Probably combining unrelated ideas here (otherwise know as talking out of my ass):

I was just looking at rawsharktexts.com again (nice new layout if you haven't seen it recently) and on the emergency contact card it says, Must visit: www.dvorakgame.co.uk. Now I know there's been a brief discussion about TRST-inspired game. initially, I didn't pay too much attention to that.

However, I just seached for qwerty on wikipedia, and I noticed that the Dvorak keyboard is an alternate to the qwerty keyboard. Maybe it is related, maybe it is a conceptual red herring. Could this be a dvorak encoding?

edit: if this is at all NOT an insane idea, then this might be of some use.

whew!

you'll notice that this portion is cut up into repeating groups of 3-5 letters. now trace them out on your keyboard (QWERTY, of course) and you'll draw out a letter for each one! it's kind of hard to see but once you get the big picture, you can figure it out. i'm still a little glitchy (or maybe that's the corrupt parts of the text?...)

here are the letter bunches and what they sort of look like on a QWERTY keyboard:
JUKI - N
IUKJ - S
HUL - A
AXDVG - W
XDVGN - M
EDC - L
KI, MKI - I
CDEF - T
SAWDX - g
CSEFB - q (don't ask me how...)
THUJ - y
WAX - C
RFGT - U
GTHB - D
YHNJZ - h (see the wraparound explanation in letter --111 on page 73)
TFBH - O
CDV - r
GHTFB - e
ILP - v
WSXDW - b
MJUKM - P

and so on. you'll figure it all out if you do the whole thing because of the context clues.

anyway, here's what i think i got from the di-dit dah fragment:

Was I still that stupid? Am I a ND? That's the question, isn't it? Either way, it won't matter soon.

I dreamt about the coloured lanterns again last night. Whatever the truth, it is almost time...

[the second sentence might be, 'Am I an D?' or 'Am I and...?' or 'A miand?'; or maybe the last letter isn't a D at all, and is a P or a B (p looks like b looks like D). can someone double-check?-- whoa if it is NB - 'am i a nobody?']
[that last 'e' is cut off, there's no F to complete it]

hope that helps you guys! i'm pooped from thinking about this all day, so i'm gonna stop here. but for those who want a crack at it: it might help to give each letter bunch a different color so you can see what stands out. for the first part (the long one), i believe that some of the letters are represented by different letter bunches, but their shape on the keyboard still looks similar to the previous bunches so you should be able to find a pattern.

happy cracking.

wow... great stuff blanckien... well done! and thanks for all your other recent findings as well.

that first sentence you decoded seems very familiar. i don't have the book with me now... but i think the text is part of one of the sharks in the book...

thank YOU guys for doing the morse part, it was dirty work all around ^_^

and hey, you're right! it appears in serrasalmerrida (n26-74 - deconstructive piranhas). and it's in the flipbook! (pages 337-359 only; when the shark turns, it turns into 'i feel like i've forgotten something important...')

so, according to that format it should be:

'Paul.'

The girl who worked at the desk opposite me had two heartbeats. She said: 'A normal one like everyone else, and a second one which kicks in behind the first'...


great catch, benedict. in both senses of the word! :wink:

sure thing! hmm... the format is going to go bye-bye once i post this, but here it is, each line corresponds to a line of code.

AXDVGHULIUKJKIIUKJCDEFKIEDCEDCCDEFYHNJZHULCDEFIUKJCDEFRFGTMJUKMKIGTHB
HULXDVGNKIHULJUKIGTHBCDEFYHNJZHULCDEFIUKJCDEFYHNJZGHTFB
CSEFBRFGTGHTFBIUKJCDEFKITFBHJUKIKIIUKJJUKICDEFKICDEF
GHTFBKICDEFYHNJZGHTFBCDVAXDVGHULTHUJMKICDEFAXDVGTFBHJUKICDEF
XDVGNHULCDEFCDEFGHTFBCDVIUKJTFBHTFBHJUKI
KIGTHBCDVGHTFBHULXDVGNCDEFHULWSXDWTFBHRFGTCDEFCDEFYHNJZGHTFB
WAXTFBHEDCTFBHRFGTCDVGHTFBGTHBEDCHULJUKICDEFGHTFBCDVJUKIIUKJ
HULSAWDXHULKIJUKIEDCHULIUKJCDEFJUKIKISAWDXYHNJZCDEF
AXDVGYHNJZHULCDEFGHTFBILPGHTFBCDVCDEFYHNJZGHTFBCDEFCDVRFGTCDEFYHNJZ
KICDEFKIIUKJHULEDCXDVGNTFBHIUKJCDEFCDEFKIXDVGGHTF

