Man. This medicine of ours is kinda bitter. Has an 80-proof kick, though. So, remember all those posts where we said, “have a sense of humor about yourself?” Yeah, that was great and all until we encountered AgencyWank Tumblr, “a collection of the wankiest slogans and text on ad/marketing agency websites,” and found ourselves on there not once but twice! Hoist on our own petard! Curses! But then we noticed six times the normal visits to our site, plus reblogs spreading the Mortar virus gospel throughout the land, and we remember, it could be worse.

“You gonna tell us who’s a good boy, or should we take a little ride downtown?”

Just when we were about to take over the abandoned amusement park! We would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids.   Well, at least we got to say “hoist on our own petard.”

We’re not usually ones to brag, unless it’s to brandish the shiny pair of Ron Swanson-approved steak saws we got for Christmas. But now that 2012 is gone like Dick Cheney’s hair, we figured we should mention a couple things we won this year. Mortar scooped up two Silver Awards in the 2012 Davey Awards, the largest and most prestigious small agency competition. We owe the accolades to our integrated work for Carondelet Health Network and direct mail campaign for Marketo. Congratulations to our clients. Let the back-patting commence…now.

We’re delighted to point out we were far from the only winners this year.

Airport traveler Jonah Falcon won some serious ego points when his record-large man-parts earned him a frisking at SFO. Yes, that’s what we said.

Stoners rejoiced (if you can call it that) when Washington and Colorado legalized recreational pot. We’re sure the CEO of Totino’s is equally elated.

Massachusetts, Maine, and Washington declared same-sex marriage legal. For more and more people, love’s future is open wide.

(photo credit: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

And to put icing on the victory cake, our beloved Giants took the World Series for the second time in three years. Sadly, one Muni bus severely lost. For shame! When will we learn that “celebrate good times” is not synonymous with “destroy public property”? We all have aspirations of achieving such things; but then again, character demands restraint. And that is likely the only time you will hear us utter the word “restraint” in 2013.

When entrepreneurs approach venture firms, they come bearing questions. Lots of questions. Questions like: “Do these people care about me?” “Do they have any expertise in my field?” “Are they going to be hard to work with?” …and so forth. This is natural. You’d feel the same way if you were showing off your pride-and-joy to a boardroom full of strangers.  So we’ve always found it strange that most VC firms tend to settle for saying “Look at us! Look at all the logos successful companies we’ve worked with!” as if that’s supposed to be some kind of substitute for telling people who they are and what they stand for. To us, both ends of the VC/entrepreneur relationship are driven by – surprise – ideas. The entrepreneur has an idea, and the VC firm has (or at least ought to have) more than one thought on how to bring that idea to life. So we’re clearly very pleased to see Battery Ventures’ new Mortar-built website place a premium on ideas – the good ones entrepreneurs have had, the innovative ones Battery has used to promote them and of course, the results.

It’s a smart conversation to have. (And a rather stylish-looking presentation, if we do say so ourselves.)

O, December! Why dost thou torment us so? What purports to be a month-long birthday party for Jesus always ends up feeling more like a torture round in Hell. The hair-pulling boxing matches at the mall that remind us we should have started our holiday shopping in June. The awkward company parties that bring out the best and the worst of our homespun dance moves. (Not that we know anything about that.)

Our client Manatt knows the pain we’re describing – maybe a little too well. Law firms have their own special holiday joys to tend to, from closing monolithic deals to filing an intimidating number of 10Q’s before the year’s end. Our holiday card for them aims to capture the perplexing mix of festivity and frenzy that defines December. Our client identified with it so much that they penned many of the song’s lyrics themselves.

Strap on your headphones, and don’t be afraid to sing along. The whole world is screaming humming along with you.