|| -------- -- -----  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 079--1/26/96 <-------  ||  OsoaWeek  ||  Issues  ||  Book 7  ||  -------> (Cup OWis079, Created v1 (4/27/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = [[BEGIN079OW]] [[01079CV]] * * * O S O A W E E K 0 7 9 * * * January 26, 1996 "The weekly ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement!" by Frank Edward Nora CONTENTS 01 079 CV--Cover 02 079 LA--Lord of Obliviana 03 079 NH--Nihilistica 04 079 HR--Hemisinister Review 05 079 FW Fonosta World 06 079 SU--Superior 07 079 SA--Severe Repair Almanac OsoaWeek079, January 26, 1996 1st issue of OsoaWeek Book Seven 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. An Obliviana Cup containing this file will be available. Stay tuned for more details. ASCII Characters: 91558 / Words: 16673 / Lines: 3229 Days late: 38 *OW* [[02079LA]] Lord of Obliviana Sun 2/11/96 * 11:34 PM * home * Tarb 3384 Wow. OsoaWeek Book Six is complete. What a relief. Now, on to Book Seven! This issue is, right now, just a copy of last issue. Usually, I just delete the old material and add the new, but in this issue, I have to redesign OsoaWeek to be more in synch with the Game of Obliviana. So who knows when this issue is gonna be done. Right now, it's just 16 days late, but I'm sure that's gonna grow. Cuz also I want to put the "Afternoon" GOO Intro file in here--a text file that's a game you can use with any word processor, which will introduce people to GOO. Oh well. I gotta get GOO moving, cuz by the start of Book Eight, I want to start a trial run of GOO. I gotta go to bed now. Mon 2/12/96 * 7:39 AM * NJT car 1349 * Tarb 3386 I just did the stats for SR Book Five--it took most of the trip--I'm in the tunnel under the Hudson right now. 92 pages altogether. Not bad. Not bad. 8:16 PM * NJT car 1515 * Tarb 3389 8:27 PM I wrote the heading up there, but then checked out last issue to verify the Tarb. And I also read the Superiors in last issue. Murder One better be on tonight. I've missed it two weeks in a row goddammit. I began recognizing Tarbs with Tarb 3344. 45 Tarbs ago. A little over a week. I am tired and lacking in energy. 9:00 PM Was just asleep. We're at New Brunswick Station, and some black guy is giving the conductors a hard time, so we're stuck for the time being. 9:10 PM No, I guess it was Edison Station. 9:14 PM Jersey Avenue Station now. Ten minutes to PJ Station, then about another ten to get home. I am awful tired. But I must watch Murder One. Went to Jim Hanley's Universe (a comic book store) right by Penn Station before, to kill some time. What a lot of shit. I've been into comics for a long time, but this is the most uninteresting period I have ever seen. I remember going to the Woodbridge Center Mall--must have been the early '80s--and I got Alpha Flight #12. Man, that comic got me and my brother back into comics big time. We became total Marvel zombies, buying mass quantities of Marvel comics each week. Yeah. It was cool being like that. It was such a good way to sublimate sexual energy, but why not? Power fantasies. Flights of fancy. Escape. Growing up was tough. I feel that I benefited from a difficult childhood and young adulthood. Folks in my generation have, in general, had it too easy growing up. Makes it hard to mature emotionally. Two conductors came by. Paraphrase--"Man we were cruising up till that point. We were right on the money." They must have been referring to the black guy who failed to follow the rules of conduct. Oh well, gotta go. Tue 2/13/96 * 6:51 AM * PJ Station * Tarb 3392 It's the early '90s of 3300's! Damn it's cold out there. I'm sitting all the way across the waiting room from the doors, but it's still freezing in here from the people constantly opening the doors. Driving over here just now, I was realized that this commute is for the birds. Why couldn't I be at some airport, going to some cool place to do some cool thing? But no. I'm getting into my Jeep at 6:20 AM, making the same tough journey that I make every weekday. Yeah, but of course, the way out is Obliviana. If I can make Obliviana a reality, a profitable reality, I won't have to do this 9-to-5 bullshit anymore. 7:09 AM * NJT car 1434 Yup. Here I am. Guy blowing his nose next to me, taking up more space than he's allotted, y'know, all that good stuff. I'm having trouble putting the rest of this year in perspective. I gotta structure in around GOO. Here: Fri 4/26/96: 3829 thru 3834 (OsoaWeek092, first issue of Book/Eon Eight)--GAME OF OBLIVIANA BEGINS TEST RUN Sat 7/27/96: 4375 thru 4380 (OsoaWeek105, first issue of Book/Eon Nine, Year Three begins)--GAME OF OBLIVIANA BEGINS MAIDEN RUN Sat 10/26/96: 4921 thru 4926 (OsoaWeek118, first issue of Book/Eon Ten)--GAME OF OBLIVIANA TAKES OFF To clarify, I will run a test game in Eon 8, with a small group of people I know. During Eon 8, I will actively promote GOO, to get players for the official launch of GOO in Eon 9. In this Eon, I will promote GOO more aggressively, and seek press. Thus, I expect that by Eon 10, I will have a good number of players. That is how I'm looking at 1996. Oh, in case you're wondering, I did see Murder One last night. It was episode 13, and alotta cool things happened. Let me tell you, Murder One has got to be the best show on television--after Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast, of course. 7:48 AM The guy next to me is sleeping and convulsing from time to time. Great. Howard Stern is gonna make a big announcement in ten minutes, and I didn't have the foresight to bring a radio. Ah, why would I have? I'm usually at work by 8 anyway. I'll hear what it was. What the hell. Yesterday I was feeling that same numbness I felt after Obliviana Year One was completed. I almost didn't bring my PowerBook with me today, but I decided it was better to try than to just give up. Well, we're in the tunnel under the Hudson. Better backup and shutdown and gotowork. 6:43 PM * NJT car 1428 * Tarb 3395 In the mid-'90s of the 3300's now. Not long till the turn of the Tarb Century. Again, I'm tired. I think it's mental exhaustion more than anything else. Like collapsing after a marathon or something. My marathon being OsoaWeek Book Six. 7:14 I just had a nice little nap. And I did dream. Something... something like being on a game show, being asked questions about Spider-Man, I don't know. At work before I used a simple BASIC compiler to randomize a set of all possible combinations of two letters. It took me about 45 minutes or an hour to figure it out, but I finally got it. Most of the time was spent figuring out how to format the commands--the actual program didn't take that long to write. The file I created will be used as the backbone for the GOO-Afternoon file I intend to release to the public before the end of the month. The 676 2-letter codes will be used to define the various segments of the game. At each segment, the player will be given a number of choices, each of which will have a code, which the player can then search for to get to the next segment. Wed 2/14/96 * 6:58 AM * NJT car 1304 * Tarb 3398 Nearing the end of the 34th Tarb Century. It was 12 years ago today, in 1984, that I sat at my desk, a dejected 16-year-old, and started writing my "Book of Madness". In it, I described how didn't feel to be a part of humanity, and how I wanted to escape from my life, through the use of interdimensional teleportation. Now, 12 years later, I'm much more comfortable being a member of the human race, and dimensional travel is no longer one of my top priorities. But yet I struggle. I used to think struggle was something one can transcend. I thought there were people out there living perfect lives, with everything they wanted. And that's where I wanted to be. But it seems, at least from my experience and what I get from various media, that almost everyone struggles with problems of one sort or another. With money, sex, drugs, alcohol, careers, children, relatives, taxes, and all the others, it seems that no matter where you are in society, you're basically fucked, cuz you're basically human. But even though I'm struggling, I'm not unhappy. This is because I have my core creative endeavor of Obliviana. Without it, I don't know where I'd be. Recently in OsoaWeek I recalled how miserable I was as an adolescent, thinking that I might kill myself, except for the fact that I was getting a Super 8mm movie camera to do animation and stuff with. Any suicidal thoughts I may have had were fleeting, not at all serious. My ego has always been too big, I've always had too good a self-image, to really do myself in. But this memory shows how important creative endeavors have always been in my life. Even now, at 28, my life would be devoid of meaning if not for Obliviana (or some other core creative endeavor). Yeah, it's Valentine's Day. Not a great day to be totally unattached, but what the fuck. I know I'm letting this issue get to me too much. I mean, four months ago today Kerri moved out. It's not all that long, but it seems like an eternity. Considering my day-to-day life now, it's hard to remember what it was like living with Kerri. I thought Kerri would come back, but she never did. Toward the end of November, Kerri moved her stuff out and broke up with me for good. Also that week, I went to a party and met some women, and my prospects looked good. I was thrilled at the idea of getting a new girlfriend right away. But, a few weeks ago, all those prospects finally fizzled up. So now I'm single, rather inept at dating, and working hard on the Game of Obliviana project. The fact that I don't have a girlfriend bothers me every day. I keep thinking of my SR chapter "A Train Park", of how the character put off love so he could achieve his great goal, only to find, upon achieving it, that he was lonely and ruined. I have this notion that once Obliviana takes off, it'll be much easier for me to date excellent women. But I know this idea is flawed. I could make it much more likely for me to get a girlfriend. New haircut, new clothes, lose some weight, socialize more, go to clubs, all that. Yet I do not do these things. Guess I'm waiting for an opportunity to be dropped into my lap. But I'm being unfair to myself. I made a Herculean effort to date Heidi last month. I tried so hard, but it all came to naught. It seemed so perfect--we had so much in common, she was so smart and on my wavelength--what went wrong? I don't know. It was like the whole thing was fate--a total fairy tale--until I realized that the second date wasn't happening, and in fact, was never going to happen. In this experience, I am a little bitter. I really got my hopes up, and for good reason. I had all sorts of reasons to believe that this was going to work. But it didn't, not even a little. But this morning I was thinking of how frustration results in awesome creativity. To quote Iggy Pop from the theme song to "Repo Man"--"I didn't get fucked, and I didn't get kissed. I got so fucking pissed." And, being fucking pissed, you can produce amazing creative productions. I often wonder why musicians, especially, seem to lose their ability to write good songs as they get older. I think it's that when you're young, you're pissed about not getting fucked and not getting kissed. It gives you the raw