|| -------- -- -----  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 110--8/31/96 <-------  ||  OsoaWeek  ||  Issues  ||  Book 9  ||  -------> (Cup OWis110, Created v1 (4/27/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = [[BEGIN110OW]] [[01110CV]] * * * O S O A W E E K 1 1 0 * * * August 31, 1996 "The weekly ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement!" by Frank Edward Nora CONTENTS 01 110 CV--Cover 02 110 LA--Lord of Obliviana 03 110 LM--Life Mysteries 04 110 ZP--Zope 05 110 SU--Superior 06 110 SR--Severe Repair OsoaWeek110, August 31, 1996 Sixth 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* [[02110LA]] Lord of Obliviana ***WEEKLY RESULTS*** WEEK SIX, Sat 8/31/96 thru Fri 9/6/96 I'm on vacation, and I'm working on the foundation of Obliviana. I've been trying to answer the question "What is Obliviana?" for years. And y'know what? I finally have the answer. It's interesting that Superior 209, published in OsoaWeek040, April 27, 1995, sums up the answer: "Wonder, we're coming back." Right now, I'm working on the Dimensional Almanac of Obliviana, which will be a text that fully answer the question "What is Obliviana?" You might think that I should have had the Dimensional Almanac finished BEFORE starting Obliviana Primal. That woulda made sense, certainly. But what the heck! It's all happenin'! Obliviana is gonna be launching for real, real soon. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show! --Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana Week Five Diggers: 2 FC Drivers: 1 FC StormLustLuck!: 1 SP: 68/GreenArchery Fonostas Registered: Register yours now!!! Week Five Diggers: 0 FC Drivers: 1 FC StormLustLuck!: 1 SP: 125/Panda Fonostas Registered: None! 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* 12/28/96 * 11:49 PM * Home * Tarb 5307 Yeah. Yeah. 1996 running out. I'm not as anxious for '96 to end as I was for '95 to end. This year's ending feels like an ending in a lot of ways. And, of course, a new beginning. As 1989 ended, so ended my dream of Anything But Monday. 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996. Seven years. Seven years of struggle and confusion. Now ended, and I move into another seven year plan. 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003. What about the seven years up to 1989? 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989. Much more exciting overall. But I was terribly immature through those seven years. 12/29/96 * 7:41 PM Well, gotta go to work tomorrow. And I gotta act like I'm not gonna quit real soon. Fucked up. So the interview for the new job went well. It's very tempting to take the new job and get away from D&A. I know that it would be better for me to move into freelance/consulting work. But the downside of that is the amount of work I have to put in to get work, above and beyond the work I'll be doing for money. And in 1997, I need to devote all the energy I can to Obliviana. It sucks that I'm so preoccupied with the specifics of this job transition. I gotta make sure to backup all my personal files that are at work, and then delete them. Obliviana files will serve no purpose there once I'm gone. I have to view this whole thing in a more detached way. At some level, I view quitting as retribution for stuff that's happened. Like getting all this shit typesetting work dumped on me. My boss reasons that it makes him more money, so it's good. But it drives ME crazy, and it's part of the reason I'm quitting. So I want to say to him, "Idiot, it'll make you money in the short run, but if people quit over it, you'll LOSE money in the long run!" I know that I am not irreplaceable, but it will be hard for them to find a replacement as good as me, and therefore they won't be able to get as much work done without me, at least in the short run. Yeah. I'm getting all flustered over this. I should be concentrating on Obliviana. But I am wise enough to know that getting flustered like this provides me with a valuable experience. Of course, this sort of reasoning can only go so far. Um, I'm a little lost right now. The holidays have (and continue to) disorient me. OsoaWeek is drifting aimlessly, and is not as much of an anchor as it used to be. I remember an article in Wired Magazine about this guy who's been spending decades working on an idealistic hypertext system called "Xanadu", which never quite becomes a reality. He's terribly afflicted with Attention Deficit Disorder, and records massive amounts of audio and video tapes, which he hopes someone else will sort through in the future, because he will never be able to. Remembering this article, I wonder if the same thing might be happening to me. It's funny, cuz Obliviana is headed toward incorporating some level of hypertext. Where is Obliviana going, anyway? I've been refining my ideas steadily over the past several weeks, and I realize that I'm not quite sure where I've gotten. So let me analyze what I have. As of now, Obliviana is an online world, built out of Fonostas. Fonostas are the basic building blocks. Fonosta Zero is the foundation, which contains all common information and the blueprint for the totality of Obliviana. Fonosta One is my Fonosta, where all my creative work (apart from Fonosta Zero) resides. Fonostas Two and above are used by members of Obliviana, one per person. The multiple-user aspect of Obliviana is something that has been with me for a long time, even though I have de-emphasized and avoided the aspect in the past. But now I cannot escape from this aspect as a basic component of Obliviana. So, Obliviana is an online "service", with many users, and a unique interface, called "Primitive". And the REASON for Obliviana is because I believe that it will be a GOOD thing for a whole lot of people. I've always considered expandability as another core aspect of Obliviana. Or you could call it "scalability". It's the idea that Obliviana can start off small, and then get bigger and bigger as more and more people come on board. In order for this to work, the initial design has to be RIGHT. Developing this RIGHT structure is what I've been struggling with so much recently. I am experiencing some weird identity stuff now. I think it's that a lot of layers of pretense are being stripped away, and I am faced with who I really am. Hard to describe. But it seems like this idea of seven years of frustration refining my personality and who I am... um... Okay. Let's take this 7-year idea for granted. As 1990 began, I was miserably immature and inexperienced in many ways. Now, as 1997 is about to begin, I am much more mature, much more experienced, much more confident. It was really cool at that job interview that I was CONFIDENT. So during the past seven years I've been in this mode of avoiding success, subconsciously. It may have all been subconscious, to put it in conventional terms. A subconscious awareness that I was not yet ready, as a person, to launch Obliviana. Success can stunt a person's emotional growth. I feel like the past seven years of experience has been dead-on effective in making me an adult, while still retaining all of my sense of Wonder. So, the transition from that mode of existence to a mode of success is understandably difficult. Fighting my way out of my egg. Ready to be born. All that. It occurs to me that this sort of writing might be tiresome to read. But of course, it will be identified as what it is, so that someone will not read it without knowing that it's a weird sort of self-analysis. Okay. 8:45 PM Of course, another aspect of this seven-year "waiting period" of Obliviana is that Obliviana itself is vastly improved over what I had at the dawn of 1990. I hadn't even come up with the term "Obliviana" yet at that point. But many of the ideas in the current Obliviana were there at that time, but were extremely undeveloped. Just cleaned off the "x" key of my keyboard, which was particularly dirty. Anyway, I'm doing all this analysis and everything. But I want to describe where Obliviana is at NOW. Okay. Let's get down to exactly what Obliviana is all about. [1] PRIMITIVE Primitive is the digital interface which is the medium of Obliviana. A grid off 11 by 19 squares, each of which can have any one of 16 colors. The exception is the square representing your Fonosta, which can potentially have any pattern of the 16 colors in its 16-by-16 pixel makeup. To clarify, all squares are made up of 16-by-16 pixels, but as a rule they are all of a solid color, except Fonostas. Basic Fonosta squares are broken up into four sub-squares, each of which is colored with a color representing the digits of the Fonosta's number. The Fonosta can move up, down, left and right. There is no scrolling, but rather, static screens. Screens change as the Fonosta moves certain places. The simplest example of this is moving beyond the edge of one screen and onto another. All screens have a black background. 