Happymaking

International Friends

2012-01-31T20:21:00.000-08:00

We have this saying in Romanian that family is a gift from God and that friends are a personal choice (always considered this a good motivation to stay cool about the inlaws :D) but in my case I think the friends I made and touched my life are God's blessings also.

It all started when I was 11 years old and got my first German Popcorn or Bravo magazine. That was pretty exotic to get in Romania so was very thrilled my Austrian aunt gave me something to help me practice my German (always preparing to move abroad:D ). However after reading it about 10x I decided to go through the pen pals section (no emails back then, no social networks) and even started exchanging letters to a girl in Ravenna, Italy (EMILIA was her name- just like mine) and a guy in Morocco (forgot his name cause he ended up proposing me after 3 letters and I was too outraged to even reply)- just for practicing my Italian and English skills. Anyway, this Emilia was sending me the most beautiful letters ever- colorful paper, ink, stickers, stuff we never had back home. Was fascinated with her details on Italy and I think I still have all her letters in a wooden box at mum's house. I can't remember when we stopped writing to each other, it lasted for about 3 years but at some point we changed addresses etc.

I have always had this dream about moving abroad and travelling, maybe because I never had many friends in my own country but mainly cause I am simply fascinated by cultural experiences and finding completely different people or soulmates in different corners of this world. And it is cool!!!
So after concerting around Europe with various choires and getting to know and have fun with people from other countries, I decided that what I want is more than travelling, and that 4 days are not much to discover a culture so I should move someday in life. Then it started happening...first for financial reasons I went to flip burgers and clean toilets during nights at McDonald's in Germany (in college). No regrets, except being apart from my Bog, it was a very educative experience and except learning about the crap that comes in the burgers some people still eat (God knows why!!!) i managed to make my first real international friend: Asya Duzen, from Turkey (vermisse dich sehr, liebe Asya!). Lots of foreigners working there but I guess like everywhere else some become your friends and some don't. Sadly we have never seen each other ever since, but with the help of Facebook we are back in touch :)

Then I went to study in Germany and the discovery happened. With 21 I learned that the Western side of the world is not that happy and friendly...only talking personal experience. Above being a Romanian, which never helps mentioning when in Europe, one can hardly meet people to accept you in their circle of friends and families. Especially in Germany. Or maybe we, Romanians, are in a rush to get people to join us for dinner, meet our families or hang out :) Anyway the magic never happened! So after about 3 years of studying in Germany and later on working there for IBM I don't think I can say I made too many local friends (except 2 who also came for my wedding :D).

But then came the surprise: the job I have been doing for over 2 and a half years now. And suddenly my life was full of REAL people from REAL corners of the world. I've always been connected to IBMers from other continents but now I was actually getting to meet them, visit them in their environment and make our friendships stronger. A pretty awesome feeling.

And this is how I got a dancing partner in Kenya, two mentees in Uganda, a couple of very nice people and friends in South Africa (hope to see you soon:) ), a wildlife friend in India and his blonde master traveler from Switzerland :), an Indian poet?, the machangs in Sri Lanka, my Bulgarian bridesmaid, Miss Slovakia (by that I mean you Adelka), a mummy in Brno, some geeky friends to visit in Singapore soon, a very otaku Japanese one, an Argentinean cook and another lovely dancer...and of course my second home away from home- the big Egyptian FAMILY! I know I forgot many (like UK, Australia, Hungary,US, Brazil- Maria Izabel do you want to be classified as rocker, virtual worlds mistress or also otaku :)? ), forgiveness!!!

So thankful and and happy about it. There is nothing like a cultural bonding, a good piece of advice you get from distant places, the discovery and the love coming from miles away (maybe the love sleeping 40cm away while writing this but that is another thing:D ). There are just so many kinds of people out there, with so many lessons to teach us and stories to tell, a life worth spending to explore that.

Plus nowadays technology helps us keep in touch, no more monthly calls or letters, we can grab to chat, Skype video, share pictures, organize some awesome vacations together, exchange delicious recipes and priceless books, discuss politics and learn their language, complain about the weather and get together in precious moments.

We'll miss a birthday or two, may have some challenges with the time zones or even discover the friends are not what we imagined them to be cause in the end we might have gotten the cultural differences all wrong (however don't use this as an excuse not to make friends from abroad- know some who do that, no fun) but in the end we'll feel happy with the ones we managed to keep in our lives.

I hope life will bring me to new places and give me the chance to make so many more friends, I wish I will see you all someday, get welcomed with a hug, share tears of sadness when saying goodbye at the airport but knowing we'll only be one Skype away for a big SMILE!

yours,
the Happymaker

Praying for a Happy Egypt

2011-12-19T15:41:00.000-08:00

Am not discussing politics in the following lines. Opinions here are my own.

I've been fortunate to get in and out of Egypt during two weeks of relative rest. While I was so happy to see friends and people I thought I will never meet again, I couldn't kill this feeling of sadness breaking through whenever I thought about Egypt. December 17th, things got ugly again, so after watching these people beaten to death (please don't watch if you can't handle it) I decided to write about it, and ask you to pray for Egypt, again!

I don't want to get into details related to the conflict in Masr (the Arabic word for Egypt), #Egypt is one of the most tweeted words in 2011 so am sure google will return some relatively fair results if you are curious to learn more about the political situation, Mubarak, the elections and more.

But I do want to talk about the people. After being told for so many days that I look like an Egyptian (:D SMILE) I'd like to tell you a bit about my dear Masreen! First of all they are some of the most peaceful people I have ever met, and patient and warm, my second family away from home....the concept of revolution and violence is all new to them. After decades of dictatorship and strong control over any act of violence (you wouldn't have wanted to be a martial arts instructor in Cairo- might have lead to a serious record) these people are now victims of terror. I know it's a hard word but what the military forces are doing it is pure terror.

End of November. After some days of unrest friends say it's safe for me to go there, so I go. I trust them with my life so I knew they will keep me safe...However except a crowded Cairo, the awesome food and a even more mad traffic I couldn't recognize much. People are afraid and hopeful at the same time. Obviously the violence from January left strong marks in their hearts. They lock their doors twice and live today like no tomorrow...but they keep praying for tomorrow...and it is pure beauty to see them so passionate and excited about the NEW Egypt.

For three days I learned and heard about their elections :) I even managed to go voting and WHAT an experience!!! Imagine old women (since women and men vote separately) blessing their country and coming out of the voting rooms full of hope. Brave 70 years women voting for the first time in their lives! Must have felt really great to know you finally have the chance to pick the party that could make a difference in Egypt. And one by one they colored their fingers in purple and hurried to tell their friends to come voting asap to avoid the endless cues. Yes cues, people stay in line for hours, ordering from pizza hut and getting drinks to make sure they don't miss the unique chance of voting!

For other three days I learned about hope. I was afraid to ask about January so I focused on the future. People want work, want chances, want to see their economy booming, want to erradicate poverty, want their kids to have access to education, want to share Egypt's great history with the world. The streets and cafes were no longer crowded with tourists...their absence is strongly affecting small businesses and the economy. Even large companies see how their clients shift to other countries...needless to explain how this will influence incomes, employment and business development. And why? Cause some still have the interest to show Egypt is not safe and cause unrest.

And despite Egyptians being so peaceful, they feel the threat or better said they don't want to miss the chance of change! And for various reasons they become more and more united in their resistance- students fight for their futures, poor people are ready to sacrifice their lives so that doctors and engineers keep saving their families and make a difference to their country. Many act like there is only NOW and NOTHING to loose. I admire that. It is not foolish it is BRAVE (I got Latin blood running through my veins- we fight:) ). In a country with about 100 Mio people and a relatively controlled freedom of speech I don't think there are better ways for Egyptians to protest for their rights. However I'd love to see them safe and I feel sorry for them having to go through this.

And I am sure they also know this is just the Beginning. Democracy and economic development take years or decades. There is a very long way to go, but Egypt is on the right track!

I'm very proud of my friends who stand tall, keep working hard and look after their kids while waiting for things to get back to normal. Since politics take time, we can try "speeding up" this by praying for them and for the beautiful Egypt I have been fortunate to discover three years ago- it is about Pharaos, the Nile, culture, history, desert, exotic landscapes and more, so don't hesitate to get yourself there:

Last but not least, TAHEA MASR! Thinking of you and ISA we'll see each other soon:)

How was your 2011?

2011-11-30T01:04:00.000-08:00

Almost there :-) Time to be thankful and think about what we did this year, plan to do but failed...or succeeded...people who touched our hearts, places we've seen, new things we just discovered or old wishes coming true.

My 2011 was pretty colorful :D ....and very very very happymaking!!! Actually I've been having this feeling for the past 6-7 years, that every year it was so much better than the previous one, although I thought things could not get any better than that :-) Pretty cool, huh?

So why was my 2011 happier than the years before?

I got married...ta daaaaaaa! It can only happen once and it could have only been to my precious Master, so this time, honestly, I have no idea how 2012 can get beat that :-) Although statistically, I think it will! and got to have so many friends and colleagues coming to my wedding even from far away, which was more than awesome! Plus did I mention I am still getting wedding gifts?
got to go back to my lassana Sri Lanka...which is kind of a dream coming true cause I never expected to happen that soon. But now am pretty convinced it will happen again ;)
had my family around for one more year, which with dad's condition it is always the thing I cherish most...and this year hasn't been that easy, must admit. But with God's help we will have him back for Christmas and to kick 2012!!!
bro got back on track, opened this new restaurant and am very proud of him :D. Plus I got the chance to go wild and set up another Facebook page! ha ha ha
we subscribed to a gym in our area and I started my interval training powered by my new and pretty pink Gymboss timer. No 6pack so far but feeling GREAT- and since husband is so nice he makes sure I get lots of complements coming :) !!! So a bit of thank you to Zuzana from bodyrock.tv for her cool but killer workouts!
did some nice Romanian road trips with mum and dad and got to see some unique places of my country...which is kind of cool cause I think I know other countries better and mine...but not complaining :D
back to Africa...3x :D I just love everything about Africa (except the political and poverty issues which we kind of need to contribute more ourselves), so please shoot me :) And this time I went to new places like Kenya and Uganda where I met such nice and lovely people. Need to get back someday...maybe 2012? :-)
I was part of and did some cool things work wise also- as in @ IBM :) but won't go into that as I am not sure how I should describe them. Anyway, my job still rocks, I love the people I work with and all excited about 2012.....and am not kidding, really love them, even made one of them my bridesmaid :DDDD
made new friends- please don't ask me to mention you all :) , lots of, maybe best thing about 2011 is how close I got to some and how blessed I am to have them in my life for the years to come
got 3 wisdom teeth removed....one more left for 2012...:(
hair got longer, for a kid traumatized by not having long hair like the other girls this is a big achievement :D
learned to cook some new things, something that highly excites me so has to come here!
also ate some pretty awesome food...and lots of my favorite fruit PAPAYA :D...yes that is an achievement as I had to go to Sri Lanka for that...so not that easy
sorry for disappointing you, but things like new car, new house or new whatever don't belong here....yet...but I got a nice Gymboss in case you didn't get that yet? awesome to train with!...and since I am a girl after all some pairs of new shoes :D
learned to play this piano piece- which is a big achievement since I kept playing the sheets I studied in school. but just loving Yiruma too much and couldn't stay away :) You can check it here...slightly improved in between.
no painting this year but 2011 not over yet. So I think I will have a session soon ;-)
have been pretty safe and healthy all around '11, pretty happy and felt lots of lots of LOVE and hopefully made the ones around me feel special also.
also think I've changed a bit, personal transformations continue to surprise me but am embracing them and trying to make the best out of them. Exciting to see myself growing/ changing/ evolving while still trying to keep what I think people love most about me! Hope will manage that!
last but not least getting to travel to Egypt this week...so lots of happymaking to come :-) with very nice& happy friends, with my very happy Toffy and lots of happy happy food!

Plus the happy season is just about to begin- lots of work for the Happymaker ;-) Already starting to feel like Santa's little helper! So much HAPPYMAKING left for 2011!!!!
How was your year? Hope at least as good as mine!

How to happymaking in Sri Lanka

2011-10-18T09:15:00.000-07:00

First of all please allow me to express my disappointment- "happymaking" is a pretty bad word in Sri Lanka and not very sathutui=happy :-) And the irony is that it doesn't seem to be such a pervert society at all- if I may say that- don't get mad people! However still an incredible place for some real happymaking!!! There is nothing that can't be found here- unless you are after a white Christmas- Sri Lanka definitely has them all. And after my last visit there I kind of picked my top happymaking activities- see the list...feel free to experience some if you ever get there :-)

sunsets at BUBA bar in Mount Lavinia- to start with :-)
mad rides in threewheelers or tuk tuks- a perfect alternative to any boring taxi!
sunrises on the east coast- Trinco or Arugam Bay are great places for that :-)
papaya and pineapple juices
look for dragonflies- there are 117 species in Sri Lanka of which 52 are found nowhere else. pretty cool I must say!
go for an evening safari- watch elephants bathing, try to spot a leopard in yala- I failed on the last one but guide said it chances are 90% if you take 5 safari rounds...only had 2 :-)
leave the main roads and go for the red ones- the red soils of Sri Lanka will give a very extraterrestrial look to all your pics
look high- there are magic birds everywhere! and I mean everywhere. Colourful peacocks, pigeons, doves, green bee- eaters, indian rollers, kingfishers, can be seen almost everywhere, meaning even in your hotel's backyard! Enjoy the view!
take a late night dip in the ocean- the Indian ocean is never cold :-)
go snorkelling in Trinco- if you're a fan of exotic fishes and corals a boat trip to Pigeon Island may be a good alternative to spending a day in the sun :-)
experience food- from desserts to rottis, tuna steaks, crabs and other sea food goodies and if you got the guts for some super hot curries.
climb the Sigirya fortress!
go baila- as the name says it, "dance"- feel lucky if you'll find yourself in the middle of a baila dancing crowd. Still on my list :-)
learn about tea- visit the tea plantations and factories, have some real Sri Lankan black tea- BOPF quality :-) See how Sir Lipton built his empire and think about it next time you'll have some ice tea :-)
look for trees- must admit I couldn't recognize ONE single tree in Sri Lanka. But glad I got to learn how a rubber, papaya, mango, aralyia and teak trees look like. Still fascinated with the vegetation. And won't even mention flowers!!!
enjoy the sea spray- after all you are on an island!
go surfing in Arugam- must admit they have a pretty happy surfers community. Watch out for magic drinks and local surfers:-)
feeling hot? Check what the "time capsule" has to offer and discover Little Britain! A short visit to Nuwara Eliya or Haputale will make you regret you didn't bring a sweater. And you get to see people wearing slippers and beanies in the same combination. Outrageous! Plus you get to see so much of the British influence in terms of architecture, tea and hobbies. And check for strawberries farms- all your dreams can come true :-)
discover the gem shops in Unawatuna or go for a gem mining experience in Ratnapura- perfect place to see and learn about gems...and of course shop. From precious blue or padparadcha sapphires to Sri Lankan moonstones, everything is there. Won't even get started on this #happymaking topic :-) !!!
learn about Buddhism and Hinduism- there are so many temples everywhere (and also some famous one like the one in Kandy) that you can't say you missed them. Lively colours, vibrant incense smells and chants- from simple religious manifestations to pure esoterism.
go hiking- World's End, Horton Plains or my dream for a next visit- Adam's Peak- breathtaking landscapes and lovely tracks.
learn some words in Singhalese- although I still think it is a pretty acoustically "brutal" language I must admit there are some very melodic words I got to like. maybe a bit like the country itself :-)
learn to play carom- the local version of billiards...they say :-)...more like backgammons to me :-)
watch a cricket game- if you have the time and the interest, Sri Lankans are pretty proud with their players and fond of this sport.
visit a school- I just love the Sri Lankan white school uniforms. Such a peaceful outfit for a country marked by years of war. Always brings a smile to my face.
shop for fabrics- batiks- you don't have to love saris to find something that pleases even the most picky fashionista :-) Incredible colours and fabrics can be found almost everywhere (after all Sri Lanka has one of the top apparel industries). Something to take home and turn into a cocktail dress or a cute table clothing!!
experience cinnamon- after all it is the cinnamon country (90% of the world's production comes from here)! from spicy main dishes to yummy ice cream I don't think there is any cinnamon based dish you can't find here.
go whales and dolphins watching- still on my to do list! same with the rainforest experience! so much to do here that I didn't have time :(
get a Sri Lankan book- there are some incredible English writing authours! So far my top favorite is Nihal De Silva. Check "The Road from the Elephant Pass", "The Giniraella Conspiracy" or "The far spent day". Good lecture for your flight back and something to make you coming back :-)

Last but not least find a MACHANG :-) Think one can't leave this pretty country without getting some best friends to come back to! And how am I glad that I have found mine!

