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Raise your hand if you're still writing "2010" on everything? Yeah, me too. Despite my apparent lack of ability to write the correct year, 2011 has already shown me an entire world of new discoveries. And, lucky you, I'm here to share *a few* of them. The rest you have to discover all by yourself.

Jicama: don't underestimate the pure awesomeness of this veggie. If Jicama was a character in Veggie Tales, t'would be the fresh and feisty yet simultaneously sweet José Jicama. Oh, José. He and Mr. Larry the Cucumber would perform an inspiring and tear-inducing duet of "The Hairbrush Song" and everyone who saw it would be oh so happy.

The Download Player: expand your musical horizons at a price that's hard to beat: free! The site features ten free downloads at any given time, offering a range of artists from big names like Kings of Leon to local bands like The Steelwells.

Sometimes strangers and acquaintances are kinder than you think they'd be, and sometimes friends can be less kind then you would think they'd be. Self-explanatory.

H.O.P.E. (Helping Other People Everywhere): an absolutely beautiful non-profit that focuses on promoting education and peace around the world through art. One of the organizations they partner with is The Voice Project, and here's an excerpt from their mission statement:

A peace movement is an incredible thing, people coming together, mobilizing like an army, and in this case armed not with guns but with songs and something more powerful than than any bullet; compassion, the strength of human will, and determination.

For over two decades war has ravaged Northern Uganda. It is Africa’s longest running conflict and it has spread to Southern Sudan and Eastern Congo. Joseph Kony’s LRA has made abducting children and forcing them to fight his chief weapon of war, even making them kill their friends and family members. Many abductees and former soldiers escape but hide in the bush, afraid to return home because of reprisals for the atrocities they were forced to commit.

The women of Northern Uganda - widows, rape survivors, and former abductees have been banding together in groups to support each other and those orphaned by the war and diseases so prevalent in the IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps. And they are singing songs. The lyrics let the former soldiers know that they are forgiven and that they should come home. The songs are passed by radio and word of mouth out into the bush, as far as the Sudan and DR Congo. And it’s working. Former LRA are returning and for the first time 24 years the region has a chance at real peace.

The Voice Project is an attempt to support these incredible women and the peace movement in Uganda, and an effort to see how far a voice can carry.

Iceland may just have the secret to happiness. I'm currently reading The Geography of Bliss, a book in which the author and fellow journalist Eric Weiner, travels around the world to learn how different cultures perceive and define happiness. Though I still have more chapters and more countries to read through, Iceland may very well be my soulmate destination. The following excerpt is a description of why Jared, an American who has "gone native" Icelander, loves Iceland.

He loves the way people invite you over for coffee for no particular reason and talk for hours about nothing in particular... He loves the way on a brisk winter day the snow crunches under his feet like heavenly Styrofoam. He loves the choirs that line the main shopping street in December, their voices strong and radiant, turning back the night. He loves the fact that five-year-olds can safely walk to school alone in the predawn darkness... He loves the way, when your car gets stuck in the snow, someone always, always stops to help. He loves the way Icelanders applaud when the plane lands at the international airport in Keflavík just because they're happy to be home... Most of all, Jared loves living in a culture that doesn't put people in boxes- or at least allows them to move freely from one box to another.

The Mountain Goats: a band recommendation by a music guru who sat next to me on a plane. Just listen.

Today's color: Outer space, a dark grey, but this time it's all in the name. These six tidbits I've shared with you today are just the tip of the solar system... there's so much more.

Look up into the sky, and count the stars if you can. Genesis 15:5