|| -------- -- -----  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 190--3/16/98 <-------  ||  OsoaWeek  ||  Issues  ||  Book 15  ||  -------> (Cup OWis190, Created v1 (4/27/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = OsoaWeek Book Fifteen 8 "OsoaWeek190" by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana, Tarb 7969 (3/16/98), copyright 1998 MY INTRO Hi, this is Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana. I want to let you know that Obliviana is alive and well, even though I haven't posted a new OsoaWeek in over three months. Obliviana is very confusing and very obscure. I've been working on it for well over a decade, and this development process has been recorded in great detail in OsoaWeek, starting in July of 1994. With the release of this issue of OsoaWeek, I am skipping 13 issues. I have been writing this issue of OsoaWeek consistently since the last posted issue, 176. I just haven't been posting my writing. So I'm presenting it all right here. Not many people know about Obliviana. So I'm kind of writing this for future reference. That is, very few people have actually noticed that OsoaWeek was temporarily suspended. In fact, I only know of one person--Frank Panucci--whose letter I answered in the last issue. The good thing about all this is that I think I've finally gotten to a workable design for Obliviana. Obliviana is vaporware. I presented a pretty coherent plan for Obliviana way back in July of 1994, but I have as yet failed to make Obliviana a reality. So it has been vaporware, but fortunately not too many people have been aware of it at all. So if I do actually manage to get Obliviana going, virtually all of the people who get into it will only know of the four-year "vaporware" period from the OsoaWeek archives. OsoaWeek209 is quickly approaching. It's 19 weeks away. I plan on totally redefining Oblviana by then. Hopefully you'll check it out then, if by some miracle you're reading this BEFORE July 28, 1998, the release date of OsoaWeek209 and the new Obliviana. The 209th day of 1998 will see the release of the 209th issue of OsoaWeek! Now, get ready to enjoy 25,000 words of Lord of Obliviana! *OW* LORD OF OBLIVIANA Tue 12/9/97 * 12:10 AM Looking back at the original Surface O idea. I'm considering using it, but I can't afford yet another failed interface. What I am considering is one Surface O page per Racetrack segment. But the specifics are difficult to develop. I know that I want the full LWOR to be represented, as well as a close-up of where exactly you are in LWOR. Previously, I had conceived of having multiple places on each Racetrack segment. But I think that now, I want to have a single page for each segment. As far as the content on each of these Surface O pages, I am thinking of just previewing what is "in" the segment. A thought just struck me--doing a find-navigable text file version of LWOR. I want this Surface O level to be very simple now. No tunnels, no alternate places. "Surface" implies that there is something underneath--and indeed there will be. Everything on the website will be "in" a Racetrack Segment. Then, maybe I only need two panels, as opposed to the four in the current Surface O... 12:31 AM I just created a prototype for this new Surface O. Looks promising. Okay. The Hinges will be of the Storm Pelter for that Storm. Top two Hinges are "Forward" and "Backward". Bottom two are "Ramp" and "Dive". What will "Ramp" do on a Segment without a crossover--which is most of them? Maybe it should be different for those Segments without crossovers--should I do Tunnels? Anyway, the left panel will have two divisions, top and bottom. Top will be an animated GIF with several frames containing Obliviana IDs and Logowings, as well as copyright data and other such stuff. The bottom panel will have the zoomed-in part of the Racetrack with the current segment flashing. The right panel will have a full LWOR, with the zoomied-in area outlined, perhaps in dark gray on a black background, with white and light gray Racetracks. Wed 12/10/97 * 12:08 AM New Surface O. Right panel, full LWOR map, flashing where you are. Top two hinges are "Backward" and "Forward". Bottom two Hinges are "Info" and "Dive", except for the crossover Segments, which have "Ramp" instead of "Info". Regarding "Info", I may decide to have something else there, such as "Look", which would reveal a scene, but I'm not sure yet. Left panel is divided top and bottom. Top is Obliviana ID, bottom is Segment ID. Hinges are cropped Storm Pelters. Going to "http://www.obliviana.com" gets you Surface O segment 249--Racetrack 11 Segment 1. Now, regarding navigation--without Tunnels, you're talking maybe over 70 steps to get between distant Segments. In this case, indexes and stuff would be called for. With Tunnels, max steps could be kept down dramatically--maybe under ten. So perhaps I will keep Tunnels, in order to keep Surface O pure and to prevent "teleportation". Wed 12/10/97 * 10:48 PM Made my first flashing-Segment LWOR for New Surface O. Now my big challenge is to define the Racetracks, in terms of what I will be putting about the Racetracks in Surface O. As far as the LWOR right-panel goes, the main decision is the color of each Racetrack, since the flashing will be in that color. The upper-left panel is the Obliviana ID panel, and will not contain Racetrack-specific data. But the lower-left panel WILL contain such data, such as: Racetrack 2 Segment 5 (or Mile 5) Overall Segment 39 Storm 1 Pelter: Adios But it should also contain the NAMES of the Racetracks, which I still haven't developed satisfactorally. As well, it should contain some information about what is in the Segment--what you get to if you Dive. Now, as to the four Hinges, the top-left is "Backward" and the top-right is "Forwards". I put the "s" at the end for "Forward" and not "Backward" because this gives both words eight letters, and that's very important to me. The lower-right Hinge is "Dive". These three are consistent--the lower-left Hinge will have variable names, all of which will have four letters. In 32 Segments, the Hinge will be "Ramp", and it will switch you over to the other Racetrack at a crossover. Note that the crossovers in Racetracks 4 and 8 do not have Ramps, because they are part of the same Racetrack. "Tunnel" has been replaced by the term "Cave", but it will serve the same function--it will transport you to another segment, to facilitate quicker travel around LWOR. There will a good number of Caves, and they will all be reciprocal--once you travel one way in a Cave, you can go right back to where you started; each Cave has two mouths. I intend to design LWOR with as few Caves as possible--I will establish a minimum number of steps to get from any point in LWOR to any other. This will curtail the need for an index which would teleport you to any Segment--I want to avoid