Occasional Tales

Is it Nanny or is it the Net? I can't log on to Spaces; I can't check Hotmail; I can't get past the front page of The Guardian; and other sites are behaving erratically. Once again I'm left helpless because I don't know whether the problem is part of the Internet itself, or whether Nanny is mucking around with the switches. I'm going to be charitable and assume the former, since the problems al somewhat random in nature. I'm trying to pack for the trip. I had to break out the medium-sized suitcase in the end. I couldn't fit my suit comfortably into the small one, and the gifts I've bought for my parents would take up too much real estate. Unfortunately, the side handle came off the medium-sized one after I came back from Hong Kong. I can use the handle on the top, but it's a bit of a nuisance. I've tried to keep things to a safe minimum. I'll have a little extra space coming back, which will help because I'm intending to buy a few thi

I forgot to mention that... Green Bamboo (Spaces edition) is back. On Friday afternoon, I was messing around with Messenger and happened to click on the menu option for posting to my blog. There, to my surprise, was the editing screen. I thought it might be like blogspot – you can post it, but you can't view it afterwards, but that wasn't the case. I could post and view. I have no idea when access was restored or why it was lost in the first place. I didn't think Nanny was inclined to rescind blocks on individual blogs. "Why was Green Bamboo blocked in the first place?" My suspicion was that it was because I'd said that if China wanted other countries to be a little more trusting, then it should be quiet about Taiwan and Japan. "That was dangerous. Is the post still there?" As far as I'm aware. There was about two days between posting and Green Bamboo being blocked. "And when was it unblocked?" Exactly when, I don't know. "Any

...and Chinese government truths. Since blogspot is blocked from Mainland China, but I can still post here, I see no overt reason for not being a little more forthright about this country. We gave our pupils the first progress test yesterday. The last question in the written part of the test is a short paragraph on some topic. This is what one boy wrote: Taiwan is one island of China. long long ago, Chinese go to this island and live on it. But now some people want to put Taiwan leave China. It is a bad job. We can't agree with it. Taiwan have many people from China at first, they like get back to China, because they want to see their family together. So, China must be stronger and we must study heart and soul to put Taiwan back to China. This is typical of the sort of unthinking nonsense that the mainland Chinese believe. As foreigners tend to do, because we acknowledge Taiwan's separateness, I once unintentionally referred to it as a distinct political entity to one of the pu

I can say it, but I can't see it. Blogspot has been blocked again from China, although as I learnt from my friend Chris, I can still post here. That means that I can probably be rude as I like about the government; say whatever I like about Taiwan, Tibet and Tiananmen; and apparently use phrases such as "freedom of speech" and "peaceful democratic transition" without concerning myself about this blog getting blocked as my original Spaces blog has been. I guess people beyond the Great Firewall can comment, and I assume that I can moderate the comments and do just about everything else here. I just can't view the resulting mess. Anyway, in case, somehow, you've got here from Green Bamboo, I've now set up another Spaces blog, Xin Phoenix, which is now my main blog. Yeah, I'm a narcissist. I like to post and then look at myself afterwards. 25th Mar. 2019. Removed long-dead URLs to blogs that no longer exist.

The zombie trade. The Register has this article about China replacing Britain as the home of the greatest concentration of zombie PCs. In recent days, my old e-mail address has been getting spam which is appearing as if it comes from people on my contacts list. Normal spam ends up in the junk folder, or in my inbox, but never usually claiming to be from people I know. I did suspect that someone who has been in contact with me had been infected. Of course, they'll never get anywhere because being an unrepresentative sample, I don't conform to the spammers' notions of a person who is stupid enough to fall for their implausible scams.

Perhaps. Although only time will tell, it appears that Green Bamboo has been blocked. I tried to log on this morning, but couldn't get onto the blog, and I've just tried via anonymouse , which was successful, but I'm unable to sign in. That means that this is now my official blog, unless the present situation turns out to be a mere hiccup. Somehow, I think not. If I can see Green Bamboo via a proxy and everything else is otherwise working on MSN, I don't think we're talking about a temporary glitch. Further to the paragraph above, Chris has wondered what's up with my main blog. I think that confirms that my Spaces blog has been blocked. I'll post a valedictory message there when I'm in New Zealand for my sister's wedding late next week. I'm not going to weep and wail about this too much, although I am a little agitated, a state which will pass in time. I'm surprised Green Bamboo remained accessible as long as it did. However, I will note t

But not the right place either. In case you've strayed over from Iain Dale's Diary where I just recently posted a comment about the accessibility of Iain's blog and the 18doughtystreet site from China, this is merely my spare blog which I update as frequently as whenever. If you feel like straying onwards, then click here for my active blog.

It may have its day. Yes, I know this blog remains rather quiet since I haven't posted anything here in a couple of weeks. In mid February, I got quite a few hits because of the story about Clareification, the Clare College student magazine. The editor was in hiding because he didn't realise that satire and Beardies don't mix. Valentine's Day came and went without really stopping to be noticed. There's one pseudo-religious festival we could do without. I'd also started going to the Muslim noodle restaurant because it was the only place open. I didn't know that it appears to be part of a chain because today when I went on a short adventure, I found there was another branch not far from the university. The options for places to eat eventually got narrowed down to KFC, although I did go to Jazzy Pizza in town one evening. I reinstalled Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project which I hadn't played in ages. I also noted to myself that the FAQ about Duke Nukem Forever