ACCESS DENIED! kinda

I am trying to wrap my mind around my school computer and with every day that goes by I get more confused. You see, the public school board has some kind of "parental control" over all computers. This makes sense to me for general things. No one wants porn pop ups (accidental or otherwise) while surfing the computers in the library. The more I use the internet though, the more I don't understand what I'm not supposed to be looking at.

MSN webmessenger will not work. I understand, kids should be learning, not chatting with their friends at another school who are also "doing research" in the library. My Gtalk works, on average, 50% of the time. I don't really care as I also don't need to be chatting while working, I just think it's really funny that sometimes it works while others it's blocked. So I send off quick messages to Rach just to prove that I can. Small victories against the man.

Now the not making sense bit. It blocks Penny Arcade, but not Least I Could Do. It blocks the Superficial but not Go Fug Yourself. Now I can see how Go Fug Yourself would be missed - the girls are witty and not vulgar - but Least I Could Do? It's a webcomic essentially about sex. It's logo involves a condom. How exactly is that kosher?

No internet radio. Period. Why is this something that should be blocked? Darn you kids listening to music! Learning will be unpleasant!

I also have no idea how they monitor blogs. None of my regulars are blocked, and very rarely will I try to visit a new blog to have it show up access denied. This is a good thing and a bad thing. Yesterday while floating around in the blogosphere what pops up on my screen? A massive cleavage shot. Large, uplifted, scantily clothed boobs. True the article that accompanied them wasn't racy at all, but not exactly safe for work either.

Je ne comprends pas. If you are wondering what I'm doing surfing the internet at work, it's called keeping sane while appearing busy at the same time. In a "normal" job, I would get a coffee break. At school, I check my email or read a blog entry. I love my job, but dealing with teenagers can cause brain damage if you're not careful. Seriously, it's science. Still don't believe me? Stop by for grade 9 math someday.