Passing the Happiness Along

The latest award making the rounds appears to be the Happy 101, which I have to thank my Michiganer compadre Stephanie Damore for gifting me with.

If you folks give me any more awards I might have to make a standard post somewhere just to list all them. That said, I do appreciate each and every one of these fun little confabulations that I get.

The rules, as I understand them, are that I have to list ten things that make me happy. Well, here goes.

1. My wife. She's witty, loves video games as much as I do, and takes seriously her job of keeping me on my toes day in and day out. Oh yeah, and I managed to brainwash her into loving the show Doctor Who. Mwahahaha!

2. Reading. I love what little time I have to spend curled up in bed or on the couch with one of my favorite novels, or a new book by a well-loved author. It's generally either a book by Terry Pratchett, Jim Butcher, or Simon R. Green if you must know.

3. Writing. If I don't write for a really long time I start getting itchy. Of course, a really long time could be six months. Could be a year. Depends on how busy my life is.

4. The blogosphere. Y'all are a great community to be a part of. I enjoy every minute I get reading your blogs and seeing your comments on my posts. I also get a slight thrill when I find out I got another follower. And yes, the fake Academy Award acceptance speech you see pop up every so often does in fact play in my head when I see that number jump.

5. Video games. I mean c'mon, it's in the header of these miscellaneous musings. How could video games not be on this list?

6. Chinese food. My wife and I finally found a new favorite Chinese take-out place since the move. We order from there enough that the lady at the counter just hands me my order when I walk in to pick it up.

7. Baseball. My two teams are the Red Sox and the Phillies. Which would make things very interesting if there was ever a Sox/Phillies World Series.

8. Science fiction television. I don't watch much TV, but I gravitate towards speculative fiction when I do. The new Doctor Who series is a particular favorite.

9. Obscure facts and research. Everyone knows how much research I do, so it should come as no surprise that I love finding out new things. The more obscure the better.

10. Being lazy. I don't get much opportunity to just do nothing (two jobs will do that), but I relish every chance I get to just sit somewhere and not have any commitments. Speaking of which, I need to get some cleaning done tonight.

Now, for the ten blogs that make me happy. Let's see if I can actually hit this.

1.Bane of Anubis runs Bane's Blogging Blues, a collection of fixations that the self-described realists loves to tackle in a most amusing manner. I've referenced Bane multiple times on this blog, and in these awards, but his material is always good for a spit-take.

2. KatieGrrr is my favorite newcomer to the blogging scene. She doesn't have a regular update schedule, but her posts are nicely thought-provoking.

2. There are two words that describe the awesome of Rick Daley's My Daley Rant: pee shivers. Yes, pee shivers. Besides being a bastion of sarcasm himself, Mr. Daley faithfully catalogs the true adventures of his two sons for all the world to see. And boy are they hysterical.

3. Jenna from One Mystake at a Tyme has two stories out there in the e-world for people to read, including Kindle editions, and also blogs about the entertaining life of a mother. So far one of my favorite mom-stories of hers is this post.

4. K.M. Weiland over at Wordplay: Helping Writers Become Authors recently released an e-book titled How To Create Unforgettable Characters. And she should know, seeing as her characters are engaging to a tee. She's also a prolific tutor to every follower of her blog.

5. Adam Heine at Author's Echo is a fellow steampunk aficionado and lover of all things science fiction. He draws really good too.

6. Anita Saxena at Anita's Edge is a figure skater, writer, and all-around cool person. Despite her love of the Steelers (my family's historically Eagles fans -- my second favorite football team). She also tells entertaining stories about Alabama.

7. L.T. Host at Quest: Published grants us with Mad Libs Friday every week (or most weeks, at least). She also has the good fortune to share the adventures of her three evil cats. Which she maintains are SO CUTE that she just can't stay mad at them even when they break into her dresser to steal hair ties.

So that's ten things and seven blogs. I guess I couldn't make it to ten blogs. Either way, thanks to all the above for taking the time to share their thoughts and lessons with us. I'm much appreciative of you all. And all my loyal followers of course.