Happiness Vampires: The Sagas

2011-08-22T01:43:00.000-07:00

Prologue: I know you may expect this from a Romanian but this is not another Moonlight story :-)

Once upon a time I told you about being a good Happymaker and not trying to work your happymaking magic with people who have no intention to be happy or don't believe they can even be... Well let's say such people split into two cathegories:

unhappy and harmless
unhappy and true Happiness Vampires

Now as a self proclaimed Happymaker and coming from a country that makes all my small talks focus around one single question wherever I travel (although I must admit, since the INNA mania people are no longer asking me about castles and vampires) I thought I should say something about the Happiness Vampires and how to fight them!

1. How do you identify them? Easy one- can be a friend, a colleague or if you are unlucky enough someone in the family (that's the worse since u can run but not hide forever) who is constantly miserable, declared pessimist, negativism's BFF, complains about EVERYTHING or insists on one particular topic, but main point is that HE/SHE NEVER DOES ANYTHING ABOUT IT! .....easy so far.

2. Why is this bad? I know you may want to help them...or are a good listener...and have a huge heart, but there are some limits :-) First I'm telling you, these people enjoy being miserable or are too lazy to do anything about it. And am 100% sure they will find something else to require your full attention even if you help them sort out their current issue. So it's bad because you spend lots of ENERGY, you invest too much TIME in this, it may also get expensive and last but not least you may start feeling bad about not being able to do anything about it and doubt your skills in helping out.

3. Opportunity costs- I'm an Economist after all :) so think that everytime you invest too much of any of the above (Energy, Time, Money and Feelings), SOMEONE ELSE, who may badly need them, won't get them.

4.What to do?- of course you may not have the strength to walk away nor the heart to phisically hurt someone to teach some discipline...but there are ways:

Change the topic, space out, take off- if you can :-)
Find another victim aka some fresh blood- eg "I can't help you but X would be more than happy to give you a hand"
And last one- the serious one- HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE- ask them what are they doing about it, show them not doing anything about it is wrong...let them talk but to some extent...check again what they are planning to do about it. And be persistent about it! Ask them every time what they do about it...at some point if they don't plan to do anything about it they will stop complaining or best case they will actually DO something about it.

Epilogue: Got more suggestions? Add them below and let's join forces :-) Garlic and Silver for everyone!

yours,
the Happymaker

Sunsets & Sunrises

2011-07-29T04:14:00.001-07:00

There is something about sunsets and sunrises that makes me so happy and extatic that I don't even think I have enough words to describe it. First of all I see them so seldom, I miss them, I dream about seeing one, I imagine the lights, the wind, lots of anticipation :-) Then the colors: vibrant orange, flashy pink, shades of blue, purple and red melting in the clouds and sinking in the sea or hiding behind a mountain (however I prefer the sea). I could swear the sea is stealing the sun from me, ray by ray...but it's ok, eventually I'm getting it back the next day, more shiny and luckily bigger :-) And how all the shapes turn black, dark trees, dark birds, dark silhouettes as if they don't even matter anymore- out of focus. Am sure time stays still when the sun goes up and down, too bad I can't prove it and you may not believe me...but who cares, I will still get my piece of eternity :-)
Know everyone loves sunsets and sunrises, but remember to smile when you see one, don't think one can get a happier view for free :-) #happymaking

I ♥ U

2011-06-26T22:54:00.000-07:00

About LOVE. Again. But slightly different :-)

Think about love, something are born from, grow up with and yet see it as such a scarce resource. My case: guess about until the end of high school I found it a bit uncool to tell my family how much I LOVE them. Then, nature wise you do fall in LOVE, with the wrong guy, think it's a super unique feeling,imagine all kind of scenarious on confessing to him, if to say it, if it is what it feels like, then he breaks your heart, you swear never to do it again, 3 months later you fall for it again. A word that can literally change everything and yet something we say much to seldom. A feeling we are so scared to put it in words.

Must have taken me years to realize it's just an word and kind of just the beach before putting my feet in the wet sea. And it's something any person, no matter of religion, can confirm it: we are being loved by our God, everything around us was made out of love, we are being taught to love not only the ones we'd like to but also our enemies, the less fortunate one, the people who hurt us or those we think we don't know well enough to feel anything for them.

So if love is in everything and everywhere, then why us not being part of sharing it? Snobism? Selfishness? Misconceptions? Laziness? Do we really think it's something we should only keep for certain people in our lives? Or are afraid people won't understand us and think we are exagerating with such a natural feeling? Do we really care about it?

Have been so happy since I've realized this. FYI was one of the reasons for the #happymaking affair. It's ok to love, and ok for me to tell my friends that I love them and miss them, for me to be nice not only to people I know well or are nice to me. And in case you wonder, it's also ok for my close family, they don't think I love them less because I cherish and share more love :D

Anticipating happy moments.
And much love to give and take.
Can only wish you the same,

yours,
the Happymaker

The.Happymaking.Wedding. VIDEO

2011-06-13T22:26:00.000-07:00

And so we got married :-) Here is a short video in case you have missed our happymaking wedding day!

XOXOXO,
the Happymaker

SMILE : )

2011-05-12T04:53:00.000-07:00

Loving this short but super awesome video. Please watch it :-) Forget chocolate, go for a simple smile and you'll live happily& healthy ever after. Find out why! ;-)

My grannie

2011-05-09T02:48:00.000-07:00

When was the last time you did something for your grandparents? Or paid a surprise visit to you uncle? Or invited them for lunch? We are so busy with ourselves that IF we got kids we look after them and best case after our parents. Although sadly enough, many of us do forget to look after their parents even when they're getting old and need us the most. But let's assume we do that. How about grandparents? So very often we assume that we look after our parents and our parents should look after theirs, but let's admit it...when they all get a bit old, it is us that needs to look after them. I feel lame when I think of that- eg I never call gradma...or maybe once a month (luckily she is visiting us pretty often)- but I always assume that mum calls her and one way or the other don't do it myself.

Don't like myself for that. Get dragged in all kind of activities, talk to all sort of people and yet, sometimes I forget to check on my grannie.

Last week I got legally married and managed to have some happymaking with my grannie- we did our hair, driven mum mad :D and most important I got to wear a Romanian outfit she made for me while she was younger and her vision better.Her dream of us wearing Romanian outfits came true. Was happy and she was even happier as everyone was inquiring about the outfits and was congratulating her for the masterpieces :-) Plus now she saw all her grandchildren getting married!!! Big achievement I'd say :-)She likes me to print her pics, to tell her about all the places I went, to make her an exotic cocktail or bake bread with the cooking machine and save her the time. She loves me playing the piano, singing with her, bringing her flowers and just talking to her. She loves remembering grandpa. I'll try spending more time with her, while I still have her around :-)

Keep your eyes on your grannies and your arms around them! Cherish and enjoy them while you can!

Love, yours
The Happymaker

African Happymaking Dress - aka- Fashionable Mentoring

2011-04-05T07:36:00.000-07:00

First time I went to Kenya and opened the African Woman magazine I discovered the awesome and colorful dresses Sylvia Owori is designing. Unfortunately that was during my flight back :-( I love having clothes from different geographies so I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't get anything African for my multicultural wardrobe. When I've been told I will go to Uganda I researched and found out she has 2 shops in Kampala ;-) Got to one of them during a lunch break but couldn't find anything interesting:-( Disappointment #2
However today I got lucky and had a very fashionable IBM day :D First I discovered that one of my Ugandan mentees- Adella- has a fashion magazine and second while having a drink with my other mentee Nordreen (I know, Ugandan mentees are the BEST!) we got into the other Sylvia's shop and tadaaaaa: my dress was there, Sylvia was there (check pic), what else can I wish for :-)

Never thought shopping can get so happymaking! Felt so happy to let her know her dress will fly in a couple of hours to Romania and that I may wear it for my engagement party!

And here I am with my super fashion magazine editor and mentee Adella Ahebwa:-) Keep your eyes on the PHASION BUK- someday this lady will be a STAR!

So: BYE BYE UGANDA- will miss Kampala, the orphanage, the IBMers, the Nile, my daily matoke, my mentees, Sylvia Owori's shop, my swimming pool and my chota dost Kamal :-)!

Ugandan Happymaking Wisdom

2011-03-26T13:46:00.001-07:00

At the top of the stairs there's HAPPINESS

2011-03-04T08:29:00.000-08:00

ALOHA my special friends! While on a work trip in Kampala, Uganda (you can see pics here) and spending way too much time with my ipod, I realized that The Formations got it all wrong> actually I can't believe the happymaker has such a song on her ipod :-) What's wrong with these guys and seeing the darkness at the top of the stairs?

Are we always anticipating that after great happiness a complete misery will follow? Or that we don't have the right to be happy for too long? I know being happy and sad alternate during our entire life but...from here to saying NO to any chance of being happy just because afterwards one may be sad is .....kind of...sad?

What about love, laugh, run, dance, dress as nobody sees you and nobody cares? What about the hours people spend planning their careers, lives, dinners out or vacations- are people also including some 30 mins being sad in the forecast? If so then, that's a lot of wasted energy :-)

I won't go back to why being happy, thankful and optimistic in this life, but just want to make some remarks when it comes to "stairs":

at the top of the stairs are OTHER stairs. So save your thoughts for when you reach the top, if ever :-)
enjoy the climbing> running, jumping or however you decide to do it, enjoy it! You may never come across these stairs again.
color your stairs in red, yellow, blue or green. Make sure you use all colors you can think of :-)
if you get tired, stop and sit. You don't have to rush to the top, the climbing makes all the money. Don't be afraid to take a break!
if there are many stairs ahead take a friend. Climbing in two is more fun, plus is good if you have someone to catch you in case you may stumble and fall :-)
don't measure: it's ok to climb one or more steps at a time. Surprise yourself!
stairways may be straight, round, ladders or elevators > don't allow people to tell you which one you should pick!
leave marks and don't be afraid to go one step back. It's ok to look down and it is very nice when you can go back to finish something you once started.

Wish you dream of floating stairs, I know I might now :-) Can't wait to make some more steps on my #happymaking stairs tomorrow!

PS:I found these nice rainbow stairs at a nursery next to the Airtel/IBM office in Kampala Kololo. Wish you could see the faces of the kids :)

Countdown to Happiness

2011-02-02T20:39:00.000-08:00

Tonight is the night my parents have always been waiting for, just that they don't know it yet :-) And do not dare to tell them! Can't wait to see their happy faces and tell them that WE're getting MARRIED. Left them almost last because since we only decided on Sunday, I wanted to make sure we will have a full happymaking weekend to celebrate this :-) To Bog's friends (don't feel less special, the Master hasn't let anyone know yet- he is still waiting for me to change my mind :D...so act surprised).

Now I am posting this for 3 simple reasons:

am happy about it and can't sleep since the decision :-). Can't wait for God to give us His blessings and marry my favorite boy in my favorite church!
writing it down for all our friends who CAN'T believe it- trust me you won't have to ask again!
there is a #happymaking lesson for you:

8years ago he proposed me, 8years ago I said yes without blinking and ever since he's been my #happymaker. Of course a wedding was in plan at some point but there has never been a rush. So slowly we got there, plus I got a full month without travels to plan it.

The happymaking lesson is for my other friends who are out there waiting to make the same decision: DON'T overthink. People have been getting married since forever. If you feel it is the time don't wait for him to rent an aeroplane and to propose you again or don't wait for her to leave hints that she wants to get married. Just go for it. And if you still need inspiration, listen to Mr Bruno Mars, the boy is right :-)

PS: Wedding will be this SUMMER. Facebook invitations, funny prints and all the fun will follow. I'll share the magic date. Would be honoured to have you with us :-)

LOVE YOU
#the happymaker

About Gems, Fairy tales and Dreams

2011-01-21T01:29:00.000-08:00

Last night I had an awesome dream: I was a fairy and we were having flying lessons. It was pretty easy, just spreading our hands and rapidly taking altitude, then controlling our balance while going up and down towards a valley. We were supposed to get some water and come back to the fairies' garden :-) I remember us wearing some lovely white&silver dresses, people not being able to see us...and some evil creatures (dressed like lady GAGA) trying to get us- but luckily they couldn't fly :D.

Anyway since I do think that staying a child is more important than trying to become an adult, and since I can't help you having my relaxing&lovely dreams :-), I decided to share with you a story I have written in December '10. It was a St. Nicholas' gift and it is about a girl with a sapphire heart! I called it The Legend of the Padparadcha Sapphire and it's all inspired from and about Sri Lanka... of course:). The pink-orange Padparadcha sapphire really exists and comes from there and luckily is not expensive as the blue one...so may get one someday :)

Hope you'll like it, think of your fairy tale and have happy dreams!

PS: or least you have learned about a new gem and can surprise your wife/girlfried/daughter :-)

Happy Animals- Jambo Kenya!

2011-01-13T03:07:00.000-08:00

Mahatma Gandhi used to say “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”. Now not sure this refers to all animals (wild or not) but it kind of makes you wonder if stuffing an animal with chemicals to get more meat, still qualifies some very well developed countries as "moral". But luckily there are places in this world where I think animals are pretty happy!

While in Kenya (you can check some photos here) I had the chance to visit the Lake Nakuru Park and see flamingos, giraffes, cape buffaloes, Deffassa waterbucks, Thomson's and grant’s gazelles, impalas, 2 lions, warthogs, olive baboons, reedbucks, white and black rhynos and not sure if also dik diks.

I must admit that as a child I used to spend all my vacations at my grandma, feeding cows or trying to catch rabbits in the forest. Not sure about my cow but for me it was a happy feeling. Now when I think about going in a safari (which btw is a term originating in Swahili- the language spoken also in Kenya and it means "long journey")...I think it is kind of wrong, cause I am sure it is no fun for an animal to hear all the jeeps rushing from a viewpoint to another and be afraid of crossing their paths. The only positive thing is that we kind of learn to respect them and pay a high entrance fee which I hope it goes to feeding& protecting them.

Just a thought and some images...not sure how to measure animals' happiness or how to even define it, but at least treat them in a decent way without always hoping to see "a kill" during a safari and trying to instigate that.

... and a happy new year!