WASISTILLTHATSTUPID
AMIANDTHATSTHE
QUESTIONISNTITEITHERWAYITWONT
MATTERSOONIDREAMTABOUTTHE
COLOUREDLANTERNS
AGAINLASTNIGHT
WHATEVERTHETRUTH
ITISALMOSTTIME

i colored everything when i worked on it, so i have a photo of the much easier to read colored version. i can't link to anything yet because i only registered yesterday, but my flickr account is blanckienrawshark, and there's only one photo in it so far.

Beauty! Brilliant work.

i never would have figured that out.

Nicely done blanckien; perhaps you, or someone else, should post a summary of your work as a comment on Eva's blog?

that went more quickly than i thought-- with a little help from msword, i think i've got most of it down. the following is the text i translated-- each section is a portion of ten lines from hearbreak's decoding (with arbitrary cuts to make them not look like terrible format-screwing long lines)-- and a cleaned-up version of the sections that were garbled, with a few substitutions where the 'd's and 'e's got mixed up (as well as the 't's and 'f's, and 'p's and 'd's). scroll down to see a more readable version, with my interpretation of the punctuation.

1 (1-10)
paulthegirlwhoworkedatthedeskoppositemehadtwoheartbeatsshesaidanormalone
likeeveryoneelseandasecondonewhichkicksinbehindthefirsteverysooftenthegirl

2 (11-20)
whowasbasicallylovelyandwascalledclairethoughtmynamewaspaulpaulrailtonbutit
wasntitisntnomynameisnotpaulrailton
mynameisnotpaulrailtonthinkingthatthenandeven

3
nowitsmereachingdowndeepandpullingupsomethingthehaltlosttruthotitallitsme
haulingupaoldcabletromthebottomottheseadraggingthethingoutotitssiltandbarn

now its me reaching down deep and pulling up something the half lost truth of it all its me hauling up a old cable from the bottom of the sea dragging the thing out of its silt and barn

4
aclesandweedupthroughdarkwaterantotheblueandtanallyuptobrGHoULkthe
surfacGHTF(BJ)ILndthenitstouchingitandbeingsurprisedandthennotsurprisedtofindthe
cablehummingsNHY

aclesandweedupthroughdarkwaterantotheblueandtanallyuptobreakthesurfaceand
thenitstouchingitandbeingsurprisedandthennotsurprisedtofindthecablehumming

5
tillcarryingsomethingtosomewherestillrunningaconnectionlostinblackanddeepbutstill
workingfamiliarafterallthistimewhoiamandwhenipullupthecabletheresablanksecUH

6
ondthatpassesbeforeiknowwhatitisthentheresthehorrorofanaccidentavoidedbychance
mynameisericsandersonthetruthformeisanotaneasythingihavetokeepitasdeepW

7
belowthewavesandbreakersofmyconsciousmindaspossibleivehadpracticdakGdgot
goodatthissomdtimdsitbdcomdsdasytotorgdtitsdvdkGdowkGthdrdthdrdwasalways
atdarthatikGNHY

below the waves and breakers of my conscious mind as possible ive had practice and got good at this sometimes it becomes easy to forget its even down there there was always a fear that inNHY

8
protdctingthdmdlikdthisilllosditaltogdthdrtorgdtwhdrdisankitdownandndvdrbdabldto
drddgditupagainclairdsaidpaulandirdalisddshddsaiditoncdalrdadyilookdduptrommy
papdrwTF

protectingthemelikethisillloseitaltogetherforgetwhereisankitdownandneverbeable
todredgeitupagainclairesaidpaulandirealisedshedsaiditoncealreadyilookedupfrom
mypaperwTF