energy to generate something unbelievable. But as you get older, and get all the sex and love you want, the complacency dulls your creative edge. Look at me right now. I'm producing great stuff these days--and I better be--these are the days that I'm developing the details of GOO! And I am most definitely totally pissed-off about not having sex or love. So maybe it's a good thing. But if I regarded it as a good thing, it would no longer be good. I would no longer feel uncomfortable and angry about it. So it wouldn't provide me with that raw energy, which it now does. Let me tell you though--an opportunity for a girlfriend comes my way, and I'm going for it--whatever affect it might have on my creativity. But of course, this is the way it's gotta be. 7:48 AM It's snowing this morning. Doesn't look like it'll amount to much but you never know. 7:36 PM * NJT car 5526 * Tarb 3401 I wasn't thinking of the turn of the Tarb Century when it happened. But, happen it did. And now, it's the 35th Tarb Century. On the E train before there was this guy, a tall, nervous-looking white dude in his twenties, wearing a Buffalo Bills coat, and he was fiddling with this cribbage board. He seemed to be getting very agitated over it. Under his arm he had the box from which the board had come. He saw me looking at him, and said "Fucker" in a strange way. I wasn't sure if he was referring to me or the cribbage board, but I'm pretty sure it was the board, cuz it looked like he was trying to open the back of it up, and wasn't having much luck. Then he put the game away and started fiddling with his beeper. Always something entertaining on the E train. So I finished Pelter Prowler, another new set of 32 Pelters. The other one I did a week or two ago is Pelter New Jersey. Now I have 576 Pelters. Out of these, I have to choose 209 to be the first set of Obliviana Tarbs. I started the process last night--I used the After Dark Marvel Superheroes module, in which I long ago deposited 128x128 pixel versions of all 512 Pelter at that time. I watched them, one after another, about one every five seconds, writing down the names of the ones potentially good enough to make the set of 209. This set of 209 Pelters will be at the center of Obliviana--everyone will have one as part of their Fonosta. The only problem is, I don't know if it's too much to ask people to make a decision out of 209 choices. Maybe--you choose 2 Totems and Two Colors--then you'd have to choose one of the four Pelters on the intersection points as your Pelter. 11*19*10*18=37620*4=150480/209=720 8:22 PM Just had a nap, like I seem to do every night on the train home. Here are the 11 Colors of Obliviana: White Brown Green Blue Purple Gray Yellow Orange Red Pink Black It's a little tough designing this game when I don't know whether there'll be 5, 50, 500, 5000, 50000, 500000 or 5000000 players. I know what you're thinking--there he goes with his megalomania again. But come on--you know what I mean. The 11x19 Grid is the centerpiece of Obliviana. The rows are colors, the columns are Totems, and each square is a Pelter. Fonosta Devices are based on the 11x19 Grid. Colors, Totems, and Pelters. Every combination of Color and Totem intersects at a single Pelter--so a player's choice of Color(s) and Totem(s) will invariably refer to Pelters. Fri 2/16/96 * 5:04 PM * NJT car 1359 * Tarb 3412 Last night and all day today I set myself to one purpose--select the 209 Pelters of the Obliviana Foundation--out of the set off all Pelters--currently 576. Well, I'm glad to announce that not only did I select the 209 Pelters, but I also created a big file which depicts the actual Obliviana Foundation! Let me explain. Pelter are 512x512 pixel RGB files. But for speed, I usually use 128x128 version of them for this sort of thing. The Obliviana Foundation is 19 Pelter wide by 11 Pelter high. At full size, this would be 9728x5632 pixels, an image that would be over 164 megabytes in size (sans compression). So I opted for the 128x128 pixel Pelters, which resulted in a file 2432x1408 pixels, Just a little over 10 megabytes in size. I created a macro in QuicKeys to speed up the process of placing the Pelters (and also to help me keep my sanity). Each of the 209 Pelters that made the cut are individual files. So what I did was make an alpha channel with a 128x128 pixel white square on a black background, it's upper left corner at 0,0. I went to the first Pelter, Select All, Copy, Close, then went back to the main document, loaded selection, and pasted inside. This puts the Pelter in the exact position the square on the alpha channel is in. Then I went to the alpha channel and applied the Offset filter, at a 128x128 offset, wraparound. This moved the box in the alpha channel 128 pixel to the right and 128 pixels down. I repeated this process for all 209 images (alphabetically)--loading 30 or 40 Pelters at a time and processing them automatically with QuicKeys. It took many hours to complete. I reduced it to 25% size, so each Pelter was just 32x32 pixels, saved it as JPEG, and dumped it onto a floppy, so I can look at it at home. I don't have the final list in text form yet, but it'll probably show up elsewhere in this issue. I'd also like to figure out how many Pelters from each of the 18 sets of 32 made it in. I bet some of the earlier ones didn't do to good. Big snowstorm today. 6 to 10 inches predicted through tomorrow morning. I heard on the radio that today we surpassed the snowfall total for the entire bastard snow season of '93/'94. That was a bad one, and this one is even worse! Luckily we already made it through the third greatest blizzard in recorded history--not much chance of another one like that this year. In designing the Game of Obliviana, I have come to the point of foundation, and I feel lost. In other words, as I got down to the core of the matter, I lost my perception of the big picture, and I started to get scared--scared that I was back to a 1991 sort of aimless theoretical rambling. So I have to rise above this level soon. With the 209 Pelters just about done, and the 11 Colors done, all I have left at this level is the 19 Totems. Once I get those done--and I'm gonna work on them this trainride--I gotta haul myself out of this level and back up to the Game level. When I do this, I will have built the Foundation of Obliviana. In fact, let me try and tackle those totems right now! Sat 2/17/96 * 11:31 AM * home * Tarb 3417 On the train after I wrote that last bit I worked on the Totem, and made good progress. Hopefully I'll get a preliminary set done today. After I got off the train, I had to wait awhile for the shuttle bus back to the Princeton Meadows shopping center where my Jeep was parked, just a minute or two drive from my apartment. The ride on the shuttle was weird. It was snowing heavily, and there was a lot of traffic. I had a large decaf that I got at En Route, the station shop, in the last ten minutes of its day. Behind me were these four people, one of whom was a guy with a Russian accent or something. Months ago, the same group was behind me. They were all thrilled at being on the shuttle together again, like "the whole gang's here" or something. Last time the guy was talking extensively about trouble at customs coming from some foreign country. Apparently, his wife had brought an orange from the country, something that's a big no-no. He said that due to the orange, he would be detained by customs every time for the next five years or something. This time they were talking about less interesting stuff. Huh, talk about less interesting--the day before, in the morning, a guy behind me said something like "I sent a guy out to buy some Valentine cards". He went on and on about this, as if it was so cool to send someone out to buy Valentine cards. He was talking to a woman he knew. It was about the most boring conversation I ever overheard--except for a month or two ago on the subway when a guy said, among other mind-bogglingly boring things, "It wasn't such a bad cafeteria, as cafeterias go." Anyway, the Russian guy and company were talking about someone getting engaged and stuff. Then they were talking about how the other guy didn't have a couch, and that was a big part of the conversation, "couchlessness" and stuff. Then the non-Russian guy said like he was gonna leave his car in the parking lot due to the snow and shop for staple items. Then the woman behind me said like "I don't understand--if you're leaving your car there, how are you gonna get to Staples?" And they all laughed. Oh well. I got home and started working on the Obliviana Foundation. I listened to Beatles interview tapes as I created the "bow-tie" pattern, that I believe will be an important image in Obliviana. Mike Etler of Video Game Connections called and we talked for awhile as I finished up the "bow-tie" pattern. At one point, I sat smoking a cigar, and listened to the album "Ben Fold Five", after the Beatles stuff, and I rode a wave of weird optimistic Beatlesesque feelings. Now, I am in a very weird state of mind. Earlier today, I found "Severe Repair Taep #1", "Taep" being the way I spelled it, not a typo here. Me on the tape, from December 31, 1988 was very strange. I wonder what negative Tarb that was? No, I'm not gonna figure it out now. Gotta write a program to figure Tarbs out. Then I could do stuff like figure out what Tarb it was when they signed the Declaration of Independence, stuff like that. I have to figure out bills and deposit money in the bank, but I'm resisting it. Last night I bought "Lemmings 2" for SNES at Game Express. Played it some last night and this morning. I am in a funk about my lack of romance, but I have a prospect on the horizon, but I'm unsure about her. No more on that for now. I have to focus on Obliviana. The 3400s are a time of major development for GOO. When will 3500 fall? Let me check... (I really need a program for this...) Huh. It's on March 1. There you go. I want to get the Afternoon file out this month. And the rest of this month is in the 3400s. Each Tarb Century lasts about two weeks. Actually, two weeks, 2 days, and 8 hours. Listening to "Ben Folds Five" again. I am too emotional about everything. Just look at the state I'm in right now. I'm totally disjointed. I should be hyperfocused on Obliviana. But I'm whacked out. I have to look at the big picture. Obliviana is the most important thing in my life. Now, I'll call my grandmother. Had a nice conversation with her, during which I conceived of a little QuickTime movie, of the Foundation, cycling though its rows and columns. Maybe I'll make that movie--NOW!!! 5:25 PM * home * Tarb 3418 Man, I'm in a really fuck-up state of mind today. I think it may be because I'm at the deepest level of developing GOO right now. But I am messed up. Um, I think it's time to finalize the Totems. 6:09 Here they are... Coffee Scribble Monkey Storm Girl Highway Couch Lamp Predator Zeppelin Flower Smoke Saw Building Sphere Hammer Bunny Clock Door YES! I GOT IT! NOW I CAN RISE ABOVE THIS DEEP AND TROUBLING LEVEL! 