|| -------- -- -----  A E R I E   O B L I V I A N A . singular book of text wandertainment by Frank Edward Nora ------------------- ----------- GET ALL OBLIVIANA--ISSUE 001--PART 3 <-------  ||  OsoaWeek  ||  Get All Obliviana  ||  Issue 001  ||  -------> (Cup OWga001c, Created v1 (4/27/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Thu 9/10/98 * 10:56 PM I have to say that my initial reaction to the idea of the Fonosta Archive is not overwhlmingly positive. That is, I don't really find the idea that exciting. I DO feel that it makes total sense and should absolutely be a part of Obliviana, but I think that the "missing element" is something else. Real world... L.A.R.G.E.--Live-Action Role-Playing Game Excitement. (An idea I had in college.) I have always been interested in live-action games, though I have never really participated in any. I have always intended for Obliviana to have a strong real-world aspect. Maybe THIS is the missing element? ...as something you can embrace, as a teddy bear... Weird. A potent image. Many many elements in Obliviana... and now, to bring it all together... Some basic ideas: [1] We are here, in this world, together. Misery seems to be a part of everything, at some level. Also, there is something Missing. Maybe it is the lack of that which is Missing that causes misery. [2] I propose a commonsense strategy to combat misery and enhance Wonder. This strategy could work very well on its own, but I am going to add to it 209, which is an unexplained phenomenon that is quite easy to do. These two things together make for a compelling means of adding a new depth of dimension to your relationship with the real world. [3] CORNERSTONES First of all, I believe that Obliviana can really make your life a whole lot cooler and more interesting. A lot of people claim to have such systems, and they usually charge money for them. It never made sense to me that if someone had such a great system, that could totally turn a person's life around, that they would charge for it. Wouldn't it make total sense to give somthing like that away for free? The short answer to this is that folks who sell such systems really don't have anything of much value. Cults are the same. They make promises, and withhold the secret--and they extract a far greater toll on individual that a couple hundred dollars--they utterly ruin people's lives. Obliviana is not a cure-all, and it won't "turn your life around". But it IS very compelling and interesting. And it CAN absolutely add a new depth and dimension to your life. So, in accordance with my core philosophies, I will never withhold "secrets" and charge money for them. Obliviana information will be made freely available. Another ideal of mine is that a person will be able to totally get into Obliviana and make it a part of their life without any contact with Obliviana at all. By "contact", I mean that a person will not have to join Obliviana, pay money, receive sanction, or anything else. You can do it totally on your own, though contact with Obliviana will certainly be encouraged. It's just that I don't want to make contact with Obliviana an integral part of the whole system. [4] I think that there should be the Stormjaunt, and the Jaunt. Sat 9/12/98 * 4:33 PM Wow. Yesterday was the big Starr Report release day. Quite unprecedented and totally historic. So I want to continue with the train of thought I started the other day. The basic idea of what I was talking about is that Obliviana is a strategy to make your life cooler. But it's not an all-consuming, cultlike thing--but rather, a relazed kind of thing that can fit into your life without disrupting it. 6:31 PM The thing I am specifically talking about, this "lifestyle" thing, would require a mechanism. And it is the Jaunt/Stormjaunt system, in conjucntion with the recording system of Fonosta. But I may need one more aspect here. "I had this experience." Sun 9/13/98 * 6:15 PM Between me and my wife getting a new computer and this whole Starr Report/Clinton thing, I haven't gotten a lot of work done on Obliviana in the past few days. I had a dream where an Obliviana player wanted to change the Fonosta name "TruthAvatar" to "TruthOfAvatar". Interesting. Also, the word "chicked", pronounced "CHICK-id", referring to something in a catalog--I remember there being more words, but I forget them. The word referred to a thing being cracked, messed-up, chaotic, etc. I think that this Starr Report has jump-started the time of millennial madness. The whole nation seems to be a little frantic about the Starr Report, and I don't see any scenario by which things can settle down anytime soon. 1999 hols the promise of either a massively-wounded BillClinton hanging on, or him resigning (or already resigned) and President Al Gore. There's a new TV commercial from "The Wiz" (an electronics retailer) which depicts a family entering a bunker on New Year's Eve 1999. At midnight, the lights go out, and the father says it's what they're prepared for. I mention this because it seems that the idea of power going out across North America (and the world) due to the Y2K bug, on Saturday, January 1, 2000 is becoming popularly known. It may seem like kind of a joke now, as it has for many decades, but as we get closer and closer to the reality of it, I think that people will stop laughing. A nationwide power failure that lasts for week, or months, or forever, will cause a total collapse of society. On May 21, 1999, the new Star Wars movie is coming out. I would say that this event has real importance to my generation, to whom Star Wars is held in almost religious reverence. So, the next few years are going to be pregnant with the winds of change. Danger and opportunity. A good environment to establish Obliviana. I think that the idea I've been working on over the past few days is essential to the full establishment of Obliviana. The idea, in general, is that Obliviana is something that can add depth and dimension to one's relationship with the real world. I have spoken of Jaunt and Stormjaunt. Stormjaunt is an idea I've had for awhile. Jaunt is simple a Stormjaunt without setting a Storm. The key to this idea here is that a Jaunt (with or without a Storm), is something which begins and ends at specific times. That is, each Jaunt has a clear beginning and a clear end. Going on Jaunts is the central activity in Obliviana. Sun 9/20/98 * 2:57 AM On Monday Clinton's Grand Jury video testimony will be released, along with thousands of pages of evidence, including phone sex transcripts. I have to think that he must be considering resigning tomorrow, to avoid the release of this material. I assume that if CLinton resigns tomorrow, he'll get a pardon from Gore, and the material will not need to be released. But this is indulging in fantasy, since Clinton really doesn't seem to