a fish out of water
when i was a kid, klcomp taught me that cutting up old six pack rings before you throw them out would protect fish. and it's true -- if the rings are left whole, fish, who just go about their business, mindless, get stuck, and don't understand how to get out, but rather continue to try swimming harder into the rings.
the word for internet in chinese is 网 (wang), which literally means net. the same word to describe the nylon thing you use to catch fish.
meanwhile, the chinese government seems to think that leaving the internet connected, unfiltered, will only make the mindless sheep get stuck and confused and not understand how to get out of it. for a reason i'm still not sure of (maybe that province up north west? maybe the guy who killed himself because he lost his iPhone?), half of my internet is broken.
i feel like one of those larger dumber fish who can't get caught in the little six pack rings but feel just as confused: i can't use my iPhone with china mobile because i goofed up and now it costs me 10rmb/mb, and i can't use my blackberry because it's a piece of shit china mobile appears to have temporarily disabled bb data service (all of my colleagues are unable to connect unless they use wifi). meanwhile, if i don't use VPN, i can't access anything.
good thing i'm going to a unfiltered place in a few days (where AT&T will charge me an arm and a leg to check google, since they just discontinued their iPhone pay-as-you-go data plan last month)!
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