Burmese Python

Today is my last day with my lovely ISP, www.bagan.net.mm My dial-up account will be cancelled starting from tomorrow. I am hoping to go to Laos as soon as I get my passport.
A good informational website about Burma
http://www.mchronicle.com.mm

I threw away all the floppies from my old days at Purdue. I can't believe things have changed so fast. I don't use floppies much these days anymore. I use thumb drive mostly.
Bands Back Burma Activist Suu Kyi
This is from BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3679512.stm

The very first BARS baccalaureate service was today at the Thamaing Karen Baptist Church at David Shwe Nu street. The graduating seniors from BARS program were very happy and their parents smiling. Tony Hayes had words of encouragement for all the seniors. His speech was very encouraging and touching for all of us, not only the seniors.

BARS graduating seniors in front of MIT
From left to right: Moonlight (Lone Lone) and Eh Dah Wah are Sgaw Karens. San Mwe Kan and Nyein Nwe are Shan girls. Sha Mwe Hla is a Po Karen.

I just want to let you know that I got the IT consultant job in Laos. I will start getting ready, applying passport and everything. I will have to be in Laos by mid-October.

I will start to breathe the air of freedom again. For about six months, of course.

Gmail banned in Burma
I just found out that www.gmail.com was banned in Burma two days after I got the account. Gmail is a free web mail in beta testing stage from www.google.com, the best search engine I ever used. Only a beta tester can sign up for the account. The public can't get an account from gmail yet. But my lovely ISP, BaganNet, banned the site two days after I got the account. Well, can't wait to get out and surf the web freely without any "access denied" message. I love Burma and BARS, but I want to feel what it is like to be free again, at least for 6 months. :-)

Access Denied Message from my lovely ISP

http://www.irrawaddy.org/aviewer.asp?a=3937&z=24
Burmese Military Officers Depart for Russia
By Kyaw Zwa Moe and Nandar Chann
September 14, 2004
About 400 young military officers from Burma left for Russia early Tuesday morning for military and computer training, said a relative of one of the officers who left today.
Two Russian aircraft carrying hundreds of lieutenants left the Mandalay International Airport at about 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. today, said the relative in Mandalay.
The officers, selected from across the country, left for the Mandalay airport on Monday afternoon from Maymyo, 42 miles (68 km) north of Mandalay, the relative said by telephone. Maymyo, renamed Pyin Oo Lwin by the junta, is home to military training centers such as the Defense Service Academy and Defense Service Technology Academy, or DSTA. It is also reportedly the site of a new Russian-built ordnance factory, near the DSTA, although the Russian Ambassador to Rangoon, Oleg Kabarov, flatly denied the allegation in …

ALOHA 16 (September 3, 2004)