Timer Set.

Hi. This post is set to publish if (or when) we don’t come back.

Camille, Jessica, and I decided to meet up somewhere “safe” from wifi influence or tampering. We are set to go deep underground, to the Tunnels on campus. The other two were waaaaay better about staying off the grid than I was. Now, this might be our last chance to talk to one another and figure out why we were targeted. I couldn’t help my curiosity though, I just had to know the identity of gHost73737.

And…this is my conclusion.

Image via Hippoquote

I fear…not the darkness inside me, but an ever present emptiness. It’s the absence of communication, the pauses, that are scaring me. Did we do this to ourselves? Are we the drones and dregs of this digital age? But…why the three of us and the people surrounding us? Are there more? The theory I’m entertaining may just be too outlandish for anyone else to contemplate. Me being me, I think it’s worth a shot. So, Jessica, Camille, and I spent an exorbitant, obsessive amount of time looking for security measures. gHost73737 must be some type of firewall as well, but for some larger organization. To them, we posed not a threat, but an anomaly. “They” wanted to investigate further because “they” didn’t know why we would spend, oh, say, 12 hours looking for sophisticated CCTV software. It warrants a checkout, possibly a stakeout. We should have stopped…we should have…but we didn’t.

Say somebody…some company, some organization somewhere…isn’t sharing an advanced piece of technology which pinpoints not just location, but consciousness. Think…almost reverse Matrix. The woman in the red exists, the whole world is real, but you become Mr. Smith, a mere clone. The Mr. Smith program can access you at any time, any where. Oh, not just you, but everybody you know. Mr. Smith is everyone.

Image via giphy.com

I don’t remember the last time I’ve slept. I stare blankly at my arm, the faint imprint of the gHost73737 burning from my ceaseless scrubbing, rubbing it red and raw. I don’t want to be watched by anyone…especially myself.

The Tunnel is our last chance of escape.

Chances are, if you’re reading this…it might be too late.

If you find our bodies us, please investigate. Get the word out. If they get rid of us, the internet will save our data. You have to get them off your scent though. No cookies, no cache, no history. Maybe incognito mode? Please, just don’t publicize like we did.

Image via QuoteFancy

You have the clues. You have all the information. Don’t tell anyone, and do your research in small chunks. The more you watch, the more they know, the more you become a gHost.

Solve this. Please. Let us not have searched in vain.

Signing off,
Yue

 

 

Raw Dough.

I’m sorry for the double whammy of blog posts, but this update couldn’t wait. Are any of you Black Mirror fans? Do you remember the episode where Jon Hamm’s character, Matt, in the “White Christmas” episode runs through all the jobs he’s done as part of his digital dystopia?  He talks about controlling people’s lives using technology as an observer. Well, we are all complacent, in a sense, with new media surveillance. We all participate in a culture of watching. Think of all the Netflix, Youtube, Snapchats, and Twitter feeds you’ve gone through this year. How long do you spend watching? I have wiled my days away watching video feeds…waiting for others to do something. So the watchers…the Cookie Monsters….aren’t they just…us? Aren’t we the monsters we fear? We love watching, yet many of us hate being watched. We love the public, but we want privacy. What a strange paradox.

Image via giphy.com

Anyway, I was sitting here browsing the net, and something just clicked about the name, you know? Take a look.

I can’t believe I haven’t caught this before. Host. That’s the key to understanding everything right now. So, the way the word gHost is written leads me to believe that Host is the most important aspect in creating a ghost. A ghost is not a harmless entity, but it instills fear by watching and creating an atmosphere of terror. The fear surrounding a ghost doesn’t rely on action necessarily, but on how much one ghost “spooks” or haunts humans.

So, these leads me to “hosting.” Hosting can mean hosting a party or hosting a webpage. According to the Wikipedia page for Host (network), ” A network host is a computer or other device connected to a computer network. A network host may offer information resources, services, and applications to users or other nodes on the network.” The host is a valuable part of the network, something (or someone?) who can offer a “host” of resources. They are not limited to just the digital screen now though, it seems. This might be my paranoia talking, but bear with me a second. Let me just show you a second resource. This is from the Google version of the book The Essential Guide to Computing by E. Garrison Walters.

Click the image to see the novel.

Now, humor me. In a digital age, if we are the “single-user computers,” couldn’t “they” set us up and connect us to a “multiple user host?” Are we already connected? Do you see where I’m going with this? Maybe the Cookie Monster has been inside us all along, planting cookies left and right not just on the screen, but inside. There might be tracking devices implanted through the screen into our minds. Gosh…that sounds insane.

I had to make this GIF of Camille’s video private…because they’re watching us. Always.

How crazy is it though? We spend 24/7 watching and disseminating videos. gHost73737 is all of us. Still, how did they get into my system? How do they know about me? I’m just a nobody in the middle of a big university. I shouldn’t stick out in any way.

I’m going to do some more digging, but I have to be discreet about it…I have to protect me from myself.

gHost73737. In other words, (when translated out of code):

“You are watching you. Fair view. Ok?”

Completely not okay.