9:35 PM Then there is the idea of Flipside. Flipside is a screen which is "on the other side" of... 11:13 PM I paid my bills! I forked over upwards of $2,500 and still they're not all paid! But I did it! A burden lifted off my shoulders! It was tormenting me for so long... and I got the whole thing done in less than an hour once I just sat down and DID IT! Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, the Flipside. Flipside is the "other side" of the Primitive screen, which contains different things depending on where you are on the Primitive screen. These Flipsides are far more flexible in terms of what they can display. Right now, I'm thinking in terms of buttons and links and thumbnails on the Flipside. That is, previews with links to full versions of the content. Either this, or the content itself, on a larger screen. I haven't decided yet. In any event, Primitive is an idea that could by itself be the basis for an entire company. In Obliviana, there are several such ideas, each of which is strong enough to be the basis of a company. And another of these is... [2] FONOSTA Fonosta is a device, a tool. It is similar to the idea of an "avatar", or cyberspace body, with appearance and attributes. Fonosta is an extension of a person into cyberspace, but in a very structured way. It is understood that each Fonosta represents a single individual, and no individual should have more than one Fonosta. So a Fonosta REPRESENTS a real person. A living, breathing human being is BEHIND each and every Fonosta. Let me contrast Fonosta with a few other online representors. America Online provides people with cyber-presence. But each person may go in under different names, and a person may change their profile at any time, and put in any sort of false information. These shifting names and profiles are one problem, but another problem is the environment of AOL. It is generally unstructured, and it tends to bring out the worst in people. In terms of allowing other people to perceive YOU as a real person online, AOL stinks. The Palace is another online world, which is graphical in nature. Here also, people are not only allowed, but ENCOURAGED to change the way they look frequently. As well, name-changing is easy. Both these online realms allow any sort of alphanumeric sequence pass for names. These "names" are often disruptive gibberish. Fonosta incorporates a much different philosophy. In all aspects of Fonosta identity, there is a very strong structure. Names must be words that appear in the dictionary. Appearance is standardized, with limited variations available at the beginning and also as members increase in power within the game. As well, there will be standard, basic information about people that will not change. People will reveal only as much about themselves as they're comfortable with, but the information that is revealed will be accurate. Fonosta creates a cyber presence for you. But it doesn't thrust you into a meaningless labyrinth with your new identity, like other online services do. In Obliviana, you are part of a community with a small number of major directions. That is, Obliviana is not all things to all people, but rather, it is a game with several different thrusts. The game is the motivator, the socializer, that which makes things happen. In order to meet people and socialize you always need some sort of pretext. Obliviana is that pretext. I am talking about Obliviana in general here, and Fonosta is the basic building block of Obliviana. 1/1/97 * 9:00 PM There is a whole nother aspect to Fonosta--its relationship to... [3] 209 Well, it's 1997. My fiance's mother believes that what you do on the first day of the year will set the stage for remaining 364 days of the year. So you know I gotta work on Obliviana today! Anyway, I'm continuing here with the major aspects of Obliviana. I've already covered Primitive and Fonosta. One observation that I've made about these major aspects is the each could be the basis of a company on its own. So the idea is that with a bunch of these major aspect, I'll be able to create a company with a lot of stuff going on, where if one aspects doesn't do too well, chances are another aspect will make up for it. Something like that. So now, 209. 209 is an occult system which explores undiscovered realms of human freedom. The basic system uses 11 Flips and 19 Dires, represented by 11 Colors and 19 Totems. Each Pilferid (Dire/Flip) combination forms a Storm, which is represented by a Storm Pelter, a square, colorful, abstract image. Using a Storm Codex (deck of cards or other system), the player(s) set(s) a Storm and then performs a series of Friction Enhancers (strange, harmless action), with the goal of getting "Blivs" (unlikely events and situations). The Fonosta Device is used to motivate and record 209 activities. 209 is to be fully described in a book called "Forge of Wander", starring Balbi the Winter Squirrel and Sappenfield the Winter Parrot. As you might be able to tell, I don't really feel like writing about 209 right now. Let it suffice to say that 209 is absolutely a major aspect of Obliviana. Also, with its 209 aspect, Fonosta becomes something much more than just a cyber-presence. It becomes an essential tool in defining your life. A bold statement, eh? 9:50 PM Talked to Peter Litkey. One aspect of Obliviana which has been emerging in the recent development process is the idea of creating an Internet-based talk/humor radio station. I'll detail this idea later. So--the three major aspects so far--Primitive, Fonosta, and 209. These three represents a huge array of ideas, and even if these were the extent of Obliviana, it would be potent. But there are more major aspects. Let me go over the rest of the major aspect now, because they're still coalescing in my mind. One major aspect is competition, pure game. I don't have a code name for it yet, but it is the aspect of Fonosta which is formal and gamelike. This aspect is apart from Fonosta because Fonosta could exist without it. But with it, Fonosta, and the entirety of Obliviana that is made up of Fonostas, is greatly enhanced. This competition aspects also meshed with 209, providing much structure and motivation. 