V-FP day

OK, so it's been like, forever, right?

Ahem. Can you tell the semester's started here at AUC? But let me tell you the REAL reason(s) why this blog has been sadly languishing. Again.

Looks like my last entry was Jan 27. That was the day after my parents left, so things should've rapidly gotten back to normal. Right?

Wrong. Welcome in Egypt.

On Wednesday or so of last week, the internet here stopped working. Completely. I could use internal AUC sites, so the intra-net still worked, but naturally we (especially KC) were pissed off because we needed to work. The semester was starting!

I went to a meeting on Thursday and listened to everyone else complaining about the internet being slow. I said, "What, did some idiot cut the transatlantic cable?" The resulting silence told me I'd scored a hole-in-one.

Turns out that's almost precisely what happened - but it's actually worse. Not one but as many as FOUR cables in two different locations - one near Alexandria, one off Dubai - were severed almost simultaneously. There's been a lot of speculation around here on whether or not that's coincidence. Now I'm convinced that millions of stupid people do millions of stupid things every day - at some point, those stupidities are going to coincide. Catastrophically. And come on, what terrorists would want to take out India and Egypt? Maybe I could see India - take down the tech support capabilities of the world. But Egypt? Seriously. I love this country, but it only wants a little patience to see chaos in this country. Or being awake.

That blog up above suggests that maybe the US government has deliberately sabotaged the cables to take out Iran's internet connectivity. Now I'm as paranoid as the next guy - who's probably out to get me - and I am properly afraid of that gang of thugs running the US for another year. But just in case, please, g-boys - a little precision next time, hmmm?

On the plus side, I can actually access Blogger now to make posts. Google seems to be the most slowly-recovering set of websites. I couldn't even use Google early this week to make talks for my classes, which freaked me out more than it should have. I can remember a time before the internet, after all. I just didn't want to have to generate my own images for a powerpoint presentation on clone-contig sequencing and 454 pyrosequencing.

So sue me.

Oh! I completely forgot to tell you the reason for the name of this post!

I have acquired a french press! Sound the trumpets! Pass the virgins! Dance in the streets! KC and I had a lovely cup of electricity-free coffee this morning as he was heading for the airport.

That's right. I've gained a french press, but lost my partner. He's on his way back to his real life in Princeton. We're hoping to meet in April in Istanbul. I've had that stupid song stuck in my head for a few days now. If you don't know which one I'm talking about, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Cheers for now. I'll try to get up some post on my many recent adventures. And they are legion.