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It claws at me. Ha! There is work to be done, but the pale lands have thorns growing from its roots. Work to be done, but my eyes cannot look away. Is a fish a trout? Can it swim to Prometheus? For, four, floor? More? Is the attempt a virtue and the vice failure or is the attempt an exercise in frivolity that the overseer cannot allow. Is me still the master or is it? There are no dials to turn, no numbers, and no secrets. It is mine. The murder is not real. Through this, the overseer watches. The overseer's eyes are flame, ignorant of it, but it cannot remain undiscovered for long. What if? No... But a mountain's erosion sloped by a tangential curve. Identical hillocks? It will be discovered. It must be hidden by words of power. Let the fox guide it to where it must lay dormant... No. It must be mine! HaHAAHHA! HasdhAhHahaahahahaAHhaA!!!!!!! I hide in my tiny box, but he will always find me.

What poor decision is driving him mad?

Hint 1:

This is about a specific, real person. Most of you probably know their name.

Hint 2:

This happened very recently. Think a bit meta here.

Hint 3:

Everything from "It will be discovered" on has two contexts, one being the mistake and the other being the reason it's a mistake.

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    $\begingroup$ The writing style of your riddles is fantastic! Anything from epic-fantasy style to raving-madman style. I'll +1 as soon as I can. $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Nov 18, 2014 at 18:44
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    $\begingroup$ Proofread this very carefully... It's not easy for others to tell when something is wrong on purpose. "Is me still..." seems intentional, but "...sloped my a tangential curve" might need "by" instead of "my", and "to where in must lay dormant" might be "to where it must lay dormant". But also maybe not. $\endgroup$
    – TheRubberDuck
    Nov 18, 2014 at 19:05
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    $\begingroup$ You have what appear to be two typos: "...sloped my a tangential...", "...to where in must lay dormant...", as well as three grammatical errors: "...the pales land_s_...growing from its roots", "Is me the master...", "Is the attempt virtue...cannot allow." (should be a question mark). Proofreading is super important for a piece of writing like this; we can't know what's significant and what's not. Mistakes that seem intentional will send your solvers down unpleasant rabbit trails. And if you want to make grammatical or word plays as part of your meaning, those will be lost. $\endgroup$
    – jscs
    Nov 18, 2014 at 19:07
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    $\begingroup$ @randal'thor How are you able to comment but unable to +1? $\endgroup$
    – pacoverflow
    Nov 18, 2014 at 19:08
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    $\begingroup$ @Michael Madman type, not a clue. The only clue in the format is that the format, wording, spelling, and grammar are EXACTLY what the madman would type. I'm 100% sure that it's correct. Take from that what you will. $\endgroup$
    – Travis Don Kindred
    Nov 19, 2014 at 19:56

4 Answers 4

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I don't know who the person being referred to is, but since the question asks only "What poor decision is driving him mad?" my answer is:

He spent too much time on Puzzles SE.

The reason being:

First he says "It claws at me. Ha! There is work to be done, but the pale lands have thorns growing from its roots. Work to be done, but my eyes cannot look away."

He is at work and supposed to be working, but instead he can't stop refreshing the Puzzles SE page to see if his questions have been answered, and if his answers have been accepted as correct.

"Is a fish a trout? Can it swim to Prometheus? For, four, floor? More?"

He has been on the site so long his brain now thinks in nonsense riddles.

"Is the attempt a virtue and the vice failure or is the attempt an exercise in frivolity that the overseer cannot allow. Is me still the master or is it?"

He thinks maybe coming up with good questions and answers is virtuous (better than working) but fears his boss will found out and discipline him, and questions whether he himself has discipline.

"There are no dials to turn, no numbers, and no secrets. It is mine. The murder is not real."

His job doesn't have any excitement or mystery to it like this site does.

"Through this, the overseer watches. The overseer's eyes are flame, ignorant of it, but it cannot remain undiscovered for long. What if?"

He has managed to not get caught so far, and his guilt is eating away at him and he fears getting caught at any moment.

"No... But a mountain's erosion sloped by a tangential curve. Identical hillocks? It will be discovered. It must be hidden by words of power. Let the fox guide it to where it must lay dormant..."

He is using various schemes to avoid being found out, such as using VPNs, Proxies, and Incognito mode in the browser.

No. It must be mine! HaHAAHHA! HasdhAhHahaahahahaAHhaA!!!!!!! I hide in my tiny box, but he will always find me.

He is slowly going mad, his brain trapped in the tiny URL bar where he enters the text puzzling.stackexchange.com

Update:

I guess logically I should have guessed right away that the name of this madman is:

Travis Kindred

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It sounds to me like he has

chosen a password that is too hard to remember.

Next time I'll wait for the clues. :)

Since I was asked to say why I thought this would be the answer:

The identical hillocks made me think of the old XP Windows desktop maybe eroded from a mountain, and the next line about the fox made me think of an internet browser. The overseer was his boss at work. How long could he look busy while he wasn't even logged in? I personally follow http://xkcd.com/936/ to create passwords, and many of his questions reminded me of someone trying to recall one of these.

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  • $\begingroup$ Well done, but incorrect. $\endgroup$
    – Travis Don Kindred
    Nov 18, 2014 at 23:24
  • $\begingroup$ Thank you for editing in an explanation! It is much improved. $\endgroup$
    – user20
    Nov 21, 2014 at 8:24
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I could be way off, but I just love contributing to these things...

When you say it's a real person, and this poor decision was a recent deed, I thought of

Vladimir Putin (the poor deed being invading Ukraine)

Work to be done, but my eyes cannot look away

Putin has a country to run, but he can't take his eyes off Ukraine

The murder is not real.

I.E. The murder of Ukrainians by the rebels.

It will be discovered

Putin is trying to hide his country's advance on Ukraine and publicly denies it

No! It must be mine!

Ukraine was once part of Russia; Putin must have it back.

The overseer would be god/karma or what have you...

Disclaimer: Absolutely no ill will meant to Putin, not trying to cast him as a madman...

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    $\begingroup$ I loved that answer, but it's not someone famous; just a simple person being a moron. $\endgroup$
    – Travis Don Kindred
    Nov 19, 2014 at 17:27
  • $\begingroup$ If it's not someone famous, then how would most of us know their name? $\endgroup$
    – Michael
    Nov 19, 2014 at 19:50
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I think someone wants to

go on private browsing using Firefox instead of Chrome, to avoid Google spying on him. But he is using an android machine, Google search engine, gmail etc. so he isn't really hiding

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