My Egg Noodles

I cannot access Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Wordpress.com and many other websites I visit on a regular basis here in China. I knew that China blocked sites, but didn’t realise it was this many!

I have been going through my own portfolio of sites to see if they are blocked, and fortunately they are not. Although I have noticed that some Thai blogs have been black listed. This is what appears when China doesn’t want you to see the site:

I wonder who decides what ads go on this page? Are they sold?

Of course, if I really wanted to view the sites that are blocked I could always go through a proxy, so no real problem for me.

If you want me to check to see if your web site is blocked in China, leave the URL in the comments and I’ll check them for you.

Over the past 3 months I’ve been putting together a small team of the most talented web site designers and developers I’ve had the pleasure of working with.

Today we are launching the project we have been working on: Gut Shot Studios – a website design and development company.

Long time blog readers will remember I set up a web site design company before (which I later sold) so your probably wondering why I’ve set up another one.

There were 3 mistakes I made the last time around that I won’t be repeating; The wrong team, the lack of funding and most importantly, I was responsible for managing the clients.

This time however I have a kick-ass team that can work independently. I am backing the company with my own funds and I will not be managing clients. In fact, my role will be very small.

The team is what makes this project exciting to work on… Adnan, our lead designer is one of the very few designers who get’s that clean cut, crisp yet professional design style that works so well when codded into a fully working web site.

If you have a web site design you’ve been putting off for a while, go and check out Gut Shot Studios and if you like our style of work, feel free to contact the team. Mention you found the site via me and you’ll receive a nice discount :)

After enjoying an awesome seafood dinner at the Seafood Bar located in Terminal 3 of Heathrow Airport (The seafood platter is highly recommended), drinking a bottle of white wine to myself (Not recommended when flying!) I was snuggled up in Business Class on a free upgrade courtesy of Eva Air making my way east to Bangkok.

The following day my girlfriend picked me up from Ubon Ratchathani airport with an entourage consisting of aunts, uncles, cousins and her mum. I jumped into the back of the pick up truck before we all proceeded to dive the 3 hour journey to Mukdahan province, which is located on the Laos/Thai boarder in North East Thailand.

After a late night in Bangkok, I was in no doubt I had got onto the correct plane when we stopped of at a local market and I saw snakes, frogs, insects, intestines and lizards for sale, all ready to be bought home and cooked up in spicy broths.I decided to go safe and ordered half a split roasted baby pig:

Before heading to our hotel, which is of amazing value at 350b (£7) a night with aircon, TV and hot shower, I was to visit my girlfriend’s rural village to greet family and friends.

Bamboo huts lined the few dirt roads in the village while nearly everyone housed in each individual hut were sitting on straw mats out on their pouches either preparing or eating food. This is present in most Thai villages due to the lack of entertainment apart from televisions. I exchanged a hundred or so wai’s with friends and family, while at the same time turning down glasses of white rice whiskey coming from multiple directions. I was knackered and was happy to just sit back and watch the locals interact with each other in their own surroundings. This is what traveling is about to me, not so much the history, sights or standard tourist attractions, but the local people. It was very interesting to watch considering how different life is here compared to what I was experiencing a few hours beforehand. I was then given a motorbike and headed to the hotel.

The last few days have been spent cooking with anyone that will cook with me, eating edible-looking foods and drinking lot’s of beer leo. Luckily my 2 day depression from lack of internet syndrome disappeared when I discovered a nice coffee shop next to the mekong river crossing that ferries products and passengers between Thailand and Laos, where I’m now trying this blog post while sipping a nice, hot steaming espresso.

Dear coward,

Stop leaving comments on other blogs using my name/URL, and for that matter, stop wasting your time leaving trashy comments on mine.

I haven’t published any of your immature comments but you still chose to come and leave loads… surely you must have realized that none are going to make it on the blog by now?

Come on, don’t you have something better to do? If it’s a personal attack on me, stop being a pussy and contact me directly.

If you do continue, have some courage and use your own bloody details.

Stop being a coward.

Be a man.

Sincerely,

Fuck you.