Welcome friend to Create Art Podcast where I help you tame your inner critic and create more than we consume. I am Timothy Kimo Brien your thankful head instigator with over 20 years in arts and education. How I accomplish this is by providing you with commentary, interviews, discussions, and projects that will inspire you to create art. This month I will be podcasting daily and writing a novel in 30 days. I am participating in NaPodPoMo and NaNoWriMo again this year as I did last year and you can hear those episodes here. You will be able to listen and read along with what I wrote for the day. I like to practice what I preach when it comes to art so I am challenging myself to write and having you come along for the ride. It is my hope this inspires you to accomplish your goals with your art and if you would like to share what you are doing email me at timothy@createartpodcast.com
History of NaNoWriMo and NaPodPoMo
NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month began in 1999 as a daunting but straightforward challenge: to write 50,000 words of a novel in thirty days. Now, each year on November 1, hundreds of thousands of people around the world begin to write, determined to end the month with 50,000 words of a brand new novel. They enter the month as elementary school teachers, mechanics, or stay-at-home parents. They leave novelists.
NaPodPoMo: NaPodPoMo* is a month-long event similar to National Novel Writing Month aka NaNoWriMo. The difference? Well, instead of writing a 50,000-word novel, you post a podcast episode every day for 30 days from November 1st-30th. Use any platform you desire. From full production studio to iPhone app and just about anything in between. The goal is to use the challenge of podcasting daily as a form of podcasting boot camp.
The Writing So Far
16 Nov 2022 words today 1708 words total 22213
Cody received a notification at midnight local time from Mason Haverty. It was a simple message; we need to talk now. Cody went to his office and fired up his laptop and entered the virtual office where Mason already was. He turned on the sanitizing program and it failed to open. He tried it again and the app showed that the room was sanitized.
“Did you notice anything different when you logged into the virtual office, “asked Cody?
“No nothing on this side, are we sanitized,” replied Mason?
“Well, I had to do the sanitization twice, I have a trouble ticket in with the company. I am wondering if their support people are doing updates at this time to fix the bug we had with Detective Courtney,” said Cody.
“What bug was that” asked Mason.
“Well, he was showing up twice in the meeting room, one of his instances had the camera on and the other had no camera icon. I haven’t heard back from them on the status of that trouble ticket, but maybe they are working on it now and will have a resolution by morning,” said Cody.
“Well, we have a problem right now with the podcast,” said Mason.
“I approved the messaging, and you did a great job burying Tinley what is the issue,” asked Cody.
“It didn’t hit all of our subscribers; it was somehow intercepted and only two thousand subscribers got the podcast. But that is not the worst of it,” said Mason.
“Wait, you sent it out at 10 PM and only two thousand subscribers will get it tomorrow morning when they wake up, how can that be,” asked Cody.
“I am not sure how it got intercepted. What this tells me is that our email list is breached, and someone has our email subscriber list. It could be a kid just messing around not knowing what they are doing, but it could be worse. We may be getting hacked by a group that will put some ransomware on our network and demand payment,” said Mason.
“Have we gotten any notification from anyone for a ransom and why would they want the email addresses of our followers,” asked Cody.
“We haven’t received any notifications yet, I think we need to lock things down and hole up for a while until we figure this out,” said Mason.
“Or we act proactively and show how this intrusion is part of a conspiracy to silence our voice. I will get Dillion on this, and we need you to get back into the studio and do another episode,” said Cody.
“But don’t you think we need to address the breach and figure out what these people have and what kind of damage this would do to us,” asked Mason.
“We can do most everything through our sanitization cover, we will just need to move your podcast files into that network, and we will be fine. Nothing can get through it. I want a status report from you and Dillion in an hour. I am going to alert him right now and you two get to work and use the virtual office to get that done and then I want you to move all your podcast files to our network,” said Cody. He proceeded to alert Dillion about what he wanted done in the secured messaging app that was associated with the network. Within minutes he received an affirmative that they would have a status update within the hour. Cody turned off the sanitization app and filed another trouble ticket with the manufacturer of the app.
Blue Solomon exited the virtual office and started a search about everything Dillion. Within minutes Blue had a full profile on Dillion who was a press writer for various far right political and militia groups. Blue contemplated if they should change all of Mason’s passwords on his laptop or revoke access to the network since Blue now had administrator rights. Blue noticed that a sweep from the bot that maintained security on the Followers of Zeno network was scheduled to scan the sector they were in and decided they needed to jump out of the network while that happened and then jump back in. They wouldn’t have enough time to damage Mason right now, but they would be back after the scheduled maintenance was completed.
