Too much fun :)

I've been trying to write this two-paragraph blog on and off for a few hours now, hoping to cover all the cool things I've discovered in the past few weeks that I can't wait to share with all my friends. We're awash in great stories! So instead, I'm giving each of them as a gift to you today: first, a trip through happiness, then some addictive vocabulary-building, and finally, smiles for everyone. All I ask is that you forward anything you take joy from to some of your friends to help spread all this generosity, happiness and caring as far as you can:

Happiness Project
Liz got to interview Gretchen because they're both in New York, but I found her first! (I even made a spot on my newly designed high-goodness iGoogle page for a subscription to her blog.) Her easy-going commentary on our individual quests for happiness is inspiring and endlessly helpful. I think I've become happier just watching Gretchen figure it out.

Vocabulary-building to end poverty: Free Rice
No joke. Head straight to Free Rice, play a vocab game, and for every right answer, 10 grains of rice are donated to the UN. Don't click if you don't have a few minutes though -- it'll snare you! While you play this insanely addictive game, the advertisers at the bottom are sending bits of that excess American capital known as advertising revenue to countries that need food. If you can pull yourself away from the game for a second, take a look at their stats. They've gone from hundreds of grains of rice a day donated to millions a day in only a month. Isn't it amazing what you can do to end poverty (we're assuming we already talked you into a mosquito net) in just a few clicks?

Smiles for Everyone: Smile Cards
You may remember our blog on the Seva Cafe, brought to us by the GlobalOnenessProject. Our friends at GlobalOneness introduced us to the Karma Kitchen in California. CharityFocus.org , creators of way cool "giving economy" projects are, I am certain, transforming the world already, through their endless efforts to spread generosity like a virus through the global internet community. Order your free Smile Cards here and start your own pay-it-forward ripples today. And, of course if you'd like a little more inspiring media today, there's Karma Tube, the "inner-net" YouTube.

These are just a few morsels to whet your appetite for upcoming stories about CharityFocus, the giving economy, and the rapid rise of generosity as the new capital. Stay tuned.

Comments

[littlem]

Donna - and anyone else reading - there are apparently 29,000 grains in a pound.

So if you donate 1000 grains a day, it's just over a pound a month (except you would have to do extra in February ;-)).

Whoever came up with FreeRice is a genius.

[Donna]

Whew! That Free Rice is addictive! Thanks for letting me know. Now I need to find out how many grains of rice in a pound, kilo, etc.