|| -------- -- -----  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 109--8/24/96 <-------  ||  OsoaWeek  ||  Issues  ||  Book 9  ||  -------> (Cup OWis109, Created v1 (4/27/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = [[BEGIN109OW]] [[01109CV]] * * * O S O A W E E K 1 0 9 * * * August 24, 1996 "The weekly ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement!" by Frank Edward Nora CONTENTS 01 109 CV--Cover 02 109 LA--Lord of Obliviana 03 109 LM--Life Mysteries 04 109 ZP--Zope 05 109 SU--Superior 06 109 SR--Severe Repair OsoaWeek109, August 24, 1996 Fifth issue of OsoaWeek Book Nine Written by Frank Edward Nora Published weekly by Obliviana Super Occult Amusement obliviana@aol.com http://www.obliviana.com/~osoa 1-800-OBLIVIANA 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 from Frank Edward Nora. *OW* [[02109LA]] Lord of Obliviana ***WEEKLY RESULTS*** WEEK FIVE, Sat 8/24/96 thru Fri 8/30/96 Well, my Jeep is still languishing at a body shop, the insurance fuckers still haven't taken a look at it! Yeah. Again, didn't get much work done on Obliviana this past week. Didn't get any new Fonostas, either! WHAT'S HAPPENING!? Is Obliviana falling apart before my very eyes?! Nah! Just a minor setback, that's all. I'm taking a vacation next week, and I'll be at home for part of it, so I could potentially get caught up with everything, and get the game goin' in earnest. It's not easy when you gotta do everything! Anyway, talk to you next week, have a great time. --Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana Week Five Diggers: 0 FC Drivers: 1 FC StormLustLuck!: 1 SP: 125/Panda Fonostas Registered: Register yours now!!! Week Four Diggers: 1 FC Drivers: 1 FC StormLustLuck!: 1 SP: 67/GreenApple Fonostas Registered: None! Week Three Diggers: 0 FC Drivers: 1 FC StormLustLuck!: 1 SP: 55/Foam Fonostas Registered: 0006 Samsara Week Two Diggers: 1 FC Drivers: 1 FC StormLustLuck!: 2 SP: 156/Route22Day, 109/Morristown Fonostas Registered: 0005 Mandrake Week One Diggers: 0 FC Drivers: 1 FC StormLustLuck!: 1 SP: 157/SaskatchewanRun Fonostas Registered: 0001 Lord, 0002 Phantasmagoria, 0003 Zoanthropy, 0004 Darkness *WR* 12/27/96 * 11:37 AM * Home * Tarb 5301 Used my Tarb Calculator spreadsheet in ClarisWorks to get the Tarb quickly and easily. Hopefully once Obliviana gets some fans, a resourceful programmer will come up with a Tarb application that will always show the current Tarb. Anyway, the past few days have been tough. The 23rd they tried to dump a monstrous typesetting and redesign job on me at work, and I had to resort to saying "Please don't do this to me." I also wrote some notes for a poem I wanted to write Denice for her birthday on the 26th. Then I went down to the World Trade Center to finish up my shopping for Denice, and I bought a Santa hat with flashing light from this pathetic-looking old guy. Then Denice came and picked me up. The 24th started out wonderful, but became a mess. At about 12:30 AM, me and Denice got officially engaged on the steps of the church we're going to be married in next November. There was a ring around the moon, and we took it as a good sign. It was a wonderful experience. I went home, got some sleep, and went to work, where I got my Xmas bonus. It was a lot less than last year, as I remembered it. I questioned them about it, wondering if it was a mistake, and it became this contentious thing, and I sort of blew up. What a mess. I left work stinging hard from the incident, went over to Kate's Paperie and bought a folder made of cool paper to put the poem notes in as a birthday gift to Denice. On the bus ride home, I wrote the poem on a paper bag, fueled by the conflict at work. It was an amazingly clear case of how painful emotional experiences fuel art. I spent Xmas Eve at Denice's house with her family, and she announced to the folks who didn't know yet, and showed the ring to everybody. It was a joyous occasion, and there I was still shellshocked from work. A bit of a contrast, but I adapted quickly. Denice got me a whole lot of great presents. So did her family. Xmas morning we opened more gifts, then headed down to my grandmother's house in New Brunswick. My family is very different from hers. But we had a nice time. On the drive home, I was talking about Obliviana with Denice. Then she fell asleep and I was thinking intensely about my work situation. And I came to a decision--that I should become a freelancer/consultant, and never take a full-time job again. See, I had an interview at a new place for today, which I arranged on the 19th, I believe. But after the Xmas bonus thing, I felt like I didn't even want to show my face again at D&A, the place