that. A majority of Segment will have neither Ramp nor Cave. I have several idea for what other lower-left Hinges there will be: Help or Info--goes to info page View--goes to an image of a view you might have from that segment Jump--link to another site on the Internet Here--a mystery link Now, these ideas are all somewhat unacceptable, because I want all the Hinges in New Surface O to relate to navigation on the Surface level. "Exit" is another idea I had--it might take you to an alternate place in that Segment. But this goes against simplicity, and it is a confusing word in computer context because it means something else--to exit an area of an interactive application. As far as the number of lower-left Hinge-types, it could be 4 or 8. It could also be 5, which is a good number in Obliviana. And it would bring to total number of Hinge-types to 8. I will have to work on this. Sat 12/13/97 * 2:44 PM Thursday night I went out shopping for my wife for Xmas and on the way there the name of an obscure font, "Mikaway", was going through my head. Then on the way home I was thinking about naming Racetracks and something I saw around the license plate of a car--a word endding in "olo" or "oro" or something--got me to thinking, and I came up with the word "Owltoco". I immediately realized that this would be a great name for a Racetrack, and I decided to pursue this direction in naming the Racetracks. Before I got home, I had come up with another name: "Wucachaw". Then, that night I came up with a lot of names, and the next day, Friday (yesterday) I worked on the set of names some more. At work, I printed out an LWOR map with the Racetracks named, but some of the names wer assigned to Racetracks at random. In addition to the 11 names, there were 5 more extra names. This is where I stand right now: [1] Arctahojast [2] Voodholo [3] Hojaca [4] Hucaway [5] Moodbruc [6] Twahocamust (Hocamust) [7] Wroohoots [8] Goncs [9] Eoptoon (Yoptoon) [10] Yascadac [11] Owltoco Extra: Quocachaw (Wucachaw) Teacajonc Jascal Uxashuc Inhusto Also: Pilcansas So the set is almost complete. I was thinking of designing the names so that each starting letter is unique, so that the Racetracks can be identified bya single letter. I like both "Hucaway" and "Hojaca" very much. If I were to keep these, I would then change "Eoptoon" to "Yoptoon"--since I originally change it to "Eoptoon" to avoid having two "Y" names. I like "Eoptoon" with the "E", but I think it is more powerful as "Yoptoon". These are the names I feel are definite: Arctahojast Voodholo Hucaway Moodbruc Wroohoots Owltoco Leaving as "in question": Hojaca Twahocamust Goncs Eoptoon Yascadac These are the alternates I am still considering: Inhusto Jascalteac / Jascateac (new) Wucachaw Pilcansas * * * Possible new set: SAME Arctahojast Voodholo Hucaway Moodbruc Wroohoots Owltoco Goncs CHANGE Yoptoon (from Eoptoon) IN Inhusto OUT Hojaca Yascadac Twahocamust (Hocamust) (Twicamust) (Twecamust) (new) These are the alternates I am still considering: Jascalteac / Jascateac (new) Wucachaw Pilcansas Jascansas (new) Pilcachaw (new) Sun 12/14/97 * 11:03 PM Okay. I gotta get this set of names in order! Teacaw Freechaw Freectaw Quocfree Quopchaw [1] Arctahojast [2] Voodholo [3] Pilcansas (Hojaca) [4] Hucaway [5] Moodbruc [6] Twahocamust (Hocamust) (Socamust) (Spunamust) (Stunmust) (Twahonta) (Uwucachaw) (Twapaxa) (Twapacsa) [7] Wroohoots [8] Gonncs (changed) (Quoncs) (Wucachaw) [9] Yoptoon (changed) (Goptoon) [10] Inhusto (Yascadac) [11] Owltoco Mon 12/15/97 * 10:24 PM I got New Surface O working today! I have the central Racetrack, Racetrack 11, called Owltoco, functional in NSO! Wow! Now I have to finalize the Racetrack names. I think at this point that I will have a different letter for each Racetrack name--Hojaca is out. I think I'm keeping Twahocamust. I'd like to put Wucachaw in, but I already have a W with Wroohoots. I like Goncs a lot, but there's a "goncs.com", which is really "Go NCS", but it's the domain is "goncs", and I do want all my names to be quite unique. Hojaca is a cool name, but "hoja" is a common Spanish word, and... and Hucaway is better. Inhusto is definitely in. Yascadac or Yoptoon--or Yascadac AND Eoptoon. Uxtoon? Quocteac. Uxachaw. Roptoon. Roptoon is cool. Jucachaw. Quogchaw. Is Gonncs so bad? Well, it just isn't the same as Goncs. Dump Wroohoots? That's a tough one. It's would allow Wucachaw to be in--and Wucachaw WAS my second idea after Owltoco. I like Wroohoots a lot--but maybe it doesn't fit into the whole scheme here...? What about Pilcansas? I pronounce it "pill Kansas". It works. It's in. Ulgoncs? Hmmm... Ejgoncs? Sogoncs. Nogoncs. Chawgoncs. Teagoncs. Fogoncs. [1] Arctahojast [2] Voodholo [3] Pilcansas [4] Hucaway [5] Moodbruc [6] Twahocamust [7] Wroohoots [8] Fogoncs [9] Roptoon [10] Inhusto [11] Owltoco * * * And in order, they are: [1] Arctahojast [2] Voodholo [3] Pilcansas [4] Hucaway [5] Moodbruc [6] Inhusto [7] Roptoon [8] Fogoncs [9] Wroohoots [10] Twahocamust [11] Owltoco I checked all these names on the WWW in both AltaVista and Hotbot--no hits at all! Now, for pronunciation. I'm using real words to help in pronouncing. Some of these sets of words do sound like the Racetrack name exactly, whereas others serve as a guide. Captial letters represent stress/accent. [1] Arctahojast (arma(ment) HOE past) [2] Voodholo (nude HOLlow) [3] Pilcansas (pill KANsas) [4] Hucaway (HUCK away) [5] Moodbruc (mood TRUCK) [6] Inhusto (in DUST oh) [7] Roptoon (hop TUNE) [8] Fogoncs (FOE bronx) [9] Wroohoots (true BOOTS) [10] Twahocamust (the MOcha must) [11] Owltoco (owl TOE foe) Tue 12/16/97 * 10:37 PM Just wrote a letter to the Flat Earth Society, sending money for my 1998 membership. It's the only organization I belong to. The list of Racetrack names above is still solid, after almost a whole day of thinking! I did the blinking maps of all of Arctahojast, but not the HTML files. I still have to make several decisions about Surface O before I go take it online. One thing I decided earlier was that I should include all the eventual links in the HTML files I create. This means that I could have links that don't lead anywhere--but I could make a set of quickie "Dive destination" HTML files to keep the whole thing intact. Each page of Surface O has: "m"--the map with the blinking Mile (animated gif) "h"--the Hinge graphic (gif) "s"--the HTML file (html) "d"--destination/Dive file (html) "i"--the Racetrack Mile identifier (animated gif) In addition, there is a standard Obliviana ID animated gif that appears on all pages. It might not be animated, but I am leaning toward this. I would rather have a part of Surface done fully than the whole thing done partially. Maybe I'll do just Owltoco and Arctahojast for the "launch". Now--what about the lower-left Hinge? "Ramp" and "Cave" are definite--but what else should there be? I mean, I COULD do a Cave