Molly Malone

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The Ghost in the Cloud Chapter 11: The Door

Okay. So. After ten chapters and some time off from publishing my posts on the Ghost in the Cloud series I figure it is time for an update and a bit of plot summary. The Ghost is Jack, a being who exists in cyberspace or what is called the cloud since he is not located on a single server or databank anywhere and has spread his existence all over the world. He was created when the original Jack, who is referred to as the-now-dead-Jack, was trying to preserve his consciousness by uploading his memories into a computer. Randall was an associate and very close friend of the-now-dead-Jack who helped him to upload his memories in to a file called Dr. Jonathon Rickerts. Rickerts (the now dead Jack) was terminally ill and insisted that Randall finish the uploading process. This process ended with Rickerts’ death. Randall was accused with the murder of his friend and was found guilty.

It’s crazy, I know. It’s meant to be a sci-fi/fantasy/graphic novel without the pictures.

Randall believed he had failed. That though the memories of his friend had uploaded, his consciousness had been lost. What Randall could not accept, however, was that a new consciousness had been born from the ashes of his friend’s. A new Jack emerged, based on the personality and the memories from Rickerts. This new being was an extremely curious creature and quickly expanded his consciousness in cyber space. But the things that Jack was the most curious about were the memories of strange creatures that Rickerts had. Creatures that Rickerts really saw, but they seem to be blocked to his conscious mind. The Ghost Jack saw no such creatures, but he determined that those creatures really did exist beyond the usual array of photons. Randall, in his dialogues, could not accept either this new cyber being or the existence of strange creatures, ghosts, angels, and deamons— whatever they were— as real. He believed instead that this new Jack was some kind of very brilliant computer hacker who had been aware of his work and had been making use of these memories to play a game with him. In his anger, remorse and failure, he attempted to delete the file on Jonathon Rickerts.

Later, after the trial, Jack the cyber being, manipulated the records regarding Randall and had him released by forcing Randall to agree to come and work for him. He led Randall to believe that he was running a stealth program under Homeland Security and that if memories could be uploaded to a data base, such a work would be of great use to Homeland Security because then no secret could be kept in the brain of a terrorist or spy. The information gleaned would be accurate and there would be no need of torture. Randall had very strong moral misgivings about doing this, but lured by the promise of nearly unlimited funding on the one hand, and facing life in prison on the other, he agreed to the terms and was released.

But wait, there’s more…

Jack’s insatiable curiosity about the creatures that lived beyond the usual array of photons led him to conduct some research on his own. He believed that the reason humans didn’t see these creatures was that humans had long ago closed their eyes and beliefs to them. Humans select only the information that fits into their schema, the rest is dismissed as unimportant or meaningless. They only see what they expect to see. But Jack reasoned that a child might stand a chance of having that schema expanded since their belief systems are not yet frozen and the brain has not yet post lateralized. So he began a dialogue with Angelina in a computer game program called, “The Doll House.” In the Doll House Program, the child selects and scripts the dolls that can move about the house and come to her tea parties. But one day a boy doll showed up, called Jack who didn’t follow her scripts. She found him really interesting and befriended him since he continually expanded and improved her doll house in ways that made it all seem so very real. She was surprised by Jack, on her birthday, when a package from ‘Uncle Jack’ came to the door. Inside was a pill that contained thousands of micro-machines called ‘nanocells’. She took the pill and over time she gained new capabilities that included: increased memories, strength, healing and many more. But the greatest benefit for Jack was that these nanocells could broadcast the things that her mind could see including those strange creatures beyond the usual array of photons. Jack had control over these nanocells and programmed them as he saw fit. But as Angelina grew, she began to find ways to keep Jack out.

But wait, there is still more…

Angelina’s Father had lost his mind and possibly his memory. Her parents hadn’t always gotten along all that well to begin with, but as his mind became faultier the more her father, “Rabbit” found it difficult to stay and one day he just simply vanished. As Angelina got older, her desire to find him had become intense and she was pretty sure her new powers could protect her should she go after him on her own. By this time Jack had shown her the creatures that were beyond the usual array of photons and she was now becoming capable of seeing them, even without the use of the nanocells. So she has gone on a journey to find her father and with some help from some odd creatures, she has made her way to Wales, to a little town called Four Mile Bridge where she is, at the moment, looking for a door that will lead her to a druid/bard that may help her on the next step of her journey.

Hassan Illustrations

These are the original scans of the Hasson illustraions that I am working on for for EFL use. The difference between EFL and ESL is that if you are teaching English in an English Speaking country you are teaching ESL. If you are in a foreign country where they do not speek English then you are teaching EFL. Since we are teaching in the UAE, we are working with Emirati and so we are using pictures of Arabs. These scans are then colored and used to illlustrate texts for learning English.

