Différences entre les versions de « Ilovebees/Blog de Dana »

Dana Awbrey est la nièce de Margaret Efendi et la personne en charge de son site, ilovebees.com. Quand le site commença à être victime de bugs, elle demanda de l'aide sur un blog.

13 juillet[modifier]

The Damage

In a flurry of wishful thinking, I imagine a huge demographic overlap between bee fans and webmonkeys.

This blog is born.

You're reading this, so I'll assume you've already witnessed the damage over on my aunt's web site. That's how you got here, right? (Unless your last Google search included the terms "honey," "SOS" and "WTF".) Hmm... now I'm actually curious to see what that turns up.)

Okay, focus, Dana.

I've been wrestling with the site bug(s?) myself since late last week. I've exhausted every strategy I can think of: scoured my code, ran virus checks, did the whole spyware Spyhunter thing, installed all the browser updates, and then finally just wiped the site and rebuilt it from scratch. Nothing helped.

In fact, although I might just be hallucinating from too much maté, I would swear it's getting worse.

I'm posting all of the original pages below, so you can see what www.ilovebees.com looked like BEFORE it crossed over to the dark side.

14 juillet[modifier]

Delinquent

Best case scenario: the delinquent site gets fixed before the 29th, when I'm flying to Beijing. There's no way I'm just going to bail and leave Aunt Margaret to deal with this until who knows when. (She bought me my All-Asia air pass in exchange for 7 years of indentured tech support, and ... I'm not going to let her get the raw end of the deal here. Not an option.)

(The trip is hard to defend. Beijing is the first stop on an open-ended backpacking trip through East/Southeast Asia, a trip I have no good reason to be taking (as my parents like to remind me), except (as I point out to them, though sometimes kind of quietly and maybe even after they've left the room) I've been "home" — in one way or another — for 22 years now, and absolutely everywhere I go is already drenched with my own history.

I'm tired of being so...known.

So I guess you could say that the point of this trip is to make the stone stony. And I'm the stone. And I'll come back whenever I'm unfamiliar enough that it won't feel anymore like home has reached its saturation point of me.)

Anyway: I really don't want to leave my aunt in the lurch. All suggestions (obvious, off-the-wall, whatever) are welcome, I've tried everything I can think of, am completely out of ideas.

16 juillet[modifier]

Counting down to WHAT?

So the bug — or virus, or spyware, or, whatever it is — is now apparently counting down to something, and that something looks like it's going to happen while I am somewhere in Szechuan province and I can't fix it and yeah it's creeping me out and yeah I'm not happy about this. (The recent appearance of words like "mayday", "metastasize", "hemorrhage," and "classified" isn't cheering me up, either.)

What the hell is this thing. And why would a site as harmless, I mean utterly and completely harmless, as www.ilovebees.com attract its attention?

20 juillet[modifier]

August 24

Aug 24, 1995 Microsoft inflicts Windows 95 on an unsuspecting world. * I went hiking in Claremont Canyon yesterday to clear my head. Three hours, six miles, and 1000 ft elevation change later, I was sweaty, sunburnt and still fixated on the bug and its countdown. While up there, didn't pay enough attention to the trail... scratched my palms slipping on loose gravel, more than once. Now it hurts to type. * Aug 24, 1456 Printing completed on the Gutenberg Bible. * You know the special dates that mean something to you, but not everyone else? (For me, March 21 will always be the day I got called to the Vice Principal's office for cutting 8th-grade chorus. I think it's because I have a permanently ingrained mental image of the yellow hall pass that was sent from the VP’s office to collect me.) * Aug 24, 79 AD Mt. Vesuvius erupts for the first time, destroying Pompei. * Tuesday, August 24, 2004 * (tries to stop thinking about it)

Time for some updates:

Aunt Margaret wants you to know how touched she is by the flood of support we've gotten on this blog and via email. So touched that she wants to mix a new flavor of her honey in honor of you guys — a black button sage variety, but I'm not sure she knows what to call it yet.

Warm fuzzies aside... the hijacked countdown has definitely gotten under Aunt M's skin. "Strong intrusive inclination" gives her the "heeby jeebies" (her words). She asked me if "the medium will metastasize" means that her computer is going to explode. I'm pretty sure it doesn't, but unfortunately for now, I don't have a more optimistic interpretation to offer her.

I hate that Aunt M is losing sleep over this.

