Contrary to urban legend, I do have the occasional happy thought. You can't raise 2 little girls with a tolerant wife unless you are able to get into that happy place almost on demand.

I do have friends who appear to be bottomless sources of happiness and good cheer, their Twitter feeds full of positive messages to all. That is not my path, but not for the reasons you might suspect.

I seem to generate a lot more feelings of "satisfaction" than outright "happiness". I also think, that being an agnostic person when it comes to organized religion, that I don't put a lot of stock in prayer or "the power of positive thinking" and other related things. I also believe that Fate and Destiny plays a big role in people's lives, and while we are in control of our day-to-day lives, you are moving down a pre-destined path in the greater scheme of things.

My mother (a retired high-school teacher) always told her students that they are "not losers, but choosers". When my thread has played out to a point where it intersects with someone else's, I always have to make a choice. So don't think I am a fatalist who believes all is pre-ordained. I believe a wise person once said "luck is the intersection of opportunity and skill."

Not that I believe I am destined for greatness in any way. My programming skills are not in the field of inventing (or reinventing) awesome pieces of technology for the greater good of all. I am more the type that likes to combine things together and figure out how to make something BETTER come out of all of it.

Hence my like for testing, and codified programming practices for a given language. How I like to go to conferences, and organize meet-ups, and take time out of my after-work schedule to just shoot the shit over Skype with people who are willing to toss away the grumpy cartoon character I play on Twitter to talk to the person underneath it.

So, not a lot of happy thoughts come out of me, more like "man, I am glad this shit worked out in a way I am satisfied with". Satisfaction IS what I aim for, because my wife can tell me that I am my harshest critic, holding myself up to a pretty high standard for whatever tasks I tackle when I am confident I can do a good job.

You can be happy. I'll be over here feeling satisfied.

Thanks to the icon of the PHP community for the topic suggestion.