8:09 I was gonna go over to my parents' house and stuff but I fell asleep before. I just got up, so I gotta go now. Mon 2/19/96 * 2:31 PM * home * Tarb 3430 I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art yesterday, without a baseball bat with the words "I HATE ART" scrawled on it (a little ABM humor there). I believe that Saturday was the 10th Anniversary of ABM. But it passed without notice. Kinda messed up today. Went to the supermarket earlier and got pasta, Tabasco sauce, and garlic salt, to recreate my staple food product when I was nocturnal, unemployed, and living with my parents, like in 1991. I used to wake my mother up with the pungent smell of garlic and Tabasco at like 2 AM. I ate some Capellinni and soon feel into a coma-like state, sleeping for an hour or two in my clothes. Even now, an hour later, I'm still trying to shake it off. Last time I tried to go to the Echelon Mall I got miserably lost in a devastating nightscape (a little uncompleted computer game humor there). But I'm thinking of going there today, maybe as a subconscious way of avoiding working on Obliviana. But this Padron cigar is reviving me somewhat. Map of New Jersey, why is the Echelon Mall so hard to find? Let me call the mall, get directions from the Turnpike. I got direction from 295 (the road where the Howard Stern rest stop used to be) last time, when I got lost. First I gotta shit. Call information. (609) 772-1950. It's in Voorhees, NJ. TP S. to exit 4, 295 S. to exit 32, "Haddonfield/Voorhees", onto Rt. 561. On 561, at 2nd light, bear right onto Burnt Mill Rd., the mall is 4 miles up on that road. These are the same direction I got last time! Hijo de puta! Exhilarama is the big feature there, of course. But... I don't know if I should go. I'm thinking of doing an audio version of "The Four Mailmen". From OsoaWeek047: ***THE FOUR MAILMEN COMETH*** Kenneth, Royal, Lincoln, and Hoax--The Four Mailmen--are comin' atcha! It's the story of four "Generation X" type losers who get into all sorts of pan-dimensional hijinks! Watch future issue of OsoaWeek for scripts. Or maybe--just maybe, by the time you read this, there'll be an Obliviana WWW site! And maybe, just maybe, the address will be http://www.obliviana.com/osoa.html. But don't take that as gospel child! It might not be right! Of course, that WWW address is incorrect. The right one is http://www.obliviana.com/~osoa. And I haven't updated it at all--it's still the same as when I started it, on July 28, 1995. Just OsoaWeeks 1 thru 13, organized in a totally over-organized way. So where am I now? Listening to the album "Crooked Rain Crooked Rain" by Pavement, which I borrowed from my brother yesterday. I loaned him "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" by Smashing Pumpkins. So--I am drifting in a stream of consciousness wasteland as usual. What's my problem? If I go to Echelon Mall, I won't get back till the evening, and I'll just sit around, wasting time till "Murder One" is on at 10. Zope's 10th Anniversary is coming up soon. Like the 25th or something. I don't want to miss that one. I gotta do a "Zope's Tenth Anniversary" thing of some sort. Dammit! I'm at OsoaWeek079 and no issues above 52 are available online anywhere! I gotta update my WWW site!!! Okay--just put in all the issues... I could put in links at important places only, like at the beginning of each chapter of Severe Repair, etc. But I gotta focus the WWW site on the Game of Obliviana! I'm fucked-up. I may as well go to the Echelon Mall, cuz I'm not getting anything done right now. Except to show you the rotten state of mind I'm in. And now the Padron is starting to knock me out. Maybe I should just go back to sleep. It's not easy being the Lord of Obliviana. 3:00 PM NO! I cannot be... I have to... What is the matter? The truth... what is it... drifting... my apartment is such a mess... so much chaos in me... all these things to think about... No matter what, I gotta go to work tomorrow, and it's gonna be rainy. On the last leg of the cigar. When it end... that's when I gotta make my decision. It sucks. Right on the couch where I sit to eat and watch TV, a smoke detector is right above me. The damn thing--it goes off whenever I light a cigar, without leaning forward and being careful... At least there's no smoke detector here in my computer room... I moved into this apartment almost eight months ago, and the Ikea bookshelf is still only partially rebuilt... I made a deal with Kerri that I'd keep my mess limited to this room... but she left me on October 16th, 1995. I am indeed lost. But I now have the Foundation of Obliviana! Yeah, I checked for the number of Preambles I had in My Superior 30 file... first I read it at like 244, but I realized I was also reading the blank lines between each one. So I only have 122. 209-122=87. Look at what I'm going through! The cigar is finished. What will I do. This Pavement CD is bugging me. Just heard the Stone Temple Pilots reference. Ah, maybe it's not so bad. But maybe I should listen to Beatles interview tapes. But then I couldn't write, while listening to it. Now I have a cigar high on top of my Tabasco/Garlic stupor. I am indeed lost. But I feel a little coherence coming my way. Huh. I wonder, maybe these "Lord of Obliviana" sections would make a good book. Who knows. Who knows. Right now, I am at such an important place in my life... look how old I am, I'm 28. Look at me--wallowing in Generation X misery and exhilaration. Exhilarama... at the Echelon Mall... The next words on the CD... they'll have meaning to me... track 11... they're non-understandable. Huh, that's the meaning. Lack of meaning. CD off. Okay. So you see the state I am in. If Obliviana ever succeeds, you see where I'm coming from. I'm sweating, my body is yearning for the cold outside. I think I will go to the Echelon Mall. Fuck it. But... but I don't want to waste the time... Only thing left to do is to go lay down. 3:35 PM Well, what happened. I turned my ponytail off and lied down there on my back, and didn't think of anything good. Today is a day off. I should use it wisely. So why has going to the Echelon Mall become this like big option? I don't know. I'm going to the mall. 11:19 PM I call to be here. Yeah, I went to the mall. And I figured out my problem last time. See, when I went, a long time ago, with Peter Litkey and Kerri, we came on the Turnpike, I believe, and the mall was to the west of it. So, I had this idea that the mall was also to the west of 295. But today I found out that the Echelon Mall is in Voorhees, and the signs for Voorhees pointed East of 295. And indeed, that's where the mall was. Last time, I went the opposite way after exitting 295. Oh well. Didn't spend all that much time there. When I left my apartment, I got a note rubber banded to the doorknob--they have to come into my apartment tomorrow to install water conservation devices on the sinks and toilet. With my apartment in this shape, I'm really embarrassed to have anyone see it. So I did a little tidying up. But right now I'm tired, and I have a headache--a rare occurrence. I watched Star Trek Voyager (the stupid "Q" episode), Nowhere Man (scary Republican bashing), and of course, Murder One, a show that just keeps getting better and better. I can only imagine the wonders that this week will bring. Considering the unstable state of reality around me, I have to be prepared for a lot of weirdness. I wish I got more done this weekend. I DID create the Foundation, which is probably the most important thing I've done in a long time. But I should have made more progress on it. Headache--a sign of stress. Huh. I think I know what this is about. I know that the chaos within me is there to protect me from stress. My messy apartment can be this sort of neverending minor problem, masking other problems. As I try to keep my chaos under control, and try to organize my life, I suppose that stress in inevitable. Well, let me do the dishes and get the kitchen at least accessible. Right now, I'm not too happy about things. I took a picture of myself in a photo booth at Exhilarama before... maybe you'll see it someday... I look confused... Tue 2/20/96 * 7:18 AM * Amtrak * Tarb 3434 I am here. Yeah, I tried to tidy up my apartment, but it's still an unholy mess. I just hope they come and go and I never have any contact with them, those who are installing water conservation devices. But all my stuff is so scattered--it feels like a violation to have people going in there. But then, I guess I should have thought of that before letting the mess get to the level it's at, in an apartment. Since I don't own it, people can come in as the management pleases, for all manner of inspections, upgrades, etc. Yeah. So I feel embarrassed. It's funny though. Even before I got the notice, I wanted desperately to clean up. And even after receiving such a compelling reason to clean up, I still only got a little done. Oh well. Like I said before, if a messy apartment is the biggest problem in my life, well, that's not so bad. But let me get back to Obliviana. Okay, I am still working on the Foundation. Today, I am going to replace the Storm Pelter MajesticSerpent with MagicChildhodSymbol. This is because MajesticSerpent is a direct ancestor of PinkWave--it's clearly the Pelter that PinkWave came from. Because of this, I'm getting rid of it, since PinkWave is one of my favorites. Then I have to apply the "bow tie" pattern to the 128x128 per Pelter master file--something that could take awhile. I also have to review my 26 Balbitype fonts, and come up with 4 more, in order for each Pilferid to have its own fonts (a Pilferid being either a Color or a Totem). And I also have to develop the set of 209 Preambles. But I want to work on the game level now as well. For example, how many Storm Pelters will a player pick for his Fonosta? I currently favor the idea of two--a major and a minor. Then, if I limited the number of instances of a particular combination, I'd come up with a pretty big number. Oh well. But now what about the Afternoon file? It's still in limbo, I didn't work on it over the weekend. Now I gotta work on Preambles. Tue 2/20/96 * 6:02 PM * Amtrak * Tarb 3437 Just read a lot of the LOA in OsoaWeek052. Very interesting. The me of six months ago. Very interesting... Drinking a big pint of Foster's Lager, getting buzzed. Gotta be on time for work tomorrow. Gotta get some sleep tonight. I am thinking, in terms of GOO, I should leave the specifics of the Preambles and Fonts for later, and focus on the game itself for now. I am also thinking of calling GOO "Obliviana Primal". GOO has never been a name I intended to use, rather just a temporary name. I want to call the game just "Obliviana", but that's confusing. Obliviana Primal has always been the name for the virtual world of Obliviana, way back when I was planning on making it a 3-D world. Haha, get a load a that, 3-D and Obliviana in the same sentence. Hahaha! 3-D sucks. That 2-word sentence is one of the most important pieces of information for me in this day and age. For the true implementation of VIAT-like systems will be a mammoth project, undertaken by bright-eyed youths, and for it all to fail, as it will, is a big tragedy. 3-D reduces attention spans. 3-D leaves much less to the imagination. 