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I absolutely love it. (via imjustcreative.posterous.com…via soulride.tumblr.com)

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WASHINGTON — People in sunny, outdoorsy states — Louisiana, Hawaii, Florida — say they’re the happiest Americans, and researchers think they know why.

A new study comparing self-described pleasant feelings with objective measures of good living found these folks generally have reason to feel fine.

Hoosiers, however, were among the least happy in the country — third from the bottom of the list. Indiana does have some things working against it on the happiness front.

Through the winter, leaden skies can block out the sun for weeks at a time. We’ve still got a high unemployment rate, and we have problems with pollution. And then there are the Pacers.

The places where people are most likely to report happiness also tend to rate high on studies comparing things such as climate, crime rates, air quality and schools.

The happiness ratings were based on a survey of 1.3 million people across the country by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It used data collected over four years that included a question asking people how satisfied they are with their lives.

Economists Andrew J. Oswald of the University of Warwick in England and Stephen Wu of Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., compared the happiness ranking with studies that rated states on a variety of criteria, including availability of public land, commuting time and local taxes.

Their report in today’s edition of the journal Science found the happiest people tend to live in the states that do well in quality-of-life studies.

Oswald said “this is the first objective validation of ‘happiness’ data,” which is something he said economists have been reluctant to use in the past.

Ranking No. 1 in happiness was Louisiana, home of Dixieland music and Cajun/Creole cooking.

Oswald urged a bit of caution in that ranking, however, noting that part of the happiness survey occurred before Hurricane Katrina struck the state in 2005, and part of it took place later. Nevertheless, he said, “We have no explicit reason to think there is a problem” with the ranking.

I heard this story on NPR today and was stunned that Indiana ranked so poorly. Then on second thought, I understand some of the criterion. But still….third from last?

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I was incredibly fortunate to have attended this past Sunday’s Colts/Broncos matchup at Lucas Oil Stadium. We had a corporate Christmas party outing to the game, and as I had anticipated, it was THE GAME of the season.

There have been much more tense games this season, but Sunday, the Colts proved their dominance in the sport, and put themselves helmet and shoulderpads above the competition of this season as well as all-time.

Clinching simultaneously, the envious playoff position of home-field advantage alongside the coveted bye-week, AND securing the record of best winning record with the most consecutive wins ever, with a streak of 22.

Being there to witness this is now in my books as a truly historic moment in sports along with: 2007 winning streak by the Colorado Rockies, followed by GAME FOUR of the World Series, watching the Red Sox beat my aforementioned team, and most notably, watching the Cincinnati Reds’ Tom Browning pitch a perfect game in September of 1988.

I’m starting to wonder if I’m good luck to the teams I cheer for!

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What an interesting experiment and journey.

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The Poem is by Walt, the recording by Will Geer. Such a nice piece of writing and a wonderful recording.

(Thanks to the Levi’s commercial, by way of www.artofmanliness.com)

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I love food. I love thanksgiving. And I love this thought.

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Eric Nentrup
http://ericnentrup.com

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Eric Nentrup
http://ericnentrup.com

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Quite possibly the coolest use of legos EVER.

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Thanks to Chris (http://tr.im/wJjm) and MacNiven’s ( http://tr.im/wJjB)…I now love Scotch Eggs and am going to have to make some!

Check out the recipe.

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Oh. Wow.

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Oh, Yes, it’s all about Performance.

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Simply astonishing. Mark Buehrle’s perfect game is captured here, out-for-out in five-and-a-half minutes. What a thing of beauty. I can’t think of anything else in all of sports like a perfect game.

If you don’t understand what the fuss is about…this video is the best example I can think of as it condenses the whole game into mere minutes.

I swear, your jaw will drop at 4:15 when you see DeWayne Wise chase down a centerfield homerun and blatantly STEAL the ball from the forces of evil that would dare try to put asunder such an accomplishment in the making.

I was incredibly fortunate to be at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati for the 1988 Tom Browning perfect game against the Dodgers. I was only a 12-year-old and had no idea the magnitude of what I was watching that September night with my lifelong friend Rudy and his grandparents. Especially since we waited out something like a 3-hour rain delay. Browning’s was the 12th EVER. I still have the ticket stub some 20 years later.

To see Buehrle throw only the 19th EVER today gives me a fresh appreciation for seeing Browning do it. And I can’t overlook DeWayne Wise who left it all on the field for his teammate. Can’t say any starting pitcher for the Dodgers could count on Manny Ramirez to do the same.

Way to go Mark Buerhle. And thanks for making baseball a game to love.

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I love Shepard’s work. And I’m so glad to see his involvement with Lance’s return, not for the sake of celebrating an athlete, but for the cause.

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“This discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners’ souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality.”

So, is he right? Are innovations like Amazon, the iPhone, Google Books and other mashups of modern hardware and software with classic content reducing our intellects to the semblance of truth as opposed to the attainment of genuine wisdom?

Remember…David Allen of Getting Things Done fame chides one for using your brain as a “trusted system,” admonishing one to export, download, and contain your data anywhere besides your noggin, because your brain is NOT capable of keeping up. So, put that in your marble pipe and smoke it, Socrates.

Really, we have Gutenberg to blame, not Steve Jobs or Jeff Bezos. Gutenberg’s contribution to society was the ultimate liberator. It began the toppling of the pseudo-theocracies of the time, or whatever you call a governing body ruling strictly on the basis of having more cumulative knowledge than the masses. Wait…that’s ANY tyrannical governing body.

