Merry Christmas friends, loyal readers, and those just dropping by. It’s been an amazing year full of life and it’s trappings and even a couple of deaths. There have been tumor scares, shrink visits, and disease. This year found me making donations, bailing people out and falling out at a very nice Christmas bonus.  That after worrying if I’d have my job through till the end of the year.

Life has its ups and downs. It is and always has been a mixed bag. Each day a chance to win the lottery or pass onto your final resting place. This year though, all things considered, I consider myself and my family blessed.

Blessed for me has taken on a whole new meaning for me this year. In the past, I considered it a great year if no one died AND I got a big raise and a bonus. Oh, on individual days I felt blessed but just as many days I felt cursed or beat up on.  Often felt like I was ready to go to my final resting place and save the world the trouble.

Don’t ask me what brought on the change. It wasn’t a smack in the face experience. There was no come to Jesus moment or words from a friend. Can’t even blame one of those killer hangovers either.

Blessed is no longer something that’s dependent on circumstances. It’s become about realizing my life is a blessing as well as the life that awaits. Both are immense blessings. Along with that I’ve taken ownership of the fact that life isn’t supposed to be perfect, great, full of wealth, free of fear.

Life is meant to be a rough and tumble ride. Sometimes slow. Sometimes at breakneck speeds. I’m going to fall, family members will suffer, but the next day will bring joy to make my heart burst.

I’m no Peter, a master of contentment in all circumstances. Far from it, but this quote has a lot power for me these days.

At the end of my life I don’t want to pass quietly into the night. I want to slide in sideways kicking and screaming “WOW What An Awesome Ride!”

I didn’t want a boring ride anyway; do you?  Heck, I want to take it up a notch this year.  Likely that means those little bumps are going to hit harder and the dips will bottom out rougher but the highs will be shout worthy.

Hope this little Christmas rant hasn’t left you too bored or depressed. I’m happy and celebrating as this year wraps up.  I want to share a few things with you though; some Christmas links from my Twitter family.

@acummings - Merry Christmas from Portsmouth NH – Decked Out Downtown

@swbuehler – Christmas with Empty Hands

@elsicomoro – Be Kind

@RoraBorieAlice – 7 Years Ago Tonight

@stlwebdesign - 12 days of Christmas from your St Louis Web Designer

@abiteofsanity – Sisters XV

@debworks – Alone on Christmas

@SheilaS - It’s tamale time for the holidays!

@JessicaGottlieb – And a Very Merry

PopCap Games rings in the holidays with some Mac user love.  They’re selling all Mac download games for 50% off. That’s right. 50%.

PopCap games have been making games for a long time and Christmas holidays have always been something they’ve taken to heart. Early PopCap games paid tribute to Santa and the like. That’s where I got hooked.

I’m still a fan after all these years, so I’m excited about this limited time offer of 50% sale on all Mac downloads.

PopCap Games Mac Download Sale

Sale ends December 23rd.

Love pets? Love Advent? Then this article is for you.

SuperPoke! Pets doesn’t just bring holiday themed items this year.  The team brings us a free item each day during Advent.

Each day a different day is uncovered, much like on a real world Advent Calendar.  Underneath is a special item.  They are suspiciously like something out of The 12 Days of Christmas song.

The items are fun, unique and make for great decorating. Along with these items, the SuperPoke team introduced Hanukah, generic seasonal items and of course other Christmas standards. You’ll see Christmas trees, dreidels, Santa related items and goodies from the North Pole. There are even new  plushies to be had.

You can find me on Facebook and my SuperPoke Pet.

Namecheap, my favorite domain name service, is hosting another Twitter contest.

Want a free domain name? NameCheap is having a holiday domain name extravaganza – our second – and you are invited to participate. The object is simple Simply follow us on Twitter and participate in our trivia game. We’ll ask a new question on the hour every hour. Eight winners will be chosen for every question. That’s right, we’re giving away 8 domain names every hour.

But it doesn’t stop there. We’re giving away prizes to the individuals who answer the most questions over the course of the competition. Five winners will win the brand new Barnes & Noble nook† which will allow you to access over 1 million book titles in digital format in the palm of your hand. The nook allows you to store as many as 1,500 ebooks on its 2 GB of internal storage.