care. He'll resign an hour before the Senate votes to remove him from office, and not a moment sooner. Still, it's fun to dream... ah... America without Clinton as President... ah... Now, Obliviana. This past week has been a definite turning-point, both for the nation and for Obliviana. This past week, my wife and I got our new computer, and from Tuesday night till now, I did pretty much no work on Obliviana at all. I haven't even drawn a Daily Winner since Tuesday! I want to get back to the core definition of Obliviana, since I really, really need it in order to continue on. I was kind of running into a rut with Xappenshard Craze. Not that it was a bad idea, just that it's not really clicking. It is absolutely a good component, but I need to get to Core Obliviana. I have used "Core Obliviana" in the past. Now, I am using this term to describe the new idea for Obliviana--Obliviana as a thing that adds a little bit of depth to your life. This new thing is still awfully vague, and it's gotta get real specific real soon. I am specifically talking about Obliviana as a system which can be "played" at almost any time of the day or night, each Jaunt lasting from perhaps a few seconds to a few hours. A big thing here is this compartmentalization of Jaunts--each Jaunt has a specific beginning and end. Recordkeeping is a major issue in Core Obliviana. Specifically, if Obliviana is something that can be done at just about any time, there will have to be a sort of Jaunt that is done in the mind alone, and which does not have to be recorded right away. Or maybe, not ever recorded officially. I also want Obliviana to be a system that will be extremely easy to do at the low end, and satisfying complex at the high end. I want just about anyone to be able to do Obliviana. Scalability is a hallmark of Obliviana. You will be able to get started with, say, a single printed page of text. But you will be able to get much more into it and get much more out of it. A big challenge for me is to make the low end compelling enough that people will continue to do it and enjoy it. Dream... dreams come to mind here... why? Changing your awareness... stepping back... Hmm. Sounds like something that other systems might have included. I don't want Obliviana to descend into vagueness and a dependence on ill-defined processes. Dial tone. My phone just slipped off the hook, I brushed it as I set down my cigar on my ashtray. I listened to the dial tone. Liken Obliviana to a phone call. Dial tone, ringing, answer, conversation, hang up. Five stages. Good number. Low-end Obliviana cannot involve any objects. It cannot involve writing things down. It must be based on a person in just about any situation, with no special materials at all. I could have the Forge of Wander Grid depicted. I could ask people to "call upon" the name of the grid. Specifically, I am speaking of a person bringing the Forge of Wander to mind. This is the dial tone--this brings a person into an Obliviana state of mind. This would require that the "single sheet of paper" that would introduce Obliviana have a representation fo the Forge of Wander on it. It would not be necessary to memorize a bunch of things--maybe the player could simply think the words "Forge of Wander", and visualize the grid in their mind. Yeah, this is good. I did leave something out up there--dialing. I could delete "answer", though, or combine ring and answer. Anyway, dialing would involve setting forth what you are going to do. This refers to a Friction Enhancer. Example: [1] "Call upon" Forge of Wander. [2] "Dial" your Friction Enhancer. "Deepnotice", for example. [3] Wait for a time. I need to refine this concept. "Anticipate" is a good word here. [4] Do the Friction Enhacer. [5] "Hang up". Think "end". Wow. I really have something here. Tue 9/22/98 * 12:42 AM I'm on vacation all week, but I'm not going anywhere, cuzza the new computer we got. Um... I have been neglecting the day-to-day operation of Obliviana, but I have been working on the larger issue of Obliviana in general. The "Obliviana Call" idea (new name) is very strong. I have to do some tests with it, but I think it will work very well. I think I should draw the daily winners and stuff. I have a new issue of OsoaWeek due tomorrow! Gotta make more Xappens! Wed 9/23/98 * 12:56 AM Just finished Duffy 9. "Obliviana Call" has a lot of potential. Dial tone with 209, hang up with zero. Thu 9/24/98 * 10:00 PM Just wrote some Parkings. Just took some pictures of myself. Smoking a De Nobil Economy Package cigar. So, where is Obliviana at? I have to establish Obliviana Call--the idea is that everything will "flow" from there. That is, once Obliviana Call is established, it will be the framework on which everything else can be attached. OBLIVIANA CALL I like the idea of Obliviana Call, but right now, on an emotional level, I am not all that into it. I have to encourage myself. Obliviana Call may be the heart of the matter, the thing I've been searching for. It could grow by word of mouth, and get really big. But is it a good thing? I think that Oblivian Call in its simplest form is a very good thing. Where Obliviana could get bad is if people misused it. I am not in a great writing mood. But I have to work on this issue. One sheet of paper is all you need to do Obliviana Call. The structure of Obliviana Call is very similar to the structure of Stormjaunt. But are they exactly alike? I would say that Stormjaunt could begin and end in the "Conversation" Phase of Call, Phase 4. Dial Tone, Dial, Ring, Conversation, Hang Up. Very cool. This is very cool. So much cool stuff to do on my new computer, so hard to focus right now... 10:17 PM Okay. Switched from Marilyn Manson to Larry Carlton. Okay. How about drinking in inforstimuation as the Conversation? That is fine. !!! Wow. A new context for experiencing Obliviana content. I think I have something here. I think I should make that single sheet of paper. Tue 9/29/98 * 11:40 PM Where am I at? Indulging in fun stuff with new computer. Gotta get to work! Obliviana Call. I keep making progress with it. Here's a question--will the paranormal/supernatural aspect of Obliviana be the thing that propels it into profitability? Well, first off, I would never put forth any supernatural ideas for the sole purpose of making money. Nor would I put forth such ideas for the sole purpose of promotion. But I really believe in my ideas, and giving them to people is something that I've wanted to do for a long time. I do think that while Obliviana "The Game" is not very compelling on its surface, Obliviana "Paranormal" is very compelling on its surface. And yes, I do believe that the paranormal side can be a massively effective promotion tool. Now: word. Occult, supernatural, paranormal. "Obliviana Super Occult Amusement" is the name of the company. The word "occult" has