DailyHap.com is a website designed to create a community of happy people and encourage people to openly, genuinely pursue happiness. It will guide people to Achieving Happiness 1 Day at a Time through a daily action item.

It is also my labor of love, my grand adventure, and now that it’s live, what will consume my life.

We’re launching with a really cool campaign called Penny for Your Thoughts, where a visit to the website donates a penny to Austin Smiles. Sign up for a profile, and contribute Your Two Cents, another two pennies to Austin Smiles. Three cents donated for very little effort! We want to show you that it can be as easy as a click to start on your way to happiness.

What are you waiting for? Click on over to DailyHap and get happy!

Here are the pieces (leaf and table top, legs removed):

Unfortunately, there was a little mishap with some melting snow, so it ended up creating a really cool water-splashed look on the top of the table. With DIY, I never expect perfection and embrace the unique designs accidents give me.

Using screen + snuggie to block more snow from melting onto table while it dries … getting creative …

Badass workspace!

The email promised: “Join these four women as they discuss their passions and experience, and hear how they are creating change in Aspen and beyond.” The players:

• Kitty Boone, Vice President, Public Programs, The Aspen Institute
• Catherine Anne Provine, Executive Director, The Buddy Program
• Nancy Spears, Chief Executive Officer,  genConnect
• Laura Welch, Chief Development Officer, Foundation For Social Change
• Moderator: Carolyne Heldman, Producer of CrossCurrents, the weekly public affairs show, Aspen Public Radio

I was lucky enough to be late enough to sit at the lunch table with the panelists, which started things right off. Once they began speaking, the women fearlessly delved into discrimination, passion, connection, family life, working, expectations, and more. They were very different with different backgrounds but had several things in common: they all loved their work, they all appeared to take no bullshit from anyone, and they all respected and genuinely liked each other.

The Aspen Business Luncheon was, up until a mere two years ago, only open to men. It was only fitting then that the panel address discrimination. I loved Catherine Anne Provine’s take on it (what follows is my paraphrasing, not direct quotes): discrimination opens your mind. Women are better at connecting because they don’t judge first, they allow a person to show what they bring to the table. Audience members asked how we can get women to not discriminate against or judge other women and the panel agreed with Laura Welch: it starts inside. You can’t join, you have to shift the energy.

All four women had stories to tell about being discriminated against, but most impressive about the whole panel was the independent, no-bullshit attitude. Kitty Boone said: “Do we really approach our jobs as women? No. I just do my job because I love it.” And then later offered this advice to young women starting out their careers: “It doesn’t matter what you choose to do with your life, just do it. Do what you love.” You have to have the guts to do anything. “Make it happen.” She then laughed and said, “We have more fun than men.”

Moderator Carolyne Heldman even jumped in when an audience member asked how to address the salary gap (women still earn 30% less than men for the same job), saying: “Go in like a warrior.” She reiterated that a salary negotiation isn’t emotional, it’s business, and we have to expect to be paid highly, no apologies.

Much of the rest of the discussion centered on passion and how important it is to work. The passion can be for a cause, for people, or for money, but passion is just really important, all the panelist concluded. They also cited connecting people as being a primary inspiration in their work. At the end of the luncheon, I couldn’t agree more with another audience member, a young woman like me but who owns two businesses in Aspen, who asked, “How can we have breakfast with you guys?” It’s inspiring to hear women talk about their own adventures in business, but as they all stressed connections in there work, it comes down to connecting with other women, across generations.

As I get ready to launch my new business (teaser!), my passion, I can’t wait to get more involved with other women in business and CONNECT.

5 Reasons Why YOU Must Participate: The 2012 Media Awards

There are a lot of excellent bloggers and publishers doing exceptional work, and those who stand out deserve to have their work recognized, associate with each other, and see their readerships grow. That’s why the World Media Awards exist—to recognize and reward great contributions to media from bloggers and publishers.

In my own career, I’ve learned and benefited so much from others that I wanted to help build some way to give back to an industry I love show appreciation to the up-and-coming leaders. The World Media Awards will culminate in a 1-day event in San Francisco that will celebrate the best in blogging, forums, publishing and media from around the world.

So if you are a world-class blogger, why should you enter?

