Horrible news just after Christmas. My friend and one-time colleague Joe Holmburg died after fighting cancer for several months.

Joe's blog, recounting his experiences is here with a final note from his parents. And Scribe (who shared a house with Joe as an undergrad) writes movingly here.

Scribe also took this heartbreaking photo.

Don't need to say how sad I am about this. Joe was one of the sweetest guys you're likely to meet: smart, talented, good natured. Brilliant programmer, musician etc.

And only something like 28-29 years old.

Like a lot of people I can't quite believe this could have happened. It shouldn't have happened.

Like Scribe I've been trying to organize my thoughts about this and they've been getting muddled with the usual end-of-year retrospective thinking. I have a lot of half formed posts in my mind, and I've been holding off posting anything for a week, trying to find the right things to say. But you could wait forever for that. So I'll leave it as is and try to make more sense of them over the next few weeks and posts.

If you knew Joe, raise a glass (as many people are) to his memory and hope that there are more like him out there. And maybe listen to some Krauschanl while you're at it. If not, raise the glass anyway. And remember to live life to the full while it's still here.