My computer – and I have only one at the moment – is in hospital. Being nursed back to health I hope. It had multiple organ failure, but happily its innards were still under warranty, so it shouldn’t cost me too much. I hope.

Maybe the final touches to The Song of the Shiver Barrens was just too much for its cognitive health…

So here I am having my first taste of a Malaysian Internet cafe.

There have been numerous comments by bigwigs in Malaysia lately about what liars bloggers are, or illiterate self-indulgent nonentities etc etc… This week I attended a meeting in which government servants seemed to think that anyone who says that internet publications have validity needed their heads read. Which was a bit tough on us when we were trying to point out that if you want to impress a certain segment of the population, you are in trouble if you ignore the internet, especially when the publications out there in this particular field were the most up-to-date, accurate info we could find.
Sigh.

Those who can afford to look at their porn in the privacy of their own houses, are – naturally – convinced that internet cafes are the seat of all evil among Malaysian youth.

As I sit here in the pitch dark trying to see the keyboard, I am wondering if they are right. What’s with this lack of lighting? Do all Malaysian internet cafes operate in lighting more suited to drug dens trying to escape the notice of law enforcement? Should I peek into some of the other cubicles and see what is going on…?

I am at least three times older than anyone else here. What fun…