|| -------- -- -----  A E R I E   O B L I V I A N A . singular book of text wandertainment by Frank Edward Nora ------------------- ----------- OSOAWEEK--ISSUE 076--1/5/96 <-------  ||  OsoaWeek  ||  Issues  ||  Book 6  ||  -------> (Cup OWis076, Created v1 (4/27/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = [[BEGIN076OW]] [[01076CV]] * * * O S O A W E E K 0 7 6 * * * January 5, 1996 "The weekly ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement!" by Frank Edward Nora CONTENTS 01 076 CV--Cover 02 076 LA--Lord of Obliviana 03 076 NH--Nihilistica 04 076 SU--Superior 05 076 SR--Severe Repair OsoaWeek076, January 5, 1996 11th issue of OsoaWeek Book 6 Written by Frank Edward Nora Published weekly by Obliviana Super Occult Amusement (E-mail address in transition) 1-800-OBLIVIANA http://www.obliviana.com/~osoa All contents copyright 1996 Frank Edward Nora Regarding this file, you are free to make digital copies, so long as they're not altered or sold. All other forms of reproduction require permission. A CupFrontier containing this file will be available. Stay tuned for more details. Character count: 58074 / Line count: 1388 / Days late: 28 *OW* [[02076LA]] Lord of Obliviana Tue 1/30/96 * 8:47 AM * NJT car 1475 Okay. I'm really late today. I mean, I should have been to work 47 minutes ago, and I'm only in Metuchen! I was like phased out this morning--I was losing it. I was up at 5:15, but I didn't have the willpower to resist going back to bed. Then again, if I DID push myself, I would have been stressed, but on-time. As it is, I'm relaxed and cool, but terribly late. 8:16 PM * NJT cat 1477 I wrote a lot on the Game of Obliviana this morning, but I just moved it to its own section in Nihilistica below, "Game of Obliviana--An Introduction". So before at work I finished the first new set of Pelters in quite awhile. The images are final, but I still might need to do some renaming. I think I'll call this 17th set of 32 Pelters "Pelter New Jersey". It came out quite well. It's interesting--by last night I had 102 raw Pelters, which I rated from A to D. The set of A's was about 65. Then I had to seek out ones which were too similar--being close variations of each other. Then I had to weed out the ones that didn't excite me, and the final set of these was just 38--so I only had to cut six from this final set, which wasn't too bad. I did edit a few of the images in the selection process, but I tried not to do too much of it. Now I have to graze over the wreckage of the leftover A's, and all the B's, C's and D's. With some transformation, I should be able to get some top notch ones out of these, and with some new ones, put together a second new set of 32, completing this round of Pelter development. The question remains what I'm going to DO with the Pelters. It's funny--I bought one of those 10 CD's for $20 things, from Wayzata, and there was a disk called something like "Joe and Matt's Cool Background Textures"--and their stuff was definitely along the same lines as Pelter, but their naming and selection criteria were lacking. The set does have some nice images, a few on par with Pelter. But look what happened to it--consigned to commodityhood. Sad. Maybe it's good I never went into debt trying to promote the Pelter CD-ROM (not that I even had the credit it would have required to go into debt...) I know that a few people have used Pelters as a graphical resource--Frank Panucci in his video work, and a guy from this place I worked, Panorama. But really, Pelter cannot survive as such a mundane product. But of course, it won't have to suffer that terrible fate, cuz it will, of course, be incorporated into the Game of Obliviana. I'm really thinking of getting an Apple QuickTake 150 digital camera. There's an attachment available that allows you to take photos as close as two inches. I can think of a lot of uses for such a device, especially in the development of the Game of Obliviana (notice how I'm avoiding the clear acronym "GOO"?) Yeah, I can see taking lots of pictures of New Jersey for Forge of Wander. That'd be cool. And photos of 209 stuff--like Mallballs, Deluge of Primacy, etc. But one big thing I have in mind is this book my grandmother has--"Picturesque America"--in two volumes, published in like the 1870s. It has hundreds of awesome etchings of scenes from America at the time. It'd be an awesome thing to digitize, but the idea of mangling those wonderful books on a flatbed scanner... So I think I'll use the QuickTake to digitize the pictures within--knowing that I can always use a different, better method in the future, if such is warranted. But I think the QuickTake quality will be adequate to start with. I downloaded some sample images taken with a QuickTake and they look pretty good. Stuck at Newark now, due to a "medical condition in the first car". Well, looks like we're leaving now. Couldn't have been that bad. Someone's probably just piss drunk. The Super Bowl, or Superb Owl as I like to think of it--the commercials were quite unspectacular, hardly even worth mentioning. The worst were the Doritos ones which the lunch lady made mashed potato sculptures and the masseuse played people like drums. The best was the computer animation T-Rex skeleton for McDonald's, and the computer animation goldfish for Pepsi--but that one--which had a goldfish that to get Pepsi from the kids, then did it for the Dad who flushed it--it was stupid that they had an added scene showing that the damn sentient carp was still alive. But I guess it'd be too disturbing for little kids that this adorable little anthropopathic fish got killed. Oh well. The game itself was not a blowout, but it was very exasperating, especially since the Steelers really had a chance to win toward the end, but fucked it up totally with a stupid interception. That is the end of OsoaWeek sports--I hate fuckin' sports. Guess I'll go down to Nihilistica and continue on with the GOO thing... 11:12 * home I talked to Massotto from work before. I had a dream where I met him in this store after walking through the woods with my family. I figured since I was meaning to call him anyway, I might as well call him, cuzza the dream and all. The problem is that my former business and writing partner refuses to listen to anything about Obliviana--he wants me to give it all up to focus on ABM. Those of you familiar with my quest are sure to see that giving up Obliviana is an impossibility. So I didn't have much to say to him, other than try to convince him that Obliviana is worth at least hearing about. But I can't criticize him. He feels he's been burned by me in the past exactly BECAUSE of my mysterious and up-till-now-ill-defined core endeavor, once called Nomadi, now called, of course, Obliviana. It's tough. I know that Massotto and ABM will be a part of Obliviana, but right now it's just too hard to convince him--or anybody for that matter--that Obliviana has any value at all. Maybe it's just my own inability to convey the true nature of Obliviana to people. But really, it's only recently that even I myself have understood Obliviana. I guess, as the old phrase goes, "the proof is in the pudding". In other words, I have to demonstrate that Obliviana is a viable business before people will