Google's Itsy Bitsy Problem

HEADLINE 2019! 

Major Internet corporation is hacked and user's personal data is exposed and shared through multiple medium after nearly have a year if not more cover up by aforementioned internet company.  

Yes, that's right folks. Facebook and Twitter no longer have the dunce corner all to themselves, they now share that prestigious distinction with Alphabet Company's Flagship, Google.  What began as a simple search engine has over the last decade expanded into social media through its Google+ platform where users can create communities and profiles to share photos, blogs, interact, interface and intermingle with one another from across the world.  Google is very proud of this service, which is why they are shutting it down after indications the platform was breached.  

The actual crime itself is fairly simple, the only data that was lost included names, email addresses, occupation, things easily found in many social media. The potential intrusion was through vulnerability links in apps of companies that use the service.  The problem was known seven months ago.  The result was made public seven months later. Now Google has decided to take poor, reliable Google+ out behind the shed and put it out of it's self inflicted misery with no backup for the thousands to millions who have used the service since it began in 2010.  Google will move on, as any company will do from its mistake, and maybe try to pretend like nothing happened.

This has sent users, such as myself, scrambling to back up content, find other platforms, and reconnect with connections so that they are not lost. So the SS Googletanic has hit the iceberg, the crew has put holes in all the lifeboats except their own and disembarked already, and the passengers are left to fend for themselves while the strains of "Nearer My God to Thee" play over the chaos.  This is exactly how to NOT run a business.
---
I will fully admit to having problems with Google+, some old some new. I shared exactly what happened to me and how I was flagged for spamming and lost a few years worth of blogging and connections due to a few accidental re-postings on communities due to Google's own strange way of posting content.  I have shared the fact and frustration of many users who can never appeal or solve problems because there is NO WAY TO CONTACT GOOGLE.  Most support communities are user run, and any contact information for the company regarding Google+ or Blogger is suspiciously absent.  The most one can get is quarterly reports on their financials (wonder where those are going to go now) and maybe if your lucky an automated response if you call them (yes I tried.)

I shared how I moved to this new blog, expecting great things and new opportunities.  I liked how I could interact with people.  Now that's gone, not just for me but for many people.  The moment I heard what happened, I began to work, not just planning on how I am going to move, but I started writing.   I wrote my local congressperson, I wrote my senators.  Say what you will about the current administration as well, but I also contacted the white house, because of all the advocates for users on the internet and how we've been treated by Google, Facebook and Twitter, President Trump has been one of the best.

Let us not forget that Facebook and Twitter were called into Congress, changes were promised.  Deadline, Facebook's been hacked again, and worse. Back during those hearings, Google was requested to come to congress.  The table for Google was mysteriously absent, guess they were busy, with what I could not guess.

The symptoms Google's complacency have been evident for a while.  There's been a rash of pornography problems on the service too, with user accounts popping up and back and sharing pictures, videos and data to websites, often with very graphic pictures.  All I can do is block and report, there's no way to do much else about it.  These people make new accounts and post just as quickly as they disappear,and moderators can't always keep up, or the communities might not have mods.

 If you distrust my word on the problem, go to the Poetry Community and search for Randy G's post on the subject. People were leaving communities and Google+ long before the outing of the hack. It would be nice to log into my social network without having to go and report and block 18 flagrant post every few hours. Once again, there's no way to solve the issue since a company based on communication has no way to communicate with them other than blocking and reporting.  Strange, considering they are data agerators.

Google, Facebook and Twitter are well known for gathering and sharing user data content, floating programs and ideas that they then turn around and use against users free speech or for advertising.  Now in the wake of these latest developments, I wonder if the empty table that SHOULD be awaiting Google after the elections will no longer be empty.  I wonder if we as users of the internet will hold these companies accountable for what they are doing?

Some say Google, Facebook, Twitter are too big to fail, too hard to break up.  Nonsense.  Let us not forget the tragic story of Ma Bell and how after breaking up the company a new flourish of ideas and innovation spread throughout the subsequent companies and helped to foster the creation of the current internet.  Let us not also forget the one company mysteriously absent from this list, a company that is perhaps the wealthiest, most well connected corporation in history so far, a company with a lot of financial and personal data.  I think it rhymes with a river in South America.
---

So what does this mean for me?

