I read recently that fish have something in them that perks you up, something of an anti-depressant. Reader's Digest (Brazilian edition), I think it was. Anybody got any information on that?

This past weekend Brazil had a hurricane down south. Probably a first. We NEVER get hurricanes here. Actually, the national weather service here called it a cyclone, but the U.S. service classified it as a hurricane. Whatever. It killed a few people, here they didn't expect the winds to get over 50-60 kph, but it got up to 150 kph. Egg on face of weather service.

Nearly every weekend in my part of town, a bus stop shelter, a light pole, or a traffic sign is knocked down. In one curve in front of the Thermas Sports Club, the bus stop shelter was destroyed three times. The city finally moved it up the avenue.

Why is that? Drunk drivers. Between our neighborhood and downtown are a couple of nightclubs. At four and five in the morning, people stagger to their cars and rev up for the ride home. In their drunken stupor, they often don't make it. We've even seen upturned cars in the creek next to a major intersection.

That not to mention that alcohol is involved in most fights and murders between people who know each other. Bar brawls, nightclub fights, knifings -- alcohol loosens the tongue, raises one's arrogance level, and lowers inhibitions -- the fiery mix for trouble.

On top of that, Zig Ziglar writes:

"Authorities now know that approximately one person in sixteen who ever takes a social drink will become an alcoholic! How many of you would get on an airplane if before it took off you knew there was a 1 out of 16 chance that it would crash and destroy your life. Actually, the odds for a commercial airliner crashing are closer to 1 out of 1,000,000; but even with those odds some people will not fly. Yet many of these same people will take a drink!"

I'll take my chances with an airplane. But alcohol scares me silly. I stay as far away from it as I can get.

As of today, you have exactly 50 days left in the year.

The question is, what are you going to do with them?

What's your plan?

See yourself at the end of the year, 31 December 2003. You are looking over the last 50 days. You are telling yourself, congratulating yourself or lamenting within yourself, what you have done during these days.

What will you tell yourself?

Will you work, study, teach, write, paint, so that you can be grateful for that time?

Or will you moan over lost time, again?

What are you going to do the next 50 days? Write it down. Right now.

No, not LATER, I said, RIGHT NOW. (Yes, I'm YELLING!)

"Look carefully how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil" (Ephesians 5:15-16, ESV).

For the city of Aparecida, where the National Basilica for Our Lady of Aparecida, Brazil's patron saint. There, supposedly, fishermen found an image of Maria in the river. In the 80s a new structure was dedicated, only the Vatican is larger.

I was preparing a nice little item about this, when my computer froze up. *Sigh*

Suffice it to say that this city of 35,000 will receive this weekend around 220,000 pilgrims. The basilica will hold 45,000 people at once. The parking lot has space for 4,000 buses and 6,000 cars. Normally 700 people work at the basilica and 1,500 volunteers are on hand this weekend. See a few items and pics here.