No(t much) More Procrastination!

Ah, summer... when life seemed free, and I thought I would have the time to maintain a blog...

Well, let's try this again...

Since the last time I posted here, I had a birthday, we had an election, welcomed an ox, and also a bear... so I guess the usual excuse (nothing happens worth writing about!) won't wash, huh?

Happy 4th!

Yes, I'm actually posting this on the fifth... not much need for text here, as the pics more or less speak for themselves. My friend hosted a fireworks party, since as you can see the view from his balcony is pretty classic. No prize for recognizing the buildings... :-P

Bhutan, USA

Welcome to Off Topic, a blog about - as the name suggests - pretty much everything (or at least, pretty much anything). You're reading my inaugural post.

On Wednesday, I made it down to the National Mall to take a quick look around this year's Smithsonian Folklife Festival. The Festival focuses on different regional, national or thematic exhibitions each year; they usually have at least one US-based and one international topic. This year, they're highlighting Texas, Bhutan, and - an unusually non-regional focus - the history of NASA.

I found the exhibits on Bhutan especially interesting, because it's such an isolated country that such cultural contacts used to be rare. Bhutan has only recently evolved peacefully from one of the world's last absolute monarchies into a more democratic constitutional monarchy. TV and the internet were banned until about ten years ago. It seems to me that Bhutan will be an interesting case study in how (and whether) a small and isolated country can become more open to the world without compromising its traditional culture.