censorship

At last my hard-drive collapsed and I took the least expensive route out by replacing it. As a result, I am now operating in a Chinese version of Windows (Vista?) which at times can be a royal pain in the ass. Perhaps I lost some photos and some writings, but I'll find some person who can extract those when I go back to the States. I'm back to square one looking for ways to avoid all the blocks China has put in place so that I cannot express myself on this blog. There really is too much to catch up on, and a lot of photos to accompany those stories. In due time, I think I'll be able to get back up to speed.
While on the subject of China's censorship though, I will tell the story of when Shawna and I went to see "Iron Man 2" in theatres here. The villain is portrayed by Mickey Rourke as a Russian; the word "Russia" and "Russian" are used throughout the movie, but every time they are, the words are twisted into an incomprehensible mess. I'm still trying to figure out why the government doesn't want the Chinese people to hear those words? Another fun and interesting thing to do: type in any word with the slightest of pornographic associations in Google search and watch with wonder when it tells you that your search didn't come up with any findings... now imagine if you did that elsewhere and the treasure chest of sites which would come up at your disposal.