I'm currently working. So I definitely want to leave there, but I know that another full-time job at one place is not going to work for me. The situation at D&A is screwed up. I had complained before about how they treat their employees. I hate having to be in such a position. But I have trouble holding back my feelings. Anyway, the Xmas bonus just struck me as a final blow--as their affirmation that they view their employees with contempt. Of course, my only option is to quit. I can't do anything else, really. I have gained something, though--an understanding of why people form unions. My current employer's abuses must be mere whisper compared to other situations in the past. That is, what I have been experiencing must have been many orders of magnitude worse for other people, back when folks started to form unions. I have always had something of a megalomaniacal streak in me, mostly tamed now. It's good, then, that I got to experience what it's like working for a megalomaniac or two. It's a lesson that I won't soon forget. So now I am in a funny situation. I have this job interview in Parsippany in two hours, and I have to figure out my position. I know that I want to quit D&A as soon as possible. I will give them two weeks notice, however, because for all the bad things they made concessions, as in tolerating my chronic lateness, long lunches, etc. But part of their motivation was that they knew that I had no tolerance for criticism or insults. They knew that if they pushed it, I would have walked out long ago. So they tried to hold back the pushing. But finally, they can't hold back any longer. If you're familiar with my writings, you can see that I'm not a normal person. Going to work every day is anathema to me. It's been a constant struggle, but a subtle struggle. It's no wonder jobs never work out for me--that's why I want to go indie--work for myself. Of course, being a freelancer/consultant is a stopgap measure until I launch Obliviana. But it is a big step towards Obliviana. I will be working for myself, I will be managing my own business affairs. It will be difficult in a number of ways to make this transition. But it will be worth it. And now, in under two hours, I have to go to this interview, and state my position as regards the reasons I am there. Specifically, I have to state whether I am interested in a full-time job, or in doing freelance/consultant work for them. My current compromise is to tell them that I'd like to start off freelance, and see how things go. The danger is that I might be lulled into another false sense of security, and wind up taking a full-time job there. Of course, every job is a temporary job, ultimately. But I don't want to jump into another bad situation just to get out of D&A ASAP. Still, I desperately want to be able to quit D&A on Monday. But there is another factor here. I have information that they will be hiring a new guy who is at least somewhat proficient on the Mac. If they fire me instead of my quitting, it would be better, since I could collect up to $7,800 worth of unemployment in the next year, which would help if I go through dry spells in freelance/consultant work. I could possibly also get it if I quit--it all depends on how D&A responds to the unemployment people, if I understand it correctly. Look at what I'm dealing with. If Obliviana works, I'll look back on this time and laugh. Or maybe not. Because these experiences are refining my personality and understanding of things. As Lord of Obliviana, I could easily become very out-of-touch with reality. But right now, dealing with job interviews, and Xmas bonuses, and abuse by my employer, and insecurity, and all that--I am bathing in the same rotten reality everyone else has to deal with. And I won't forget it. Gotta go. Get all Obliviana. *OW* [[03109LM]] Life Mysteries LIFE MYSTERY 18 "The Cat World at Night" by John Nora All my life I have lived with cats, and I've always of course been fascinated with their stringent nocturnal patrollings. Where do they go and what sort of alternate dimensions of darkness do they become pharaohs of? What are they thinking to do as my dad at night sits in the bathtub inside the lighted house? In the earlier am the world of streets and cars and property lines loses most of its punch, even for humans, totally dark and deserted. But at this time cats are well-rested and can go anywhere and do anything. And what they do they do so quietly that they hardly exist. The cat at night exists as loud as a forgotten memory. If a cat doesn't want to be found, forget it! When it wants to reappear it will reappear like the flicking-on of a light-switch in the middle of the day: Striped and calm or meowling and impatient, as though it wasn't all too certain, itself, just where the heck its slim boots had taken it, maybe in bird-blood! I'd like a pair of those nightvision goggles used in the Army, and go up in the utter dark of night to my roof and try to visually follow one of my cats, who would immediately lose me in some neighbor's house-side shrubs, I'm certain, or a far, aerially-infrared-viewed garden patch like a piece of Vietnam. There goes my little cat. *OW* [[04109ZP]] Zope ZOPE 036: "Dull Space Zope" 2/20/97 ZOPE Another day drifting in deep space in this goddamn cheapo spaceship. MASTER JOE I wonder if time is still running, you know, back on the planet. Back on Halfevil. ZOPE Yeah, I've been wondering that myself. Hey Linden, is time effectively standing still back on Halfevil being that we're travelling so close to the speed of light? LINDEN I wouldn't exactly say that, Zope. ZOPE Why wouldn't you exactly say that, hijo de computa? LINDEN Multiple response. Firstly, when you travel near the speed of light, it would be YOU who slow down, hence the stationary world would speed up in a relative sense. Secondly, we are not travelling at near the speed of light. MASTER JOE I get it. Since we're only going maybe 10 or 15 thousand miles per second, as opposed to the 186,000 miles per second of the speed of light, there's no noticeable time distortion. LINDEN Correct, but we aren't going that fast, either. MASTER JOE How fast are we going then? LINDEN About forty miles per hour. ZOPE WHAT!!!???!!! MASTER JOE We'll never get anywhere at that rate! LINDEN I am sorry gentlemen. ZOPE Speed us up! LINDEN Acceleration is nasty business. MASTER JOE Why, cuzza the G-force and everything. ZOPE DAMMIT! This is too boring! Too fucking dull! Help me! Help me! MASTER JOE Yeah! Help him! Help the man! LINDEN I am unable to help Zope in this matter, Joe. ZOPE Haha! Yes! MASTER JOE Eh? ZOPE I got it! I have it! Don't you see? This is SO awesome! I have space madness! Haha, yes! *OW* [[05109SU]] Superior SUPERIOR 589 * 10/20/96 It was tough to just turn off the TV. Back to writing. Sorting it all out. Lack of time is just lack of scheduling. I was in bedroom and I was in warmness. Love is good. Talk about running water, falling water. What is known as wizard, what it is, just retreat with the lure of vending machines and artistic things, what should youth be all about, call it that. Do the walk, parking lot walk, and let us be in jungles of blandness and I am struck with coolness tonight. SUPERIOR 590 * 10/20/96 Absolutely foldedness today. The words of the mind, lost in humanity, drinking diet soda to the empty clock, anti-meaning we are corrugated, that means strangthened by our foldedness? Playing Asteroids, 2600, bedroom, thinking lazily maybe it would impress a girl that I could play it well, but that was long ago. And seashore. As having it whenever, I am cool. Now the daily experiences destined and slated to be vague nostalgic wisps of emotional pleasure/pain. Having to be at one time, call me a monkey making his own bed, sleeping in it. SUPERIOR 591 * 10/20/96 Lest. Kangaroo itself and a soul of girl of window is fine. Bad let. Ugly under the shoal. Dissing. Going. Anough. In the end it is the drama and passion of smart people. Way, I float, that is of materials that are not identified from nature, like wood might be. SUPERIOR 592 * 10/20/96 Important individuals are here now. In the shadow of silver. Grasping for interestingness, hey hey. Mysterious violence of the pentagram and the riverboat. Falt granularness. Dask vibration. This is freedom. Take. Digital equals disappointment, until the next century. Talk of red vehicle. *OW* [[06109SR]] Severe Repair (((Note: GRD001 thru 004 are transferred into Packet format here, and originally appeared in Severe Repair Book Six, Chapter 69: "Get Real, Daptin", in OsoaWeek095.))) $~GRD001 "Getting" ~~SEVERE REPAIR: A Hypertext Novel by Frank Edward Nora Storyline "Get Real Daptin" Packet 001 00007 * 3.689K * Ch69 * OW109 Copyright 1996 * All Rights Reserved~~ Am I Daptin Gone? Stupid, what a pointless train of thought, what a waste of time. Here in my Warhome, alone, alone, wanting Spanking New Sarah, wanting her, losing my mind... I created a world! I have that much power! Fox even thought I might have been THE ultimate creator of the universe! Yet I'm miserable... I just want a LIFE! I don't want to travel between alternate worlds and dimensions. I don't want to cavort with monsters and goddesses and superheroes. This sort of superlife is deadening, I don't feel human, I don't feel much at all. I just want to LIVE! A normal life... in a normal