Regardless, the printing press ushered in an era of “privacy” and individualism where one could “hole up” with a good book and engage ideas without the intervention or guidance of others. They could decide for themselves what they thought or felt about a subject. Of course, that’s a transactional occurrence. The “deposit” into individualism was made by a “withdrawal” from public and communal life activities: public storytelling, theater, speeches, etc.

Considering that we STILL have public performance in many shapes and forms today, and have the added bonus of being able to REVIEW the text of these performances (that used to be exclusively “you had to be there” situations), it seems to me that Gutenberg’s printing press was a non-zero-sum, win-win, invention and contribution to society. And for years I’ve thought that the public domain collection at Gutenberg.org was fantastic and I have wanted a better way to access it than trying to read it on my computer screen or print it myself. Finally the hardware/software has caught up.

So, maybe Socrates couldn’t envision an Amazon Kindle, let alone a Barnes and Noble. And that’s okay, he had bigger fish to fry.

One more Gutenberg observation, I’ve heard it claimed that it was the printing press that was the second coming of Jesus Christ, because suddenly, the Word of God was available to any and all, not just the elite and educated. The theory maintains that because Jesus was the “Word made flesh” that the availability of the printed Bible constituted his anticipated second-coming. Not sure about that, but being able to READ such crazy theories is always enjoyable and entertaining. I’d argue that reading these thoughts is more mentally stimulating, in comparison to hearing someone rant extemporaneously about it. But what do I know…by typing my opinions, I’m using the very medium in question.

Although the printed page is getting more and more pressure, Johannes paved the way for us to come up with a better mouse trap. So, does the mouse trap make our lives better or is Socrates right? Does it matter to our gray matter? Or is it GREY matter? I don’t know…I’ll have to look it up on my smartphone.

I’ve been wanting to put together a fixed gear bicycle for quite a while now. Last night I got this guy up and running. And man…it is FUN. It’s about as simple as you can get on a bike, with no shifting, no coasting, and one brake lever. I had no clue how it was going to ride or that I’d enjoy it so much. I still love my road bike, but this old Fuji that I picked up for $1.99 at Goodwill (seriously) is my new toy!

I’m looking forward to painting it up and giving it some character. More photos to come!

I pre-ordered a case of Fat Tire*8 and a couple bottles of their Mothership Wheat and 1554.

New Belgium not only makes a fantastic product, they do it with passion and do it well. They protect the environment, give generously to the community of Ft. Collins, and take righteous care of their employees. I tried VERY hard to land a job there a couple of years ago!

Can’t recommend it enough. Stop by next week and see for yourself!

Baseball has returned and winter is declared over. The Yanks and Mets have new cribs, players have shifted around the leagues, and somewhere today, vendors will be crying COLD BEER, HERE! Nachos, and hot dogs will be slathered and gulped. There will be controversy, there will be disappointment, and somewhere after the All-Star break, there will even be a sense that October will never get here. But those moments are fleeting, or should be, and ultimately pale in comparison to the evergreen grass, the rich patina of a loved leather glove, and the glorious crack of the bat.

The game of baseball is one of our most enduring emblems of hope. It persists, season after season, and the promise of players giving it their all against the backdrop of an eager Spring, is something we all need. Play ball!

Even as the inauguration from two weeks ago begins to fade into history, and the bleak realities of a world in trouble take their place, still present is the hum, the hope of something different.

Maira Kalman’s illustrated tour, “And the Pursuit of Happiness,” captures the fleeting moment well, and frames a new perspective looking forward.

I’ve been marking every 1,000th day since 10,000. I stumbled across a website that does it for you and you might find this more interesting than your own birthday…especially since it takes nearly three years to log a thousand days.

13,000…here I come!

From NYTimes.com

There is something different about America today. Something substantially different. Subtantially.

That’s the word — “of substance.” What we’ve experienced today is personally moving, and the best is yet to come as it’s so obvious that the President is ready to go to work.

I have had many moments today, of absolute joy about Barack Obama’s inaugural ceremony.

If you weren’t able to see or hear President Obama’s speech today–even if you did–I encourage you to give it some time. It will be well spent.

You can listen to it here. And I’ve uploaded a PDF transcript, along with my annotated comments about the speech, for you to follow along. It truly bears a second and third review.

Written by Jon Favreau, who is quite dialed into the literate and eloquent Obama, I believe there are a few phrases in there that we’ll be quoting.

Here’s the speech in it’s entirety:

The Guardian has an excerpt from the book about the 10,000 Hour Phenomenon–the commonly recurring statistic hypothesizing that the truly great masters of any discipline have in common, around 10,000 banked hours of practice. That is roughly 3 hours a day for a decade. According to Gladwell, there are other contributing factors, but it’s the sheer discipline that separates an “outlier” from the rest of the pack.

I’ve yet to pick up a copy of the book, but I’m already considering how I’ve spent my last 10,000 hours, and how I plan to spend my next. Right now, I’d have to say it wasn’t the most terribly focused time spent on one particular discipline. But if you could figure it all out, I’d say it was spent mostly on a Mac, probably working in Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, or on web stuff. Basically, that would mean I’m an ‘expert’ at Multimedia Production, generally. 

And though I make a living with those skills, I don’t consider myself an expert. The rabbit holes are DEEP. I’ve had to do what I’ve had to do to earn a living in multimedia with an emphasis on video production.

So. I’m going to work on a plan for my NEXT 10K Hours. I’m confident I have plenty of equity to bring forward. But I’m also convinced I need to sharpen it up and make some commitment to a specific role.

May America be an agent of blessing to the world in the coming days and years.