Have you lifted the ‘kindness temperature’ in New Zealand today?

Launched in New Zealand in 2005, Random Acts of Kindness Day is all about people doing kind and unexpected things for others – for no reason at all.

Over the last four years people have been RAK’d with strangers buying them coffee, paying for their parking, schools throwing events for their community and even huge giveaways like flights and cruises.

Now hundreds of thousands of people take part on the first day of spring.

Josh de Jong, who came up with the idea while stuck in Auckland traffic, said it didn’t have to be a grand gesture or expensive gift, and often the smallest acts were the best.

Businesses, schools, community groups, churches and individuals around New Zealand will be taking part in the RAK movement today.

Random Acts of Kindness ideas include;

• Buying a stranger a coffee

• Mowing the neighbour’s lawn

• Giving someone flowers

• Visiting or calling an old friend for a chin-wag

• Washing a car

• Dropping clothes to the Sallies

• Taking scones or other feel good treats to work to share

• Sending a pizza to the local fire station or hospital for their reception staff

• Donating your pre-loved toys to charity

• Walking the neighbour’s dog

• Paying for a friend to join you in a round of golf

For more information visit the Random Acts of Kindness Day website.

Welcome to 2008!

The beginning of a new year often spurs us to set goals and challenges to achieve over the coming months. With human nature being what it is, many new year’s resolutions are steady favourites. This might be the year you plan to:

• Find a new job – a change in career can provide new challenges, a change of routine and a potential change in life direction. Browse New Zealand job vacancies online to plan your next career move.

• Get in shape – improving your fitness is great for body and mind, and is achievable for everyone. Find your local New Zealand gym for fitness classes, personal training and more.

• Quit smoking - it’s definitely a worthwhile challenge, improving your health and reducing your risk of cancer, heart disease and other medical conditions. Wherever you are in New Zealand, you can get help and support to quit smoking.

• Buy a house – it’s a dream shared by many; if buying your first home or moving to a new home is on your agenda for 2008, shop around to find the best of New Zealand property and local real estate in your area.

• Plan your financial future – whether it’s spending less, saving, or better managing the money you do spend, the new year is a great time to set some financial goals. Talk to a financial planner for sound advice on making your money work for you.

• Find your perfect match – if you’re looking for love, the new year can be a great to time to reassess your priorities; Are you making an effort to meet new people? Do you take enough time out from your work schedule to socialise? Can you meet people through your interests or hobbies? You may get lucky in love on one of the many popular New Zealand dating sites online.

To make sure your new year’s resolutions stick, define the practical steps you’ll need to take to reach your goal and keep a record to act as a reminder throughout the year!

Well, it seems like just yesterday that the only way to have your say on community issues was by writing a letter to the editor (hand writing, mind) and posting it by snail-mail to your local newspaper. Now, thanks to sites like uthink, you can have your say on pretty much anything that tickles your fancy (or gets you in a lather!).

Taking a look around this community forum, you’ll find a plethora of issues that have sparked discussion, outrage and strongly voiced opinions. Want to know what people really think about child abuse, Air New Zealand carrying troops to Iraq, or the judicial system in New Zealand? Then take a look at what uthink tells us wethink.

But it’s not all current events; it’s more like a snapshot of New Zealand society, with everyone getting a look-in. I suppose it highlights what matters to us at any given moment. Topics span everything from movie reviews to parenting, relationships, sport, lifestyle choices, and those great dividers, religion and politics.

One of the things I love about this site is that it has one of those nifty tag clouds (like our very own Swicki search). Tags are simply a way of indexing and categorizing information using selected keywords (for instance, an article on endangered monkeys might be tagged with ‘animals’ and ‘conservation’). You can tag almost anything: articles, websites, pictures and videos. This allows all the links/pictures/articles with the same tag to be viewed together.

A tag cloud is, as the name suggests, a cluster of tags. The size of each tag’s font in the cloud indicates the relative popularity of each topic. On sites like uthink, the tagging of all posts on the forum means you can easily see current hot topics (the great thing about tag clouds is their dynamic nature – they’re constantly changing!). According to uthink, we’re currently hot under the collar about Nelson, money, power prices and chicks. Amongst other things.

Check out this site and other community forums to get thinking and keep in touch with grass roots New Zealand.

I don’t consider myself ‘old’ yet (whatever that means). I’m firmly in the ‘you’re only as old as you feel’ camp when it comes to the aging debate. But I feel about a thousand years old when I go to a club full of underage faces (’don’t worry, you don’t look 25′) or get invited by friends to join one of the many online social networking sites. MySpace and its clones make me feel like I’ve missed out on something, although I can’t quite put my finger on it. Am I the only person without a profile?

For those like me, who fear they’re losing touch with the kids of today, this just might be the answer…

New Zealander David Wolf-Rooney is soon to launch a networking site for grown-ups, specifically targeting 25-55 year olds. His site, iYomu, will have no advertising and will provide up to 1GB of storage space for music, photos and videos. Most interestingly, though, iYomu will only be open to those over the age of 18. While there’s an exclusive, invite-only beta version available, most of us will have to wait until August 13th for the spectacular launch of iYomu.

Sure it might be snobby to exclude the youngsters, teens and boppers, but I think it’s an interesting idea. With hopeful projections of their own success, the team at iYomu predict they’ll have up to 1 million users in the first month alone. Watch this space…

Meanwhile, if you’re wanting to get social with other Kiwis, visit one of our New Zealand community sites.