3-D is just like the world we live in every day--the place we want to escape. Ah, forget it. So I hope those fuckers have come and gone from my apartment. Guess they'll have something to tell their grandchildren--"the weirdest, messiest apartment ever". I gotta videotape it. So that you can someday see it. When I went out with that Heidi chick, just that one time, I argued with her a little as to who was messier, me or her. Then at work today I had the same challenge with Carmine. None of his descriptions moved me. I am the messiest of them all. I compared my apartment to one of those stories you see on the news--some ghetto family with a hundred kids, all living on dog food, the place full of excrement and garbage... Well, my place isn't THAT bad. It doesn't smell or anything--I keep the bathroom and kitchen under some level of control. But there's junk EVERYWHERE. And I CAN'T organize it. At least, I haven't been able to in almost 7 months. Ahh... Where are we now...? Iselin. My home for two years. But soon we'll be in Edison, then Metuchen, then Edison again, then Highland Park, then New Brunswick, then... Yeah, I'm out of it... Wow. This LOA is already over 34K! Wow, wow, wow! "Wow, wow, wow!"--said by Figment at Journey Into Imagination at EPCOT Center, Orlando, FL. Yeah. So where am I? The beer... the beer has made me... No problem. Passing through New Brunswick now at a good pace. Keep this up, and we'll be in Princeton Junction station in about ten minutes! What did I accomplish this evening? I don't know. But let me say this--the Afternoon file is the thing that will introduce people to Obliviana. So I have to create the Afternoon file. Vision... of dorms at Drew University... Tolley Hall, where the radio station is located... Tolley Pit, one level up, where me and Mike Massotto knew just about everyone... 1986... what a year... I didn't appreciate it back when I was in it... but what do you expect? I was totally immature. You know? Who's sitting next to me, this woman. Nondescript... It was people. Being young, knowing all these people, socializing, lusting after girls, getting into mischief... I don't know. I don't know if I've lost all of that. 28 years old. Not the bright edge that 18 had. Ten years gone. Ten years. That great year 1986. I don't know if I'll ever regain a place like that... without resorting to time travel or something... I don't know. I think I can have something like that in the future... with Obliviana as a company. Just think of it... Train slowing down. Needing to piss more and more. Aisle full of people. Ah... Look. I've had a good past so far. Full of weirdness and whatever, but I'm pretty happy with it. I don't know if 1986 was unique to being young. I don't know. We must be getting close to PJ. Gotta get a shuttle bus. Gotta piss, too. Whatever. See ya later. Wed 2/21/96 * 6:38 AM * Amtrak * Tarb 3440 I'm sitting Indian-style on the floor of the train, PowerBook in my lap--no seats left, you see. Actually, sitting like this is pretty cool. With my Beavis & Butthead T-shirt, plaid shirt, long hair, computer, and all that, sitting Indian-style, man, who knows what I look like, So Pat Buchanan won the New Hampshire Primary. I was totally elated! Pat rules! It was pathetic seeing Dole stammering through his prepared speech. Just check your digital video archives, o futurians, to see what I mean. And I gotta say, I'm really starting to hate Alexander. A deep down hatred. Right now, I don't even know if I'd vote for him against Clinton--I mean, I'd rather have a scumbag southern DEMOCRAT in the White House than a scumbag southern Republican. It helps Congress be more Republican. With Alexander, the Democrats might regain control. Pat on the other hand--I think he'd be such a good President, it'd be worth some losses in the Congress. Oh well. I don't know. Wed 2/21/96 * 8:55 PM * NJT car 5611 * Tarb 3443 I wonder if that Tarb is correct... maybe I should come up with a Tarb calculation, based on OsoaWeek number... But not now. I punched out and stayed late at work, hammering away at the Obliviana Foundation. It took a long time, but finally the 128x128 pixel-per-Pelter version is done. I also changed made another change. The first one was: MajesticSerpent out, MagicChildhoodSymbol in. The second one: Crusade out (competed with color scheme of PhaseCop) and LavaCollect in. Now, renaming: Florsh becomes Flush (I just don't like "Florsh"), and LavaCollect becomes CrushFallingwater (to be alphabetically compatible with Crusade, which it replaced. CrushFallingwater might invoke the image of Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural masterpiece being crushed, but it also might allude to a fan of architecture having a "crush" on the house. Okay? I checked out my WWW site also before. It's not that bad, just a lot of writing without any context. And therefore, not very compelling. Huh. I just had a vision of being at a bowling alley with Kerri--must have been near last Halloween, after she moved out--cuz there was a DJ dressed up like Powder (from the movie of the same name). I remember... maybe going up to the bar for Kerri... she wanted a wine cooler, but I doubted they would have it... and they didn't... Why did that scene pop into my mind? I don't know. After she moved out, I went out with Kerri a number of times before the ultimate breakup late in November. Okay? Haha--"jimmy hats"--the rap term for condoms--haha--why did that pop into my mind? Okay. Time to get serious. I really like the Obliviana Foundation--it's a compelling image. The hair on the back of my neck is too long... when I put my hair in a pony tail, it looks all weird... gotta cut it of tonight... Yeah. Cut off the neck hair and then go to bed. Yup. No time for much else. No time for a cigar. Vision, a shopping center from a dream I had years and years ago... Huh. Glancing over at today's New York Times, page D4, I thought I saw "Online Pavement System"--but it says "Online PAYMENT System". Huh. But it would be cool, an online pavement system. Yeah, I want a new girlfriend. None of this angst or whatever, I just want one. Maybe I can break though my procrastination and make myself more attractive. I have tried using my supposed supernatural powers to get love, but it hasn't worked too well lately. But come on man, I gotta create Obliviana. These past few months have been messed-up--but look--I have made more progress on Obliviana--in terms of defining my core endeavor--than at any other time. So, in the midst of personal misery, great triumphs of creativity and ingenuity. Okay? Here: (((Deleted: defunct totem lists. See blow.))) ; Wow. I think I like this new list. I got rid of Storm because of Storm Pelters. Building and Pinball were changed to more exciting words. Bunny just didn't sit well with me. Doors is much more evocative than just Door. So--is this the true Totem list? I think it might be... I think it might be... New Color Sequence: Color 1: White Color 2: Brown Color 3: Green Color 4: Orange Color 5: Purple Color 6: Gray Color 7: Yellow Color 8: Blue Color 9: Red Color 10: Pink Color 11: Black So now, maybe a list of all 209 Storms? (((Deleted--list of Color/Totem combinations--outdated--see below.))) And remember--each of these is connected to a Storm Pelter in the Foundation. Okay. Getting close to PJ. I'm really tired. Gotta sleep. G'nite. Thu 2/22/96 * 7:23 AM * NJT car 1473 * Tarb 3446 Yes indeed. Here I am. Another morning on the train. Wow--Metropark already! Hopefully I'll get a color output of the Foundation today. That'd be slammin'. The list above--all 209 Color/Totem combinations--soon I'll have it with each of the 209 listing the name of its Storm Pelter. And, hopefully, its Preamble. I know I've been referring to Preamble a lot, but I'm not sure if I ever defined it. Or Storm Pelter for that matter. Well, a Preamble is just a single sentence, culled from Superior, and edited if need be. A Storm Pelter is one of the 209 Pelters in the Foundation. A Storm is one of the 209 spaces in the Foundation, and represents a unique combination of Elevenside/Flip and Nineteenside/Dire. Refer to 209 (the occult system) elsewhere in the OsoaWeek universe (I don't feel like looking it up right now, and besides--I have to write a brand new 209 treatise, since the old ones are lacking and may represent ideas I no longer adhere to). Then there's always the fonts. Oh yeah, I wanted to make a font on this train journey, in ClarisWorks I guess. Let me go do that. Sat 2/24/96 * 2:35 PM * home* Tarb 3460 Okay. I just changed some stuff up there, the Totems. Here is some info for you, the intermediary changes and previous list, as it was before I changed it just now. Storm --> Rocket --> Apple Bunny --> Whale --> Pine Coffee, Scribble, Monkey, Rocket, Girl, Highway, Couch, Lamp, Predator, Zeppelin, Flower, Smoke, Saw, Architecture, Pinball, Hammer, Whale, Clock, Doors Don't worry about it. It's just for my own use. As you can see, "Rocket" was in there but isn't now. It's really too similar to Zeppelin after all, and considering my anti-space-travel views... I am not AGAINST space travel per se, eh, it's just that I doubt its existence. That is, I think the space program may be a hoax to some extent. That is my big crazy conspiracy theory. Mon 2/26/96 * 7:13 AM * PJ station * Tarb 3470 Wow, 3470 already. I think I have the Foundation of Obliviana in the final stretch of its development. I should have the image of the Foundation done this week--as well as the Totems and Colors. The Fonts and Preambles... those might take a little longer. This issue is 31 days late today. I want to get it done, man. I don't want it to be the latest issue ever, which it's close to becoming! I have to reconfigure OsoaWeek to bring it in line with OP. So here it is--Game of Obliviana (GOO) is no longer the term. The term is Obliviana Primal (OP). But yeah, I have to bring it in line with OP. And what of the Afternoon File? I don't know. It's still a long way off. I wanted to do it in this month of February, but I don't think it'll happen now... It was Zope's tenth birthday yesterday. Normally, I would have done some sort of commemorative comic strip, but I was in a weird state of mind yesterday. Yeah, I should have done it, but y'know, I don't know. I could do it today, or tomorrow--it was just that yesterday WAS the anniversary. Ah, who cares... What? I care! I care! I don't know. Me and my personal milieu. I gotta make something of it! I have to start making money with Obliviana! It must become a company! Or else my work will wallow in obscurity forevermore! Okay. It's a new day. Nice dawn this morning. I have freedom. I can take Obliviana wherever I want it to go. One issue that's been on my mind is the medium for Obliviana. I know that the World Wide Web will be the primary carrier of Obliviana. But I have to determine if it will be the ONLY one. The other possibilities are E-mail and postal mail. Postal mail, known to many as snail-mail, is not a viable medium. It would involve people sending in their turns and receiving a response every week. Costly and time-consuming, like a PBM (Play-by-Mail) game. There COULD be publications and other products available by mail, however. For example, a book that collects the 13 weeks worth of material in an Eon/Sojourn. Also, when you join Obliviana, you have to mail in a registration form, with name, address, age, signature, etc. So snail-mail is out as a medium. This leaves E-mail. Playing Obliviana via E-mail would be very similar