place... stuck on one world... no superstrength... having to fear being hit by a car or a passing bullet... fear for my life... I feel such power within me. Surely I can do this. Surely I can have a normal life. Surely it makes sense. I feel it. I feel it. I'm going to do it. It's going to happen. I will come back to my Warhome, back to saving the universe from Sleap Drassy, but I have to experience a LIFE. I need to be REAL. I need to get REAL. Here goes. I concentrated and felt the same sort of energy well up inside me as I felt when I created my Land. Then came a moment of unbelievable lucidity, and I thought a billion thoughts in the blink of an eye. I smiled, somehow, and then I made everything go dark. I woke up and I was in my apartment. Wow, it worked. It all worked. A bank of newly-minted memories flooded into my head. Cool. It worked perfectly. I was in the middle of a real life. My name is still Daptin Gone... my hair is still green, but that's cuz I dyed it... I live in an apartment in Jersey City, near the Newport Center Mall, a few minutes walk to the Pavonia/Newport PATH station. If I lived on the other side of my building I could see Manhattan from my balcony, but unfortunately I don't, so I get to see the Newport Mall. I was pissed, cuz I figured a view of Manhattan, especially at night, would be great to impress girls. Girls... yeah, I have a girlfriend... Bonnie Pollard... but it's not too serious... yet... I work for this guy Comma. He had his name changed, legally, to Comma, I swear! He's been into this creative stuff all his life, like publishing minicomics, putting out his music on little cassette tapes, making movies with cheap camcorders, all that. I met him in college and he kept me on his mailing list (and more recently, E-mailing list), and when he said he was starting this company "Hull" and was looking for computer people, I gave him a call and he hired me right away. I had been working in a desktop output bureau and it was miserable work. When I got the latest (and very delayed) issue of his E-mail newsletter "Comma's Coma", I was at my wit's end with that job on 14th Street in New York. But it all fell together, and he offered me about the same as I was making at Union Imaging, in the mid-30's. Comma won about $100,000 in the Connecticut Lottery, and then the next month won another $200,000 playing blackjack at the Luxor in Las Vegas. And THEN he somehow a few months later he bought a bunch of stock in this crazy IPO for this Internet company, Spacedust Sources, and sold it two days later for god-knows how much, and started Hull New Media right then and there. I've been working at Hull for two months now... and things are going pretty well. There's a cool gang of Generation Xers there, so I'm always steeped in talk of Star Wars, breakfast cereals, Brady Bunch, memories of Letterman, Zeppelin, eighties music, all that good stuff. I smiled and I was till in bed... here I am... it worked... I'm no longer in that Warhome... no longer part of all that interdimensional intrigue... I'm HERE. ~$GRD001 $~GRD002 "Figurine Dream" ~~SEVERE REPAIR: A Hypertext Novel by Frank Edward Nora Storyline "Get Real Daptin" Packet 002 00008 * 4.436K * Ch69 * OW109 Copyright 1996 * All Rights Reserved~~ It was... a Saturday. I... I was supposed to call Ann from work about going to Figurine Dream at the mall at South Street Seaport to get some statch work done for the Hull Gang chess set, which was my idea. Figurine Dream is this awesome idea... I think the one at the Seaport is one of the first... they have this full-body scanner, where you step onto this pedestal and stand perfectly still while all these scanners and things input you in 3-D into this Silicon Graphics computer... and then you get to preview the model of yourself on this screen, and see if you want it "printed" out on this "object printer" thing. It's so cool... there's this layer of plastic resin or something, and a laser inscribes it, and wherever the laser touches, the liquid becomes solid... then it lowers that later, and starts working on another one. And after a few hours, voila!, a perfect little figurine of you! So I figured we could put together a chess set with all the people from Hull... with Comma as King of course... they have three object printers, with three different resin colors (brownish, bluish, and greenish)... we decided to go with the brown and the green, kind of a nature theme, good juxtaposition with the heavy techno theme of our lives. I went down there with Ann and Brandy this past week and checked it out... Brandy got a scan, but the printers were down. The scan alone cost $29.95! The figures range from $19.99 for