East Meets East (Liz is in India
Aaron is in China)

Liz - I finally pried open the doors of the Great Firewall with the help of some handy software!  It was a downward battle for a long time: the worst part about Chinese censorship is that you aren’t even given a reason for why you are being denied access.  A “connection denied” screen just appears, black on white.  From what I’ve heard and read, all net traffic from China out into the world is funneled through two major hubs, ours being Hong Kong, I think.  What this software does is give me a different IP address and encrypts my information through Hong Kong.  The smart Swede who recommended me the stuff implied that China is totalitarian, but not totalitarian enough to crack and inspect every encrypted package that passes through its servers.  Hurray for that.

I know it’s been a while since we first started talking about this project, but I hope you’re still down to swap and discuss our experiences in China and India.  You’re probably a manic, espresso drinking, shit slinging editor by now and I’ve definitely been getting busier and busier with my internship, school, and applying for grad school (note: all non-money making industries = a source of stress).  Having this thing can be a good outlet for us.  Obviously, as we’ve already established, it’s not nearly as brilliant or specific as our last project together, but I think the loose structure will work to our advantage. - Aaron