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Oct. 20th, 2006 02:46 amI'm posting from an Internet cafe right now. I wish I could do a screen capture to show you what it looks like. Everything is in Chinese characters: "mood", "text" "friends", etc. Very interesting. This "cafe" is actually nothing more than a parking garage that has been filled with rows of desks and computers. As I walked down the ramp (it's underground), the guy at the reception desk was too busy with his own computer to bother with me. It took him a moment or two to get up and come help me. All he did was tell me the price and hand me a card.
Ok, what do I do now? At first I thought I had to find the computer with the same number on it as my card (133) but it soon became clear that there were not that many computers down here. I decided just to look for an empty computer that looked like it was on. I actually sat down at three different computers before I realized that I had to turn the computer on myself. Next, a password screen came up and, as it is all in Chinese, I had no idea what to do. It only took me about 3 minutes to figure out that I needed to type the number 133 as both the user name and password. Ah ha! I'm finally online.
Now let me describe the "cafe" for you. It's dark, with a few bare light bulbs hanging overhead. The computer screens and desks are dirty, with fingerprints smeared across the screen. There are little bugs crawling on the desks, too. Most of the people in here are gaming, although the guy next to me was just looking at porn. yuck. It's smells smoky in here because, as in most places, smoking is allowed inside. There is a floor fan blowing loudly, which gives a slight breeze through the place. Each computer is accompanied by a webcam and earphones, so I could potentially do a webchat here. Also, the connection is much faster than the one we had at home. That's a nice change. I had to come here today so that I could post on my class discussion board. I'll be glad to get out of here.
Ok, what do I do now? At first I thought I had to find the computer with the same number on it as my card (133) but it soon became clear that there were not that many computers down here. I decided just to look for an empty computer that looked like it was on. I actually sat down at three different computers before I realized that I had to turn the computer on myself. Next, a password screen came up and, as it is all in Chinese, I had no idea what to do. It only took me about 3 minutes to figure out that I needed to type the number 133 as both the user name and password. Ah ha! I'm finally online.
Now let me describe the "cafe" for you. It's dark, with a few bare light bulbs hanging overhead. The computer screens and desks are dirty, with fingerprints smeared across the screen. There are little bugs crawling on the desks, too. Most of the people in here are gaming, although the guy next to me was just looking at porn. yuck. It's smells smoky in here because, as in most places, smoking is allowed inside. There is a floor fan blowing loudly, which gives a slight breeze through the place. Each computer is accompanied by a webcam and earphones, so I could potentially do a webchat here. Also, the connection is much faster than the one we had at home. That's a nice change. I had to come here today so that I could post on my class discussion board. I'll be glad to get out of here.