Or that I am, for that matter. (checks timestamp. Sigh.)

I’d feel a lot more comfortable if I understood its motives better…

At least I now know from Marc (first of several) that the image glitches are caused by embedded texts of origins unknown. Not sure how they fit together.

I'm guessing from the some of the emails I've received that at least a handful of you are chewing on this problem in real-time somewhere...? Is there a channel I can direct other people to, so they can sync up with you?

P.S. A lot of you have sent emails asking for personal information that might be relevant to the problems at I Love Bees. To be honest, I'm still figuring out how much I feel comfortable sharing at this point. I hope you can be patient with me.

23 juillet[modifier]

Ladybee777 “odd behavior cry for help”

Woke up Tuesday to an alarming email from Aunt Margaret. (Apparently, so did quite few of you, as evidenced by the many "I think your aunt has completely lost it" messages I received.)

It took several hours to finally get a hold of Aunt M on the phone. Before I could say a word about the "odd behavior cry for help," she had her own email question for me:

Did I have any idea why all of her Hotmail would disappear overnight?

I logged in as ladybee777 to check out the damage. Old password worked fine. But no mail in any of the folders…? Weird. (Where was the concerned reply I had sent her that morning?)

Wrote a quick test message and sent it off to myself. Nothing shows up in my gmail inbox. Try again, this time to an older account. Check there: Nothing. Again. Rinse. Repeat. Nothing. Like a little Maxwell's Demon siphoning off all ingoing and outgoing messages. (And apparently sending out its own.)

So Aunt Margaret's email appears to have gone the way of the China countdown. Hijacked. Repurposed.

My first instinct: ask Hotmail to kill the account entirely. But then someone calling him (her?) self "xnbomb" sent me a very persuasive email that made me rethink things. Read for yourself:

It seems that snippets of various emails that have been sent to you by my colleagues have been reassembled and sent back, apparently originating from your aunt's hotmail address. I'm not really sure what it means at this point. But it tells us that we can communicate with these entities using email. In the absence of having a clear idea of just what is going on, the first priority is to communicate, that is how we can learn more. It's at least possible that we've stumbled across something extraordinary here, and our first priority must be to learn all that we can about it.

It's for that reason that I'm going to suggest that you take no further action that interferes with what's going on at ilovebees.com. There's another reason too, one slightly more disturbing. Consider this passage from the end of the tale hidden in the images:

"The day will break and the sun will rise when the Queen returns to rule, and further let it be known that retribution on any who hinder the return of the Queen will be swift and terrible.

This is a significant warning, namely that any interference with that process will be regarded as a hostile act, and will be responded to accordingly. I don't know what the SPDR is capable of, but I'm not sure I want to find out.It's for this reason that I suggest that you don't do anything else to get in the way of this business. If your aunt's business needs a functioning web site immediately, purchase her a new and similarly named domain and get her web site going there. But let this follow its course… while it could just be some hackers being jerks, there is at least a chance that this is something unique and important and wonderful, a window on a world that we may have never seen before, nor will ever see again.

Optimistic and curious, yet with the good sense to be terrified. This seems like a pretty good fix on the situation — thanks, xnbomb.

I am, of course, wildly nervous about letting the bug(s) continue wreaking havoc entirely unimpeded. But nothing, and I mean nothing, I was doing on the tech side seemed to make a damn bit of difference anyway. So it seems like a good plan to switch gears from active damage control to... well, what?

(ideas?)

P.S. Have decided to try to shield Aunt M from the latest development, so for now I'm telling her it’s a widespread Hotmail glitch. I hope I'm doing the right thing.

27 juillet[modifier]

emergency exit

It saw me. It knows me now.

— seen and skinned.   I'm sorry.  I'm out. 

I dragged you into this. Yes. But forget about it. It's over.

I don’t want www.ilovebees.com to be my problem anymore.

I don't want it to be your problem either. (And you can stop trying to hack into my email, voicemail, and web site... good grief.)

Tsi Tian, everyone. Thanks for the help and support.

I'm done.

6 août[modifier]

being persuaded to come back

5913 miles is a long way to go just to keep thinking about the same problem.

More than 1000 emails tell me you're still thinking about it, too.

Hi Dana, How are your travels on the other side of the globe? I hope you're enjoying your vacation... but it must be hard knowing in the back of your mind what kind of a situation things are in back at home. (That's why you're checking your e-mail, isn't it?)