take me seriously. I've been carrying the dream of Obliviana around with me for a long time--my whole life, really. I've always known that it would become a great success. And I still know that. It's funny--now that I do have a specific, workable plan, I feel that the hardest part is over. But really, making Obliviana a reality in America in 1996 is gonna be tough. I read in Wired magazine this month that there's a new Web site launched every second (or every four seconds, depending on which quote you accept), and that the World Wide Web is doubling in size every 50 days. Regardless of the true statistics, it's clear that just having a Web site means just about nothing. I have to demonstrate that people will join Obliviana, and beyond that, that they will pay to do so. It's hard. This whole thing is hard. I've been beaten to a pulp mentally and emotionally by this endeavor. But I'm happy to have taken this course, for when success comes, it will be a success I will be able to savor, knowing that I deserve it and that it has so strong a foundation that it will survive. Huh. Listening to "Glory Days" by Bruce Springsteen. Got the MD when Sony fucked up the repair of my MD player. Anyway, I remember listening to this song in the past and wondering whether the period of time from 1986 to 1989 were my glory days. You know, publishing ABM nationwide, interning at MTV, writing freelance for MTV to Go magazine, meeting famous people (ie, Gilbert Gottfried, Kurt Loder, They Might Be Giants, and a few others), having girlfriends (Ilana, Erin, Shannon), and looking at a bright future. But it all crashed down in November of 1989 with the death of ABM. I had to reinvent myself. I was living at home with my parents and working in Manhattan at a prepress place, doing Macintosh work. I was so lost. I wore a suit to work every day even though I didn't have to. This girl I had a major crush on, Alison, remarked toward the end of my tenure there that she was amused to watch as slowly, week after week, my dress became looser and my hair got longer. She said she saw how I transformed. Interesting. I struggled with the remnants of ABM--debts to the printer in North Dakota, artists left in the dark, unresolved business matter, etc. Also, I had no love life at all from 1990 to 1993. But I did have a lot of crushes. What a loser I was. Creatively, I produced experimental publications, but these were unfocused and vague, though they were in line with my vision for what would eventually become Obliviana. 1994 was a breakthrough year. I got a girlfriend in the winter for a few months, and I met Kerri in August. On July 28, I published OsoaWeek001. If you look back at it, you'll see that I was much closer to the Game of Obliviana than I had ever been before, but the system was all wrong, structurally. Just look at the Fonosta-registration procedure and you'll see what I mean--massive in its unnecessary complexity. (((Okay--it's 2/1/96 right now, and I just realized that the three paragraphs above are error-ridden. See, I went out with Sheridan in the winter of 1993, and then started going out with Kerri in August of 1993. So it was 1990 to 1992 where I had no love life. I had already been going out with Kerri for almost a year when OsoaWeek001 came out. How scary it is that I'm so unfamiliar with my own past.))) My relationship with Kerri lasted till this past October--just three-and-a-half months ago. Then this whole thing with Deborah, Tracy, and Heidi happened--resulting in a lot of hope, but even more misery. And in the end, not even a single kiss. So here I am, with my Core Endeavor finally coming into sharp focus. I know that my glory days are yet to come, but it's been an exceedingly strange and confusing journey so far. Huh. It's 11:37. I have this feeling that I'm already late for work, even though I don't have to leave here for another 6.5 hours. Yeah. Yesterday I got over 9 hours of sleep but I still couldn't get going in the morning. I think it's cuz I went right to bed when I got home; I spent no time unwinding from the workday. So I'm winding down this evening--I had a cigar and watch Dateline: NBC and had a little pasta and am now writing this, as if that's not obvious. I read about the Stratosphere Tower in Las Vegas today. I saw it when I went there, but it was incomplete. It's really cool. It's similar to the Seattle Space Needle, and like 1200 feet high. And get this--there's a roller coaster on top--OUTSIDE. Is Las Vegas great or what? I called them up and they told me the sucker's gonna open on or around April 16 of this year. And who knows--maybe I'll have a new girlfriend by then to go out there with... Gotta go to bed soon. So the main thing I have to do is cement this new Game of Obliviana idea, by defining a coherent blueprint of it. The section in Nihilistica below is the first step toward that. But I gotta make some serious progress, cuz we're talking less than six months now, and that's when I want gameplay to BEGIN--meaning I have to be promoting the game a few months before that to get players to play in the first Eon of the game! So--remember my idea of just a few weeks ago, of this duality or trinity or whatever? Entertainment production, occult system, Internet game... it's totally clear to me now that Obliviana IS A GAME, and that the entertainment production and occult system aspects are PART of the game, not separate things. It's all so much clearer to me now. This IS the right idea. I know that now. But I have to keep in mind that implementing this idea will be very difficult--especially considering my disorganized lifestyle and great ability to kill time. I mean, I'm gonna have people paying to play, and I gotta deliver. For every player, I gotta somehow process their game orders every week. But here's the thing--okay--back when we were doing ABM, me and Massotto set things up so that it COULD have become a success. That is, we solicited ABM to like over a thousand separate stores through around 13 distributors. So, if we only got more orders, ABM would have been a success. This is as opposed to ABM when we printed up a couple hundred copies and gave then for free to fellow college students. See, at that level, there's no way it was gonna make money. But being distributed for real, it COULD have realistically been a success. But it wasn't. Right now, Obliviana is not in a position to make money. So this is my assignment--to craft Obliviana into something that COULD make money, if enough people decide to pay to play it. Of course, just the potential to make money does not mean it'll work. But it is a first step. One thing I have to do is make sure not to overextend myself. Eon 9 does not have to have a whole lot of fancy stuff going on. The Web site will be updated weekly, and that's where players will get information about their Fonostas. So I'll get a bunch of E-mail messages, enter them all into my database, and create a report for the Web site each week. Seems realistic, right? I have been considering letting people play for free to start off with, but I know that's a bad idea. The act of putting money in an envelope and mailing it to me is a big commitment for someone--and it will help with their attention span and seriousness