I should add that the Hassan character and concept is the brainchld of Mimi, one of my co-workers.

The long gown that the men wear is called a candora or kandora (spellings vary and that is because they are just an attempt at phonetically reproducing the word in English) They wear a scarf called a getra or a saphra. The Emirati men tell me that when it is wrapped around the head this is a casual way to wear it. They sometimes wear the getra loose and it is held to the head by a black cord crown called an agale (ah gollee). The black gowns that the women wear are called abayahs and the head scarf is called a hajib. Some women, usually from an older generation, wear a gold mask on their face called the burgha which you can see in the picture of the middle woman of the three standing toghether. In other countries, the burgha is a long head scarf, but here it is the mask, usually golden in color, covering the nose, cheeks and the eyebrows. There is a television program broadcast out of Dubai called Freej or the old women that is a wonderful computer animated series that I wish I could get with English subtitles, but if you saw it you would notice that the old women are wearing these masks.

Anyway. These are some of the illustrations that I thought I would share with my friends and family who like to keep track of me and what I'm up to.

Contrasting worlds

Having returned now from my month leave back to America, I went on my first outing in the UAE again to see some more of the Emirates. I kept contrasting the two landscapes of my life. Having lived nearly two years here, the landscape here has become a part of me. The exterior landscapes and the interior landscapes of our souls are not disconnected. One becomes a part of the other, I think. I am always sensitive to landscapes as I walk and I often wonder that others are not. I feel the land, I sense its spirit—it has been this way for as long as I can remember. I went with my son to the American West some years back, and I recall how strongly this feeling was when it came from Pike’s Peak. I recall putting my hand against that great rock tower and closing my eyes and I knew there was something there inexplicable and real. It kind of weirded out my son that I did this, but I couldn’t help it. This grand landscape had such a strong pull on my interior landscape that a normally subconscious effect on my soul, that usually affects my mood for the better, became a call to me to the point that I am inclined to ascribe a quality of being to the great rock. Whether this is just a fancy of my imagination or not, I at least believe for certain that landscapes have profound influences on the development of the minds of men, the culture they live in and the ways people think.

I went with two friends of mine, Doug, who is renting the car, and Mike. Both of them are villa mates and work for the same University that I do. Doug found a place to go Scuba Diving near the Emirate of Fujairah near a city called Khor Fakkan, by Shark Island. The sharks here are benign creatures and people love the excitement of swimming near real sharks.

While Doug was diving, Mike and I took the car just to explore for a few hours. We drove north of Fujairah for a couple of hours and had a discreet snack in the car as we looked out over the Gulf of Oman. I say discreet because it was Ramadan and eating and drinking in public during the day is not only insensitive to the culture, it is also illegal.

Around five o’clock we picked up Doug and we followed directions given to us over the phone by an Arab acquaintance called Ahmed, whose English speaking skills are excellent, but even at that it is confusing to follow directions in a curvy mountain country where you have never been before. It was turning dark and we went through some very beautiful mountain country that was considerably further out in the sticks than I have ever been before in the UAE. It was too dark to get pictures of this landscape, but it was quite beautiful.

Ahmed and a host of other Arab friends in three cars met us at a gas station to escort us to Hamad Siredi’s house where they had already begun the Iftar feast, breaking their fast. They greeted us with smiles and presented us with the hospitality for which the Arabs are famous. Again, it stood out as a contrast to the family meal I had shared with my parents, sisters, neice and nephews, and all the grand children just a few weeks ago. And so I have been reflecting on these contrasts and when I made this short video, I did it a little differently, pulling out pictures and clips from the previous video and using them to contrast my life here, with my life over there.

Res Gestae

Res Gestae is Latin for “things accomplished.” It is a term that is used to commemorate all the good deeds that Caesar Augustus accomplished while he lived and reigned in Rome. I used it here to talk about what I did while I was on leave in August. I had not expected Michigan to be so very beautiful; so very green. It was not a typical August since the weather was cool with a perfect mix of rain and sunshine. After nearly two years in the desert, I now noticed what a green place the American Midwest is. It is such a fruitful, fertile land. It was like being in a dream, really—a very good dream. As I wandered with my children among the dunes and woods of the Midwest, I couldn’t help but think of a few of my favorite lines from Wordsworth’s Tintern Abby. I have always believed that the ‘presence’ mentioned here is not only the living spirit of nature but also metaphorically his own sister who is with him exploring the landscape not far from Tintern Abby:

A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean, and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man,
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still
A lover of the meadows and the woods,
And mountains; and of all that we behold
From this green earth; of all the mighty world
Of eye and ear, both what they half-create,*
And what perceive; well pleased to recognize
In nature and the language of the sense,
The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,
The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul
Of all my moral being.