This video was taken during the Philadelphia Phillies World Series Parade. If you are from Philly, you’ve probably already seen it. 😀 From the YouTube description:
We snuck out into the middle of Broad Street to snap a pic in front of City Hall and all the crowds. When Will raised his hands for the picture, cheers erupted. So he continued to repeat the gesture, getting wild response from the crowd on both sides of the street up and down the street as far as we could see. We couldn’t have planned this if we practiced and practiced. I wish the video was longer.
I, for one, welcome our new toddler overlords. 😉 How big is Will?! Heh.
On an administrative note, I have no idea why embedded content is stripped from the MoH feeds. I will try to get this fixed ASAP. Thanks for the patience! 🙂
Ok, I’m joking about the title. 🙂 I stumbled upon a user on YouTube who took part in a challenge called Project For Awesome by Nerdfighters, which could only be made of awesome and perfect for this blog, so I naturally had to check it out.
There are a ton of Project for Awesome videos worth checking out, by the way.
The video I selected was one of the first ones I stumbled on. I have a lot of conflicted feelings on the nature & method of charity work abroad and particularly in the framing of the relationship between a first world nation and a third world nation (I don’t want to get political on this site, so please email me at gladmin@madeofhappy.com if you want to discuss this), but regardless of how I feel about any specific methods, I admire Sean’s conviction in deciding to change the course of his life by leaving grad school so that he can make a difference in other people’s lives. I have been looking for the full length video for the lecture that Dr. Jeffrey Sachs gave that Sean says inspired him, so if you know where I can find it, please leave me a comment. Thanks!
Sears’ stock is down more than 60% this year. They’ve been suffering like every other business in this economy. Despite that, they do something that is nothing short of amazing: for their employees who are deployed, they pay out of pocket to keep the employee’s family insured and pay out the difference between the military pay and their Sears’ job pay. And they can come back to their jobs when they come back from their deployment. Some of them even get bonuses and merit-based raises while deployed!
This apparently costs them $10 million a year. But they promise to keep this benefit going. Wow.
Sears, your generosity and dedication to your employees is truly astounding. You are made of happy. And so are your employees and their families. Thank you!
And I found this news via Happy News, a site that specializes in, well, happy news. 🙂
Originally, this post was going to be on Shel Silverstein‘s book, The Giving Tree. I may still post something on that later, but I found this amazing gem on YouTube.
According to the description with the video:
there’s a new book forest on the streets of berlin. it’s a place where people can leave and find old books.
It’s such a beautiful idea. That it hasn’t been vandalized makes me think that I need to have more faith in the goodness of people. And that’s something this blog is about, so I’m glad I saw this.
Berliners are made of happy! And literacy & community, apparently. 😀
People often want to be acknowledged for “doing the right thing” and it’s a fairly natural thing. What’s even better than doing the right thing is doing for the sake of doing it, with no regard to public credit.ÂÂ
Shawn Crawford, Source: LA Times
It never has been easy to know what to make of Shawn Crawford.
The guy got a reputation as a flake by racing against a giraffe and a zebra on a reality TV show. (He beat the giraffe, then lost to the zebra, but demanded another shot because the zebra had false-started. Crawford lost the rematch as well).
I totally remember seeing that on TV! It was called Man vs. Beast. Hee.
Or you can give him the prize a rival thinks Crawford deserves after one of the best gestures of sportsmanship I ever have heard about.
It is summed up on the home page of Churandy Martina’s website, www.churandy.com. In the lower right hand corner, Martina says: “I truly hope Crawf gets the international Fairplay award for this!”
He was talking about Crawford’s decision to give Martina, who is from the Netherlands Antilles, the Olympic silver medal the U.S. runner had won after a bizarre series of events in the 200-meter final at the 2008 Beijing Games.
Crawford can’t talk about this, said his agent, Kimberly Holland, because the race results are under appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which this week postponed a hearing on the matter to Jan. 15.
But Martina noted on the web site, “Yes!! It is true, Shawn gave me my Olympic medal back.’’ The site also has a picture of Martina wearing the medal.
Given that string for an Olympic medal is something you build your life around, I think it’s incredible that he gave back the medal. He gave it to the other person without waiting for an official judgment from the board, and he gave it without any fanfare. The only reason this news got notice is because the recipient posted about it.
Plus, this from earlier in the article just takes it over the top:
He ran in a Phantom of the Opera mask at an international meet in Italy. (The mask slipped, covered his eyes and led to his disqualification for running out of his lane).
Hee. Thanks for being so awesome, Shawn Crawford!ÂÂ
This is an old video and you may have seen it before. In fact, you probably have. But it deserves its place here. Here is the description from the YouTube page for the lecture.
Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 – July 25, 2008) gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving presentation, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals. For more, visit www.cmu.edu/randyslecture.
Professor Pausch gave this lecture after having been diagnosed with brain cancer. The very fact that he can give hope and inspire others to achieve in his own situation is remarkable. On top of that, the lecture itself is one that stays with you. This is the kind of real-life hero to admire. He brings me hope in humanity, that we can individually contribute to a better future.
We’ve got your back! It’s forty inspirational movie speeches edited together into a short video. Now I know it’ll be the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and it won’t be easy, but I’ll be able to triumph to win back my country/win that boxing match/do well in school/sing in a parade/break of our prison!
I could watch Stand and Deliver everyday.
You can do it! YEAH! Thanks for the video, Matthew Belinkie of OverthinkingIt.com!
Welcome to Made of Happy! I started this blog specifically because my brother sent me a most awesome YouTube clip and I suddenly had the idea for this blog. I mean, what would everyday be like with that kind of joy? 😀 Since today is Friday, it is especially fitting that this video be our inaugural video.
Send me links to things that make you happy! It can be a happy dance, a news article that made you believe in humanity again 🙂 or just a cute little picture. I will credit you and link to you if it is accepted.ÂÂ
Now, with no further ado, enjoy the utter win of celebrating the small moments in your life.
