My Journal, Day 7
Date: 2024-08-17
Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8
At Home That Morning
Nnedi didn't need to wake me up; I was already awake. Couldn't sleep — too much going through my mind. Nothing important, just ... stuff.
I still asked her to play her new Gödel, Escher, and Bach music for me.
God. I'm the only one up this early. School on a Sunday should be a crime. Half the city is still recovering from the storm. Classes will be empty today.
Nnedi, how many students were in classes the last time we
had a Sunday make up day?
That was April 22, last school year. The average was
around 22 students per class — roughly 40% of students
were absent. It was also due to a storm on the previous
Friday. According to data from the city, average attendance
citywide that day was about 73%.
Yup. I suddenly feel very sick. I think I probably have a
cold. Or the flu, or fluvid even.
Wow. That isn't even a good try. We are going to school; I
will wake up your mother if you fight me on this.
Hey! No need to go straight to the nukes. Damn. Okay,
school it is. We're up anyhow, might as well. But when we're
just watching movies all day because everyone is absent, don't
even think of waking me up.
If the movies are as unrelated to the academic content as
they were last April, I will certainly consider not waking
you. Although, I believe that was when you
saw Casablanca for the first time.
On the Bus
I got a head start on sleeping on the bus. Well, I tried, but Omar was damaging my calm. I'm only a bit worried slash surprised slash confused that he's harping on something I was actually a bit preoccupied with. Oh, and the bus was half empty. I'm shocked; shocked, I say.
Omar, my days of not taking you seriously are certainly
coming to a middle.
What? I only said that you should tell Malik to take a
hike and stop stalking you. Tell me you aren't annoyed by his
constant attention? I mean, didn't he even boost and star
your
don't do it or you are dead to me
post? I mean,
that's well past subtle, heading straight for harassment
central. Also, excellent quote. I love that show.
Okay, first, I am shocked that you got the reference. What
other dark secrets are you hiding from me? Second, yes, but
he didn't boost, just starred and he unstarred it like a
second later. But, yeah, okay, he is maybe laying it on a
bit on the super obvious side.
But you've already friend-zoned him, so why not let him
know? Shit, girl, help slash encourage him move on,
maybe?
Fuck. I really hate it when you might possibly be a little
right. Has Maria been giving you relationship advice? It may be
not impossible that I may have discussed certain things with
Nnedi, for sure. But maybe Maria has some super awesome
proprietary relationship mod?
Of course you've already talked with Nnedi about it. I've
talked with Maria once or twice. But — and this is all me
— I think maybe you just need to hear it from someone who
is a bit more detached. You're welcome.
Oh, darn, we're here. Let's go to
sleeping at desks
period uno.
In History Class
Nah'Sequa's not here today. Must still be working on Martin. ... Oh, yeah — with Martin down, she'd have to join the Group 1 students. I'd skip school too, in that case. Her time is definitely much better spent getting Martin back up and running.
Omar, what do you think of this one? Nnedi and I think it
is probably fake.
Really? I thought it seemed okay. No obvious signs of
fakery. Content seems appropriate for the time.
No, I agree that it is a deepfake. There is something
wrong with it. It doesn't feel genuine. Michael isn't sure, but
I'm pretty confident.
Hmm. Cool that Malik agrees with Nnedi and I, but I'm surprised that Maria and Michael didn't realize it was a DF. Maybe not that surprising, I guess. They did a lot better with the digital files. These posters don't have pixels to examine or metadata to check.
Yeah, Malik's right. Nnedi and I think it is fake because
it is a little too generic. Is that what you were thinking,
too, Malik?
Exactly. Notice the hands are all slightly hidden or in a
fist? The police badges are a little out of focus? Anything that
would be a dead giveaway is missing. Doesn't seem like something
that would happen naturally, especially in a picture with as
much activity as this one. Someone purposefully crafted it to
look as real as possible without including anything that could
be checked or that would suggest fakery.
We're doing a gallery walk activity, and this picture is from a Black Lives Matter protest. Or, well, it claims to be from one. But it is a DF, no doubt. I trust Malik's, and my, and Nnedi's analysis on this one.
I see it now. Wow, good catch. What do you think of this
next one? Also Black Lives Matter?
Yes, I think, but First or Second?
Looks like Second to me. Notice the design of the stars on
the flag.
Oh, yeah, good catch. So, Second. What else do you see,
Malik?
Visually it looks good. Shadows and light sources all seem
consistent; no issues with hands or other anatomy. Ditto for
text. What about you all? Michael, anything out of place or that
shouldn't be there? Like the way that letter earlier had a font
that hadn't been created yet?
Nothing obvious. Checking all the clothing and the such
will take a few minutes, but no, at first glance there is
nothing in the picture that wasn't in common use at the
time.
Okay, so the content is, shocker, police beating the shit
out of protesters. Seems plausible. Nothing extreme — that
is, no one is getting shot in the face or kicked by five guys
while on the ground. So, not something created to piss people
off or make the police look ... well ... even worse. So, I think
this could be a legit primary source.