2010-12-21T13:25:00.000-08:00

Since today it was so crazy&busy and I am not even sure I put an out-of-office, I am using this space on my blog to thank you all for such an awesome year! By hitting RANDOMIZE, the Happymaker is thankful for:

as usual first one goes to being healthy, sane, having my family around and being surrounded by so much love and so many dear people :-) These are the things that keep the happymaking going and spreading I would say :D
an awesome volunteering experience in Sri Lanka, with a great IBM team- Pedro, Hua Ni Niiiii, Brigitte, Tina, Petra, Meltem, Jenny, Anindya and Daniel and having the chance to make such lovely "machangs" like Anu and Romma! Too many things to mention here but definetely thankful for all the nice people I got to meet and things that have happened during this wonderful October.
my travels (wanna know how many countries have been this year? :D) and the special people I met....hang on gotta split this one
so, thankful for my new friends in South Africa- Dario, Tosca, Thys, Chantal, Danielle and Darryl for my first Safari!
to my comms ladies in Europe for joining our team building in Rome, Italy> BB, Adelka and Brigitte, miss you girls and hope you're having a peaceful Christmas!
to Dennis, Anita, Danica and Emmanuel for showing me around Budapest and helping me find my sweet dumplings :-)
for Heba, Sherif and their cute Toffy for welcoming me in their house and making me fall in love with Cairo, Sharm and Egypt! Shokran my dear friends! And waiting for you here;-)
Amir and Mona, for being so young, passionate and brilliant. Truly inspiring!
for my first Christmas gift from Bogdana- think these nuts will last until spring time :-)
for my Liz, Elena and Maris for giving me the chance to have this great job and work on so many cool projects
for finally communicating better with my brother and discovering the best ice cream shop in Rome :D

that I finally managed to teach mum how to swim, hope she will not forget
happy that I got to see my dearest friends- the orphans in Valea Plopului in Bucharest.
glad that somehow I connected to WorldVision Romania, my favorite NGO in the world :-)
proud that my friend in Germany, Cristina delivered a healthy boy :-)
thankful for being surrounded by IBM Social Media Ambassadors who have always inspired me @elsua, @andypiper, @karlroche and much more!
all the people who share my excitement and volunteer to be featured in my videos. It's always so cool to see that happening!
thankful that I managed to finish another painting, story and had time to play with my creative hobbies :D
impressed by the underwater world and my first snorkeling experience in Egypt
happy I got to have hot wine at a German Christmas Market again
my first American experience and finally getting to know the one and only @jackmason- my hero- in real flesh&blood (btw your avatars are cool also, but they can't sing Spanish). Also thanks to Jessica we kind of had a cool tour of US delivery centers.
delighted that I discovered the BRESAOLA :D Buona!!!!
having my one Saree:) and my own Unawatuna dress!
glad that grandma managed to settle a new personal record on litters of plums alcohol brewed :-)
Bubi's new job in the UK
riding Charlie around the pyramids
camping with dad
having the happiest Christmas tree :-)
discovering the hibiscus tea
discovering the Egyptian, Sri Lankan and South African literature...nice nice
no errors around cooking experiences ... trust me, this is an important one!!!
and of course having Bog around me for one more year :-) Still see the hears falling from the sky and can't wait for us to celebrate our 100 months anniversary in January (Yes, I am brilliant with math!) Love u, love u, love u!

Still thinking of many things to mention here but space is limited :) So thank you for all the love, the kindness, the time you spent with me, the lessons you tought, the places you took me to. Thanks for all the happymaking and I hope someday I'll be able to do the same for others. Have a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!

The country of happymaking

2010-10-31T03:43:00.000-07:00

Back from Sri Lanka, still under the Island effect and already missing everything about it and everyone. Is freezing cold back home and I can't remember where I put my hats :-) Finally having access to super speed internet so could upload my video.

About the things I miss already, btw that reminds me of a conversation Romesh and I had last week:

my papaya juice ( had to be #1)
my IBM Corporate Service Corps team, especially my roomie Brigitte who is still enjoying her vacation there (have some pineapple for me B!). And Ciota, and Hua Ni, and all :-)
my new machangs Romesh and Anurudda, so nice to find great friends when you least expect it. Love you guys!
the morning swim
the sun & the hot evenings
the strong waves
my first sunsets @Galle Face hotel and BU BA beach
Unawatuna beach
hanging out in Cololmbo's nice cafes, restaurants and why not clubs> although there is still place for improvement when it comes to clubbing :-)
fresh pineapple
me in the saree (never thought I will miss that :D)
the exotic plants and orchids
the wildlife
Sigirya and all about that weekend
the colorful buddhist and hindu shrines
the smiles on Sri Lankans' faces
road trips to Kandy and Lunugamwehera
riding the tuk tuk
Cinnamon ice cream (had to be something with Cinnamon)
Wednesday table quiz at Barefoot
my team at WorldVision
Karaoke> honestly, Sri Lankans can really sing. Very impressed!

This could go on forever :-) Anyway, Sri Lanka will be missed and I am sure I will go back there. At least for some selfish happymaking! Someday, somehow.

Happy Saree

2010-10-27T20:29:00.000-07:00

Finally Anthi got a real saree :-) You may remember my beautiful outfit created by Maria Izabel (@indvstrial) for our Second Life virtual events. Bought it in Kandy, Sri Lanka, some weekends ago and finally got to wear it & have a happymaking photo session. Yey!

Real vs Virtual below :D

If you like Happy Banana go to Unawatuna

2010-10-18T04:43:00.000-07:00

Back from Unawatuna, a beautiful, exotic and not very populated beach in Sri Lanka. And now officially a #happymaking location! Enjoyed is so much that I had to recommend it on the blog :-) And of course lots of first times again:

first bath in the ocean,
first yoga class (pretty good & very hot work out),
first papaya milkshake (imagine I didn't have that one yet :-)),
first gems shopping spree (and I promise it will be the last one :-) ),
first Bond picture on the beach
first time washing my hair on the beach (that's for our Jenny who even documented the event with pics) and some more.

It was a very nice weekend with my team, got to know each other better, learn about our cultures and experience the local one. Pretty cool and exciting. But most of it relaaaaaaxing!

Some more happymaking related remarks, since everything in Sri Lanka reflects happiness:

the cheese is happy, having HAPPY COW almost every morning now
in Unawatuna we spent the day on the HAPPY BANANA beach, ate at the Happy Banana restaurant
even found a name meaning "the one who smiles" = Hashani, which is for a girl :-)

In the footprints of Adam: fighting poverty

2010-10-04T10:57:00.000-07:00

First post from Sri Lanka. The happymaker made it safe and sound :-) So:
AYUBOWAN! (=wishing you a long life as the people here greet us)

Bet you didn't know that one of the country’s points of interest is Adam’s Peak, a mountain with a large indentation in the shape of a human footprint and is a place of pilgrimage for various religions. Buddhist tradition claims the footprint to be a remnant of Buddha. Others that Adam and Eve fled to Adam’s Peak after their expulsion from the Garden of Eden, and that Adam left the footprint when he stood on one foot for 1,000 years as penance for his sin. Either way many things happen in this magical place and most of them happen with the help of magical people.

During my assignment here I got the chance to meet such magical people and starting tomorrow I'll be working with them, for a month. I'll get to see how World Vision supports over 1400 villages , 372600 families in about 20 Sri Lankan divisions. I'll get to learn about fund raising, about fighting bureaucracy, helping women who plan to start a business in their own villages, offer medical assistance to those in need, recovering from natural disasters, supporting the education of kids and teenagers who deserve such a better life after years of war.And more....

It is a unique experience to see and hear about so many ways of doing good in just a couple of days. And must admit I had no idea our client is doing so many things already, with such great results, at a such large scale and so well planned. I think in the end it's gonna be me who will be the one who's gonna benefit the most of this. Hope only that I'll manage to absorb as much as I can and help smaller NGOs in the future with ideas& tips around such projects.

Just to give you an example of some of their work here...hopefully we'll get to visit some of the locations and provide you with self made videos :-) Actually I can't wait for that to happen.

And as usual my friends, if you want to help, here is another opportunity for you. Verified& recommended, another place where our help is needed. Will post more updates soon!

Thank You=ISTUTI (in sinhalese)

Spinning is fun

2010-09-28T04:59:00.000-07:00

We used to do it as kids, hold hands and spin around until we got real dizzy :-) The modern version: Kylie Minogue.

While in Rome, I decided to try it as a new video feature/effect and loved it. See output below, would just love to have it combined with some teleporting effect: spin here/ stop there.

So take a spin, may bring back nice memories, and it's #happymaking!

PS: feature in the video: my fiance/BFF and the comms girls from IBM- Bogdana, Adela and Birgit :-)

bYe, bYe, nY

2010-09-25T08:35:00.000-07:00

Back from NY after a 24h trip. Yey! Actually from Dubuque, Iowa as exit airport since we didn't get to go back to NY after I finished my US Socila Media Happymaking for the Norh-American IBM delivery centers. Anyway, a few thoughts and pictures from the US:

delighted to meet my manager& my VP for the first time plus all the communications team. Connecting virtually is great but nothing beats real world :-) Also got the chance to meet plenty of new people and see how people perceive Romania
that's #2 we're still no more than a country somewhere in Europe, with vampires (got asked when I went through security at the airport if I brought any vampires- NOT FUNNY), orphans and gypsies. However there was this lovely campaign @ SEPHORA and saw lots of women signing in and ready to reshape their brows by this famous lady : Anastasia Soare. Yeap, she's Romanian :-)
food comes BIG...actually everything is BIG: buildings and cars make no exception :-) Back to food: GLAD to be back home ;-)
security is not as drastic as it is in Egypt. Expected more of that but was reliefed to see I only got a ticket from TSA in my luggage saying that it has been randomly picked for inspection but all clear :-) However think that during this trip I got more questions related to my job from airport employees than I ever did from people outside my working area.
was in a hybrid car for the first time! All thanks to Jack! also saw plenty of taxis and buses in NY, many of them hybrid- which made me say: HEY, THAT'S GREAT! All going GREEN! But then the shock: air conditioning was ON everywhere, in hotel rooms, meeting rooms, unoccupied restaurants. No idea why they waste so much energy even if it's not hot outside/inside :-( So still lots of simple things to change around the green aspect and get SMARTER!
Diversity at its home- which I loved most- people from all over the world visting or working in the Big City :-)
Lots of Spanish channels, Spanish translations and Spanish food- which is dreamy for a Latin person :-)
Got to see so many places& situations shown in American movies. Which was pretty cool. However no famous actor or star...Even if I did my best (you know I don't run) and went for a run in Central Park on Sunday morning. Nobody!
Had the chance to travel to Colorado, Boulder and Iowa, Dubuque which are pretty small cities. Still wondering when can one see a Jackalope ;)

More thoughts but not too much space to write them. So make sure you at least pay a visit to NY. Still lots of the USA to be explored but plenty of time for that!

Many thanks to Liz, Craig, Jessica, Elyssa, Jen, Jack, Elena, Joan, Christine and Micha for a nice trip!

Bye, Bye NY!

Pensieri d'amore e tradimento

2010-09-18T17:54:00.000-07:00

Good evening New York! Couldn't help myself from posting an entry from NY :-) especially as it will be one in Carrie Bradshaw style: about LOVE! Went to Rome last week (check some pics here) for a short vacation aka team building with the communications ladies aka celebration of our 8th anniversary. However this entry is not about the trip as I am still working on the video, but about some events that really touched me.

While happily inlove in such a romantic city I discovered a new feeling. Wish I would have never experienced it but it's too late for that: finding out that someone is being cheated! The second you find out it is either shocking or a confirmation of what you were already suspecting. In my case the second one. The next minute you ask yourself if you should do something about it...especially since I always try to fix things :-) The next half an hour you oscilate between preaching about how wrong it is to cheat on someone, letting the cheated one know about this or not doing anything about it because in the end it was really not your business. But as a witness, I must admit I really felt that I needed to do something. A couple of hours later I decided to postpone the decision since I WAS ON VACATION...but still, every now and then something reminded me of the unfortunate discovery.

I won't ask for your advice and I won't tell you what I decided but I am really wondering: WHAT DO PEOPLE EXPECT? Putting aside the fact that cheating is wrong, why can't some people keep this only for themselves? Why making your friends part of it? Not nice at all. Dimension #2: knowing you're the other one- not sure why people agree with that and date someone even if they know he/she is not single. That's not only sick but also truly, madly, deeply SAD! Is that it? There is no chance for one girl to meet a man who's single? Or viceversa? Honestly, thinking that you've found the love of your life in someone else's man or wife is an illusion. And statistically, the most cases go through the same experience later on, this time as couple.

Will not share more thoughts on this as I may give too many clues. Just one request: if you can't be faithful, have mercy: don't let your friends know- especially if you don't plan to change or listen to their advice! Keep it for yourself!

PS: found this lock on the Lovers' Hill in Rome. Once boy&girl decide to be together they buy a lock, come to the hill, write their name on it and throw the key away. This means nothing will be able to break their love...maybe my friend should have done the same :-) However, seems I got a secret fan who thinks writing my name on a lock will bring me back to Rome...ha ha, we'll see!

yours,
the Happymaker

Happymaking for the world

2010-09-02T12:53:00.001-07:00

I had second thoughts about writing this entry today as I am still planning 2 happymaking trips to Rome and NY and I already have some ideas around how those posts would look like and be about :-) So stau tuned! BUT I got so excited about several events that I just had to post this now and not in 3 weeks when it was planned.

It's somehow work related and somehow happymaking related :-) Two years ago I applied for what I call the coolest idea a company can have. And is probably one of the most brilliant ideas IBM, my employer, ever had: a program where candidates from all over the world are being selected to work in international teams, somewhere outside their geography, for one month, for an NGO, small company or even a governmental agency. Something similar to the Peace Corps but specifically tailored to leadership development needs, cultural awareness, shaping Global Citizens and helping small communities grow. It's called the Corporate Service Corps! So for one month you still get paid to do something extraordinary, in an incredible place, with unique people. Not many companies invest in such programs and luckily about 500 IBMers have the chance to experience this every year and come back with a rich cultural experience and ready to use their newly gained skills to every day problems.

So last year I applied for this but didn't make it. This year I said, "let's try again", I still have the same dreams, I still want to save the world, I am still a Happymaker! So here I stand now, less than 20 days before going to Colombo, Sri Lanka, ready to embark in my first trip to Asia!

3 more paragraphs and I'm done for today :-)

1. So excited to meet get there- call it faith but few years ago I was reading a nice book where Ceylon was mentioned. Network was down so I got crazy finding Ceylon on the map. It was an old book so once internet was running again I discovered that the country is called today SRI LANKA. So here we met for the first time :-) "Faith" aspect number 2- I LOVE CINNAMON- so imagine that Ceylon comes from cinnamon :-) and the spice originates from this magical island at the foot of India. "Faith" aspect #3 we were having a chat with our friends and argueing what "serendipity" means...imagine is also related to Ceylon and I am looking forward to making my own discoveries there just like the princes of Serendip!

2.Together with a colleague from Portugal I have been assigned to work for World Vision Org in Colombo.I will post more about their wonderful work and how our support should help raise more awareness and trust in their presence in Sri Lanka. But if you want to know more about them you can follow them via twitter @worldvisionusa. Seems that the project will fit me like a glove! So excited about participating in anything it has to do with charity :-) And hey, even Hugh Jackman/ Wolverine did :-)

3. In less than 4 weeks I'll meet my new colleagues, the wonderful team and people from World Vision. We will get to work for a good cause but also meet local people, learn the Sinhala language hopefully and eat new things and learn new recipes ;-).

Taking my camera and laptop with me so stay tuned for some cool videos ;-)

Yours,
the happymaker

Said-making in Egypt

2010-08-09T00:03:00.000-07:00

Ahlan dear friends :-)

Back from Cairo and Sharm-el-Sheikh with lots of happymaking ideas, experiences , pictures and tips! Egypt is a perfect place of that:

First surprise: do you remember Jabulani? Of course there are people who have the HAPPY name in Egypt also. Introducing: Sa‘īd (سعيد) is a male Arabic name meaning "happy". The name can also be transliterated as Said or Saeed. Didn't meet any Said or Saeed but hope you'll meet lots of them :-)

Food is awesome. Loved the lamb dishes, the super fresh sea food and much much more. Since I am fasting now I will refrain myself from thinking of it :-) First times: tried crabs, sugar cane juice- delicious, mango ice cream, mastica ice creams (an ice cream containing plenty of arabic gum, yummy), fried pigeon, discovered the various mango types (the smaller the more tasty), ate fresh dates (not the dried ones), fresh guava, tameya...and more.

I got to meet my dear camel Charlie Brown again :-). But this time I allowed Mr to ride him. So I ended up with Mickey Mouse...good boy also! Lovely tour around the Pyramids!

Had so much fun with Sherif, Heba and little Tofi! Lovely friends and we spent lots of time in their arabeya shababeya (modern car), tried on their galabeya (arabic outfit) but didn't eat the molocheya :-) Shokran Shokran Shokran!

Red Sea is P-A-R-A-D-I-S-E! The beauty on Sharm is totally inside the salty waters of the Red Sea! So don't go there if you only want to spend time outside the water. The treasure are really under the sea :-) Incredible fishes, corals and much more. A beautiful world and things I had never imagined I will ever get to see. And despite the fact that I was the lamest snorkeler in our team I still loved it and am very thankful for what I managed to see- next time I'll be better equipped. Perfect happymaking place for divers I bet!

