Difference between revisions of "I Am Trying To Believe"

Latest revision as of 02:07, 20 March 2025

Tour t-shirt

http://iamtryingtobelieve.com/ (archived at the Wayback Machine)

A t-shirt from the early 2007 European tour of Nine Inch Nails had one of the earliest Year Zero alternate reality game clues. The highlighted letters spelled out âiamtryingtobelieveâ which was found out to be a website when adding â.comâ to it.

Number: 24.14.1 (T-Shirt) & 24.14.3 (Website)

Background Text: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Discovery

On February 12th, 2007, following the initial shows of the Nine Inch Nails 2007 European tour in Lisbon, Portugal, fans noticed a peculiarity on a tour T-shirtâseveral letters from the tour itinerary on the rear of the shirt were highlighted. The highlighted letters, in order, spelled out "iamtryingtobelieve," which, when adding â.comâ to the end, was discovered to be an active website URL. Around the same time, the same URL was also linked to in an update on theninhotline.net.

The words "I am trying to believe" are also some of the main lyrics in the song "The Good Soldier."

Another reference could be found in the Year Zero trailer video that was posted on yearzero.nin.com. In the video, just before "The Presence" is seen, there is what appears to be a road sign that passes in front of the camera's view. If the video is played back in slow motion, one can see that the text on the sign is actually "I AM TRYING TO BELIEVE."

Content

The content of the website centers around a drug called Parepin. The unnamed author of the website describes a future world in which Parepin has been introduced into municipal water supplies throughout the United States, under the direction of the US government. The purported reason for this put forward in the media as excerpted on the website is that Parepin is immune system booster that will protect Americans from biological warfare; apparently in response to biological terror attacks which have occurred on the west coast. However, the website author's main thesis is that Parepin has no immune system boosting effects, and is in fact a psychoactive drug being used by the government to sedate the population and make them complacent.

The site has several sections, describing what Parepin is, listing several undesirable side effects, and suggesting that people try to avoid Parepin. Also prominently featured is a mention of the phenomenon known as The Presence, which the author suggests is a Parepin-induced hallucination. On the bottom of the last page is an email address for contacting the author: water@iamtryingtobelieve.com

There also appears to be a mirror of this site set up at an alternative IP address, though DNS does not appear to link to it.

Auto-Reply E-Mail

Number: 24.14.2 (count consecutive dashes in first line of email, using underscore to seperate)

When sending an email to the address listed on the website, the following auto-reply is received:

------------------------AUTO_RESPONSE--------------_--

Thank you for your interest. It is now clear to me that Parepin is a completely safe and effective agent developed to protect us from bio-terrorism. The Administration is acting purely in the best interests of its citizens; to suggest otherwise was irresponsible and I deeply regret it.

I'm drinking the water. So should you.

Attempting to reply to this auto-reply produces no further result.