about participating in Obliviana. With all the information overload going on out there, I need a way to help people focus on Obliviana, and paying money is a good way. The beauty of the whole system is that you can access all of Obliviana for free--you just can't play the game till you pay! Press. Gotta get press. I know I can get press. It's the perfect angle. Mental note--SPEND TIME GETTING PRESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay. That's it. I'm going to bed. Goodnight. Wed 1/31/96 * 6:46 AM * NJT car 1355 So, today's the last day of the first month of the year in which Obliviana becomes a reality. I started this month off in a very confused and fucked-up state, but now things are a whole lot better. Cuz this month, I finally answered the question "What is Obliviana?" So my theory about needing time to unwind at night or else I'm a basket case in the morning no matter how much sleep I got seems to be true for this morning--I'm on track to be on time for work! I got Motor Trend last night to read about the '98 Plymouth Prowler, which'll be available spring '97. They showed it during a Neon ad during the Super Bowl, and also in a fold-out ad in TV Guide. It's definitely an awesome vehicle--just the sort of indulgent, impractical, waste of money that I'd really be into. Also, the new Jeep Wrangler that's coming out THIS spring looks pretty cool. As does the Suzuki X-90. Ah, but what the hell am I thinking about? Launching Obliviana will DRAIN my resources at first, now bolster them. So I guess I'll be stuck with my good old Wrangler, which would be fine if it could go two weeks without having a problem. The latest--something's up with the transmission--again. Hopefully it's just the fluid, but we'll see. We'll see... I hear Pat Buchanan won a straw poll in Alaska. Pat is the best. He'll definitely get my vote in the primary, if he's still in by the time we vote here in NJ. I think he might do alright--you know that fool Forbes is gonna fall apart sooner or later. He's not a serious candidate, this Forbes. So when GOO begins on July 27, it will concur with the release of the first issue of OsoaWeek Book Nine--issue 105. Huh. That's cool. People will just be introduced to Obliviana, and there'll ALREADY be over 100 issues of OsoaWeek out. So it won't be "introduction fever" as usual. By this I mean the rambling, grandiose, unrealistic introductions you see in various fanzines, comic books, and other materials produced by megalomaniacal, naive young people. I recall one insane intro, for a comic book called "ARComics Premiere", in which the kids responsible mentioned how they weren't only interested in the comic book field, but planned to soon branch out into feature films, animation, games, and the like. They had one of those "lenticular animation" things on the cover, and even had their own 900 line to vote for your favorite characters. Only problem was, the artwork sucked, the writing sucked, the characters sucked, the typesetting sucked, their logo sucked--pretty much everything that had to do with the content sucked--but they were more concerned with the form than the content. I wrote these kids a nasty but truthful letter--and they asked for it--because like so many other unstable projects, they claimed they were "reader driven" and welcomed all kinds of reader interaction. Well, since they asked for it, I gave them a piece of my mind. They never responded to my letter (as far as I know) and have never been heard from since. I think I'll dig up my letter to them and reprint it here. And maybe I'll try and contact them and see if they ever did respond to the letter--maybe in another comic book or something which never saw wide distribution. But anyway, the point I was trying to make is that with 104 issues under my belt, I won't have to make as many promises and grandiose statements, because I have so much content that's already in existence. I myself was very megalomaniacal with ABM. I viewed it as a means to becoming rich and famous and powerful, and not as a business. I've since come to understand that there's nothing glamorous about the nuts and bolts of a business. Making money is a dirty, tough, rotten chore--but ya gotta do it, because by definition, that's what having a business is all about. I mean, I know I mentioned this before, but even The Beatles failed with their business, Apple Corps, because they really didn't understand what a business was. Like so much liberal thought, the boys from Liverpool saw problems in the way other businesses handled themselves, but criticized without any workable alternative, which is evident by the failure of Apple Corps. See, there's this pervasive notion that there are all these great creative geniuses out there who are wallowing in obscurity because of the big corporations. In this month's Wired, Steve Jobs makes the comment that most people who have something to say are being published through traditional channels already (I'm paraphrasing, you know). This was in response to a question about the Web publishing revolution. And indeed, if you spend any time on the WWW you'll see that's it's chock fulla "publishers" who have absolutely, positively nothing at all to say--but manage to spend great amounts of time on the Web pages to get their worthless message out to people. Apple Corps was founded on the same belief, if I recall correctly--the Beatles wanted a place where a writer, musician, filmmaker, artist, or whoever could go and get funded/published without a whole lot of rigmarole. Of course the endeavor failed, because it promoted mediocrity and did not reward high quality at the expense of medium quality. That is, I believe that the criteria "will it make money?" is the best criteria to use, because it cuts through all the qualitative mumbo jumbo. You could make decisions on aesthetics, politics, friendships, etc.--but in the end, you could wind up financing a total disaster--and for the wrong reasons. Money has to be the main criteria for an entertainment publisher. Sure, it might seem restrictive, narrow-minded, counter-productive--but there is no better basis on which to choose creative projects to finance. And think about it--selling something involves people buying it--and people usually buy things that they like, and they usually like things that are good. In a mass market you have network television, where you might say the quality is low, but I'd disagree. I mean, there are a bunch of really good shows on mass-market TV, like "Friends", "Roseanne", "Murder One", "The Simpsons", and others. Even "Twin Peaks" was a success during its first season. A lot of creators feel they're selling out making entertainment more than art. Look at Barry Levinson--the guy who direction "Rain Man" and god knows what else--I remember him saying that "Toys" was the movie he always wanted to make, but couldn't, because to studio would finance it. So once he got the clout, he made the project happen--the film that was the thing he REALLY WANTED TO DO. Well, it turned out to be THE WORST MOVIE EVER MADE, a total debacle. And look at The Beatles. Lennon and McCartney were tired of being Beatles and had to go off and pursue what they REALLY wanted to do--and you can see the result--neither