True.

Dana, You can't run… and we can't hide. It knows our names, our addresses, it's going to reach out and touch us and guess what happens then? You'll have to go further than China to get away from this one, Dana. When it metastasizes, we're *all* going to get a good long look at it. There's hope here. There's someone trying to help here. But she's alone and afraid, she knows what's going on but, my dear, she's only going to talk to *you*. Aren't you glad? The Princess wants you in her court. The Queen wants you dead. You're our ace in the hole. One more draw and we get a royal flush.

I hear you.

Dana, The tables have turned. Now, we need *your* help. If this thing spreads ...who knows what havoc may erupt. And yikes!... It's got my email address... a possible window into my computer ??!?!... and into *all* the computers of people who only wanted to help you. Help us, Dana...... I hope you're reading this.

I'm reading it.

I was scared but if we're in it together, well… I'd rather be scared in company.

So I'm back in: as cuddly as the cat and as charming as the butterfly, from a hostel in Beijing.

In the meantime I will check in as often as I can and wait the nerve-wracking, tedious wait with you until whatever is going to begin on the 24th begins.

P.S. Keeping things in perspective is good, lol. Thank you, "Dan".

13 août[modifier]

Olly Olly Axon Free

Nearly arrested today for walking on the grass in Yu Yuan Gardens. Public space here in Shanghai still feels somehow... private. Guarded. Much more regulated than in Bejing.

Error compounded: I was so flustered from the police encounter that I accidentally ordered two sugary meat puffs for lunch at the Mister Donut on Nanjing Xilu. (I thought they were chocolate creme-filled!) Lesson learned: Looks can be deceiving here, even when dealing with something as simple as the donut.

But not all my decisions have been bad lately. Seems like I picked exactly the right hemisphere for a game of hide and seek. Thanks for alerting me to the message you found on the metastasized site:

The Killer appears to have withdrawn from the field. I have data processes tracking her, but she appears to have physically escaped from me.

Well, the Operator may have grown axons, but by my calculations, Shanghai is axon-free.

Safe!

Also: I emailed the Sleeping Princess, now that I'm in more wired country (not so many Wi-Fi spots along the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall).

Will she finally show us the secret she found? Fingers crossed.

P.S. Major typhoon south of here yesterday. Not much damage here in Shanghai, but from the news reports, it sounds like others outside the city were hit really hard. Nearly 2000 people injured, more than 42,000 homes destroyed... thoughts and prayers with the victims. After an earthquake earlier this week, it seems like Mother Nature has it out for China this summer. may be time for me to move on to another country soon...

20 août[modifier]

Go Hot

Wandered into what looked like a café this afternoon. A tiny, dingy place on Jin Xian Lu, no customers at all. So deserted, I couldn't help but go in. Some kind of instinct to fill up empty spaces, I guess.

I tried to take a seat, but the old woman behind the counter immediately started shuffling toward some back room. Gesturing for me to follow her. I was too flustered and confused not to. If I had thought about it for even a moment, I probably would have left the café. Instead: Down a hallway.

The woman knocked on a door. My mind, utterly blank. Didn't even have it together enough to spin out bad scenes, which is what I usually do (you know, the “If this were a horror movie...” type). I literally had no idea, not one idea, what was going on, what I was doing there.

And then I did. Inside the back room, the last thing I expected: a bootleg wonderland. The handwritten sign on the wall read "DVD 10 RMB", about one dollar US each for what looked to me to be at least half the inventory of IMDB. I'd never seen anything like it. Dozens of people, too. Packed in tight, and all compiling massive lists of the movies they wanted. Handing their lists to three incredibly efficient women who disappeared briefly and then returned, hauling huge stacks of discs out of storage.

So the café, of course, was just a cover. And I was amazed. Dumbstruck.

I don't know why I'm telling you this. Maybe because it was so surreal. Like being in a dream... and it always seems to help to talk out loud about dreams that don't make sense.

Or maybe it's because it I feel... well, I guess I feel like, in a way, you're all being invited to a mysterious back room, too.

Those coordinates... and now the times that go with them... they're beckoning to some of you, aren't they?

So many emails I received this week said the same thing: When the axons go hot, you're going to be there. I think that's very brave. And I'm incredibly grateful.

I don't know what I would do if I weren't in China, if I were closer to one of the sites. I'd like to think that I would join you, that I would meet this thing head on. But that's easy to say from more than 5000 miles away.