to the WWW method, except that due to the large size of the outcome files, the E-mail would have to be personally tailored to each player. Since this would require a sophisticated program and E-mail server, it's not something I can do right now. So, for the time being, playing Obliviana will require access to the WWW. You E-mail your moves to Obliviana, and see the results posted on a page on the Obliviana web site--no custom-tailored responses for now. Here are some new developments. First, the Obliviana Artifact type Wands has been replaced by Hammers. Hence: Coins, Cups, Swords, Hammers. As you may know, I was using the four suits of Tarot cards for the Artifact types. But when I looked at the uses for each type, I found it difficult to find a use for Wands--since I don't want a Dungeons & Dragons magic-user thing going on. Then I thought that Wands could be used for building things... then, I took Hammer out of the Totem set, and it clicked--Hammers are a lot like Wands--and besides, they're called Rods by some Tarot decks, so the name is not as important as the gist. So that's it. Also, I'm thinking of changing "Eon" to "Sojourn". Eon denotes a long period of time, and with the Tarb system, I have been trying to make a system where shorter periods of time have more significance. So Eon was a sort of tongue-in-cheek term. "Sojourn" means "a brief stay" or "a short period of residence". This term denotes the fleeting nature of a period of 13-weeks. So it's somewhat the opposite of Eon. It does, however, more accurately describe what's going on--a player is in the game for 13 weeks, after which time he can decide if he wants to go for another 13 weeks. Another candidate for this term is "Kalpa"--a Sanskrit term for an enormous amount of time--like trillions of years. In this, it's a more esoteric form of "Eon". But let's take a look at the four kinds of Obliviana Artifacts, and what they're all about... CUPS Cups are containers of Dis--Digital Infostimulation. Not only that--they are the OFFICIAL carriers of Dis. For example, let's take Pelterset Prowler--a set of 32 Pelters, each of which is a 512 pixel by 512 pixel JPEG file. This set of images is comprised of digital information, and is, in the final analysis, a sequence of ones an zeroes. In Obliviana, I believe in freeflow if Dis. This means that while I retain copyright to files, I do not impose unrealistic restriction on copying them. That is, so long as the files remain unaltered, and are not sold or used in conjunction with some commercial enterprise, it's okay to make digital copies of them. Right now, when you buy software, you usually get a box, manual, registration cards, and the like. These are physical artifacts, often imprinted with a unique serial number. And ownership of these objects is representative of the digital copy of the software you have on your computer is a TRUE, legitimate copy. But in my system, there are no boxes or manuals. Anyone is free to copy Dis from Obliviana, free of charge. But this creates a dilution of perception as far as the value of the Dis goes--if it has no true container, no artifact associated with it, if appears to have less value. This is where Cups fit into the scheme of things. Cups are DIGITAL ARTIFACTS, and as such are limited, numbered, and registered. They can be owned only in Obliviana Primal--the game of Obliviana. Mon 2/26/96 * 8:32 PM * NJT car 5136 * Tarb 3473 Building --> Architecture --> Treehouse Bunny --> Whale --> Pine --> Speed That's it--I'm gonna revamp this whole mess... Coffee Scribble Monkey Storm --> Rocket --> Apple Girl Highway Couch Lamp Predator Zeppelin Flower Smoke Saw Building --> Architecture --> Treehouse Sphere --> Pinball Hammer --> Whale Bunny --> Whale --> Pine --> Speed Clock Door --> Doors Hence... Coffee Scribble Monkey Speed Girl Highway Saw Lamp Predator Zeppelin Flower Smoke Pinball Treehouse Apple Couch Whale Clock Doors So now... THIS is the list. Now, to delete some stuff above... SO... Totem 1: Coffee Totem 2: Scribble Totem 3: Monkey Totem 4: Speed Totem 5: Girl Totem 6: Highway Totem 7: Saw Totem 8: Lamp Totem 9: Predator Totem 10: Zeppelin Totem 11: Flower Totem 12: Smoke Totem 13: Pinball Totem 14: Treehouse Totem 15: Apple Totem 16: Couch Totem 17: Whale Totem 18: Clock Totem 19: Doors Color 1: White Color 2: Brown Color 3: Green Color 4: Orange Color 5: Purple Color 6: Gray Color 7: Yellow Color 8: Blue Color 9: Red Color 10: Pink Color 11: Black NOW I can put together the new list of Color/Totem combinations... (((Deleted: list of Totem/Color combinations. See "The Foundation of Obliviana", in Nihilistica, below.))) So that's the whole list. Also, earlier this evening, I finished up the Storm Pelters. Yesterday I put five Pelters on a floppy--RepoMan, MonkeyKing, Time, HerWall, and WaveOfPleasure. Earlier this evening, I replaced five Storm Pelters on the previous version of the Foundation with these five. As well, I slanted the entire design and added a border of two white rules, probably well known to you by now, if you're well along into the future, that is. RepoMan replaced React. RedBaron went in React's spot. RepoMan went in RedBaron's old spot. MonkeyKing was renamed DearMonkey and replaced Depress. Time was renamed TulloRoad and replaced Tunic. HerWall replaced Holler. WaveOfPleasure replaced VortexTrek. So--right now, 9:06 PM, Mon 2/26/96, I can say that the Obliviana Foundation is established. I now need to work on the second wave of entries for the Foundation--the Preambles, and the Fonts. Then, I can list all 209 Storms, each with a whole bunch of data... Storm Number, Color (w/ Font), Totem (w/ Font), Storm Pelter (with Pelterset from and original name if applicable), Preamble. From this list, each player will choose one Major Storm and one Minor Storm. Both the Major and the Minor may be chosen out of the entire set of 209. The same Storm may be used for Major and Minor. Primacy in each Storm used as Major or Minor, as well as Primacy in the combination of Major/Minor. So--Fonosta Establishment: Number--given in sequential order Name--a single word from the dictionary, must be approved by Obliviana Major Storm--one out of 209 Minor Storm--one out of 209 Paving--choose the Road you want to Pave your first Fonosta Coin into. Personal Line: bio, E-mail, sex, etc. Tue 2/27/96 * 8:12 PM * NJT car 1446 * Tarb 3479 The Story of the Fonts: First, I was going to add four fonts to the Balbitype 26 to get 30, then give each Color and Totem a font. Then this idea turned sour when I realized that some fonts would never be paired with other fonts, for no good reason. So I came up with a new idea--pare down the Balbitype 26 to 19, and give one to each Totem. These are the fonts I created myself. Then, I would search through my extensive library of font-related material to find eleven obscure but cool fonts, and digitize them, giving one to each Color. I did a lot of searching last night, and came up with some good candidates. Then earlier this evening, I started setting the names of the Totems in Balbitype fonts, and I saw that it just wasn't going to work. I saw that the Totems and colors are themselves variations, and that typographical variation would serve to confuse the issue. That is, with a uniform font, it would say that this set of things have a common basis. So, the Obliviana Fonts are no longer a part of the Foundation. Now I have to move on to Preambles... LAST NIGHT AND THIS MORNING I finalized the Totems, Colors, and Storm Pelters. I entered everything into a spreadsheet, and made the entire list. See "The Foundation of Obliviana" in Nihilistica, below. Now I'm gonna delete some stuff above, because it's a less-detailed version of the Storm Pelter list in Nihilistica. Preambles... Wed 2/28/96 * 8:04 AM * Amtrak * Tarb 3482 Okay--one thing--I will not let this issue become the latest one ever. Book Five started off 44 days late, with issue 53. This issue will be at 44 days on March 10. Huh. Seems like a lot of time. Right now I'm only at 33. I have to face the question of Severe Repair for this, Book Seven of OsoaWeek. Book Seven is OVER in two months. If I want Book Eight to start on time, with the commencement of the Obliviana Primal test Sojourn/Kalpa/Eon, then I can't do SR in Book Seven. What I CAN do, however, is go over all of SR as it stands now, correct mistakes, take notes, and all that--so I can continue the story with some direction. SR Book Five (which appeared in OW Book Six--I know it's confusing) was a sort of dark meandering, a plunge. I don't want SR Book Six to be like that--but rather, I want Six to rise up from the depths, into the day, and take the story to the heights it yearns to be at. All this, plus the fact that I have to fully invent the game Obliviana Primal within two months. So yeah--no SR this Book. And no minimum issue length. But, of course, there will be Superiors--though probably back to four per issue. 8:45 AM Just finished up reading the Superiors of Book Six. Started last night on the train. This set of Superiors is awesome! There are definitely many, many Preambles in there... Last night I left work around 7:30 or so, lit a cigar there, then walked up Varick and 7th Ave. It was okay, but then after 14th St. it started to rain. I was worried about getting my computer wet, and also the cigar wasn't going very well, so when the 18th Street subway station came upon me, I savagely tossed the cigar away and went down, making the 8:14 NJ Transit to my surprise. Now we are past Newark, soon to arrive in NY. Cloudy day. And cold. The warm weather is OVER. Our little blast of spring, forget it, a new high dive into more winter. Okay okay okay. Here, from above... Fonosta Establishment: Number, Name, Major Storm, Minor Storm, Paving, Personal Line Maybe--each player can write a line or two each time to be seen by all? Or a "classified ad" kind of system...? So what you have to choose in the game... Name, Major Storm, Minor Storm, Paving. Four things. In the tunnel now. I'm signing off for now. Wed 2/28/96 * 8:29 PM * NJT car 1446 * Tarb 3485 I left work around 5:00 PM, took the E train up to 5th Ave., got some cigars at Davidoff, walked over to the Letterman side entrance to finish the cigar before going to the Broadway Arcade. Talked to some folks in the crowd, a radio reporter from Sacramento and an aspiring actor and briefly, a girl who was an aspiring musician who works at the CBS store on the corner there. Saw Rob Schneider and Susan Sarandon come out. Went to the arcade, played a few games. Then tried to light another cigar, but it was super windy, and I failed with the matches I had. So I bought a lighter, ducked into a subway entrance, and managed to get it lit. Then I walked through the severely-windy streets, cutting across 42nd street to 8th Ave. Got potato chips and cheddar popcorn after the cigar. Then I got some beer and drank it and then went to the Manhattan Mall to go to the bathroom, then went to the comic book store then to the train. So there, I'm lost. Just wandering around. What is it with me? I wish I knew. But maybe I do know. Who knows. Yeah, me. Lost and out of control. Smoking and drinking. Spent 40 bucks today on who knows what. Mostly food. Yeah, whatever. The train. Yeah here I am. The train. This file's