Skype surveillance, HK, etc.

I've read a lot in the last 5 or so days about how some evidence has surfaced that Skype is being watched/listened to in China. This is of course not very surprising to me, and I might actually care about it if I could get Skype to work properly in my building. Take this morning, for example: I'm able to watch parts of the presidential debate in live streaming video, but just after that Skype is all but useless. I won't pretend to understand how my internet chooses when to work and when not to, but I pay for China Telecom ADSL, and everyday it seems to have problems of some sort. My guess is that my building's internet pipes need cleanin', as the patchiness doesn't seem to come at any regular times.

Now I'm off to Hong Kong for the next 36 or so hours to renew my visa. This should be the last time I'll have to do this, as in about 3 weeks I'll be starting a new (real) job and will be able to get my own genuine, bonafide work permit. I've got some catching up to do on the blog in the next few days, as I still want to get out some entries on my trip to Dongbei, my impressions of Hong Kong (from a longer trip this summer), and link to some recent photography that's been sitting on my camera waiting to be uploaded. Ahhhh... laziness.