More Joy Day - Spread It Like Butter

Thank you to whoever sent the hugging bear virtual gift! That is--God--so adorable.

*sends hugs*

Anyway, according to the Fangirl Calendar (can someone get on making one of those? Wouldn't it be convenient? To always know when our official holidays are?), today is More Joy Day.

One of the interesting things I've noticed about my preparations for More Joy Day are how happy they've made me, just trying to find things I could do for others. It's been a good reminder to myself that I find the most joy in helping other people be happy.

So. Go make someone smile! (I've seen the idea is five people? Somewhere? Five is good. Or one. If they smile really big.)

...so I should, you know, probably get on that myself, right? Hmm. Joy. Joy joy joy. Rapture. That does not involve Tabasco sauce. Spreading joy. You know, this may be harder than I thought.

ETA: Okay, this is joyful, though I'm not the one spreading it. otw_news has a post up called Why I Joined OTW, with links to various board, committee members, and supporters. It's good reading.

More Joy Day - Take Two

Over time, svmadelyn and I have realized that the fastest and easiest way to completely screw up my ability to carry on a conversation is about thirty minutes after I've taken a ritalin, I hit either Encyclopedia Dramatica, Savage Love, or a major news site I haven't visited in a week.

There's an actual compulsion to read everything, which is why I have learned more about hentai (in color!) than I ever really thought I could and may never recover from finally seeing goatse. (You know, it wasn't as bad as I thought, but then I remember the fact that in Smallville, Clark was fisted a lot. This, I think, blunted the edges of my trauma. Mostly I double blinked, then checked my AIM and YIM lists to see who was awake and who I was geographically far enough away that I didn't have to worry about death. Sadly, amireal those people were already in bed.

It's actually something I faintly noted but hadn't connected with anything; on it's own, the stuff doesn't really do anything that I notice, like wearing glasses while gardening. Maybe I can see the dirt better, but seriously, dirt. You see it better, it doesn't look all that different. But like wearing glasses when driving ("Oh. That's a sign! I thought it was a red blob! So stop here, huh? Who knew?") it's effective as *hell* when I have to finish something that requires a lot of concentration and a glee in anal retentiveness (I own six separate del.icio.us accounts that are in a kind of terrifying order and most of my lj is not only tagged, but retagged.) Which is why I learned how to time my doses at work so I wouldn't start focusing until my email was finished being checked and answered, but when I was already working. Nice stuff. Strangely, does not decrease appetite at all. The anti-drug propaganda lied. Damn them.

More Joy Day

Okay, three things that made me happy on my flist:

1.) The person giving random teddy bears. That is just made of win; whoever did that and made so many people so happy (including me)? Thank you. If it was several someone's, you are totally and amazingly awesome. So many happy posts in a row, I thought the joy level on my flist would reach proportions unseen before in history.

2.) Several people on my flist posted random joy about their lives that made me smile a lot. I love when people share their domestic and general life happiness so casually, as unself-consciously as a comfortable pair of shoes. It always brightens my day to read it, even if I forget to comment, which should totally be a resolution now that I think about it: comment on people's ljs!

3.) Why I Joined OTW Week - several people posted today, and reading the shining hope for OTW and what it could, would, and does represent to them was--very lovely. I like parades of happiness wandering by, for whatever it might be. That I believe it too was a bonus.

I read about their hopes for the new archive, the hard work of the volunteers, svmadelyn not paying attention to me during ComRel meetings no matter how many times I tell her I'll cut myself and dedicate bad poetry to her neglect enjoying those on my flist who are on the committees getting slowly more enthused as they start to build something that incorporates a thousand fannish hopes into something possible.

It's nice to see such unalloyed hope wrapped in words.

*from nestra's post