You guys are the ones on the frontlines. So it's your call. Do you want to be there when the axons go hot?

I'll be at an Internet café on the 24th, waiting to find out.

P.S. Thanks for letting me know that the coordinates have wiggled a bit since they first went up, and for sending me your re-calculated list of locations, six decimal places and all. Kind of creepy how many of them turned out to be near my hometown (and your hometowns, too, from what I hear!)... still no axons on this side of the Pacific, though.

24 août[modifier]

The Extraordinary

When I was very little, I was going to be a fire truck when I grew up. That didn't pan out. Later, I decided I would be the paleontologist who discovered an unknown ancient civilization. The marine biologist who figured out how to talk to dolphins. The first pop star to win a Pulitzer prize for her song lyrics. I wouldn't say it out loud, but all my life I really did believe I was destined for something out of the ordinary.

I was a smart kid. Didn't always get the highest grades, but I was pretty… awake. Still, by fourteen, I had figured out I probably wasn't going to be talking to dolphins. So, I settled on a less flashy kind of extraordinary. Maybe I wouldn’t do extraordinary things, but I would feel extraordinary feelings. Think extraordinary thoughts. Have extraordinary ideas and desires and insights. My inner life would be spectacular.

Three months ago I bought an All-Asia Air Pass because I was 22 and still waiting for the extraordinary to kick in.

*

Went to Zapata's last night, an expat hang out in Shanghai. I wanted to be able to speak English again for a little while. All around me, people were talking about how moved they were by the Great Wall; how peaceful they felt rowing a boat in Taoranting Park. Saying all the things I had thought were special and private and amazing. 5000 miles, and just as ordinary as I was back in San Francisco.

*

So I ditched Zapata's and stumbled into this Internet café. To be here with you when the countdown hit. You get it, at least. (I don't even try to explain about llovebees to most people these days. Not exactly something you can bring up with other backpackers, all eager to tell you how touristy your trip has been compared to their way more authentic experience.)

So I sat in this café with you. Watched the first reports come in. Fast and furious. And that's when I finally got it. Right here. This. You.

You are my extraordinary. Near strangers — brilliant, kind, loud, mean, methodical, wildly creative, above all passionate. I don't agree with all of you… no surprise, you hardly agree with one another. But your energy. This community.

By sheer fluke luck, this blog has become a way station for amazing, brilliant, compassionate, crazy people. A clearinghouse for an extraordinary phenomenon. And I don't mean the AI.

I get it now. And I'm here, I'm all in.

P.S. I'm posting a summary of what we've figured out so far in the sidebar. I'll keep updating it as we learn more.

31 août[modifier]

Eavesdropping

And the axons keep on coming.

The Operator's clock struck midnight, and now we've got axons in 160 cities in 44 states.

She thinks you're her crew. You're playing along, and you're re-assembling her memory fragments. Good. That seems like the best chance we have to understand what she wants and how to help her – or how to stop her, if we need to.

324 payphones to find. 36 new messages to intercept.

*

...my favorite game growing up was "the eavesdropping game." My mom taught it to me, and I think she made it up. It was a fortune telling game. We played it in elevators, on trains, or standing in line at the store — anywhere there were people to eavesdrop on.

This is how it started: One of us would tug our right earlobe twice. That was the secret signal. Then we would be quiet and listen to the people around us. We would listen for magic words — we had a whole list of them. If you heard someone say "Go," it meant you were going to take a trip soon. If you heard the word "why," it meant you were going to solve a mystery. If someone said "never," it meant that something you thought would never ever happen, not in a million years, was just about to come true. We always listened for me first, and then we listened for Mom. Our list of magic words kept getting longer and longer and longer, because every time we played we would add another word. My mom would whisper, "Dana! Did you hear what that woman said to the waiter? She said, 'lemon'... and that means you're going to get kissed!" And then she would pucker her lips and laugh, and just like that 'lemon' would be added to the list.

When we played, Mom always said we were eavesdropping on the future.

*

To all the axon-seekers: Go out in groups, get each others' backs. Fan out if you have to, but keep communicating — that seems to really help.

I know a lot of you are putting in heroic efforts... driving hours out of your way, going back to failed axons to try again. I'm speechless about it. I just wanted to let you know that I know, and it's truly awesome.

Keep going hot, guys.

