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Thursday, May 31, 2012

Life=Risk

LOVE THIS! A must see!

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

What makes YOU happy?

What makes you happy?

Published by the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley

That was the question more than 400 UC Berkeley students had to consider before they completed Psychology 162 this spring. This was no ordinary assignment, and it was no ordinary class. The class, called “Human Happiness,” was taught by Greater Good Science Center Faculty Director Dacher Keltner, a professor of psychology at Berkeley. Keltner offered his students an interdisciplinary tour of the new science of happiness, covering topics such as gratitude, awe, humor, and compassion.
Toward the end of the semester, Keltner presented his students with an unusual extra credit assignment: Produce a short video illustrating at least one of the key concepts covered in “Human Happiness.” The videos had to be short (1-3 minutes), draw on the material they covered in class, and answer the question, “What makes you happy?”
Working alone or in groups, more than 100 students submitted a total of 60 videos. Keltner says he was blown away by the results.
“What you want as a teacher is for students to engage with the material really deeply and take it in their own directions,” he says. “You can never quite see that on an exam. But this assignment really captured the students’ vision—their personal voice, the depth of their reflection. It brought tears to my eyes, to be honest.”
Greater Good staff narrowed the pool of 60 submissions to 10 finalists, which it then presented to an illustrious panel of judges, including:
Keltner, who was teaching “Human Happiness” for the fourth time;
Yoo-Mi Lee, the coordinator of KarmaTube, a website that features inspiring videos;
filmmaker Frederick Marx, a producer of the documentary Hoop Dreams and the founder of Warrior Films;
UC Berkeley psychology professor Iris Mauss, an emotion researcher and happiness expert;
and Randy Taran, the founder of Project Happiness, which teaches young people “social and emotional skills for a meaningful life,” including through a documentary of the same name.
After careful deliberation, the judges scored the videos, and we are now pleased to present the winners of our first-ever “Human Happiness” Student Video Competition.

Here they are:




Sunday, May 27, 2012

Fun with Friends!

Our dear friends Andrea, Marianna, Reyna, Jenn, Brett and Laila come over yesterday for a fun-filled play date/happy hour! The girls (Zoey, Marianna & Laila) played and danced and screamed and basically had a blast together, while the adults sipped sangria and talked up a storm. Oh how I love our friends!

Friday, May 25, 2012

COOKIE!!

Zoey has been eating her meals SO WELL - she's even been begging us to give her broccoli! We don't eat many sweets in our house, but we gave Zoey a chocolate chip cookie the other night for dessert after eating such a good dinner, and she was OVER THE MOON with excitement! Oh the simple pleasures in life! :)

Monday, May 21, 2012

Celebrating the Bride-to-Be!

Saturday was spent with some amazing ladies celebrating my dear friend Pamela - the bride-to-be! We got mani/pedis, window shopped, and had a delicious lunch (and cake!) at Chow in Lafayette. What a gorgeous, sunny, fun-filled day! Congrats Pamela & Paul - I can't wait to celebrate with you on your big day next month!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Mother's Day Weekend 2012

Family time, fun in the pool on a hot day, people watching at the Park Street Fair (and a petting zoo!), and most importantly - more memories made and moments captured with my little girl. And getting to spend time with my mommy was icing on the cake. :)

Friday, May 11, 2012

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Join the Flock!

“Join the Flock” Viral Video: Twitter hardly needs to stir up excitement for its brand among aspiring engineers, who are well attuned to the world-changing company. Still, during its 2012 Hack Week—a weeklong innovation event at Twitter HQ—higher-ups provoked employees to make the “best/worst recruiting video of all time.” The challenge was met successfully by employees Ian Padgham and Jeremy Briggs. The resulting video, which cost nothing to make and required no new equipment, purposefully features the clumsy editing, staged interactions, and cheesy catch-phrases that so delight viewers of B-movies and budget infomercials. The video struck an instant chord with viewers, garnering nearly 500,000 views in just two days. !HAHA

Sunday, May 6, 2012

13.1 - Because I'm only HALF crazy! :)

I did it! Today I officially completed my first half marathon and it feels great! What a wonderful accomplishment - after months of training, LOTS of running (even in the cold, rain and wind), and daily doses of self-discipline I crossed the finish line with an official time of 02:31:22 :) Yes, I do feel like a Diva!

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Evil Eye Zoey....

Watch out world - haha! ;)