Marriage Links Happiness Levels Between Spouses

You'd better like how your fiancée feels, because they'll be
your emotions soon enough! From Public Records Search. 

Are you often in the same mood as your spouse? You're not alone. According to the Calgary Herald, married couples share happiness levels as long as they're together. The University of British Columbia's Christiane Hoppmann led the study of existing self-reported mood data from Seattle, Washington. The data came from 178 married couples between 1956 and 1991.

Compared to data of random pairs of men and women, married couples show a closer link in happiness. Hoppmann says, "Not only did spouses report similar levels of happiness when they entered the study, but when there were changes in happiness in one spouse, that did have an effect on the other spouse as well." These effects may take place because spouses share many of the same experiences and same stressors.

The study does leave room for speculation, however, because it did not look at same-sex marriages or long-term unmarried couples, though Hoppmann theorizes that the results would likely be the same.

Revenge Of The Characters

I know, I promised a character interview. Unfortunately, as the title states, my characters have taken revenge on me by not complying with anything -- ANYTHING -- that I want them to do. Especially this enigma right here.

I can't figure out for the life of me what exactly he is. Oh, I know that he's human (that much is obvious) but other then that, I'm drawing a blank. Leauphaun and I can't even figure out what exactly he's supposed to look like, much less what his personality is. I'm thinking something like Kearn from The Door Within Trilogy, aka, the "bad boy" of the story. The specifics are mysteriously elusive, however.


On a happier note, I can't believe I forgot to mention this in my last post! On November 11, I officially (and finally) broke 200,000 words in my journal. That's writing anywhere from 1 to 700 words every day since September 1, 2007. Actually, I missed one day since then. But that's it. I was going to hold a party to celebrate, but I think I may just buy myself a new hat as a reward. Sounds lame, doesn't it? Chocolate might be a better idea. . .


Sorry for the shortness of this post, but it's getting late. Wait. What am I talking about? I have another three-four hours before I go to bed. Maybe I should just keep on writing. . . Then again, I don't have a clue what I'm saying. It would probably be safest if I stopped right here.

~God Bless~

Toronto is Canada's Least Happy City

Feeling sad yet? From wallpaperbase.

Hey everyone, guess what:  holiday's over. We'll have to wait an ENTIRE month for the next one, so get back to work!

As you're shuffling to your jobs, be happy. Why? Because you don't live in Toronto. According to this story from The Star, Torontonians are the least happy citizens in Canada. These results come from a study called Does Money Matter?: Determining the Happiness of Canadians.

The researchers theorize that Toronto's low happiness scores come from its long commute times (sometimes reaching two hours), high stress levels, and lack of community feeling due to sky-scraper living. It is also Canada's "immigrant capitol," which effects happiness because immigrants often have difficulty finding jobs.

If you DO live in Toronto, take heart:  Canada is still an excellent place to live. It often ranks among the five happiest countries in the world, and is the happiest member of G7. If the big city is REALLY getting you down, however, you might think about moving to the North Shore of Vancouver.

So how was everyone's Thanksgiving? I didn't really do much, since I'm half the country away from my family, but I'd still like to hear about everyone else. Then it'll be like YOU are my family! AWWW!

In defense of the TSA

Having lived in Manhattan during the September 11^th attacks- seeing smoke rise from where the Twin Towers once stood, reading thousands of missing posters on every surface of the city and cheering in the streets for the FDNY and NYPD workers who fought so hard to rescue strangers- I know first hand what a terrorist attack looks like. I may have been young, not even knowing what terrorism was at the time, but I knew for the first time that there were people out there willing to die to kill Americans. It is for this reason alone that I’m more than willing to sacrifice some discomfort at the airport to thwart us from losing more lives at home.

It is blurry in my view how sacrificing lives in the Middle East is keeping us safer at home. I tend to feel like the massive and seemingly endless War in Afghanistan in only increasing discontent overseas and thus heightening our risk of a terrorist attack at home. Many European countries, such as Germany, are weighing their involvement in the war as threats at home mount. Weather or not what we are we are giving up over there is worth the money and lives, there is no question we can give up something at home to keep our nation safe.

While I wont go as far as to say those who conscientiously object to the intrusive TSA pat-downs and strip searches are unpatriotic, I have no problem calling many of them selfish. People simply put their own comfort above the safety of our country. While I recognize the immoral nature of forcing a father to take the clothes off his 7-year old son so TSA employees can make sure he doesn’t have a bomb on him right there in the public view, I would advocate for more privacy and better conduct at the airports, not the elimination of important security protocols. I find the outcry of conservatives labeling the Obama administrations allowance of heightened security to be incredibly overblown and hypocritical. They are willing to sign up men and women to die overseas in the name of national security, but suddenly when a Democrat’s White House tries to ensure national security at the airports, its criminally unconstitutional? In their eagerness to pin every ounce of public dissatisfaction in America on President Obama, the Republican Party is attempting to identify the security procedures as big leftist government chewing on our rights. Suddenly siding with the ALCU, Mike Huckabee, for instance, has taken on a rather unspoken voice on the topic, calling pat-downs “ a humiliating and degrading, totally unconstitutional intrusion”. It’s funny hearing him say this, for less than 5 years ago, he defended the Patriot Act under George Bush, saying we needed to “use everything at the president’s disposal to keep us safe” while voting against Topic 14- the liberal bill that targeted the law for harming civil liberties. Convenient that safety at the disposal of a Democrat is unconstitutional but a Republican’s warentless wiretapping procedures are just fine.

