Announcements

It’s been a couple days since I got anything in this blog, but it’s been a combination of running errands, trying to get things done, and a nasty stomach bug that has laid me low for about a day and a half. Anyway Kim and I have been busy on a couple of projects so I’ll go ahead and announce them here.

Red Lotus Trading Company: This will be our export business based out of the U.S. and we will be shipping the goods back there. We have put together a catalog that I think came out very well, and Kim is working on putting a full scale e-commerce site together. Our hope is to sell wholesale to distributors in the U.S. that we can supply with all the marketing tools and information they need to sell the items. Right now we are featuring mostly crafts and items with significance within Tibetan Buddhism, though we hope to expand quite a bit into things as large as hand crafted and painted furniture, to more products like pashmina and cashmere scarves and silk rugs. We really want to emphasize that we will be able to do custom orders for just about anything. When the website goes live it will be at redlotustrading.com.

Red Lotus International Cargo: We will also be opening our own international cargo company in Kathmandu. We are in the process of starting to get this registered right now, and we hope to be up and operational in a couple months.

The Purple Thread of Epictetus: At least this is the working title of a short book I’m currently working on, introducing a philosophy of life based on the teachings of the Greco-Roman Stoics and some ideas taken from the philosophical basis of Buddhism, all mixed in with a bit of evolutionary psychology. I am currently putting the final touches on a very rough draft, and it will be a while before any of it sees the light of day, but I’m fairly happy with the form that it has taken, and writing it has been a great experience.

Travel Writing: I was recently contacted by a travel book editor out of California and it looks like I’m going to try my hand at a couple of short travel essays. I’ll be doing one on the Tamang Heritage Trail that Kim and I just did and will be doing another on Nepali (most likely with a focus on Newari) food in Kathmandu. This will be a really fun experience I think, as it is always exciting to share with people the things you love about a place that you have been. The tough part will be trying to convey it in a way that brings about even close to the same level of enjoyment you experienced without trying to ram it down people’s throats. Anyway I think this will be a fun challenge and am looking forward to it.

So with this stuff going on and still having to run around to get things ready for our visa (the stomach bug has kept me from opening the bank account here that I need to open to get things started) I will have a few less of the fun photos and travel stories I normally get to post. That said we are really excited about these projects and can’t wait to fully dive in.