We live in an age of celebrity. Our heros are seen as special people towering above the rest of us mere mortals and entitled to the lavish lifestyles we see paraded before us.

These are people out for themselves, for what they can get. They are special after all, why shouldn't they have a guitar shaped swimming pool and an all red snooker room with a stuffed camel? Or German themed prison nights with expensive prostitutes, or their own private island or a multi million pound farmhouse for the weekends. Or all their expenses paid for by the taxpayer...

More news on the BBC relating to happiness.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/companies/8008057.stm

It's not how much you have that counts, it's your attitude towards what you have. We have monkey brains which are set up for a completely different world, no wonder we are all in such a mess!

It's the 20th anniversary of the birth of Darwin so there is a lot of talk about "The Genius of Evolution" at the moment. Evolution has changed the way we see ourselves and the world. Since Darwin's time we have moved from being divine souls at the center of a world created by God solely for our amusement, to being monkeys on an insignificant rock in an unremarkable galaxy which itself is no more than an insignificant speck in an infinite universe.

Dougal says to Father Ted "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" and Father Ted says melodramatically, "PPprrractice!" and Dougal says, "No, seriously though, how do you get to Carnegie Hall?".

It's probably funnier if you watch them do it, it's probably on youtube.

It can get really sickening sometimes writing about happiness, you can see it in the author photos on the backs of some happiness books, the fixed smile is really starting to hurt. You can hear them thinking, "Can't I just be pissed off for one day???" Well, maybe you need the antidote:

http://www.howtobemiserable.org

We don't claim to have all the answers, so if you know of a better way to be miserable - or to make large numbers of people miserable, drop us a line

I've just finished reading Russel Brands Booky Wook and it's made me think about redemption. Basically the standard story is this, mixed with the wrong crowd, did a lot of drugs/crime/booze then finally find redemption through success fame and wealth. Basically, society says, it's OK to go through these kind of things as long as you come out the other side with a book deal and a big house in Berkshire.

Well, Christmas is over and tomorrow we are back to work and back to normal, has the festive season left you more - or less - happy?

If you look at it logicaly, Christmas is a time of treat foods, which means lots of white flour, sugar, fat and salt which is absolutely not a recipe for happiness. It's also a time to slob out on the sofa and do nothing - except watch a load of trashy TV and drink too much. You also have the opportunity to read boastful round robins about how much better everybody else is doing than you.

Just read a report about a luxury home for dogs:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/7750192.stm

and it made me think about what really makes dogs happy - and that's a loving companion and a nice walk. Dogs are never happier than when they are about to go out for a walk.

One of the best things I've ever done was to take up running and like a lot of things in my life it was a complete accident. My wife Lena volunteered to run the London 10k in March and I said that I would train with her to keep her company, but I wasn't sure I would be able to finish the 10k and places were scarce, so I was just a training partner. She was running for www.ouchuk.org, a charity dedicated to helping sufferers of cluster headaches, which includes her Father, my Father in law.

Obama has several large problems looming: financial crisis, the environment and global terrorism. What he really needs to do is to make everybody happy!