The politicizing of the airport security issue is yet another near-flawless example politicians addiction to partisanship. I find it disgusting that national security is being mishandled to take a populist stance against the president. I’m not a big fan of Obama’s disappointing time in power, but I’m not fishing for put-downs either. It’s time we came together on something, and I ask, what better to come together around during the holiday season when we are all trying to be together, than our safety?

November 25th Photograph of the Day

Happy Thanksgiving!

Nice Poem:

Thank you for inviting us

To your Thanksgiving dinner.

A day spent in your company

Is invariably a winner.

Thank you for the time you spent

Preparing all the food;

For making us feel welcome,

You have our gratitude!

By Joanna Fuchs

HAPPY Thanksgiving!

From Netstate.

Yes, today is Thanksgiving, the American celebration of eating and awkward family moments. Remember to give thanks for what you have, even if you don't tell anyone, because gratitude increases happiness, whether you you make it public or not.

I'll probably take the next few days off, just so you know. See you on the next non-holiday!

Bhangarh: The Most Haunted City in India

The city with a history full of mystery, so the right word to describe the city in the Rajasthan region, this region north of Jaipur.

According to legend, never happened in Bhangarh mass murder. After the massacre, was never an additional population in the city this mystery. After that incident also, a city founded in 1630 was left abandoned for 10 years.

Of course, though now the city has been opened, but the mystery and horror still smell to this day. No one living in the city. Even the local archeological office is located outside Bhangarh. A warning message at the entrance of the city had indeed explain everything.

"Staying here after sunset is Strictly prohibited," strictly forbidden to live in this city after sunset, the smell of the warning message reads. Instead, visitors can stay in super luxury resort Amanbagh located about 10 km from Bhangarh.

SPECIAL REPORT: Happy Movie Pre-Order!!

Buy buy BUY!!

Yes, I'm selling something, but hopefully that's okay because you'll like it. We at the Happy movie are selling a pre-release DVD for $19.99. Order now and get it in time for Christmas!

This is Oscar-nominated filmmaker Roko Belic's latest documentary feature. It is a journey across 14 countries on 5 continents featuring interviews with extraordinary everyday people, as well as positive psychology superstars Ed Diener, Richard Davidson, Sonja Lyubomirsky, the people and leaders of Bhutan, and many more. Also features appearances by Daniel Gilbert and the Dalai Lama.

So head over to our buy page for more info. You can get special deals on three- and ten-packs if you have a lot of Christmas shopping to do. You can also try our "Award Winner" pack, which includes Happy, the Oscar-nominated Genghis Blues, and the multi-award-winning Indestructible, an inspiring documentary about an ALS patient who travels the world one last time. If you like T-shirts, you can also get those in children's or adult sizes.

And that's not all! Roko Belic, the man himself, will personally sign all pre-order DVDs of Happy! We won't stop until his signin' hand falls off! He has worked very hard on this film for four years, and now it's ready for release.

I have seen the film many times (I even transcribed it word-for-word) and I can attest to both its emotional power and its educational value for people learning about happiness science. It never loses its ability to move, especially when seeing it with a crowd (like I did in San Francisco).

So give it a try. This limited edition pre-order will end December 31. After that, you'll have to wait until the official release.

Man Attempts to Live an Entire Year Without Unhappiness

From Twitter.

Today the Wall Street Journal reports on a man named Cathal Morrow who is trying to live an entire year without feeling unhappy. According to his website, he started this project because of his belief that happiness is a permanent state underpinning all other feelings, so if we can remind ourselves to be happy, we will be. He uses techniques like jumping up and down to stave off unhappiness.

This project comes hot on the heels of his last one:  living a whole year without lying. Morrow's honesty experiment was sponsored by Ten Large Capital, a private equity firm, and he will probably release a book about it. He is currently looking for someone to sponsor his happiness project. Unfortunately, his website apparently hasn't been updated since July, so we can't check in on his progress, but he still tweets regularly.

What do YOU think about projects like this? Would you be able to chase away unhappiness for a whole year? Is that even desirable? Drop us a line in the comments section.

Costco Tops Employee Happiness List

Who would have thought that spending
all day here could make you happy?
From TCMnet.

Just in time for the holidays comes this story from The Globe and Mail. According to a new survey from CareerBliss, Costco has the happiest employees among retail chain stores. Rounding out the top three are Nordstrom and Old Navy.

