OK, so CNNAsia in the hotel room here is reporting a lot on the situation in Nepal. Massive unrest. Two weeks of strikes. 20,000 people in the streets around the capital.

They're alternately described as pro-democracy protestors and as Maoist insurgents. I kind of get the Maoist thing, what with the shared border with China and the power-from-the-peasants ideology.

But are these pro-democracy Maoists? If so, this could be the politics of the future. Thesis. Antithesis. Pro-democracy Maoism.

Somebody who knows more about this stuff, please fill that little comment box down there.

OK, back to the baby watch.

Things I've had to consider lately:

If you're hoping to have a close friend tag along for part of your journey and you happen to work for the media, it's probably a good idea not to refer to him as your "chronicler" (no matter how fun and/or accurate it sounds), or else the rumor mill might magically transform him into a photographer from the National Enquirer, causing waves of panic among official agency people, and strange evening phone calls perilously close to the departure date. He's not able to come anyway (things happening too quickly), and has nothing to do with... more

And speaking of memetics, here are notes from elsewhere on the web:

Ever had a leprechaun sighting? (I'm sure proponents of the Waldorf School philosophy are not so amused.) Actually, there's a long history... more

I have vague memories of learning macrame at summer camp, and chasing the rabbit round the tree and back into his hole with the sailboat (that's how you tie a bowline knot, if you're among the landlubbers uninitiated). But that's not nearly as pretty as the stuff at chineseknotting.org.

Chinese ornamental knotting is an art that was nearly wiped out by the twin revolutions (Industrial and Cultural) but had a comeback in the 70s in Taiwan. Hey, it was a macrame decade, man. Nowadays, as far as this humble typist can discern, ... more

By day, I write for a national publication. One of the papers you're supposed to find in supermarket checkout lines (although more and more often, you don't, but circulation woes are a subject for another time1).

So, tonight, over a plate of homemade ginger chickpea curry2, Daughter and I had an epiphany.

She goes to a Montessori school for half days, five days a week. If you're unfamiliar with the Montessori preschool philosophy, it involves, among other things:

Lots of precise, repetitive tasks, like drawing... more

INT. GRANT'S BEDROOM -- NIGHT

GRANT and GRANT'S ADJECTIVE SPOUSE are sleeping peacefully in the moonlit room. A clock on the end table reads 3:35.

SFX: Ringing telephone.

After several agonizing seconds, Grant's hand shoots out from under the covers and yanks the receiver to his ear.

GRANT

(mumbles an incoherent greeting)

MEG

Grant! Grant! I'm so glad I caught you at home.

GRANT

What? Who is this?

MEG

It's... more

I was just reading over this thing I've been writing, and it seems like someone would get the impression that my life revolves around Chineseness and adoptionness and that we sit around all day going, "Ni hao!" to each other and comparing dim sum recipes.

To disabuse the gentle reader of this fallacious fancy, I here present a partial collection of my daughter's favorite things. Please bear in mind that she's three years old, and that, really, we're not as negligent as we may at first appear.

Scissors -- the number of times she nearly shredded some paperwork vital to the adoption of her baby brother is, well, far too great. I often have to wade through vast drifts... more

One of the most poorly understood elements of Asian culture in the West has to be the concept of balloon hats. This idea is thought of as a kind of mystical... wait, wait, no, sorry.

It's qi (chi) that's misunderstood. As the above link shows, EVERYONE understands balloon hats, especially across Asia.

But I recently came across this rather interesting article on qi in martial arts. People not used to the concept tend to think of qi in videogame terms, like this awesome electrical zapping power that... more

So we've previously established that bedtime can, tangentially at least, involve the piano and martial arts superstars.

But have we noted just how much bedtime can, in a word, ROCK?

Who has time for sleep when you've got the Pooh Bear nightie and the ukulele? Who has time for sleep when you can bring THE ROCK??... more

If you travel to Beijing, you may see the Forbidden City.

Try to see it the way my friend Van sees it.