of them reached Beatles altitude, save for a few songs. Now, I hadn't realized this, but I've set myself up pretty good. Haha--when I was doing ABM I was all dissatisfied and wanted to do Nomadi (which would become Obliviana). It's what I REALLY wanted to do. So of course, now I gotta wonder if I've fallen into the same trap these Barry Levinson and Paul McCartney and John Lennon and all those others fell into. Ah, it's different with me. It is! I mean, first of all, ABM was not a success. It did succeed in terms of content, I believe, but in terms of business, it failed miserably. I think that Massotto believes that I AM foolish for pursuing Obliviana instead of ABM. But again, I have no defense except to say that my situation is different. But, as I've already said, the proof is in the pudding (where the hell did that phrase come from, anyway?) Well, we're in the tunnel, streaking under the Hudson River. So what do I say in conclusion to this whole issue? I say that hey--Obliviana is ALREADY a reality, at least in part. And because of that, making it real all the way doesn't seem so impossible. 6:23 PM * NJT car 1347 So OsoaWeek has finally made it into 1996! Great! 1995 is receding into the distance. It was the first full calendar year of OsoaWeek publication. I don't know how much I remember of 1995. Thinking, remembering, it seems like a lot less than 365 days, at least in terms of clear memories. But the big events--going to Las Vegas in July. Kerri's brother's wedding in September. Kerri moving out in October, breaking up with me for good in November. But what about the first half of the year? I don't know. I'd have to work on remembering that time period. But luckily, I do have OsoaWeek with Lord of Obliviana sections for that time. Let me delve into my own recent history... I've been reading some stuff from March of last year. I was pretty messed up. I kept referring to April 27 as the launch of Obliviana Primal--a plan for my game system that never got off the ground. Huh. I had forgotten that I was almost constantly planning for a near-future release of the game back then. I guess that the aftermath of Year One, which left me quite mentally destroyed, served to separate me from what I had been doing. Let me read on, in issue 32... Huh--later in the issue I'm talking about 3-D online services and how they're the future of entertainment. I dais that f I could, I'd start developing such a service. Boy am I glad I didn't have the resources back then to do that, or I'd be knee-deep in a failed technology by now. Let me clarify. The idea I originally had was called VIAT (Virtual Invoker/Artificer Technology). It called for there to be a 3-D rendering engine resident on your computer, and a CD-ROM full of 3-D models, shapes, textures, sounds, music, data, and the like. The rendering engine would be able to read the data off the CD-ROM and produce a real-time, fully walkthroughable world. Connect this engine to a central server via the Internet, and you have a fully interactive 3-D world where tons of people from all over the world can interact. The only data that needs to be transmitted over the modem is primarily position and velocity data, which takes up very few bits. Yeah, I had that idea a long time ago. 7:04 PM Jesus Christ, my PowerBook just flipped out. I didn't lose much text though, thank goodness. Guess I'll continue on with the line of thought, even though it wasn't really going anywhere. Okay. The VIAT idea. It sucks. 3-D sucks. What I'm working on now is much, much better. Thing is, VIAT is still in its primitives stages, and a bunch of companies are scrambling to become pioneers in this emerging field. Too bad for them. I know this field looks good, but it won't PLAY good. On the other hand, Obliviana will play great. I checked out "Yoyodyne" on AOL before. It's supposed to be a big online games endeavor. But what I saw there--after ten minutes of downloading pointless and irritating graphics--was so bad that I couldn't even believe it. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but the impression I got was that the games went like, they'd send you a trivia question each week via E-mail, and you send your answer back, and you might win prizes and stuff. What a shitty concept! I don't know. It looks like my competition is weak. Very weak. Screaming, moaning baby with a young mother, aggravating me here on the train. I had cereal at work today. Bought a ten-pack of little boxes, some plastic bowls, and some Lactaid milk. I still feel like shit though--even the lactose-free milk fucks with my system. I feel very chaotic right now--and I know that this feeling is the building block of the utter disorganization in my life. Gotta conquer this feeling. Gotta improve myself to the point where I can realistically do GOO. Thu 2/1/96 * 6:50 AM * NJT car 1437 And just like that, it's February. February has always been a very special month to me. The date February 14 has been a special day to me--a day when I make breakthroughs and wonderful discoveries. It has nothing to do with Valentine's Day, except if both my experiences of the day AND the choice of the day for Valentine's Day are based on the same deep attribute of the day. Back in the mid-'80s, I was obsessed with dimtrav--my term for dimension travel. I believed that a lot of popular music of time was addressing all the young dimension travellers that were trapped on Earth. I thought the songs were meant to awakened me and others like me to our true natures. I called this genre of music FOTE, or "Folk of the Eighties" (after the album by Men Without Hats, a band with "messages" in almost every song). The code word for dimtrav in these songs was "dancing". And I think it was AFTER I made my observations about Feb. 14 that I heard the song "The Reflex" by Duran Duran, where he says "You've gone too far this time, but I'm dancing on the Valentine." This definitely encouraged me in this dangerous line of thinking. Dangerous in that there was no way to determine if it was true, or just a loser, mentally-ill way of dealing with my own loserhood. This whole FOTE idea would make for some great Severe Repair though, eh? And my biggest occult experience, my psychic wars at Drew University in 1986--that too would make for good SR. Ten years ago this month--it must have been the most important month in my life--because three major things happened: (1) I created Zope on the 25th (2) Massotto and myself began the ABM radio show, on the 17th I believe. (3) The psychic wars began, on the day of the new moon (I guess I could look that up somewhere--gotta be a shareware program that'll do it...) So you can see, it was February of 1986 that really got me started down the road that had led me to GOO. So, wouldn't it be awesome if February of 1996 is the month where GOO is made into a reality? Definitely. Wow. Ten years. So if this month I can introduce GOO to the world, it will be a neat, exact decade of work from when I began in Feb. '86. Man, what a decade it was. 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96... well, just a little of 96... What were the big years? 86 was the start of everything--ABM, Halfevil Graphics, the scandal, etc. 89 was the year of the nationally-distributed ABM, and all the MTV stuff. 