getting pretty big. 85661 at this point. Pretty big. I don't know. I don't feel like there's something WRONG... I mean... wandering around and spending money and all that... it's what keeps me SANE, y'know? I mean, it's like this whole thing with freedom. I don't know. But it's like, all I have is Obliviana. I'm staking my whole future on it. If it doesn't work, I'm screwed. Totally screwed. Okay. So I have to make Obliviana work. I've made a lot of progress recently. Now I have two months to bring it to life. I know I can do it. Tired from the beer and everything. Going home to messy apartment, great. Fear the mail cuz of bills. Can't break my lease early, I'm in Plainsboro for three more months. No girlfriend. There you go. Living with a girl for over a year, then nothing. Then that whole Chemistry thing, I was so sure I'd get a new girlfriend, that it was gonna happen, that it HAD to happen. But it didn't. Tomorrow is Leap Day. The last one was in 1992. Huh. What was I doing back then? Let me see... I was still unemployed... maybe working freelance at Imaging... um... wow... the last issue of ZOPE was six months earlier, and the first issue of Forge of Wander was six months hence. So I was really in the middle of a creative dry spot... I must check my files of that time... 1991 was my mythical year of loserdom. Like I mentioned earlier, I'm getting more and more interested in my 1991. I should have a lot of files written from that time period... gotta look back... 1991. Five years ago. Gulf War, Desert Storm. Living with mommy and daddy. Writing on my Mac Plus in the basement. Nocturnal. Eating my pasta with margarine, Tabasco, and garlic. Waking up my mother with the smell. Driving around in my dad's Volvo, going to 7-11's on Route 22, in search of coffee. Yeah. And falling asleep in the back seat of the car in the parking lot of the Toys'R'Us in Somerville, my lowest point. Hahaha. Look at this. Revering such a pathetic existence. But the span of time... man... it was COOL to live like that for a while... So I gotta wonder... in 2001 will I look back at 1996 and think the same thing? I mean, I AM in a real loser state of being now... since Kerri left me... yeah... living with your girlfriend really blunts your loserdom... having no girlfriend is a hallmark, a cornerstone of being a true Generation X loser... yeah... And... my megalomania of 1988 and 1989, with Anything But Monday. I remember one morning, whacked out on coffee, having stayed up all night, ranting and raving to Massotto about how we could take over the world, become "Your World Advisors". I mean, I was REALLY talking about taking over the world, not just being sarcastic or witty. I was FUCKED UP, man. We were publishing a little humor magazine and I somehow warped it into a means of world domination. What was I thinking? Yeah. And all the supernatural stuff. Still with me today. I don't know. So much occult shit in my life. Like, this whole other aspect of my life. I don't know. I doesn't affect the real world much. I know I might just be deluded, but I don't think so. What can I say, I already told you I'm a little nuts. So I look to the future... and I see the Obliviana gambit... but a gambit in what way? Well... I'm staking my future on it... At Bengal Graphics, where I working from Nov. 1992 to Nov. 1993, my nickname was "The Baby". And I am a baby. I get all bent out of shape when things don't go my way. I wasn't aware of this nickname, cuz like Theresa would say "hey baby" to me, just in a general way, and I didn't get it. It was the "the" that made it so harsh. THE Baby. I eventually found out, and I was a little hurt, but not much. Um. Okay. So where am I at now? I am at a place where I have to get Obliviana Primal up and running in two months. That is where I am. 2 months... then the test run for 3 months... then it starts for real... K. D. Lang. I had to do that. I can't stand how everyone spells it with lowercase letters--WHY? WHY, DAMMIT, WHY? Looking at a person here on the train and all I see is their legs and hair... the hair reminded my of K. D. Lang hair... then I thought of the lowercase letter thing and how it bugs me... that is how I got diverted from the topic... See? The game... I gotta write a program to handle the game... and eventually link it to a server, which receives E-mail from people and sends it to the program... all automatic... except for entries the program can't stomach... which would be few if I used a program or WWW form for people to enter their moves... then the moves would be in a format the program could understand... Random numbers. A lot of Obliviana will be based on random numbers. Chance... the lure of chance... Time to go. This has been a most interesting writing. Thu 2/29/96 * 8:21 AM * PJ Station * Tarb 3488 1992, 1988, 1984, 1980... Leap Day 1984 was just two weeks after I began my "Book of Madness". (On Amtrak now) So--this "Book of Madness" was like the first "Lord of Obliviana" feature--describing my predicament, ranting and raving, etc. Back then, I didn't even consider myself human. I was a screwed-up 16-year-old. Four years later... Leap Day 1988... I made A LOT of progress in that four years... I was living in Manhattan, going to film school... Check it out... 48--NomadiNews 5, 2/88 (8) 49--Anything But Monday Magazine 8, 2/88 (16) 50--Zope's Big Atomic Party 5, 2/88 (8) 51--Franx Comix 5, 2/88 (8) 52--Bible II: The Stuff I Forgot: Book 3, 2/88 (8) 53--Kat X (new) 1, 2/88 (8) 54--Zarball Special, 2/88 (4) 55--Hollow Fantasia, 2/88 (16) I did all these publications in Feb. 1988! Wow. (The whole list is in OsoaWeek004) This was an interesting period for Halfevil Graphics. It was kind of a renaissance. So yeah... Leap Day 1988 saw me in a good place... Then we have Leap Day 1992. I touched on this earlier. Moving forward and backward in time, there are six months to any publication. I don't know what the hell I was doing... like I said, I have to go back to my files o that time... Those fours years, 1988 to 1992, saw the rise and fall of ABM, my first real job, and then the great, fascinating year of my unemployment and loserdom, 1991. 1992 was a tough place to be. But now here I am, at Leap Day 1996. These past four years have been quite eventful... OsoaWeek began in July of 1994... I went out with Kerri from Aug. 1993 to Nov. 1995... I've been working at D&A now for longer than I've worked at any place before (16 months)... But now, after all this time, I'm back to no girlfriend, living on edge financially, and still questing after the holy grail of Obliviana. But now I'm a whole lot closer to creating a profitable company. The game Obliviana Primal will work, as long as I give it my all. But giving something my all has never been easy. This stuff I'm writing... I know it'll only be interesting if Obliviana becomes a big success... I've written so much about myself... put so much of myself into this ASCII text... and I just hope... I hope that I'm an interesting enough person to warrant reading about... Okay. Enough musing. Time to get to work. I have a game to develop. So let me get to that. Fri 3/1/96 * 8:37 AM * NJT car 5135 * Tarb 3494 Coming to the end of the 35th Tarb Century. the 36th TC will begin tomorrow morning at 6 AM. Last night I had a great idea for Obliviana, but one which I must consider carefully. The idea is there will be Obliviana Girls, who will be fictional characters who exist within Obliviana Primal. One of the goals in Obliviana would be to get your Fonosta a girlfriend from this group of Obliviana Girls. Or maybe even a wife. And the girls, while fictional, may well be played by real women. And nudity will be involved. I'm presenting this idea to you out of context--see, I've been heavily into designing Obliviana Primal, and when this idea came up, it had a lot of repercussions in my mind. First of all, it would make Obliviana a "men's Internet game"--not that women--or anyone else who paid--would be prevented from playing--just that it would be designed to appeal to men. I know that if I execute this idea properly, it will be good. I had already determined that my audience would be predominantly male--this would only serve to cement that. My ultimate benchmark for an idea is whether or not I myself would like it, were I an end user. And this idea... I think would be very cool... checking out the Girls of Obliviana... and striving to make one of them my Fonosta's girlfriend... I envision taking a number of standard poses of each Obliviana Girl, so that images of her can be incorporated into the interface of the player whose Fonosta is her "boyfriend"--such as lying down on a menu bar, straddling a cursor, etc. One danger is that this sexy angle might overshadow the rest of Obliviana. I mean, there IS a whole lot more to Obliviana, as I'm sure you know. But the full implementation of this idea will have to wait until Obliviana has established itself, cuz I don't have the resources for such photography right now. O am planning on including the Obliviana Girl idea from the start, but it will have to remain in text until I can devote resources to the full implementation. One thing though, I can create these characters, and then get girls to play them in the future--emphasizing the fact that these are characters--not real people. There will not be Obliviana Boys, as I'm sure some people are thinking. As I said, women don't make up much of my potential audience elsewhere, and frankly, such an idea gives me the willies. So there will only be Obliviana GIRLS. I think I'm gonna go with this idea. If anything, it will serve to focus the definition of Obliviana, as a "men's game", but I think that'll be a good thing. It'll give Obliviana an edge, and establish it Obliviana as anti-politically-correct. On the nudity issue, what I'm talking about is Playboy-level nudity--with the potential for two-girl lesbian-type images, though still with the Playboy-level of explicitness. I think once these characters are established, seeing two of them doing stuff together would be a real draw. This now brings up an interesting issue. As I have previously stated, it is my intention to allow free unlimited access to my Web site--you only pay to play the game. With pictures of naked women, I think I can expect a large number of hits--hits which will cost me money. So, being that I'm not charging people directly, I have to cover the costs somehow. And the answer is, of course, advertising. If nothing else, folks visiting my site will be encouraged to join Obliviana--so there will be advertising in that way no matter what. But I see a much more lucrative angle in accepting advertising from the outside. And indeed, this may prove to be Obliviana's prime source of revenue. And it's my contention that if done properly, advertising will ENHANCE Obliviana's image, not detract from it. So here I am, the happy capitalist, smoking my cigars, embracing naked women and advertising. And yet, I have long hair and I'm a devout vegetarian. I'm a Pat Buchanan supporter, but I love sex and violence on television. So there you go--I'm cool cuz I'm so contradictory. There you go. One interesting angle here is that Fonostas are not going to be based on humans, but rather, on cartoon-like video game characters. So you might have a