Unlinked Images

There have been 12 images found that are not linked in the HTML.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-[[Image:Iamtryingtobelievetourshirt.jpg|frame|A t-shirt from the early 2007 over-seas tour of Nine Inch Nails. The highlighted letters spelled out ‘iamtryingtobelieve’ which was found out to be a website when adding “.com” to it.]]
+[[Image:Iamtryingtobelievetourshirt.jpg|thumb|Tour t-shirt]]
+[https://web.archive.org/web/20071226120408/http://iamtryingtobelieve.com/ http://iamtryingtobelieve.com/ (archived at the Wayback Machine)]
+A t-shirt from the [[Performance_2007#European_spring_tour|early 2007 European tour]] of [[Nine Inch Nails]] had one of the earliest [[Year_Zero#Alternate_Reality_Game|Year Zero alternate reality game]] clues. The highlighted letters spelled out ‘iamtryingtobelieve’ which was found out to be a website when adding “.com” to it.
-== Discovery ==
+Number: [[Year_Zero_Numbers#24.14.1|24.14.1]] (T-Shirt) & [[Year_Zero_Numbers#24.14.3|24.14.3]] (Website)
-It all started with a t-shirt from the early 2007 over-seas tour of Nine Inch Nails. The highlighted letters spelled out ‘iamtryingtobelieve’ which was found out to be a website when adding “.com” to it. The URL for the site was also linked to in an update on theninhotline.com.
-== Website ==
+Background Text: [[Year_Zero_Banned_Media#The_Hobbit|The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien]]
-http://iamtryingtobelieve.com/<br />
-This was the first site relating to the [[Year Zero Related Websites|World of Year Zero]] discovered.
+==Discovery==
+On [[2007/02/12 Lisbon, Portugal|February 12th, 2007]], following the initial shows of the Nine Inch Nails 2007 European tour in Lisbon, Portugal, fans noticed a peculiarity on a tour T-shirt—several letters from the tour itinerary on the rear of the shirt were highlighted. The highlighted letters, in order, spelled out "iamtryingtobelieve," which, when adding “.com” to the end, was discovered to be an active website URL. Around the same time, the same URL was also linked to in an update on [[The NIN Hotline|theninhotline.net]].
-The content of the website (Sometime in the future) warns us of a drug called [[Parepin]] that is being introduced into the water sources all over America. The government will have you believe that this is an immune system booster that will protect Americans from biological warfare. People who don't drink the water see something more sinister behind the scenes.
+The words "I am trying to believe" are also some of the main lyrics in the song "[[The Good Soldier]]."
-There is also talk of a recent phenomenon known as [[The Presence]] where many people have seen what seems to be a giant hand reaching down from the sky, Some people believe it’s god, striking down from the heavens. Others believe it’s a Parepin-induced hallucination. Others believe it’s a Parepin widthdrawl hallucination. One thing is for sure, people everywhere are starting to see signs.
+Another reference could be found in the ''[[Year Zero]]'' trailer video that was posted on yearzero.nin.com. In the video, just before "[[The Presence]]" is seen, there is what appears to be a road sign that passes in front of the camera's view. If the video is played back in slow motion, one can see that the text on the sign is actually "I AM TRYING TO BELIEVE."
-== Auto-Reply E-Mail ==
+==Content==
-The author of the website claims to have stopped using Parepin. Users may e-mail him to ask any questions, but are greeted with a very creepy auto-reply:
+The content of the website centers around a drug called [[Parepin]]. The unnamed author of the website describes a future world in which Parepin has been introduced into municipal water supplies throughout the United States, under the direction of the US government. The purported reason for this put forward in the media as excerpted on the website is that Parepin is immune system booster that will protect Americans from biological warfare; apparently in response to biological terror attacks which have occurred on the west coast. However, the website author's main thesis is that Parepin has no immune system boosting effects, and is in fact a psychoactive drug being used by the government to sedate the population and make them complacent.
-'''Auto-reply from water@iamtryingtobelieve.com wrote:'''
+The site has several sections, describing what Parepin is, listing several undesirable side effects, and suggesting that people try to avoid Parepin. Also prominently featured is a mention of the phenomenon known as The Presence, which the author suggests is a Parepin-induced hallucination. On the bottom of the last page is an email address for contacting the author: water@iamtryingtobelieve.com
-<pre>
-------------------------AUTO_RESPONSE--------------_--
+There also appears to be a mirror of this site set up at an alternative IP address, though DNS does not appear to link to it.
+===Auto-Reply E-Mail===
+'''Number:''' [[Year_Zero_Numbers#24.14.2|24.14.2]] (count consecutive dashes in first line of email, using underscore to seperate)
+When sending an email to the address listed on the website, the following auto-reply is received:
+<blockquote><tt>
+<br/>------------------------AUTO_RESPONSE--------------_--
+<br/><br/>
 Thank you for your interest. It is now clear to me that Parepin is a completely safe and effective agent developed to protect us from bio-terrorism. The Administration is acting purely in the best interests of its citizens; to suggest otherwise was irresponsible and I deeply regret it.
+<br/><br/>
+I'm drinking the water. So should you.
+</tt></blockquote>
-I'm drinking the water. So should you.
+Attempting to reply to this auto-reply produces no further result.
-</pre>
-Not obvious at first, but this message also has a [[24.x.x]] stamp.
-Counting the dashes: ------------------------,--------------,-- equates to [[24.14.2]], the first non-morse coded stamp to be found.
-It should be noted that no reply comes if a user replies to his auto-reply, or if "Re:" is the prefix to the subject line.
+===Unlinked Images===
+There have been [[Unlinked Images#From iamtryingtobelieve.com|12 images]] found that are not linked in the HTML.
 [[Category:World of Year Zero]]