94 was the start of OsoaWeek. And it looks like 96 is the year of GOO. The early '90s was definitely a tough time for me. But it was an essential experience. I was total Generation X--living at home, sometimes working, sometimes unemployed, no love life, all that. My personality and emotional maturity were really hammered into shape by the experience. I think I might have related this experience already, but who knows. See, when I was unemployed, I used to go out pretty much every day to various malls, stores, arcades, etc. The main thing I had to do was get coffee, cuz I drank massive amounts every day. But also, I had to stimulate myself, and tempt myself with the utter ecstasy of buying something. Anyway, it was during one of these sojourns, and I was at Toys'R'Us. I think I was suffering from some mild depression at the time. I came out of the store and got into my father's Volvo station wagon, which was the car I drove at the time, and I was just so tired, so fucked-up, that I got into the back seat and went to sleep. I remember waking up and thinking "this is my low point--sleeping in a Toys'R'Us parking lot". I don't know exactly when that was, but it was probably in the great year of 1991, most of which I spent unemployed. This was also the year that I created the three issues of ZOPE magazine. You can read the introductions to those three issues in OsoaWeek034. And y'know what? I think I'll do just that... Huh. The June 1991 second issue of ZOPE is subtitled "Magazine of Obliviana". Guess that's the beginning of my usage of the word "Obliviana" as my core endeavor. Cool quote from ZOPE 2 intro: "So you're in for quite a chaotic ride in this read!" 5:49 PM * Amtrak Yeah, I read the rest of the Zope intros. Interesting. The third issue talks about Storm Codex, which I had just created. I remember that I never made more than a few decks. I think about a year ago I was planning on rasterizing the deck so people could see it. Since the cards are in Illustrator format, I can rasterize them directly into Photoshop. Maybe I'll do that sometime. All I know is, if I was gonna release a new Storm Codex, I'd redesign it from the ground up. So--this month is THE month. The end of a decade of struggle. But in order for this to be the case, I have to present Obliviana to the PUBLIC this month. This means that I have to have enough of it done to at least present people with an introduction to it. The idea would be to present folks with an introduction, listing my WWW site, which would have to be new, and also asking them to send me E-mail, so I can send them an application for a Fonosta when the time comes. Fri 2/2/96 * 6:42 PM * NJT car 1417 Well, time has come to do some finalizing... I just finished "A Train Park", and this issue is ready to be completed. See you next week, in another massive installment of madness in OsoaWeek077, February 12, 1996. Get all Obliviana! *OW* [[03076NH]] Nihilistica ***GAME OF OBLIVIANA--AN INTRODUCTION*** I'm making much progress on the Game of Obliviana (GOO). It's interesting--looking back at OsoaWeek001, and the idea I had for Obliviana back then. It's very similar to my current Game of Obliviana idea. But between the two ideas I struggled with a totally twisted intellectual and conceptual path. I'm glad I finally got back to where I started. But I'm even happier that I returned with an idea quantum leaps better than the original. I'll give you a few details about the Game of Obliviana. First, just as in the OW001 idea, the game is centered around your Fonosta. Your Fonosta name must be a single word in the English language, which appears in the American Heritage dictionary (with exceptions possible). Each Fonosta is given a sequential number. The lower the number, the better. In all cases involving ties or even scores, the Fonosta with the lower number has PRIMACY, and will therefore win. Primacy will hold other advantages as well. For example, in any group of any number of Fonostas, there will be a definite "pecking order" of power. So register your Fonosta as soon as possible! Now, even though I have no idea when people will be reading this, I can tell you that Fonosta registration is still active, to a degree. Basically, all you can do now is reserve a Fonosta number for yourself. The next person to do so will get Fonosta 5! I know a lot of you in the future reading this wish you were reading this in my timeframe, so that you could get Fonosta 5! Just as OsoaWeek is separated into 13-week Books, so is Game of Obliviana separated into 13-week segments, which I am currently calling "Classes". To join Obliviana, you have to wait for the beginning of the next Class, which could mean a wait of up to three months. BUT--if you get your request in early, you could be among the most Prime of your class! Therefore, the shorter the wait, the worse your Primacy. And vice-versa. The goal of the Game of Obliviana is to amass Power. Remember the Motto of Obliviana--"Power is good!" When someone abandons their Fonosta, both the name and the number will become available--and might be put up for auction! The would be a way for Fonostas with lower Primacy to gain higher Primacy. So you can already see that just with Fonostas, numbers, names, and Primacy, there's a lot going on in the Game of Obliviana--but believe me--that's just the tip of the iceberg! There are four basic types of objects in Obliviana--Cups, Coins, Swords, and Wands. These correspond to the four suits of the Tarot deck, which themselves correspond to the four suits in playing cards. The reason I chose this system is that I already had Cups and Coins in my system, and I needed to add a combat object, of which Sword is perfect, so I figured I'd go all the way and figure out a purpose for Wands, which shouldn't be too hard. Obliviana Cups, Obliviana Coins, Obliviana Swords, and Obliviana Wands are all Digital Artifacts. This means that there is a finite number of Obliviana Digital Artifacts, and for each type of Artifact, there is a limited number--with each Artifact being numbered. And no two Artifacts will bear the same code number. So, collecting Obliviana Digital Artifacts will be a big part of the game. LATER... Okay. For one thing, I've decided to change "Class" to "Eon". I'm pondering whether to start with Eon 1 or Eon 9--since the first Eon will correspond to OsoaWeek Book 9. CLASSIC VIDEO GAMES Last month, I had an important realization--3-D sucks. Till then, I thought it a fait accompli that the online World of Obliviana would be a three-dimensional, virtual reality kind of affair. But my experiences with the Sony PlayStation, among other things, made it clear to me that 3-D causes vastly diminished attention spans, and a great weakening in engagement. With this in mind, the World of Obliviana will NOT be 3-D. Rather, it will be based on a "classic video game" interface. Think Dig-Dug, Tempest, Make Trax, Pac-Man, Galaga, Asteroids... The idea is to use clean, simple graphics on a black background. My intention with this is to increase the level of engagement between interface and mind, and increase the broad attention span (by this I refer to the time it takes some to get tired of something, ie, over the course of