i’m loving: bruce mau, gretchen rubin, kira zmuda, charity: water

Ever since I discovered Bruce Mau’s Incomplete Manifesto for Growth I’ve been smitten with his notions for change and possibility. His mind is like a kaleidoscope of solutions and problems and questions. This promo for the 2010 Denver Biennial of the Americas is a typically elegant and impassioned call to action. I think I need to be there.

Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness Project blog is one of the most respected and visited personal dev sites on line. Gretchen is not only a deep thinker, but she’s a big thinker. And she just released The Happiness Project Toolbox, complete with personalizable inspiration boards, one sentence journaling, and my fav, a collection of people’s “secrets to adulthood.” Gretchen has hit this one out of the park and I’m so excited for her.

Mathematics of Glamour is a smart site “multiplying reflection, adventure, and the factors in between to personal beauty.” The very thoughtful Kira Zmuda is on to something magical, I think, with the self portraits that are starting to roll in to her blog. I just sent off my own self-perspective and the sketch was an interesting exercise, not unlike writing a short bio. I was happy to see that I see myself as … very happy.

I have two favourite charities: Women for Women International and Kiva and now, I have to make it three with Charity: Water, a non-prof organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations. It was started by self-described self-absorbed Manhattan nightclub owner, Scott Harrison, who decided to do something more meaningful with his life, and man, has he ever made good on that choice. Charity: Water has been monumentally, rapidly successful. Read more in this Sunday’s New York Times. Chris Gillebeau‘s book next year will be a joint project with them.