CareerBliss's Happiest Holiday Retailer list combines data from almost 100,000 independent reviews submitted to their website. The reviews rate each company on a scale of one to five in these eight categories:  growth opportunity, compensation, benefits, work-life balance, career advancement, senior management, job security, and employee recommendation of the job. Costco has the best salary and benefits on the list, which contribute to its high happiness rating, but other companies made the list because of work-life balance--even with lower salary than the companies below them.

It's an interesting list because I never thought working in a mega-store could make ANYONE happy. Also, Wal Mart, the biggest corporation in the world, doesn't even make CareerBliss's top ten. All is mystery when it comes to employee happiness! Go to the news story for the full list.

Bush has never sounded so smart

Assessing Obama's G-20 Failure

History repeating itself as Obama worsens US image worldwide & students re-evaluate support.

After his disapproval rating toppled 50 percent and the divided country rejected his party during the midterm elections, one can imagine our President was happy to visit his childhood home in Indonesia and escape it all. Luckily for him, in that leg of his 10-day trip to Asia nothing went wrong.

Things turned real sour for Barrack Obama, however, when he left Indonesia for a high-expectation trip to South Korea. Obama landed with big hopes of reaching two vital foreign policy goals. The first failed flat as the U.S was unable to achieve a long-awaited free trade agreement with South Korea. The president’s second goal- to unify nations around worldwide economic stimulus was discarded on a monumental level. Germany, Great Brittan, China and South Korea all criticized the attempt, labeling it as a selfish ploy to boost the value of the American dollar. The trip marked the first time in U.S history that a president and his treasury Secretary were entirely rebuffed at an international economic summit.

After the pitiful failure of the United States in Korea, the news hit America hard. November 12^th’s Seattle Times cover read “Cooperation tumbles at G-20 summit as trade tensions cloud horizons”. The front page of The New York Times spelled things out clearly- “Obama’s economic view is rejected on World Stage”. As for the Wall Street Journal, “Embarrassment is Seoul”. What’s clear is that the world is not cooperating with Barack Obama, who many say is isolating the world left and right.

“Moving the deadline for withdrawal in Afghanistan from July 2011 to late 2014 sent a clear message to the international community” argued sophomore Noah Gallo-Brown. “I’ve always been behind Obama, but there is no doubt he’s alienating some traditionally anti-war allies right now.” Other students on campus expressed a lack of confidence in Obama’s ability to produce results on an international stage. “I’m not surprised worldwide support is fading,” said sophomore Kalia Ryan. “He has not proven to anyone he’s able to achieve US interests away from home”.

President Obama is facing a public increasingly disapproving of a seemingly endless War against the Taliban, as many believe he invoked September 11^th to justify a pursuit of the wrong target, away from Pakistan. Sound familiar? The outrage with President Bush’s foreign policy came largely from the false drawing of connection between Pakistan’s plane hijackers and Iraq. History seems to be repeating itself here, as we can all remember the ugly days of the US war on terror as then-president George W. Bush faced tremendous scorn from an American public practically ready to try him for war crimes. The unjust occupation of the Iraqi people resulted in the loss of more American’s than the September 11^th attacks that prompted invasion. In Afghanistan, a massive surge in troop levels and a commitment to remain on the ground for years to come largely mirrors the strategy of our previous administration in Iraq.

Disdain for the War in Afghanistan has grown internationally- particularly amongst countries with troops assisting the U.S mission. The Dutch people have protested in large numbers against their military’s involvement in the Middle East. President of one of the most anti-war publics in France, Nicholas Sarkosy, declared 8 months ago that he would not add troops to Afghanistan, and as citizens have pressured him to remain firm on the issue, France has pushed back against American pressure to up levels of combat soldiers. Great Britain sent just five hundred British troops to Afghanistan due to the ever-growing opposition the war throughout the UK.

So, as Barrack Obama loses international citizens he once winned over, American has already begun to asses if he will remain our president for a second term. “2012 could prove that this administration is losing trust” says Native American Spanish major, Joel Begay. “People are beginning to re-evaluate his presidency”.

Best Travel of Peter Island Resort

Peter Island is exclusive luxury resort. Peter Island zresort as one of the "Best Places to Stay in the World" and "Top 20 Islands of the World". The Peter Island Resort in the British Virgin Islands.

The Peter Island resort lies a few miles across the Sir Frances Drake Channel, directly opposite Road Town on Tortola. Given that the British Virgin Islands are some of the most glorious chunks of paradise on earth it would be hard to imagine anything more breathtaking than a resort spread over a privately owned 1800 acre island.Simple open walled architecture houses the lobby and public areas to make the most of the steady tradewind breezes that cool the rooms and villas naturally, should guests prefer not to use air-conditioning. Hidden between swaying palms and overlooking stupendous views of land and sea, the resort is clustered around the pristine sands of Deadman's beach and the neighbouring bay. Stunning mountainous terrain, exquisite beaches, secluded coves and an inherent tranquillity. Peter Island Resort fulfils the most extravagant of expectations with its low-key perfection.

More Pictures from Peter Island Resort above :