Well yesterday I got a most welcome email with the news that I have been made a VB MVP for another year. Its certainly a great honour and I am very thankful for Microsoft (MS) for recognising the contribution I make to VB via my postings at vbCity. I always feel a certain awe when I see the names of some of the other MVPs next to mine. Some of these guys really are the movers and shakers in the software development world. Although they are in a different league to me and my meagre VB talents it nice to see that MS recognise those of us , perhaps less talented, but who are prepared to put a lot of time and effort making use of what talents we do have volunteering to help other developers by answering some of the simpler queries they have.
There are many benefits given to MVPs and I have immediately taken MS up on one of them and that is by enrolling into the MVP academy, an on-line area for teaching MVPs new skills. I have enrolled for the basic VB.NET & XML courses and am really looking forward to them. They both start tomorrow and run until until the middle of May.
Another benefit of being an MVP is getting a choice of 1 year's free MSDN Universal or Technet Plus subscription. I have signed up for another year of MSDN Universal subscription on DVD.
MVPs also get $150 to spend in the Microsoft Store. I spent $125 of mine today getting:
- A copy of Age of Mythology: The Titans Expansion
- GrandPaws Brown Plush Bear - for my wife, honest ;-)
- Microsoft Custom 3D USB Drive (128MB) - Exclusively designed for Microsoft, this is a high-speed USB 2.0 Flash Drive
- Microsoft Tech kit. This Tech Kit includes a 4-port USB hub, a retractable ethernet cable, retractable earbuds and a USB computer light packaged in a black zip-around case with the Microsoft logo printed on the case in silver.
- Software Project Survival Guide
- 1 Velocity Black and 1 Velocity Blue Ballpoint. I got one of these last year and lost it, hence the order for two this time. They are really nice pens that have a spring mechanism in them so they push up into a around 2/3 the size of a normal pen and hence fit easily into a pocket.
I am holding back $25 in the hope that
Rapid Development will become available at the store.
Other benefits include getting an invitation to both the Asia MVP Regional Summit 2005 and the MVP Global Summit. I am certainly going to the Asia one later this month and hope to get to the global one in Sep/Oct.