1. Get Recognized- You Deserve It

You put a lot of work into making your blog amazing. You know it and your readers know it. The World Media Awards is a way for you to get authoritative credit from other bloggers and industry experts. That recognition will help you grow your readership, make fresh collaborative connections, and hopefully have great moments that make all the late nights even more rewarding.

2. Meet Other Bloggers Who Care

Blogging, forums and most other on-line media is about conversation and interaction, but sometimes it’s easy to end up trying to hide away behind a monitor in your office or home all alone. Meeting other bloggers and publishers keeps the fire lit and the conversation going. When you enter the World Media Awards, you’ll be listed alongside other bloggers and publishers who put the same level of delight, attention and effort into making their blog top notch.

3. Expose Yourself to New Partners

If your blog or forum is part of your company, being part of the World Media Awards will increase your exposure by putting your name in front of the thousands of visitors to our site and the award ceremony. That means you can find out who else is doing very good work, strut your own stuff, and expand your network of contacts and collaborators.

4. Make Yourself Irresistible to Clients

What helps your chances at winning that next pitch more than growing your network? Telling that network that you just won a World Media Award. Winning an award shines a light on your accomplishments, and it serves as an example of the commitment, engagement and exacting standards you apply to your work. 

5. Be Part of the Beginning of Something Big

Because 2012 is the first year for these awards, you have the one-time chance to be the inaugural winner and set the standard for the World Media Awards in your category. Getting in on the ground floor of these awards will open opportunities for you as a blogger and a publisher.

The bottom line is, the World Media Awards will shine a spotlight on the year’s most prosperous bloggers and publishers, and on the businesses and companies that serve and interact with them.

Now is your chance to be one of them.

The sponsors include Growmap, Pace Lattin, VigLink and Trancos. Media partners include Adrants, Bloggeries, MediaVision, The Affiliate Marketing Awards, Read Write Web, My Blog Guest, Web Traffic Control and FeedBlitz.

World Media Award judges include Steve Hall, Sarah Austin, Chang Kim, Julie Wohlberg, Pierre Zarokian, Ivka Adam, Cheryl Contee, Krystyl Baldwin, Adrian Harris, Jeremy Wright, Rob Bloggeries, Dave Duarte, Tanya Alvarez, Dana Oshiro, Tom Foremski, and Judith Lewis.

hashtag #wmads on Twitter.

Murray Newlands is author of How to Make a Blog Book and Online Marketing; a User Guide. He is also founder of the Affiliate Marketing Awards. Born in the UK, he now spends his time in San Francisco and New York. Murray works for Audience Mindshare and consults for Trancos Ins as well as being an advisor for VigLink. Actually he is working on his new book: The Email Marketing Book.

***thisislifeinaustin.com is officially entered! I know many readers also write their own blogs, so please enter! We’ll have a community crossing its fingers for everyone!

Perhaps to head off that terrible fate, I should attend this Saturday’s event. I mean, Nali dawg is a rescue dog and IS occasionally a pain in the ass. Like, any time I try to take her around strangers.

Friends of the Aspen Animal Shelter (only THE best place ever to board a dog) is bringing Victoria Stilwell, the star of Animal Planet’s It’s Me or the Dog, to Aspen on July 23, 2011 for a series of events to raise money for its Spay/Neuter & Rescue Campaign. Wayne Pacelle, President & CEO of the Humane Society of the United States will make a special appearance at all events and John Oates, of the famed rock duo Hall & Oates, will attend and perform at a private patron dinner.

Victoria Stilwell and Wayne Pacelle will appear at a special luncheon for 100 VIPS at the Aspen Animal Shelter from 11:30am to 1:30pm on July 23rd.

At 5:30pm that evening they will appear at the Aspen Animal Shelter for a public event where Wayne will speak on animal welfare issues and Victoria will share her insight on positive-reinforcement dog training and explain why positive training is a better practice than punitive, dominance-based training techniques. She will address her fondness for rescue animals and will demonstrate her positive training techniques with several problem dogs.

To close out the evening, Victoria, Wayne and John Oates will attend a private dinner with 20 patrons at a local home where John will perform in an intimate setting. Tickets to all events are available through Friends of the Aspen Animal Shelter at 970-927-1771 or email FAASaspen@gmail.com.