10:08 PM Let me propose the thought that in 1997 now I am starting with a blank slate. Of course, I'm not really starting with a blank slate, but I do have the opportunity to recreate Obliviana any way I like for the June 28 launch. So I don't want to be bound by previous ideas. I want to move forward with Obliviana as I know it should be. Okay. The new way I have of defining Obliviana is with this idea of major aspects, each one strong enough to carry a company by itself. I have defined four so far, and I want to get to eight, because eight has always been the magic number for me as regards the number of aspects of my core endeavor. So let me discuss two more major aspects now--Severe Repair and Talk Radio (this aspect also needs a name). Severe Repair is my hypertext sci-fi novel, which I feel is the strongest of my creative works, along with Zope and Superior. I have been thinking of bringing Superior into Severe Repair, and I think that might be a good idea. I have toyed with the idea of also meshing Zope into Severe Repair, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that Zope has to be by himself. Here is a set of eight Obliviana aspects from six months ago: 1: OBLIVIANA PRIMAL 2: 209 3: SEVERE REPAIR 4: ZOPE 5: SUPERIOR 6: WELCOME TO THE WEASEL VILLAGE MALL 7: FORGE OF WANDER 8: SUPER OBJECT Let's analyze this. 1: OBLIVIANA PRIMAL 2: 209 3: SEVERE REPAIR/SUPERIOR 4: ZOPE 5: 6: (Talk Radio) 7: (Competition) 8: SUPER OBJECT Here I have combined Severe Repair and Zope, and changed Welcome to the Weasel Village Mall and Forge of Wander into the major aspect they are closest to. Hence: 1: Primitive 2: Fonosta 3: (Competition) 4: (Talk Radio) 5: Severe Repair 6: 209 7: Zope 8: ? Here I have listed what I have right now. Note that Severe Repair now incorporates Superior. There is one slot left. I have to really think this out to determine what the last slot will represent. Super Object is part of Friction Enhancer which is part of 209. Obliviana Primal was conceived of as the online/common realm, and is now represented by Primitive and Fonosta. Perhaps Wonder can be the last aspect. Wonder is an idea about the nature of the universe. Wonder is that which we lost long ago and seek to regain. Another possible candidate for the last slot is Archive, the idea of preserving digital data for the rest of human history. But this is really incorporated into Fonosta, as another aspect of Fonosta. New Jersey has been another aspect that I've had in the past. It will certainly be a part of Obliviana, but I don't know if it is something that could support a company on its own... but maybe... like a NJ simulator... and the NJ-based superhero game Antebellum... but then, Antebellum could be incorporated into Severe Repair... hmmm... 10:46 PM I am getting a little overwhelmed by this whole thing. But it's the overall change in my life that 1997 represents rather than just the refinement of Obliviana. A key issue for me right now is confidence. I have a great deal of confidence in my creative abilities, but I don't have so much confidence in my ability to make thing a reality. In other words, I am unsure of my ability to make things happen, rather than let things happen to me. This issue is key to the transition from the previous seven-year cycle to the next. I have gained the maturity, skills, and refinement that I needed to gain over the past seven years. In some ways, 1997 is like 1990--the old endeavor--ABM--is over, and it's time to move on to the new endeavor. In 1990 I was totally unready to do this. But now, I am quite ready. Let me talk a little bit about the Talk Radio idea. Audio and video have always been a part of my work, and I have some really strong material in audio and video. I've been thinking that I should focus on audio and de-emphasize video. This relates to the idea of classic video games being better than the current video games, where the essential argument is that the classic games stimulate your imagination more. This is the same argument folks have used over the years to compare radio to TV--that radio makes you use your imagination, whereas TV leaves little to the imagination. So I think that from a philosophical standpoint, audio is more in tune with Obliviana. But it's also better from a technological standpoint--specifically, that audio is easier to distribute on the Internet than video is. In fact, Internet radio is now blooming, and will become more and more advanced in the next few years. I envision web browsers having a radio tuner, where you type in a URL for your favorite station, and it comes on in the background while you go on to browse the Web. I think this technological advancement is only a year or two away from being incorporated into Netscape and other browsers. I don't have any specific information regarding this, but from what I know, it is almost inevitable. Think about it--the WWW is, and will probably continue to be mostly silent, and talk or music can be drunk while doing other stuff. Like listening to the radio while you're driving. Three endeavors that I know of right now are RealAudio, Audio Highway, and DICE. These are all major efforts to bring digital, Internet-delivered audio to people. 1/2/97 * 12:30 AM Wow. 1997. It's cool that it's 1997. Anyway, I was getting totally overwhelmed by all my reasoning about Obliviana. Or rather, I think I was getting freaked out by the prospect of Obliviana becoming a reality. But it's 1997, and I have to shift gears, totally. It's funny. I was late paying my cable bill and all that comes on now is the TV listing channel, so I popped in an old Howard Stern Show tape from 1990. 1990, the first year of my previous seven year phase. Okay. So let me get back to the plan for Obliviana. I'm defining the major aspects, and once they're set, I'm going to start to implement the plan. Obliviana is a digital thing, an Internet thing. And it is, in the simplest terms, an online game. 1/3/97 * 3:05 AM OBLIVIANA: 1: Primitive COMPUTER INTERFACE 2: Fonosta TOOL FOR IDENTITY 3: (Competition) MOTIVATION & VITALITY 4: (Talk Radio) CULTURE & SENSE OF FUN 5: Severe Repair (Hypertext) WILD THINKING 6: 209 REAL WORLD INTERFACE 7: Zope (Hypergraphics?) OBLIVIANA ZEITGEIST 8: ? Common thing moved along by everyone's involvement, something that spills over into general society, a big thing that you are part of, that keeps on moving, keeps on getting better. Players use the Primitive interface to work on their Fonostas, while competing with other Fonostas and listening to Obliviana Talk Radio. Offcomputer they do 209 and then record what they did in their Fonosta online. Then they read the latest Severe Repair and Zope comics. Fonosta spans computer and reality, enhancing identity in both. Positivity and optimism. Building a better world. 1/3/97 * 8:37 PM Last night I got home from hanging out at the bowling alley and diner with my fiance after 2:00 AM. I parked in lot way back from my building. I got out and it was cold and raining. I saw an orange cat eating from a paper plate. I walked by the cat, not too close, and I waited to see if the cat might want to be friendly, but it looked at me and ran away. Then it paused, and I paused too, trying to be friendly, but it ran away again. Okay. So I walk to my door, and on the porch is what looks to be the same cat! As I approached, it ran away. Okay. This morning I go out to my Jeep and I see the cat again, and it runs away again. Then I see the paper plate the cat had been eating off the night before STUCK UNDERNEATH my windshield wiper! For a moment I though it might have been the wind, but looking at it, there was no way. So I took the plate out, threw it aside, and went to work. When I returned to my Jeep (which I had driven to the other side of my apartment complex, closer to the bus stop) I noticed catprints on my hood, in dry mud. I hadn't noticed them this morning, but then, I was in a rush and didn't really look. So how did the plate get under my windshield wiper? It was the driver's side, and only an inch or two of the plate was under the wiper. The only logical explanation is that someone put the plate there, and the cat went up there to try and eat what was left stuck to the plate. Maybe a kid playing a prank? It was around 9:30 AM when I got to my Jeep this morning. Oh well. I was flipping out at work before. The guy from the new place I might work for asked me for references and stuff, and was acting like a dick about stuff. Also, there's this videogame auction tomorrow in Pennsauken and I really want to go, and my fiance and her mother were like making me feel guilty about going and stuff. But I gotta put my foot down sometime. I can never stand being