Where have I been for the last month?! No, it's not writer's block. It's called China block! For whatever reason, on March 1st I lost access to all Google-brand blogger blogs including my own. I was blocked. And my "internet behavior" was being monitored. Then today, March 24... for whatever reason... the forces that be decided I'm not a threat. So I'm back! And I pretty excited about it!!!
So I've been watched for a month, but I don't get a creepy feeling about having been spied on. Instead, I hope (if my internet behavior really was being monitored by humans) that:
-They have enjoyed my sense of humor... who else can lead them to hilarious Sarah Palin jokes, videos of puppets making prank phone calls, and video clips of Dan Quayle being an intellectual lightweight;
-They don't think I'm a lazy slob just because I have over 3,000 unopened emails in my inbox... I just have a 5 year running tradition of not opening spam... and not deleting it either!;
-They appreciate the level of random detail that I provide in my facebook status updates;
-They have acquired my fascination with 1980s nostalgia
-They didn't get irked by my internet habit of refreshing Yahoo! news to see if there is any new news
-They have updated themselves on important news items from the US, Asia, South America, Africa, and the bizarro world
-They share my interest in learning about economics, alternative energy, medical breakthroughs, chimpanzee social behavior,....
-They are excited by all the upcoming video game release dates that I have made them aware of -They have memorized the lyrics to all the 80s songs I looked up to sing along with on youtube
In the end, I think it must have been my mind-numbingly boring journeys through the streets of Belvidere, Rockford, Chicago, DeKalb, Myrtle Beach, Surfside Beach, and New York City on Google Earth-Street View that must have driven them to the brink of exhaustion of watching my internet behavior... and to the conclusion that my internet behavior is any other adjective but dangerous! :-)
And so now I and my IP address are back in the world of blogging!
UPDATE (3/25): On the very same day I regained access to my blog, thegovernmentofthecountryinwhichIcurrentlylive (tGotCiwICL) blocked Youtube. At first I thought it was just a random Youtube problem. These little Youtube accessibility hiccups happen all the time, including in the U.S. But when minutes turned into hours turned into a day, I suspected Papa Panda might be responsible. Great, I traded access to my blog for access to Youtube. And to honest, Youtube is actually more important because I use it for lessons... yeah, yeah... and as the most entertaining time suck of my life.
Anyways, I just finished reading an article on Yahoo! News that confirms that Youtube has been blocked by tGotCiwICL. Why? Apparently some video of tGotCiwICL police forces beating to death a protester from a certain hotbed province of tGotCiwICL. The English name of this particular province begins with the letter T, ends with the letter T, and rhymes with "the bet." You do know the place I'm talking about, don't you? Well anyways, tGotCiwICL says the video is faked. And in light of the shoddy reporting and yellow journalism of CNN and BBC from last year, I say there's a darn good chance it is faked. Come on, it was posted by some random guy on Youtube!!! But Papa Panda doesn't want anyone to have a look to see for himself. Which means I can't say either way. And it also means I can't get videos to make good set inductions for my classes. And it also means I can't spend my weeknights reliving the 1980s.
... for now....
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Full-time teacher and part-time traveler, Aaron walks the China life each day and comes here to talk about it. Here you will find a smattering of observations about education, daily life, famous places, current events, and contemporary issues. Please read and comment.
2 comments:
if you listened to the news you would know the story is NOT fake.
Listen to the news, you say? Hahaha, you want to know what was on CCTV News today? An indepth report about how happy the people have been in that certain province in the last 60 years. lol, it was so overthetop propogandastic (made up that word to throw off the bots that may still be watching) that even the people who wrote that script must have blushed let alone all of us foreigners watching it.
The fact is that there is no opportunity to get the real news here. But don't think you're getting the raw, true, objective story over there either. We saw solid evidence last year of how the BBC and CNN purposefully distorted the photos and footage. They're no better. And do you think some organization that puts out a video doesn't have a bias? Or the technology to fabricate? Come on.
Somewhere out there is the truth, but you won't find it in its pure form on CCTV, CNN, FOXnews, BBC, or perhaps anywhere. The truth, especially on this issue, is a package of many different perspectives.
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