What a wonderful world...

Jessica here.

I have so much to tell you! This week has been miraculous for Gaia and Gaiam.

I can't wait, so I'm just going to tell you the most exciting part first. On Wednesday Chris Miglino, the CEO of Conscious Enlightenment and Lime Network (both Gaiam family companies) welcomed his new little boy Osho into the big wide world. (Don't you love the name!?) Chris is a beautiful human being and I just know fantastic things are awaiting the wee fella as he begins his journey. New life is magical.

I hear babies cryin', I watch them grow. They'll learn much more then I'll ever know. And I think to myself, what a wonderful world...

Isn't he simply adorable?


Awwwwwwww..... (I couldn't resist ;)

In other news, our Gaiam Teammates in Cincinnati distribution center were hit by the aftermath of Hurricane Ike this week. The strong winds tore down trees and knocked out the power for 90% of the city. Yipes! But, they weathered the storm and are all doing fine. We know there are a lot of storms, floods and environmental upsets happening these days, so we hope everyone is safe and healthy out there in the Gaia-verse. We're sending our best wishes to everyone.

We're glad Cincinnati has it's power back up and running because we want them all to be able to check out the newly launched Gaia Illumination University! This is a place where we can all tune into tele-gatherings, take online courses and connect a group of inspired people. It was founded by Gay Hendricks, who you may remember from our first Gaia tele-gathering on relationships. At Gaia Illumination U, you can develop your understanding for relationships, parenting, and health, to name just a few :) We think it's awesome. Oh! We'll also have a very unique opportunity to participate in conversations with renowned teachers like Jack Canfield, Marianne Williamson and Gay himself. Come on by and learn with us!

I'm just amazed at all the goodness this week, and I wanted to note some brilliant site updates and changes you might notice while exploring, cuddling & connecting here on Gaia. This is what our incredible Dev Team has been working on so tirelessly for you:

• We've installed a "block feature" so members can now block other users, from the offending user's profile page - you'll see the link below the icon on the pages of people who are not your friends. This prevents offending member from seeing content and sending messages to the person who has blocked them. (The purpose of this is not to exclude good people or diminish interaction, but rather to allow for people to control their level of privacy on the site :)
• Removed the ability to see what's been Hot for longer than 30 days to keep things moving along and up-to-date.
  
• Fixed problems with editing About Me in-line on profile
• Changed button toolbar in messages area to be text only (no icons), to fit in new layout
• Additional layout fixes where new wider ads appear
• Featured members on front-page are now only the new set of Ambassadors, and only if they've visited in the last month
• Can now invite people to be friends in reply to their message!
• Lots more love, good karma, and Gaia spirit, if you can even believe it...

I can assure you the Dev Team will continue creating, bug fixing and feature polishing next week. So, stay tuned!

And last, but not least, don't forget that we're in the final running for Co-Op America's People's Choice Awards for green business. Yay! If you haven't had the chance to vote for us, please click here and spread the love ;)

Thank you all so much.