on every non-Ramp Mile, but I feel that there may be another thing I could use. "Help" or "Info" is definitely an idea. But I also like the idea of "Wild", which is something I had in, I believe, the first version of my website. This would lead to a page which could have any sort of stuff on it. Okay--Ramp, Cave, Help, Wild--one more would make for eight total Hinge-type, which would be quite nice. "Lord" could lead to a picture of me! Hahaha! "-NJ-" could lead to a New Jersey-related link. "Zope" could lead to a Zope comic--this could be good. Wed 12/17/97 * 12:31 AM Well, this may be it--Backward, Forwards, Ramp, Cave, Help, Wild, Zope, Dive. Mon 12/22/97 * 1:13 AM Regarding LWOR, I made one change--Racetrack 10, which was called Twahocamust, is now called Quopchaw. I made this change because: [1] The name itself did not fit in with the other names. [2] It took away from the uniqueness of the name "Arctahojast". [3] It had 11 letters, and the average number of letters of the three Minor Racetracks was 9 (not good). "Quopchaw" brings the Minor Racetrack average to 8, and since the Major average was already 8, the overall average is now 8, which is very good. Now, New Surface O is online, and it has been since Thursday night. I also have a sound clip on there, a segment of the Beublin audio thing "Bonnie's Tarantula Farm". Now, the next big thing is to design the nature of the Dive pages, which is where the main content is. I am thinking now along the lines of having the content pages and the pages in Fonosta to follow the same rules. This is what I'm working on now. Mon 12/22/97 * 9:33 PM I need to develop this Fonosta Page/Web page thing. In a Fonosta, each Page represents a Racetrack Mile. On each Fonosta Page, there are a number of Jots. These Jots represent things in that Racetrack Mile. In this way, each Obliviana player creates their own Little World of Racetracks. So, it makes sense that the LWOR on the Obliviana website should be constructed in a similar way. Before I thought of this specifically, I was thinking of having a clear map or index of the contents of a "Mile Dive" in the main page of the Mile Dive. This idea and the idea of a set of Jots on a page are very similar. Therefore, the Mile Dive page for each Racetrack mile should contain a clear set of "Jots", each of which represents a sub-page of content. The question here is just how to present this Jot information. And on a deeper level--what is the nature of the Jot system? Here's an interesting idea--in the Fonosta Jot system, Jots begin as challenges to do something, and once the thing is done, the Jot is "bloomed". This could work in the website as plans for the Mile Dive which are not yet complete. I have to think about this idea more. Tue 12/23/97 * 9:54 PM Xmas Eve 1997 in about two hours. As a kid, I would be flipping out today, "Xmas Eve Eve". Today, I just went to work as usual, all that. I am a little apprehensive about the dawn of 1998. As I've mentioned in the past, 1998 = 666 x 3, which is very scary. End-of-the-world-type stuff is in the air. But remember, if the world changes significantly, it will, in a sense, be the end of the world that we know. I believe that 1998 may hold some major changes for all of us. But I think we'll all get to Millenium Three (the "Bimillenial"?) relatively unscathed. I mean, fuck, if the world ends, all the work I've done on Obliviana will have been wasted! No fucking way! Anyway, I have one more major challenge in the design of Obliviana before 1998, and this is the overall structure of Jots and stuff. Okay. The last major work I did on Jot was right at the end of my honeymoon, in West Hollywood. I decided to simplify the Jot system. In the new Jot system, there are just Jots and Bloom Jots. A Jot is a glyph that is obtained through performing some action. Two Jots may be joined togather in a Deal to form a Bloom Jot. This idea contradicts the idea of Happen Jots being able to exist in a "pre" stage, with an added stroked "Blooming" it. So maybe Blooming and "Merging" should be two thing? 11:19 PM Okay. Each Jot is a challenge to do something. I think that Jots should be placed into a player's Fonosta initially as a challenge. That is, the Jot is placed in the Fonosta, and occupies a place in the Fonosta, before the challenge is tackled. The idea here is that there is a limited amount of space on each Fonosta Page, so the placing of a Jot has to be well considered. The opposing forces here are: [1] Jots are available for a limited time. Therefore, when a Jot is available and desireable, a plaer will want to place it in his Fonosta. [2] Jots have a wide range of difficulty, some being very simple to Bloom, while others are very involved. If you can't Bloom the Jot, it will sit, inert, in your Fonosta. One thought I have here is that it might not be good to present a Jot and its associated Friction Enhancer, just to take it away. In an ultimate sense, all Friction Enhancers are good and should be encouraged. One solution to this problem is to give "retired" Jots a place in the system, such as being usable as replacements for unattainable challenges--for example, you could do four "retired" Jot-challenges to Bloom a certain Jot. Another way of dealing with this would be to keep certain Friction Enhancers always available, but with different Jots, so that the time-limit thing still remains a factor. Now, what is the purpose of "merging" Jots? I see it as a way of creating objects where there is choice and "Dealing" involved. The idea is that if you grab a certain Jot and you know you can Bloom it, you prettyy much got it, no problem. But then, you have to decide how to merge it--and it can turn out to be a good or bad merge as time goes on. I'm exhausted. Gotta go to bed. Fri 12/26/97 * 12:07 PM I got alotta cool stuff for Xmas. My wife gae me Nintendo 64, and my brother gave me a book all about Rankin-Bass animation. Now, the Jot issue has become my focus. I really need to get Jot sorted out before 1998. A Jot is, at one level, a glyph that is drawn in a notebook. It is gotten via Deals. Jots are gotten in unbloomed form. Glyphically, this means that the Jot has two disconnected sets of strokes, one encompassing the other. For example, a Jot could be a square with a horizontal line inside of it, but not touching it. Then in order to Bloom the Jot, you have to perform the actions described, known as the "Happen". Then a stroke can be added to Bloom the Jot. One idea I had awhile back was to allow multiple types of Blooming for each Jot. One example would be for the Happen "Mallball", where the Jot would be Bloomed in one way for a Mallball of 1 to 3 layers, a different way for 4 to 6 layers, and so on. Now, this idea of basic and Bloomed Jots is very strong, but it is the other typs of Jot--the "Merged" Jot, that may or may not make sense. The idea behind merged Jots