Well it's going to be my last post through blogger on the journal section, and I will make one final post on the travel section both of which will include my new information. 

I am going to move to wordpress, possibly reddit, tumblr and other areas. 

I heard of a community on Google+ that is trying to network and suggest alternate platforms, so I will look at that and hopefully find a solution and I suggest others do the same before its shut down.   I am going to network with people who follow me on communities, see what we can figure out.

I encourage everyone to stand up and shout about this.  Make some noise, get messy, but be respectful.  Google did provide a great platform for years, and while it declined, the fact is they allowed this to happen and they could just as easily found a solution for all of us.  Instead of innovating, they decided to destroy and cover it up.   So, my fellow travelers, pack your bags, put on your life vest, and practice your backstroke.  The lights are going out in August 2019, but it is always darkest before dawn.  Or as the immortal Douglas Adams once said, "So long and thanks for all the fish."

(Content and artwork Copyright William H. Johnston 2018)

A "Mystery" in Writing

Open a book and a world opens up to you as the reader. Pages fly by and you pass through places, by people, faces familiar and new. Ideal worlds or dystopia, real or fantasy, these are the things which flow from the consciousness of the writer to the reader.  The ultimate goal of writing is to compel the reader to continue reading, to want to return to that world in which the writer inhabits with a facsimile of life.  The best result: a world in which the reader is a character making choices and wanting to return to that world in which there is a sort of second life.

This idea is not unfamiliar to writers of books as much as movies and even video games, though in the latter one deals with a medium in which all senses are enabled and do not have to be described through words. Movies as well as games have teams of writers, they have scripts and treatments which follow many of the same guidelines of any novel. Even so, there is a nuance to making something like a game feel like a book and nowhere is this best done than in the Cyan Worlds games Myst and especially it's follow up, Riven. 

Cyan Worlds did not go into their profession of wanting to make games.  Indeed, they wanted to make worlds in which the player was a character exploring, interacting and making choices. They used many tools to create this illusion, but at the heart of their goal was a story of writing and the creation of worlds in itself.  To describe Myst and Riven as games is a disservice to them and to the creators Robyn and Rand Miller.  The Miller brothers wanted to create a world in which the player is a character making choices, exploring places and solving puzzles.

The puzzles are one of the stand out features of the series, ranging from fiendishly difficult to more direct in approach where one can solve them with a little research, reading and intuition.  Yes, I mention reading. There's a lot of reading in these games because they take place -within- books or "ages" as they are called and in order to uncover most of the story you must read journals found throughout your travels.  I could go into a long history of the game development and the story, but for the purposes of this writing I want to focus on what makes these games stand out from a writing perspective.

A burnt linking book, incapable of teleportation to the world it linked to.

1. Worlds Within Books.

At the heart of Myst and Riven is the D'ni (pronounced Dun-knee) culture, a long lost civilization which could link to worlds through the art of writing. The D'ni were so good that they could write everything down to a grain of sand and visit these worlds, or ages, and explore or colonize them.  They could also influence these worlds to an extent, but this made the ages unstable. I don't know any writer I have ever met who didn't wish they could visit the world's they themselves create. While it is made clear the D'ni don't actually create the ages they visit, the fact they can influence them to an extent is an extension of the creative idea.

One needs only open a book of the D'ni and place the hand on the living image to be transported away. These linking books open up into civilizations with their own culture, anthropology, flora and fauna. Each one is unique, and Cyan Worlds does their best to make them feel lived in by populating them with extraordinary beings.

A Whark, a native species similar to a shark in Riven. The Rivenese fear and worship these creatures.

|2.  A Living World of Creatures and People.

Imagine The Hobbit without Hobbits.  It just couldn't exist if we as readers did not know what they were, what they looked like, the way they acted, their culture.  The same can be said of the people and creatures in Riven.  Myst has no fauna, and only three characters to speak of other than the player character, mostly due to the constraints of game creation.  In Riven that is not the case.  You find an island of villagers, who live in huts and fish for food.  While their island is crumbling at the seams, they maintain the lives they have for centuries, no doubt, though influenced by the D'ni that has been infused into their culture by an outside source. 

