Earlier today I posted a blog entry about running in downtown Burlington, Vermont. I then posted the link to my Facebook, Google+ and Twitter accounts. It included some pretty saucy subject matter, like the incline on Main Street, and how tired I was when I got to the top. It also has romance and passion, because I wrote about how Cara was shooting me laser eyes to hurry me up. (We were about to leave to see a movie, and I was taking too long with my blog.)
So it comes as no surprise that some people could find my site objectionable. You see, a friend of mine was in Sam’s Club when he got the link. When tried to read my blog post using their wireless network, he saw this:
Now, don’t get me wrong. I get it. I understand. Under no circumstances should anyone be subjected to “Adult” subject matter like exercise or the annoyance of a fiancé. After all, I am a dirty, dirty man. This is especially true after a ten-mile run in the middle of Summer.
I have to admit, I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I’m not surprised that Sam’s Club would wrongly block things. They’re owned by Wal-Mart, and Wal-Mart censor’s content all the time. I’ve personally bought a movie from Wal-Mart which was missing over an hour of footage. It was the TV movie Merlin, with Sam Neil. I had a VCR recording from television, but I wanted better quality so I bought the movie. When I got it home, I found that all of the content relating to the old Pagan religion had been removed. Even some of the Christian stuff was missing, where it related to the comparisons between the two. All of it was cut. I also knew a band which had to change their album cover before Wal-Mart would sell it. (They felt that a woman licking a lolipop was too suggestive.)
I used to think it was just rumor that they censor content, but I’ve actually seen where they do it. Oh, and there’s no label telling you that it’s been edited by Wal-Mart. They just sell it as if it was the original work. It’s the reason why I refuse to purchase content of any kind from Wal-Mart or Sam’s Club. I simply don’t trust them to give me the real thing.
But sadly, I don’t think my own personal blocking on the Sam’s Club wifi network is related to the company’s deception regarding movies and music. It’s probably just a technical error. Maybe their network doesn’t like Flickr? I link plenty of images from my account there. Maybe they found a swear word somewhere in my blog? Who knows? All I know for sure is that I feel a strange sense of satisfaction that I pissed them off somehow. Whether it was some kind of self-righteous moral judgement or just a computer glitch, I’m kind of proud of myself right now. 