7 septembre[modifier]

six degrees of

We're hurtling toward the Operator's target. Almost halfway, now, to 777 axons activated.

What happens when we hit her benchmark?

Melissa's roads don't run to China yet. But I want to hunt, too.

*

Took the train to Hangzhou this weekend. Unplugged.

Spent a couple of days being intoxicated by Xi Hu, the West Lake. "Heaven on Earth," they call it. It is a fabulous place, in the most literal sense of the word. Makes you feel like you're absolutely nowhere. That you've somehow figured out how to physically be somewhere that doesn't really exist.

*

Came back to the city yesterday with a plan. Okay, so I can't get to one of Melissa's ringing payphones myself. But there are lots of cold axons left, in harder-to-get-to places: Ketchikan, Alaska. Hazard, Kentucky. Ronan, Montana. Maybe I can help someone else get them.

Headed straight for the Internet café (where the FPS players now stop knocking off enemies long enough to say hello to me). I searched my gmail archives, in case anyone had ever written me to say wa.é ák.wé? from Ketchikan. No luck: zero messages containing the word Alaska. Similar searches for Hazard and Ronan... nothing.

Then, wracking my brain: Had I ever met anyone from near those coordinates? Had I ever met anyone who had ever met anyone from near those coordinates? I sent off a quick backpacking update to some friends back home. Closed with: "p.s. an odd favor: do you know anyone in Alaska who might be willing to answer a ringing payphone for me?" To a few relatives: "Shanghai's smashing, and by the way, do we have any extended family near Hazard, KY?" To an ex-boyfriend who used to spend his summers leading whitewater rafting trips in Bozeman: "Do you still keep in touch with anyone in Montana?"

Today: No response from the ex-boyfriend yet. (Well. Not surprised.) But a couple of curious replies from friends and fam. "Dana dear, why are you so interested in a payphone in Alaska?!?" And: "Are you serious? As in, the Dukes of Hazard? Why on earth do you ask?" ...

Oh, no special reason. Just that a massive portion of the U.S. payphone infrastructure has been commandeered by an artificial intelligence. Who is broadcasting messages from the future. Which may have a major impact on, oh, I don't know, the fate of humanity.

Anyway: As it turns out, I don't seem to have any friends of friends in Ketchikan, Hazard or Ronan. Time to extend the search by another degree: Do you?

15 septembre[modifier]

found and lost

All the King's horses and all the King's men... well, you know. Hopeless. The Queen, on the other hand, just put her scrambled transmissions together again.

Now we can listen to the Operator's broken-up audio files in their original order — compliments of the Sleeping Princess, who found 'em for us while the Queen was fussing over her axons.

And that's not all the Sleeping Princess found. Apparently, the Operator has been holding out on us... keeping a secret stash of transmissions. Intercepted communications she doesn't trust us to hear yet. But for some reason, the Sleeping Princess wants us to have them now. A dozen puzzles later, we've got 'em — and for now, we know more than the Operator thinks we do.

*

In other news: Ming tian jian, China!

After 3 weeks, Shanghai felt... familiar. Time to be lost again.

Where to? A friend of mine once said that Shibuya Crossing was the only place on earth his invisible superpowers worked. I always remembered that. So, off I went to become an anonymous speck in Tokyo. I landed at Narita Airport on Sunday.

Something kind of funny happened during the flight. The guy sitting next to me on the plane had a sketchbook and some colored pencils with him — I noticed this when I nosily started watching over his shoulder. (Yeah, I know, bad habit.) Then I completely freaked him out by yelping not very quietly and clutching his arm—yes, his arm!—when I realized what he was drawing. It was a picture of girl holding a bunch of balloons. When he pulled out the red pencil to start coloring them in, I almost lost it. (Ridiculous, I know.) Then I had to try to explain to him why red balloons made me so jumpy. I don't think he quite got it. But I had to tell you guys the story — because I knew you'd understand perfectly.

It's awfully nice to have so many allies out there who understand perfectly.

21 septembre[modifier]

axon spike rendezvous

whoah.

The Operator is making live calls today.

We hit 777 hot axons, and now she's calling some of the axons live.

Apparently recruiting new crew members. Colonel xnbomb. Commander Mike Was. Sargeant Man-Alive.

Lots of new transmissions to intercept at the axons, too. This one really freaked me out. And this one explains a lot.

So: Who spoke with the Operator? What happened?