A lot of Rivenese culture and Riven itself centers on the sounds and shapes of animals. From beetles that buzz around to the Whark fish or Sunners.  Even the occasional glance at the shy villagers is a great way to get the player character invested.  Having the world be populated makes it feel lived in, like you could knock on a door and have tea (if they are hospitable.)  They also serve as tools in puzzles if you know how to observe them. Of course, you cannot have people without a place, without a sense of living and surrounding.   Atmosphere is essential to books and games and Cyan excels in this regard.

The infamous "golden elevator" of Riven.  Impressive, but the gold facade hides a simple wooden interior.

3.  Atmosphere.

Riven is dripping with atmosphere.  I distinctly remember one specific instance walking through a tunnel with glowing orange light emanating from the water.  One can almost feel the heat of magma that permeates the room.  Chains dangle from the ceiling with a lever.  You pull on the lever, and the chains clink and clank, the water ripples as a golden elevator rises up from the water and opens up.  It is such a palpable memory, that I still recall it today.  Then there's more subtle things like fish roasting in an oven, where one wishes to smell the fire.

Riven and Myst deal a lot with senses, especially sight and sound. Music is found in the games to lend to the atmosphere, and that it does, with tracks ranging from mysterious to ominous to add to tension. These are things that writers wish they could impart into books, and yet here they are alive, and adding to the dimension of the game.  There are also more subtle parts to the atmosphere, like when the player arrives in a school house and finds that the people of Riven have an infrastructure for learning.

School House in Riven, the placards show D'ni lettering and the object on the table is a macabre method to learn numbers.

4.  A Language of Its Own.

One of the most fascinating parts of Riven is the D'ni language, which is an actual language created by Cyan Worlds.  Cyan took hints from Tolkein in this regard, creating not only letters but numbers, colors and ideas surrounding the D'ni Culture.  In fleshing this out, they created a world beyond the world which influences the events and characters in Riven.  While the Rivenese are not D'ni, they are taught the language, and the power of the D'ni as if they were gods.  The school house is another touch of realism because it informs us that there are children on this island, there are innocents.  It also shows us that the "benefactors" of the Rivenese want to impart a sense of learning and culture.

One of the key features of this building is a macabre counting tool which uses dangling figurines descending upon a Whark to teach numbers.  Pull the pin and it spins, and the little figure descends a certain number of times to a correlating symbol.  It's a sort of "game" correlating to the punishment of individuals in Riven who are fed to the carnivorous Whark fish.  Gruesome as it is, it instills both learning and a sense of the power over the people here, and how they are kept in line.  But who controls Riven, and why?

A stained glass window of Ghen, a D'ni, representing himself as a godlike being creating through his writing

5.  Compelling Characters.

The world of Riven has a human population with its own history and culture; however, the interactions the player has with the locals are sparse at best.  They are a shy people, frightened of intruders and for good reason that I would rather not spoil. 

Much of the plot centers around Ghen, a man trying to revive the D'ni culture. Ghen specifically comes off as a somewhat tragic figure with a complex past.  He clearly thinks he has done or is trying to do the right thing, but whether he is or not is up to the player to decide upon finding clues.  He is ingenious in his inventions, observations, and when the character finally does meet him the encounter is a strange psychological one.

Riven itself has become a "cage" for Ghen, but when face to face the player is placed in a cage once for "Ghen's protection" as he doesn't know their full intentions. Ghen presents a choice so that he might find his freedom, but in the end, the player has more power over Ghen from that cage than he does over himself due to exploration, reading and interaction with the world.  

A carved Whark in the side of a tree hides an elevator among other secrets from villagers who would not dare step foot into its mouth.

6.  Exploration.

I mention exploration above, and in the worlds of Myst exploration does not just mean looking around unusual landscapes.  Sure, one can wander the woods and the shores of Riven.  Even in the books and journals, one finds exploration.  Ghen himself catalogs things with the eye of an explorer and researcher, and one finds similar threads in other journals. Coupled with the atmosphere of the game, the sense of exploring a world is extremely well done and something Cyan would perfect in other games.  In Riven, however, the sense of a lived-in world with people, animals and unique architecture and ecology find a perfect mix.

I specifically remember rounding a corner and finding a giant carved Whark fish in a tree.  With the lighting, the music and the surrounding sounds, there was something about this that spoke to me.  This fearsome visage said, come closer, observe me, learn about me, and I did.  This is something that every writer wishes to capture when creating a world themselves.

The infamous "Rotating Puzzle Room," dedicated to the worship of Ghen, and the art of Writing.