-Yue

 

Cookie Monster?

I didn’t want to blog about this yesterday because my brain feels like its swimming in a miry bog of confusion. Where do I go to not be watched? Do I become one of those weirdos who just hide underground with a tin foil hat, blathering on about Big Brother or extraterrestrials or something? I don’t think so. Insanity is not looking so good right now. I may be confused and paranoid, but I’m not crazy. I’m not crazy, I swear.

Last night though…this happened.

Remember the part about me not being crazy, okay? Okay? So, back to the pattern I covered in this post. All that was missing to complete the number sequence in gHost73737’s name was the last 7. This last part of the third triangle completes the…coded sequence. So, what does that mean for me? Does that mean my time is up? Are “they” done watching? Or have they just begun? What is going to happen? Is there something significant about the time? 17:05 military, 5:05pm? I don’t know. What numbers are significant, which ones are not?

I’m not sure if this was smart of me or not, but I decided to Google it. I tried to use a private browsing window and all, so perhaps I’m safe, at least for a little while? I hadn’t considered this, but one of the first results was a zipcode. 73737, otherwise known as Fairview, OK.

Now, if you delve further into Fairview as a town, you get nowhere. However, I think the name is coded. Fairview, OK. Or, if you change up the punctuation, spacing and capitalization: Fair view, ok? gHost73737 is about justice or looking at things in a fair way. At least, that’s what I’m led to believe. Fair view. Okay? I’m not sure I am okay with this gHost73737 breaking into my servers, destroying my code and watching me. Doesn’t seem fair or equitable at all…there’s no such thing as a fair view when all they contribute is destruction, right? Anyway, here’s something else to clue you into my current, hectic reality. Watch the video.

Click on the screenshot to go to the video.

So…there are a few details I’ve left out. I just don’t want you guys to doubt me. I’m doing the research, you know? I’m reliable, and I’ve always been one to question everything. Well, here goes nothing. That last picture, the one with the symbol? I woke up with my right hand wrapped around my favorite Mitsubishi Unipin felt-tip black pen, uncapped. Someone is either terribly good at drugging and framing people…or I don’t know. Am I going crazy? Did I write the symbols? Why?  Back to the recording…(sorry, my thoughts are so scattered). When you watch the video, you can tell that I paused not just once, but twice. The thing is, I don’t remember it. I remember turning on my selfie camera and recording the message, but I don’t remember stopping or pausing at all. When Dr. Pendergrass did something similar, she didn’t remember either.

Click to watch the video.

Right when Dr. Pendergrass wanted to talk about the specifics of the cookies and the tracking, the pause began. Coincidence? I’m not sure anymore. My pauses seem more arbitrary, but they’re so frequent in comparison. It’s almost as if someone is taunting me. They can control when I pause, they can control what I write…not just when I’m asleep, but when I’m wide awake.

I’m really, really scared. I don’t think I’m just paranoid now, and I really need to talk with Camille and Jessica soon. I know Camille has been feeling as if more and more people are watching her. Jessica has been camped out at home, haunted by the gear shipped to her house with no prompting. Someone is watching us…but it’s so confusing. Who is it? Is it one of us? Who is compromising the cookies? Who is the Cookie Monster and how are they using us? I feel like we might be walking into a trap…

giphy.com

“Fair view. Okay?” So…that’s the 73737 part. What about gHost?

Signing off,
Yue

 

Getting to the Cookies

So, I’ve been looking around campus differently in the last few hours, mostly because I wonder about surveillance. Who is watching me? Who is watching you? Why, how, and from where? I made a short video near Wyatt before anyone could catch me talking. I sound crazy. Maybe I am crazy.

Click the screenshot to access the video.

Have you ever wondered who watches all the security footage taken every single second of our lives? I have, at least lately. I mean, why does Peabody need 5 cameras within a 100 square foot radius? I understand the need for safety, but the amount of surveillance seems overwhelming. The difference in perspectives ranges only a few feet. My only explanation is that whoever is doing the recording and whoever is watching, is intensely interested in human behavior. Are they even human at all? Hard to tell in this digital age. All this watching, especially with people looking into their smart phones all day or taking selfies, reminds me of the series Black Mirror.

Image via giphy.com

The characters rely so heavily on technology, they even record memory through devices. People can literally rewatch any moment in their lives with pinpoint accuracy, trumping the psychological ‘detriment’ of the mind as a flexible, biased reporter. There’s this one episode, “White Bear“, where this woman is punished merely through digital surveillance. People track her with their phones silently, just attempting to pin her down via video. A very gaze can be punishment enough. Where can you go to escape being watched in our current obsession with documentation and virality? Nowhere, I don’t think. Nowhere at all. Babies learn how to use iPads before they learn how to use a toilet. Even billboards are digitized, offering a 24-hr onslaught of neon-tinted images. Can you imagine a day without using your phone or carrying it? I’m not sure I remember an entire day where I didn’t check my phone.

