I can't talk about it yet. I mean, I can't say a bloody thing.

But I can say that I was there, in the room, when my officemate, Erik Porter, told me one of his latest ideas (he's turned into an idea factory for the past couple months, and it's been amazing to watch).

I wish I could go into detail. Or even just say what it is.

All I can tell you is that, if it works, it's going to affect the lives of every single dev using Visual Studio on the entire freaking planet.

He just left for the weekend, taking his ideas with him, and I'm sitting in the office, staring at his empty chair with a reverential awe. I'm thinking about sitting in it to see if I start coming up with ideas. I mean, what if it is just the chair?

Anyway, the process has already begun. He had the idea, he talked to the right people, and he's going to try to make it happen.

And that's just one of his inventions.

It's so strange. When I sat down for the first time across from him last October, I just saw this quiet coder. He had headphones on, and we didn't talk a whole lot.

But then, after a few weeks, something changed. The guy came alive, and his brain started shooting these ideas out left and right, any one of which could bring him great success.

I don't know if any of you get to sit across from someone who comes up with great ideas as casually as the rest of us tie our shoes (that doesn't apply to me, actually, as I have, without any deviation from the pattern, been purchasing laceless shoes for the past five years), but it's an inspiring thing.

Yeah.

Wow.

Also, I'll be writing normal posts again soon - it's just been an insane week (for everybody on the team - we're all ready to scream) - but I wanted to stop for a moment and mark the place in time when I realized that Erik Porter wasn't only smart, but that part of his brain is a brilliant idea factory, and that the guy's a bloody genius. It might be a year or two, but you will hear more about Erik Porter (and, if you haven't noticed, I'm trying to get as much search engine goodness as I can by constantly repeating the name Erik Porter for when the net realizes his importance).

If I sound happy, by the way, it's because I love this job, and my team has become a second family to me. I never would have expected that.

Jeff did a good job when he threw us all together, and I feel, as always, that I'm the luckiest bastard on the planet for having landed here.

Now, carry on.

There's work to do :)