This time last year, most of my non-work time was spent alone hunched up with my laptop on the sofa, playing games or doing emails etc.

Tonight, when I get home, my wife will be on our laptop cranking out another 3000 words for her NaNoWriMo project, while I’ll be watching TV and occasionally waiting for her to finish.

In about three months time, we’ll be trying to juggle laptop time (as I have termed it) with WeaponX time. Although, naturally, WeaponX will get the lion’s share of attention.

But since then, I’ve been wondering about how other people transition from being alone with a laptop, to being a couple with a laptop, to being a family with a laptop. Cory Doctorow has an interesting article on how he juggles fatherhood with laptop time – mainly by letting his daughter watch things on the laptop.

This sounds like a straightforward idea, but then at the back of my mind, I can’t shake the feeling that time spent on a laptop is time spent away from my wife or my future family, even if we are physically all together sat on the same sofa… whereas at least if we’re watching TV together, we’re watching TV together.

How do you tackle that dual need between “together time” and “laptop time”?

I shall be returning to America – well, Ohio – for May/June 2011. And I’ll be bringing a wife and child with me. (Assuming US immigration lets me in and the British government actually returns my passport).

If you fancy coming to our wedding/christening celebration in the shadow of one of America’s most famous rollercoaster parks, then please let us know a good date on the Facebook event or in the comments below. or you can, y’know, email me…

After Morrissey called the Chinese a sub-species, quite a few people wondered why the British-Chinese weren’t getting upset or starting demonstrations against his words.

Is it a uniquely British-Chinese thing that we just don’t seem to get upset over anything? Or indeed, particularly inspired to help British-Chinese people get into Parliament, or even our local council?

Thankfully, it would seem not as this interview with American-based The Angry Asian Man proves… Mind you, he’s at pains to emphasise that he’s not an angry person himself…