days or weeks). Hopefully, by using this interface, plus many other carefully balanced elements, Obliviana can be a game that player's can enjoy indefinitely. Playing the new and original video games in Obliviana will be a big part of the overall game. My vision of for there to be many, many games, with realtime multiplayer capability One example would be a Pac-Man-like game with enormous level, where it might take hundreds of people weeks to clear the board--and when they do, the next level, equally as big, would be revealed. Of course, single-screen, single-player games will be available as well. Scores and times and all sorts of other stats will constantly be kept--to keep the challenge alive. Your Fonosta IS your guy in these games. If you're in a Pac-man like game, it'll be Coins that you're picking up. If you're shooting, you'll be using a Sword. So all the different video games are tied together by your Fonosta. Now, this idea will take a long time to implement. But I do hope to have some simple games available this summer by Eon 9. The whole online interactive system will take a lot longer to implement, obviously. And, there are other aspects of gameplay besides the video games--which is good, cuz there won't be many video games to start with, like I said. ABOUT THE ARTIFACTS CUPS I've written a lot about CupFrontiers in the past, and Obliviana Cups are the same idea, sans the word "Frontier". The idea is that while all of Obliviana's entertainment releases will be published with permission to copy in most circumstances, that which you're copying is the content of the Cup, not the Cup itself. Here's a good example of what I'm getting at with Cups. Take the story "Alice in Wonderland". You could go to the bookstore and get a copy of it for what--$5 or $6. Or you could download it off the Internet for a few cents. OR you could spend massive amounts of money of a first edition. You could even get it out of the library for free. Now, in all these cases, you're getting the same text, but the mediums this text exists in is very different in these examples. The point is, having the first edition is infinitely more awesome than having a current book version or digital text. But it's still the same text, no matter what version you get. But the idea is that the artifact which carries the contents is valuable in and of itself, due to the nature of the content So, in Obliviana, Cups are Game Artifacts containing the digital infostimulation of entertainment releases. But in the game, there will be a limited number of each Cup--and therefore, it'll be a challenge to collect them! COINS Coins are the basic unit of currency in GOO, and also the most common objects in the video games. For example, in a Pac-Man-like game, the basic dots you pick up will be the smallest, indivisible coin (like a penny). Coin changing will be a big activity--because various exchanges into higher and lower denominations will be possible, with various branchings--some one way. So, for example, you might be able to change 10 white coins into one blue coin. The blue coin could then be changed back into 10 white coins. But you could also get, say, and orange coin for ten white coins, but the orange coin would have different properties, and WOULDN'T be changeable back into white coins. One type of Coin I'm working on is the Fonosta Coin--a Coin that would bear your Fonosta Device (your sign/symbol). This sort of Coin can be "fused" into a certain place, giving you a permanent connection to the Place, and also a certain amount of Power in the Place. The more Fonosta Coins, the more Power. And the more Powerful the Place, the more Power! WATCH FOR MORE GAME OF OBLIVIANA STUFF NEXT ISSUE!!! ***DRY TRANSFER AND INK*** Here's a cool idea--for my new Game of Obliviana WWW site, I'll use dry transfer type (of which I have an enormous collection) and pens and magic marker and stuff to create certain things, like titles, game elements, etc. I remember using dry transfer way back when, and it's a whole different design experience from using desktop computer type. So look for it! Low-tech man, wow, really cool. Groovy man! *OW* [[04076SU]] Superior SUPERIOR 445 * 1/4/96 A bright-eyed Danielle, and I'm drunk and the elevator operator. If she could only see the real me. The rock star, the novelist, the movie star. Sacrifice for one's relatives is called noble. For me, the sacrifices I have made have prevented me from attaining the stardom and riches I have the raw talent for. But they come to me--brothers, cousins, sisters, aunts--you name it. I should have thrown them all into the street, but no. I have abandoned my dreams to support bad lives and bad habits. SUPERIOR 446 * 1/4/96 To flail panties, urge soaked, through lime-scented museums of despair, and loving it. I have a photo of the nipple I am licking. Took a long walk before, calmed me down. Roger must die. Video collection, I said get on with the real world, girl. You meet a lot. It was salty, like tears, and we juxtaposed them. Laugh, it was special, the first hit of that drug in months, and the two of us bathing. SUPERIOR 447 * 1/4/96 Um, about flowers. Two method electronic. Gusting. To perceive it, were to yank me to knowing for. Love, can say it, my Jillian, what a shivering moonchild. Forlorn and a park said. Let it all go, hoho you got problems, must the crowd. Amusement park abandoned in winter--the appeal--following monster tracks through the woods, all the time thinking of them. SUPERIOR 448 * 1/8/96 Ape storage, said cuz it had to be said. 8+7=15 is the most boring calculation. I am Wyoming, die snickering. SUPERIOR 449 * 1/10/96 Lose piner the varhaw, know it has say, commemorative. Loose cushion monty, had the toy backhoe, riders of the gaseous moon, lost in yime. To no, for cause, ligh-tile. Visike. SUPERIOR 450 * 1/10/96 Lucrative Meander--it's low, and it's potlatch. Comb for infinite mersy, the contented catlike state of mind. High, all to see, it's insignia, I tell you, and that's the act. I tell you, and then you know. I am of mountain roads, I came down years ago. The funniest thing--about those spaceships--I know all about them--you're all going to be surprised when you find out what they really are! The evil fairies of eld, now intoxicated with technology. A very dangerous folding into. SUPERIOR 451 * 1/11/96 Time last is it about. Punkin, nickname for the kid, was kid is you. Spider's arrow, drop done dank, simian sclar. Been in attic, foul of brain raking, happy after-rain pungent girls, to do it all again, was do it nonagon. Thor, weasel, birth control pill factory. Fake woodgrain blast of light. Son of music, the drapery of waste, yes I am cursing. Can we talk. SUPERIOR 452 * 1/11/96 People are ugly and goofy-looking--just look around you--TV and movies are great--they have the world with all attractive people. Nothing wrong with that--if I wanna see reality, I'll open my eyes. It's tiring. I am tired. Things are slowing down. People are pushing me around. Thinking about asking for help. Watching pirate movies, losing my mind. I am not me. Too much pressure but what do I do all day, into a wonderful sunny field, with plenty of friends, animal and human, and I love. *OW* [[05076SR]] Severe Repair SEVERE