Watch the Footage

Hello Rick.

Eli and I have decided to take a crack at the secret message, and found something odd.

This post stands out: http://efp.ezblog.co/?p=44

1. It's the only Uncategorized post in the whole blog.
2. The grammar feels odd, opening with "I long ago learned". Considering Rick's an editor and the grammar is impeccable everywhere else, it's unlikely that this is a mistake.
3. A typo over food name. "Port Salud" is actually "Port Salut". Both the editor argument, and considering Rick's advice in cooking is rarely erroneous it is also unlikely that this is an accident.
4. A mention in the post-mortem that we found something odd but never looked into it. Dilly mentioned this post as being strangely out of place, it was the last thing on the thread regarding the blog during the game and never looked into.

So far Eli and I think this post is the Riddle, or at least part of it. We couldn't get further on our own, so we're issuing the Hivemind Call now.

So, um, when I posted about it initially I hadn't actually noted anything ODD about it, I just pointed out that it was there. No one had posted about it and I was surprised; I hadn't read the comments so I didn't know people had learned the blog wasn't directly part of the ARG. This is what happens when realizations don't get posted to the forum.

This is what I said back then:

So there was a new post yesterday, that everyone ignored what with all the Tara-being-murdered and Sweeney-going-crazy stuff that was going on.

He's talking about mushrooms. I don't see any immediate relevance.

Do you think this is what Rick was talking about when he said we'd noticed something? I don't know, it might be, but it's not like I was actually starting on a trail or anything.

From the binge I did, it's the only thing that fits.

The ones closely tied to it were Qara and Scarab though. So get here girls. I'm personally calling the Tram to crack this! If this is something you have info on, we can all crack this.

narrativedilettante wrote:Do you think this is what Rick was talking about when he said we'd noticed something? I don't know, it might be, but it's not like I was actually starting on a trail or anything.

Rick Healey wrote:I actually thought you guys might figure it out in-game. You noticed one thing very odd, but you never really asked why.

I think this might speak for itself.

Wow, you guys are still at this one. Despite the fact that part of the answer was leaked.

I will say that this post isn't the one. The post in question was made when I was very tired and mildly burnt out. I did accidentally make a typo in this post, and I did forget to tag it. But it's not the one with the hidden message.

awesome.


I guess we'll have to keep trying then.

Rick Healey wrote:Wow, you guys are still at this one. Despite the fact that part of the answer was leaked.

Ore tachi wa dare da to omotte agaru? (Sorry, I know you're not particularly a fan of TTGL, but the quote fits)

Rick Healey wrote:I will say that this post isn't the one. The post in question was made when I was very tired and mildly burnt out. I did accidentally make a typo in this post, and I did forget to tag it. But it's not the one with the hidden message.

Understood.

Even if part of the answer was leaked, I'm not aware of what that part is so... Well. We'll eventually find it out.

Okay I'm just pointing things out as they come to me:

His chicken and waffles post. I've been to the restaurant in LA that serves chicken and waffles together. If you've been there, you know that they don't COMBINE the chicken and the waffles... you don't, like, eat a bite of both waffle and chicken. You eat waffles, and you eat chicken, like you might eat... waffles and also eggs. (It's possible that there are people who eat waffles and eggs together but I wouldn't... but then I don't like eggs so I might be a bad judge.) Now, I wouldn't call anyone crazy for actually serving chicken and waffles TOGETHER together, but this did strike me as strange at the time. I don't think I mentioned that to anyone though.

This is one post that has nothing to do with The Wall Will Fall (as far as I can tell) in a long string of posts that have some sort of reference to something in The Wall Will Fall. So, maybe it's worth a closer look?

What am I saying, clearly EVERYTHING on the blog is worth a closer look.

EDIT: Reading the forum archive, I see people noticed the Belgian waffles and said that was a reference to Poirot, so my point about not having any references can be disregarded.

Pixelmage wrote:

Rick Healey wrote:Wow, you guys are still at this one. Despite the fact that part of the answer was leaked.

Ore tachi wa dare da to omotte agaru? (Sorry, I know you're not particularly a fan of TTGL, but the quote fits)

Actually, a more appropriate quote, and from a much better series, is "Ningen wa omoshiroi!"

Pixelmage wrote:Even if part of the answer was leaked, I'm not aware of what that part is so... Well. We'll eventually find it out.

