Happy Wisdom

North Brother Island - Typhoid Mary's Prison Part of happiness is discovery, and this week I discovered, through the kind folks of RadioLab and their podcast episode called " Patient Zero ".  It was about finding the first event of any sort, from disease to who was the first person who gave a high five.   What caught my attention was the story about Typhoid Mary.   Well, I've been using this term for basically my whole life with no idea of where it came from or if it was a real person. I imagined she was from the ancient times, or someone like O'Leary's Cow, but it turns out that she was from the turn of the 20th century  (1869 –1938)  and operated less than 40 miles from the town I grew up in, namely, Oyster Bay, NY, which was the location of the first case of Typhoid. A wealthy family ( somethings never change ) called in to report their very ill little girl. I won't repeat the whole story, but the long and short of it was that this brillia...

Part I.  Inspiration for the day-to-day fight  Budget and Bulge are best fought with daily disciple. For some things you simply need to have the ability to grind every day and make things happen.   You either count calories or count points or fat grams, but in one way or another, you're counting something.  Budget is the same - counting all those dollars that come in and leave, temporary visitors to your checking account. These things can be taxing. As part of the LifeSPARC process we talk about renewal. Using the small part of our brain that is called to fight for what is right vs. what is fun/yummy is a work in futility. Eventually we exhaust our fuel to do the right thing. So, here's a some resources on how to get inspired, or Renewed, the 'R' in SPARC. I love infographics even though they're fairly difficult to consume - hard to see on the screen and hard to print, but they're cool. Section II - Tech  We're all interested in what'...

I'm So Happy! A brilliant little gem here  from the excellent site Short  List  Authors on Happiness Basically all of these are funny and pithy, but here are my three favs. "The supreme happiness of life consists in the conviction that one is loved; loved for one's own sake -- let us say rather, loved in spite of one's self." - Victor Hugo “If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”  - ROALD DAHL “I should like to bury something precious in every place where I've been happy and then, when I'm old and ugly and miserable, I could come back and dig it up and remember.” - EVELYN WAUGH I'm particularly fond of the last one. Think about storing those happy places somewhere in your life. Maybe take a picture of that yummy dish. Or that yummy person.  Its not just going to the Super Bowl, but all the little steps towards it.  Store these things  in your heart, on line or in a n...

 ~~~~ HW - Section I -  Sports-  Why Do They Matter?  Why is Russell crying? Why indeed is he ?  Bigger question, why was I crying right along side of him?  Why was my wife running around the living room screaming along with my sons?  Why was all of Seattle riveted to the screen while this man and his team came back from impossible odds to win it the NFC Championship? Sports are of course a metaphor for life.  We will cheer for the team and the men that wear those uniforms almost regardless of who they are.  We hope that they're good people, and with folks like Russ we know that he's a good guy and we worry about him staying that way when the really BIG money comes his way.  Mostly we'll cheer our team, but weep for them?  Here are the three reasons we wept last Sunday like a baby:  1. We've all had days like that day To refresh your memory, Russ hadn't thrown many interceptions all year.  I...

_____________HW Episode 2 _________________________ HW Section I  - Entertainment Movies make me happy. I retain a sense of awe when I watch them, similar to Jason Silva, who called the movie theater his last place he could get such an experience, at least for now. The actors don't so look happy, but seeing this trailer makes me happy.  Its amazing that they can make the Hulk and the god Thor look vulnerable somehow. Escaping into a good movie - that's a HW technique for certain.  ~~~~~ HW Section II - Science   From the science desk, here's one that might make parents and teens a bit happier.   Teen's aren't as crazy as we might give them credit for  Neuromyth #1:   Humans only use 10 percent of their brains . Neuromyth #2:    Eating sugary snacks results in hyperactivity and reduced focus and attention.   Neuromyth #3:   Hemispheric dominance (whether you are “left-brained” or “right-brained”) det...

Greetings all, Last year I announced that I was going to fight the tide of negativity by posting postivie things. It should be fun and I hope to keep a weekly schedule.I love old things, which is why my recent trip to London was totally awesome, but for Americans this is old. They actually dug this newspaper from the 1700's up...and its totally readable. I wanted to read it!   I went to Boston and visited the graves there...wonderfully creepy tombs that were above ground. More ABC News Videos | ABC World News Recently I read about Dolmen, which are really old above ground graves... or at least people think that's what they were.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolmen "It remains unclear when, why, and by whom the earliest dolmens were made. The oldest known dolmens are in Western Europe, where they were set in place around 7000 years ago. Archaeologists still do not know who erected these dolmens, which makes it difficult to know why they did it. They are gener...

Just love the humor in here, so it fits in with happy. There's also wisdom here since those who sit behind a keyboard all day aren't always the luckiest people. Programming Sucks : 'via Blog this'