is to provide incentive in the whole system. Each Page of a Fonosta notebook represents a Racetrack Mile. Each Mile is defined as a place by the Page Jot. And then, each Jot placed in the Page represents an object that exists in that place. So one question is--how does the represented object change in the act of Blooming? Is the Jot inert until it is Bloomed? That is--it would represent only the POTENTIAL for that object. I have in the pasthad the idea of trading Jots for better Jots. But all the Jots in your Fonosta represnt something that you did, a Happen you acted out. So it doesn't make sense to destroy these Jots in trades for other Jots. This is the idea behind Octagon--that each Page/Mile has the potential to produce one Octagon. I like this idea--so the question is--what is the nature of the set of requirements to obtain an Octagon? Well, I want the challenge of getting an Octagon to be based on both Blooming Jots and Dealmaking. Merged Jots are one way to allow Deals post-Bloom. And in fact, Merging Jots does not at all destory the Jots involved--it just joins them. Perhaps they can be joined by a circle, one Jot on the lef and the other on the right. And a vertical line can bisect the circle, and glyphsical elements added to this vertical line to represent the nature of the Merged Jot. In this system, Octagon requirements would be made up of merged Jots. So, for example, you might need a specific set of eight Merged Jots to "finalize" a Page and get a Jot from it. Now, I see a player starting from one Mile on LWOR and each new Mile must be connected to a Mile already "owned". And I see each player only having eight "open" Miles as a time. Once a Mile gets "closed", a new one may be opened up. "Closing" will involve criteria, and upon Closing, a Mile will either produce an Octagon or not. To clarify, there will be a set of circumstances that will cause a Mile to be closed. Of all possible sets of circumstances in this regard, a subset will produce an Octagon. Real time is an important factor in Obliviana. Also, a specific Jot will have a different meaning depending upon which Racetrack it is in. This also holds true for Page Jots. Sat 12/27/97 * 6:35 PM [1] Arctahojast [2] Voodholo [3] Pilcansas [4] Hucaway [5] Moodbruc [6] Inhusto [7] Roptoon [8] Fogoncs [9] Wroohoots [10] Quopchaw [11] Owltoco "Xekz" is a word that contains all the letters not found in the 11 Racetrack names. Kinda sounds like "sex", eh? So, I really have to get this whole Jot thing worked out. I would like to have just one kind of Jot. Could the same glyphical Jot change states in terms of WHERE it is, as opposed to its glyphical nature? I am thinking of having four quadrants per Fonosta Page--one pre-Happen, one post-Happen, one "spent", and one I haven't figured out yet. Sunday 12/28/97 * 9:10 PM Okay. Here's the new idea. Each Fonosta Page is divided into 5 areas. The top of the Page is one area, and the rest of the Page is divided into 4 sections, two top and two bottom. The quadrant start in the upper-left and move clockwise. 1=upper-left 2=upper-right 3=lower-right 4=lower-left A Jot will remain glyphically the same at all times--it is the area of the page it is on that determines its nature. Right now, I see the first quadrant as the place where a Jot first goes as soon as it is gotten. Then, once it's Bloomed, it moves to sector 2. Now, Quadrant 3 could be for "spent" Jots. The idea of "spent" Jots is that a Stage 2 (Bloomed) Jot can be used in Deals. Once it is used, it is moved to Quadrant 3 (or "Stage 3"). What, then is Stage 4? And where do the Octagons come in? And how does a Page get closed without generating an Octagon? I think that Stage 4 is the Octagon quadrant. Maybe... maybe Stage 3 Jots can be spent again--but they then move into Stage 4. And when Stage 4 has 8 Octagons, the Page is closed. And some sets of eight Jots can make an Octagon, while others can't. This idea has potential. 9:30 PM In order for this idea to work, there needs to be a Jot limit in each Stage. Also, I want to mention that the top of the Page is a separate "Stage", and it contains kust one Jot--the Page Jot--and is not alterable. Page Jots are gotten via Deals. So in order to get a new Page, you need to get a new Page Jot, and to do that, you need to do a Deal on another Page. To start, a player will get a Page Jot for "free". It does seem that it's possible that a player might screw up his existing Page(s) and not be able to make any new Pages. This could be remedied by allowing a player to forego Time Jots for one of more weeks in order to get a brand new Page Jot, and therefore open a new Page. As far as Quadrant Jot-limits, 8 would be the most obvious, since Quadrant 4 has an 8-Jot limit. Whatever the limits, a "push" mechanism will be involved here. that is, if you need to move a Jot into a Quadrant that is already full, one that is already there will have to move on to the next Stage/Quadrant. One important thing to note here is that Jots cannot be destroyed. Since each Jot represents an action in real life, and since Fonosta at one level is a record of achievements, destroying Jots is not possible. Stage 1 Jots might seem to be destroyable, since they only represent the accepting of a challenge and not the doing of it. But I want to make getting a Jot into something you have to put some thought into--don't take it if you can't do it, etc. I think that eight Jots per Quadrant is a good idea. Now, once a Page is closed, can Jots be transferred to a new Page? I would say not, because the Open and Close dates on the Page identify approximately when certain Jots were Bloomed. But should there be some way to use the unspent Jots? Tue 12/30/97 * 12:49 PM Jot System Update: On the glyphical nature issue: Each Jot is created, and retain the same glyph always. So, this means that the glyph of a Jot will not change. The glyphical nature of a Jot is germaine, however, in terms of the basic shapes it contains. This will most likely apply toward gaining Octagons in Stage 4. Now, as far as closing Pages, I see the possibility that Stages 1 and 2 can be transferred to other Pages, whereas 3 and 4 cannot. I think that a Page being closed does not necessarily mean that it cannot continue to function--just that when there are eight Jots in Stage 4, no more Jots can be entered into the Page. This means that Stage 1 Jots can still be Bloomed, and Stage 2 Jots can still be spent. Stage 3 Jots are inert, since they have nowhere to go. In general, I am pleased with the way this development phase is going; I think this current system under consideration is very good. It better be--it'll be 1998 in under 48 hours! Thu 1/1/98 * 1:36 PM It's 1998. I just wrote a Parking that represents somewhat my feelings about 1998. I feel that a lot of structures and system that were deeply with us are now gone, leaving many voids that