Well, now that the holiday season is officially upon us (post-Thanksgiving makes it official), I found some helpful sites for all those secret Santa gift exchanges out there. Elfster.com and SecretSanta.com both take the pain out of organizing a Secret Santa gift exchange. You set up an exchange, and then list all the participants. It sends out e-mails and after the sign-up deadline, it will automatically match up secret Santas. Anybody want to set up a Secret Santa Exchange to test these sites out? Leave me a comment if you’re interested.

I wanted to find some special Thanksgiving gadgets for today, but couldn’t come up with much in the quick Google search that I tried. I did find something pretty interesting, though I don’t know if it would be categorized as a gadget. It’s called Season Shot, and it’s basically shotgun shot made out of spices, so you don’t have to remove the shot from your turkey. You just cook it with the shot in it to add flavor.

Load your gun with Season Shot and let the hunt begin. Watch as your bird is seasoned on impact leaving no harmful waste behind in the environment.

Forget about removing shot, prepare the whole bird for dinner! The Season Shot pellets will melt in the oven seasoning the entire bird.

Enjoy! No wasted time, no wasted meat, no waste left behind. Finally there’s a better way!

I ran across a cool site the other day called Bud Smack (it’s sponsored by Budwiser). Anyway, the site lets you upload a photo and make it say whatever you want (in a robotic computerized voice). Then you can send it off via email. It’s kind of like a digital marionette.

Need to relieve some stress? Maybe throwing a stunt man around an abandoned alley would help. I don’t really know what this site it for (other than a few minutes of fun). When you run out of time, it links you to a site that has an ActionCity billboard on it… and really not that much more.

I like to keep my eyes open for different logos, whether that be on the web or driving around in the real world. This fun little game test how well you remember common logos from several prominent web companies. I got a 68.92%. See how well you fare a logo identification. (hint: Amazon is smiling at you)

There’s just something about data being displayed geographically on a map that’s cool to me. Maybe that’s why I like playing with my GPS and geocaching so much. I ran across a neat integration of maps (MSN Live Local) and community data last night. It’s created by a company called Fresh Logic Studios. In their Atlas Project, they offer the typical mapping functionality that you can find all over the web (zooming, panning, directions, etc.). They also offer some great overlays providing local data for a lot of things. There are geographically tagged blogs, gas prices/locations, movies, phone book data, and wifi hot spots. They’ve also got new feature in beta for tracking a GPS device. Currently they only provide software for Windows Mobile devices, but they offer the API to hook your GPS device to a map and track where it’s located. There are a handful of good mapping tools out there, but Fresh Logic seems to take that base level map and add a nice collection of tools on top of it.

Who’s tired of the political ads on TV? I know I sure am! Who would have thought I’d ever want the good ole ads for toothpaste and beer back… ads that are actually selling something rather than badmouthing a political opponent. With less than a week to go before the midterm election there has been an obvious pick-up in the frequency of the ads. I guess I’m in the mindset right now that if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. There is a fun website that helps make that possible. Congress In 30 Seconds gives you all the tools (including video and sound clips) you need to put together your own political ads… showing that it really doesn’t take much to make a political ad for TV.