So. You’re traveling and decided to do it on the cheap, and head to a Youth Hostel. It’s actually okay: hot showers, clean beds and (sometimes) warmed/cooled rooms. All for 15 yuan (insert alternate currency here) a night for a dorm room.

But then… you get… a SNORER! Not a light one, but one who sounds like strangulation times one-thousand (that’s Strangulation 1000^tm).

The resulting situation is tragically predictable (kind of like how it’s not a good idea to keep people in a building after a plane has flown into it, if you’ll excuse this crass reference). Unless you’re Chinese, and then you’re lucky enough to have the ability to sleep anywhere, any time, and in any auditory situation (damn, I envy them in this regard).

The moral of the story is: if you snore, please, please, please, please sleep in your own room (or give out free earplugs or at least hugs and/or apologies). It’s for the greater good of all the others in the room who would otherwise have no sleep and be cranky like yours truly is this morning. Thank you. :-)

Well, it’s been a while since you’ve seen anything from lumaki.com. :-/

This is due to the Homingnetwork.com (really only one guy running the show, apparently) becoming unfortunately bankrupt (after a few years of no apparent problems). Their hosting provider revoked their services, and thus all of Homingnetwork’s customers lost their stuff. And, alas, being overseas makes it harder to administrate a web site (not to mention resurrect one), when the only tools you have is an internet connection and a USB memory stick (and some not-so-good backups — shame on me)…

Anyhow, things are up again (at least partially)… Photos will be back soon, but Flickr is blocked in China, which makes things difficult for me (because I’m still here) and Chinese viewers. :-/