the smallest to about a hundred for the largest. So our chess set is gonna cost us at least a grand, but Comma likes the idea and says he'll chip in for part of it. When we were down there I bought a few bootleg videos... of "The Cable Guy" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". Ann and Brandy think I'm crazy paying $10 for a shitty bootleg rather than spend $8 to see it in glorious cinema. But who has time to go to the movies? "Cable Guy" was alright. Kinda cool to see Jim Carrey in a darker movie, a movie that's at least ambitious, at least trying to do something more than be a backdrop for Carrey's "genius". With all these thoughts ringing in my mind, I got out of bed, naked, and headed for the bathroom to piss. Looking down at my body, I marveled at it... so frail... so real... if I jumped out the window, I'd be killed... I know this probably doesn't sound like something that should excite me, but it's like... like the feeling you get when you're out all day in the heat in oppressive clothes, and finally come home and strip them all off and take a shower... all of my invulnerability and superstrength and power served as a security blanket... but life is boring when you know that no matter what happens, you'll just keep on ticking... I had my HUMANITY back... and it felt wonderful... But what if I DID die here? What would happen? Would I be whisked back to the Warhome, the whole thing having been as a dream? Or would I indeed be dead, faced with whatever afterlife this world has to offer? I didn't know. I also didn't know how long my memories of my "real" life would last. As I pissed, I realized that I was fully aware of everything... my induction into Overwhelm... my introduction to Agoopish... my mission for the Caxopy sisters with the Cup of Coffee... the Goodbye Popcorn and being erased from existence... my salvation by Ultra Occult Entity Obfuser... Wreckage Mallie's gun kemig call that ruined and crashed the universe... and the fall into nothingness, where I reached out and created a Land of my own... my resurrection of Red Archer Booze after Prince Ferrajalt killed her... to getting booted out of my own Land by Booze and Sleap Drassy... to my meeting up with Agatha Petunia Wack... back to my apartment at Greatwall, back to the Cup of Coffee... then Ferrajalt walked in... then I got the psychic plea from Bellicose Billion... and we went off to save him... and wound up a million miles out on Twicvion Lane... and made Warhomes out of the buttons in Ferrajalt police uniform... to the endless days and weeks of driving along... of masturbation and frustration... till finally I reached out and made a new life for myself here... And I smiled as I shook the leftover urine off the end of my penis, as it came to mind a whole mindfuck, of all of that maybe being a fantasy, with this new life being my true life... living with two sets of memories is mentally stressful... but I like not knowing... I like being unsure... I like being human again. ~$GRD002 $~GRD003 "Chess Challenge for the Video Generation" ~~SEVERE REPAIR: A Hypertext Novel by Frank Edward Nora Storyline "Get Real Daptin" Packet 003 00009 * 3.079K * Ch69 * OW109 Copyright 1996 * All Rights Reserved~~ I walked back into my bedroom, sat on the bed, and picked up a big trade paperback that was on the floor, "Chess Challenge for the Video Generation". Comma sent me out the other day to get him these really obscure cigarettes that he likes, Waster's Umbers, and I had to take the 6-Train up to somewhere in the 70's or 80's, and when I got out there was this cool little alley with all these oriental stores and stuff. One place sold just monster figurines--Godzilla, Ultraman, that sort of stuff. Another one was this awesome used bookstore run by this old Chinese guy. I went in and asked him where "Wong News" was, since that was the place that Comma thought might have the Wasters. The guy told me "This IS Wong News!", so I looked around and didn't see any cigarettes, and asked him about it, and he said that the cigarette guy didn't come yet... apparently he takes his entire stock away with him when he leaves, and he only sets up for a few hours a day. He said the guy would be there within the half-hour, so I started browsing the books, knowing that Comma would rather me be out for a long time than come back empty-handed. The first book that caught my eye was an old hardcover with a worn jacket called "Rock Formations in the U.S.", and I looked to see if Shenandoah National Park in Virginia was listed, because I always liked the rock formations there. It wasn't. Instead, it was sort of a narrative... maybe a story... about the development of