One can never have enough positive influences can we?
So lets enjoy a contest dedicated to the sharing of positive things

Create something positive. Something original. Something which invokes good feelings. To warm hearts, from yours to ours. It could be poetic or musical. Phrase or paragraph. Short story or personal journal entry. Perhaps a painting or comic. Or something drawn or photographed. Could be just about anything you can come up with. Just needs to carry a positive message that inspires good feelings. And it must be your own creation please.

One entry will receive a thank you gift of a $5.99 GOG. All other entries will of themselves be a prize... a prize to those who read them. The community will determine who receives the thank you gift. The prize portion of this contest will be open to submission for 48 hours from the time of this here posting. But there is no need to stop there once the thank you gift has be awarded. Keep it going if you will. And if would prefer not be illegible for the gift, feel free to contribute! Just add the *not an entry* caveat to the top of your posting.

GOG Staff are encouraged to contribute.

Enjoy...


EDIT: No limits to how much you contribute!

And since I've asked this as a question, the winner will get their post highlighted for a +5 to their Rep.


RULES UPDATE: There haven't been many entries. I'm opening this up to non-original content. So people don't have to create their own stuff. It's nicer if people do... you know from their heart to ours and all that. But it's not easy I see. So be free to garner what you will from the world wide web!

Couple of pics taken from our summer cabin :)

I'm half pessimist, and am occasionally targeted by Murphy. I read the news, I look around my neighborhoods, I watch children grow, and I see the world going to hell in a handbasket. I'm not very happy with what I see around me. Never really have, it just grows worse.

But, then there are all these other things which at times pull me out the gloom. The little things that are only little cuz I relegated them so. Sometimes I miss the good and bright cuz I've centered my thoughts inside the doom and gloom. It's easy to find the fodder for it. But so to is it easy to discover counters to gloom. So thats what this thread/contest is about. Highlighting the positive and productive, the bright and the beautiful. The things oft forgotten that are nonetheless part of our day to day.

All my life, I've always been told it's better to give. Since I was little, I have donated my toys and such to charities or places that give to the needy. To this day I donate in more ways. I donate my children's toys and clothes, donated money to different causes (especially those that have helped out my family in the past such as Shriner's), and donate what I can to charities or to those who needs it. I also try to do small acts of random kindness when I can, no matter on or offline or how their attitudes are, which falls into the other category of 'kill them with kindness".

It always makes me feel better knowing I am putting a smile on someone's face no matter how shitty of a day, week, month, or year I've been having.
I am also instilling these into my children too.

I appreciate the effort behind this thread. I hope it receives the attention and input it deserves. Here is my contribution:

I am average in nearly every way. Physically, intellectually, and professionally, there is nothing extraordinary about me. But my medicority is important because it displays that one need not be wealthy as Gates, as smart as Einstein, or as influnetial as Obama to make a positive difference in the lives of others. All that is required is a sincere willingness to do so.

A man I respect very much once said to me, "Larry, you have a choice to make. You can be a fountain or you can be a drain. No one else makes that choice for you."

I choose to be a fountain, even if I am only able to be one in relatively small ways. Whether it's shovelling my elderly neighbor's walk after it snows, or remarking to my heavy set co-worker how much I admire her recent dedication to her health, or making a small donation to a children's charity at the end of the month, I choose to find ways to help others in whatever way I can. I don't do these things for recognition. Heck, I don't even do them to make me feel good about myself (sometimes they do and sometimes they don't). I do these things because I choose to.

I'm not sharing this for the sake of a prize. I just want people to realize that, regardless of one's circumstance, there is a portion of one's life over which there is complete control: Are you going to be a fountain? Or are you going to be a drain? No one else can or will make that decision for you. It's yours to own and do with whatever you wish.

There goes my good mood..... :-P

as for a bit of seriousness, I teach Elderly people, it always makes me smile when they grasp something, and then laugh the next week (not in front of them) when they have no recollection of my teaching them anything or even being there the week prior :-D

Heh, they are blessed with the joys of first discovery, over and over and over again :~)

I suppose in this situation the tenders and the patients must suffer great frustrations. One must foster and expound upon all the positives that do exist. Such as re-discovering something new. And the pride and satisfaction which comes after accomplishing a frustrating and trying task. Revel in the moments of victory, while pushing aside and phasing out that difficult crap in between. Thereby empowering the memory of the pleasant to take prominence over the crap. Easier said than done but it is there for us.

*Not an entry, nor do I seek to 'win' a rep increase.* I have more games already than I thought I'd buy when I first got an account on GoG!

Personally, I'm exceedingly thankful for the very good health my parents enjoy & my relationship with them. I got a whole lotta things goin on that piss me off, but if I can't be thankful for my parent's good health, then I wouldn't deserve the air I breathe.

I enjoy being able to look in the mirror and love who I've become. And how it's all rooted in how I've forced myself to be disciplined in all things I can control about myself, internally & externally.

And I love the fact that I'm on my 4th playthrough of BG1, and it's been thoroughly my most fun playthrough of it yet. And I'm reading a great book right now for the 1st time in Bram Stoker's Dracula, and I've got time to keep up my exercise. Really, even if I was filthy rich, my favourite hobbies would still be reading, exercising, and playing PC games - specificially GoG's, as there are rarely games that come out nowadays that genuinely grab my interest. So even w/all the bullshit goin on personally, professionally, economically, and w/my personal health, there's still so much for me to be thankful for.

Socially, I'm still high off the Dallas Mavericks beating the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals; 1st for Dirk Nowitski's sake (5 consecutive years of very bitter playoff disappointments before 2011), and 2nd b/c I, like most NBA fans, hate the way the 10-11 Heat team came about.

And I'm happy I see enough holes in media stories, wherein I'm sure there are real investigations going on vs. criminals in government & business who thought they'd always have 'get out of jail free' cards to bail them out of their schemes through their connections. I really feel that the head of the snake is being readied to be snapped off.

Here are a few photos of my own.

Because chess on at sunset is always important
http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs17/i/2007/189/7/4/The_chess_game_by_link6616.jpg

IT'S A POKEMON PLANE, HAPPY
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs32/i/2008/211/7/6/Pokemon_Plane_by_link6616.jpg

What else do you do when you make a giant paper mache' sphere of the earth
http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs31/i/2008/211/2/f/Bunkasai_at_Kokusai_school_by_link6616.jpg

A golden expanse.
http://link6616.deviantart.com/art/Pretty-rice-field-93224890?q=gallery%3Alink6616%2F18806228&qo=85

I braved up to sing and whistle a song... with the help of Bobby McFerrin and Yo Yo Ma.

Hush Little Baby, now don't you cry

http://soundcloud.com/whiteelk/hushlittlebaby/s-OebHI


Hah, I embarrass myself. Mighta shoulda tried a few more takes ;~p

The first thing I thought when I saw the thread was " DIRK sings the we are the champions"
Im not a mavs fan but I worship the underdog and in a slick and cynical world this video makes me tear up.

? [url=http://soundcloud.com/]Soundcloud?

I have something positive. I didn't write it, or do it, but would like to share it. It makes my eyes water a little when I watch it (means cry a little in manly way).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc4HGQHgeFE&feature=related

Thanks Miaghstir, Soundcloud did the trick!