controlled. So I took this cardboard tube from the imagesetter film and I was bashing things with it--the floor, the chairs, the sides of a table. I was really going nuts. What I want to do is to start Obliviana and work on it full time. Very simple. But there are all these impediments in my way. This new job is starting to look as fucking goddamn annoying as the one I'm at. I hate these people. All that stuff I talked about earlier--about learning lessons from all these aggravating experiences, fuck that shit now. It's 1997, and I don't want to deal with that sort of crap anymore. I've gained a lot of valuable experience working in digital prepress, but enough is fucking enough! Here I am, a total fucking creative genius and I'm bashing my brains against the wall in what amounts to a glorified factory job. No wonder I'm bashing things with a cardboard tube! I gotta get out of this rut. Getting out of ruts is what Obliviana is all about. Gotta be some kind of answer in this direction of thinking. I'm sitting here naked, planning on taking a shower soon, it's 8:50 PM, I gotta be at the auction in about 12 hours, Denice hasn't called yet, she's out to dinner with a friend, I gotta go to my parents' house in Martinsville and borrow the pickup truck, then go all the way to Pennsauken, near Cherry Hill. In 12 hours. I wanted to go down tonight and stay at a hotel, but where I'm at now, I wouldn't get to the hotel till maybe 1:00 AM. And I'd have to get up around 7:00. You might think all these difficulties would suggest perhaps canceling the whole idea of going to this arcade video game auction. But I gotta go. I gotta get a Mappy, Mike Massotto's gotta get an R.B.I. Baseball, me and Denice gotta get a cocktail (the table-shaped games) for our apartment when we get one, and Mike Etler's gotta get god know how many games. Plus I missed it the last few times, and--most importantly--I have a few hundred dollars to spare right now, which I probably won't have again for a while. Whew. I'm smoking a really cheap cigar that I've smoked for the past few nights. In fact, I think this is the third night in a row that I've smoked the SAME cigar. And you know what? It's not bad! Let me switch gears here for one second. In my planning for Obliviana, I have moved toward the idea of user content. That is, a portion of the content that people will drink in will be created by fellow users. I have been against this philosophy for a long time. It's very dangerous for one simple reason--very few people can create stuff that other people will truly enjoy. 1/5/97 * 11:50 PM Went to auction, got a Make Trax cocktail. Tomorrow, gotta decide the best way to take off Tuesday and Wednesday--tell them beforehand, or call in sick. Either way sucks. And either way, they'll figure out I'm looking at another job. Continuing on the last thing I wrote last time, the idea of user content us indeed hazardous. But I have to remember--most of the people who will be using Obliviana will not be able to produce stuff that other users will find very entertaining. 1/6/97 * 11:10 PM Checking out new job tomorrow. Wandered Manhattan earlier. Blasts from the past. That is what. 1997. Change is rampant. Change is good. But the right amount. Always that tricky balancing act, eh? From above: 1: Primitive COMPUTER INTERFACE 2: Fonosta TOOL FOR IDENTITY 3: (Competition) MOTIVATION & VITALITY 4: (Talk Radio) CULTURE & SENSE OF FUN 5: Severe Repair (Hypertext) WILD THINKING 6: 209 REAL WORLD INTERFACE 7: Zope (Hypergraphics?) OBLIVIANA ZEITGEIST 8: ? Common thing moved along by everyone's involvement, something that spills over into general society, a big thing that you are part of, that keeps on moving, keeps on getting better. One idea I've been working on is the idea of Obliviana NOT being open to everyone. But I do want Obliviana to be open, so maybe I can deal with this issue through a ranking system of some sort, where folks have to work hard to rise through the Fonosta ranks. All stressed out? My fiance thought so before on the phone. Funny, I didn't feel like it, or maybe I didn't notice it, but I am stressed, okay? Okay. Another idea I had was that the Talk Radio idea could come into focus as the main thing in Obliviana. Just an idea. But think about it... Severe Repair "audiobooks", etc... I was swerving into the user content direction, where I become just another user. Albeit, a good one. But I have to modify this somewhat. Hence, Zope and Severe Repair as intrinsic attributes. I wonder if anyone understood that? I'm so steeped in my own theories and language, I forget that most people aren't too familiar with all my stuff. So to explain what I just said--I am trying to come up with a set of aspects for Obliviana. The Fonosta aspect contains content created by Fonosta users. Therefore, in the recent system, Zope and SR are part of the Fonosta aspect, considered user-created content. But in this new idea, my main creations are in themselves major aspects. Does it sound like I'm just indulging some very involved mental masturbation? It may seem that way, but it's not the case. Obliviana has always been in my mind, but it's not coming to the surface without a fight. It's the fight, see, that makes me into the sort of person who can IMPLEMENT the ideas. If I had all these ideas in their entirety say ten years ago, when I was 19, I wouldn't have had a good personality or level of maturity to make Obliviana into something good. Anyway... I have all the ingredients. But the way I implement the ideas will certainly make or break Obliviana. Right now I conceive of Obliviana as an online service. But I've also been thinking of Obliviana as a content provider, and letting other companies deal with the online issues. An example of this would be producing a daily half-hour radio show which would be put on someone else's online service, for a fee. This is a very important decision to make--should Obliviana be a content creator with a core group of artists, or should it be a big open thing, open to everyone, with content being created by everyone? At a gut level, I think that if someone has something to offer, then using such content would be good. But the idea of a totally open field is no good, really. This idea negates my current idea of everything being in Fonostas. Or maybe it doesn't... maybe there can be different types, or ranks, of Fonostas, as I mentioned earlier. The idea of being IN Obliviana is very important. From a 209 perspective, folks have to put in a lot of effort to contribute in any substantial way. So this is leading to some sort of application and acceptance process. The idea might be that someone can contact Obliviana with work they have done, and if the work merits, they can become part of Obliviana. Remember "Nomadi Creative Network", the original name for the Interweb. The idea of a creative network... a group of good people, good creators. Open to everyone in terms of applying, but letting in only those who will contribute in a significant fashion. Note that motivation is very important to a creative soul. If one had to produce a certain amount of quality to work to get into or stay in Obliviana, the resulting motivation would be a valuable tool for the person. Relate this to the motivation factor in 209 terms. This line of reasoning is going quite well. The idea of this network of creative, talented people. A group of people, whose exploits and works would be of great interest to an audience. This is the right idea. Obliviana will be open to anyone willing to put in the effort. 