9
orkintoherbuncheeupeyebrowsshehaeaquestionabouttheworkanewhenitoleherwhat
ithoughtwastherightwaytotackleitshewoulentbelievemeitwaslikeaeailyroutiniathoughC

orkintoherbunchedupeyebrowsshehadaquestionabouttheworkandwhenitoldherwhat
ithoughtwastherightwaytotackleitshewouldntbelievemeitwaslikeadailyroutineathoughC

10
taboutthecabinetscamethenisawthemclGHoULrlystandingquietlyinthelockupwiththe
lightsturnGHTFpoprallthepaperandpagesandfragmentsallfilGHTFp
alphabetiDFCVGHTFpandorderGHTFpsoX

taboutthecabinetscamethenisawthemclearlystandingquietlyinthelockupwiththe
lightsturnedoffallthepaperandpagesandfragmentsallfiledalphabetizedandorderedsoX

11
mewherebetweenateTHBUHMtbasedmortuaryandmuseumofbangthestupidityofit
slammedintomelikeafistandipanickedflinchedmythoughtsbackfromthecableandit
slippedthrougYHNJ

mewherebetweenatexctbasedmortuaryandmuseumofbangthestupidityofit
slammedintomelikeafistandipanickedflinchedmythoughtsbackfromthecableandit
slippedthrougYHNJ

12
hmymindsfingersdownintothedarkjesus

---

'Paul.'

The girl who worked at the desk opposite me had two heartbeats. She said: 'A normal one like everyone else, and a second one which kicks in behind the first.' Every so often the girl, who was basically lovely and was called Claire, thought my name was Paul. Paul Railton.

But it wasn't. It isn't. No, my name is not Paul Railton.

My name is not Paul Railton.

Thinking that then and even now, it's me reaching down deep and pulling up something-- the half-lost truth of it all. It's me hauling up an old cable from the bottom of the sea, dragging the thing out of its silt and barnacles and weed, up through dark water into the blue, and finally up to break the surface. And then it's touching it and being surprised, and then not surprised, to find the cable humming, still carrying something to somewhere, still running a connection lost in black and deep. But still working, familiar after all this time. Who I am.

And when I pull up the cable, there's a blank second that passes before I know what it is, then there's the horror of an accident avoided by chance.

My name is Eric Sanderson. The truth for me is a not an easy thing. I have to keep it as deep below the waves and breakers of my conscious mind as possible. I've had practice and got good at this.

Sometimes it becomes easy to forget it's even down there. There was always a fear that in protecting them like this I'll lose it altogether, forget where I sank it down and never be able to dredge it up again.

Claire said 'Paul' and I realised she'd said it once already. I looked up from my paperwork into her bunched up eyebrows. She had a question about the work, and when I told her what I thought was the right way to tackle it she wouldn't believe me. It was like a daily routine.

A thought about the cabinets came. Then I saw them clearly, standing quietly in the lock-up with the lights turned off, all the paper and pages and fragments, all filed, alphabetized and ordered.

Somewhere between a text-based mortuary and museum of

BANG.

The stupidity of it slammed into me like a fist and I panicked, flinched my thoughts back from the cable and it slipped through my mind's fingers down into the dark.

Jesus. Was I still that stupid? Am I? And that's the question, isn't it? Either way, it won't matter soon.

I dreamt about the coloured lanterns again last night. Whatever the truth, it is almost time...

---

interesting stuff. bits of it are found in the flipbook shark, the piranhas and mr. nobody's lamprey. now what is it, exactly? and what where the apostrophes and asterisks in the original code for?

it could be a negative.

i just noticed this too: the second to last line of blanckien's translated text is: i dreamt about the coloured lanterns again last night. near the end of chapter 29 (page 306 UK hardback) is where eric first(?) dreams of the coloured lanterns.

Beauty!
:D