Baywatch-type beauty holding hands with a green giraffe in a Keystone Kop get-up. So it'll all be very absurd. That is, if a guy is playing the part of an anthropomorphic carrot with thunder god hammer and powers, it's gonna be hard to say that all he wants is to see naked women. No, Obliviana will definitely be something more. But the whole Obliviana Girl angle is bringing Obliviana into focus for me. It's a great angle. And, most likely, it'll be controversial, and therefore get Obliviana free publicity. That's a fringe benefit--I wouldn't do it JUST to get press coverage. This also solves another problem--access to Obliviana by children. See, there are some parts of Severe Repair which cross the "Rated R" line and go into the "NC-17" realm a little. So I've been apprehensive about allowing access to children. With this new angle, there will be no access to children. So how do I do it? How do you restrict kids? Well, most sites have a button you press that says "I swear that I am 18 or above". Hopefully that'll be enough. I mean, the stuff on Obliviana isn't gonna be all that bad--I wouldn't even call it pornography. Well, the lesbian scenes... technically there won't be any sex acts depicted, but it'll certainly be suggested... I mean, one naked girl kissing another naked girl's bellybutton... something like that... I don't consider that obscene, but I'm sure some folks might... oh well... Almost to New York now. I have a feeling that this passage I've just written will wind up being kind of notable, as it marks the beginning of Obliviana as I believe it will become known... Oh wow! I just thought of it... I've had an awful hard time explaining Obliviana Primal to Mike Massotto, but when I add in the whole girl nudity angle, I think he'll get into it... Fri 3/1/96 * 7:37 PM * NJT car 5002 * Tarb 3497 Okay. I printed out a final version of the Foundation--sort of. It has all the final Totems and Colors--except I wrote "White" as "Whale"--guess I was in a hurry. On this printout, Whale/Whale points to the Storm Pelter TrueIcePhoto. Interesting... So the Foundation is done, except for the Preambles. Last night I made a font called Slumbershrike, and used it for this printout. The Totems are in the Balbitype fonts Slumber, and the Colors are in the Balbitype font Shrike. The Obliviana logo is now in the Balbitype font Antarctica. So I'm looking at an already-beat-up laser print of the Foundation. Amazing was a little folding and creasing does to toner... Oh, on the line at the bank today, I created a piece of origami--a cool little pyramid--which I think might be a cool symbol of Obliviana. That is, folks could make it out of whatever paper is at hand, and leave it places, leaving the mark of Obliviana... 8:15--I just developed the Obliviana Origami Volcano--similar to the pyramid, but with like the top half of the pyramid inverted, into a kind of volcano shape. It's sufficiently hard to make that most people won't be able to without a lot of practice, but I managed to streamline the process to a couple of minutes. I think I'll try to make another one in a few minutes to see if I remember. 8:25--I made one out of a parking receipt and left it here on the train--it looks pretty cool--like a little volcano... I can make it now in about 3 to 5 minutes, but I'm telling ya, if you're not an origami god, you're gonna have trouble. Getting to the pyramid phase is relatively simple, but going all the way to volcano... well, let's just say folks are gonna hafta practice an awful lot... Well, we're almost there, so... Sat 3/2/96 * 4:53 PM * home * Tarb 3501 Well, here I am, at the beginning of the 36th Tarb Century, and a decision faces me. It might not seem to be such a hard decision, but it is. The question is, should I go to a singles line dancing party with Peter Litkey tonight. Okay, okay. I know it sounds like a pretty stupid thing to go to, but I'm single man. I need a woman. Of course, the women that are there are also desperate enough to endure the rigors of country line dancing to meet a guy. Line dancing. I mean, I don't do dancing PERIOD. But country line dancing? Holy Jesus. The thought of doing that is... almost unthinkable... But Pete told me the angle--in line dancing, you get to dance with everyone else there, meaning you get to put your arms around all the women. AM I INSANE? Why am I even considering this? Well, let me tell you a story. The scene is an icy parking lot, filled to capacity, god knows where in New Jersey. Pete has invited me to a charity auction where you can buy a date with a woman. Well, to make a long story short, we both bought dates, and I actually wound up dating the woman, Sheridan, for a few months. I had SEX, man. What a loser I am. Loser. Loser. Loser. Loser. Look at me. What have I sunken to. Line dancing. Line dancing. Line dancing. NO! NO I CANNOT DO IT! WHAT THE HELL? I have to make up my mind within a half-hour. Jesus Christ. It's at a church in Chatham. Out in the middle of nowhere. Look at me. Look all of you! If I ever get successful with Obliviana, I want you all to refer back to this and see that I DESERVE EVERY LAST DIME of my success. My life is a shambles. I could have used my talents to work for someone else... I could have had a life by now... but no... I have to save myself for Obliviana... So if Obliviana ever gets big, I just want you to know I WORKED FOR EVERY LAST IOTA of what I might eventually have. See? Do you see? Ah, fuck. What am I gonna do? Get all Obliviana. *OW* [[03079NH]] Nihilistica ***OSOAWEEK SUPER STATS*** *ASCII CHARACTERS* BOOK ONE Total: 901690 Highest single issue: 99382 (001) Lowest single issue: 55828 (013) Average per issue: 69361 BOOK TWO Total: 808973 Highest single issue: 84266 (016) Lowest single issue: 52117 (020) Average per issue: 62229 BOOK THREE Total: 801724 Highest single issue: 90434 (030) Lowest single issue: 52217 (033) Average per issue: 61671 BOOK FOUR Total: 771386 Highest single issue: 141986 (052) Lowest single issue: 33230 (042) Average per issue: 59337 BOOK FIVE Total: 152577 Highest single issue: 38423 (053) Lowest single issue: 2156 (059) Average per issue: 11737 BOOK SIX Total: 559569 Highest single issue: 65873 (067) Lowest single issue: 20285 (071) Average per issue: 43044 CUMULATIVE Total: 3995919 Highest single issue: 141986 (052) Lowest single issue: 2156 (059) Average per issue: 51229 *LINES* BOOK ONE Total: 24550 Highest single issue: 2863 (001) Lowest single issue: 1366 (013) Average per issue: 1888 BOOK TWO Total: 23526 Highest single issue: 2708 (016) Lowest single issue: 1390 (018) Average per issue: 1810 BOOK THREE Total: 22220 Highest single issue: 2414 (030) Lowest single issue: 1331 (037) Average per issue: 1709 BOOK FOUR Total: 21143 Highest single issue: 3369 (052) Lowest single issue: 909 (042) Average per issue: 1626 BOOK FIVE Total: 4625 Highest single issue: 1177 (053) Lowest single issue: 83 (059) Average per issue: 356 BOOK SIX Total: 15242 Highest single issue: 1786 (073) Lowest single issue: 604 (071) Average per issue: 1172 CUMULATIVE Total: 111306 Highest single issue: 3369 (052) Lowest single issue: 83 (059) Average per issue: 1427 *WORDS* BOOK ONE Total: 151774 Highest single issue: 16589 (001) Lowest single issue: 9308 (009) Average per issue: 11675 BOOK TWO Total: 137258 Highest single issue: 14231 (016) Lowest single issue: 8860 (020) Average per issue: 10558 BOOK THREE Total: 138741 Highest single issue: 15606 (030) Lowest single issue: 9060 (033) Average per issue: 10672 BOOK FOUR Total: 132823 Highest single issue: 24070 (052) Lowest single issue: 5765 (042) Average per issue: 10217 BOOK FIVE Total: 27795 Highest single issue: 7072 (057) Lowest single issue: 378 (059) Average per issue: 2138 BOOK SIX Total: 103001 Highest single issue: 11950 (067) Lowest single issue: 3691 (071) Average per issue: 7923 CUMULATIVE Total: 691392 Highest single issue: 24070 (052) Lowest single issue: 378 (059) Average per issue: 8864 *LETTERS PER WORDS* BOOK ONE Highest single issue: 5.03838 (002) Lowest single issue: 4.80960 (010) Average: 4.94216 BOOK TWO Highest single issue: 5.19311 (021) Lowest single issue: 4.56422 (018) Average: 4.89520 BOOK THREE Highest single issue: 4.89893 (038) Lowest single issue: 4.61103 (035) Average: 4.77788 BOOK FOUR Highest single issue: 5.07966 (051) Lowest single issue: 4.63465 (043) Average: 4.80085 BOOK FIVE Highest single issue: 4.96183 (056) Lowest single issue: 4.24696 (054) Average: 4.54731 BOOK SIX Highest single issue: 4.53248 (078) Lowest single issue: 4.31857 (075) Average: 4.43341 CUMULATIVE Highest single issue: 5.19311 (021) Lowest single issue: 4.24696 (054) Average: 4.73280 *DAYS OFF SCHEDULE* BOOK ONE 001: -2 002: -1 003: -1 004: -1 005: -1 006: -1 007: -1 008: 0 009: -2 010: 0 011: -1 012: 0 013: -1 Average: -0.92 BOOK TWO 014: +3 015: +2 016: +1 017: +2 018: +1 019: +3 020: +4 021: +4 022: +6 023: +4 024: +3 025: +4 026: +7 Average: +3.38 BOOK THREE 027: +11 028: +9 029: +12 030: +13 031: +14 032: +21 033: +24 034: +17 035: +20 036: +19 037: +20 038: +21 039: +17 Average: +16.77 BOOK FOUR 040: +26 041: +26 042: +24 043: +24 044: +21 045: +20 046: +20 047: +27 048: +31 049: +33 050: +40 051: +38 052: +38 Average: +28.31 BOOK FIVE 053: +44 054: +37 055: +30 056: +23 057: +37 066: +38 059: +31 060: +36 061: +30 062: +24 063: +17 064: +10 065: +3 Average: +27.69 BOOK SIX 066: +6 067: +19 068: +17 069: +18 070: +28 071: +31 072: +27 073: +37 074: +34 075: +30 076: +28 077: +29 078: +23 Average: +25.15 OVERALL AVERAGE: +16.73 *FEATURES* AB--Antebellum (1, 27-31) AD--Actuality Destructor (14, 16, 17) AX--Appendix (1-13) CC--Classictronica (14) CN--Contents (1-39) CO--Catalog of Obliviana (1-26) CV--Cover (14-78) CZ--Classic Zope (27-33, 40-44, 46, 49-50, 52, 66) DC--Dashic (27-30, 32)...continued from TN DH--Dehumidifier (14-31, 34, 40) DY--Digital Superworld Youth (14, 15, 17) EF--How to Establish Your Fonosta (1) EM--Your E-Mail is Gonna Come (1-4, 6) FA--Fonosta (14)...continued from FW FE--Friction Enhancer (1-5, 12, 14, 16, 19, 27-30, 40) FW--Fonosta World (2-5)...continued as FA HR--Hemisinister Review (1-33, 36-37, 39-51, 66, 69, 70, 77) HT--Halfevil Times (1-33, 35, 39-46, 49-50, 52, 66) IB--Ibof (14) IF--In the Flowers (1) IS--Into E-mber Severe Repair (40-51) IW--Into E-mber Forge of Wander (40-52) LA--Lord of Obliviana (14-78)...continued from LO LO--Lord of Obliviana Revelry (1-13)...continued as LA MB--Assignment: Mystery Box (1, 4) MH--Masthead (1-13) NH--Nihilistica (1-33, 35-40, 43-45, 52-57, 66, 67, 69-78) NJ--New Jersey (1-4, 14, 27-30, 32-36, 39-40, 44, 52) OL--Obliviana Primal (27-32, 39)...continued from TT OP--Obliviana Primal Beat (1, 4) SA--Severe Repair Almanac (27-31, 40, 53, 66) SO--The State of Osoa (1-13) SP--Sneak Preview (1-13) SR--Severe Repair (1-52, 66-78) SU--Superior (1-78) TN--209 (14, 17)...continued as DC TS--Trick Sojourn (40-52) TT--Tourney Today (14)...continued as OL ZP--Zope (1-4, 14-33, 40-42, 44, 46, 49, 66) ***THE FOUNDATION OF OBLIVIANA*** >>>1: COFFEE>>> White Coffee 1: 1975 Tan Coffee 134: Phenomenon Green Coffee 58: GinRummy Orange Coffee 191: UltraTree Purple Coffee 115: Occult Gray Coffee 39: Detergent Yellow Coffee 172: SpicySmoke Blue Coffee 96: MagicReligion Red Coffee 20: CardboardBox Pink Coffee 153: Roctober Black