It's okay. Nobody realized that I did it, Sometimes, I have a light hand with words, so to speak. Though knowing the answer is meaningless without understanding how it's meant to be found.

narrativedilettante wrote:Okay I'm just pointing things out as they come to me:

His chicken and waffles post. I've been to the restaurant in LA that serves chicken and waffles together. If you've been there, you know that they don't COMBINE the chicken and the waffles... you don't, like, eat a bite of both waffle and chicken. You eat waffles, and you eat chicken, like you might eat... waffles and also eggs. (It's possible that there are people who eat waffles and eggs together but I wouldn't... but then I don't like eggs so I might be a bad judge.) Now, I wouldn't call anyone crazy for actually serving chicken and waffles TOGETHER together, but this did strike me as strange at the time. I don't think I mentioned that to anyone though.

This is one post that has nothing to do with The Wall Will Fall (as far as I can tell) in a long string of posts that have some sort of reference to something in The Wall Will Fall. So, maybe it's worth a closer look?

What am I saying, clearly EVERYTHING on the blog is worth a closer look.

EDIT: Reading the forum archive, I see people noticed the Belgian waffles and said that was a reference to Poirot, so my point about not having any references can be disregarded.

Well... lots of fun related to cooking in that post, but not the puzzle. It's true that a traditional chicken-and-waffles meal is not eaten with the two together. For that matter, you usually don't eat a scallion pancake with either orange chicken or sesame chicken. Finally, the traditional waffle for chicken and waffles is an American waffle, not a Belgian one. There are several culinary theories on why I tweaked things around, and not just "had to fit a reference to Belgium in there somewhere." But that's not what you guys are actually asking.

Rick Healey wrote:Actually, a more appropriate quote, and from a much better series, is "Ningen wa omoshiroi!"

Death Note.

Rick Healey wrote:It's okay. Nobody realized that I did it, Sometimes, I have a light hand with words, so to speak. Though knowing the answer is meaningless without understanding how it's meant to be found.

I agree with that. The whole process of solving a puzzle is part of it's meaning... If that makes sense. The way I see it is like a jigsaw puzzle, getting just the picture is completely different from building it through effort, even if ultimately it'll be the same picture. I'm probably just mashing words here though...

What I want to say is that I hope others want to keep trying, because I feel that one of us alone won't be able to solve it. Even if the riddle itself is solvable by one person, it's more fitting to us if we can solve it as a group.

I see you've moved past suspecting that post for those reasons, and it's too late for me to go hunting again myself, but I'll just drop this here: On my first couple efp binges to find the secret message, Rick promised me that it wasn't hidden in fake typos/grammar errors, and wasn't something to do with the tags.

Pixelmage wrote:

Rick Healey wrote:Actually, a more appropriate quote, and from a much better series, is "Ningen wa omoshiroi!"

Death Note.

It was either that or "keikaku doori," but that's to be reserved for the final denouement.

Qara-Xuan Zenith wrote:I see you've moved past suspecting that post for those reasons, and it's too late for me to go hunting again myself, but I'll just drop this here: On my first couple efp binges to find the secret message, Rick promised me that it wasn't hidden in fake typos/grammar errors, and wasn't something to do with the tags.

I had almost forgotten that I had said this before... just to confirm, Qara is right on this. I promise that it isn't hidden in any sort of typographical or grammatical error. While I am enough of a language geek to hide clues across the languages I speak, I do make an effort to make sure such things are as grammatically and orthographically correct as I can make them.

I think it's the Japanese knife post.

I'm about to go to a science-fiction movie marathon, so I won't be available to confirm or deny anything after this post until tomorrow.

So until then, sorry, but not the santoku knife post.

Enjoy the sci-fi movies.

Also, I note that in the Quixote post, you seem to gratuitously repeat "rustic bread" in French and Italian-- but not Spanish, Quixote's mothertongue and the language of his original work.

WHAT CAN IT MEAN?
(no really, I have no clue how to turn this into an actual message.)

Alternately, the aromatics post has this:

(which was frustrating, because two different people took songs I wanted to do – a maneuver I call the “karaoke cockblock,” if you forgive my French)

--An odd expression to use, since he didn't actually use any French in that post, and when I'm being paranoid I refuse to accept that anyone can ever use a phrase for its commonly-used figurative meaning. BUT consider that Rick has said as much as that he was also having tea that time because of recording the Poirot lines for the recorded-stuff, and SOME OF THAT WAS IN FRENCH.
Ahem. Not sure exactly what I'm saying here.

