Further intimations of victimization

Isn't it funny - yes, hilarious! The Divine String-Puller is such a tease! - how when you're feeling a bit down, everything seems to go against you?

Yesterday, I was without power for most of the day. And it happened in a strange way. It began, I'm sure, as a generalised power-cut in the building (we get quite a few of those): everything was dark and ominously quiet; the lights in the stairwell didn't work. Inconvenient as it was to be denied the opportunity to work on my computer, surf the Internet, watch TV, listen to music, do the laundry, hoover the floor, have a shower..... or any of the myriad small but necessary chores that fill a weekend, I was prepared to wait patiently. These things usually sort themselves out in a few hours. But after a few hours, I noticed the stairwell lights restored, and a TV booming away in one of my neighbours' apartments; but my lights were still out. I decided to check my electricity meter. I didn't think I should have been anywhere near exhausting my pre-paid credit, but.... heavy use of the air-conditioning lately seems to have burnt through the 500 kuai in 5 or 6 weeks rather than the usual 16. Of course, I wasn't quite sure of this, because the last couple of digits on my meter's LED readout are burned out; but I was certainly pretty low on credit. So, I schlepped to the bank, queued for a while, put another 500 kuai on my top-up card, came home and inserted it in the meter. Still no power. Something very funny going on. I checked my circuit-breakers for about the tenth time. All seemed to be sound there. Little did I realise that there was an additional 'master' circuit-breaker behind a secret panel beneath the meter on the landing. That had somehow been tripped, and I needed a flunky from the building management office to come and reset it. That was a fine waste of a day.

I am seriously beginning to think that the Kafka Boys have it in for me too. (Yes, more than they have it in for just anyone....) My Yahoo Mail is grindingly slow. ChinaLawBlog now seems to have been banished beyond the Great Firewall (it is much the least offensive - or politically contentious - of any of the blogs I visit; and I read it more for work than mere pleasure). OK, that one probably isn't directed just at me - but in my current state of mind, it kind of seems that way. ("Why seems it so particular with thee?" "'Seems', madam? I know not 'seems'.") And I am finding both Amazon and YouTube rendered virtually useless for me, because they crash immediately upon my trying to use the 'search' facility on them. (Well, not all searches, but most - and not on anything that one would expect the CCP to have a particular sensitivity about..... unless the Coen brothers are seen as threatening the "harmony of society" in some subtle way that I can't begin to understand.)

"What do you want from me? I'm just an actor. Just an actor."