Last time Namecheep tweeted questions and gathered up the replies. You have to be quick though; there were many folks following this.

Namecheap provides the full guidelines to the contest. It’s fairly simple to play and the prizes are great. You can take the first step by following @namecheap on Twitter.

Hey, it was 4th of July weekend, it was a Friday night, and there was no parking. Still had a turn out of 19 folks that signed in and several more that didn’t.  Some of the non tweeting folks opted not to sign in along with some that were new.

The event, hosted by @Rex7 and @Prebynski, was billed as the Largest Tweetup in St. Louis.  They were shooting for the Guinness Book of World Records. Let’s just say this event probably didn’t make it.  Was it waste? I don’t think so.

When first asked by Punching Kitty I was a little shy about panning this event as a big plus for St. Louis. After a couple of days to process, my take is definitely improved. This event will definitely lead to social networking growth for the local scene.

Any tweetup that doesn’t end with bad vibes adds to the momentum and the interactions.

People are talking about it.  Good or bad, it’s conversation that wasn’t happening before.  Some folks are even taking sides for or against Rex and Brandon.

Newbies were given a chance to meet and great with some of the more seasoned folks in social networking, at least in St. Louis.  People doubled their connections with individuals they’d actually gotten to meet in person.  A couple of folks are going to start blogging and now have some new friends to ask for help.

Another venue has been introduced to a tweetup.  This is big.  Once social networking meetups become part of the everyday conversation, it spreads like wildfire.

Did I come away doting over Rex and Brandon? Heck no; they’re just guys.  They bet big and didn’t totally go broke. That’s a win in social networking circles.

Should we be calling them out as hosting a flop? Yeah, sure for a few minutes. They deserve a bit of rib jabbing this go round.  Maybe next time they’ll talk less and do more.  If we beat them down now though, we don’t add any value.

Rex took time out to share follow up comments with the St. Louis Social Media Report.

Rex and Brandon, guys, let’s agree that in between now and the next event that you two will make some serious inroads into the local social networking groups. Also, I challenge you guys to drop some followers and follows between now and the next time we meet. Go ahead. I promise it won’t hurt.

For the record, I’m tojosan on Twitter.

The above pictures are of my dad and his wife ice skating for their first time.  They went, took lessons, and then got out on the ice.  He told me it was a great experience and they are anxious to do it again.

What a joy for me to hear him so excited about something like this.  I’m looking forward to still having a sense of adventure even as I get older, and someone to share it with.

Cheers Dad.

(bonus – can you guess where these were taken?)

Holiding a holiday card swap – want in?

This swap is for Twitter folks.  If you want the password, send me a Tweet.

The cut off to sign up is December 1st.  You’ll be assigned four swap partners to send greeting cards to.  The assignments will be random and done by the swap-bot mega mind. Be sure to friend your Twitter card swap partners up and learn about them a bit.

I’m Tojosan.

<-that's my son>

From: Honor, Duty, eMail: 7th Annual Holiday Love Project for our Troops:
“Each year we send holiday cards to our troops for Christmas and Hanukah. This year’s project starts October 13th and ends December 1st to ensure that all cards and letters can be shipped to meet the holiday deadlines. Mail your holiday cards for our troops to us and we’ll ship them to our military in time for the holidays!”

It’s that time of year again. Time to let those in our lives know we care. Not only those close at home need reminders, but those abroad as well. That includes our military brothers, sisters, fathers, and children.

eMailOurMilitary.com is sponsoring their annual Holiday Love Project. People like you and I, and our families and friends get a chance to directly inspire and support our US Military.

This project has many plusses for the wanting to avoid the usual politics surrounding the troops. It’s about sending cards, letters, banners, posters and more just to say Happy Holidays. It’s a chance to show respect and concern without taking sides on wars and military actions. It’s about people.

I encourage you to take a few minutes out and follow the simple instructions on the eMailOurMilitary site. Just write a short note, a holiday wish, or even some hand drawn art on a postcard or letter. Put that in an a mailer envelope and send it on.

To get started or to share about this fun and encouraging project, check out the eMailOurMiliary 7th Annual Holiday Love Project.