William Saletan on a new study about happiness:

A study suggests extreme happiness may be bad for you. Findings: 1) “The highest levels of income, education and political participation were reported not by the most satisfied individuals, but by moderately satisfied individuals.” 2) Extremely happy people “earned significantly less money” and earned lower school grades than moderately happy people. 3) They “may not live as long,” either.
…
Researchers’ conclusions: 1) “Happiness may need to be moderated for success.” 2) “Extremely high levels of happiness might not be a desirable goal.” Human Nature’s conclusions: 1) Success may need to be moderated for happiness. 2) Extremely high levels of success might not be a desirable goal.

tags: happy, webloggish

I have not posted in a long time.

First we went to California: Santa Barbara, Los Altos, San Francisco. Then we came back.

Now Peter has been here for a couple of days. We have done many things:

• Saw the Simpsons Movie
• Rode the Metro
• Ate in Bethesda
• Went to Chinatown, National Building Museum, the National Gallery Sculpture Garden, the Hirshorn and the Natural History Museum
• Biked downtown on the trail, saw the Lincoln Memorial, WWII Memorial and Vietnam Memorial
• Toured GWU
• Had dinner with Peter’s sister in Dupont Circle
• Went to the Baltimore Aquarium and saw the Dolphin show
• Browsed Second Story Book’s warehouse headquarters in Rockville for hours
• Walked around Great Falls

The weather has been very cold, in the sixties — not so different from California. It is bizarre. My brain feels mushy and slow. School fast approaches.

tags: happy

just got back from 3 1/2 nonstop days in Oak Park. I didn’t even bother bringing my laptop and I never opened the two books I brought. We:

• Had tapas and walked through a cemetery
• biked along Lake Michigan
• walked through Oak Park during the Harry Potter Countdown to Midnight Book Release Festival
• attended a seminar at Chicago Green Tech
• drove to Goose Lake Prairie and got ambushed by tics and a bit sunburned
• window shopped in Chinatown with Stefan, purchased kung fu shoes, and ate a truly disgusting amount of dim sum
• enjoyed multiple delicious homemade meals

All in all, splenderific!

tags: globetrotting, happy

I’ve survived my first week at home! Quite a feat. The cats are warming up to me. They will sit in my room now even if Mummy is not here.

I still haven’t unpacked very much… I am doing laundry for the first time since I have come home today. I have temporarily lost my set of Allen wrenches, but I think they will turn up. I ordered a cheap pannier bag yesterday to use when I have attached the rack to my bike. I’m also saved loads on my summer school textbooks by getting them on half.com.

Best of all, Maurie is home! Tonight I’m going to see Love’s Labor Lost with the Kathan Clan. Can’t wait.

tags: biking, happy, home, purchase

This week I had no class and nothing due. I’ve mostly been working on my group project for CG116. We are redesigning the course search page for Banner, the new system that Brown has adopted to handle everything (registration, financial aid, admission, grades, etc). I am doing the HTML and CSS. That part has not been so bad, but it has been really frustrating to work out conceptually the best way to arrange things. It has me tickled. I have never worked on a project like this with other people before. It is an interesting experience.

On Tuesday I went to New Haven with Peter to visit two Louis Kahn buildings. One was beautiful (Yale Center for British Art) and one was all right (Yale Art Gallery). We also checked out the Yale Art and Architecture Building designed by Paul Rudolph. It was probably the worst most oppressive building I have ever encountered. We also saw Peter Eisenman, who is apparently famous in the architecture world, sitting in his office which he possibly shares with Neumann, a Brown professor who is visiting Yale.

On Wednesday I went to the beach in Newport, RI with Katie. Yesterday I didn’t do much. Today I went to the Recycling Center with Peter and then a photo walk with Donald. Tonight is another Cobra concert.

tags: design, globetrotting, happy

Highlight of yesterday: Brown New Music performance of John Zorn’s Cobra “game piece”. Josh (tenor sax, flute, computer) and Peter (electric guitar) played in it as well as a bunch of other people (piano, cello, upright bass, percussion, drums, crackle box, tape looper, keyboard, alto sax). SO COOL. I didn’t know what to expect because Brown New Music concerts tend to be hit or miss, but this was awesome.

tags: friends, happy, live, music