Three days of YouTube 'cold turkey'. It ain't fun. I suppose it's good for me, really, but that's scant consolation at the moment.
Blogger and Blogspot are still available here in China (well, Blogspot is more or less permanently blocked anyway, but we access it via an alternate IP address; the Net censors here can block that as well if they put their mind to it, and I fear they soon will), but who knows for how long.
The two more politically conscious (and West China-focused) blogs I sometimes read, Mutant Palm and Opposite End Of China, were both trying to cover the recent events, and both got blocked very promptly. The Peking Duck, one of the most popular of the 'current affairs' blogs (although I'm not a regular reader; I'm too disheartened by its notoriously rambunctious and often downright lunatic comment threads), was - amazingly - allowed to keep going all weekend, but seems to have been shut off now. The Granite Studio, at least, is still with us - although that may only be because J hasn't drawn attention to himself by posting anything today. The unusual thoroughness with which the censor is trying to lock us down is evidenced by the fact that a lot of the sites I've been trying to reach for news are even blocked via Anonymouse - now that is thorough.
Then, around midnight last night, in trying to switch between two of my many Yahoo Mail accounts, I found that these too were being blocked. I tried one of my back-up G-Mail accounts (which I hadn't looked at for ages), and, sure enough, that was being tampered with as well - although, mystifyingly, I was eventually able to log into it, but was then prevented from connecting with the site any further to execute any commands in my Inbox (and all I wanted to do was delete 6 months' accumulated spam!).
There is, at least, one saving grace for me at the moment, a "bank error in my favour": my principal Yahoo e-mail account is unaffected by this block - I presume it managed to slip through the cracks because I was already logged into it when the block was imposed.
So, no, I do not have the temerity to mention the T**** word on here openly. My blogs are just about my only remaining online recreation, so I really do not want to get them blocked.
I wonder - is the e-mail problem a general crackdown, or am I being targeted for 'special treatment'? Little old me?! What have I done??!!
3 comments:
Hmm. I was in a hotel in san fran when i first heard something amiss.
constant travel formerly meant constant awareness, as too many hours in front of the airport news tvs or reading the airline-provided newspaper provided more newstime than normal.
but now I somehow manage to amuse myself otherwise. and airlines don't provide perks like newspapers to coach passengers anymore.
anyways, the bellhop made a comment when I mentioned where I was headed.
then I saw something outside a consulate as I passed it on my drive down the coastline.
then, finally, i logged onto my email and saw a banner news headline telling all.
so, i suspect, your email is messed with because it might have news banners on it that provide too much info.
My e-mail problems seem to have been just a transient glitch, thank heavens.
I do wonder if I've been getting some individual attention from the censors!
Assclowns the lot of them!
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