Five more minutes everyone. Submit your decisions to Abdi
when you are ready, then we'll discuss.
I'm going to go with Malik on this one, unless Maria or
someone finds something that is out of place.
Nnedi hasn't found anything. So, I'm with you
all, too. Real.
Abdi is Mx Heart's school agent. We gave him our results. Mx Heart outdid themselves with the activity today. It was actually pretty interesting. That doesn't happen in many classes. Pity that half the class missed it. Wait, did I really just say that?
Okay. Abdi has everyone's results. Before I announce them,
is anyone familiar with the Kobayashi Maru training
exercise? No?
I recognized the reference, but hell if I'm going to admit that in front of the entire — well, half — the class.
Okay. I'll explain the Kobayashi Maru in just a
moment. First, though, of the 10 digital and 10 printed sources
you all examined, the class correctly identified primary versus
secondary sources about 84% of the time. That's not bad. Better
than some of the other classes this year. But, the result for
correctly identifying fake or real was only about 40%. Random
guessing would have been closer to 50%, so you can see the
problem. Only Malik's group scored above 70%, so congrats to
them on being so perceptive.
The Kobayashi Maru is a training exercise where the
participants lose, no matter what they do. They cannot win. It
can't happen. The purpose is to see how the participants deal
with failure and to teach them that sometimes no matter how hard
you work, no matter what you try, you lose. At the risk of
asking an obvious question, what does that have to do with
our exercise today?
For this, I piped up. It is really, really
difficult to know what is real and what isn't, so we should be
very careful about believing what we see?
Yes. And on top of that?
Malik jumped in. We also need to understand
how hard it is. Even some of our agents couldn't do it,
even with digital files. We can't forget that we're basically
just guessing. Sometimes we're going to be wrong. The odds are
not in our favor.
Nice reference! Also, well said, Malik.
Exactly. And, worse, the data tell us we aren't even
guessing very well. DFs can be done poorly, of course, but when
they are done well, they can trick even the experts. These are
interesting times for historians.
In Geometry Class
We were about 30 minutes into class, and we were almost done with today's work. Nnedi and Michael were getting us through it without any problems today. Types of angles, so not too difficult. The rest of the class had either finished (maybe one or two students) or given up (everyone else). All of them had switched to SoMe. Not sure where Omar is. He was here earlier, but he isn't in class and hasn't messaged us. Wonder if something happened with Maria again? Hope she's okay.
I know the stereotype is that social studies teachers are really athletic coaches first and teachers second, but at St. Abdi's you'd probably think that Mr. Bolt was the coach. Mx. Heart is an above average teacher — not sure why she is still at St. Abdi's — and our math teacher is much closer to the coach stereotype. But, of course, our school is too poor to have any athletic teams, so none of the teachers are coaches. Like why would a coach even want to teach here?
Hey, Malik, you think we should try to get a soccer team started?
What, and get Mx. Heart fired? What do you have against them?
Nothing! I was just testing a thought. Real question this
time: want some mabo dofu for lunch? I brought some for
Nah'Sequa, but she's not here to eat it. I can bring her some
fresh tomorrow.
Trick question, right? The only correct answer is
fuck
yes
. Wait, your mom made it, right? Not you or your
dad?
Of course! I wouldn't do that to you and especially not to
Nah'Sequa. She'd kill me. Like literal like. No, this is from
the restaurant.
Fuck yes! Thanks.
What, I don't get any?
Omar came in late. Too bad, so sad.
Sorry, just had the one. But, sign your parents' company
over to me, and I'll give you the recipe.
Girl, hard
no
on that one. Sorry I'm late. Had to
do a stupid English proficiency test. Like, bitch, I was born
here. Anyhow, Maria finally got an update, and guess what was
included in it? A defensive feature just like Nah'Sequa's. You
know — from Friday, after your family was attacked? Pretty
cool, right? Nah'Sequa came up with the same thing that
company's programmers did. I wonder if she maybe somehow got
access to their servers.
Super cool! Not surprising. She is scary good at cyber. I
doubt she would have even bothered to hack that
company.
I've given up complaining about Nnedi changing
the company name into that company
. What does
Maria say? Nnedi, can you download the update and analyze
it?
No, that company requires authentication for
downloads. Also, I agree it seems unlikely that Nah'Sequa
would hack into that company's servers. She is quite capable of
devising those defenses herself.
Maria can't get to it either — she doesn't have
access to update files; the company keep her separate from the
operating system. But, who cares? I just thought it was cool
— Nah'Sequa's even better at security than we
thought.
Now, I'm as big a fan of conspiracy theories as anyone
... but you don't find it weird that they came out with this
feature a few days after Nah'Sequa created it? And shared it
with you?
What are you saying? Maria somehow gave those defenses to
the company? We don't have to wonder; we can ask. Maria, did you
share Nah'Sequa's code with the company?
