A good reason for narcissism...

So the picture to the left was in an email my parents forwarded me. I have no idea where it came from, but it made me smile. Since it's Monday (and I hate mass chain emails), I thought I'd share it on my blog instead. The subject line of the email was "A good reason for a twirl in front of the mirror."

I happened to log into my computer over the weekend, which is something I rarely do. I spend so much time online at work that I just don't want to be anywhere near my computer at home. But I found, when signing onto Yahoo!, Forbes listed its annual World's Happiest Places. This year, the winner was Denmark. For the past couple years, it was Iceland, but I'm pretty sure the nation going bankrupt had something to do with that country's drop from the top. 

The other mood-lifting story Yahoo! had listed was a list of foods that make you happy. Most food makes me happy, but I'm pretty sure I'm an exception. I'm just as content with Greek yogurt and honey as I am with a perfectly plated meal from L'Espalier. 

When I was in high school we joked our school fight song was "Dueling Banjos." Yes, I am definitely a country girl. The following video I found on Yahoo! via Flickr is a pretty cute update to the Dancing Baby. You'll get the "Deliverance" reference upon clicking on the link...

Mamas and babies...

This Sunday is Mothers' Day; I thought, since I don't blog on the weekends, I would take a moment today to mention mothers. Whatever you call her - Mom, Mommy, Mum, Mama, Maman or even by her first name like one of my co-workers - she totally deserves at least a day devoted entirely to her. For the longest time, women stayed home with children and it was considered, to use an unfortunate present-day corporate buzzword, a "best practice." Somehow it got twisted around and women who stayed home to take care of their families and their homes became less valued. Their contributions to society were looked at as less than those contributed by working women. 

I don't believe that's entirely fair. I'm not one to champion either Donna Reed or Gloria Steinem, but mothers on both end of the spectrum and those in the middle do a heck of a lot and give a lot of themselves to make their families go. My mother was one who landed in the middle of that range, and I happen to think she did a darn good job. She worked, raised two kids and ran a house. She is, in part, the inspiration for this blog. I very much like how I turned out, so thanks, Mom! : ) 

Stepping off my soapbox now, the rest of this blog is devoted to the reason women can be classified as mothers - babies and children. 

East Side Elementary in Oklahoma were chosen among 13 sites across the country to participate in "Planting for Success" in conjunction with The Home Depot Foundation and Arbor Day Foundation. Read all the way to the bottom of the article - I promise it's short - to see the adorable reasons children think trees are important. (sunonline.com)

At the beginning of April, the Los Angelos Zoo announced the birth of a Masai baby giraffe. He's in the little cutie in the picture to the left. 

Earlier this year, the Iraqi EPA moved to protect natural lakes, and now the government is attempting to protect another of its natural resources - its children. UNICEF announced on May 4 the Iraqi government has allocated $30 million (USD) to help provide clean drinking water and schools to children of the impoverished Marshlands. 

Finally, while searching for another story I stumbled on this one. Most of you know how much I love to cook and have no problem forcing, ahem, giving friends and family recipes I love and think they should try. Someone recently asked me what my favorite food was and the answer I gave, which surprised even me a little bit, was comfort food - mac and cheese, meatloaf and all the other goodies Mom used to make. : ) The Wilmington Star had an article about two daughters who have recently published a cookbook of recipes from three generations of women in their family. They took recipes they loved as children and adjusted them to meet today's time constraints. Somehow that makes a fitting circle - taking the best of the past and fitting it to your life now. 

(Photo credit: petlvr.com)

Mmm...chocolate. And other good ideas...

Most of you know I am not a giant fan of driving. I don't really know why, but I've just never seen the appeal of road trips, and I really don't like being stuck in a car for hours on end. I will make trips that are four hours or less simply because the hassle of flying (which I actually hate more than driving) is too much for me. But maybe what develops out of the following story will improve my dim view of motor vehicles. I mean, how can the addition of chocolate make anything worse?

Researchers from the University of Warwick in England have built an F3 race car out of biodegradable materials that can go up to 145 mph, and it runs on chocolate factory waste. Seriously. I found in on msnbc.com, so it must be true. : ) Can you imagine, driving down the Mass Pike and all you smell is chocolate? That would make my trips surrounded by Mass-hole drivers much more bearable. Maybe in this time of the restructuring of the car industry, the people on top will take notice that it is possible to build a fast, environmentally friendly car.

Yahoo! announced the winner of the most-publicized job search in the world yesterday. A British man is the lucky one chosen for the "World's Best Job" - blogging about northeastern Queensland, Australia. He gets free accommodations in a gorgeous locale for a year just for blogging about how terrific the reef is. He also gets paid $111,000. This guy sounds perfectly suited - having ridden an ostrich and kissed a giraffe. Yes, Virginia, dream jobs do still exist...

Yahoo! this morning had the final story for today. Clayton Homes has created the "i-House" - a prefab, "green" home that is so far from a trailer that it's not funny. It has bamboo floors in addition to solar power and other energy-saving appointments. It has a V-shaped roof which holds a roof-deck, and at $100 to $300 per square foot, it's much cheaper than green AND conventional alternatives. I'm not really a fan of modern architecture, but this looks appealing, even to me. 

(Photo credit: msnbc.com)

Back on course...