Video souvenir for you:

I feel like I could really write a book now :-) Amaized by Egypt and happy that I got to spend 10 days with my best Egyptian friends, have fun with them, learn more about their culture, see places I didn't get to see during my first trip there and of course learn some Arabic. Mr. and I will continue learning.

Tahya Masr :-) (Viva Egypt)

Friends & Facebook

2010-07-05T02:39:00.000-07:00

Next month I am turning 27. Or not (never good at figuring this out- born in 83 so you do the math). Not that this post is related to my bday but now you'll have enough time to ship your presents even if you're overseas :-) For security reasons address won't be posted here.

Now the July post is about FRIENDSHIP and FACEBOOK. And because we have talked about it in many times, what intrigued me this time is that some people think that having 300 friends in Facebook makes you look shallow. But I would love to ask them: are FB friends their real friends?

First we use Facebook for business. A lot. So we connect with colleagues, people who apply for jobs with our employers, people who work in the same social project, who belong to the same Cook4Fun community and more. You got the picture: FB is to CONNECT people, not only to keep in touch with friends.
Second: I am a Christian. I am a friend for all the people. Unless they don't want me to :-) So whoever wants to talk to me, needs help or advice, I am there, no matter if "Friend" or not, Facebook or elsewhere.

I think that someday the "FRIENDS" in Facebook will be called "Connections". Exactly for the reason above. So what are you going to say then? :-) Suddenly being "connected" to 300 people won't make you look shallow anymore.
I also consider that you can't manage more than 500-600 connections in Facebook- I delete and add new ones on a regular basis. Except if you're a star and have a fan page :-) - that would be understandable. But if not, it doesn't really make sense
Ironically the people I think of as my closest friends (not many anyway) are not in Facebook or not online at all. So going on FB to keep in touch with friends won't be the most brilliant idea one can have :-) We do it for other reasons also: eg curiosity, wanting to stay updated, etc.
Just being on FB and having an account won't make any of my real friends any comment worthy. Is all about sharing: news from your life, going out tips, interesting things, etc. If all you want to achieve with using FB is to permanently get access to my email account you don't even have to join FB- it's all in the public profile :-)

Not sure I structured this post ok but however main points were that FB is not for connecting friends only and that it really makes connecting friends easier&great, if done properly. I mean really, I just love to see when friends from Amsterdam or Sweden are going hiking or see someone's kid growing under my daily status updates :-)

Making B-cities happy

2010-06-04T00:46:00.000-07:00

Over the past 3 weeks I had the chance to leave my B city- Bucharest and head it to other 3 B-cities in Europe: Budapest, Bratislava and Brno. Three different countries, languages, cultures, food but with similar rainy weather and sometimes (notice I didn't say ALL the time) nasty food :-) (eg meat with sweet whipped cream).
Was a real happymaking time. You cannot image how many people I met, talked to, worked with and of course had fun with :-) Think I got a couple of new good friends now and I am already looking forward to meeting them again!

Some #happymaking tips for the tourist in you:

Hungarian dumplings with sour cream and strawberry jam,
delicious Slovakian dumplings with vanilla sauce and poppy,
the Blue Church in Bratislava,
and view from the castle and a walk along the Danube in Budapest,
the Pegas restaurant and pivo-beer in Brno (don't drink beer but everyone seemed to love it)
Hungarian wooden souvenirs for your kitchen...beautifully painted

Many thanks to Anita, Danica, Dennis, Adela, Maris, Rick, Jessica, Birgit, Emmanuel for some lovely days and fun nights. Hope to see you again!

And an advice: make the best out of your trips- work related or not. The people we meet are touching our lives in unknown ways. Make sure you try to make them happymaking experiences :-)

La prova del cuoco

2010-05-07T00:48:00.000-07:00

How should I translate happymaking in Italian? Cause that's what this post is about:cooking, Italy and fashion :-) Mum just returned from Rome, Italy and brought me the most happymaking gifts she could- u can see she knows me well :-)
So I got the most beautiful mix of pasta in the world (colored with tomato, spinach- green ones, beetroot, paprika, curcuma and sepia -dark ones) and two lovely aprons to enjoy my cooking even more.

I decided to wear the Italian flag-like one as I am such a cheesy/formaggi person :-) and whoever will cook with me will get the dark blue one (which is a manly color anyway). Will try them tomorrow with dad as we are doing Malaga ice cream (yes I am a traitor but we love Spain also :-))

That was it so far. You can read more on what makes women happy- cooking in a previous post :D

CIAO, CIAO, Bacini
The Happymaker

happy birthdayS :)

2010-05-02T00:07:00.000-07:00

Because I am the Happymaking Fairy and because he's the most precious one in my life plus because he'll only be around for 3 more days I decided to use my super powers and celebrate his 27th anniversary fairy tale -like:

for 3 days and 3 nights
with a dreamy birthday cake (see pic below-made with fresh strawberries cream, zabaione a la Silvia- meaning with rum, soft meringue, almonds and some drops of blue curacao to make it look more exotic- yummy yummy )
with lots of flowers (yeah boys should get flowers also!)
with a bit of anime as he is such a fan (made us Toradora matching t-shirts - me Taiga :-))
lots of love and happiness
and a Jazz concerts which will happen tomorrow (so don't tell him yet :-) )- Darius Brubeck will be playing in Bucharest and believe it or not he's a friend of someone in IBM US and so we'll meet :-)
a relaxing picnic/lunch with his family
wrote him a short story :-) - I like writing them/ he likes reading them :)
and some more activities which will follow...shhh still surprises :-)

3 days may sound strange to you but I feel we are doing this all the time anyway and we do celebrate each day like it is a unique anniversary. And it actually is: we celebrate the time we spend together, the fact that we have each other, the love, they joy, the happiness (can't stop smiling right now :-)) and the excitement of having a long life ahead of us - full of lovely events, surprises, new places to see and new experiences to encounter... all together.

My happymaking advice: don't wait for his or her bday to come- celebrate it now :-) and every single day! Good things must happen more than once a year ;-)

Love, xoxo
The Happymaker

Hallo

2010-04-06T00:01:00.000-07:00

I say "Hallo" and never "hello" :-) Did you notice? And no it's not because I can't write hello, although a few tried to correct this, but because I always say it in GERMAN :-) Yes, Germans say hello also. Of course I also do that cause it's pretty funny to see if someone notices it and answers back in German. When I am pretty sure nobody is aware of German I just say "hi", but otherwise testing ground with HALLO.

Now in order to prove that German is not as difficult as you may think and a pretty Happy Language (trust me Japanes HURTS more^..^) here is a short video I made while in Frankfurt. You can see the words are pretty ok and at after watching this you should be able to say more than Guten Tag, Wurst and Bier!

I'll go back to Frankfurt this month so if you want me to cover any special areas let me know. Maybe football? Could try getting some locals teaching you some nice football songs :-)

#Happymaker's post 105

Easter, Flowers, Spring and Art

2010-03-20T13:59:00.001-07:00

Finally sunny and warm and spring :-) No need to write too much about this as these 3 combined should give you enough reasons for happymaking. Just wanting to encourage you to enjoy spring, step outside and bring the new season in your homes. Give flowers to the dear ones, take your mums for long walks, start planning the Easter holidays and think about how this spring will make everything different!

Share joy, spread love, laugh, create, live and dream. Everything is possible in spring, and the Happymaker knows it best ;-)

You'll probably won't hear from me until after Easter so remember to celebrate more than the colored eggs and the family coming together. Think and prepare yourself for this lovely holly day!

Wishing you all a happy spring and dedicating my new painting to happymaking :-) Yeap, after all creativity is pretty high during sunny days, statistically :-) take care

Goodbye Africa

2010-02-28T23:00:00.000-08:00

my small tribute to South Africa, my new friends @IBM, the city of Johannesburg and the warm weather I enjoyed in the last weeks :-) And of course to Jabulani!

Jabulani

2010-02-24T04:51:00.000-08:00

I call it faith you may call it happymaking obsession but believe it or not I found some great signs of happymaking while in South Africa. Won't talk about the food (cause the closest I got from the African cuisine was a springbok sausage ^..^),the lovely weather, the green Joburg or the inspiring people I met, but about how wherever I go happymaking is my sole travel companion. And if you'll read further you'll also see that the chances of me finding out about this were pretty low...

So every morning I went for a swim and hurried downstairs just to stay longer in the sun (my driver has also contributed to this as he was late most of the time). Everyday the same nice person entertained me for about 20 mins, told me about Africa, asked me if I am doing fine and introduced me to Afrikaans (in case you were wondering how I knew about Sawubona ^..^). Was a pleasure to meet him and ...kind of... I was always looking forward to it.
As this blog post also happens thanks to him, here is the pic of me and Thamsanqa @Hilton in Sandton- a lovely guy and dedicated father.

And now you are probably wondering what Thamsanqa thaught me about happymaking :-) With my natural curiosity I was asking him about popular names in Africa (like we have Maria, Ana...). Learned some cool African names but also some very nice ones like Beauty or Innocent (actually the receptionist's name was Beauty). And I learned that the most popular name is JABULANI, which guess what, is related to happymaking :-)
Jabulani is a common name for both boys and girls (like most African names) and means "happy" for boys and "happiness" for girls. Thamsanqa told me it's a very positive, creative and lovely name and that also we could write pages and pages and pages about it. Unfortunately I can't show you the passion he was pronouncing Jabulani with and how excited was about it.

And also the ball for the World Football Cup in ZA this year is called Jabulani (and the mascot Zakumi= little lion). So pretty cool ;-) Actually Thamsanqa thinks anything can happen during the games and that any newcomer can win with the help of Jabulani, the playful and incredible ball.

Hope it was #happymaking like, for me it was for sure, still smiling now. If you're name your kid Jabulani let me know, would send Thamsanqa an email (yes I got his email ^..^) and tell him about it.

Thanks Thamsanqa and keep making visitors like me @home in Johannesburg!

the Happymaker

How Vacations Affect Your Happiness

2010-02-22T07:42:00.000-08:00

A nice post in the NYTimes :-) And funny done in...the Netherlands :-)) reg the previous A'dam post!

The study, published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life, showed that the largest boost in happiness comes from the simple act of planning a vacation. In the study, the effect of vacation anticipation boosted happiness for eight weeks.

After the vacation, happiness quickly dropped back to baseline levels for most people. How much stress or relaxation a traveler experienced on the trip appeared to influence post-vacation happiness. There was no post-trip happiness benefit for travelers who said the vacation was “neutral” or stressful.”

Surprisingly, even those travelers who described the trip as “relaxing” showed no additional jump in happiness after the trip. “They were no happier than people who had not been on holiday,” said the lead author, Jeroen Nawijn, tourism research lecturer at Breda University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands.

The only vacationers who experienced an increase in happiness after the trip were those who reported feeling “very relaxed” on their vacation. Among those people, the vacation happiness effect lasted for just two weeks after the trip before returning to baseline levels.

And of course main reason for not being happy after the vacation: going back to work :-)

PS: that doesn't mean that resigning from your job before leaving for vacation will make you happier when you'll come back :-)

the Happymaker

Winter in Amsterdam

2010-02-09T23:55:00.000-08:00

Although I'm preparing for my trip to South Africa and dream about the 30 degrees Celsius that I'll enjoy there :-) , found some time to take you on a boat tour around Amsterdam, a vibrant and young city I really enjoyed and hoping to see it again.

Loved the streets, the water, the food, the bus drivers (especially those who sing), the tulips ( bought like 100 and will plant soon :-0), the buildings and the souvenirs. Must say they have an impressive palette of souvenirs :-) So now I even recommend it as #happymaking place! Enjoy!

That's NOT Happymaking

2010-01-29T08:23:00.000-08:00

So Coca-Cola decided to use happymaking strategies in order to get you by launching the Open Happiness Platform! Watch out: it doesn't keep you slim, it's no sugar but full of crap (sorry for the language) and CO2 hurts your heart...That's the mischievous platform:
Stay healthy and happy my friends!

The Happymaker goes to Amsterdam

2010-01-26T01:08:00.000-08:00

today I finished planning my business trip to Amsterdam so I decided to check if I can make any happymaking out of it :-) So googling for "Happy Amsterdam" I discovered this cool project: I am Happy Project. org.

This should run in A'dam in February, you can find the location, details here.

But back to the project, they say it makes one person happy, at a time. From this video (with no embedding options :-)) you should understand how you could join. Anyway any happymaking idea is a good one so I suppose thy are ok also.

Back to Amsterdam, as I'll have about an afternoon to visit the city I am surely planning to:
1. Buy cheese
2. Buy diet chocolate for dad
3. Check some souvenirs
4. Drink a hot chocolate
5. Take a long walk around the city

Yes no museums as there is no time for them :-) And hope to learn some cool stuff about IBM so that I can make other happy afterward :-)

Will post some pics and don't ask me to bring you "funny" smoking material :-) Cause I won't!

How Adults Achieve Happiness

2010-01-11T03:13:00.000-08:00

An interesting article on how adults understand happiness @work and @home (via businessweek.)

Comments?

Happymaking in Cairo

2009-12-13T02:37:00.000-08:00

Last week I was in Egypt, Cairo for a few days to work on comms activities for two very young global delivery centers. Won't talk about work about this was by far the nicest IBM community I have ever seen:-) but show you a small video with places I've seen, friends I made and of course food I ate. Absolutely fantastic! So in case you haven't been to Africa's largest city yet I surely advise you to do it. Once you start getting along with the awful traffic you'll discover a nice mix of religions, people, spices, music, myths and fragrances.

Will surely remember Cairo and its nice people and will do come back in 2010...especially as the Lara Croft in me still has to explore some more pyramids at Aswan or check the city of Alexandria and the beach in Sharm el Sheik....and of course get more mango (manga) juice.

Shokran (thanks) to my dear host Heba Aly:-)

About career, success and happiness

2009-12-05T02:31:00.000-08:00

A very nice video I found on ted.com. Take a look and learn how not judging people, not believing in a meritocratic society and feeling that we are the masters of our faith and our success can make us feel happier. Also a good overview on how this evolved during centuries.

Getting nuts in Bulgaria

2009-11-25T12:11:00.000-08:00

Literally. Back from my short business trip in Sofia. And I got the perfect happymaking post for the squirrels (check here if you forgot what a squirrel person is). Everywhere you go you can find these nice kiosks where they sell all kind of nuts and dried fruits. And not only all kind but also "all kind of kinds" :-) - meaning the sweet or salty versions of all kinds :-)
So you can only imagine what I ate for 3 days :-) Absolutely delicious and ...brilliant! Instead of selling chips and popcorn we should really sell these on the streets! Nutritious&delicious snacks :-)

Happymaking for 200 kids

2009-11-08T06:13:00.000-08:00

Three years ago I went to Valea Plopului and met the 200 lonely kids. I said to myself that others should hear about them also so I made this web page: www.valeaplopului.com. You can find there all the details. Ever since I visited them and tried to help them out :-) I think about 2 months ago I made them a Facebook fan page and then connecting to volunteers became pretty easy. This Saturday we went there with 10 cars, bought food, supplies and spent some time with the kids. Although it was not easy organizing this and collecting things or money I still feel we didn't achieve too much: they still need houses, appliances, furniture and of course people around them.

However here is a small video I made for them. Unfortunately priest Tanase was not around so you won't see him in this video. Hope this way, more and more people will learn about them and give a hand. If you want to donate or be a volunteer you can find all the contact details on the web page or ask me. See you around :-)

Happymaking & Unemployment

2009-10-30T00:06:00.000-07:00

Another post dedicated to the crisis :-) Won't start by saying how wrong we calculate unemployment today (not including experts in lower performing jobs who are always ready to switch or people who although employed look for another job) or by arguing IF there is a crisis (you can check Peter Schiff for this). But will dedicate some thoughts to the unemployed people, to those who got fired these months or those who graduated and can't find any jobs.