National Parks and stuff. It was all in two-color... black and a light green. I read about how this one guy with a hard hat on did something to upset these other guys with hard hats, and then put it back on the shelf. Then I found "Chess Challenge for the Video Generation"... a gorgeous piece of work, four-color on every page, with tons of photos of vid-kids against dark backgrounds, faces lit by video screens. It was published in 1982, and was an attempt to teach chess strategies by relating them to video games. For example, they had a chart showing how bad defense can allow one piece to start chomping up your pieces just like Pac-Man. Stuff like that. An awesome book. Anyway, I got the chess book and the obscure cigarette guy came. He had three variations of Waster's Umbers! There were two different sizes of the regular Umbers (regular and tall), and also Waster's Umber Blackjacks, with a really awesome, colorful package. I asked him about them, and he said enigmatically "They're not available in this country." I bought two packs each of the regulars and talls, and three packs of the Blackjacks, figuring I'd like to keep a box for myself, just to put on the shelf, since I smoke cigars, not cigarettes. It cost me almost $100, which I put on my American Express, knowing that Comma would gladly pay me back. I felt a surge of pride for serving my "master" well. When I got back Comma was indeed thrilled with the discovery of Waster's Umber Blackjacks, and said he was gonna go up there the next day and deal with the guy personally... he said he sounded like a good gray market connection... ~$GRD003 $~GRD004 "The Yellows" ~~SEVERE REPAIR: A Hypertext Novel by Frank Edward Nora Storyline "Get Real Daptin" Packet 004 00010 * 2.503K * Ch69 * OW109 Copyright 1996 * All Rights Reserved~~ Brandy showed us a movie she made in college which she digitized into QuickTime. We watched the tiny image on a computer screen. She a very interesting girl, half Apache Indian and half Filipino. You might think she'd be a real beauty with that kind of heritage, but somehow she didn't luck out with the old gene pool. She has a weird case of bad acne, and her body is kind of skinny and weird. She has a really good personality, though. Her movie, "The Yellows", was about this evil force that's let loose into the world, and how people deal with it. The best scene was on this train car, where a Yellow was slowly moving down the aisle, turning people into little pieces of candy and eating them. It was this 7 or 8 foot tall mannequin or something, and it was really scary. The two main characters, these two guys, were sitting there and no one was moving, and they were talking about how if everyone started running away, there's no way they would make it, because they were so far from the exit. So no one knew what to do. Finally they popped open the emergency exit and got out while the rest of the people were destroyed. Outside, the two guys were wondering if they should call the police or the government or something, with this evil force turning people into candy and eating them. But they figured that someone else was sure to inform the authorities, so they went to an ATM, took out all the money they could, broke into a car, hotwired it, and started driving south. That's how the movie ended. It was pretty good, but I wish I could have seen it on a bigger screen. Huh. I wondered about all these memories. Did all this stuff really happen, or not? I remembered when I first got hired at Hull... I decided to celebrate by having my hair colored green... something I had always wanted to do but never had the guts to go ahead with. All these memories, well-oiled and fitting like a glove, but none of it ever happened. But other people would REMEMBER me being there, remember everything being real. I wonder if anyone else has ever had to deal with a set of dual memories? Hull New Media has it's offices in The Ed Sullivan Theater Office building on 53rd Street, right next to the Letterman show. Every evening tons of tourists and other assorted thrill-seekers gather on 53rd to catch a glimpse of departing celebrities... or at least Biff Henderson... So that's where I am... here in my new life... which will last who knows how long... but I know it'll be fun while it lasts... ~$GRD004 $~GRD005 "Hull TV" ~~SEVERE REPAIR: A Hypertext Novel by Frank Edward Nora Storyline "Get Real Daptin" Packet 005 00014 * 4.824K * New '96 * OW109 Copyright 1996 * All Rights Reserved~~ Daptin here. I've been in the real world for a few months now. The days pass by, and I am beset by the little annoyances of being normal. Like the PATH train I take into Manhattan. I really hate those