Even when I least expect it, the cookies present a problem. Like CCTV cameras, they watch my every move. They know me. Although not physical, cookies want to know what I like to buy, what I like to eat, and what I like to wear. I don’t think cookies or Cookie Monsters want to be visible…in fact, invisibility may mean higher sales. The chilling idea is…where does all the data go? I mean, all the data can’t possibly go to what shoes I like to wear, right? I communicate extensively with friends overseas online, I lesson plan online, I order furniture online, and I even order food online. The internet cookies know me better than some of my friends.

The cookies are watching, but cookies can crumble. So…how do we bring the cookies down? How do we get to the Cookie Monster? Who is consuming all the cookies?

 

Following the Crumbs.

Camille and Jessica have been reporting similar, “Grizzle-esque” occurrences with their purchases as well. Jessica got a strange recurrence of guard dog supplies just days after she placed an order. Camille hasn’t been responding too overtly on social media, which makes us believe she may be playing it safe with low tech options. A smart strategy, too, given what I saw outside my place yesterday. Look at what happened to the server.

I couldn’t believe it…

Someone broke into the server late last night or early this morning and jammed my internet connection. This partly explained the scrambled code, at least in theory. Perhaps they had noticed that I was trying to strengthen the firewalls and decided that I needed to be stopped. Looks like I won’t be coding for a long time. It looks more like a threat than anything else. Were 9-10 wooden stakes really necessary to get their point across? But…I am scared. Someone went through all that trouble to make sure I couldn’t digitally protect myself. Then, there was this. I posted it to our Instagram (@gHost73737) and took a screenshot as well.

You can imagine, I was freaked out. However, as the shock wore off, I began to analyze the pattern. “They” decided to draw on my left arm, the arm which I usually wear my watch on. The symbol looks as if an eye is looking at the time, or peeking out of the corner of its eyes. Weird. This might just be me, but do you see how the outline of the eye could be a 7?  The triangle’s three points (3) correlate to the numbers in the hacker name which tried to break through my firewall, gHost73737. This is too creepy. I think this symbol is actually a threat. Maybe…”time is running out” or “gHost73737 is watching you.” Why write it on my skin? Why make my body an accomplice? Anyway, I took a nap only to find the pattern repeat itself.

I’m really quite sorry about the quality, my hands were shaking as I took the picture. Two “eyes” now, looking both left and right. Perhaps this indicates omnipotence? Omniscience? I have no idea. The repeated symbol also repeats the numbers again, “3” from the triangle and “7” through the eye. I’ve also noticed from this angle, you can make out a sketchy 3 as well, outlining the eye. Do you see it? gHost73737. All I need is one more 7 to complete the code. It’s really, really freaking me out. It reminds me  of the symbols in Skeleton Creek, the ones having to do with alchemy.

Image via Pinterest

What happens if we break the code? Will we be able to? I’m not saying I suspect my parents, but I am saying that it’s possible… this story? It’s bigger than what Jessica, Camille, and I imagined. We thought it was about somebody watching us. Maybe, or maybe I’m being paranoid, this story is about the whole human race being watched. Think about it. How many cameras are on us these days? Every school, library, government site, and restaurant hooks up to a CCTV security system. Everyone uses Google, Amazon, or even some social media that tracks your every movie through cookies. I should say any more here. I’m thinking about making this blog private soon. The fear of being discovered by “them,” whoever they are watching us, is disconcerting. I don’t know how long I can take it any longer.

 

Signing off for now,

Yue

The Crumbs.

“So, I think I’m being watched.”
“Me too.”
“Same.”

Image via giphy.com

Jessica, Camille and I stared wide-eyed at each other, the chatter around us providing a disturbing drone behind us. That’s how our conversation started in the first lit circle during the second term of Dr. Hundley’s YA Lit class. We had been talking about “Blink” from the Doctor Who series just the week before. Our peers all thought we were being paranoid, but we didn’t think too much of it. We wanted to know who was watching–nothing more, nothing less. We didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into.

The signs were in the sidebars.

Each of us began posting in a group Instagram site, gHost73737. The name came from a hacker that had attacked some of my firewalls. Coding is a side hobby of mine I picked up at the makerspace in the Studio Nashville Public Library. While I was there for my practicum, some of the highschoolers and mentors taught me some basic coding. It was cheaper to code a security program than actually buying one, so I got more invested. But…I started getting more and more creeped out. You know that episode of Parks and Rec when Grizzle starts sending products people didn’t buy?

Image via The Verge

That happened yesterday. I bought a security system online and Amazon had put in security cameras for free. Strange, right? State-of-the-art, CCTV security cameras. I thought it was a mistake, but the letter accompanying the package just aid, “Please enjoy your complimentary purchases, courtesy of your friends at Amazon and Google!” But you guys. I didn’t order it. I didn’t order anything.

Image via Giphy.com

I made a GIF of what I saw when I opened my computer last night. All my coded hardwork, gone. The firewalls, the raw code, any logic I had tried to build….at least 20 hours of work, gone. Not a trace.

Is a coincidence that my coding disappeared the same day that my package for “security” and “surveillance” arrived?

I don’t know…

I guess we just have to wait it out.

 

-Yue