I got sick with the flu way back in early December, got totally ass-kicked by it worse than any other flu ever did to me before, and didn’t manage to get completely un-sick until just a couple of days ago (I think another flu may have joined the party before I was able to get rid of the first one). My symptoms and their side-effects were at times amazingly extreme. So, by February, I was quite exhausted by this prolonged stretch of illness and I didn’t feel like doing much work of any kind. I still haven’t fully recovered my energy, but I expect that I’ll be much more productive in March provided I manage to stay healthy and don’t get hit by some other damn flu or something while I’m still in a weakened state.

As usual, please use the comment section of this Month-iversary post for off-topic discussions, or comments that you can’t find a more appropriate comment-thread for.

Part #1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Joc_S-z3yMc&feature=sub

By the way… here are some comparisons between Rule of Rose and Silent Hill Homecoming:

1. Both games begin with the protagonist chasing a kid named Joshua.
2. “Homecoming” could be considered a title-worthy theme of Rule of Rose. Jennifer begins the Rule of Rose game by returning to a place that once was her home.
3. Rule of Rose begins with Jennifer arriving at Strange Hill, a name which might evoke thoughts of Silent Hill in some game-players’ minds.
4. Both games have drawings of at least one rabbit, associated with a kid who is at least sometimes known as Joshua.

Can you think of any other ways in which Rule of Rose and Silent Hill Homecoming are alike?

Follow this link for more photos from this photoset: http://elemental-photography.net/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=264

Photography by: Elemental

Jennifer by: Leesers
Wendy by: Miri
Diana by: Avianna
Meg by: Bonk
Eleanor by: Straywind
Joshua by: Devious_Tofu
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Thankyou, Avianna, for permission to use the photo, and for keeping us updated about the activities of the cosplay group.
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See also:
The Rule of Rose Cosplay of Avianna, Leesers, and Straywind
Very Cool Silent Hill Homecoming Cosplay (not Rule of Rose related, obviously)
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She has recently begun her own English language blog. Among the topics she wants to talk about are fairy tales from all around the world. She is also asking for recommendations for English language children’s (short) stories to read.

Her blog is Monster’s Cafe (http://monsters-cafe.blogspot.com/).
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Tsuki Amano had previously announced that she was going to quit singing her own songs, but she has recently announced that she changed her mind about that.

I’ll also return to uploading YouTube videos, starting with Part 2 of my video explaining “The Clover Field” storybook.

As I write this post, it appears that my YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/RuleOfRoseMysteries ) is on the verge, at 197 subscribers, of surpassing the 200 subscribers level. Yay!

As always, the comment-thread of the most recent Month-iversary blog-post is a good place for off-topic discussions, or comments and questions about Rule of Rose of which one may not know where to place them to match the topic of a pre-existing post.

Offer your suggestions in the comments.

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The text of the May 8 entry is very difficult to read. So I thought it might be a good idea to temporarily skip over it and go directly to the May 9 entry of the shared diary in hope that an understanding of the May 9 entry might help us to read the May 8 entry when we come back to it.

As I think that the drawing found on the page of the May 8 entry might relate to the text of the May 9 entry, I have included that drawing above.

I propose that the text of the May 9 entry reads:

May 9

Please, Oh please,
may they guide us true!

W

I think that sense may be made of this reading of the text by referring to the May 8 drawing. In that drawing we see some sort of trail of black dots extending from the rose garden to some labeled thing(s) that is(are) red colored. Can you read (or make a guess at the reading of) the label?

At any rate, I think that it might be whatever-it-is-that-the-black-dots-represent that W hopes will guide them (W and J) true so that they will successfully reach (or find) the labeled thing(s). Or perhaps help them (W and J) to go successfully from the labeled thing(s) to the garden at night?
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Please help us figure this out if you can.

If you have an alternative reading or interpretation,

I propose that the text of this page reads:

May 7

Our own secret flower garden, hidden behind the gingerbread house.

W

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What bothers me about the reading I’ve proposed above is that it seems that the reading doesn’t give a proper sentence (unless we assume that there is something like an implied, “This is…”, that refers to the garden in the drawing). Does that mean the reading might be wrong? Do you see an alternative reading?

I propose that the text of this page reads:

May 6

After everyone’s asleep,
walk out into the moonlight
and meet me behind the gingerbread house.

J

I think there are a lot of Fatal Frame fans among my readers. So you may be interested to know that last night and early this morning I was playing Fatal Frame 4: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse, and loving it! And you can too!

Of course, you need to own, or be able to borrow, a Wii, which may be a problem for some Fatal Frame fans. But now, if you buy the Japanese version of FF4, there is a free (fan-made) patch that you can download that over-rides the region specificity of the game and gives English translations of virtually everything: not only of the spoken dialogue (here the English is subbed-in, not dubbed-in), but also of the documents, the in-game-tutorials, and the menu features (for all of these the Japanese is replaced by English). It works great, and the translation seems quite good.

You can get this free patch at http://zero4.higashinoeden.com/
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I had previously tried playing the Japanese version of the game without being able to understand any of the documents (because I can’t read Japanese), and I found it very unsatisfying. The story is important in this game, and you really can’t understand the story if you can’t read the documents. And so I ended up leaving the game uncompleted. Now, however, with the translation patch, I’m finally able to understand the story, which is quite interesting, and I’m loving the game!

This 4th installment of the Fatal Frame series, like the others before it, continues the franchise’s tradition of ranking among the very scariest, and most atmospherically spooky, horror games of all time. Play it in the dark… if you dare!