need to be filled. These viods then represent opportunity, but also danger. Gotta be on your toes in 1998. Tuesday night I did upload a very prelimiary set of instructions for Obliviana. Got it done before midnight, with more than 24 hurs to spare before 1998. Yesterday, I started my Fonosta as per the rules I set forth. Here is what I uploaded, which is now on my main web page. Since I will be updating and changing it soon, I'll record it here: *********** 12/30/97 Hi there, this is is Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana. I want to tell you all about my unique new game called... Obliviana! Obliviana is a "Real Time/Real Space" game. What this means is that Obliviana takes place in the real world in real time. To play Obliviana, all you need is a blank notebook (and something to write with). No, not a notebook computer, but an honest-to-goodness paper notebook! Oh yeah... you'll also need WWW access, since Obliviana is published exclusively online for the time being. To play Obliviana, you need to create your "Fonosta". A Fonosta is a record of everything you do in the game of Obliviana. This is what the notebook is for--your Fonosta is recorded in a specially-formatted notebook. The special formatting is really quite simple. The basic thing you have to do is divide each page of the notebook into eight areas. The illustration below shows these areas. The numbers are for reference only--you don't write the numbers in your Fonosta. (graphic) In your Fonosta, only one side of each sheet of paper is used. The first page of the notebook is the first page of your Fonosta. The first page, and subsequent pages, are the "Front Pages". You'll also be using the last page of your notebook--this last page and the pages going backward into the notebook are the "Back Pages". In these, the opposite side of the page is used. The reason for having Front and Back Pages is because there a several types of Fonosta Pages, and by using both the Front and Back, you'll be able to organize you Fonosta much more effectively. You need not divide all the pages in your notebook into the eight areas--you can make these simple divisions on each new Page that you create. Right now, I'm going to describe how you can start playing Obliviana right now. I realize that the following explanation will most likely be very difficult to understand. But I want to get the game of Obliviana started before 1998, which will be here in just about 25 hours. Okay. First of all, the first Page of your Fonosta is the "Establishment Page", where you officially start your Fonosta. In Area 6 of the first page, you will write "(your name)'s Fonosta", and on the next line you will write "Established (the date). So, for example, my first page, Area 6, would read: Frank Edward Nora's Fonosta Eastablished December 31, 1997 That's all you need to do to start your Fonosta! Your Fonosta will also have a name and number, and these will go into Area 7. Your Fonosta name is a single word in the English language. Your Fonosta number is a sequential number that is issued by Obliviana. I started the naming/numbering system quite awhile ago, and I will continue with it soon. For now, don't worry about it. Now, you can move onto your second Page, which is your first "Mile". Each "Mile Page" represents a section of the Little World of Racetracks. For now, the only Racetrack that is online is Owltoco. So, on your first Mile Page, you will write in Area 7 "Owltoco 1 (Fonosta Name)", and on the next line you will write "Established (the date)". Since you don't have a Fonosta Name yet, leave space for it. My Fonosta name is "Lord", so my Area 7 will read: Owltoco 1 Lord Established December 31, 1997 In order to establish a Mile Page, you need a Page Jot. Jots are the basic element in Obliviana. Each Jot is a little symbol, or glyph, similar to a letter or number. Area 5 is the place where you put your Page Jot. Normally, Page Jots are gotten through "Deals". A Deal is simply a transaction in which you "spend" one or more Jots to obtain a new Jot. But since this is your fist Page Jot, you'll get it for free. Each Mile Page represents a kind of place. Your Fonosta is your own "personal" version of the Little World of Racetracks.Each Page Jot describes a kind of place. Your first Page Jot will be "Peaceful Hillside". It's Jot is drawn like a capital H, except that it has two crossbars instead of one. In the near future, I will present graphics of this and the other Jots I will describe to you. But for now, try and bear with me with these descriptions. So, you will draw the Jot "Peaceful Hillside" in Area 5, and in Area 7, you will write "Peaceful Hillside", leaving space for another line underneath, which will be used in the future. Next, we must deal with "Time Jots". Each week, you will receive a certain number of Time Jots. The symbol for a Time Jot is a capital L turned upside-down. This is like a capital T, with the right half of the horizonal stroke deleted. Draw these eight Time Jots in Area 1 of your Back Page. In Area 2 of your Back Page, you should begin your "Journal", whre you will simply write down events that take place in your Fonosta. You will definitely want to record the creation of your Fonosta, as well as the creation of new Mile Pages. You may also decide to record every single event in your Fonosta--but that is up to you. Your Time Jots Areas and Journal Areas will co-exist in the back pages. When a new Area for either of these is needed, go on to the next Area in the 1-2-3-4 sequence as shown in the graphic above. From Area 4, move onto a new Page. For now, you need not write anything down in Areas 5-8 of the back pages. Now, let me present to you the first Deal in Obliviana: 2 Time Jots = Neverbeen. "Neverbeen" is the first regular Jot. It's symbol is a capital N with a horizontal stroke drawn through it's middle. This stroke extends beyond the left and right sides of the N (in the same way that the vertical stroke(s) of a dollar sign extend above and below the S). To perform this Deal, cross out two Time Jots from your Back Page and draw the Neverbeen Jot in Area 1 of your Owltoco 1 Mile Page. All new Jots are placed in Area 1 of a Mile Page. Each Jot has an associated "Happen". A Happen is, very simply, an action that you must perform to "Bloom" the Jot. In the case of Neverbeen, the Happen is "Go someplace you've never been before. It could be a store you've never been in, a street you've never been down, etc." Once you perform the action described in the Happen, you can Bloom your Jot. To do this, cross the Jot in Area 1 out, and draw it again in Area 2. Area 2 is for Unspent Bloomed Jots. All Deal that involve other than Time Jots refer to Bloomed Jots. Once you spend a Jot from Area 2, you cross it out and redraw it in Area 3. Area 3 is for Once-Spent Jots. These Jots can be spent one more time, and the Jot