7.  Creating Worlds.

I cannot conclude my conversation about Riven without talking about the concept of creating a physical world from the tip of a pen.  The art of writing is a central theme of the D'ni and it is no better exemplified than in this game.  The creation of a book is an art in itself even before the writing of it, but Ghen transforms the art into an almost religious experience.  Part of this is to affect the world and his power over it, but I think part is a subtle nod from the game creators to writers everywhere.

In the game there is one particular puzzle, the rotating room.  This room serves as a worship area to the creation of books.  The designs of pillars invoke the trees which are used to make the paper.  Upon the trees are beetles which are used for ink.  Inside the beetles are little glass windows which show Ghen creating books, creating the world, writing, and banishing usurpers. Upon the floor is Ghen's symbol which consists of five pen tips with the symbol for Riven in the center (the number 5 is important to D'ni). Finally, above the room is a dome of the night sky, with another pen tip as a chandelier, as if the pen of the almighty hovers over the page that is the room.

It's a striking feature and a remarkable game puzzle for its time, and it's clear that the love and effort that went into all of Riven is essentialized in this single room. Ghen is a visitor to Riven, just as the character, but it is his perception of himself and his art of writing that fascinates me.  

I always wondered what I would do, how I would present myself if I were to enter the worlds I wrote.  Could I consider myself a creator of that world?  True Ghen only influenced it, but his mission to restore the D'ni is noble if perhaps misguided. A passion and love for writing can extend too much, until the author becomes lost in the work. I think this is the true genius of Cyan, presenting stories yet to be written and worlds yet to be experienced by the inquisitive creative spirit.

---
Cyan Worlds, the company that made the Myst games, has moved on from that series to create Obduction, which is something of a spiritual successor.  The 25th anniversary of Myst made a crowdfunding effort which exceeded their goal of $247,000 to update the Myst collection of games.  They raised over two million dollars in less than a day.

Obviously, the fans of Cyan are still going strong and all share a common thread:  the mystery of the ages they explore still calls even decades after the pages have fallen away.  One needs only look and become lost in the worlds of Myst.

(All images are copyright Cyan Worlds and are used with their explicit permission.  Images are not to be reused or disseminated without permission and will be taken down upon request.  Special thanks to Cyan Worlds for allowing me the usage of these images and publishing of this article with their insight.)

Misadventures in Scouting - "The Dutch Oven Dynamo"

The Boy Scouts have been in the news lately, and perhaps for not the best of reasons.  I haven't thought of my scouting days in quite a long time, but I thought I would try to tell a tale from my own days as a Boy Scout to show a little levity and humor on my own time in the organization.

My troop broke off from a larger one at the beginning, and we had a real "go-gettem" leader from our days as Cub Scouts. The troop leader was all about doing badges, camping, getting out and getting experience which is what the Boy Scouts is all about - turning goofy young boys into strong, mature young men.  One of the things you can expect in scouting is camping and by extension, backpacking.  Pack what you need to cook and survive in the wilderness, shoulder the weight, and get hiking.  Normally you would pack essentials like tents, dried food, water purifier, etc.  The pack itself is about as big as the scout at times, and often just as heavy, but with the proper distribution and planning it's doable.

Our scoutmaster had unique plans for this particular backpacking along what is known as the Morro Strand near my hometown of San Luis Obispo.  Essentially we would be hiking along a long sandspit and dunes that extend from Morro Rock in Morro Bay all the way to Montana De Oro State park.

Approximate Route - Image Courtesy Google Maps.

It is a beautiful stretch of land, with views out over the ocean and down into bays of deep jade green-blue.  With this and Morro Rock as a background, its a remarkable setting, though at times I recall the trail being quite close to cliffs with a pretty sheer drop down. I don't know the exact distance, but I believe it's about 12 miles all the way.  12 miles walking in sand is hard on its own, but 12 miles with a heavy backpack is pretty daunting.

Panorama of Montana De Oro - Courtesy Wikipedia Commons

I also don't remember the exact number of scouts, but I'll estimate 10, and each of us had a pack loaded with stuff that the scoutmaster had included with our other stuff, things she wanted us to carry.  Some of the trip is a blur to me, as I remember struggling over hill after hill of sand, but what I remember most was that everyone's pack was extraordinarily heavy and no one knew exactly why.