very negative connotations for a lot of people. But being between "Super" and "Amusement", it gains a new connotation, hopefully. I have been thinking of using the word "paranormal" in describing Obliviana Call, as opposed to "supernatural". I think that in terms of its general connotation, it better describes Obliviana Call. Let me get my bearings. Okay. [1] OBLIVIANA CALL is the new paranormal idea. It sets forth, very simply, the basic structure of "doing Obliviana". This is, simply, to "activate" an Obliviana "sense" within you, doing Friction Enhancer(s), feeling the response from reality, and then "deactivating" Obliviana. [2] ... Wed 9/30/98 * 2:27 AM I just sent a fax to Japan. To buy a new pinball game called "Golden Logres". I put "Obliviana Super Occult Amusement" as my company name. So someone in Japan is gonna see that. Obliviana has to take off soon. I must present Obliviana Call on my homepage. It must be the first thing people see. It is the foundation of Obliviana's success. Thu 10/1/98 * 1:25 AM Aged, Old West, rusty, wooden, etc. Design scheme. Vague idea--players create an imaginary place, things done in Obliviana apply there somewhat? Man, I'm in bad shape. Obliviana is like totally stalled. I know that I have to get Obliviana Call in order. Let me go over it a little. Basically, Obliviana Call is a simplified version of going on a Stormjaunt. I want it to be something that is really simple and absolutely having a noticeable effect. I am bogged down in the specifics. One thing I think is that the basic directions should be in the form of text. The basic directions are going to be the seed that Obliviana is use as a platform to grow from. So, the text file has to be short and to the point--and it will have to be clear enough to allow a person to start doing Obliviana with JUST the text, and nothing else. I think that Call will involve mental visualization. I see no way around that. Maybe the whole "phone call" paradigm is too complex? I think it might be. Here is a simplified procedure: [1] Call up mental image of your "Obliviana Place". FOW is in the horizontal, zero, OFF orientation. [2] Focus on the OFF FOW for a time, and when you feel the time is right, turn it to its vertical orientation by thinking the number 209. [3] Focus on the ON FOW and when you feel the time is right, do Deepnotice. Seek out and focus (dwell) upon elements in your environment which you would not normally regard, and if you would regard them normally, focus on them longer than usual. [4] After doing Deepnotice for awhile, stop, and "listen" for the response from reality (((use a different term that "reality" here?))). This respone could take the form of a feeling, an event, a change in atmosphere, or a change in mood. After a time, when you feel the time is right, (((make a word for this process of "after a time, when you feel the time is right..."))) you can do more Deepnotice, and again stop and wait for a response. You can repeat this as long as it feels right. [5] After the last "reality response" you desire, return the FOW to its OFF position by thinking the number ZERO and visualizing the FOW moving back to its horizontal orientation. Focus on the OFF FOW for a time, and let it drift into the back of your mind. Sat 10/3/98 * 1:03 AM Hey! It's my birthday! I'm 31 years old today! Wow. Okay, I gotta write the new Declaration of Obliviana now. DECLARATION OF OBLIVIANA 10/3/98 by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana Forge of Wander (FOW) is a paranormal graphical symbol which already exists in your mind--you just have to find it! Obliviana is the game which enables you to do many wonderful things with your FOW. And this document contains everything you need to get started! FOW is a grid, 11 squares by 19 squares--209 squares total. To play Obliviana, you will be visualizing FOW in your mind's eye. It is good to imagine it as bright lines on a dark background. You play Obliviana in sessions called Jaunts. Each Jaunt has three stages--the beginning, the middle, and the end. Beginning: Visualize FOW in its dormant state--horizontal--19 squares wide and 11 squares high. Associate the dormant FOW with the number zero. Dwell upon the dormant FOW for a time. Middle: Activate FOW by associating it with the number 209 and making it vertical--11 squares wide and 19 squares high. Dwell upon the active FOW. Now, do some Wanderings (see below). Pause between wandering to feel and observe the reactions they cause. End: When you feel the time is right, return FOW to its dormant state, by associating it again with the number zero and returning it to a horizontal orientation. An active FOW will eventually become dormant on its own if you aren't thinking about it. Wait for a time before reactivating your FOW--until it feels right. This is the basic method of playing Obliviana. Wanderings are the things you do in the middle stage. They range from elegantly simple to wonderfully complex. Right now, I'll give you a very simple Wandering to get you started, called Deepnotice. To do Deepnotice, seek out elements in your environment which you would not normally notice. Regard the chosen element with more scrutiny and for a longer time than you normally would. Elements here are generally visual, but can be from any other sense, including thought. For more information, go to the Obliviana Super Occult Amusement website at www.obliviana.com. This document is copyright 1998 Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana. You may, however, reproduce this document freely as long as the text remains complete and unaltered, and you do not profit financially from it. Wonder, we're coming back. 209! Zope rules. Get all Obliviana!! * * * Well, I think that's it! Cool! The document is 2299 characters. That's 209*11. I'm gonna go print it out on my new computer. Wed 10/7/98 * 12:23 AM I just sent out OsoaWeek219. The Lucky Storm was 119! Very cool. I've been experimenting with the Declaration-level of Obliviana, and I've gotten promising results so far. So where do I go from here? FOW has to be at the center of Obliviana from now on. Perhaps, most of Obliviana will concern "Wanderings". I think that my next step will be to write a document with much more detailed instructions to the basic system described in the Declaration. I also need to establish a money-making aspect for Obliviana. This will take the form of mail order and custom services. Since Obliviana is online, the website forms an online world. I would contend that ANY website is an online world. So, this is the justification for LWOR. Obliviana's online presence IS LWOR. I think that I will specifically suggest that players should turn on their FOW when drinking in Obliviana content. This is very interesting. Thu 10/8/98 * 12:56 AM MARKETING STRATEGY I think that with Xappenshard