1/8/97 * 11:29 PM The new job was a total disaster. Good thing I went in to check the place out. I'll tell you about it later. I didn't go to work today. Originally I was going to go to this new place for two days. But yesterday was quite enough, so I slept most of today away, and this evening, my parents and grandmother met with me, Denice, and her parents, and we went to the Stony Hill Inn to eat, the same place we're having our reception. Also today I set up some of my Talk Radio equipment. I started doing some experiments with it. Pretty cool. So I want to go over the Eight Aspects list. My current list is a little strange, in that it lists elements from different classes. That is, some things are media and some are content. But I think that should be okay. The general idea of this open-ended creative network, with the participants beings focused on as much as their work... First and foremost, Obliviana is an online service. The idea of having someone else handle the MASS marketing of Obliviana is appealing. That is, the core membership of a few hundred people could be handled by Obliviana, but the mass presentation of Obliviana could be handled by someone else--including the general online service based on Fonosta/Primitive. So here is a very new idea--the creative network of Obliviana will be small, and will be geared toward generating content in many forms. The network itself will be a source for content, as will the individual members, as will the work they produce. If people are interested in drinking this content, then there is money to be made. Ah, the splendor of genius. Cool to be able to say that. Humility has its place, but loses its meaning if it's the ONLY thing. Goodnight. 1/9/97 * 10:16 PM Um... What I'm building here... what it's becoming... The new idea is for Obliviana to exist with a select group of people at the forefront at any given time, and these people and their work being the content that a much larger audience will drink in. The beauty of this idea is that I'll be getting the talent for free, but the talent will ALSO be getting promotion and recognition for free. This is a quid pro quo sort of thing which could swing dangerously in either direction, with the equilibrium being the most important thing to focus on. I am a little wary of this thing I have created, this idea. It IS one of the best ideas ever, and it WILL work, but still I have doubts about it. It seems a little like... like the idea everyone will wish they came up with. It's like... like a conventional idea. But is that BAD? Okay. Let me get my bearings here. This new idea that I have is very similar to previous ideas, except that membership in Obliviana is going to be competitive, and is going to involve a lot of quantitative judgments. The young, energetic creative people are going to be involved not only as artists, but as subjects themselves, a la "Real World" and "making of". The question is--is this a GOOD idea? Not in terms of making money, but in terms of morality and the ultimate outcome. What are some of the pros and cons here? Well, the basic idea is that people will be able to get an audience for their work through Obliviana. But really, if the person is entertaining in other ways, their work won't matter so much. In fact, making FUN of a person's bad work might very well work just as well as anything. Also making fun of a person themself. This is very disturbing, this whole issue. Have I toiled this long and this far only to come face to face with my goal, and find that it's something I don't want to be involved in? Let's put it this way--I have arrived at a VERY good idea, an idea that could make me a lot of money. But I think that in some ways, it is a BAD idea. Because what it does is exploit people. It turns people into clowns, who eagerly debase themselves for the chance to become rich and famous, which very few will achieve. So it IS a bad idea. Can I make it into a GOOD idea? Hmm... 11:01 PM I know that I have to face this issue and answer the central question here--how do I make this idea GOOD? It does have good elements. Giving someone the motivation and the structure with which to employ their creative talents is indeed a good thing. But at what point does it become exploitation? Should there be some measurement of the amount of benefit the individual is getting, and what Obliviana is getting, with a monetary amount being used to settle the balance? That is, if a person is contributing little but receiving much, the person will pay. Just as if the person is giving much but receiving little, they should get money from Obliviana. But this would be very difficult to measure. I like the idea of the quid pro quo--where the association exists only so long as both sides are in relative equilibrium. Specifically, if someone is not producing good work, they will not be allowed to stay "in" Obliviana. And if someone's work gets popular, they are always free to go elsewhere for a real deal. So being IN Obliviana is a state which is agreed to by both parties. What of the issue of exploitation? Simply, if a person is uncomfortable, they can leave Obliviana anytime they wish. But it will be a policy NOT to accept work or people just to make fun of them. So now I get to the point of defining what it means to be IN Obliviana. I think there will have to be "ranks". First off, folks will be able to produce work in a variety of areas--creative, 209, competitive, etc. The idea is that the individuals themselves and their work will be interesting to other people. The idea is that they are lending their talents to Obliviana in exchange for the exposure and recognition they will receive. Obliviana will judge the members, just as the members will judge Obliviana. I see the ranks of Obliviana numbering in the hundreds to the low thousands, but no further. Like a college, perhaps? I had a vision about that once, about Obliviana being like a school in some ways. No money will be transferred between Obliviana and its members. Does this make sense? Consider that the whole idea is to take this creative network and present it to a much larger audience for their drinking. Obliviana will make money off the personalities of its members. Some members might feel that they should be compensated for their efforts. But maybe they CAN be compensated by offering their work in their own separate online thing while still in Obliviana. That is, being in Obliviana does not preclude doing other stuff--there will be a very loose relationship between Obliviana and its members. Membership is voluntary. But if you choose to be a member, you must be active in Obliviana. I think this is probably the best idea anyone has had in a long time. I think this idea will make me a millionaire. I think even if I implement this idea BADLY I'll make a lot of money with it. I think this idea is a winner, a total winner, and maybe even a foolproof thing. Confident words. But after all the effort I've gone through to get to this idea, I think I deserve to be a little confident. And if I manage to implement this idea WELL, it will become a very GOOD and IMPORTANT thing. And no one will be exploited. Everyone will come out a winner. Good night. Sat 1/11/97 * 12:15 PM * Home * Tarb 5397 Had a dream last night, in an auditorium, some sort of event was just completed, and I said to a girl sitting by the door as I exitted the auditorium "Can you believe it? High school is finally over." She followed me into a kitchen, and I continued "I had a real hard time, it was really difficult at times." Then I realized something "I mean, high school has been over for a long time, but no it's REALLY over." Then I asked her if her name was Lonnie, but she said it wasn't. I vaguely recalled her from high school. The significance of this is that I have for a long time had dreams where I had to go back to high school. I view this as symbolic of having to go back to the drawing board. 