And by Platinum, I mean One Million. Normally, I would say that I’m speechless. But apparently I’m not. Because here I am a-speechin’.

When I pitched dekePod to my sponsors, I set it as my goal to achieve 250,000 views in 2008. Today, I was just made aware that in a little more than six months since our June 24 debut (which coincides exactly with the launch of dekeOnline), we have amassed some 1,004,837 streaming views and downloads. To give you some perspective, it took me 20 years to sell 4 million books. dekePod hit 25% that number in 2% the time. Hell, back when cable was king, I hosted more than 90 episodes of “Digital Gurus” for Jones Computer Network, and we nailed 100 thousand eyeballs maybe. (That includes 50,000 left and 50,000 right.) Just goes to show you what you can accomplish when you eliminate The Man.

And in a down economy, no less. Which is weird because the damn thing is free.

Which gives me the opportunity to make three other announcements:

First, forgive me for not mentioning this earlier, but dekePod is officially on a Winter hiatus. The one that’s up (”Giving It Up for the Family”) will be the last one until Spring. As you might imagine, these things require an awful lot of time and (mostly joyful) effort to produce. However, I had to take a break and focus on the things that actually pay the rent for a couple of months. Good news: We begin filming new episodes tomorrow (Jan 6) and then in early February. The first of those new episodes (#12 for those who are counting) is another elaborate piece, the yin to “101 Tips” yang. Hopefully the quality will justify the wait. Or it’ll make you vaguely queasy. Either way, mission accomplished.

Second, while dekePod ferments, Colleen and I are concocting a mid-season replacement. This one’s totally CW’s idea, and brilliant at that. You can thank her when and if we get the first one out, which should be in a week or two.

Third, over the course of January, Colleen has taken it upon herself to release all 12 video lessons from the DVD that’s included with my newly printed book Photoshop CS4 Channels & Masks One-on-One as free blog posts. Here’s a sample video now. This might seem like a small thing but, in our business, it’s huge. As a rule, a publisher doesn’t give away an entire video series for free. Nor do they make the videos available as high-resolution downloads (as we will do for a limited time in 4-movie batches to registered members of dekeOnline). But we do. Why such bizarre generosity? Two reasons: 1) I was a poor student once. 2) I want you to have the chance to try before you buy. If you like the videos, you’re going to love the book — but, garsh, you already knew that.

The real thanks goes to that person whose reflection you occasionally glimpse in the dark parts of your monitor. By which I mean you. Without you, dekePod would have attracted a mere 1,004,836 views. Hardly worth a blog post, that.