Early next month, I'll be traveling to China for a week on the premise of business. CeBIT Asia is taking place in Shanghai from October 10-13 and our company will be attending the show during one of those days as a guest of our distributor in China, which has a booth at the show. Naturally, you don't go to China simply for a trade show. There will be copious amounts of site seeing along the way that will take us to Beijing and Xi'an before arriving at our final destination in Shanghai.
The first, and only, time I've traveled internationally was 7 years ago when my wife and I honeymooned in Cancun, Mexico. Obviously, the travel landscape has changed significantly since then. We entered Mexico with nothing more than our birth certificates. Now, we have passports and the required travel visa to enter China.
With the latest restrictions on air travel and the items you're allowed to carry on-board, I've given more thought than normal to what will occupy the space of my carry-on(s). With this fresh in my mind, I was quick to catch the headlines of many recent articles detailing the lengths at which the US government is willing to go to categorize and inventory US citizens as they travel to and fro. To wit, it appears that the NSA / FBI / CIA / DHS is concerned with the reading materials of passengers.
Reading happens to be one of my passions in life. It's rare that I don't have at least one book on my nightstand at home and a queue of several more waiting in the wings to be read. Naturally, books are a staple of my carry-on luggage in every flight (and long car ride) I've ever had the pleasure of taking part in.
And why have I gone to such lengths to write all this up, you're asking?
The book that I'm currently reading, which will most likely be finished while I'm somewhere in the middle of the Pacific en route to Beijing, is the science fiction classic The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress from Robert Heinlein. The front cover of the book states it to be "(h)is classic, Hugo Award-winning novel of libertarian revolution." It is a book following the revolution to free Luna (the Moon, which has become a futuristic version of early 19th century Australia) from the oppression and tyranny of its token ruler (the Warden) and his puppet-masters on Terra (Earth).
I suppose now would be a bad time to also state my support for Ron Paul's campaign for President?
Oops. I suppose a print-out of this entry will also find its way in to the database detailing my reading habits.