1/15/97 * 12:28 AM Let's talk about media. Mediums. Digital media. The senses. One big idea I've been working on is the idea of focusing on audio. This is very important. Limiting the number of mediums Obliviana operates in. For example, de-emphasizing video, perhaps to the point of not doing it al all, though that would be painful. Internet audio, or you could call it "new radio", is something that is going to be BIG in a few years. And it will be GOOD, as a medium. I was thinking in the bowling alley parking lot before, that audio is of mind and video is of emotion. A great simplification, and probably something others have dwelled on in the past, but still an important thought. Obliviana produces and distributes entertainment over the Internet. This is the most basic definition of what Obliviana does. And as a start in forging my infrastructure, I can say no 3-D, and no TV. Hmm. No 3-D and no TV. Sounds pretty good. The design of the Obliviana Infrastructure is of the utmost importance. Audio and text are major mediums in Obliviana. Therefore the infrastructure must be able to organize and deliver audio and text very well. Recently I have been thinking along the lines of focusing more on audio than on text. Text can be transformed into audio by having a person or a computer read it. Therefore "text and audio" can potentially become just "audio". I can envision an audio-only computer, with a microphone and speaker, designed to deliver entertainment and information. A computer that can understand speech well enough to output the audio a person desires. This technology is not far off. In fact, it's probably already been here for awhile. So what am I saying? That Obliviana should focus entirely on audio? Hey, I figured out that one Jaz disk, at a gigabyte, can hold well over 24 hours worth of mono audio sampled at 11 megahertz. A DVD (at 2.6 gigs, I surmise) could hold three DAYS worth of audio sampled in this way. Hmm. At this point, I can say for sure that "new radio" is a MAJOR aspect of Obliviana. But there are non-audioable aspects, such as the Primitive interface, Zope comics, Pelters, and... Maybe not that much? Oh, but what about 209? No, there is definitely a visual side to Obliviana. But I want to keep control over the format of the visual side of Obliviana. For example, all photography being in black-and-white (grayscale). Pelters and other abstract elements will be in color. I think this idea could be a cornerstone of the Obliviana infrastructure. So... No 3-D No TV No color photography Hmm... Interesting... So what I'm talking about is audio and a limited text and graphics interface. Maybe even something like: the screen divided into three sections. The left half of the screen would be text, the top of the right half would be static graphics, and the lower half of the right half would be the Primitive interface. Hmm... And beyond these three sections, there would be a fourth: audio. This idea is good. Goodnight! 1/15/97 * 9:42 PM I feel that I am over the hump in terms of the core concepts of Obliviana infrastructural development. I have a few BIG ideas, and that will be a hallmark of Obliviana--multiple revolutionary ideas. I am not modest, not here, not in OsoaWeek. So what are my big ideas? 209, New Radio, Primitive, SR Hypertext. There are four. And I do have four more. Taking this perspective, there should be a revolutionary idea related to Zope. Zope is a comic strip. What could there be about a digital comic strip that is revolutionary. Hmm... think about the interface... the graphical part... black-and-white comics... black-and-white photos... Yes... some kind of standard grayscale interface... 10:46 PM Recall various black-and-white photo comics, as in National Lampoon. Hmm... Could it be as simple as a 320 by 240 pixel grayscale format, sequencing pictures one after another? I think it might be. 1/16/97 * 11:42 PM Man, I'm not doing so good. The stress is getting to me. But what stress? Hmm... This morning, waiting much too long for the bus, alone at the bus shelter, rain and cold, I got the idea that perhaps text, as in Severe Repair, should be encoded as a grayscale picture file. That is, not encoded as raw text, but as a picture. I've been feeling this anxiety for a few days now, and it's gotten really bad tonight. What is it all about? I feel it has to be related to my developments with Obliviana. If Obliviana ever does become a success, know that I suffered for it. The bus ride home was mildly torturous. But I know this ailment comes from stress and anxiety. What is causing it? I am near the answer to the question "What is Obliviana?" I thought I solved it when I realized it would be about creative people trying to make something of themselves and their works. Their works... And I knew it would be about focusing the media, audio and grayscale pictures... I got caught watching the horrible movie "Sudden Death" before... to avoid doing just this... to avoid coming to the conclusion that I know I am approaching... Grayscale... audio... Primitive interface... creative people... their works... Okay... I am from a time before this current metaphysical order... I am from the early times... I am here, now, for a reason. Maybe I'll delete this part later, I don't know. I don't know if I want to reveal to everyone that I think I'm some sort of a god. Some sort of a being who was part of big things in the early times, but who fell into the background as a new order emerged... What am I saying? Have I finally lost my mind? No. I've come too far in my work, and I've faced worse threats to my sanity before. I am not going to succumb to madness. I must move forward with what this is all about. I will remain human, and I will bring these ideas to this world, now. This is my mission, dammit. I am here for a purpose. I am here to bring certain ideas and information to this time, to prevent bad things from happening. In this way, I make up for bad things I have done in the past. I will definitely delete this writing from this issue of OsoaWeek, but I will preserve this writing in my personal archives, and someone will read it sometime. Obliviana is my attempt to save the world from a slow and torturous demise. The idea in Obliviana will blossom forth and move society and humanity away from destruction. What is the purpose of creative people and their works? A consummation with the divine, with Wonder. And with my revelation about rasterized text, I have come to the crux of the matter. Text that is worth reading. This is what it is all about. Entertainment that is not driven by sales, but by worth, true worth. And a context in which to place the works of another. The way people were originally intended to live their lives. This game of Obliviana, it is a model of the original plan for humanity. Like a game. All of one's creative thought adding up to something. This is the purpose of Obliviana. It is accomplished by recording first of all. And it is accomplished by challenges, challenges which all are welcome to join in. Telling someone "CREATE" means nothing. Creating in a vacuum is impossible. So one grasps for some context, and if this is random and flailing, what results is a confusing work with little context. This need not be the case. Let us build a system of context for creativity. I am Lord of Obliviana. The system of Obliviana will be a home base for the creative mind. The Primitive interface is the anchor, the bedrock. Grayscale graphics ARE the Flipside. And audio is always present. The game... based on Fonosta... establishes categories, and parameters for the contents of those categories. Like clothing, say pants, shoes, hats, shirts, etc. These are categories which we all must fill to get dressed, the specific clothing the content in the clothing system. Therefore the screen will be divided, color on one half, and grayscale on the other. On the color side, top and bottom are separate, Fonosta in one quadrant, and Primitive in the other. This is all I have to say. I feel like I might throw up. This has been a real strain to write. But I have done it, and things are going to be much better from this time onward. 12:04 AM, 1/17/97. 