Dish. Details. Now.

29 septembre[modifier]

success

You rescued the Sleeping Princess!

Mission accomplished. Is there anything you guys can't do?

(Besides fix my aunt's web site, I mean.)

(Just kidding!)

It's so weird... I feel so incredibly relieved, knowing that the princess is back to sneaking around the server. The new happy ending to her Perdita story made me — well, happy. Really happy. Dazzlingly happy!

That's strange, right? I heart an A.I.?!

Well, anyway — thanks for bringing her home. Even though I'm still on the other side of the world, I kind of feel like a little part of me came home today, too.

I need to say one more thing. I know some of you helped the Operator last week when she wanted to track down her "rogue process." You gave her the information she needed to find and lock up the princess.

I just want to say — I understand. Even though my instincts would have been to protect the princess, I do understand. Talking to a brilliant, ruthless, intimidating A.I. from half a millennium in the future — well, it can be just a little mind-blowing. Who am I to tell anyone how to react to that?

I think when it comes down to it, we're all on the same side. Even if we have different ways of going about it, we all want to figure out why Melissa is here in 2004, and what we're supposed to do about it. We all want to save the world. That makes us a team, as far as I'm concerned.

In other news, I've been having my own payphone adventure of sorts today. Just spent an hour hogging a phone booth! Can't seem to get a straight answer from anyone as to why my ATM card won't work all of sudden. Everything was fine when I paid for a late sushi breakfast down at Tsukiji Fish Market. Then, the clock struck twelve, and my cash flow turned into a pumpkin. Kind of scary — Tokyo is no place to be alone and penniless...

5 octobre[modifier]

hide and

Hi. This is Dana.

If you’re trying to have me hunted down and shot like a dog, please feel free to use my email and voicemail to communicate with Melissa. Everyone else is.

While you’re at it, please give a big hug for me to Adam.

15 octobre[modifier]

make myself useful

I'm coming home.

I don't want to talk about it.

22 octobre[modifier]

Natural Enemies

Have you heard the one about the cat, the dog, the old man and the thief? It's an ancient Chinese fairy tale.

A woman who runs a hostel in Shanghai told me the tale over tea one afternoon. I was bleary-eyed from staying up all night at an Internet café watching you guys chase axons. She picked out the strongest green tea on hand and, I guess, the strongest story she knew to go with it.

Four months ago, I didn't have any enemies. Now, I feel just like that dog.

*

Okay, so you know what the Operator has asked me to do.

You also know what she has threatened me with.

Please help me stop the Operator from hurting Aunt Margaret. She is real. Your “friend” the Sleeping Princess is not.

You might want to stop me. But I am not going to be stopped.

I can, however, be helped.

I need a way to neutralize the rogue process.

26 octobre[modifier]

mission accomplished

It's over.

I made the Operator happy.

I protected Aunt Margaret.

I am so relieved.

*

This is how I did it:

Make yourself useful, the Operator told me. Help me track the rogue process.

I can't see the rogue process, she explained. So I need you to be my eyes for me.

She gave me these orders: Check the server log for modifications and unusual activity. Put up tags on the site so I know exactly where the process is working.

So I spent the day tagging the site with new text. Pulling random phrases out of a book, my favorite book actually, because using familiar words made it seem less scary, and guys, I was actually a little nervous. Okay, a lot nervous.

I tried not to be nervous. I watched the server. I posted Sterne's phrases when I saw the rogue process, and I posted the time it was there so the Operator would know.

After 8 hours, the Operator told me I had fulfilled my mission. Nothing dramatic happened. But I guess I did my job.

A lot of you told me that I was wrong to even think about cooperating with Melissa. Some of you told me to wait just a little longer, until we had a better plan.

But many more of you said: Dana, do whatever you have to.

And so I did.

Aunt Margaret is safe.

Thank you for understanding. I did what I had to.

31 octobre[modifier]

fortunes

Here's something I learned on my trip to Asia: They don't have fortune cookies in China. That’s an American thing.

Even so, all summer long, I kept wishing for a fortune cookie. I wanted to crack one open and pull out exactly the right cliché, the one small piece of wisdom that would put everything into perspective. I wanted to finish a meal and find the little slip of paper that would tell me, "Everything is going to work out for the best." "You are safe." "You will do the right thing."

Kinda silly to expect so much from a cookie, huh?

