Life, the Universe, and Stuff

Happy new year! I'm kinda bummed out, getting over holiday blues or something, but I can still wish people a load of happiness. My hometown, Rio de Janeiro, Cidade Maravilhosa, was recently assaulted by organized crime and many innocent people died in the crossfire. The summer vacation that I was planning for this year is being rethought in the light of what happened there. Yesterday, first day of the year, the crook that has ruled Brasil for four years was inaugurated for another term. A human being (yes, he was one of us, no matter how wretched) was executed on global television and there were people who enjoyed watching. While some of this happened at the end of 2006, I'm desperately looking for signs that that 2007 will be a better year.

Let's see if I can find some personal contributions to make. For a start, I can announce my new blog on books. It's recycled material to begin with, but repackaged for Web 2.0 (that is, instead of being a web page, it's now a blog where people can leave comments). You can find my glorious book blog at http://perrone-books.blogspot.com and read my notes on books that I read in the last several years. I'm still porting the old notes from the web page into the blog, so the comments that are appearing are quite dated and I want to believe that my writing style has improved somewhat. It's there for you, so enjoy it.

In the mean time, I'll sign off with an urging for you to spend a few minutes at the end of your day (every day, for the rest of your life) thinking about how you can become a better person. One little thing can create wonders, little a butterfly flapping its wings over China. So, flap your wings in and make something good happen.