Magnificent Humanity, Building Cities, and a Special Announcement! (opens in new tab)

I'm back from a great vacation and side-quest experience in Asia, where one can always find brilliant human interactions even with imperfect linguistic competence. For example, having a haircut at a random salon in Taipei where the little nephew of the stylist offered fashion advice on the spot, gravely shaking his head at short haircuts for ladies, and anyway why didn't I dye it purple? Or a photoshoot on a bamboo raft on the Li river in the Zhuang autonomous region, with full-on Chinese sty...