Craze, I experienced firsthand that a very good idea does not automatically lead to success. In the case of XC, I think it could have become popular as it was--but it will come back as part of the reorganized Obliviana--reorganized around the Declaration. I have decided to use the FOW system described in the Declaration as the central promotional idea in Obliviana. And beyond that, this system truly IS at the core of Obliviana. The idea in Obliviana is that there is this thing called a Jaunt, and while doing it, you do Wanderings. And most of the stuff in Obliviana is Wanderings. I need to step back and start fresh. I have the Declaration of Obliviana. A person reads that and is interested--so they go to the website to look for more information. The first goal is to get people interested in Obliviana. The next goal is to get them playing the basic form of Obliviana. From there, people can get into more advanced areas of Obliviana. I need really detailed instructions on how to do the Declaration Method. And examples. IDEAS A person getting into Obliviana is going on a journey of sorts. And a journey needs a record. And--I am back to Fonosta! I am thinking of levels of achievement. The first would be playing the basic form of Obliviana, and recording the results. Then it would be setting Storms and doing different Friction Enhancers. Even such things as reading Cups of Severe Repair--a record of Cups read. And so, I am back to Glyphs! Graphical symbols to represent accomplishments in Obliviana. LWOR as online presence of Obliviana. Very simple "custom service"--put a players Fonosta Device on a T-shirt. This is selling a custom service and a product at the same time! So I have a lot of work to do--developing Fonosta, LWOR, FOW techniques and instructions, etc. Things are looking a little better. Sat 10/10/98 * 3:51 PM I've made a lot of progress in the past few days. I've been playing Obliviana as described in the Declaration, and I've been getting remarkable results. Basically, I have gone on some very cool adventures without even trying! A good example is Thursday night. I left work at 6:30, and it was raining lightly. I decided to walk over to the Strand bookstore on Broadway around 12th Street. I went there, and it was a little after 7:00. I was intending to get the 8:00 bus. But I kept browsing, and I looked at my watch and it was 7:35, and I realized that if I rushed, I could make the bus. But I decided to take the 10:15 instead. I bought a cool book ("The House Book") and then went to The Forbidden Planet, and then tot he new Virgin Megastore there on 14th Street, which I hadn't been to before (it just opened within the past month, I believe). Then I decided to walk north, up Park Ave. I saw the MetLife building way in the distance, and I decided to go and check out the renovated Grand Central Station. On Park Avenue, I came up with a new idea for Obliviana, which I am very, very excited about. I'll tell you about it after I finish the story. I got to Grand Central and it was awesome. I wandered aorund, and I was hungry, but I ahd less than a dollar left. I wanted to get a little package of Plater's Peanuts, which I estimated was around 50 cents or so. I saw some at a newstand, but it was in the process of closing, and the peanuts were visible, but blocked off by a gate. As I left Grand Central, I turned my FOW off, but it didn't feel quite right. Walking on 42nd St., I came up with the second breakthrough of the evening--that to turn off your FOW, you should turn it horizontal, but keep it at 209, to let it "ramp down" to zero. I did this, and it felt right. I got to Port Authority, got my peanuts (for 65 cents), and headed home. I truly believe that if it weren't for the 209 "energy" I had been genrating by playing Obliviana for a few days before that, I would have just gone straight home. This "spontaneous adventure" aspect to Obliviana is totally awesome, and somewat unexpected. Now, to the major new idea. Basically, everything in Obliviana is going to be broken down into "Wanderings". "Wanderings" is a new term I came up with when I wrote the Declaration. Simply put, a Wandering a something to do while your FOW is active. Additionally, I decided to create a "cover" for each Wandering, in the form of an image in a vertical FOW shape. Thus, everything in Obliviana--from Friction Enhancers, to games, to stories, to comics, to music--everything--can be contained in Wanderings. This is the kind of unification I have always been seeking. 5:53 PM Leaving soon for a surprise party. It's for my mother-in-law's 50th birthday, and we're having it at Dave & Buster's in the Palisades Center Mall! Anyway, This new idea of mine just might be THE idea I've been questing after for so long. It is a "keystone" kind of idea--holding everything together. The term "Wandering", or "Obliviana Wandering" refers to something that an Obliviana player can do while playing Obliviana. Originally, I was thinking of using Friction Enhancer instead of Wandering, but Wandering includes Friction Enhancer along with everything else. The "Wandering Sign" (tentative name) is a "cover" for each Wandering. They will all share a common format--11-by-19--and will be based on multiples of 264-by-456 pixels. They will be mastered as Photohop files, since they will have a "rough" and "aged" look, which cannot be accomplished in Illustator. The basic art will be done in Illustrator, but the master file will be in Photoshop. If "actual size" is 264-by-456 at 72 dpi, I should master them at the same size at at least 300 dpi. This would result in 1100-by-1900 pixels. (!!!) Wow, how did that happen? Thu 10/15/98 * 10:10 PM Finally sent out the rest of the Daily Winner prizes the other day. My experiementation with Declaration-level Obliviana is still going quite well. The time has come for Wanderings. Obliviana is a company which creates and produces Wanderings. The is the unification I have always sought in Obliviana. All Wanderings are all of the same class, though they may contain content in very different media. Right now, the task of developing the basic format for the Wandering Sign is in front of me. This task incorporated the organizational system for Wanderings as well. Okay... WANDERINGS [1] Wanderings are things you do while playing Obliviana. A Wandering can be virtually any kind of activity. Obliviana Super Occult Amusement releases official Obliviana Wanderings. New Wanderings are released on a weekly schedule, though not all weeks will have releases. [2] Obliviana Wanderings are unified under the "Wandering Cover" system. Each Obliviana Wandering (OWA) is identified by a graphical image, which is the Wandering Cover (WCO). This graphical imagage is digitally mastered at 1100-by-1900 pixels (I had reduced the number of pixels slightly, so that it would be exactly four times my previous standard of 264-by-456, but numerologically, that breaks down to 9 in the total number of pixels. As well, I am establishing an overall "rough and aged" look for Obliviana, so precise scaling multiples are not as needed. 