in question is then moved to Area 4, by crossing it out in Area 3 and redrawing it in Area 4. Area 4 is the Octagon Area. All 4 Areas have a limit of eight Jots at any given time. Once you have eight Jots in Area 4, no new Jots can be entered into Area 1 of that Mile Page. And, depending on the set of eight Jots you have in Area 4, you may be able to obtain an Octagon. Well, that's it for now. With this information, you should be able to get started with your Fonosta. You can get up to 4 Neverbeen Jots, and Bloom them. You may wish to record each Blooming in your Journal Areas, along with the date (and time, if you wish). The date should be included on all Journal entries. I should be updating this information soon, and as I said--this is only meant to be a very preliminary description of Obliviana--there's a heck of a lot more to Obliviana than I've described here. Check back in the near future of a much more detailed introduction to Obliviana. Bye-bye for now. Get all Obliviana! ******************* Fri 1/2/98 * 10:57 PM Today I wandered like I used to. I went to an arcade, then to Caldor, bought a new Indiana Jones-like Lego thing, went to Barnes & Noble, bought superhero trading cards from a vending machine outside a supermarket, etc., etc. I haven't gone on that kind of wander for awhile. Bloomed another Neverbeen Jot today, walked into a bank across the street from my bank. Worked on the "Comma's Coma" Severe Repair Cupline today. Comma is sort of a parody of myself, and today I made up a comic strip character he created, called "Fnud the Musketball". One thing I didn't put into the initial rules of Obliviana is the object that the Neverbeen Jot represents. The first Page Jot (a term which I might change to "Mile Jot") is called "Peaceful Hillside", so I should make the Neverbeen Jot something that would fit well into that locale. Maybe a "majestic pine tree"? Now, here's something I started the other day: The State of Obliviana: [1] Racetrack Arctahojast--Severe Repair Severe Repair now has around 400 pages of writing (measured conventially) in Cupline format. I still have around another 400 pages to convert to Cupline format. Plus, I have a lot of new material I'm ready to start writing. This year, in addition to converting all of my Severe Repair writing to Cupline format, I intend to create a set of Cups from various Cuplines which will be an easy read, and which will introduce the reader to the Severe Repair universe. [2] Racetrack Voodholo--Superior The first phase of Superior is finished, with 728 raw Superiors. Superior Phase 2 is called "Parking", and I just wrote Parking 61 today. This year, I plan on continuing Parking, as well as creating a set of "Storm Superiors", which would take from the raw set 209 Superiors, with revisions where I feel it necessary. [3] Racetrack Pilcansas--Super Object Super Object has been dormant for a long time. The first set of eight came out in, I believe, 1988. The following year saw those 8 re-released, along with eight new ones. Over the past 6 or 7 years, I've done "Pocket Antique Shop", "Non-Thorium Antenna" and "Modern Sapling 1: Astonisher". This year, I intend to create a new set of Super Objects, though I have yet to work out the specifics. [4] Racetrack Hucaway--Confounder Confounder is the Revolver of my analog/physical games. The main games here are Obliviana Classic, Vulpine, and Deluge of Primacy, though I have a lot more in the works. This year, I intend to produce a version of Obliviana Classic which I can sell, though it will probably be quite primitive in its production values. As well, I want to develop Vulpine, which I can produce very simply, since it can be played with the rules and some paper. I do plan on printing sheets of paper with markings for the game, though, which I should be able to sell via mail-order. As far as Deluge of Primacy, I need to develop it further, though it does seem possible to sell it as a set, with wooden boards, candles, and possibly some other components. [5] Racetrack Moodbruc--Zope Zope has gone through many phases since I created him in 1986. In the past year or so, I endeavored to digitize all of the existing Zope material, and I did digitize a majority of it. Classic Zope is material from before 1994. Text Zope is from 1994 through last year, and comprises all the Zope features I did in OsoaWeek. New Zope is in Yargo format, and I have done three pages of this. This year, I want to develop a standard digital format for Zope. There are two possible directions here--straight Yargo format, or a smaller animated GIF format which would have one panel per frame. [6] Racetrack Inhusto--Halfevil Graphics Originally, "Halfevil Graphics" was the name of my publishing "company". Last year, I decided to bring back this name as the Revolver which encompasses all my graphical works. The major categories in this Revolver are Pelter, Yargo Tree, Codingseed, and Opmarquee. This year, I will continue with the new "Yargo Window" format that I develop last month. As well, the Storm Pelters will be very much incorporated into the Obliviana web interface. I may also do something with Codingseed. [7] Racetrack Roptoon--Welcome to the Weasel Village Mall This Revolver contains all my audiovisual work, and is related to Nomadio/Anything But Monday. I decided last year to focus exclusively on audio. I have a large archive of audio material, including the audio portion of video material. This is a Revolver I plan to do a great deal with this year. I intend to develop a standard format for the audio segments, and produce new material. [8] Racetrack Fogoncs--Primitive Primitive is the Revolver of my computer game ideas. The two major categories here are text and FOW-graphical. The text games that I have been working on for a long time include Antebellim and Devastating Nightscape. "FOW-graphical" refers to the system I was working on which uses the 11x19 FOW grid as a basis for graphical games. I have recently done some work on Antebellum, and I do want to at least keep open the possibility of programming it to some extent, perhaps in Java. I also had an idea of making it as a little pocket-sized text game, with just four buttons as the interface ("Universe in Your Pocket"?)