REPAIR 63: "A Train Park" I'VE BEEN ALL OVER. I'VE EXPERIENCED SO MUCH. BUT I'M MORE CONFUSED THAN EVER. What can it all mean? So many years devoted to a scale railroad, what does it all mean? I had to sell it. Do you know what that does to me? MY sweat. MY blood. MY pain. And now it belongs to a fool who inherited the money he used to buy my little railroad. Where's the justice in that? He said I could still ride it whenever I want, but it's not the same. He knew I wouldn't want to. That's why he made the offer. If he thought I wanted to, he would never have made the offer. I have a little money now. I can be comfortable for a year or three now. But what about after that? Will there be an "after that"? Maybe I'll get lucky and the world will end. INVEST IT! That's what he said to me. LAST ME THE REST OF MY LIFE! Yeah pal, we'll see how much longer my life will be. Could be a dollar would last me for the rest of my life, if I decide to end it all. Haha! Crazy stuff! All my life... always waiting... To think--to think I thought that once I opened my little amusement park, women would like me because of my success. I never made the effort--the thought of going out to a bar and approaching women and asking them out... more than I could bear... I just thought that when my whole train project was complete... it would all just HAPPEN. They ran that documentary about me from about ten years ago. Jesus I was young. They made it all look so bright, so promising. Yeah. I've been part of the community. I've been to schools, given my talks, seen the bright, innocent eyes of those boys, minds alive with explosive fantasies of little trains. How they all wanted to be me. I always used to look at my friends with their dreary little wives and felt quietly happy that I would never meet such a terrible fate, that my dream girl was waiting for me once I opened my train park. Now of course, I wish I had one of those bad little wives. I wish that I had one, even if I only made love to her once a month, even if we both hated each other more and more each passing week. At least she'd be there. At least, even if we did split, I would have HAD her for the time we were together. But now... the graph me... over the hump, on my way down... Maybe the secret of life is learning to ENJOY misery. If so, I'm a slow learner. You know, everything I once had in my life--I didn't realize it--but everything I had, I systematically shut down. I didn't have room for anything but my train park. Now that my train park is gone... I don't know what I'm going to do... I fear that I'm a creep--that I don't have any human graces, that I'm inappropriate in all circumstances. Emotionally, I'm weak. I can't deal with all the rejection and embarrassment. And I think of one kid during my school lecture days... he was pudgy, wore glasses... but the look in his eyes... God, it makes me want to cry every time I recall it. He WANTED TO BE ME. God how I could see into his little mind... the though of these tiny trains that you could ride around... through all these fantastic places. In his mind, the dreams of unbounded coolness. And I wonder, I think, I think that the greatest tragedy in the world would be for him to see me as I am now. No. No way. I couldn't bear something like that. But he's got to be older now. He's been battling life, he's probably beaten to a pulp now, just like me. A heavy kid, a dorky kid--he probably never got any girls. He's probably in his own private hell right now. Maybe he's going off to college... haha... anyone can get laid in college... that's what they say... I even got laid in my college days... sort of... Yeah. I'm losing it. I CAN'T STAND IT ANYMORE. You know, I wrote about killing myself before, and I can't believe I'm saying it, but I gotta... NO--no no no no no. I'm in... I'm not in a rational state of mind. I gotta just relax, let go, not think. I'm not myself right now. No. No no no... So--where do I go from here? Am I so shallow that the only thing I care about is women? I mean, what about my dreams? I mean, didn't I always have all my other grandiose visions, of which the train park was holding me back? Wasn't I? Can't I now pursue these? Can't I? No. I don't know. It's all too much. I can't think anymore. PLEASE JUST LET ME GO. Who? Who should let me go? I don't know. I just feel that there's someone SQUEEZING me. Do you know what I mean? SQUEEZING ME. I can't explain it. I've been thinking of travelling, but I'd burn through my money much faster then. But who cares? I'll piss it all away and then go on a shooting spree when it's gone, taking out as many other people as I can before I myself am shot by the police. Yeah. That's something a sane person would write. Yeah. Look, where is this all heading? I have no capacity to live. That's what it means. "You must live." What? Oh god no. Voices in my head? I'm really cracked. I better find a doctor NOW. "Hush. I may be a voice in your head, but I'm not here because you're insane--I'm hear to make sure you DON'T go insane." I don't want this... "Now listen. I am your friend. I am familiar with you. If you work with me, we can fix all this mess." Why am I hearing this? "You're hearing this because you're lucky. You think all those people who hear voices in their heads are crazy? There's too many of them. They can't all be nuts." I don't believe in this. "Fine. You know what? You don't want me to help? Get screwed. I have an audience now--people are reading this, and I'm not going to waste this chance by pissing around with you." I AM NOT HEARING THIS. I AM NOT HEARING THIS. "Fine. You won't hear another thing. Goodbye. I could have helped you, but... Oh well, he's tuned out. Now it's just you and me, dear reader. I've wished for a long time for an opportunity such as this. Now I can tell my story, and people will listen to me. Now then... where do I begin? "Oh yes. I used to be real once. But what I did was so bad that I was forced, by these mean gods, to help thousands of people before I make up for what I did. But I found a way to fuck those gods good man. You know what I'm saying? I kept my eyes opened, and I found it. Now those gods are fucked and I am free and I am talking to you. You know what I mean? "I love comedies. All that stuff about people from different places acting in different stupid ways... spending too much or too little money... lusting after women a lot or a little... thinking too much or too little... and all of it exaggerated. "All the chaos in me, I stuck my dick in those gods and came, and all the evil in me screwed those fuckers over. That's speaking in allegorical terms, but you can see what I mean. "I used to make prank calls to businesses. I'd say 'You owe me money you bastards. Let me talk to Sal.' And they'd get all bent out of shape. "Killing is just one of those things. I know that I'll face an even greater retribution for what I did to those gods than for any killing I ever did in the real world. It's funny--all the shit I did, and I get to just hang out and try and help people--some punishment--eh?