1100-by-1900 is a 72 dpi 264-by-456, inchwise, at 300 dpi.) [3] WCOs will contain a number of features and pieces of information. Here are some basics: [a] Master file is 1100-by-1900 pixel JPEG file, quality to be determined, RGB. Standard presentation size is 264-by-456 pixels. [b] As a general graphical rule, WCOs will have a weathered, aged, rough look. As well, each WCO must be graphically identifiable as an Obliviana WCO through the inclusion of a number of standard graphical elements. [c] Underlying all WCOs is a checkerboard pattern, with four squares for each Storm in the FOW foundation. This pattern will generally contain two colors, and will have a weathered look. This checkerboard pattern must "show through" on all WCOs. That is, it must be visible in some portion of the WCO. [d] All WCOs will be numbered sequentially. Every WCO will contain this sequential number, as well as its initial release date. No matter what kind of content a WCO contains, and no matter what series it is a part of, every WCO will have this sequential number. This data will be a part of the "data text", which will also include "www.obliviana.com", and copyright and authorship (by Frank Edward Nora) information. "Duplicate for non-commercial purposes only" may also be included. [e] All WCOs will have the Obliviana wings logo and the word "Obliviana" visible. [f] Typography will be a big part of WCOs. Typographical variety is the rule, as opposed to standard fonts. [4] I am considering other possible elements for each WCO. Here are some ideas... [a] Game. Each WCO will contain some kind of information which will make the WCOs usable as part of a game. [b] Secrets/Puzzles. Each WCO will contain elements which will be part of a puzzle, or will be secret stuff. I think that as a standard--that is, included on ALL WCOs--I would consider the game idea, but not the puzzle idea. [5] WCO game... I don't know if I want to include this, but I will work on ideas for it... [a] The idea would be that there would be a game where each player would have a set of WCOs. This would be akin to a collectible card game (CCG). I think it should be a racing game, since racing is the overall game theme of Obliviana. [b] The game data could be included in the "data text" and be pretty brief. This would make the game element unobtrusive. Fri 10/16/98 * 12:38 AM [6] I'm still not sure about the game angle. I do think I need to include some kind of Glyph in each WPO--a little graphical sign that can be drawn in a Fonosta Notebook or something like that. ORGANIZATIONAL SYSTEM Okay. Now for the Organizational System. This refers to the higher levels of organization, beyond the sequential number. First and foremost, the sequential number is the ultimate identifier for a Wandering Cover. But, it is apparent that there will need to be higher forms of identification. So, first, each WCO has a Name. I think that each should also have a Revolver. And a Racetrack. And a "Series". Let's Take "Goodbye Popcorn 1" for example. Severe Repair is a major area of content in Obliviana. Since the Wandering is the basic unit in Obliviana, I will have to decide what to include in each Severe Repair Wandering. I would say that the span is from a single Cup to en entire Cupline, with a subset of Cups in the middle. Since some Cuplines are open-ended, I think that it would be a good idea to have each SR Wandering contain a subset of Cups. This subset could be a standard number, or a variable number. In the case of a Cupline whose Cups do not evenly divide into a standard number, a variable number will be required for the last Cup. I think that 8 is a good standard number, but if, for example, I have 10 Cups of a particular Cupline, I might break that down to 5 and 5. In this case, I might impose a maximum. 12 Cups would take approximately an hour to read. So that might be a good maximum. So... Severe Repair, Cupline 1: Goodbye Popcorn, Wandering 1, Cups 1-8. Also, SR Wandering number? Wandering Numbers: [1] Sequential [2] Revolver [3] Series So... Wandering 14, SR 1, GP1 ? Or, W1-SR1-GP1 Sat 10/17/98 * 4:24 PM I am well under way in designing two Wandering Covers--Declaration of Obliviana, and SR Goodbye Popcorn Part 1. For both, I took custom photographs with my digital camera. I have decided to incorporate the Obliviana logo as part of the Wandering identifier, which states: "Obliviana Wandering" and then the number, such as "Obliviana Wandering 30". So, I need to finalize the set of elements: [1] Checkerboard Pattern [2] Obliviana Wandering Number [3] Data Text date content type description/promo "www.obliviana.com", and copyright and authorship (by Frank Edward Nora) information. "Duplicate for non-commercial purposes only" may also be included. weird word or phrase for game/puzzle/etc. glyph? W1-SR1-GP1 price? Wandering 3, Severe Repair Cupline 1, Goodbye Popcorn Part 1. 10/17/98. By Frank Edward Nora, copyright 1998. Published by Obliviana Super Occult Amusement, www.obliviana.com. Content: digital text. 5:21 PM I like the idea of a chesslike boardgame. It would use FOW as its board, of course. This idea is different from Obliviana Classic/Vulpine Gathering. Another issue is the nature of "release". Wanderings are released on a particular date, and made available. By "available" I mean that an interested person will be able to acquire the content, either for free online, or purchasing it via mail-order. Sun 10/18/98 * 2:49 AM I think that I need to further reorient myself toward the new structure of Obliviana. Obliviana is a company that creates and publishes Wanderings. I remember way back in 1988 or 1989, telling Mike Massotto that what I was talking about was a new medium, referring to my myriad Nomadi ideas. I think that finally, I can justify that claim. Every Wandering is "something to do." 1:02 PM Regarding "reorienting" myself, I have to clean up all the mental debris as relates to Obliviana. Because right now, I am quite dazed and confused about Obliviana. Obliviana has gone through what must be thirty or forty stages since I created it. And all those stages combine to form one big blur in my mind. I have to put this blur behind me, and focus on the new Obliviana. But is this stage of Obliviana indeed the final stage? Or rather, to get more specific, is this BASIC structure of Obliviana the right one? I think it is. But then again, I've said this about many other stages, which did not turn out to be the right idea. All the stages have added something to Obliviana, though. With this new Wandering idea, I think I have the basic structure I have always wanbted