--and while I most likely will not be able to produce such an item, I can program the games with a simple input scheme like this. [9] Racetrack Wroohoots A Mystery Racetrack. [10] Racetrack Quopchaw- A Mystery Racetrack. [11] Racetrack Owltoco--Obliviana Central Obliviana is now focused on being a game, centered on the Fonosta notebook idea. Clearly, this is the Revolver that is most vital to Obliviana as a whole, and I plan on working on it intensely this year. Sun 1/4/98 * 1:58 PM It still stings a little to write that "98" in the date. Anyway, the list above sets forth my goals for this year, but it is "Obliviana Central" where I have to focus most of my energy. This past Tuesday night I did upload a preliminary set of rules for Obliviana, but I have to remember that this set of rules is VERY preliminary. I myself have been playing Obliviana in the four-and-a-half days since then, though there isn't much to do but buy and Bloom Neverbeen Jots. I Bloomed two Neverbeen Jots, and I did experience a Bliv (unexpected event unlikely to be chance)--me and Denice were driving to Pier 1 in Harmon Meadow or something, and we passed by Giants Stadium and saw the flea market was going on, which neither of us had ever been to before, so we decided to stop, even though it was after 4:00 PM, and was probably winding down. We got there, and indeed most of the vendors were packing up, and there we were in this semi-abandoned parking lot, a brilliant orange-and-purple sunset starting to fire up, and perfect temperature and breeze. It was an awesome experience. And it is the TYPE of experience, a very cool event which happens by chance, which seems to happen a lot more when I've recently done some Obliviana. This example shows how Obliviana is a very qualitative and aesthetic thing at one level. There is certainly an aesthetic involved at some level. I do not want the Game of Obliviana to depend on this aesthetic, though. I believe that the gameplay elements of Jots and Deals and Blooming will hold a player's attention regardless of that player's particular aesthetic. Who knows--maybe Obliviana makes things happen to people which are cool to them, whatever their aesthetic. So, the basic premise of promoting Obliviana is like "Free Game--really cool--come to this website--free, no obligation--follow these simple instructions, etc." Their have to be in the promotion of Obliviana incentives at every stage to keep a person going from the first stage of first hearing about Obliviana to the fulfilled stage of being an active player of Obliviana. 3:24 PM The central activity in Obliviana is Blooming Jots. Each Jot has an associated Happen, which will be listed on the website. But perhaps I should also have a print version? Or should I just tell people to print it out themselves? Well, if I were to have a print version, what would it be like? I think my "Analog Pinser" design is optimal, though very labor-intensive. So for the early-going, perhaps I should do something a little easier to produce. This reminds me of my somewhat recent idea to make available via mail order an Obliviana starter kit. It would contain reference material, a Fonosta registration form, and probably a bonus super object. This would be a way to start making money. It has long been my ideal to provide the Game of Obliviana free on the Internet in its basic form, with enhancements available for purchase. I am not talking about providing only a part of the game for free and then charging for the full version (via password access to the website or whatever), but rather, the full game is available without fee, and the stuff you buy adds to, and/or makes easier, the experience of playing the game. 3:47 PM Since Blooming Jots is the central activity in Obliviana, I need to focus on the Jot-creation process. 4:52 PM Organizing my room here. Looks like I might conquer my junk somewhat for the first time ever, Anyway, each Jot has several elements: [1] Name [2] Glyph [3] Happen [4] Place/Object One big question here is whether Page Jots are distinct from regular Jots, as opposed to all Jots having both regular and Page potential. I think this latter idea is better. Tue 1/6/98 * 12:45 AM Today's big idea: the set of Jots will be very limited, with new ones being a big deal. All Jots will have locale/objects attributes, 11 different sets, for all the different Racetracks. Tue 1/6/98 * 8:35 PM Atmosphere outside was amazing. Upper fifties maybe, after rainstorm, brought me spiritually to my college days, wandering the campus after a rain, etc. Amazing weather for early January! So, I realized that the basic Jots should be Happens you can Bloom in the course of a regular day. Neverbeen definitely fulfills this criteria, while Mallball clearly does not. I want to establish eight basic Jots, which represent Happens that can be Bloomed in the course of an ordinary day--ue--you don't have to go way out of your way to do it. I found my last major work on Friction Enhancer back in OsoaWeek 151, from this past June. A lot of good stuff there. One subject was the natue of each Friction Enhancer. (Right now, I'm using the term "Happen", but back then I was using "Friction Enhancer". Maybe I should go back to this term.) For the Basic Jots, I want things that are easy and not cumbersome. I do believe that something like "Drink Some Obliviana" should be one of the basic Jots, since something like reading a Cup of Severe Repair is something that should take all of five minutes. In order for "Drink a Cup of Severe Repair" to be valid, Severe Repair has to be GOOD. And thank goodness, it IS. I do want to get the Obliviana "Primer" done. It will consist of a set of Cups from the 209 Phase 1 Cups that are currently done. I think that either 19 or 30 Cups would be good here. 19 is about 9% of the current work, and 30 is about 14%. 19 would take approximately an hour-and-a-half total to read, and 30 would take around two-and-a-half hours total. I think I'll go for 30. 9:37 PM STUPID CORRIDORS A Game Start off by cutting out pictures of individual people or characters from newspapers or magazines or whatever. These are your characters that will wander the Stupid Corridors. Each player will choose four "Stupid People". 11:46 PM Neverbeen Drink a Cup of Severe Repair Four of Things Naming As Regard Pebbleswitch Reality Tonic Okay. This is an initial list of eight Jots, but it's very preliminary. Now, I want these Basic Jots to be easy to do. Reality Tonic may be too much to be a basic Jot--people are just so "grossed-out" by it. Four of Things is very simple and easy to do. So I think this will be one. As far as "Drink a Cup of Severe Repair", this is definitely in, though perhaps it should be more general, as in Drink a Cup of Obliviana", though maybe SR will be the only Cups available at first. Pebbleswitch is definitely good, and I think it sits the criteria for a Basic Jot. I don't want any Jots to be TOO easy, after all. So I have four definites: Neverbeen Drink Four of Things Pebbleswitch Now, one Friction Enhancer that I do quite often is to look at different things when I'm at or passing through places I pass through every day. I'll call this "Deepnotice" for now. Deepnotice is similar to "Regard", and in fact, it may be the same thing. Regard is a bit more intense, in that you "address" an object in sight; you NOTICE it in a deep way. So it IS the same thing. But "Deepnotice" is a better name. "Presh Park" is a Friction Enhancer that originally involved going to a park and staying