Anyway, that's all I could find this time around.

Paranoia-edit: I know that Rick has seen this post now. He hasn't responded, which means that either he's not vetoing it because it's on the right track, or that he's too busy to actually respond, or that he's deliberately not saying anything after looking at it simply to increase my paranoia. Or none of the above.

Just popping in to say I love the fact that Qara is metagaming just as hard, even when it isn't part of the actual game.

Connor Fallon wrote:Just popping in to say I love the fact that Qara is metagaming just as hard, even when it isn't part of the actual game.

It wouldn't be Qara if she didn't.

Here's an idea: We make every single recipe posted on the blog to see if that reveals anything.

Qara, you're running into an American idiom - "pardon my French" is an old expression for when someone dips into profanity or general crude language when they ordinarily wouldn't. My use of the phrase was idiomatic completely.

narrativedilettante wrote:Here's an idea: We make every single recipe posted on the blog to see if that reveals anything.

just glancing through it... I don't see anything glaringly obvious. but, I'm game.

I could probably make some of these tomorrow or the next day, if someone else wants to get in on the random baking and cooking.

Rick Healey wrote:Qara, you're running into an American idiom - "pardon my French" is an old expression for when someone dips into profanity or general crude language when they ordinarily wouldn't. My use of the phrase was idiomatic completely.

She knew that, she was just being silly.

Rick Healey wrote:I'm about to go to a science-fiction movie marathon, so I won't be available to confirm or deny anything after this post until tomorrow.

Qara-Xuan Zenith wrote:... or that he's too busy to actually respond...

I just like the juxtaposition of these two quotes.

Sicon112 wrote:She knew that, she was just being silly.

I've learned long ago that, when you're dealing with things like this, it's best to just be direct. If nothing else, I know Qara appreciates when I am direct like that and not have her trying to split hairs for hours when I know she's on the wrong track. That, and we're approaching two months since the end of TWWF, and even longer since I put the riddle in there; it's not like there hasn't been enough time spent trying to crack this last riddle.

I know that she is generally silly, particularly with this subject. But the after all I've done to everyone, the least I can do is be direct when you're chasing connections that aren't there.

Thanks.
*goes back to searching*

Rick Healey wrote:I've learned long ago that, when you're dealing with things like this, it's best to just be direct. If nothing else, I know Qara appreciates when I am direct like that and not have her trying to split hairs for hours when I know she's on the wrong track. That, and we're approaching two months since the end of TWWF, and even longer since I put the riddle in there; it's not like there hasn't been enough time spent trying to crack this last riddle.

I know that she is generally silly, particularly with this subject. But the after all I've done to everyone, the least I can do is be direct when you're chasing connections that aren't there.

Thank you. I appreciate that. Even though a small part of me is seeking hidden meaning in this message about directness... this cannot be helped.

That said... I found I'd written THIS in the mad speculation about efp:

Qara-Xuan Zenith wrote:Also, looking at the dates of the posts... it is really weird that he follows up on his bacon cake post 6 months later, with nothing in between (after that long, why follow up?).
I skimmed the April post, and while he uses the possibly-relevant phrase "we felt like we were hitting against WALLS", I don't think it's useful (not to mention that it's from April, though apparently some things were being set up by then).
But the follow-up... Either he came back to his blog because he'd been asked (or something) to use it for dropping hints for the ARG, and before he did, he wrote the follow-up so as to tie up loose ends, or ... something else. The six-months-later follow-up feels almost like a retcon, sort of tying his previous post to the newer ones.
And speaking of my theory (above) about the recipes-- what about his substitution key for the bacon cake follow-up? It's all replacing X with Y... could that be some sort of cryptic key for understanding... either his later posts, or something else?
Or am I becoming way too obsessed with cake guy?

And the latest efp post says THIS:

Experiments in Food Preparation wrote:So I hope everyone had fun, continues to follow what I have to say, and enjoy a slice of bacon cake.

Experiments in Food Preparation wrote:and enjoy a slice of bacon cake.

Experiments in Food Preparation wrote:slice of bacon cake.

Experiments in Food Preparation wrote:bacon cake

OH MY GOD

IT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE NOW