The contest is open to anyone, all over the globe, available to anywhere that Zazzle can ship the mug too. Obviously it would help if you had a Twitter account as that’s how the list of friends on the mug is built up. But if you don’t have a Twitter account, just find someone who has and I’ll send you a mug of THEIR friends (if you are so inclined). It’s always better to use your own friends though, that is, if you have any

How to enter

There are two ways you can enter this competition. You can write a blog post about it or your can Tweet about it. You can enter with both these if you want to increase your chances of winning. The competition starts now and closes on the 31st December 2008 at 23:59 GMT.

1. Blog Post: In order to get an entry into the competition, simply write a blog post about it and leave a comment on this post to let me know about your post. If you have multiple blogs you can enter multiple times (up to 5 times).
2. Tweet: To enter the competition, simply follow me. Then all you have to do is Tweet the following: RT @OwenC is giving away a Twitter Mug for New Year. Enter here: http://tinyurl.com/winatwittermug You can enter the contest as many times as you like, but if you don’t leave a 4 hour gap between tweets, they will be considered invalid.

That’s all! The contest winner will be picked at random just after the New Year is ushered in here in the UK. I’ll be needing your Twitter name (if I don’t already know it) and your address to ship the mug to, so if you can be online that would help, but you don’t have to be. This is my first competition, so I’m looking forward to running it. Good luck everyone!

The time for good cheer is here and I’ve got a great collection of links to keep you entertained over the Xmas hols. I hope you have some time on your hands as there’s no better time to be distracted, especially as there’s a smattering of Christmas links in there:

• Christmas in New York: Have a listen of Clara Barker’s new single. One of the musical prodigies on the Isle of Man.
• CrowdedInk: Get your very own Twitter mug
• Welcome to Ronan: Derek is a new dad!
• Lavalamp for your iPhone: Ohhh .. so want one of those.
• Traveas: Get realtime information about your flight, any flight.
• How to implement advanced SEO: If you plan to spend your holidays optimising your website.
• Twitbacks: Make yourself a magnificent Twitter background (for free). Now with holiday backgrounds.
• Undersea Internet cable: How the Web makes it from one continent to another
• Elf bowling: Get into the Christmas spirit!
• You’ve got 7 seconds to do it: Have you managed to engage your audience?
• Tweetwasters: I’ve spent 1.39 Days on Twitter. How long have you spent?
• Elf Yourself: That perrenial Christmas favourite

Hope you like the links. Have a great Christmas!

Well almost. It’s the night before the night before Christmas and our house is full of wrapping paper, the turkey is sitting in the fridge and the tree is sparkling in the corner. I’m finally getting into the spirit, but I’m working tomorrow, so I’m not quite there yet. We also have family over (Camille’s parents and sister are over to celebrate Christmas with us), so it’s going to be pretty much a home/family thing this year.

We’ll be spending New Year’s Eve in too, but we tend to turn it into a great party. There are loads New Years Eve party ideas that one can implement, and I got some great ideas from the New Years Eve ideas page on Celebrations.com. We normally have lots of finger foods in, champagne and even party games, but the website has loads of other suggestions too. Ideas range from Family Friendly New Year’s Eve Parties all the way through to a New Year’s Eve 80s Retro Party. We’ll take some ideas from there but we have a pretty good formula we use.

This year Arthur is 2, well almost 3, so Christmas is a really big thing for him. He’s all eager waiting for Santa to come, has his stocking and keeps asking whether it’s Christmas yet. It promises to be great fun! Can’t wait!

Just wanted to let my Manx readers about the BCS Christmas Quiz which is happening next Tuesday. Here are the details:

Our next event is the BCS Christmas Quiz. We have had this for the last few years and it has proven to be a great success for our members. It’s a great opportunity to test your knowledge, network with other BCS members, have a few drinks and some nibbles (a buffet will be provided).

Come along, as part of your team of 4, or alone and we’ll form a team for you. The BCS Christmas Quiz will take place at the Prospect Pub in Douglas on Tuesday 2nd December 2008 at 18:00.

The event is also open to non-members but please contact Publicity to confirm you attendance.P rizes generously donated by WiManx and Central Software. More info here

Here are some treats:

• A Christmas movie by Anna showing me and some other team members dancing the cancan (!)
• I’ve Elfed the family

The great thing about UGC (User Generated Content) is that it’s always fresh and relevant; and therefore a great vehicle for marketeers to associate their products with (note the Diet-Pepsi sponsored Snowball Fight on JibJab). The examples above also demonstrate how technology is becoming more and more available. A few years ago you’d have needed to devote developer effort to producing the eye candy above, nowadays you just need to specify a few options, upload your photos and off you go. If you haven’t tried it out, pop down to JibJab and try it yourself.

I’ve never actually seen one of these, so I don’t know what the build quality is going to be right, but it’s cheap enough to be just a play thing at the moment, and we all love our gadgets don’t we? I doubt the practicality of watching a movie on a tiny screen, but even just being able to use it for storage will be pretty cool, and it also plays MP3s so I can listen to music as I walk to work. I’ll keep you posted on how well it works!

The site owners are running a promotion to get some buzz around their site. Illustrate My Name is giving away 100 free personalised name art pictures to the first people that blog about the site. All you need to do is to blog about the site and send the link with the blog back to chris(@)illustratemyname.com. Make sure you include your address and the child’s name and theme that they require. Anyone taking it up?

P.S. And that’s one Xmas present sorted

UPDATE: Well, I know one person who has taken it up; the art hasn’t arrived yet, but she’s as pleased as punch to be able to get something for her kid. Will keep you posted.