I am having an absurdly fun time working on my Happiness Project. I guess that’s kind of the point…

Some randomness:

• Stuff which makes me Feel Good and stuff which makes me Feel Bad are more closely related than i previously realised. Odd.
• There is nothing like tracking the tag ‘happiness’ on Tumblr for random bits of glee. There’s the expected happiness quotes, and happy pictures, and gratitude journal entries, but also sweet touching stories – real, unforced, this-is-how-my-day-went-and-it-was-happy! diary pages. I love it.
• I. Love. Maps. Especially metro maps, apparently. This is the sort of thing i technically knew but which didn’t really get into my head until i started the HP. In the Happiness Project book (which i haven’t actually finished yet, but whatever, i’m working on it…), there’s a section on collections and various reasons they make some people happy. ‘Hm, well, i doubt i’ll start really collecting anything any time soon, but as a wee mental exercise, what kind of things would i collect?’ I do plan on starting a proper knife/sword collection soon, but anything else? Maybe tarot decks? Bonsai trees? Antique books?
  Turns out you can get suggestions for anything on Hunch. Including collections. And OMG MAPS WANT NOW PLZ.
  So much for ‘not starting a collection any time soon.’ Granted, right now my ‘collection’ is all-digital, held together in Vi.sualize.us, but i have a new obsession. And i have no idea how i’m going to go about this, but i want to get together with the genealogists in my family (of which there are surprisingly many) and make some sort of Family Tree-Map. Make me happy. Make the history geeks happy. Win all around!