Event Pricing:
VIP Luncheon (luncheon only): $250/pp
Evening Event – VIP seating: $150/pp
Evening Event – General Admission: $50/pp
Patron Dinner: $2,500/pp

Packages:
Patron Package (All 3 events; VIP seating:) $2,800/pp
VIP Package (Luncheon, VIP seating @ evening event): $350/pp

So when I landed a part-time gig as a community manager for BeKnown, job search giant Monster.com’s networking site within facebook, I was a little wary. I’m not a huge facebooker. I like keeping personal and professional separate online. I separate people into groups on facebook and control their privacy settings like crazy (sorry, anyone who is reading this and doesn’t get to see much of my profile—it’s for your own good!).

BeKnown, however, essentially does this group-sorting and privacy-protecting for me. I can connect with people I’m not friends with on facebook through BeKnown—while staying within facebook. The ability to stay on one site and use the same interface is a huge bonus.

BeKnown also has the incredible capacity to socially refer friends to and for jobs. That is the crux of BeKnown’s innovation, and as more and more users join (there were already 108,000 just 7 days post-launch), that ability will become priceless. Well, and possibly profitable for refers: you could actually earn money, real money, for referring connections to a job.

I think there’s good reason to be on both: generational differences. Check it:

• Of 600 million people on Facebook, 72% are between 25 and 54.
• LinkedIn users are 35-54.
• 91 percent of college seniors have a Facebook profile—but less than one-quarter currently use Facebook as a job-search tool.
• Only 1.1% of college grads find LinkedIn helpful in their job search.
• The average FB user logs into their page 1-2 times/day while the avg LinkedIn user logs in once every 2-3 weeks.

The weekend-long event will bring together the state’s and the nation’s most distinguished thought leaders in the areas of health and human services, energy and the environment, public and higher education, and race and immigration.

Confirmed participants include former U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro, former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza, U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess of Lewisville, Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards, energy magnate T. Boone Pickens, Texas Commissioner of Education Robert Scott, Texas Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Tom Suehs, former U.S. Census Bureau Director Steve H. Murdock, and Public Utility Commission Chairman Barry T. Smitherman, along with several chairs of major committees in the Texas House and Senate.

We are proud to announce our line-up of participants as of June 20, 2011:

Jose Aliseda – State Representative, R-Beeville

Dan Branch – State Representative, R-Dallas; Chairman of the House Higher Education Committee

Michael Burgess – U.S. Representative, R-Lewisville

Meria Joel Carstarphen – Superintendent, Austin Independent School District

Julián Castro – Mayor, San Antonio

Garnet Coleman – State Representative, D-Houston

Curtis Culwell – Superintendent, Garland Independent School District

Dianne White Delisi – Former State Representative, R-Temple

Anne Dunkelberg – Associate Director, Center for Public Policy Priorities

Rob Eissler – State Representative, R-The Woodlands; Chairman of the House Public Education Committee

Steven Farr – Chief Knowledge Officer, Teach for America

Jessica Farrar – State Representative, D-Houston

Mike Feinberg – KIPP Co-Founder and Superintendent, KIPP Houston

John M. Folks – Superintendent, Northside Independent School District

Chad Foster – Former Mayor, Eagle Pass; Former Chairman, Border Mayors Coalition

Tony Garza – Former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico

Jeanne Goka – Principal, Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders

Veronica Gonzales – State Representative, D-McAllen

Laura Huffman – Executive Director, the Nature Conservancy of Texas

Amy Myers Jaffe – Director of the Energy Forum at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University

Alejandro Junco de la Vega – Publisher, Grupo Reforma

James L. Keffer – State Representative, R-Eastland; Chairman of the House Energy Resources Committee

Renu Khator – Chancellor, University of Houston System; President, University of Houston

R. Bowen Loftin – President, Texas A&M University

Dee Margo – State Representative, D-El Paso

Thomas G. Mason – Former General Manager, Lower Colorado River Authority

Don McLeroy – Former Chairman, State Board of Education

Kathy Miller – President, Texas Freedom Network

Steve H. Murdock – Former Director of the U.S. Census Bureau; former Texas State Demographer; Allyn and Gladys Cline Chair in Sociology at Rice University

Diana Natalicio – President, the University of Texas at El Paso

T. Boone Pickens – Chairman, BP Capital Management

Thomas Ratliff – Member, State Board of Education

Richard M. Rhodes – Incoming President, Austin Community College

Cecile Richards – President, Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Allan Ritter – State Representative, R-Nederland; Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee

J. James Rohack – Former President, American Medical Association

Jonathan Saenz – Director of Legislative Affairs, Liberty Institute

Andrew Sansom- Executive Director, River Systems Institute; former Executive Director, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

Robert Scott – Texas Commissioner of Education

Florence Shapiro – State Senator, R-Plano; Chairwoman of the Senate Public Education Committee

Bryan W. Shaw – Chairman, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality

Tom “Smitty” Smith – Director of Public Citizen’s Texas Office

Barry T. Smitherman – Chairman, Public Utility Commission of Texas

Margaret Spellings – Former U.S. Secretary of Education

Tom Suehs – Executive Commissioner, Texas Health and Human Services Commission

Doug Ulman – President and Chief Executive Officer, Lance Armstrong Foundation

Michael Webber- Associate Director, Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy at the University of Texas at Austin

Judith Zaffirini – State Senator, D-Laredo; Chairwoman of the Senate Higher Education Committee

John Zerwas – State Representative, R-Simonton

Tickets will go on sale Monday, July 11, and are $125, $100 for Texas Tribune members and $50 for students. Sign up for regular e-mail updates at www.texastribune.org/festival, or visit us Facebook and on Twitter.

The Texas Tribune is dedicated to advancing the public interest through not just journalism but also in-person events. The Texas Tribune Festival is the logical next step in realizing our mission. I hope you will mark your calendars and plan to join us for a full weekend of debates, discussions, and dialogues featuring some of the biggest names, and the biggest brains, in the world of politics and public policy.

Turns out, Courtney is not only a fellow A-A member (erm…), but she’s a stellar photographer with an eye for the wiggly, giggly bunch (puppies and babies, natch). Read on for a brief interview with a recent Aspen transplant.

I found that this year, the interactive portion of the festival was less about meeting people and making connections and more about partying—which, it’s worth noting, is usually how I feel about the music portion. But it’s a bummer of a shift when you’re interested in the interactive bit. It was the first year I’d ever said, maybe I should have bought a badge for interactive.

Like it or not, this year was definitely a tipping point. What will next year be like?

The music portion was as party-rific as ever, with major players in town this year … another sign the fest is bigger than ever. I didn’t attend film, but heavyweights were out and about; and music brought some of the biggest names in the biz to our fair city. The biggest:

Daytime:

The Alternative Apparel Lounge: Moby, Duran Duran, Duff McKagan, Linda Perry, American Idol runner-up Crystal Bowersox, Dirty Vegas, Bowling for Soup, and Jamie Burke.

Express Clothing Lounge: Chromeo, Skylar Grey (duetted with Enimem at Grammys), B.o.B, Jamie Burke and Diplo. I also sneakily got my hair cut here by the fabulous Vinnie of Proper Barbers LA, my “brother.”

Fast Company Lounge: Just wanted to point out that marketing works. I snagged a free copy of Fast Company magazine, which I’d never read, read it, loved it, and subscribed. So there.

Nighttime:

Red Bull Thre3style DJs: Z-Trip, DJ Jazzy Jeff, DJ QBert, Switch, Mick Boogie, DJ M-Squared and D-JR, and De La Soul. Surprise guest LL Cool J, who hasn’t performed live in years as he pursues an acting career, rocked and proved he’s still got it. LOVE! I snapped this pic from the pit:

Perez Hilton’s One Night in Austin: What used to be the biggest party in town brought Kids of 88, Oh Land, Zowie, The Pretty Reckless (yep, that’s Gossip Girl Taylor Momsen’s band), Selah Sue, Liz Phair, DJ MNDR, Dirty Vegas, Frankmusik, NERVO, Mia Moretti and Caitlin Moe.

Vevo at Seaholm: By far, the talk of the town was the Vevo Party at Seaholm Power Plant, which was impossible to get into but if you did, you would see Kanye, Jay-Z, John Legend, Kid Cudi, Mos Def, Pusha T, Fonzworth Bentley, and Bon Iver singer Justin Vernon. Kanye performed more than he has in quite some time, though he didn’t take the stage til 2:30am. Diddy and Beyonce were reportedly in the audience, as were Brooklyn Decker and Andy Roddick.

With those names here for music, SXSW has tipped from indie fest to commercial giant. Rap isn’t indie, kids.