I’ve compiled a list of my current toolbars/bookmarks. Many of these websites are just there for a daily browse during the hour that it takes for me to ingest enough coffee to start working…or at least enough to prevent me from nodding off till lunch time.

StumbleUpon

If you are ever bored and have access to a computer, you must have this. I work at a reception counter and this keeps me sane. Granted it often brings me to videos and brightly colored webpages (not very discreet), I can’t think of anything on the web more entertaining (and even educational – stumble thru educational websites like Wikipedia) than StumbleUpon.

Bookmarks
Man, have I got a ton of these.

– myUFL – University of Florida’s employee software – where I clock in and out, do financial stuff for work. Oh and this is also my cover web page. I stay logged in to this so when someone walks behind me I can click over to the “I’m actually doing work” page for a cover.
– ISIS – Basically the home base for class registration and grades.
– Wachovia – Gotta keep an eye on my account balance. As a college student and University employee my account balance is always near $20…plus or minus $20.
– GatorMail – My school email web page
– IGN – I keep a pretty regular update on video game news, although I don’t really play too much
– 1up – Another source. I own a Wii and am currently hooked on Call of Duty: World at War online multiplayer, but besides a few hours a week of actually playing, I just find it interesting keeping up with the daily…
– N4G – news for gamers.
– Facebook – Ummm…did i mention I’m in college?
– My employer’s website. I use it for the shipping address occasionally so i don’t have to memorize it. I blanked it for my anonymity. Shut up, you wouldn’t find anything cool on there anyways.
– Directory – A quick way to look up a name of an employee or student. If someone is looking for a phone book i just use this. Who uses paper nowadays?
– VC-Reviews – Retro downloads for the Wii review site
– FJ – I own an SVT Focus and go here to ask stupid questions like “How much oil will fit?”. Great to have a link to a car enthusiast website for your vehicle, these guys have all the answers. And more.
– eBay – Sometimes you need to know the going price of the most expensive jet aircraft on eBay, ya know?
– 1 Sale A Day, Daily Deal – A pretty cool daily deal website. Don’t think I’ve ever bought anything, it’s just interesting to check out each morning.
—These next few are great and they (along with StumbleUpon) consume most of my web browsing time.
– AoM – Great articles for bros. Sorry ladies, these might not interest you
– Cracked.com – I like top ten lists. This is top ten lists with a touch of funny as hell.
– WordPress.com – I will be working 8 hour days twice a week this semester, so this bookmark should get some extra clicks from now on.

Well I’ve got a bit of a theory. Or at least a way of envisioning a concept. And it all comes down to simple math. Maybe not so simple, but it’s still just math.

For those who may not be familiar with or remember calculus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculus.

The concept of The Calculus of Happiness is this: The derivative of satisfaction is happiness. Think about it for a second. Imagine the graph of a x^2 curve. Take this as the satisfaction graph. The derivative of this graph is 2x. This means for every unit of time, satisfaction level doubles. This is happy. Essentially, happiness is the rate of change of satisfaction. A negative sloping graph results in negative happiness or sadness. If this is confusing, keep reading, the images should clear it up.

Assume the lowest possible satisfaction level to be zero. Meaning there is no such thing as negative satisfaction, for simplicity. There can be both a negative and positive happiness level though.

Lets take an example. Joe is a pretty average guy. He has a great job making good money. He enjoys watching Lost and reruns of Seinfeld. He feels like his life is in a good steady state and he is happy. Or is he?

Notice how Joe’s satisfaction is very high yet his happiness is zero. Joe is very content (satisfied) with his life, but because nothing new and exciting is happening and his satisfaction level is not increasing, he is not happy. On the other hand he is not unhappy.

Here is Lisa. Her life is in shambles and has been for as long as she can remember. She doesn’t have many friends and is always in a bad mood. She makes no attempt to change anything in her life but accepts the status quo and gets by.

Compare Lisa’s satisfaction level with that of Joe’s. Now look at their happinesses. Both are neither happy nor unhappy although one has much higher satisfaction.

Let’s step it up a notch. See if you can guess the stereotype.

Patrick:

Time span: 80 years; lifetime

John:

Time span: 20 years

London:

Time span: 6 months

Possible answers:
I drew the following with these scenarios in mind but there are many possible correct answers.

Patrick: A simple man who makes something of himself from very little. Perhaps he had a rough childhood but always kept a positive attitude and worked hard and increased his satisfaction, resulting in moderate happiness. He reached his most happy point in the middle of his life but lived his entire life without ever being sad.

John: The high school hot shot. He was the captain of the football team, dated the most popular girl, blah blah you know the story, he’s been getting happier as time goes on. The vertical black line represents graduation (or any turning point) at which point he moves out of the house and real life slaps him in the face. Although his satisfaction level stays high, he reached his high point at graduation and has not been that satisfied since. The decreasing satisfactions leaves him an unhappy man for years.

London: An heiress born with everything a girl could want: money, fame, you name it. She is and always has been very satisfied but doesn’t have much room to move up. She wavers at neutral happiness. Somehow she ends up in major trouble with the law and has to spend some time in jail. Her satisfaction level drops significantly and she is very very unhappy. Daddy’s lawyers bribe some officials and London gets out of jail early. Her satisfaction level skyrockets and she returns to her normal life. The press won’t stop talking about it and it pisses her off.

Let me tell a little about myself now, get it out of the way, before people start reading this shit. I’m a college student somewhere in the U.S. of A. and I am a “receptionist” or “front desk guy”, “student assistant”, whatever, at an engineering research building on my university’s campus.

Skip the bullshit. I started this because I need something to keep me busy while I am sitting behind this desk getting paid. And it makes me look busy. I’m gonna be at this desk 30-35 hours a week with probably only about 5-10 hours worth of work. For the next month at least. Plus I often run across stuff that I’d like to share or chronicle.

Well it looks like this “blog” is doing the trick because it’s 5:01pm and I get off at 5. I never stay past 4:55 either.

More tomorrow. Bright and early (noonish).