1/17/97 * 9:07 PM I was in real bad shape last night, but I'm feeling much better now. I referred above to deleting some of what I wrote, but I'm leaving it all there. So I do want to address a few of the things I said to put them in the proper perspective. I suppose the most potentially disturbing aspect of what I wrote last night is that I consider myself some kind of god. Let me explain exactly what I mean by this. First of all, I believe in reincarnation. I believe very strongly that I have had past lives. I seem to have some recollections, some memories, from past lives, but they are rather nebulous. But from these memories I gather that I was a being possessed of great power in a past incarnation. I get the feeling that I used the power for evil. And now, I am trying to be good again. I referred to the early times, and by this I mean the times just following the Creation. I am an avid Creationist, though I subscribe to no religion. So what I am saying is that I have impressions about past lives, and from these impressions I have built this theory as to my nature and circumstances in past incarnations. The conclusions I draw are not definite in my mind, just theories. So when I say I was some kind of a god, it's just a theory based on impressions in my mind. So basically, don't worry about it. As you know if you've been drinking in my works, I am very creative in a very different way from the norm, and those such as I do seem to be particularly vulnerable to madness. But I am very aware of the threat of madness, and so far I have dealt with it quite successfully. So if these ideas about me having godlike powers in a past life help me avoid blowing my mind, then it is a harmless tool I am using to deal with my own wild creativity. I read an article about Syd Barrett (a founding member of Pink Floyd) recently, which detailed his descent into madness. Listing to his work, you can see he was in dangerous territory. But he failed in his battle with madness. Cuz think about it, all creativity is mad, and the deeper you get into it, the more your mind gets screwed up. If you know how to deal with madness, respect it as a very real danger, you can survive. One factor which seems to destroy creative people is drugs. I have never gotten into drugs. In fact, my only experience with narcotics is smoking pot a few times with friends in college, and I got absolutely nothing out of it. But the state I've been in the past few week, I tellya, I was close to blowing my mind. And I have a very distinct impression that if you added drugs to the mix, I would have been a goner. So there you have it. I hope I've put all of this stuff in an acceptable context. The level of creativity I am involved in is dangerous territory, but I am dealing with it quite well. If you're reading this and see it as self-serving, read my better Superiors and Severe Repair stuff. You'll see that I am indeed producing wild, wonderful work. Okay. Wow. Enough of this talk. So where am I vis-a-vis Obliviana? The Grayscale idea is a big one. It seems so simple, but I had to drive to the edge of madness to get it. Basically, the idea is to establish a format which is a grayscale GIF in roughly the size and shape as a page of paperback book. This format will allow me to present writing with TYPOGRAPHY and all sort of other cool stuff. I love typography, and I'm quite good at it. To explain, the WWW deal with text in a very rudimentary way. HTTP is marked-up text, and when a browser presents it, it can apply only very simple styles to it, such as headline sized, bold, italic, etc. While there are technologies that address this lack of typographical sophistication on the WWW, such as Adobe's Acrobat, to me there is no reason to encode documents in such a convoluted way. To me, my Grayscale idea solves the problem in an elegant way, and has a few unique benefits. First of all, there is the idea of "less is more". On the Internet, an individual is often overwhelmed by the amount and quality of information being presented to him--"information overload", as some call it. Grayscale solves this problem in two main ways. Firstly, it omits color, thus reducing the stimuli. But in a far more important sense, it puts content in CONTEXT. That is, when you drink information, your mind has to not only process it, but it has to understand where it fits in the larger scheme of things. This lack of context on the Web is the worst aspect, and the most harmful in terms of information overload. Grayscale is a very strict format. It will have one size and one size only, and the images will be exclusively grayscale, which also encompasses one-bit, or strictly black-and-white work. The format also requires that each image has a code that identifies where it fits in Obliviana. For example, each image will be part of an overall Revolver, such as Severe Repair and Zope. As well, each image will be part of a Packet, or "chapter" in each Revolver. In terms of writing, Grayscale does something else--it acts as a quality filter. Since great effort will have to be spent converting text into Grayscale, it follows that the material is WORTH rasterizing. Grayscale brings order to Obliviana, which I have always had trouble getting under control. Right now, I am uncomfortable with all the raw text I have online. With Grayscale, I believe I will be comfortable with the material I am presenting. 9:56 PM I have been getting into Tori Amos recently. I have been aware of her for a long time, but I pretty much ignored her and her music. Once I started going out with Denice, I was exposed to her music, since Denice and her sister Carrie are big fans. 1/20/97 * 3:14 AM The question of video. I have thought long and hard on this issue, and my conclusion is that there will be no video in the Obliviana Interface. The left half of the Obliviana Interface is Grayscale. The right half is divided into two, one on top of another. The bottom is the Primitive Interface. So what is in the upper right quadrant? This is the question I am now pondering. 1/23/97 *12:30 AM INTERFACE NOTES Well, Grayscale is now 278-by-480 pixels (an 11-to-19 ratio), and is on the RIGHT side of the screen. Primitive is vertically centered on the left side of the screen. This leaves a 136 pixel space above and below Primitive, and I have already experimented with putting 128-by-128 Pelters there, which look good one or the other, but not both top and bottom. I am thinking now of having the entire bottom part housing the Fonosta. In short, it has to present a player's identity, allegiances, and most importantly, a visual overview of Obliviana, the Fonosta's place in the scheme, and what content is available, drank, undrank, desirable, undesirable, etc. I can see a Pelter being in the upper left. I'm making progress. Also, the idea of a series of perhaps five thumbnails of Grayscale content... Get all Obliviana. *OW* [[03110LM]] Life Mysteries LIFE MYSTERY 19 "Out of the Basement and In Your Face" by John Nora I think it's important to address this adolescent problem first summed-up for me by a guy advice-giver in a comic-book store as "out-of-the-basement-and-in-your-face." Often I would perturb, or silently exasperate, my obsessed-upon (there could be only one), paradigm-of girl...friend when I was in high school. We would go on a "date" to a movie, and I would sit there as she drove me in her car and spate out and iterate boundlessly like a soft, pathetic ventriloquist's dummy any number of items, topics, observations, that were purely out-of-the-basement-and-in-your-face. High school was a bad everyday raft of pale-glossy-green-blocked somnambulism. Where I lived and breathed was in my fluorescent-lighted basement. That's were I came up with and spouted this stuff (often verbally) in a very primary, hearty, exerted way. But I was always with only myself in the basement, and usually devastatingly behind on my math or science homework. With myself to myself, I was quite winning, even charming, you might say, but I'd formulate things in the basement that just were not meant for actual, transactional human