We all know the bad things for being unemployed: no money, no professional activity to add to your CV, etc. But let's try finding some good points also:

you get SOME money
more time to spend with the family, help kids around with homework a.o.
more time to do some sport, run, gym, dance (activities you didn't have the time for- assuming they are free)
a chance to think about what you want to do- maybe you were trapped in a boring job anyway so this would be a good time to think about what kind of job would suit you better. I know it may sound strange but some people won't ever quit a job unless they are getting fired. So think about what you want from life now!
more time to build the skills you would need for the job you picked above :-) Eg. you decided you would like to switch from consultancy to programming> then start learning and programming, this way you can show your future employer you have some background. Same if you want to switch from HR to Marketing...just take some time and read some book so that you at least know what the 4Ps are :-)
time to learn a new foreign language. It never hurts, really :-)
more time for your existing hobbies or new ones: painting, music, watching movies, etc. Would name traveling also but this can be expensive :-) unless you have been fired from a manager position and have some savings.
enjoy the time off- there are never enough days off and some of us never take vacation because of demanding jobs so consider this a longer vacation :-)
help others: remember there are people doing worse, so if you got the time anyway give them a hand.
eat regularly in case you weren't doing this while @work

And last but not least DON'T be a shame! Being unemployed is something that could happen to ANYONE right now! And don't worry that someone will ask you WHY: even if people get fired because or low performance or something, the crisis is the perfect excuse for anyone and I guess employers somehow will get bored asking for reasons.

Be happy and keep looking for a job ;-)

Skip Beat

2009-10-12T02:52:00.000-07:00

Who would have ever thought that anime would be an inspiration for my happymaking blog? :-)
Of course not all types of anime but happy ones, with teenagers, funny conversations and not horror, SF, etc. And not all anime. But only ONE. One series of anime has the deep purpose of making people LOVE, share love, understand love (that's even deeper than my happymaking :-( )

The series is called SKIP BEAT and tells the story of Kyoko Mogami (the Japanses Happymaker), a wistful yet cheery sixteen year-old girl who loves her childhood friend, Shotaro, but is cruelly betrayed and thus seeks revenge against him. Her plan is to join the LME talent academy and become more famous than Sho. But the president of LME sees the good and deep side of her and challenges Kyoko to join the LOVE Section (wearing a pink uniform) having as sole purpose to make people love and to share love. The series covers many situations and images of selfish people, lonely people, sad or angry people who are tactfully being thought to love, be friendly and driven by other reasons than the desire of being rich&famous.
And of course it also shares the love story of Kyoko and Ren Tsuruga (kawaii ^..^) which I find very very romantic. So in case you are looking for direct actions on how to make people happy & also having the cultural Japanese touch then go ahead and watch Skip Beat! You can watch the full episodes on crunchyroll (for free). Enjoy

PS: My all time favorite anime series remains NANA :-)

Happy Lazas

2009-09-28T12:20:00.001-07:00

It's a short post but a long video :-) Wishing a happy marriage, a long lasting love and a true friendship to my dear friends Andrei&Cristina Laza. Thank you for a beautiful wedding at the seaside and for inviting us to be part of it! That was real happymaking :-)

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Autumn Happiness

2009-09-03T23:11:00.000-07:00

Hello dear readers,

and so we landed in September. I am somehow sad that summer is making its way out, but also happy about what it's coming. For those of you who are still suffering from loosing the beach weekends and can't imagine themselves under the Christmas tree yet, I will gladly present THE AUTUMN :-)
As this is my first autumn at home I am definitely planning to make the most out of it ;-) So here are my tips:

take long walks in the parks
spend my weekends at grandma's house and run through the forest, jump in leaves and collect whatever fruits I'll still find (guess there are some blueberries left)
work in the garden: autumn is my favorite time for doing that as it's CROP TIME:-) So just prepare some huge baskets and fill them in with all the goodies you'll find: tomatoes, plums, cucumbers, sweet pears, carrots and so on.
won't forget to prepare some marmalade, tomato juice and other things I like to eat this winter. As I like cooking these are perfect activities :-)
collect leaves, seeds and pumpkins and make some nice decorations for my house or for my friends
also saving some seeds to bake bread ;-)
buy some cacao and tea and start having "hot chocolate evenings" :-)
bring out all my comfortable and soft sweaters and stash my t-shirts
oversleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep during rainy weekends
and last but not least take lots of photos with the beautifully colored landscape that fall is always offering. You'll see them soon on my FB page ;-)

That was it, happy autumn folks!

The Happymaker is back!

2009-08-24T00:58:00.000-07:00

Howdy, my dear happymakees! In case you were wondering if I somehow vanished on my way back from Germany, then you must know that I was pretty busy finding a place to live in Bucharest, working on my new role, catching up with my family and focusing my happymaking on them as we are facing some rough moments now.

But despite all these I do feel extremely energetic and excited so will tell you more about a dream coming true :-) When I was very young, like 8 or so I was dreaming about becoming an ambassador (maybe I already mentioned that?) anyway this came true once I became a BLUEIQ Ambassador and supporter of social media at IBM :-). Now the dream is reaching a new edge and I will be working for IBM's Global Services business unit in making employees from the European and African delivery centers more and more happy.
YES, a MASS HAPPYMAKING with people from more than 10 countries and all coming from different cultures. Totally exciting and full of opportunities. So in the last couple of weeks I felt my head exploding from many many many ideas on activities and events my team could run with the employees, stories and great facts to be taught about IBM, careers&culture, showing them the fun world of Second Life and bringing them closer to social software. You can even notice the perfect match of my favorite "hobbies":
new job=people+IBM+communications+happymaking :-)

Looking forward to working with many of you IBMers out there and hope that my new journey will motivate many friends from outside and inspire them to never give up on their dreams, work hard on them and be convinced that productive and good ideas which will improve people's lives are worth fighting for ;-)

greetings from the green happymaker!

Happy Bye Germany!

2009-07-21T03:40:00.000-07:00

As I'll be leaving my second home country next week I decided to write a few sentences on that :-) Especially as I loved being again in Germany and loved meeting new people both from IBM and from outside. So what I will miss most:

the location of my lovely house in Hanover, in the old city (= Altstadt, music everywhere, old buildings, tourists, restaurants...gorgeous)
the house itself with the British fridge (especially as I never had such a big house before and probably won't have one in the next 10 years)
speaking and hearing German (maybe that's the most painful of all as I really love this language :-(....well)
the fruits...some of them are more expensive at home and some not available at all (eg litchi, sharons, etc)
the spelt (=Dinkel) cookies and cakes (as I don't eat normal flour). But now I've been practicing and will be able to bake them at home ;-)
the Asian shops and all the ingredients which are so easy to find here
great Sushi
the great IT fair> CeBIT
cheap clothes (however not the shoes, they are cheaper in RO)
the great infrastructure both for subway and train
Hanover as a the greenest city in Germany with lots of parks and a great forest. Also the museums, bars and all the cultural activities
the geographical closeness to other nice cities and being able to be somewhere else over weekend
some friends I made here, people I got to know at the Romanian church here
the food at the IBM cafeteria (no cafeteria in Romania :( so will start bringing in my lunch again)
the sport facilities: affordable swimming pools everywhere and so on
Glühwein, German Christmas Market
Irish pub (I know it's not German but still great and located 50m away from my house)
the Salsa evenings especially last year
the North Sea, sea lions and white dunes
the zoo, one of the most beautiful in Germany
the BlueIQ team meeting in Berlin, by far the coolest IBM event while in Germany :-)
Eierspältze ...some gnocchi made with eggs and flour:-) and drinking Apfelschörle
buying books...they are very affordable here :-)
the open air events, music, carnivals and fireworks...great organization and lovely ideas...hope to see that in the next 10 years in Romania
the customer service...way better than in Romania
and last but not least people minding their own business. you see that less from where I come from but well...there are other things to love about my country :-)

I am sure I forgot many things. Will try remembering them and do them once more before I leave although the time is starting to fly by faster and faster.

Anyway not getting melancholic now, great things and family waiting for me at home :-) Will start with a nice birthday weekend, followed by a relaxing vacation in the country side, helping grandma out with her garden and hiking through my childhood's woods, attending a wedding, visiting my dear mountains and checking in for my new and exciting job...loaded with full #happymaking ammo :-)

So Happy Bye Germany! Schön hier zu sein!

Happy Fairies

2009-07-17T01:07:00.000-07:00

Last night I was at a lovely carnival called "Kleines Fest im grossen Garten" (translation-small party in big garden). Although I don't usually write about events I am participating at here, this one was an incredible happymaking time. Imagine fairies running around, giants smiling at you, elephants driving around and talking, acrobats,jugglers, dancers, music, exotic food in Arabian tents, mimes, comedy, flying angels and of course lovely fireworks accompanied by a divine music. Definitely a night to remember in Hannover's loveliest location: the Herrenhauser Gardens.

So in case you are from Hannover (Germany) don't hesitate to go this week or the next one. Perfect happymaking provided by 110 artists from 17 countries. Just to give you a clue here are some photos ;-)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

And the Happiest Nation in the world is...

2009-07-07T10:17:00.000-07:00

COSTA RICA :-) - via CNN
According to an independent research group in Britain which ranks nations using the "Happy Planet Index," Costa Rica has the most happy people. In addition to happiness, the index by the New Economics Foundation considers the ecological footprint and life expectancy of countries.

"Costa Ricans report the highest life satisfaction in the world and have the second-highest average life expectancy of the new world (second to Canada)," the organization said in a statement. They "also have an ecological footprint that means that the country only narrowly fails to achieve the goal of ... consuming its fair share of the Earth's natural resources."

This year's survey, which looked at 143 countries, featured Latin American nations in nine of the Top 10 spots.The runner-up was the Dominican Republic, followed by Jamaica, Guatemala and Vietnam.

Most developed nations lagged in the study.While Britain ranked 74th, the United States snagged the 114th spot, because of its hefty consumption and massive ecological footprint.

The United States was greener and happier 20 years ago than it is today, the report said.Other populous nations, such as China and India, had a lower index brought on by their vigorous pursuit of growth-based models, the survey suggested.

"As the world faces the triple crunch of deep financial crisis, accelerating climate change and the looming peak in oil production, we desperately need a new compass to guide us," said Nic Marks, founder of the foundation's center for well-being. Marks urged nations to make a collective global change before "our high-consuming lifestyles plunge us into the chaos of irreversible climate change."

Happy Blogger

2009-07-03T02:02:00.000-07:00

What does a Happy Blogger need? Of course to be happy and second a happy blog template :-) Assuming you all are happy we can proceed to the second part and talk about the happiest blog templates you can get.

First let me share 2 links (via my friend Marius Grunca- @marius101) with some nice templates containing the MANDATORY SMILEY :) :

Then you would need to use some user-friendly colors, fonts and stick to not too long posts to make your blog look pretty. Add your favorite links and some pics and ready.

Please don't forget to turn off any audio files you posted there: I close any page that starts to sing or yell before it loads completely, and we wouldn't want people to leave the happy blog before checking it out :-)

Have a nice weekend ;-) #happymaking
@silviaemilia

Happy Emoticons

2009-06-24T06:08:00.001-07:00

loved this video, maybe also cause I chat so much lately (or better said since I am in Germany). Very simple, sweet and perfect for happymaking

XXX, yours Q<=

Nighty Night

2009-06-20T03:07:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to all the sleepless friends and colleagues :-) Let's start with WHY: I am a very well scheduled person and I always go to bed around 10-11pm in order to get my 8h sleep. It's not a because I am a boring person -as some do think- but because the best time to sleep is between 11pm-1am. After this you'll only rest more or less. Also a good sleep is the key to ever lasting health and beauty (got you :-0). The other reason for me to do that is that when doing diffrent my body highly suffers. Now I don't refer to a party once in a while but to an experiment I lived some years ago. It was my first job in Germany and I was supposed to work at McDonald's for 3 months, night shift (7pm-4am), no vacation (guess that's what foreign students get :-0). Unnecessarly to mention that sleeping from 10am-3pm didn't help as there was so much light and noise and my body couldn't accomodate. Also feeding myself during night time led to 10kg more. Some grey hair also showed up and from that time I decided to never do that again. Of course after coming back home my body recovered and I was happy again:-)

Now that was just an example of why I cherish sleep and even try to take a nap during weekends :-) But what if you want to sleep and can't? Research suggests our sleep patterns are determined by our genes; about 10% of us are morning larks (like ME :-)) and 10% night owls, with the rest of us somewhere in between. You have as much chance of changing this as you would changing your eye color.

We wake naturally many times during the night, as each sleep cycle of about two hours ends. Plus, our body clocks aren’t programmed to make us feel sleepy and alert only twice in each sleep cycle. Animals — and human babies — often naturally sleep and wake many times in a day; and in hot countries, it’s normal to sleep for five hours at night and three in the afternoon as a siesta.At night, the body normally shifts from deep sleep to the rapid eye movement (REM) phase of light pre-waking sleep from 3am onwards. REM sleep prompts the body to wake up, so it is normal to have up to 60% of REM sleep in the second half of the night.

Once we’re in the pre-waking phase, signals in the environment can also easily disturb sleep — a boyfriend snoring (not mine :-)), the cat jumping on the bed, needing the loo, early summer dawn breaking or being too hot (for instance, during menstruation, a woman’s body temperature rises and she is more likely to wake).

Assuming we now understood some phisical causes of waking up during the night and not being able to fall a sleep, I would like to present you now some tips on sleeping better :

Worries and concerns with life, finances, work, family or relationships all wrestle for attention in the brain and prevent the physiological and chemical changes necessary for sleep to occur. Try switching off!
Most people seek and are sedated by entertainment and then are forced to deal with the issues in their lives once the only voice that can be heard is their own in the quiet of the bedroom.So shut down the TV, clean your thoughts and then go to bed!
Right atmosphere: light in the room, noise and comfort. If a person is not comfortable, they are too hot, too cold, or can feel the springs in the matress then sleep will be difficult.
Medical conditions, alcohol or medications also have their influence on how readily the body can prepare itself for slumber.
Go to bed when you're sleepy-tired, not when it's time to go to bed by habit.
Wind down during the second half of the evening before bedtime. More specifically, 90 minutes before bed, don't get involved in any kind of anxiety provoking activities or thoughts. Don't open your mail, email or watch the evening news. Those events are not always anxiety producing, but you never know when they will be.
Practice breathing with your abdomen, using low slow evenly spaced breathes that make your belly move more than your chest. Focus on tightening then relaxing major muscle groups, starting with your toes and ending with your forehead.
Your bed is for sleeping, if you can't sleep after 15-20 minutes, get up and do something relaxing.
Set your room temperature to be cool rather than warm.
Don't count sheep; counting is stimulating.
Exercise in the afternoon or early evening, but no later than 3 hours before bedtime.
Don't over-eat; and eat 2-3 hours before bedtime. And don't eat meat in the evening! Meet needs much longer to be digested. Milk &Honey> Yes it works ;-) with almonds also. Or tea.
If you awake in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep within 30 minutes, get up and do something else. BUT: Avoid turning on the lights or working at a computer. Light entering your eyes will stimulate your brain's day/night balance and keep you awake.
Avoid all coffee, alcohol and cigarettes 2-3 hours before bedtime.
If you have disturbing dreams or nightmares, use your mind's eye to "add" and ending that you prefer. It sounds a bit weird, but force yourself to imagine a whole different ending scene. Write the replacement ending in a notebook if you can't hold onto it. Or say a prayer and switch off again!
Listen to calming music reading something nice before sleeping.
Take a shower before going to bed. Water massage will relax your muscles.

And of course, if sleep problems persist, contact your physician as it may be from some drugs you are taking or who knows why :-) Hope you'll sleep better tonight. Nighty Night!

Virtual Happymaking with Friends

2009-06-15T18:53:00.000-07:00

Love hurts! says the song and now I think it means any kind of love...not just romantic relationships, but friendships also. I also think I lost a friend yesterday but well we won't study this particular issue :-) especially as I also consider nothing gets lost and people telling you suddenly they will no longer talk to you will sooner or later feel sorry about it and come back to you.