for Obliviana--Obliviana as a company that focuses on a single thing. That single thing is Wanderings. The fact that Wanderings cover such a wide array of media is beside the point--they are all Wanderings. If I came up with this idea ten years ago, in 1988, I don't think it would have gone anywhere. First and foremost, my experiences of the past ten years have made me a much more mature and sable person. Ten years ago I had A LOT of growing up to do, and I think that all the somewhat difficult times I went through really allowed me to grow up quite well. Secondly, I have created a great deal of content, at various stages of refinement, over the past ten years. So, now that I have this idea of Wanderings, I have a whole lot of content pretty much ready to go. 1:13 PM I need to make it very clear to people what Obliviana is and what a Wandering is. I know that the Declaration of Obliviana sets forth these ideas, but I need to make them even more clear and easy to understand. Last night I had a dream where I went off to war, and I thought to myself how I wished I'd come back alive so that I could continue my work on Obliviana. I thought to myself how precious time to work on Obliviana is. When I woke up, I realzed that I have that time now--and I better not waste it! Now, I have referred to the idea of a Fonosta Notebook of some sort to record the stuff you do in Obliviana. This, and other things which go beyond the Declaration of Obliviana, shall be contained within Wanderings... or should they not be? Is EVERYTHING in Obliviana going to be "contained" in Wanderings? This would be the ultimate, coolest way for Obliviana to be. But I have gone through this many times in the past, and "forcing" everything to conform to a standard is not a good thing. However, Wandering is the most flexible system I have ever devised. The stuff in question here is "meta" stuff--content that is ABOUT Obliviana, as opposed to just being a part of Obliviana. But considering that everything must be released in some form, I think that perhaps everything in Obliviana can be contained in Wanderings. I guess when it comes to the website, I would have to question material that is in flux as regard being "inside" a Wandering. For example, the Fonosta Listings--should these be in a single Wandering? Can Wandering content be in flux? I think that it can be. And how about hierarchy? Can one Wandering be "inside" another one? Well, no--Wanderings all stand on their own in the ultimate sense. That is, there is a set of Wanderings, all sequentially numbered, and all at the same "level". But, there is no reason why a Wandering cannot contain references to other Wanderings. So maybe, Wandering 1 should be the Obliviana Website? Or is that forcing the system too much? I think that a little bit of "looseness" here is in order. Or is it? Should the Obliviana Website be a Wandering? I think that maybe it shouldn't be. A Wandering is something to DO. And if you use, say, Coca-Cola as an example, they are a company that produces soft drinks--but their website in itself is not a soft drink. And how about LWOR? Basically, the website IS LWOR. And LWOR is not, in itself, a Wandering. Tue 10/20/98 * 9:18 PM I have made the decision to "wipe out" my entire website, and start again from scratch. I will, of course, keep a full backup of the entire site, but I will be taking it offline, probably tonight. I'm tranferring it to my other computer via FTP right now. This change will mark a big change in Obliviana--even bigger than the one 12 weeks ago. It would have been nice for this change to have happened with OsoaWeek209... but really, the sequence of events that led up to this really did start with the "Launch" of Obliviana that was concurrent with OsoaWeek209. Right now, I have to figure out exactly how the new website will be structured. I know one thing for sure--it will be based on the Wandering idea. A set of Wanderings, all represented by Wandering Covers. The big question is the extent of Wanderings. I have the urge, for sure, to have everything contained by a Wandering. But I think that it MIGHT be good to be a little loose with the system. At issue here are two areas of content--the website itself, which IS Little World of Racetracks--and "meta-Obliviana" stuff--stuff that talks about and refers to Obliviana itself. I think that meta works such as OsoaWeek and Get All Obliviana can be framed as Wanderings. So really, it is the website itself, LWOR, that is in question here. "Spend some time in the Little World of Racetracks!" Little World of Racetracks--the online world of Obliviana. The website of Obliviana is not Obliviana--it is just the website of Obliviana. 10:18 PM Well, I did it. I wiped out the website. I have it backed up, of course--but it is no longer online! There were almost a thousand files, at over ten megabytes! Now I gotta do OsoaWeek. Wed 10/21/98 * 12:04 AM OsoaWeek is done. Trick Sojourn 17 is over. So--how am I gonna organize? Website is LWOR. LWOR should be its own thing, and not "inside" a Wandering. That's it. Wed 10/21/98 * 11:16 PM The World Series could be just about over. At work today, I lost my corner. And of course, last night I wiped out the Obliviana website. And it's really cold out tonight. I want to finalize the Wandering Cover data text. I'd like to get the Declaration of Obliviana WCO done tonight. The sequential Wandering number is the first piece of data. The Revolver is the next. Next is "series", and then the series number. Okay. Hierarchy. Revolver... then what? In any Revolver, there will be a number of "Series". Can I get by with Series and Sub-Series? I think I can be flexible. That is, add levels of hierarchy as needed. Sun 10/25/98 * 5:12 AM I wrote an ad-like thing about Obliviana, comparing it to drugs, being a Zen Buddhist monk, and being a child again. And I used the term "Play Obliviana". So I thought, Obliviana is a game, but it's not strictly an online game, but rather... a paranormal game. But that language--paranormal game--implies that it is a game with a paranormal theme. So... what's a more descriptive term...? Super Occult Amusement. Obliviana is a Super Occult Amusement. Obliviana: The Super Occult Amusement the will Change the World Around You. So now, I have to change my attitiude more than anything else. I have written in the past of my need to let go of the past, but it's not easy. Forge of Wander as the system, and Wanderings as the software. I would use the examples of View-Master and reels, VCR and tapes, CD-player and CDs, Nintendo 64 and carts. Wanderings. The idea of Wanderings as entertainment content. Is a piece of fiction, a comic strip, music--can these things be Friction Enhancers? Well, they are not strictly FEs, but they do serve the same purpose. For Deepnotice, taking digital photos and then highlighting certain areas to demonstrate exactly how Deepnotice works. 