ears. Maybe to fine-tune a bat's sonar, or give a dog something to howl instinctually about, or a crocodile something to slide away from like a falling board. No, they should have been flushed right away, but it was hard to: Try dropping something into a broad, unroundable, wising-up stone. *OW* [[04110ZP]] Zope ZOPE 037: "Zopa Obscuria" 2/20/97 ZOPE Linden, here, let's test your computational prowess, shall we? LINDEN That's a question? MASTER JOE Twin Peaks. That's a quote from Twin Peaks. Leo Johnson says it when Copper asks him if Leo is short for Leonard. Our little computer Linden has finally learned the bitchin' art of quoting movies and TV shows! ZOPE You're just a bundle of information, aren't you, Joe. You talk and my attention span snaps like a twig about fifty fucking times. MASTER JOE Fuck off. LINDEN This bickering is pointless. MASTER JOE (pointing at computer electric eye) Haha! There! There! Star Wars. Tarkin said it to Vader after he uses the force to strangle that guy! That stupid fucking guy. Didn't he know anything about old Darth? ZOPE Look man, I got an agenda here! Linden, stop quoting for two seconds so I can tell you what to do! LINDEN Yeah, sure kid. MASTER JOE Is that Rutger Hauer from The Hitcher? ZOPE Shut up! Sit down! MASTER JOE Howard Stern! Howard Stern's father! When he's a kid! ZOPE (pretending to cry) All I want is for Linden to simulate Terry Jones so I can discuss Mr. Do strategy with him! Like in a British accent he would say "You eat the little food product in the middle and the red monsters stop, but then you have these blue ones to contend with." Don't you see what I mean? LINDEN It's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind. ZOPE You dumb bastard! MASTER JOE Mallrats. ZOPE Neil Armstrong did NOT say that! He left out "a". He fucked up. He said "It's one small step for MAN, one giant leap for mankind." If the Apollo mission were real, it would have been a real shame for him to fuck up such an important line as that. *OW* [[05110SU]] Superior SUPERIOR 593 * 10/20/96 Blackjack of today. Influences and factors. Haha, 1996, seems like such a long time ago. That is the secret of andacing ages and days, living in the future, obsessed with the past, but enough roads to handle as much driving as you might want, and consciously right now I don't know what the hell I'm talking about, darn it. Enough for today, got me scrambled, got no more in me, but a lot anyway, 8/4/96 was the last day I did this, eleven weeks ago today. Fluoride examine your zipper, just wake up every day and deal with it. SUPERIOR 594 * 10/25/96 Out on bread calling as bee. Okay rock shop western shop let me be in this world. Cold myth, girl in hotel, dialed dog ways have am istameer. Curve of hold, quarrel bird. Take me gem, daily burglary, we are as dont. SUPERIOR 595 * 10/25/96 See this, a spirit long ago knocked out of the world, connects with a kid, and seeing western shops and rock shops is filled with an insane desire to come back into the world. The shops are so cool. He can't help but yearn in wild stretching to be real, to be in shops. Kid is vaguely aware of spirit, unable to help, has his own problems. Appeals to gods from the desperate spirit, one has mercy, and lets the spirit be real. In the shops, the spirit is thrilled, and the thrill of shops is never lost, the spirit is a happy one. SUPERIOR 596 * 10/25/96 Dear pinger. Ipe. F descripty. Ulmipet. Ape sistery. The legit ask. Meaning, all losty, New Yorky, I'm dwelling the line and am free here. *OW* [[06110SR]] Severe Repair $~RIT001 "Dave" ~~SEVERE REPAIR: A Hypertext Novel by Frank Edward Nora Storyline "A Rather Interesting Tale" Packet 001 00011 * 4.146K * Old/OW025 * OW110 Copyright 1996 * All Rights Reserved~~ Early one morning Dave was shocked. Why, he did not know. He only knew that he was shocked. The strange part was that there was really nothing at all wrong. Except, of course, that there was a rather large glowing gargoyle on his windowsill. That, in itself, was not so odd. The strange part was that this gargoyle spoke. Well it tried, anyway. It didn't exactly have well-developed vocal chords. But what he said, in a voice like scratching a chalkboard, was what shocked Dave, even though he didn't know why he was shocked. What the gargoyle said was this: "Guess what's on TV tonight?" After a few moments, which seemed like eons, Dave asked "What?" The gargoyle contorted its face, making it appear even more incredibly ugly than it already was, and it said, in the same piercing voice "I said... guess." Dave got a chill and began to think. After a long time, which seemed like just a moment, Dave said "Uh... um... well, what is TV?" The gargoyle's eyes became red, and its gaze shot through Dave. Then the beast screamed so loudly that Dave was deafened for several minutes afterward. Then it flew off. Dave was curious, however, so he strapped on his wings and flew out of his window, following the gargoyle. The cold morning air swept against his face. He had already accelerated to almost the speed of sound, but the gargoyle was nowhere in sight. "This guy's fast, even for a gargoyle." Dave thought as he crossed the sound barrier. A sound like thunder echoed across the Hellvarth Land. Soon, as Dave approached Mach 2, he caught a glimpse of the gargoyle. But he lost it again as a huge hand shot up out of the ground. It was at least 3 miles high. Dave tried to avoid it, but couldn't maneuver in time. He shot through the palm of the hand easily, however, due to his speed. An earthquake shook the land, which must have been the result of the owner of the hand yelling in pain. Dave heard nothing, though, still deaf. "What a time for Guggon the Great to wake up!" Dave thought as he changed his course towards the underground empire of Harvey Rattt. As he flew, he wondered what TV could stand for. "Total Ventilation? Time Vortex? Tire Viper?" he thought uselessly. He continued, but predictably something happened on the way to Rattt's--on the horizon he saw an Airworm Patrol Swarm (APS). "Oh bit!" he muttered as he pulled his rip cord. Instantly, his form changed from humanoid to dragonoid. In this form he could better handle the sinister APS. He flew directly into the wormcloud and began to try to convince the worms that there was more to life than flying around and eating unsuspecting airtravellers. At first, they weren't sure, but soon they were convinced, and flew off to find a better life as volcano cleaners. Dave then clapped his clawed hands together 17 times and became normal once again. Dave's wings glittered in the double sunlight as he flew halfway across a world. Soon he had arrived at Rattt's. He slowed down as he approached the neon sign which said "HARVEY RATTT'S UNDERGROUND EMPIRE". Some of the letters were out, though, so it seemed to read "HA E RAT GROUND M IRE". Nevertheless, Dave landed and approached the door. A sign on the door read "RING BELL, AND DIE." "Very funny, Rattt." Dave muttered as he pressed the button. He wished he hadn't, though, as a thousand lasers sprung to life and seared the ground dangerously close to his feet before they suddenly shut off. "Who's there?" asked Rattt's familiar voice over an intercom. "Me... uh... Dave." Dave said. "Oh well, get outta here! Can't you see I'm busy?" "Alright, but I just thought you should know... maybe you'd like to know that Guggon the Great has just, uh... woken up." "Oh... what?" Sounds of something large smashing into the ground came to Dave's still-recovering-from-the-gargoyle-scream ears. "Ok, come in, Dave." Rattt continued. The door swung open and Dave stepped inside the tunnel. He was immediately confronted by Rattt's seemingly impossibly confusing mazes. "Uh... I don't know where to go." Dave said. "Oh that's easy." Rattt's voice said. "Haha! Just follow the blue slime trail!" ~$RIT001 *OW* [[END110OW]] -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----