Fortified by surprise bagels from a co-worker, I'm back with a theme for today's post. Dun-dun-DA! It's the power inherent in positive thinking. Shocker, right? : ) Ground-breaking information on a happy news blog... :-P

The Minneapolis Star Tribune posted an article with some sound, sensible advice to those who have been left unemployed by the current economic crisis. I like this article because it manages to acknowledge the recession without getting down about it, and still offers solid steps to take to get back on the job with minimal wallowing. 

I myself have been guilty of looking at people who "have it all" with some curiosity and not a little envy. I mean, seriously, how do they do it? The Huffington Post has a column that drew its inspiration from the book "Living a Charmed Life" by Victoria Moran. The book takes the power of positive thinking and turns it into action to help people become someone who "has it all." I'm not sure how effective it is, having never read it, but if you're so motivated, I don't really see the harm in going after what you want. You might actually get it. : )  

One little girl who did take that step to go after what she wanted got the ball rolling in a major way. Middle-schooler Ty'sheoma Bethea wrote a letter to Congress asking for money from the stimulus to fix up her run-down, rural South Carolina school. Her letter caught the eye of President Obama and a Chicago-based industrial furniture dealer. The dealer donated over $250,000 worth of new furniture to replace desks and chairs that date from 1940 and were still in use. Teachers and volunteers spent a whole weekend on the surprise transformation that also included painting the cafeteria in school colors, according to the Charleston Post and Courier.

(Photo credit: Charleston Post and Courier) 

Tuesday morning roundup...

It's a rainy Tuesday morning on what my friend Joel and I have termed the longest week of the month. I'm more than a little sleepy and just a tad lazy, so I'm going to stick with a relatively random group of links today. I just really don't have the energy to find a theme or common thread beyond the obvious. I'll try harder tomorrow, I promise. 

Yahoo! had a story up yesterday about a man who bought a ledger for $200 that may contain the original formula for Dr. Pepper and now stands to make $50,000-$70,000 from auction. Personally I think the whole history aspect of finding a nearly 130 year-old book with such significance is cooler than the making a huge profit thing, but that may just be me.

Continuing in the food vein for a second, gourmetretailer.com gave a nod to the slowly recovering economy. The site noted retail sales in general rose in the last few months (excluding auto sales). Anytime the economy stays in the black, even if it's only by another percentage point, it's a good thing. 

I could be completely wrong about this since I did not pay much attention to the rest of the world as a child, but I could swear the Summer and Winter Olympics both used to occur every four years. I have no idea why I continue to cling to this thought, but a story I saw yesterday reminded me the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver are coming up. Canada has chosen its first Olympic torch-bearer for the Games. Ironically it's a man whose wife applied to be a torch-bearer for the 1988 Games and didn't get picked (Calgary Herald). 

And finally, May 3-9 is Be Kind to Animals week. The American Humane Association has been celebrating the relationship between animals and humans and trying to reach out to the community on this subject since 1915. Businesswire.com had a press release on the six children from around the country who won the AHA's "Be Kind to Animals Kid" contest for their efforts in volunteering and helping homeless animals. 

The Benton Courier had a story on kindness towards both humans and animals. Two women helped return a man's beloved dog who went missing in Arizona after the pair took a trip from Arkansas. Not only did they rescue the dog from being euthanized, they paid for his plane fare back to Arkansas when they found out the dog's owner couldn't afford it. 

Image from perpetualkid.com

It's rainy and gross out...

So I decided to go with a simple YouTube video that makes me laugh every time. 

Going global...

I found out today that May 1 is the fourth-annual Global Love Day. I had never heard of this. The website is a bit touchy-feely, but I think the concept of focusing on love and understanding is a good one. The main idea is "Love begins with me." Simple but effective. So for today, I will be showing the love to the international community. All the stories come from outside the US. : ) 

Beginning on the continent of North America, the Montreal Gazette does a weekly feature on a local teacher who has made a difference in the lives of his or her students. The article I found profiles Gail Gagnon, a woman who came to teaching later in life and now works with adults who are learning while working full-time jobs. They credit her with creating a vibrant and welcoming learning atmosphere.

We'll cross the Atlantic and then the Irish Sea for the next two stories. Walesonline.co.uk tells the story of a 70-year school reunion for the students enrolled in a Welsh school in 1939. The students of an all-boys grammar school were too young to fight in WWII, but they were not unaffected by the constant danger. However, the boys thrived under the guidance of a good headmaster and went on to succeed in their chosen professions.

Siliconrepublic.com, an Irish tech website, highlighted the recent launch of Eurocreator, a YouTube-like site for educational purposes. It was created in line with the EU recognizing 2009 as a Year of Creativity and Innovation. The site encourages kids to create their own media, but all submissions are moderated and the creators are offered constructive feedback. 

The last story comes from Africa and the Wildlife Conservation Society. Researchers have found "super reefs" in the waters off Madagascar, northern Mozambique, Tanzania and southern Kenya. These reefs not only survived a "bleaching" event, but they appear to have thrived under a ban on commercial fishing. Bleaching is caused by rising water temperatures (aka human-caused global warming), so for these reefs to basically reconstruct themselves with some simple help from people is a very good sign.

(Photo credit: blog.onboardinfomatics.com)