As we walked, certain things stood out, like when the scoutmaster had us take a random otter skull, or when one scout who was lagging behind ate all the food for his entire group in the troop, snacking as he struggled along.  They ended up at camp without any food and we had to share.   There were other missteps, but we endured a march of maybe 9 miles of sand before we made it to a road.  That was when one of the dads on the trip started wondering about what was in our packs.

This dad found a plethora of things that brought his anger to a boil, but what sent him over the edge was when he looked in my pack and found a dutch oven.  For those who don't know, a dutch oven is a cast iron skillet.  They range in size from 8 - 16 inches in diameter and can weigh from 11-32 pounds on their own.  One doesn't bring a dutch oven lightly to backpacking without also bringing charcoal and such which we did not have, but we did have the oven even though none of our plans called for cooking with one.

Somehow I had carried this heavy cast iron skillet 9 miles along and over sand dunes for no real reason.  At the time I was so tired I couldn't really reason, but the dad was livid.  Once we landed at camp, we were all dog tired, and with everything else that happened, things worked out later on after that.   Overall, it was just another experience, something that I look back on and laugh.  Somehow I trudged all that way with that dutch oven, and I came out a better person.  I guess I should call myself a Dutch Oven Dynamo.

The Long Journey

One of the things I love to do is travel blogging.  I love sharing my experiences with other people.  I like interacting  with people and getting their take on places and things I have done.   As a writer, experience is everything.  It is the long journey that we take in life that defines who we are.   Thinking back to Japan or France, I have to marvel at my experiences.

In France I got to visit Notre Dame, the Beaches of Normandy and Versailles.   I rubbed elbows with people from different walks of life, and I met a ghost (believe it or not).   In Japan the experiences I had were all wonderful as well.  I've experienced the most tremendous luck from the kindness of strangers,   I also had the luck to know remarkable people in my life like my grandmother, or to look back on the happenstances of my childhood that tie into my life as an author.   

Any life can be remarkable even in the most unremarkable circumstances and I am so happy to share it with people.  

My Grandmother's Gift of Reading

I am a very fortunate person to have known my grandparents on both sides of my family.  As a kid I always looked forward to going to my paternal grandparents (Oma and Papa) because I got spoiled rotten.   I got cookies and candy and their house had all sorts of neat things from my grandparent's history that was really cool for a kid to figure out.  It also helped they had a jacuuzi and a beautiful view.

Contrast this to what I experienced on the maternal side, looking back at my kid self I understand why I didn't look forwards to visiting my maternal grandmother "Ama."  Where my paternal grandparents had a very inviting house with warm colors and a nice atmosphere Ama's house was stark white with lots of what I would call "fussy" things decorating it.  I didn't get cookies or candy here, at least not the kind I liked, and my maternal grandmother while very loving was more strict and stern than my other grandparents.

Perhaps too was the nagging memory of the death of my maternal grandfather Howard when I was only five.  The sorrow and lack of understanding I had of that time haunted me for many years.

Yet my grandmother was a remarkable person, and I think she is the one I owe most of my life as a writer to now.  You see, my grandmother taught me to read, she taught me math, and she worked with me diligently on these things right up until she was diagnosed with Alzeimer's disease.  I have memories of me sitting at a white table in her white kitchen, staring at a white wall and her drilling me on letters and numbers. 

You can imagine what this was like for little me.  I had to do "boring" stuff, school stuff.  Yet my grandmother was patient with me, and she was smart.  She knew I didn't like having to learn stuff, so she bribed me with stickers.  I remember she had a little chart and whenever I got something done, I got a sticker.  (My parents did the same thing with books.)

 Ama loved me in a way I didn't recognize until I grew up.  She instilled in me the discipline to do things, to work through things.   While I still struggle today with a tendency to get things done really fast just so I can have free time, I still use her lessons today.

I still read the way she taught me to read and learned love of books from her lessons.   I could not be a writer if I did not read, and I could not read if she did not help teach me.

There are many stories I could share about "Ama" like how she got her name, but I suppose I could share them another time.  Thinking about her now, I miss her dearly.  I remember the way she looked ,the perfume she wore, the kinds of coats and her other senses of style.  Ama did many things that helped make me the man I am today, and for that I thank her.  I only hope she looks down on me and is proud of her accomplishment in her grandson.