Coffee 77: Innocent >>>2: SCRIBBLE>>> White Scribble 78: InProgress Tan Scribble 2: 1988 Green Scribble 135: Phloem Orange Scribble 59: GodInHeaven Purple Scribble 192: Uncovered Gray Scribble 116: Offensive Yellow Scribble 40: DisasterClass Blue Scribble 173: SpiritNuke Red Scribble 97: Mall Pink Scribble 21: Caress Black Scribble 154: RollerCoaster >>>3: MONKEY>>> White Monkey 155: Roosevelt Tan Monkey 79: JackDaniels Green Monkey 3: Adios Orange Monkey 136: PinkWave Purple Monkey 60: GrapeSoda Gray Monkey 193: Universing Yellow Monkey 117: Office Blue Monkey 41: Dram Red Monkey 174: SpringJollity Pink Monkey 98: Manhattan Black Monkey 22: Cheyenne >>>4: SPEED>>> White Speed 23: China Tan Speed 156: Route22Day Green Speed 80: Jam Orange Speed 4: Airline Purple Speed 137: Plateau Gray Speed 61: GreatRace Yellow Speed 194: Vanish Blue Speed 118: OnSomething Red Speed 42: EightiesArcade Pink Speed 175: Strawberry Black Speed 99: Marathon >>>5: GIRL>>> White Girl 100: Marsha Tan Girl 24: Cigar Green Girl 157: Rug Orange Girl 81: JavaLongDay Purple Girl 5: Alice Gray Girl 138: Plowshare Yellow Girl 62: Great Seal Blue Girl 195: Viper Red Girl 119: Ontario Pink Girl 43: EyeFun Black Girl 176: StrawPoll >>>6: HIGHWAY>>> White Highway 177: Stuff Tan Highway 101: Martinsville Green Highway 25: Classictronica Orange Highway 158: Scramble Purple Highway 82: Jethro Gray Highway 6: Alien Yellow Highway 139: Poker Blue Highway 63: GreenApple Red Highway 196: Vodka Pink Highway 120: Ordnance Black Highway 44: FaderineAftermath >>>7: SAW>>> White Saw 45: FairyDreadnaught Tan Saw 178: SuperColSponge Green Saw 102: Medicine Orange Saw 26: Commoner Purple Saw 159: SherilynFenn Gray Saw 83: Jupiter Yellow Saw 7: Aquarium Blue Saw 140: Polliwog Red Saw 64: GreenArchery Pink Saw 197: WaveOfPleasure Black Saw 121: Ore >>>8: LAMP>>> White Lamp 122: Orient Tan Lamp 46: Feminine Green Lamp 179: SuperRiot Orange Lamp 103: Micro Purple Lamp 27: Communist Gray Lamp 160: ShipAtNight Yellow Lamp 84: KingArthur Blue Lamp 8: ArtificialColor Red Lamp 141: PowerMarble Pink Lamp 65: Grosbeak Black Lamp 198: Weird >>>9: PREDATOR>>> White Predator 199: Who Tan Predator 123: Outback Green Predator 47: FertileHill Orange Predator 180: Supertrain Purple Predator 104: MissingFonts Gray Predator 28: ConferenceCall Yellow Predator 161: Shiva Blue Predator 85: KnaveOfSpades Red Predator 9: Aspirin Pink Predator 142: Prometheus Black Predator 66: GuarGum >>>10: ZEPPELIN>>> White Zeppelin 67: Habanero Tan Zeppelin 200: Wilderdark Green Zeppelin 124: OutBackDoor Orange Zeppelin 48: Fieldstone Purple Zeppelin 181: Tao Gray Zeppelin 105: MisterTaco Yellow Zeppelin 29: Cornflower Blue Zeppelin 162: ShowerCurtain Red Zeppelin 86: Knight Pink Zeppelin 10: Astronomy Black Zeppelin 143: PsychicShower >>>11: FLOWER>>> White Flower 144: PsychicWave Tan Flower 68: Halloween Green Flower 201: Wilderness Orange Flower 125: Owl Purple Flower 49: FinalStarEncounter Gray Flower 182: TapestryDune Yellow Flower 106: MistyMountains Blue Flower 30: Corporation Red Flower 163: SixtiesBabe Pink Flower 87: KungFu Black Flower 11: Automotive >>>12: SMOKE>>> White Smoke 12: AwareOfVacuity Tan Smoke 145: Quadrillion Green Smoke 69: Hare Orange Smoke 202: Wired Purple Smoke 126: PalaceGallivant Gray Smoke 50: Flush Yellow Smoke 183: TheBlueEye Blue Smoke 107: Morristown Red Smoke 31: Cosmiclike Pink Smoke 164: Snowhunt Black Smoke 88: LapisKing >>>13: PINBALL>>> White Pinball 89: Last Tan Pinball 13: AxeMutiny Green Pinball 146: QuadSports Orange Pinball 70: Healers Purple Pinball 203: Witness Gray Pinball 127: Panda Yellow Pinball 51: Foam Blue Pinball 184: TheReflex Red Pinball 108: MotorcycleJourney Pink Pinball 32: CountryWestern Black Pinball 165: Sofa >>>14: TREEHOUSE>>> White Treehouse 166: Softener Tan Treehouse 90: Leopard Green Treehouse 14: BakersDozen Orange Treehouse 147: QuietRoom Purple Treehouse 71: Helena Gray Treehouse 204: Wives Yellow Treehouse 128: ParamusPark Blue Treehouse 52: FoxyLady Red Treehouse 185: TornadoGuy Pink Treehouse 109: MutuallyAssuredDestruction Black Treehouse 33: Cove >>>15: APPLE>>> White Apple 34: Creek Tan Apple 167: Somerville Green Apple 91: LetThereBeLight Orange Apple 15: Balm Purple Apple 148: RawDeal Gray Apple 72: Hence Yellow Apple 205: Wrecker Blue Apple 129: Parcheesi Red Apple 53: FreeWorldDawn Pink Apple 186: Total Black Apple 110: Nanny >>>16: COUCH>>> White Couch 111: Narwhal Tan Couch 35: Crux Green Couch 168: SopwithCamel Orange Couch 92: LobbyWall Purple Couch 16: Basketball Gray Couch 149: RedBaron Yellow Couch 73: HerWall Blue Couch 206: Wrench Red Couch 130: Patriot Pink Couch 54: FrostVampire Black Couch 187: Trove >>>17: WHALE>>> White Whale 188: TrueIcePhoto Tan Whale 112: Newglass Green Whale 36: Cuttlefish Orange Whale 169: SouthXarilina Purple Whale 93: LostAndWild Gray Whale 17: Cabin Yellow Whale 150: RepoMan Blue Whale 74: Hindu Red Whale 207: Xylem Pink Whale 131: Pawn Black Whale 55: Furnace >>>18: CLOCK>>> White Clock 56: FutureCoolBuilding Tan Clock 189: TulloRoad Green Clock 113: None Orange Clock 37: DearMonkey Purple Clock 170: Spaced Gray Clock 94: MagicBus Yellow Clock 18: Calamity Blue Clock 151: Roadhouse Red Clock 75: Ic Pink Clock 208: Youth Black Clock 132: Peer >>>19: DOORS>>> White Doors 133: PhaseCop Tan Doors 57: Gee Green Doors 190: UltimateOctober Orange Doors 114: Nunavut Purple Doors 38: Destructive Gray Doors 171: Spade Yellow Doors 95: MagicChildhoodSymbol Blue Doors 19: Canada Red Doors 152: RoboticMessage Pink Doors 76: Ignite Black Doors 209: Zixel ***SONGS OF THE WEEK*** "Third World Man" by Steely Dan (original version from the album "Gaucho", live version from the album "Alive in America") Both versions are awesome. "...by and by, till the sidewalks are safe for the little guy..." "El Capitan" by John Phillip Sousa (from a random Sousa Marches CD) Another of his famous marches, "Liberty Bell", is the Monty Python theme song. *OW* [[04079HR]] Hemisinister Review ***TV*** GENERATION X TV Movie, Fox, Aired Tuesday, February 20, 1996, 8 PM Eastern I was surprised to hear about this movie last week--and when I heard the title, I thought they copied it from the comic book of the same name (or maybe from the Douglas Coupland novel). But lo and behold, it IS the comic book! I have to say they did a good job. Out of the eight members of the team, all but two are from the comic book--Banshee, White Queen, Mondo, Skin, Jubilee, M. The other two characters--a guy with eye beams and a superstrong girl--fit into the X-pantheon well. I suppose that the remaining members in the comic book would have been too costly to do the special effects for. Husk peels away her flesh, Chamber's neck is on fire, Penance would have to be computer generated, and Synch--well, I guess they could have done Synch... I hate how so much storage in my brain is filled with data on Marvel superheroes. Anyway, they did a good job. Generation X is well-written, and has that teen sexual tension we all love so much. At the very end, they show one of the members in a superhero costume--so this was clearly a pilot. It's interesting--Fox has been searching for another sci-fi hit to reach X-Files levels--so what better than another show with an X in it! *OW* [[05079FW]] Fonosta World As you may know, Fonostas are at the center of the new game of Obliviana, Obliviana Primal. And right here, in the coming weeks, the first Fonostas will be presented! *OW* [[06079SU]] Superior SUPERIOR 469 * 2/12/96 All tickets out please. Contrarian. When it is the last snow, we drink tea in the observatory, and design elevators and marketplaces. Sting. SUPERIOR 470 * 2/12/96 The west today, a quiet train, to have an enemy four thousand miles away. Certainly, flower. A fragile childhood aspiration. He wears glasses, is sensitive, and loves comic books and superheroes. Have we forgotten how to think in a wild freedom, unshackled, not self-aware, not jaded, not cool. We have lost it. Just think about it. SUPERIOR 471 * 2/20/96 That Obliviana is hard work. SUPERIOR 472 * 3/4/96 This Superior was erased by a computer freeze. It was of my weekend of emotional beating. It was about a cigar store, a crazy German woman, a trip to New York. Shall I repeat it. *OW* [[07079SA]] Severe Repair Almanac SEVERE REPAIR BOOK ONE Chapter 1--"Bastard Dumb Luck Calling"--14 pages Chapter 2--"Map Shirt Goddess"--11 pages Chapter 3--"Goodbye Popcorn"--21 pages Chapter 4--"Awake Fluffy Netherf*ck"--16 pages Chapter 5--"Bicentennial Cane"--16 pages Chapter 6--"You're a Good Man for Crying on the Job"-- 18 pages Chapter 7--"Yellowhaus"--14 pages Chapter 8--"Cup's Club"--18 pages Chapter 9--"Pattern Integrity"--13 pages Chapter 10--"Toggle Joseph"--14 pages Chapter 11--"Fabric Reactor"--18 pages Chapter 12--"80-A Clarity"--13 pages Chapter 13--"Dolthethmen"--14 pages 200 Total Pages SEVERE REPAIR BOOK TWO Chapter 14--"It's Millicent!"--11 pages Chapter 15--"Office Complex of Gumhanshire"--14 pages Chapter 16--"Hypergod Amnifaoz"--16 pages Chapter 17--"Irregular Shirt"--12 pages Chapter 18--"Reality Pickup Truck: Tom Neadows"--12 pages Chapter 19--"Went Nowhere"--11 pages Chapter 20--"Thing Ping"--17 pages Chapter 21--"Peculiar Lather"--11 pages Chapter 22--"Giant Police Car"--13 pages Chapter 23--"Daptin's Land"--13 pages Chapter 24--"Insurance"--16 pages Chapter 25--"Dog and Rabbit"--12 pages Chapter 26--"The Aleche Degrasion"--14 pages 172 Total Pages SEVERE REPAIR BOOK THREE Chapter 27--"Weaver"--11 pages Chapter 28--"Nocturnal"--12 pages Chapter 29--"Greatcoat"--11 pages Chapter 30--"Stormbolthouse Leitmotif"--12 pages Chapter 31--"Foreman Ittener Pier"--13 pages Chapter 32--"Stormbolthouse Lunatether"--14 pages Chapter 33--"Luck"--16 pages Chapter 34--"Powers of the Land"--10 pages Chapter 35--"Speed Limit 85 MPH"--18 pages Chapter 36--"Thiffor"--22 pages Chapter 37--"Ladies"--10 pages Chapter 38--"Deer Express"--13 pages Chapter 39--"To Vixenway"--11 pages 173 Total Pages SEVERE REPAIR BOOK FOUR Chapter 40--"Saving Courier Arbhay"--7 pages Chapter 41--"Gnoboslast"--8 pages Chapter 42--"Finfora"--6 pages Chapter 43--"Truly Makes It"--7 pages Chapter 44--"Belly"--7 pages Chapter 45--"The Mildred Cork"--6 pages Chapter 46--"Manny's Attempt of Suicide"--7 pages Chapter 47--"I Like Snoppy"--7 pages Chapter 48--"Humorless & Wasted, but Still Beautiful"--10 pages Chapter 49--"The Pedestrian Bride"--8 pages Chapter 50--"Winter Stadium Them"--7 pages Chapter 51--"Soot Mary"--10 pages Chapter 52--"Agatha Petunia Wack"--11 pages 101 Total Pages SEVERE REPAIR BOOK FIVE (presented in OsoaWeek Book Six) Chapter 53--"The Kiss of Version"--6 pages Chapter 54--"Witchcraft Paranoia Films"--7 pages Chapter 55--"The Clown Centaur Architect"--6 pages Chapter 56--"Coward"--10 pages Chapter 57--"The People Who Clean the Trains at Night"--8 pages Chapter 58--"As Clear as Yesterday"--6 pages Chapter 59--"Friction Eacho"--7 pages Chapter 60--"Free Dear Tours"--7 pages Chapter 61--"I Love Bailey Cong"--8 pages Chapter 62--"Fry Friend and the Exit Escalator"--7 pages Chapter 63--"A Train Park"--7 pages Chapter 64--"The Slumberotica System"--6 pages Chapter 65--"A Million Miles Out on Twicvion Lane"--7 pages 92 Total Pages GRAND TOTAL: 738 pages! *OW* [[END079OW]] -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----