Louisiana Happiness?

I moved from New York to Louisiana, indefinitely, over 4 months ago. I was working freelance for about 4 months here, temporarily before that (puts me at about 8-9 months in this sunny state). Now if you know me, you know that I quickly and unexpectedly fell in love with New York city. I lived in New York for 3 years and it really feels like my true home. But why am I more productive here? Why am I being told that I seem happier with my work and my time here? Why do I have a more positive outlook here? There are surely a LOT of factors involved, and I have some theories... but apparently a big fancy-pants scientific, economic, and psychological study has revealed that I moved from this year's most UNHAPPY state to the MOST happy state:

Southern States Are the Happiest

6 of the Top 10 States in a Happiness Study Are in the South

Dec. 17, 2009 -- There may be something to be said for southern hospitality and sunshine. A new study shows that Southern states are the happiest while coastal rivals New York and California are at the bottom of the list.

Researchers ranked the happiest states (plus the District of Columbia) on self-reported measures of happiness as well as objective measures like sunshine, congestion, and housing affordability and found six out of the top 10 happiest states were in the South.

Louisiana topped the list, followed by Hawaii, Florida, Tennessee, and Arizona rounding out the top five.

New York ranked dead last at number 51 and California fared only slightly better at number 46.

"We have been asked a lot whether we expected that states like New York and California would do so badly in the happiness ranking," says researcher Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, in a news release. "Many people think these states would be marvellous places to live in. The problem is that if too many individuals think that way, they move into those states, and the resulting congestion and house prices make it a non-fulfilling prophecy."

In the study, published in Science, researchers took a different approach in ranking the happiest states. Rather than relying solely on surveys that ask people how happy they are or economists' measures of quality-of-life data, researchers decided to combine the two and compare how the states measured up.

They used information from a 2005-2008 nationwide life satisfaction survey of 1.3 million Americans and a 2003 study with objective happiness indicators for each state, such as how much rain and sunshine each state received, number of hazardous waste sites, commuting time, violent crime, air quality, spending on education and highways, and cost of living.

When they compared the tables side by side, they found a very close correlation between how happy people said they were and objective quality-of-life measures.

"We wanted to study whether people's feelings of satisfaction with their own lives are reliable, that is, whether they match up to reality -- of sunshine hours, congestion, air quality, etc -- in their own state. And they do match," says Oswald. "When human beings give you an answer on a numerical scale about how satisfied they are with their lives, it is best to pay attention. Their answers are reliable. This suggests that life-satisfaction survey data might be very useful for governments to use in the design of economic and social policies."

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I know, I know... "poo on that, Joe... Us bitter awesome and badass New Yorkers can take on anything, especially those Republican redneck southerners, so whatever... we LIKE misery!" Hey... I FEEL you. I'm there. It's a bit of a surprise to me as well, but it comes at a time when I can understand and sympathize with these results. It is more of a personal (and frankly, coincidental) situation that makes me feel this way, but nonetheless I can't help but point it towards some other issues that are bothering me...

more (continued) on my LiveJournal blog...

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Illustration Friday: Opinion

Here's my 2nd stab at Illustration Friday, a website/blog giving weekly assignment words for practice and inspiration, as well as community. Again, this was a quick one, but this time on the Cintiq. I wanted to practice getting a simple editorial idea down for the topic (opinion), and see if I can follow through quickly while keeping it appealing. The drawing was all I had planned, and the tones/shadows were just an experiment. I'd love to hear how you feel about this one.

I'm also experimenting with very basic hand-drawn animation lately. I've put a few hours into a small project and I'll keep you posted on that soon. Anyone who has quick methods (I hear Flipbook is a good program), tips or techniques to pass along, feel free to email me or comment here. I really respect animators, and it's not easy.

Lastly, I'll be finishing up some Digital Podcast videos this week to post at the Digital Podcast Blog. I know I've teased and stalled on this in the past, but I really do have time this week to finish it up, and I'll let you know when it's here.

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iPhone 3G

I caved, and it is amazing.

Kung Fu Panda!