trains. Sometimes I walk over to Hoboken and take the ferry to the World Financial Center, then the 1-Train up to Hull New Media. I have taken the PATH from Pavonia/Newport where I live to Hoboken, and then taken the ferry, but that takes a long time and in the time it takes to go to Hoboken I could have gotten to World Trade, or 34th St. if I feel like walking or talking another subway. So you can see what I'm up against. Craving a normal life, I am now cursing its downfalls. But the thought of returning to my Warhome and continuing on with my adventure to save the universe is just too much to bear right now... I think I need a few more years of being real before I can even think about going back to that. I wonder about my memory. I created this current circumstance for myself and plugged myself into it. But I still remember perfectly what came before. So I have this dual set of memories--one the true memory, and one the fabricated memory of this made-up persona I am now playing at. I have considered trying to erase the memories of my real life, but I am still concerned over what happens in my Land, and I don't want to get stuck here forever slumming in normality. And how do I end this scenario anyway? I mean, I'm human now, and I don't have any special powers. I haven't tried my hardest to get out of here, cuz I don't want to risk losing the "charm" that's keeping me here. But without trying, I have to wonder whether or not I've locked myself in a cage and thrown away the key. And since I've been getting more and more annoyed with this way of life, I've grown ever more concerned as to the "out". But I got my answer. It was last week, and Comma called a meeting and told us about his new idea, of how the cyber-realm of Hull had to be supported by television. He said that online services were still viewed as a second-class medium, and that to really make a big splash on the mass mind, you have to do television. So he described his idea for "Hull TV". I paraphrase: "Hull TV has to be thought of as a cable channel, even though it probably never will be--it'll be delivered over the Internet. But we're talking a single-signal, 24-hour thing here. With commercials, but not the normal sort of commercials. The main idea is that there are not shows... or rather, just one show. Basically we're talking a soap opera, maybe a cross between 90210 and Dark Shadows--just to give you a general idea. We'll have a cast of the usual shockingly attractive and perky young folks, and it'll have these really cool storylines and stuff, could be real freeform at times. But then, and here's the twist, we feature the reality of the production of the show, I mean, it'll be like the MTV Real World, except that we're focusing on the production of the soap opera and the lives of the actors and other people involved in it... maybe even what's going on here and in the Hull cyber-realm... maybe the soap will even involve the cyber-realm. I don't know, I'm still working it out. But anyway, we'll have features of what it's like making the show, with the real people and everything, and the show itself, but there's a lot more than that. For one thing, there will be commercials, but these will be produced using the same actors that are in the show and the Real World part, either straight on-air ads like Howard Stern used to do on Channel 9, or produced stuff like a guy and a girl flirting with this instant coffee as a real big thing in their lives. (((We all laughed at that line--Daptin))). So that will be one thing, but it will also be like MTV in that the actors will also be like veejays, and will "host" the channel, announcing and showing various clips, and in a 24-hour broadcast day there will be a new episode, maybe an hour's worth, which will be shown several times, and then there will be selected clips from that show shown more times, and then classic clips from past shows, and also recaps of storylines and everything else. I want to make it so that you can tune in anytime and not feel lost--so that you're encouraged to tune in as much as you can, but not feel that because you're not tuning in enough you're missing something--the idea is that everything important that happens in the story--and in the Real World part too--will always be rebroadcast and stuff. This, my friends, will be the vital ingredient that has been missing--along with the Hull cyber-realm and your Hullself, there will be this TV channel always going, and the one will compliment the other, and I think we can make some pretty mean celebrities out of this experiment." Well, you see what I mean. ~$GRD005 *OW* [[END109OW]] -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----