I held my tongue before now because, well, it seems selfish to complain about this. It’s been a month since the devastating earthquake in Japan that killed thousands and displaced more than a million people. And it ain’t over, what with the continued threat of nuclear reactors going tits up. Apparently they just raised the warning level from “5” to “7”, whatever that means. It’s like the pain scale at the doctors, a numerical scale has no meaning. Did they just raise it from (-_-) to (O_o) or perhaps from ( ´_ゝ`) to (ಠ_ಠ)? I just don’t know. Chances are slim that any noticeable radiation will make its way here anyway.

So I can’t help but feel like an ass when I’m fuming at my computer because my internet is slow. Initial reports said that no pipes in the ocean were damaged, but that’s obviously not so. I’ve done tracerts and ping tests to numerous spots across the globe, and any time I have to cross the Pacific it goes to crap. Lost packets, horrible response times, enormous jitter. It’s really annoying. Certainly less of a bother than losing my house and possibly my life, so that unforgiving jerk Perspective pops into my head and tells me to STFU. And I do. But I gotta vent eventually!

The last time an earthquake screwed up submerged cables (Taiwan last year), it took a couple months for the area to recover. Well, one down, one to go…

So if people have been wondering why I’m not on Skype, well, there you go. There’s no point. I’ve tried audio-chatting with people back in the US and it’s choppy and often unintelligible. Video is just a flat out no go. :(  Sorry, Mom!