I don't know why, but I was unsure of how I felt about this movie, simply based on the trailers and advertisements. I wasn't too excited, but was sure I wanted to see what it was all about, so a friend and myself caught a midnight show last night. All I can say is that this is giving (one of my all-time-favorites) Pixar's Ratatouille a run for its money in animation as well as beautiful colors, textures and surfaces.

Kung Fu Panda is one CG animated film that goes the extra mile with color design and the animation is top-notch. The animators really have outdone themselves. The character traits are very inventive, detailed, human, exaggerated, cartoony and active. The voices are fun and the script is very good.

I could go on and on in detail what I enjoyed and critique it in depth, but I'll keep it to this: Overall I give this film two thumbs up. From a creative standpoint, I couldn't enjoy it much more than I did. It is definitely worth checking out, so go see it this weekend - twice!

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Ron Paul

He's called "Dr. No" for his vote against excess spending. He's called the "Tax Payer's Best Friend" for his solid stance against both raising taxes and the IRS. He's called "The Champion of the Constitution" for his fight to preserve the integrity of the founding fathers of America.

Ron Paul has not dropped out of the race for president and will be attending the Republican National Convention with plenty of support. If you are tired of the usual candidates, this is a man still worth learning from. If nothing else, his book "The Revolution: A Manifesto" is an amazing read with plenty of history and a refreshing take on our founding fathers and the current state of the United States, with a perspective of true 'change' worth pursuing.

I did this small marker sketch back when Dr. Ron Paul still had a chance to initially capture enough delegates for the Republican presidential nomination. Even if you don't agree with his rare (for today's standards) stances, it's easy to see that we need more sincere and consistent politicians like Ron Paul.

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Ironman & the Raconteurs: the GOOD media

The media is often called "sleazy" or "cheap", but this is referring to the news media. Another use of the term is that which refers to audio and video; music, television and movies. There is a great trend happening in many areas of that sort of media nowadays and we are seeing it peak in many ways. Here are a few examples:

I watched the new movie Ironman the other day, directed by Jon Favreau and starring Robert Downey, Jr. This movie was funny, interesting, visually stunning, well-timed and exciting at every turn. Even sitting in the second row of the theater and getting a cramped neck didn't at all hinder my enjoyment of this film. This, and many other movies coming out this summer, are great examples of the heights that this media is reaching. Comic book movies are hitting a new level of quality and popularity in the last several years, and I don't see a weak preview yet. Also, with animation hitting a new high in both story and visuals (Horton Hears a Who, wall-e, Ratatouille, Persepolis) I am looking forward to a logging hours and hours in movie theaters this summer.

I have been watching the television shows LOST and 30 Rock and have not been disappointed one bit. LOST has been returning to the once-great show of season one and two and has levels of subtle clues that are difficult to find but rewarding when noticed. 30 Rock is setting a new standard for quick comedy, picking up where Arrested Development left off, yet with it's own brand of slapstick and verbal childishly-clever humor. I look forward to Thursdays quite a bit, and the only thing stopping me from saving that one night for television is the recent return of hilarity to Saturday Night Live. The cast has matured over the last two years and I predict that one day they will each be known as legendary, and as a group: classic. I may have to set aside Saturday Nights at home.

Music has also hit a near and dear rise to my ears, as new music has been available from bands like The Raconteurs, the Black Keys, Radiohead, White Rabbits, Blitzen Trapper, Queens of the Stone Age and many many more great new and established bands, not to mention some classic comebacks for those that share my tastes in rock and roll such as Superdrag and Weezer... this makes me (once again) excited for this summer's releases. Rock shows in New York are accessible and comfortably energetic with amazing headliners weekly, sharing in the raised level of quality in rock and roll and blues inspired music.

Lastly the term media can involve technology and software tools. With ipods, iphones, development of air, electric, water, and hydrogen powered cars, fiber-optics in homes and most importantly (for me) tools like the Wacom Cintiq (see my review) and other advances in technology, we are in an age of convenience that we have never seen before. I am learning to embrace this and get on-board with much of it, and it saves us all time and waste.

I hope this trend continues.