So this post it's about friendship and long distance relationships with friends and NO no virtual worlds and no Second Life although I named it "virtual" :-) Just plane emails, chat and whatever we use to connect with friends living far away. I could think about some advices regarding long distance friendship and how to make it work so here they are:

YOU keep in touch: don't always expect to be contacted and be just the "Reply to" person. After all it's not a dating game and you don't really appear to be lame if you make the first move.
Answer back: we spend so much time answering all kind of emails and always postpone answering emails from friends asking us how we are doing cause we sort of imagine they would expect some 1000 characters email. They are not and a "I am doing fine, nice to hear from you" wouldn't hurt more than no answer at all. And yes, we are all busy so being busy DOESN'T make you special or excuses you :-)
Avoid contradictory chat (touche :-) ) yeap, don't discuss things you wouldn't talk about with your mother over chat. If she wouldn't understand it nobody will. Ask for a Skype call or just a call if possible (another reason for using skype or something else- do ask your friends to make an account). People tend to make very FINAL decisions if they are not talking to you, like: Never ever, Forget me, and so on. I guess cause it's easier for them to write them instead of saying them. So if you really want to avoid premature goodbyes just CALL!
Leadership lesson no 5 in the book I am reading: Think Twice before you Act and especially Overreact! That being said again no "funny" emails and ever lasting break ups over email (and that's happening in some cultures more frequently..unfortunately) Get serious people! Count till 50 and hold that thought before clicking on SEND.
Try being there: if you asked a questions once, even not to the same person expect to be asked also. After all friendship it's all about helping each other, that being said for people thinking about it as if this would make friendship a less sacre thing.

Well then the big news is FRIENDSHIP is a common thing and it's a feeling we all should have. Being helpful, careful and nice shouldn't just be towards preferred persons. I know we do that more or less also cause sometimes friends feel like they are less special if they are not the best friend or so. In this regard I must also say that I don't have BEST friends: I do have many friends, they all are special to me and have their own place in my heart but wouldn't treat one differently just because I keep them 2 inches lower from the center of my heart :-) (won't get into advanced discussions on freidnship in our times as this is for awake people and I am somehow in a sleepy mode so maybe I couldn't make you understand me now :-)) So just be good to everyone and don't do anything you would regret later on!

That being said: GOOD Morning, my friends! 4.28am now in Hannover ;-) Back to bed!

What Animal Are You?

2009-06-10T01:21:00.000-07:00

After having an "intelligent" discussion I realized foreigners don't know what a VEVE is (VEVE comes from the Romanian Veverita = squirrel= Eichhörnchen in German :-)). And I don't mean they didn't know what veve as word means but why we call people squirrels and why so frequently, cause everyone has in his circle of friends a squirrel (veve, wewe, weawea...or something). Will come back to what defines a squirrel person later :-)

Now second observation: we DO use lots of animals to classify people in my country :-) For example there is the:

wolf- bad boy, eats meat frequently when going out, lonely, etc
miercat - curious and just looks like that
marmot - now marmots are nice :-) they are serious, work hard are creative and can make chocolate and wrap it nicely like in the Milka ad (which by the way is called Paul, nice name for a marmot :-))
groundhog - tries to keep everything for himself, collects things, hides them, funny person usually
frog, cow, dog, kitty and bunny which are pretty much self explanatory :-)

And of course there is the squirrel: again collecting things, suspicious, eats lots of peanuts, fluffy hair, usually not very tall :-), funny, friendly, loves mountains, has very small feet (size 35 or 36 for Europe) and of course eyes and eye lashes resembling to a squirrel :-). Now what would be such a lesson without an example :-)

So here we have Corina, my favorite veve and loving friend who voluntarily requested to be included in this happymaking session. So to prove why she has such a "squirrelish" behaviour here are some pics:

1. YES, squirrels are convinced they know best :-)...or is it cause she was in her natural environment and playing in the snow?
2. after all they are wild animals and party like you see below :-)3. they hide their food and drinks from hungry friends...here some beers (and their repository never gets full..wonder why :-))
4. they always think about something, I would say FOOD 80% of the time :-)
5. and last but not least they consider themselves special and there is NO squirrel resembling to another. So if you have a squirrel around make sure SHE know she is the MOST special one. Ours is pink and is very proud with her pink attitude :
That was it :-) Hope this can help you understand our fun with identifying people as certain animals and maybe identify some yourself :-) #happymaking

What makes teenagers happy?

2009-06-04T01:24:00.000-07:00

High school wasn't that long ago for me :-) so I never really asked myself what makes teenagers happy these days. I noticed however they all tweet, have an ipod, dress pretty Gothic and get drunk too much. But as I can't judge them only from what I see on the streets, I decided to run a small check. So I ended up reading this nice article on what makes teenagers happy:
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So you’re between the ages of 13 and 24. What makes you happy? A worried, weary parent might imagine the answer to sound something like this: Sex, drugs, a little rock ‘n’ roll. Maybe some cash, or at least the car keys.

Turns out the real answer is quite different. Spending time with family was the top answer to that open-ended question, according to an extensive survey — more than 100 questions asked of 1,280 people ages 13-24 — conducted by The Associated Press and MTV on the nature of happiness among America’s young people.

Next was spending time with friends, followed by time with a significant other. And even better for parents: Nearly three-quarters of young people say their relationship with their parents makes them happy.

Alcohol users are slightly less happy than those who don’t drink. The differences are more remarkable among 13-17 year olds; just 40 percent of those who drank in the last seven days reported being happy with life, versus 68 percent of those who didn’t. And 49 percent of illegal drug users reported being happy with life, compared with 66 percent of those who didn’t use drugs.

You might think money would be clearly tied to a general sense of happiness. But almost no one said “money” when asked what makes them happy, though people with the highest family incomes are generally happier with life. However, having highly educated parents is a stronger predictor of happiness than income.

Soul: Close to half say religion and spirituality are very important. And more than half say they believe there is a higher power that has an influence over things that make them happy. Beyond religion, simply belonging to an organized religious group makes people happier.

Also confirming existing research, Twenge says, is the finding that children of divorced parents are somewhat less likely to be happy. Among 13-17 year olds, 64 percent of those with parents still together said they wake up happy, compared to 47 percent of those with divorced parents.

And parents, here’s some more for you: Most young people in school say it makes them happy. Overwhelmingly, young people think marriage would make them happy and want to be married some day. Most also want to have kids.

Finally, when asked to name their heroes, nearly half of respondents mentioned one or both of their parents. The winner, by a nose: Mom.

Who's happier, men or women?

2009-05-26T05:36:00.000-07:00

We used to joke on that when we were kids and argued about why should we wear a skirt and not pants. We said that we would have liked to be boys (we=girls) and that this would have made our life easier. Years after we decided we wouldn't have changed this for anything and would have had a laugh remembering how we used to disguise ourselves in boys in order to be allowed to play football :-)

I was reading a nice article today, about American women but some of the traits depicted there are also valid in the European culture. So after years of fighting for their rights are women less happy than men? Is this because the times changed and what seemed to be a reason to be happy years ago is now just a regular possession?

I think the study reflects again that happiness has nothing to do with the rights we have, with the money and status one can get, with the societal development we are witnessing. Sometimes I wonder how many studies will they make in order to discover that happiness doesn' t proportionally vary with all these factors (Not to mention splitting this between men and women...in my opinion men don't tend to over analyze questions and that's why they give pretty balanced and fair answers).
However there are some interesting results in the study that help us understand what was considered to make women happy in the '70 and what is now.

Check the abstract below :-)
By many objective measures the lives of women in the United States have improved over the past 35 years, yet we show that measures of subjective well-being indicate that women's happiness has declined both absolutely and relative to men. The paradox of women's declining relative well-being is found across various datasets, measures of subjective well-being, and is pervasive across demographic groups and industrialized countries. Relative declines in female happiness have eroded a gender gap in happiness in which women in the 1970s typically reported higher subjective well-being than did men. These declines have continued and a new gender gap is emerging -- one with higher subjective well-being for men.

So, what do you think? Who's happier? Happymakers excluded :-)

PS: They don't call women "Drama Queens" for nothing :-)

HappyMaker Wanted!

2009-05-20T07:58:00.000-07:00

I heard making people happy is a premium skill these days : hard to find and companies would pay lots of $$$$$$ or £££££ or whatever you please for it :-)
So in case you've always wanted to do that and consider yourself super good at doing it, here are some tips on where to find these employment opportunities. Be a HappyMaker!

(click on the pic to enlarge it)

Happymaking in PICTURES

2009-05-19T02:15:00.001-07:00

the simple happymaking
recipe :-)

Happiness isn't about "ME"

2009-05-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

The June issue of The Atlantic has an article about a 72-year-long study at Harvard about how different experiences affect the health and happiness of people. Video abelow, full text of article here.

Is there a formula—some mix of love, work, and psychological adaptation—for a good life? For 72 years, researchers at Harvard have been examining this question, following 268 men who entered college in the late 1930s through war, career, marriage and divorce, parenthood and grandparenthood, and old age. Here, for the first time, a journalist gains access to the archive of one of the most comprehensive longitudinal studies in history. Its contents, as much literature as science, offer profound insight into the human condition—and into the brilliant, complex mind of the study’s longtime director, George Vaillant.

Happymaking FAVICON

2009-05-14T05:28:00.000-07:00

I know it's pretty late but better later than never ;-) So I "just" realized that my dear blog has no favicon (for those who don't know what that is, that's the little favorite+icon displayed next to your blog's name in the browser).

And of course I've chosen the nice green smiley you can see below. Hope this is a nice representation for happymaking & my eco-bio-green way of being :-)
Now, in case you want to have a favicon also and you have a blogger/blogspot account like me, here is how you can do it. And remember, it must be a pic that looks good at a 16/16 size..no fancy art or details ;-)

@silviaemilia #happymaking for my blog :-)

Happy Virtual Culture

2009-05-12T00:23:00.000-07:00

Last Friday some IBMers organized a great culture festival @Almaden in Second Life. We had guests both from IBM and also friends or family joining us. There was a great effort in preparing areas representing Eastern Europe, Brazil, Switzerland, Italy, Japan, China, Germany and the Native American region but the event was a real success! I personally learned so much about native Americans, Chinese arts, Italian best places to see and Swiss way of doing business. We had live virtual flute concerts, drank cappuccino, ate and drank chocolate at the Swiss house, ran a quiz in the Chinese area and much much more.

You can see the video of the event here (we streamed it live via www.mogulus.com/IBMVirtualWorlds and tagged it with #ibmvcf in twitter)

After 2 sessions I can say that I was pretty exhausted but also very excited and happy. It was a great happymaking for people who wanted to learn more about these cultures, make new friends, grow their IBM network, experience around Second Life and of course have funnnnn :-)

The funniest moment? As I was presenting Germany's region I had the chance to stream some live German music :-)) as there was the Pots Festival in Hannover and a men choir was singing loudly right under my window!

Many thanks to Maria-Izabel, Chris B, Amy, Mihail, Chris C, Wayne, Dario and many more! Let's have another happymaking session soon ;-)

Cheers,
Anthi Arida

Happy Hairs

2009-05-09T09:54:00.000-07:00

Ok after the "Happy Teeth" post this one will not be about how to take care of your hair and make it happy as mine is pretty happy all the time :-)...living it's own curly and rebel life :-)
So I only got this pic from Bremerhaven (Germany). Happy Hair and Happy Weekend ;-)

Happy Teeth

2009-04-28T03:22:00.000-07:00

After a very complicated "visiting the dentist" process in Germany and still playing around with my medical insurer from the US I decided to write a post about happy teeth. Although one can not avoid visiting a dentist as teeth preserve themselves only after we actually die (funny huh?!) I decided to write some nice tips about TEETH HAPPYMAKING :-)

Brush your teeth twice daily with fluoride toothpaste and clean between your teeth daily with floss or an interdental cleaner :-) This takes just a few minutes a day. Use a correct toothbrush, and brush and floss correctly.
Eat a balanced diet for good overall health, selecting a variety of foods from the five main food groups (bread, cereals, and other grain products; fruits; vegetables; meat, poultry, fish and alternatives; milk, cheese, and yogurt), and limit snacks.
See your dentist regularly for a dental examination and professional cleaning - a key to helping prevent tooth decay and gum disease.
Don't use tobacco products; they can increase your risk of gum disease and cancer of the mouth and throat.
Don't chew on hard objects that could crack a tooth.
Don't ignore gums that bleed when you brush or floss or changes in the way your teeth fit together when you bite.
Wear a mouth guard when playing active sports.
Eating sweetened cereals dry is bad for teeth, always add milk.
Drinking frequent cups of tea or coffee with sugar added will increase the risk of teeth decay.
When less saliva is available on very hot days, one should not consume foods containing sugars that stick in the teeth.
Chewable vitamin C tablets with or without sugar are acidic and are a hazard for not only children’s teeth but also to adults' teeth. Do not use lemon juice for whitening because vitamin C will cause the teeth to lose calcium damaging teeth quicker than anything else.
You think that honey or fruit sugar cause less caries than regular sugar? False. It's all about of being sweet. If it's sweet then your teeth will suffer (e.g. apple juice, one of the sweetest)
And it's all about the TIME. Eating a piece of chocolate in 3 min can be less damaging than drinking a lemonade in 30 minutes. The more the sugar stays in your mouth the worse it gets (don't give up on chewing your food now :-))
Chocolate doesn't harm your teeth, but the sugar in it. Try eating more dark chocolate.
Not only sweets and drinks can damage your teeth. Fruits also. Of course less but still. So brush your teeth ;-)
Yes, chewing gum really helps. Of course your teeth, as the chemicals in eat can cause you diseases in other areas if consumed intensively.
Red wine, tea or coffee can color your teeth.
Try to avoid Soda and Cola like drinks. As the Cola drinks contain acids like Citric acid, and phosphoric acid. They slowly react with the teeth and dissolve them. These drinks have corrosive effect on the teeth.
Don't hesitate to brush your teeth at work! After all you can keep a brush close to you and do your thing after lunch ;-)
Don't brush your teeth after eating especially for children. According to the experts although this matter was contrary from an advice we get since childhood. The acid substance we get from food and drink made the teeth layer soften and brush the teeth will damaging this soft layer.

if I'll find more will let you know :-) Going to brush my teeth now!

Happymaking - The Groove?

2009-04-15T12:05:00.000-07:00

Found this video today :-) well I know who did it but won't tell :-) You have to guess who's this happymaker wannabe ;-)

Paris Paris

2009-04-15T04:35:00.001-07:00

Ok one last post before Easter :-) Especially as I forgot to add PARIS (France) to the best places for happymaking! And indeed it has all the ingredients: happy faces, great architecture, delicious food, unbelievable desserts, music everywhere, museums, stories, painters, boutiques, nice streets, pitoresque bridges and so so so much more :-) could go on forever without even mentioning the Tour Eiffel which despite what so many people are saying is absolutely magnifique :-). And the feelings you get invaded by once you put your right foot on French land!!!

So in case you need to pick the place for a vacation just go to Paris! Even if you been there I am sure there are thousand of things you can still discover and love :-)

Happy Easter time!

2009-04-14T12:16:00.000-07:00

This week we'll celebrate Easter, by we I mean the Orthodox community. And this year I am pretty happy as I am also going home (to Pitesti) this week to spend some days with my family :-) Now this post is not about happymaking with others, giving presents, cooking together with your mums, preparing our unique Easter eggs and eating goodies. It's also not about chocolate bunnies and happymaking around a barbeque...
It's about what Easter really is and how we need to prepare for it, about happymaking with yourself, about giving up on being selfish, envious, carrying about silly things, talking behind people's back and so many many things we do more or less consciously. About going to church and confessing, about forgiving and spreading love around us. It may sound old fashioned or unrealistic but indeed that's Easter about. Try escaping for a few days from the madness we live in, from the running around and ghosts chasing. Be the person you need and want to be!

Merry Easter! Hope I'll get to wish some of my Romanian friends HRISTOS A INVIAT soon!