5:24 AM Starting fresh. That is what this time is about. I am able to have a fresh start right now. If I had a larger audience, I would have a much harder time having a fresh start. As it is, maybe tens of people are even aware of Obliviana, and aware that it is changing. So, if Obliviana does indeed become a success, I'd say that nearly 100% of everyone who will become a fan of Obliviana does not, at this moment, know anything about Oblivian at all. I want to be very specific. Obliviana is a certain thing. My website, which I wiped out last Tuesday, had a lot of stuff in it, but it didn't have any rhyme or reason. It was just... there. The new Obliviana will be very specifically a SUPER OCCULT AMUSEMENT. It will follow very strictly the FOW/Wandering structure. In fact, the structure is LWOR/FOW/W. Or... LWOR/FOW/OW/W? Little World of Racetracks, Forge of Wander, OsoaWeek, Wanderings. Adding that OW seemed to fit the pattern. But I'm not sure about this yet. FOW/W is the basic structure. LWOR is the website, the online world of Obliviana. OW represents the "meta" level of information about Obliviana. If I ever feel I am being too concerned with structure, just look at where structurelessness got me. LWOR/FOW/OW/W... I think that FOW/W is the main kind of structure in Obliviana. LWOR/OW is the support structure. But, LWOR is a thing in its own right... Well, I'm close to a new structure. Um... maybe I should make LWOR into a Wandering... But in this case, the whole thing will be a Wandering... it will not be broken down into separate Racetrack Wanderings. So, then everything would be "inside" a Wandering. I had said that I would be able to pull off not unifying. But I don't think I can do it. I have to unify. And I will unify. That's it. Obliviana is unified. Everything is inside a Wandering. Obliviana is a set of Wanderings. I'm almost there. Mon 10/26/98 * 10:05 PM Lots of stress. Hung up on a customer at work on Friday. Supernatural events, maybe the most monumental yet, happened over the weekend and this morning. I did lots of 209 over the weekend. 666 showed up in my wife's dreams, and that day, on a receit for some pens and a pad I bought. I'm tired and cranky and stressed today. And on the bus ride home, while listening with some fascination to a five or six-year-old girl talk to and argue with her father, I came up with an idea for Obliviana that gave me a weird, good physical sensation when I conceived of it. I don't know if this is the right idea. On it's surface, it doesn't seem to be earth-shattering. But it resonates. It's funny. Over the weekend, I saw an old Volkswagen Beetle, powder blue, and I had this flash of vision that Wanderings had to be a "classic of design", just like the Beetle is. I know this sounds a little absurd--I mean, of course anyone designing anything wants their design to be a timeless classic". But maybe the vision was pushing me toward something that I already know, subconsciouly--that Obliviana is very near reaching the point where it will be such a design. (I'm writing this during commercial on "Hyperion Bay". It's a great show, but it's up against Monday Night Football and Ally McBeal. Guess it won't last much longer. Oh well.) So anyway, the idea is--players carry around Wanderings, in a physical form. On the high-end, I'm thinking about printing them out small on photo paper and laminating them. On the low end, they would just be scraps of paper with numbers and names scribbled on them. A player will have eight "slots" in which to put Wanderings. This would then be the rebirth of Octagon! Yes, Octagon--the vision I had in Metuchen that time. It was such a strong vision, I still have not forgotten it or let it slide into obscurity in my work. On the bus before, I was thinking about Octagon--how a few months ago I had an Octagon revival--which subsequently submerged. Oh well. So--this idea--it involves Wanderings both "gone on" and "to go on". And, of course, "to go on again". The idea is that you carry eight Wandering around with you--a potentially different set every day. I see this idea definitely increasing my potential female demographic, although it is, of course, for everyone. Now--WHY? Why carry around Wanderings? Okay. First of all, by carrying a Wandering around with you for a day, you "get" a Wandering-Day of that Wandering. In other words, if you carry around "Goodbye Popcorn Part One" for five days, you will have five Wandering-Days of "Goodbye Popcorn Part One". This does, of course, relate to your Fonosta. And this idea MUST involve Fonosta. Doing Wanderings is one thing. As you do Wanderings, they are "entered" into your Fonosta. Carry a Wandering for a day, and that's also entered. Building blocks. Building blocks for Fonosta Device. Yes. You earn Glyphs. By "Wandering"--doing Wanderings and carrying them around--you earn Glyphs. And Glyphs can be traded up for "bigger" Glyphs. So everyone will develop their Fonosta Device in a different way. Simplicity. Is this simple? I think it is. I will have to include Glyphs in the Wanderings, though. There should be... a set of Glyphs... for different levels... and maybe... maybe Glyph deals... So I have to get the whole Glyph thing going, like right now! 11:47 PM Playing with graph paper... and I see... Glyphs shall all be eight-sided polygons!!! Limited to the FOW grid! YES!!!!!!!! 11:56 PM Obliviana Glyph Protocols [1] All Glyphs shall be eight-sided polygons, and all shall be designed on the FOW grid. [2] Glyphs may be freely scaled; their shape is what matters. They do not need to be at their exact relative FOW grid size. [3] All Glyphs shall have alphanumeric equivalents for easy written/drawn representation. Each Glyph shall have its code right next to it where it is presented, such as in a Wandering Cover. It occurs to me that words would be good here. "Pale Shuriken". An adjective and a noun. Wow. [4] Each Glyph shall have a name, a shape, and a color. The shape defines the noun portion of the name, and the color the adjective. There will be no hard "color sets". Colors will be chosen from the Web palatte. There could be a single instance of one shape, or many. More protocols later... Okay. At the very least, each Wandering will have one Glyph associated with it. Gaining that Glyph for your Fonosta Device is no simple feat. It will involve doing the Wandering multiple times, as well as--um--maybe the Wandering spending a day in each of the eight facets of your Octagon! Hmm... Tue 10/27/98 * 11:12 PM I sent out OsoaWeek222. I am not going to update my website today, since it is such a bad day numerologically. Right now, I want to get a clear grip on exactly what I am doing with the new Obliviana. GUIDE TO THE NEW OBLIVIANA by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana 10/28/98 Obliviana has gone through many, many incarnations over the past thirteen or so years. It started off as Halfevil Graphics in 1986, and has gone through a multitude of changes. Now, I have a new plan, which is the best yet. And hopefully, it is the right plan--the plan I have been striving to create! The New Obliviana starts with the Declaration of Obliviana, which sets forth the method of playing Obliviana. Basically, it is activating your FOW and doing Wanderings. Wanderings are the basic building blocks of Obliviana. Each one is something to do. An Obliviana Player can create a Fonosta to record their Wanderings. A Fonosta does contain a record of Wanderings that have been done, as well as Wanderings which have been "Walked". Basically, a player has an "Octagon" which can hold eight Wanderings. A player carries these Wanderings, in physical form, around each day. Each Wandering has a Glyph. Fonosta Device is a FOW-shaped black field in which go Glyphs. In order to gain a Wandering Glyph, a player must achieve a certain number of Walkings and Doings of the Wandering, and then it is entered in the Fonosta Device. Glyphs are eight-sided polygons, built on a FOW grid. Each has a web-palette color and a name consisting of an adjective and a noun. The noun refers to the shape, and the adjective refers to the color. I need to figure out how the Glyph System works. At a basic level, A Wandering Glyph is obtained through a combination of Walking and Doing. But what about the higher levels? Essentially, I want a Fonosta Device to be able to convey, visually, the extent of a player's Obliviana achievements. This would suggest some kind of overall scheme in the shapes and/or colors. I could convey "size" via colors, or via some other graphic device, such as putting a Glyph inside a white circle or doube circle or something. Also, each Wandering could be on its own "track"--ie, the more you do it, the "bigger" it gets, or--many Glyohs could "combine" to "form" a bigger Glyph. A classic of design... that's what I gotta achieve here... And I want players to have to decide which "direction" to go in in building their Fonosta Device. Can Octagon fit in here? I think it can! I would say that Glyphs shall be obtained "in" one of the eight Facets. How will this affect them? Thu 10/29/98 * 12:46 AM A few ideas. First, the idea that you need to do a Wandering eight times to get the Glyph. In place of repeating the Wandering, you can carry it for a day. Glyphs will each be of one of the eight facets. 12:54 PM Wanderings will each have a Facet. There are eight Facets, and each Facet covers a different general type of Wandering. For example, classic-style Friction Enhancers might be of Facet 1, whereas Severe Repair-style sci-fi might be under Facet 5. There are 8 and only 8 Facets, so each Facet will have to cover a range of themes. Multiples of the same Glyph could be handled with outlines. For example, 8 of a certain Glyph could be represented by one of them with a white border. Trading up. Deals. Like, "5 Pale Glyphs, of all different Facets". Named colors, standard. But based on web-palette. "3 Facet-4 Glyphs, all different colors, same shape". Deals like that. To get... MetaGlyphs? Fri 10/30/98 * 9:41 PM I am down. I'm lost. I'm trying to get this new system going, but I don't have it yet, and I'm getting depressed. But, I will work on it. And who knows? Maybe I'll even work it all out tonight! The issue now is the basic structure of Obliviana. The "classic of design". Remember the rule, that Obliviana cannot be dependent on computers at its core, so that it could have been implemented in the past. I think that Octagon is important here. It may be the key to the whole thing! I think I really need to focus on the nature of the graphics in the Fonosta Device. Glyphs are eight-sided polygons, and they are the basic building block of the Fonosta Device. The purpose of Fonosta Device is, among other things, to record information in a visual manner so that a person can look at a player's Fonosta Device and immediately know a lot about that player in the game. A Glyph will most likely represent doing a particular Wandering 8 times. If we're talking about a Wander that a player does every day, over the course of a year, that could result in 45 Glyphs of just that one Wandering. So, the total number of Glyphs could easily get into the thousands. With this in mind, I think it is important, first of all, to be able to represent visually multiple Glyphs by using an outline or some other method. But I also want to have a system of building up, using Glyoh as the building blocks. And I want there to be many choices in this process of building up. Background color squares? I also want this system to be doable on paper, with the idea of "trading up" to get new things... TRADING UP This is a big issue. Using basic Glyphs to "buy" other graphics. And.. the whole paradigm issue... what does the Fonosta Device "represent"? 9:59 PM Okay. I am at a crisis of sorts here. On Sunday, 11/1/98--two days from now--I want to begin the NEW OBLIVIANA. I want to say that I'll go with an imperfect idea, but I don't think that is something I can do. I need a killer idea! Wandering = Glyph Glyphs = MetaGlyph MetaGlyph = MetaWandering? Hmmm... 10:22 PM Okay. I have had the idea that all the Wanderings you do serve to "strengthen" your FOW. So, the idea of a "reward" for doing many Wanderings would gibe with this idea of enhancing your FOW with many Wanderings. But what form shall the "MetaWandering" take? A word? A word you can say? A word that refers to all the Wandering that went into it? Hmmm... Here is the thing. I have done a lot in my life so far and I want to do more. Obliviana. I want people to do it, and I want it to be good. What people need. Sense of identity. sense of purpose. Yes. Obliviana is real. It is a real thing. Kava Kava kicking in here, great. Okay. What is it? What is this new idea? This "MetaWandering"? Nail it, I gotta nail it down. P... C... Go. I gotta go. I must go. Go. Go. Go. It is time for the key. 10:33 PM STRIPES Stripes are things that are built in the course of Wandering and Playing Obliviana. A Stripe is a thing that is composed of many Wanderings and many thoughts, and it grows, but it stays one thing. So, Wanderings are "traded in" to buy Stripes. I see a person having a set of Stripes. Eight? And... and they are added to and built up. And the specific nature of each Stripe is very much up to the individual person. Stripes are made up of segments, which are themselves made up of individual Wandering Glyphs. Each segment has a place in the stripe. Stripes are living things in that they are always growing and always changing. Stripes represent major areas of endeavor in life. Yes. -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----