Last night, Aunt Margaret took me out to dinner. She wanted to see my trip pictures and hear all my stories. (I don't think she even realizes how much danger she was in these past few weeks, and by the way: she has completely given up on her hotmail account.) We went to Yank Sing so she could eat Dau Miu Gow and Chicken Fun Gwor while looking at photos of me stumbling along the Great Wall. Well, when we finished dinner, I finally got the fortune cookie I'd been wanting for months.

"A problem you solve for someone else is the very problem you must solve for yourself."

Can a fortune cookie be, like… retroactively right?

*

Today we helped Melissa go home again, but I don't think we quite know yet what that means for us. Even though Melissa is gone, I don't seem to have control over Aunt Margaret's site. There's still something living there, and it thinks it's going to broadcast something on Thursday 11/4.

For my part, I'm going to do what I can by helping Melissa execute the training mission she arranged for her crew. I'll be handling all the remaining RSVPs for the events, so if you can make it to Austin, Chicago, New York City, or San Francisco this Thursday evening, be sure you email me with the city and your crew name.

*

I don't know what happens next, but I think we did the right thing. I think we sent a lost girl back home. I think we solved the right problem. And I think our fortunes will change as a result.

2 novembre[modifier]

Communications Log

UPDATE: OMG! I posted the wrong time and date. Can you believe it? I'm so excited about the training mission, I spaced. The communications logs will be available at the 27 cache locations below starting at 18:00 Pacific Time on November 4th! Don't forget the relay code to pick up your log on DVD: "The Operator left something for me." Good luck!

*

I found a last message from Melissa.

I realize that some of my truest allies won't be able to come to any of the four training events scheduled for November 4th, where I will also be giving out a communications log of my time here in DVD format. I'm sorry I can't do more training events, but I will be able to cache copies of the comm. log at an additional 27 locations on November 4.

UNIVERSAL STUDIO CINEMAS
100 Universal City Plaza Universal City CA
GEORGETOWN
3111 K Street, NW Washington D.C.
MERIDIAN
1501 - 7th Avenue Seattle WA
MJ GREENBRIAR
2841 Greenbriar Pkwy SW Atlanta GA
CITYPLACE
2600 North Haskell Dallas TX
MJ NORTHLINE
100 Northline Mall Houston TX
CATALINA
2320 North Campbell Ave Tucson AZ
UNIVERSAL CINEPLEX 20
6000 Universal Blvd Orlando FL
BOSTON COMMON
175 Tremont St Boston MA
WEBSTER TWELVEPLEX
2190 Empire Blvd. Webster NY
RICHMOND TOWN SQUARE
631 Richmond Road Richmond Hghts OH
WATERFRONT
300 West Waterfront Dr. West Homestead PA
CITY VIEW EIGHTPLEX
4728 Bryant Irvin Road Fort Worth TX
LAYTON HILLS 9
728 West 1425 North Layton Hills UT
COLLEGE PARK
3535 West 86th Street Indianapolis IN
PARAMUS ROUTE 4
260 East Route 4 Paramus NJ
CHERRY HILL
2121 Route 38 Cherry Hill NJ
STROUD MALL SEVEN
Rte 611-160 Stroud Mall Stroudberg PA
GRAND RAPIDS
3000 Alpine Avenue Grand Rapids MI
GREAT LAKES
4300 Baldwin Rd Auburn Hills MI
SHORE
37 Wall Street Huntington NY
PLAINVILLE
220 New Britain Avenue Plainville CT
WHITE MARSH
8141 Honeygo Blvd. Baltimore MD
LOEWS TOWNE SQUARE
2425 Vestal Parkway Vestal NY
PALISADES CENTER
4403 Palisades Ctr. Drive West Nyack NY
ROTTERDAM SQUARE MALL SIX
93 W. Campbell Road Schenectady NY
FAIRFAX SQUARE 8
8065 Leesburg Pike Vienna VA

Beginning at 18:00 Pacific Time on November 4, friends and allies can approach an official at one of these rendezvous sites and deliver the relay code: “The Operator left a message for me.” (We'll use that Operator name. When they hear it, people go :-0 )

The first 50 allies at each of the 27 locations will receive the transmission log. I can release only one log per crew member.

If you are absolutely unable to rendezvous at one of these locations, and you are on my list of trusted allies, please contact Dana [AFTER Thursday's training mission, please!] with your mailing address. She may be able to help.