeks. 
A side-effect of all this was that I received an email from MSFT last night telling me that I was no longer an MVP.
Quite right too, it should have happened last year IMO! I don't remember the last time I answered questions on ASPAdvice or posted tips to CoverYourASP.com. I'm not beta-testing anything right now and only attended the MVP summit to meet the Telligenti. I even had to skip the ASP insiders event that took place last week.
It's certainly not 2001 any more - we were chatting on a list the other day how things have changed for many of us since the heady days of pre-beta versions of ASP.NET 1.0. Back when the focus was on making web programming real programming with a real C language and a compiler. Before the declarative website-in-a-box movement and the bloat.
Before ".NET 3.0" finally made it clear that the lunatics had taken over the asylum.
C'est la vie - things change. I'm still very thankful to have a healthy happy family and to be working on a great, fun product with a great bunch of people. Having a big-block convertible and a '55 Chevy to wrench on doesn't hurt either (but notice I put the cars last sweetie!)
Now, I'd better quickly get on MSDN and download something while I still can...