I've been accused of single-handedly spreading the plague amongst my place of work. It's an accusation that brings both an odd sense of guilt, and a strange feeling of power and accomplishment. I'm more than willing to accept the blame, knowing deep down that I haven't really done anything wrong, but it's fun to play along. This *IS* a game.. right?

Enter the segue – I've always found the spread of information interesting. The internet is fascinating, the way a single person (such as myself) can put up just about anything, and have it available for the rest of the world. I'm almost obsessive compulsive when it comes to checking the stats for this blog – seeing where people are coming from, what they searched for to get here, their geographic location. But that's all virtual interaction. Diseases are a rare marker of physical social interaction. I think it would be interesting if there were a real-time look at the spread of colds and viruses globally – being able to watch as 1 red dot gets on a plane on the west coast, flies a few hundred miles, and starts creating new red dots.

Imagine if you could spread something like that that didn't cause people to be miserable. What if you could make someone's day better.. maybe spread a little happiness? Imagine the red-dot-disease scenario, but instead with yellow smiley faces popping up all over a map…

I am a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.
J. D. Salinger

You know what? I think you can. It just takes a little more effort than getting someone (or everyone, in my case) sick. The easiest start is just to smile and be friendly. People react A LOT different when I'm in happy-friendly mode than when I'm in sleepy-depressed mode. And I think that positive reaction sticks around for awhile, sometimes maybe spreading to others. Try it. Try to be positive and cheerful, not to the point where it's sickening, keep it real – and try to get everyone around you to catch it.