Happymaking in the Forbidden City

2009-04-07T02:08:00.001-07:00

Bringing a mysterious city to life and exploring the forbidden city was one of my dreams as a child..maybe right before starting to play Tomb Raider and getting distracted with Egyptian pyramids and artifacts from Latin America ;-) However the Chinese history and stories remain some of my interests. And today I get the chance to have some happymaking in the Forbidden City of Beijing. How cool can that be? A place I could never visit, a place closed to visitors and not available in any virtual games that could make an explorer and treasure hunter happy.

And as a lucky combination or maybe faith?! IBM made that happen:-) Yes, my IBM made a Virtual Forbidden City (check the video below).

Some interesting facts about the Forbidden City:

the construction lasted 15 years, and required more than a million workers
The common English name, "the Forbidden City," is a translation of the Chinese name Zijin Cheng ( literally "Purple Forbidden City"). Zi, or "Purple", refers to the North Star, which in ancient China was called the Ziwei Star, and in traditional Chinese astrology was the abode of the Celestial Emperor. The surrounding celestial region, the Ziwei Enclosure (Chinese: 紫微垣), was the realm of the Celestial Emperor and his family. The Forbidden City, as the residence of the terrestrial emperor, was its earthly counterpart. Jin, or "Forbidden", referred to the fact that no-one could enter or leave the palace without the emperor's permission. Cheng means a walled city.
Yellow is the colour of the Emperor. Thus almost all roofs in the Forbidden City bear yellow glazed tiles. There are only two exceptions. The library at the Pavilion of Literary Profundity (文渊阁) had black tiles because black was associated with water, and thus fire-prevention. Similarly, the Crown Prince's residences have green tiles because green was associated with wood, and thus growth

The central gateway is part of the Imperial Way, a stone flagged path that forms the central axis of the Forbidden City and the ancient city of Beijing itself, and leads all the way from the Gate of China in the south to Jingshan in the north. Only the Emperor may walk or ride on the Imperial Way, except for the Empress on the occasion of her wedding, and successful students after the Imperial Examination (now imagine yourself walking around like an emperor ;-))

Planning to take a tour? Then check the next event in the VFC:
On 28 and 29 April, IBM is offering a select group of IT specialists the opportunity to participate in an exclusive SOA tour being held using its acclaimed virtual world, The Forbidden City: Beyond Space and Time <http://www.beyondspaceandtime.org>.

Dressed in character as an Imperial Servant, John Tolva, Program Manager for Cultural Strategy and Programs @IBM will lead a tour of the most advanced of all custom-built virtual worlds in existence today. The virtual world tour is designed to provide an insight into how SOA can solve architectural challenges, adding immediate value and business flexibility.
Attendees will be able to discuss SOA with IBM’s leading architects and strategists and learn first-hand how to shape the future of business communication.
Limited space is available on each virtual world tour. Registration to participate in this exciting virtual world event closes on Friday 17th April http://www.ibm.com/software/uk/itsolutions/soa/virtual-forbidden-city/

See you around ;-) Treasure Hunter Happymakees!

Tale of a Red Jacket

2009-03-27T04:56:00.000-07:00

This story is about two girls, shopping, two-three countries, randomly chosen so that you can't identify the girls and a red jacket. If you're not interested in any of the above mentioned items then you can stop reading and just go to the previous post about sushi :-).

Background: for this story we have 2 girls: a happymaker and a happymakee. Both of them come from a country where clothing is pretty expensive so whenever they are abroad they try to shop for various stuff. Now both of them are abroad and as spring is knocking at their doors, our girls decide to buy some new spring jackets.Compared to their home country one of them is in a country with pretty affordable clothes (Guatemala) and the other one in a very expensive one (Malawi).

The Happymaking: now the G (the girl in Guatemala) finds some cool jackets, half price at the...Happy&Making store. Excited she buys them both. G tells her friend M (from Malawi) about it and M decides to visit the same store in her city. And there it was, the perfect RED JACKET. Now M is very small, so small that she couldn't find the jacket to fit her size (34). M goes home and tries to purchase it online but the Happy&Making store doesn't sell online in her country...although Malawi is such a big country (remember Malawi is not the true country).
The Solving of our Tale: M asks G to purchase it online from Guatemala and to have it shipped over..as it was the p-e-r-f-e-c-t red jacket. They try using their lovely credit cards but no chance, while shopping in Guatemala the store only allows you to pay with a national credit card. So after even trying credit cards from relatives the bad online shop told the girls they should stop trying and take a walk (of course in a very PRish way). But the girls didn't stop. So in the next evening G was visiting all 3 Happy&Making stores in her city looking for a jacket in size 34 (now imagine running from shop to shop, girls in the store asking each other what is size 34 in Malawi, calling the other stores to check if they have the right size, etc etc). No Jacket. Result: "please come by tomorrow, we receive them daily but can't tell in which size".

It didn't seem that complicated (although it was....OMG :-((( ) so G took another trip to the stores the next day. Of course, no luck.Day #4 and no jacket yet. G&M decided to pay the ultimate price and have the jacket delivered at G's home and pay cash for it (10Euro more...yeah yeah no Euro in Guatemala but again it's just an e-x-a-m-p-l-e :-)).

G didn't get the jacket yet (operation in progress) but we hope for a nice closing in which G is delivering the jacket by post to Malawi in maximum 2 weeks so that M can wear the Red Jacket during her spring vacation in....Tanzania?! :-))))

Remember: happymaking is not easy. even small things can get complicated but if they mean something to your happymakee don't give up. we live in an absurd world after all, so have patience;-)

Happy Sushi

2009-03-25T04:09:00.000-07:00

As you can see this weekend we made some nice Sushi (at least I think so :-)) and did my best with the Japanese omelet Tamagoyaki which didn't look as pretty as the sushi but was eatable and made me decide to buy a tamagoyaki pan ;-) for my future attempts (learned that cooking the perfect omelet is the real challenge a Japanese chef has).

This post however is not about cooking sushi as there are so many recipes and videos about it and really it's not that hard once you have the right ingredients and the freshest fish. It's about what sushi is and stands for. So maybe next time you'll eat it you'll have another feeling about it rather than seeing it as dead fish or fish&rice only. HAPPYMAKING Sushi!

The Beginnings Sushi has been around for a surprisingly long period of time, although not in its present form. The history of sushi is an interesting tale of the evolution of a simple dish. What was to become sushi was first mentioned in China in the second century A.D. Originally, sushi arose out of a way of preserving food. Fish was placed in rice and allowed to ferment, which allowed an individual to keep the fish edible for some time. The rice was thrown away and the fish was eaten when needed or wanted.

The method spread throughout China and by the seventh century, had made its way to Japan, where seafood has historically been a staple. The Japanese, however, took the concept further and began to eat the rice with the fish. Originally, the dish was prepared in much the same manner. In the early 17th century, however, Matsumoto Yoshiichi of Edo (now Tokyo) starting seasoning the rice with rice wine vinegar while making his ‘sushi’ for sale. This allowed the dish to be eaten immediately, instead of waiting the months it might normally take to prepare the ‘sushi.’

The Evolution of Sushi: In the early 19th century, a man by the name of Hanaya Yohei conceived a major change in the production and presentation of his sushi. No longer wrapping the fish in rice, he placed a piece of fresh fish on top of an oblong shaped piece of seasoned rice. Today, we call this style ‘nigiri sushi’ (finger sushi) or “edomae sushi” (from Edo, the name of Tokyo at the time) and is now the common way of eating Japanese sushi. At that time, sushi was served from sushi stalls on the street and was meant to be a snack or quick bite to eat on the go. Served from his stall, this was not only the first of the real ‘fast food’ sushi, but quickly became wildly popular. From his home in Edo, this style of serving sushi rapidly spread throughout Japan, aided by the Great Kanto earthquake in 1923, as many people lost their homes and businesses and moved from Tokyo.

After World War Two, the sushi stalls were shut down and moved indoors, to more sanitary conditions. More formal seating was later provided (the first iterations were merely an indoor version of the sushi stalls) and sushi changed from ‘fast food’ to a true dining experience. Sushi spread around the globe, and with the advent of the promotion of seafood, this unusual style of serving fish was quickly adopted by western cultures, always eager for something new, especially something that had grown as sophisticated and unique as sushi.

Modern Sushi: Sushi, the artful dining experience once uniquely Japanese, has now evolved to another level beyond the traditional Japanese methods. Western influences have given rise to new styles of sushi, such as California rolls and the many elaborate ‘fusion’ creations at upscale sushi restaurants. The history of sushi is a long one, at least 1,800 years in fact, but the current iteration is popular around the world, and rightly so. It is not often that something so singly cultural can not only take the world by storm, but also influence the direction of food in other cultures. Demand for sushi is only increasing and seems to be continuing to evolve. Traditional sushi restaurants sit alongside ‘fusion’ restaurants and both are popular for their own reasons.

Hungry? ;-)

Happymaking Channel LIVE!

2009-03-20T08:58:00.000-07:00

So in order to prepare myself for a project I decided to learn more about webcammax and mogulus today (was using camstudio and only watched mogulus without doing any broadcasting until now). And they are pretty cool...there are so many videos on youtube showing how you can put up together a news channel just by using mogulus and stream live and for free from any cafe, hotel, room or whatever conference you may attend. Nice? Indeed. Of course you can also upload videos and ask mogulus to play them on your new channel.

Webcammax is not for free but you get a free trial which is ok :-) Has plenty effects to play with, easy to use and feeds mogulus perfectly (may I say like a mum to her child ^..^).

And as I had no idea what to play with I did some happymaking....the HAPPYMAKING Channel...coming live with happymaking news :-) Now must figure out which will the next news be and if I want you to see me rather than just writing to you :-).

Anyway, stay tuned!

The Happymaking Challenge

2009-03-13T01:54:00.000-07:00

Last week I was pretty challenged as two persons asked me for help and were not really fitting the profile I am usually have for happymaking. I must say I felt pretty reluctant to helping them out of their trouble as I had all the time a feeling that they may try cheating me or something worse, but I kept telling myself it was the right thing to do.

So now my question: do we really help only people we like and trust? I mean who wouldn't help some little angels like these here www.valeaplopului.com or some old ladies or our families and closest friends, or people we already know or are known by some of our contacts. But would we take home a person crying in the train station cause she/he has no more money to travel to their home country and no contacts in your country? Would you give her money to go back even if she doesn't look trustworthy or you keep blaming her for ending up in this situation and not planning this better? Or would you think this is a set up? Would you help a girlfriend who messed out with wrong man and got hurt? Or just say it was all her fault and forget about it?

All thoughts have their own right to exist in our mind, but which one will win? Will we do the right thing even if knowing there is a chance to be fooled and tricked? I would, I did, hardly but did it...I guess there are some good reasons for doing this:

We are good by nature and try to see the good part first
Our conscience tells us we need to do something about it
We know that if we didn't help someone asking for our kindness we would probably ask ourselves for a long time what happened to that person...and think we could have helped him but we didn't :-(
We would want to find people able to help us also, if we were in the same situation
We try to see beyond appearances and are aware that misjudging people can have very negative results..mainly cause we experienced it more than once
We know this doesn't happen on a daily basis, we don't meet these people all the time, so we can afford investing some time, money and feelings in a higher amount...

I know you may say that's a nonsense or that this can only have with religion to do, but it's not. It's out human kind, our way of being that got locked under our daily routine, under our desire to prove that we are better, we can plan things and avoid bad events and that everyone is getting what they deserve. Well it's not like that and in one moment you can be on the other side..so think twice before not giving a hand and reaching out!

Challenge yourself to help people who are different, who are in different situations, who weren't worthy of having your attention until now! People you never tried to help!

Happy Birthday to Andy Piper!

2009-03-10T02:45:00.000-07:00

Do you know this Andy Piper who calls himself a social bridgebuilder? Or the guy who writes this blog? Who takes these photos and podcasts your tags with a... dog?

YES. I knew so ;-) cause he's just great and fortunately to be found everywhere!

And as mister Piper is such a great supporter of #happymaking and asks himself now and then when will he be the one and only happymakee of the day I decided to make him the HAPPYMAKEE of the WEEK (sounds nice, doesn't it? ^..^) ...especially as this week he has his 33rd birthday (hope I got it right this time :-)). So feel free to wish him nice things like cars, money, nice vacations (coupons accepted but please contact him for the delivery address), send him sweets and cool gadgets...and of course sing him Happy Birthday!!!...or Birth Week?

Happy Mud :-)

2009-03-06T06:27:00.000-08:00

Ok it's not exactly mud :-) It's some material one can easily shape into nice figures and accessories. Then it gets hard as a rock and you can nicely decorate it with some ceramic paint that can be cooked or washed or ran through whatever endurance tests you want to.

And of course that's HAPPYMAKING as designing decorations it's so relaxing, unleashes your creativity, makes you forget about work and problems and leaves you free and simple as an artist :-) Pure happymaking I would say :-)

So in case you don't have any plans for the weekend go buy yourself some materials (paid about 15E for all and used about 10% of all quantities). You can make souvenirs, gifts for your friends, pots for your kitchen and whatever you may think of.

I did 3 dango dango :-), some amulets I'll wear this summer and one for my mum :-), a sushi plate (that should be sushi in Kanji it I didn't write it wrong), Botan the pig from Clannad a vase for my pins and some other stuff :-). And of course if you're not in the mood for this you can paint, play an instrument or just do something artistic and both you and the person who'll receive the masterpieces will feel better :-) #happymaking

Happymaking on the 1st of March- Mărţişor

2009-03-01T04:23:00.000-08:00

Did you get a Mărţişor today? ;-)

It's finally spring and wanted to share with you a nice Romanian tradition and story about what we do on the 1st of March, the day when we give each others Mărţişoare!

Mărţişor is the traditional celebration of the beginning of the spring in Romania, Moldova and Bulgaria (under the name Martenitsa - Мартеница). The day's name is the diminutive of March (in Romanian Martie), and thus means something like "little" or "dear March". Nowadays, men offer women a talisman object also called Mărţişor, consisting of a jewel or a small decoration like a flower, an animal or a heart, tied to a red and white string. However, giving a little nickel tied to a red and white string is an old custom and was originally designated for both men and women (though men don't like to admit it and one asked me for chocolate today...lol). It was believed that the one who wears the red and white string will be powerful and healthy for the year to come. The decoration is a symbol of the coming spring. A woman wears it pinned to her blouse on this day and up to two weeks after (received one this morning ;-)). In some parts of Romania such as Moldova or Bukovina the symbol of spring was a gold or silver medal which was worn around the neck. After wearing the coin for twelve days, they bought sweet cheese with the medal, because it was believed that their faces would remain beautiful and white the entire year.

The beginnings of this custom are still a mystery, but it is usually said that it originated in ancient Rome, because New Year's Eve was celebrated on the 1st of March (Martius), the month of the war god Mars. He had a double role: both protector of agriculture and of war, so the celebration signified the rebirth of nature. The duality of symbols is kept in the colours of the Mărţişor: white and red, meaning peace and war (it might also symbolize winter and spring). For the Thracians, Marsyas-Silen, whose cult was related to the vegetation and the land, had the same attributes. The flower and nature celebrations were consecrated to him.

And as I recently got about 20 of these from Romania I decided to take them to the Romanian church today and give them to all the women there.And it was lovely, some of them were close to tears as they didn't get something like this in the last 8 years and miss Romania and being home...was pretty touching and fun feeling so much happiness. And some of them started wearing them and explaining to the German husbands what they meant. Lovely! The Greek lady seemed to like them also...thank God I had exactly 20...was pretty close!

So I had my happymaking on the Mărţişo's day, no go get some and share them to you mum,grandmother, girlfriend,colleague, teachers, friends and so on. Looking forward to wearing one tomorrow @work ;-) I'm a Happy Happymaker today!

Special Types of HAPPYMAKEEs: LHH

2009-02-20T01:22:00.000-08:00

Now I know that's not a very happy picture :-( and indeed it looks pretty creepy and scary, but that's because people are not always happy. And you may say "Yes, but most of the time we don't look like that" which is true, BUT there are also other kinds of people, persons with personality disorders, living next to us, working with us, being part of our lives and interfering with our world. I will name them the LHH: Less Happy Happymakee.
The reason why I am writing this is because I was reading a book on personality disorders and how to deal with each type and I realized that you can't possibly try to make a paranoid person happy the way you would try making a narcissist feel better. So in order to know what to do you really need to understand this types of personalities first. As the book was in Romanian here is a link to a good&short article in English explaining the major differences among these personalities.

