Hello, 
Hive account@aggroed! Season's greetings to you and all steemians.
Source
Thank you for prompting us to speak our minds as regards this great platform through these tasks, and especially in offering gratitude to the various people who have been of help to us in the journey here.
Comments on minnows
I do make random comment on minnows posts – both newbies and existing minnows alike. At times when I cannot comment, I simply upvote the posts and scroll down. I think the last comment I did on a newbie was on 
Hive account@sweetcha’s introductory post. Her username really caught me. Lol! Hive account@sweetcha appeared lively and full of hopes with a good sense of humour too. I couldn’t help feeling for her on learning she lost one of her sons a couple of months back.
I made a comment on the 
Hive account@airhawk-project health corner series with doctor 
Hive account@drepo15. I choose to share it because it really struck a chord in me as an African that once upon a time and even now with modern civilization, some of our people are living in ignorance, buying into myths as in the case of ogbanje and abiku children who are believed to be from the spirit world and come to torment their parents by living sick, whereas such cases are actually medical and can in some cases be tackled with proper medical attention.
Hive account@geetasnani is one of my new-found friends on steemit. I must confess she is a great researcher, a PHD student currently. Hive account@geetasnani is always handy with interesting and informative tips/facts that span across different countries and continents. You might want to check out her blog. I share here the comment I made on her post, ‘Some travel custom tips to be prepared for your next travel’ about two days ago. Geet is also very humorous and lively.
Comments on Whales
So far, I’ve been able to follow a few whales and dolphins in the steemit platform and dropped a few comments on some of their posts. They include the following:
Hive account@surpassinggoogle: He is probably the first whale or perhaps dolphin I followed on joining steemit. One of the admins in the telegram group, steemitdotcom, had posted a contest #untalented shortly after I joined the group. The contest was in its maiden episode captioned “Who am I?” organized by Hive account@surpassinggoogle, and aimed at reinforcing in steemians a sense of self-worth, self-esteem, and ultimately, the value of themselves as individuals. I visited his blog, followed him, and since then have stayed updated with the updates on his blog more for the encouraging messages he always has ready for steemians. These really boost our morale in some sense.
However, Hive account@surpassinggoogle has been down of resent owing to the loss of his mum. I pray God comforts him and his family and see them through the tough time.
About a fortnight ago, we were to have an interview with 
Hive account@cryptoctopus for the Hive account@airhawk-project. One of he admins - 
Hive account@dorth, dropped the link to his blog in our telegram group and I was able to look up, follow and learn some bit about Hive account@cryptoctopus. I discovered that some (if not most) of his posts are very inspiring. The one I’ve found most useful so far was made sometime last week captioned “The Powerful Magic of Words and how to harness it for steemit” It aims to make good bloggers out of steemians. Below is my comment on the post.
Hive account@acidyo is one of the whales I followed recently. I learnt he is one of the very early adopters of steemit. I think he is more into crypto stuff and also does game predictions on his blog. He had his birthday a couple of days ago and it was just civil to send him best wishes.
Joining PAL
I got the discord app sometime last month and was able to join a number of steemit-related channels. All thanks to Hive account@geetasnani who put me through the entire process. She also earlier this week sent me the link to PAL and I was able to join the channel as well.
Minnows Support Upvotes
It was a really good experience using the minnows upvote two days ago. I came across a post captioned “101 ways to get easy upvotes” by 
Hive account@xyzashu which I went through and resteemed. One of the options highlighted in the post was the minnows support upvote. I experimented with this two days days ago and I got some cents from minnowssupport, banjo, dorabot, and some other bots in other channels.
... On the PAL discord channel…
... Enjoying MSPW Radio
My Witnesses
The Witnesses I’ve voted so far are 
Hive account@curie, 
Hive account@blocktrades, 
Hive account@good-karma, 
Hive account@mahdiyari, 
Hive account@steemgigs, and lately, 
Hive account@austibank, 
Hive account@pharesim, & Hive account@aggroed for their varied contributions to the smooth running of the steemit platform, with particular regard to tech development, and the growth of minnows.
Gratitude
I’m grateful for the steemit platform and its founders( 
Hive account@ned and 
Hive account@dan) for not only conceiving the idea of a platform as this, but bringing it to reality. Steemit has been the bomb of the year to everyone who has been on it and I’m thankful to God for bringing it along my path.
I’m also grateful to my big boss at steemitdotcom telegram group, 
Hive account@dreamchsser, and his team. He is the brain behind the airhawk-project ( Hive account@airhawk-project ), a project dedicated to helping minnows by by informing, nurturing, coaching, curating, and updating them on developments on the steemit platform. My steemit journey would indeed be a very tough one without them.
I’m grateful to all whales and minnows whose great and tiny upvotes have kept me going in the platform and who have always been there to render one help or the other when in need. Special thanks to Hive account@curie, 
Hive account@hendrickdegrote, Hive account@pharesim, 
Hive account@hr1, 
Hive account@bue, 
Hive account@onequality, etc for their touches on my posts once in a while.
Hopes for 2018
I'm looking forward to a smooth ride come next year 2018. I hope to be able to accomplish at least half of the short term goals I’ve since outlined for myself and create more positive impact in the lives of those who come my way.
...To be discarded
I so wish to drop procrastination with this year and overcome “writer’s block” so I can be more efficient in blogging.
Thank you. Have a wonderful Christmas celebrations...!