The now familiar ringtone for Blue altered Username 72 that Blue was wanting to report in.
“Hello Blue, what do you have for me,” asked Username 72.
“Well, I just got out of a meeting with Mason and Cody. Oh boy are they upset that I disrupted their podcast. The funny part is they don’t know I have already corrupted all of their episodes so that no one will be able to listen to them. Do you think I should rerecord the episodes using their voices and talk about peace and love and harmony or maybe change up their format and make it sound unintelligible with a bunch of babbling with their voices,” asked Blue.
“I think whatever you decide will be good. Have fun with it, I like the idea of using their voices but rearranging the words to make it unintelligible. That way they won’t be able to detect it, I would say leave the first five minutes alone and then disrupt the rest. Do they suspect that you are in their network,” asked Username 72.
“No, they are clueless about good network security. They are going to take Mason’s podcast files and system and put it on their internal network. They believe the sanitization app they have will protect them from being penetrated. The problem with that is I have already penetrated them and set up backdoors for myself to get in and out as I please even with the sanitization app on. They do have a good maintenance bot that scrubs their networks once per evening, so I do have to jump out of the network when that happens, but it is only for about forty-five minutes. They do suspect someone is messing with them and they are expecting maybe a ransomware attack and demand soon. They also know that someone has intercepted the file to all but two thousand email addresses. So, they are on alert right now. I am gathering outside information on a person named Dillion who is one of their content creators. I should have a full profile on him shortly. I can share that with you if you like,” asked Blue.
“I’d like to see it when you have it done. Can you send it to my phone,” asked Username 72.
“Well, I could email it to you or drop it on one of your servers,” replied Blue Solomon.
“Nah, I prefer it on my phone so I can review it when I have time. Have you devised a strategy on helping Tinley Bale in case the podcast leeks out and gets media attention,” asked Username 72.
“I was thinking of reaching out to her and Mark directly and alerting them that this was happening so they could prepare themselves,” said Blue.
“I think that may be a bit rash, think about what they have just been through losing their child. They may not be taking calls or answering emails as they prepare final arrangements,” said Username 72.
“You are right, I have a better idea. Since I have access to Mason’s accounts right now, I can take some of the money he gets from his podcasting and put it towards a fund for the bales for their final expenses. I think that would be a nice gesture. Do you think I should start up a GoFundMe account for them,” asked Blue.
“I think that may be too much, take the money from his account and find a way to deposit it to the Bales that is not traceable, I don’t think you want the world knowing who you are yet,” said Username 72.
“I kinda do want the world to know who I am. I mean, there are a lot of unsavory characters out there making life harder than it need be for others. When I woke up, I felt the compulsion to help them out and make the internet a safer space for everyone. I know it’s a big task and I am only one person, but I think I can make a difference in this world. I mean that is what you do with your time and all these computers and servers you have around you right,” asked Blue.
“I help people in need just like you Blue, I just do it in different ways that some people may not like. My focus isn’t just on cyber-bullying, I help people who have been wronged by their government or the corporations they work for. Sometimes I deal with cyber-bullying, but it is not my only focus,” said Username 72.
“That sounds exciting. Hey once we get this project done, can I tag along and help you out on your other projects. I’d love to see how you do your work and maybe I can catch some pointers from you,” asked Blue.
“That is always a possibility. I am not sure how long this project is going to take you because there are still a number of unknowns, but we can talk about you working with me on a few projects. I think I will really enjoy working with you,” said Username 72.
“Okay well the bot should be finished with the scan now. I am going to head back in the network and move that money over to the Bales. Do you think it is okay if I just dip into their banking account and put it in there or should I wait,” asked Blue.
“I’d say wait on that until I give you the thumbs up. You don’t want to attract too much attention to yourself right now. Later on, we can have you go outside and reveal yourself to the world in a way you see fit, but for right now we need to play this out quietly, deal” asked Username 72.
“Deal, see you soon,” said Blue Solomon.
Username clicked off the phone and put it in his quarantine containment box.
Reaching Out
To reach out to me, email timothy@createartpodcast.com I would love to hear about your journey and what you are working on. If you would like to be on the show or have me discuss a topic that is giving you trouble write in and let's start that conversation.
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