Now I know that you may be reluctant to this as most of us think LHHs are usually living in hospitals or consider ourselves perfectly sane until someone proves that we are wrong and that's why we need to understand that everyone has some characteristic patterns of perceiving and relating to other people and events. The difference is in HOW MUCH, HOW OFTEN and HOW INTENSE we tend to behave in a certain unnatural way. For example some people minimize problems; others exaggerate them, some cry for nothing, others laugh when they are in pain, some always feel threaten, others through themselves in the most dangerous situations without carrying and much more. Regardless of their usual style, however, mentally healthy people are likely to try an alternative approach if their first try is ineffective.

Another reason why I consider this extremely important is because what we say, do or try can be fatal if it's applied to the wrong type of personality. For example if you have a very paranoid colleague, you wouldn't start laughing with other colleagues in a corner without explaining why you are laughing loudly- he will automatically think you are laughing about him...and he'll get sad, angry and eventually drive you to say something mean to him and then he'll feel good proving that he was right all along thinking that the others were really hiding something from him and feels pleased that he has such a twisted mind and can identify something bad before it really happens. Hope you understand what I mean and I am sure some of you have already identified some persons you could never joke with.

Anyway, as taking each type would probably be way too long (didn't even get the chance to talk about my favorite: the hysterical colleague, which although you love and is a carrying person may drive you insane sometimes :-)) wish you will read the article or any other article/book on this and adapt your HAPPYMAKING to the types of personalities you'll identify. Wish you luck! And remember: LHHs also deserve to be happy, so give it a try;-)

Happy Funny Shoes

2009-02-16T03:27:00.000-08:00

They say "diamonds are girls' best friends" but we all know that this is not valid for a financially restricted budget. So for the rest of us it should be like "shoes are girls' best friends" :-) (or diamond shoes if you can afford that ^..^). In the attempt of showing my appreciation to OUR best friends and happymakers here is a short collection of pics with funny shoes. Enjoy it!

Some interesting facts about shoes:

In Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries heels on shoes were always colored red.
Shoes all over the world were identical until the nineteenth century, when left- and right-footed shoes were first made in Philadelphia.
In Europe it wasn't until the eighteenth century that women's shoes were different from men's.
In the Middle Ages a father passed his authority over his daughter to her husband in a shoe ceremony :-) At the wedding, the groom handed the bride a shoe, which she put on to show she was then his subject.
Today in the U.S. shoes are tied to the bumper of the bridal couple's car. This is a reminder of the days when a father gave the groom one of his daughter's shoes as a symbol of a changing caretaker.

_____________________________________________________________

something for the boys: the new Opel Agila shoes ;-)

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-14T01:38:00.000-08:00

Couldn't miss this occasion? Could I? :-)
Now although Valentine's Day is not established in the Romanian tradition, as we celebrate love on the 24th of February due to our dear Dragobete (drag=dear, Draga Silvia= Dear Silvia :-)) I must admit more and more young people and adults start celebrating it, mainly cause it's dedicated to the nicest feeling in the world: LOVE.

And as I am a person who usually doesn't like to miss any occasion of celebrating, having fun, showing her feelings, spreading love and making gifts, you can imagine that I also really like this day :-) Supposing that you have something better to do today than reading my blog (today you are excused :-)) I'll be short and just share some lyrics with you (a proof that Valentine'day has pretty strong roots):

To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.
Then up he rose, and donn'd his clothes,
And dupp'd the chamber-door;
Let in the maid, that out a maid
Never departed more.
(William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 5)

Happy Valentine's day, dear Happymakers!
Love your happymakee and be loved!

PLAY-IT-FORWARD

2009-02-11T00:30:00.000-08:00

You are all familiar with the pay-it -forward concept: someone does something nice for you, you do it for X, X does if for Y, Y for Z, etc. Yesterday @andypiper sent me a link about how 40 people who gave a coffee forward and how they spread fun and happiness all over the world. Global Happymaking? Global Coffee Addiction? Global Gifts Giving? So I started to read about it :-)

How did it started: After attending the TED Conference in Monterey where the theme was “Ideas Big Enough to Change the World”, and the Sundance Film Festival where some of their friends were discussing movies that could make a difference, the two owners began a series of conversations about the future of online entertainment. These discussions about the power of online communities and the changing nature of play were the spark that led to Akoha.

WHY the Akoha Game (by Akoha :-)): Playing with others is so much more fun than playing by yourself. The social nature of play and the connectivity of the Internet creates a new platform for social fun. By combining the power of play and the social nature of communities, Akohas dream of new types of play that can both enlighten and uplift players to view the world in novel ways. You can sign up for Akoha beta here!

Wondering how to get started? Here are a few quick tips:

Play with a friend: it’s better to play your first Akoha mission with someone you know and trust. This will allow you to practice your Akoha mission pitch and help you work out your motivations for performing a good deed.

Start simple: Try playing a mission where you will do something that you normally do anyways. If you like to go out for coffee with friends, play the “Invite Someone For Coffee” mission. If you like to give your friends surprise gifts (like knitted hats!), use the “Give Someone a Surprise Gift” mission card. Play Akoha with the acts of kindness that you already do. It makes it easier and gives you practice.

Explain how Akoha works: Your Akoha experience (as well as the points you get) increase when your cards are claimed in by the recipient and played forward. To increase the chances of this happening, take a moment to explain what Akoha is about. Show them the unique ID and explain how they can go the home page and ‘claim’ the card. You might want to mention that if these cards are confirmed 25,000 times a school is being built in Nepal. You can also mention that this project is in its infancy, and that you are giving them access to a private beta and a chance to be amongst the first wave of users to play Akoha. We find that all these little pieces of information increase the likelihood that the recipient you play with will confirm the Akoha mission and then pass on the mission themselves.

It’s not all easy: Consistently doing acts of kindness can take effort. By scheduling ten minutes in a day to dedicate to making someone smile, you will not only better their lives and yours, you will also be inspiring others to do the same!

How to reach Ahoka everywhere:
Akoha blogs: http://community.akoha.com
Akoha forums: http://forums.akoha.com.
Akoha twitter account: http://www.twitter.com/akoha
Akohans Twittering: Many of Akoha are Twittering as well. You can find additional team blogs and Twitter accounts on the Akoha team page here.
Your voice: Check the GetSatisfaction account: http://getsatisfaction.com/akoha

Underground Happymaking

2009-02-10T04:01:00.000-08:00

No, that's not about dead people :-) But about those who travel by subway :-) Agent Lathan, as "Rob", gave out 2,000 high fives by standing next to a subway escalator during the morning rush. Five additional agents spread out along the adjacent stairs, holding signs that prepared commuters for the upcoming high five fun. Enjoy the video first and then check out the mission report and photos here (some details are also below)

Why?
Everyone is generally in a pretty crappy mood when they’re making the transfer with a herd of other people at the crack of dawn. It was definitely a location in need of a bit of fun.

HOW?
They made four signs that together said, “Rob wants to give you a high five! Get Ready!” There was a fifth sign that just read “Rob” and had an arrow pointing downward. The "agents" grabbed their assigned signs and spread out along the stairs a little after 8:30 AM. The staircase had platforms every 10 steps or so, which made it easy for the agents to divide up evenly.

Reactions
Some people were both listening to music and reading a book and didn’t look up to notice what was going on. A small percentage seemed suspicious of the agents and elected to keep their hands to themselves. Most people smiled and high fived. Some people kept a straight face during the high five, but then privately smiled to themselves a few moments later. Watching people after they gave a high five was almost more fun.

Want to see more examples of mass happymaking? Check this one also (like it much)!

Where is your smile?

2009-02-08T08:25:00.001-08:00

Thought this would be appropriate for my happymaking blog : a camera that can detect people's smile :-) After all we enjoy watching photos in which our friends look happy and smiling (unless you have a twisted mind and enjoy looking at photos in which people are crying and feeling down). So in case you are in the first category you may want to test this camera :-)...
To the technical part and how it works: face detection has become a common feature in modern digital cameras and Sony took one step ahead and developed the first camera with smile detection, the DSC-T300.

The main attraction of this camera is certainly Sony’s smile detection technology. So how does this new feature work? When the camera is set to smile detection mode, a user can select one out of the three preset smile detection levels (i.e. smile, grin, and great grin). After the shutter button is pressed, the camera will detect the target’s face and shoot the photo automatically once the chosen smile level is reached.

Besides the smile detection feature, Sony also implemented the iSCN “random scene recognition” feature. iSCN’s main goal is to minimize exposure failure in five modes: night scene portrait, night scene, night scene with tripod, backlit portrait and backlit.

Anyway, just give it a try and ...SMILE :-)

Happy Crisis

2009-02-03T05:53:00.001-08:00

I am sure by now everyone is sort of aware that there is an economic crisis in the world, in some countries with a stronger impact, in others can't really be noticed, seen as a normal consequence and a part of the economic cycle by some people, though a catastrophe and end of the world by others. So assuming there is a common agreement on the fact that indeed we are struggling to resuscitate economies shocked by the speed of our neurotic consumption , there ARE "things" that can still make us smile :-) Who said one can't smile and feel happy during a crisis? (except of course speculators and others one time hit and run investors)

So some reasons for that :

finally I can tell people they can stop buying stupid things and unnecessary objects :-) cause this time I have the CRISIS argument :-)
glad my friends stopped talking about buying new cars...don't have one, not planning to buy one soon, so I really think that listening to those discussions were a pure waste of time
also glad they won't discuss vacation plans 8 months in advance and will wait to see how their financial situation will evolve :-) never had an idea on where I'll be in the next 8 months or if I'll be able to take vacation so I am pretty pleased that I won't be the only one who has NO CLUE about it
I have a good reason for not struggling too hard to look for jobs : there are none available during crisis anyway?! :-))) at least in mature markets :-)
whenever you end up with a manager and you feel the lack of topics in your conversation just name something related to the crisis. the more particular the topic the better..after all we all care about details, local economies and hot news ;-)
although the Romanian currency is in a ...very bad shape (thought about if it should be just "bad") there are others doing worse. That's not necessary a reason to be happy but ain't it funny that they are cutting so many 0s from this particular currency? Or I am just being mean as we only managed to cut 4 some years ago...hmmm
you can make plans for AFTER the CRISIS :-) Nobody has money now anyway, or?
you can feel proud of starting to save some money (by not buying the stupid things from bullets 1&2)
guess you'll start praying from some help from above. even if the cause it's your financial situation the fact that you're doing it it's important...so pray more :-)
you'll start appreciating what you have, goods, friends, family. Bad events and times are bringing people together. Guess we must learn it the hard way!
you'll spend more time with your family...now that paying for the art club seems too expensive ;-)

I'm sure I am missing some basic ideas but I started taking Lecithin this week :-) Happymaking for my brain ;-)

HAPPY Presents

2009-01-26T02:20:00.000-08:00

Mum has her 56th Bday this Sunday :-) Bought her many presents and hope she'll love them...at least as much as the fact that I'm flying home this Friday to throw her a nice Raclette party :-)

Unfortunately the pic doesn't show how comfortably my presents lay in my luggage but at least I hope they won't get lost in München...again :-(

You may not have birthdays this weekend but maybe you'll get in the mood and buy something nice to someone dear. Presents make us smile and feel loved. Not that we wouldn't feel like that without them but we must admit that knowing that someone thought about us, spent time choosing something, wrapping it and coming by really feels good :-)

So make a gift! Even a symbolic one! More occasions will follow in the next month but about that I'll write a special entry :-) full with flying hearts...yeah you know what I am talking about :-)
but until then...shh ;-)

HSI: Happy Scene Investigation

2009-01-19T10:42:00.000-08:00

I am sure everybody on this planet is familiar with the Crime Scene Investigation CSI Series: CSI New York, CSI Las Vegas (my favorite :-)), CSI Miami...hope I am not missing any. In case you are not familiar with CSI then you must find out that the story is pretty simple: one or two crimes take place (depending on the complexity of the case) and then the CSI team starts investigating the murders. They use super high fancy high tech equipment, are also great psychologists and what's unusual for cops also super fit and can run and fight with any criminal...not like the policemen I know, but again they are CSI.

That reminds me that when my laptop got stolen I was really convinced the cops will find the thief...but after spreading some powder all over the room and telling me there were no fingerprints they said it was almost impossible to trace him as "the perpetrator was unknown".Really ????:-)

Anyway, what's with CSI on the happymaking blog?...by the way this is post number 51 :-)
I was thinking that it would be really nice if they made a HSI series: Happy Scene Investigation. A nice team of...maybe not cops...but also not psychologists or comedians...maybe Jimmy Kimmel and the Take That boys:-) ...would study the stages people go through from sadness to happiness, what makes them happy, how they can be made happy and so on.

And don't think about it as Oprah's show, no no no. It has to be ultimately FUN full of love and optimism :-) Would be something or? Instead of all the crimes we see all day long: at the news, special reports, series and movies..we could promote good people and good thoughts and happiness. I would give it a chance :-)

Meanwhile the detective in me must check CSI NY:-) Sorry but I get pretty lonely in Hannover without detective Bonasera.

Daily #Happymaking Tips on Twitter

2009-01-16T06:44:00.001-08:00

Ok so starting last week I decided to put a #happymaking tip in twitter.... EVERYDAY :-)
How can u see it?

Very simple: you can follow me in twitter (SilviaEmilia) and track all my entries who contain #happymaking. The nice thing is that you can also post happymaking tips in your twitter and if you mark it like above (with #) we can all find them afterwards :-) cool ha?

Also you can add your tweets to your Facebook status. Don't know why people think it's complicated to do it but if you scroll through Facebook's Applications you'll find the one allowing you to import status messages from your twitter account :-)

Et voila, spreading happiness everywhere ;-) !

Happiness Is An Emergent Property Of Social Networks

2009-01-13T02:54:00.000-08:00

The dear Andy Piper was kind enough today to let me know Stowe Boyd posted something on happiness on his blog :-). Stowe was twigged by the NY Times to some research on happiness and the results are pretty cool.

So I couldn't miss the opportunity to present you some pieces of it: SOCIAL NETWORKS AND HAPPINESS By By Nicholas A. Christakis & James Fowler
[...]

We studied 4,739 people followed from 1983 to 2003 as part of the famous Framingham Heart Study. These individuals were embedded in a larger network of 12,067 people; they had an average of 11 connections to others in the social network (including to friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors); and their happiness was assessed every few years using a standard measure.

We found that social networks have clusters of happy and unhappy people within them that reach out to three degrees of separation. A person's happiness is related to the happiness of their friends, their friends' friends, and their friends' friends' friends—that is, to people well beyond their social horizon. We found that happy people tend to be located in the center of their social networks and to be located in large clusters of other happy people. And we found that each additional happy friend increases a person's probability of being happy by about 9%. For comparison, having an extra $5,000 in income (in 1984 dollars) increased the probability of being happy by about 2%.

Happiness, in short, is not merely a function of personal experience, but also is a property of groups. Emotions are a collective phenomenon.

The authors did some research on Facebook that showed that smiling faces in Facebook are closely connected to others with smiling faces, and so on. The people central to the network -- they studied 1700 college students -- smiled much more in their photos than people at the periphery. Their conclusion?

Moreover, people who do not smile seem to be located more peripherally in the network. In fact, statistical analysis of the network shows that people who smile tend to have more friends (smiling gets you an average of one extra friend, which is pretty good considering that people only have about six close friends). Not only that, but the statistical analyses confirm that those who smile are measurably more central to the network compared to those who do not smile. That is, if you smile, you are less likely to be on the periphery of the online world.

It thus seems to be the case, online as well as offline, that when you smile, the world smiles with you.

Now I really must agree with Stowe that people wanting to be more central to social networks might moderate their behavior to at least appear to be happy even when they may not be. But that's not bad (except if we know they do and are reluctant to believing them): if we think that they are happy our feelings may change also :-)

And one more thing. I started to give daily tips on #happymaking. Follow my twitter :-)