Bom Dia

I'm in lovely Salvador, Brazil, where I have a stunning view of the bay and Pelourinho, the old historic center of Salvador. For 25 bucks a night. That's the view from my window above. Unfortunately, it's raining cats and dogs today, so I'm stuck inside this adorable little Internet cafe Bahia blogging, instead of strolling the cobblestone streets and garnering a few more blisters on my feet, as I did yesterday, when I walked all the way down to the Atlantic Ocean - and then some.

Oh yeah, and we found out last Friday that AARF (or rather our parent company Aquantive) got bought by Microsoft. So now I work for Bill Gates. Hiya Bill.

Guess since it's raining today, I'll make some good headway on Murakami's Kafka on the Shore, so far, one of the best books I've read in ages.

Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing direction. You change direction, but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn’t something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you, something inside you. So all you can do is to give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand does not get in, and walk through it, step by step. There is no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up into the sky like pulverised bones.

- Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

Update: Loads of Brazil pics over on my Flickr site