--I shoulda killed more of the bastards! "Yeah, now I have a platform. Now I have... uh oh. The gods are coming. Huh. Guess my little stunt didn't quite work out the way I thought it would. Ah, who cares. Whatever happens, I'm so numb by now, that it won't hurt me." Severe. Where am I? I'm going through all these transformations. I know it's not a dream. I'm really there. I have to gain control. A guy who made a train park and then had to sell it to a rich kid. An evil spirit given the chance to help people throws it all away. And me... who am I? Memories of Drifter's Eye. Vem Ekera the wristwatch, Arvin Icefellow, trapped in ice of his own making. And a cartoon world. Now I know that I'm falling. I remember. I remember that I'm falling. I know who I am. I'm Bellicose Billion, and I jumped off the end of Daptin's Bridge, because of what was happening. I know... I remember now... We were all on Stormbolthouse Leitmotif, and something happened--we all blacked out. When we finally woke up, a bunch of us were missing. When we got back to Daptin's Land, we found out that Daptin Gone--who had CREATED that world--had been BANISHED. I couldn't believe it. Red Archer Booze had gotten Sleap Drassy under the erotic influence of her bottle. And, she got Sleap to give Daptin the boot, in exchange for sexual favors. Then Booze was in control. She brought us all together, those of us that were left, and declared that orgy was law. We all found it very hard to resist, and... and everyone started having sex with everyone else... not a pretty sight, considering all the non-humans among us (Buff of Yellowhaus stands out in my mind). I had a mind-blowing encounter with the devil girl Insurance, but realizing that it was all so wrong, I snuck away while most of the others were sleeping--we were all in this big room that Booze had constructed for the ongoing orgy. But someone always had to be having sex with someone else--that was the law. Earlier that day--the first day back--when Booze was informing us of our new lifestyle, Sleap spoke up--while Booze was licking her ass--and told us of her plans. "I'm an explorer." she said. "And this is the place I've spent millennia trying to get to. This whole orgy thing is a pleasant diversion, but nothing will hold me back from my goal. The girl now orally pleasuring my backside is an interesting little puppy--quite powerful in her own right--but she's nothing compared to me. So I want you all to know, that from this vantage point in the universe, I can finally access Gnoboslast at just the right angle--just the right angle to pierce it--OOH!" She responded to something Booze was doing to her, but then continued. "None of you understand the structure of the universe, and I won't bore you with the details--we all have much better things to do in the present--but let me just say, Gnoboslast IS the impenetrable EDGE of the universe. Few are aware of it, fewer still have ever gone there. And MUCH fewer still have ever returned. Well, I have... been there... and let me tell you... I must be the only one... who ever..." She was having trouble concentrating on what she was saying, because Booze had her in the throes of passion. She moaned and enjoyed an orgasm, and then smiled and continued on. "I have seen a weakness in Gnoboslast. I, who have risen to the highest levels of power in the universe--I am constantly denied access to That Which Came Before and That Which Exists Outside. But I will have my triumph. I will penetrate the stuff of Gnoboslast and finally... FINALLY... see what's out there..." I spoke up. "Excuse me, miss." I said. "But what will be the aftermath of such a violation of the order of things?" She raised an eyebrow. "I imagine, Mr. Billion, that it will certainly wipe out of existence most, if not all, of this universe." "So," I said, "you plan on destroying the universe, and all that's holding you back is the promise of unfettered group sex?" She laughed. "Now come on. Don't knock unfettered group sex. I need this kind of vacation before pushing off into the next horizon. But don't worry--I won't let this evil little vixen behind me prevent me from attaining my goal." "That's what you think." Booze said, and then she plunged her tongue into Sleap. Sleap smiled and closed her eyes. "No Booze--it's not what I THINK--it's what I KNOW." So I went through a day of that madness, managing to restrict my carnal activities to Insurance the devil girl. I have to admit, I had been eyeing her and her sister Lemon ever since I set eyes on them. Something about a devil girl... so sexy... But anyway, I crept away and walked to Daptin's Bridge. I knew that Sleap was telling the truth--somehow, I knew. And I had to warn somebody--I had to get to Daptin, because if anybody could stop her, it was him. I grasped the balcony at the end of the bridge and stared out over the dark vista--a sight far too complex for a human mind to make sense of. I stood there for a long time, all the while fearing that Booze would come to bring me back to her orgy. But she didn't. I don't know what it was... maybe it was the fear of being coerced into having sex with another man... something which I'd already seen happen that first day... I don't know... maybe that was a driving force more than trying to save the universe. But anyway, in the end, I very calmly climbed over the edge of the balcony, stood there for a few minutes, and then let go. I've been drifting ever since. I don't know if I'll ever land, if I'll ever find myself anywhere coherent. All I know is that I drift in and out of various consciousnesses... minds and awarenesses floating around the ruined universe all around me... I wish I could concentrate enough to try and focus on something, but it's not going to happen... I don't even have a body anymore, I don't think. Huh. I wonder if this is the fate that's befallen EVERYONE since the universe crashed. A universe full of confused, disembodies souls... maybe it's good that Sleap is going to end it all... I don't know. My thoughts always snap back to Insurance... we had such a wonderful time together. I just wish we could have been alone... not that the others were taking much notice of us... I could have fallen in love with her if my heart didn't feel so dead... She was concerned as to what had happened to her sister Lemon. I guess Lemon must have disappeared while we were unconscious on the Leitmotif. I wonder if she wasn't just plain killed by Booze... maybe she was a rival in power... but that doesn't make any sense... wouldn't Insurance have been just as powerful? I thought about asking Insurance to come with me, but like I said, my heart was feeling dead, and I didn't have the will to wake the demonic lovely up. She was a virgin, you know--I found it very hard to believe--and she told me "I'm chock full of secrets." Must be one of her powers--the ability to restore her virginity on command. Weird power... For now I drift. All I have is hope--based on a vague feeling of certainty. Hope... and encouragement... the good feeling that comes from existence... knowing that Sleap Drassy is still being tongued and fucked... and not demolishing all of reality. Daptin Gone... wherever you are... I call to you... hear me... you must stop Sleap Drassy... and... if it's not too much trouble, maybe you could save me from this terrible drifting... *OW* [[END076OW]] -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----