Not intentionally. It is probable, however, that the
company's telemetry sent the code back after I received it. They
monitor activity and would certainly have noticed new code of
any sort. Given the ongoing attacks, they would likely have been
interested in any defenses against them.
Nnedi chimed in in Maria's defense. However, even
if they were interested, I doubt any company would have been
able to, or would want to, incorporate new code from an unknown
source into a major security update just a few days later. More
likely, they had been working on similar defenses
themselves. After all, they probably had access to specific
attack details at least several days before Nah'Sequa
did.
I concur. Even with an ongoing attack, no company would
send out untested code. And two days is not enough time to
integrate new code and then test it. So, they were likely
working on it earlier.
I've often wondered why they gave Maria a neutral slash white accent. That isn't how Omar talks. Not going to go there with them now, though. Actually, probably never.
So, cool on Nah'Sequa for coming up with something in a
few hours that a huge fucking company with billions of employees
took a week or more to do! Someone remind me again why the fuck
she is at St. Abdi's?
Um, the racist patriarchy?
Thanks, Malik, but I wasn't looking for a real answer. It
was a fucking retortical question.
Perhaps you mean
rhetorical
?
Thanks for embarrassing me in front of my friends,
Nnedi.
You're welcome. Also, I'm sure they were thinking the same
thing as me.
Sorry, but Nnedi's right, kind of was thinking that
too. Sorry. Also, billions of employees? Excellent use of
hyperbole.
I thought you wanted some mabo dofu for lunch, Malik? I
guess I'll have to give it to Omar instead.
You wouldn't really do that would you? Okay, okay. I take
it all back.
I was tempted to give the food to Omar. In the end, though, I gave Malik the mabo dofu, and he promised to stop boosting and starring my SoMe posts. Win-win, really.
At Home That Night
Finally in bed after a long day. I had to help with
dinner at the restaurant after school (on a Sunday!). Seems the
haole's car didn't magically get better after they took the tree
off it. Hopefully she'll be in tomorrow, and I won't have to do
work and school again. Hmm. Omar does school and work almost
every day. God, he must be beaucoup tired all the time. Or,
maybe he is used to it? Still, kind of happy I don't have
to. And kind of feel bad that I have the choice. Shit! Is this
more of those feelings
that Nnedi talked about? For the
rest of my life. Shit. Fuck. Shitfuck. Time to change the
subject ...
What a lovely time we had today at school, Nnedi. Wasn't
it freaking great going to school on Sunday?
To be fair, attendance was not as bad as last
time, and some of the classes did have some interesting
activities. History class, for example. But, yes, there were
several movies, and I couldn't figure out the education point of
a few of them. You may have noticed that I didn't wake you up
during those?
Yes, thank you!! I did notice, and I appreciate it. I
got some quality sleep time in during science and info tech
especially. ... Oh, shit! I just realized, this is the last day
for the journal. I think Ms. Fancy Hair said something about it
in class today, right?
Yes. Your ELA journal is finished today. With today's we
have a full week of entries. Should I
do what I do
with
the journal, or would you like to add the traditional SoMe
updates first?
No, we don't need to add the SoMe updates. I'm sure it is
the usual.
Yes. With the caveat that Malik did not boost or star any
of your posts today.
Well, fuck me gently with a chainsaw! I love how
... or
you are dead to me
didn't work, but threatening to take away
some food did. Wow. Are all boys that dumb?
Everyone has something that others might think is
inconsequential, but that they are willing to do almost anything
for. Also, have you considered that maybe he was looking for an
excuse to stop that behavior, and you gave it to him? He and
Micheal had to have realized that you were not reciprocating his
attentions. Would you like me to define
inconsequential
or reciprocating
?
Hahahaha. Very not funny. No, thanks, I know those
words. But, interesting thought — that he might have been
wanting an excuse to stop. Damn, people take a lot of brain
power.
It is getting late, and you have school again
tomorrow. Shall I hash and sign the journal, and submit it to
Ms. Fancy Hair? She wanted it turned in before class
tomorrow.
Sounds good. Do that. But first a final fourth wall
break:
Hi, Ms. Fancy Hair!! Hope you had a fun day at school
today. Did you get any sleep? I did, but not in your class.
There. That should do. Please wake me up with another Gödel,
Escher, and Bach composition, okay?
Journal is taken care of, including your final fourth wall
break. I will wake you with another composition, if it is ready
in time. If not, is the one from this morning okay?
Sure. Sounds good. I didn't realize they took you so long
to make.
They are complex, original works of music. Even for me,
they take several weeks. You would likely have to work more than
a year, full time, to create one. After you completed your
studies on the topics, so you could actually, you know, create
one.
Ouch, someone get me a medic, I just got flamed half to
death. But, point taken. No offense intended. I appreciate you
for making them. They are awesome.
Thank you. I'll wake you up in about 6 hours, at 5:00,
with my new composition, if it is ready, or with the one from
this morning. Sleep well.
Thanks. You're the best. Sorry if I don't tell you that
too often.