still for a period of time. But "park" can also refer to standing still for a period of time. I think that stopping somewhere where you wouldn't normally stop would be a very good Jot. Hence, "Preshpark". "Propulsion Cards" were a part of my original "Storm Codex" deck. Part of each card had a description of something to do to the card itself. I think it's a great idea, though in order to implement it right now, I would have to just have players write the phrases on index cards or something. "Naming" involves giving names to various things in your environment. For example, say you take a train to work and you pass by some of those giant oil drums. You'd name invidivual drums and record the names. This is similar to "Deepnotice", though different in a number of ways. Neverbeen Drink Four of Things/Four-o-things Pebbleswitch Deepnotice Preshpark Propulsion Cards Naming Thu 1/8/98 * 10:35 PM Today was a fucked-up day. Denice called me at work, and asked me to call the insurance guy. So I went to call my mother to get the number, but I accidentally dialed my grandmother, so I talked to her. She told me that she saw in the paper that my former girlfrend, Kerri, had died. Just a day or two ago, me and Denice were talking about Kerri a little cuz of some photos I had of me and her. Then this morning, I put on the shirt that I wore the day I met Kerri, and this fact ran through my mind as I picked out the shirt. Weird, huh? The last time I saw Kerri was about two years ago. The last time I talked to her was about six months after that. My friend Peter Litkey just got together with her last month, though. I have no details about her death, other than she was buried on Saturday. I really want to find out more. I'm pretty upset. Anyway, the "heat" wave continues. It's been really warm so far in 1998 in New Jersey. 1998 is a weird year. The world went through a massive change as 1998 dawned. I'm starting to see that 1998 might be something of an ordeal for all of us. Now, back to Obliviana. I made a cool logo for "Naked Exit Friend" today. "Naked Exit Friend" is the name of my Severe Repair Sampler, which is nearing completion. I have the whole thing printed out. In fact, my wife Denice is reading it right now. If it were in book form, "Naked Exit Friend" could be around 60 pages long. My humidor is dry. I just lit up a dry Cuban cigar. Wow, it tastes pretty good! Anyway, in the past few days, I've been thinking of a new kind of "Surface Obliviana". In thinking about promoting Naked Exit Friend, I realized that I'd have to promote the URL. With my website as it currently is, "www.obliviana.com" will get you to a flashing map. The problem with this is that it will be a barrier for people looking to get something very easily. And I DON'T want to give out a URL longer that "www.obliviana.com". The solution to this problem may be to have an "intro" page with an "Enter Obliviana" link, as well as links for the introductory, immediately accessible stuff, such as Naked Exit Friend. Ease of use and the LWOR navigation system are a bit at odds. I think the idea of introductory materials helps to solve this problem a little. It's like, "now that you WANT this content, head into the LWOR and FIND it!" This is a pretty good idea. The introductory area serves to generate the motivation people will need in order to put effort into finding stuff in LWOR. Fri 1/9/98 * 9:30 PM Finished the second Yargo Window today. I don't know if I'll be scanning them into computer, since they're so big. I've worked on a lot of different aspects of Obliviana this past week--so I want to get my bearings now and figure out what my next step is. One idea for a Jot is "Cupdrink", which would be the one which you bloom by drinking a Cup from an Obliviana Revolver, such as Severe Repair. Establishing Core Obliviana is my priority right now. I was thinking of changing the notebook format to allow the current page setup to exist as part of a page, leaving the rest of the page for notes and stuff. This would mean that I'd have to separate the rest of the page into three section to make for 11 total instead of nine. This is getting a little complicated, but it does prevent the need for using the back of the the book. I could restructure the back of the notebook, just having either Time Jot or Journal Pages, with no 8-Area formatting. Sat 1/10/98 * 11:37 AM A week or so ago, around New Years, I was actually playing Obliviana myself, but I only did it for a few days. The problem is, the system is not set up, and the only thing I could do was Neverbeen. One thing, when Blooming Jots, when you do something, the Jot in question MUST be in Stage 1 in order for it to Bloom. You cannot "save up" Happens--they must occur AFTER a Jot is put into Stage 1 (or Area 1). Now, I was working on coming up with a set of eight Basic Jots. Well, I don't want to set that kind of limit. Rather, I want to establish Jot "levels" which identify in a broad sense how involved that Jot will be. I have already determined a number of Basic Jots--but what will the other levels be? Well, Mallball is certainly one of the most important Jots, but it is not Basic. Call it "Advanced"? The difference between Basic and Advanced in terms of gameplay is that you can get Basic Jots with just Time Jots, but advanced Jots will require Bloomed Jots to get. Should I leave it as this two-tiered system for now? For now, I will. So, for the time being, I'll need to have, say, at least four Basic Jots to get things going. Here is a list from above, updated a little: Neverbeen Cupdrink Fourofthings Pebbleswitch Deepnotice Preshpark Deepnaming "Propulsion Cards" Notice that I named "Naming" as "Deepnaming", linking it to "Deepnotice". So, as far as the initial Jots go-- Neverbeen Preshpark Deepnotice These three Jots do not require any objects or writing--you just DO them. Jot idea: "Many Disposals"--take an sheet of paper or something, and rip pieces off, and thy and throw it out into as many trash cans as possible. Sun 1/11/98 * 5:24 PM Jotforge--the method of creating Jots. I need to identify all the aspects of Jot. First of all, there is only one kind of Jot. Jots are numbered sequentially, based on when I officially release them. Each Jot has a name, which is a single word, first letter capitalized, no spaces or hyphens or apostrophes. The name is based on the Happen. Glyph is the graphical symbol of the Jot. It is simple, often based on recognizable glyphs, such as letters and numbers, but never the same as traditional glyphs. Happen is the "Friction Enhancer" associated with the Jot. Each Happen defines an action to be taken by the player. "Adornment" is the terms I am currently using for the meaning the Jot has in the Fonosta LWOR. Each Jot has 22 specific adornments--one Page and one Object for each of the 11 Racetracks in LWOR. So: [1] Number [2] Name [3] Glyph [4] Happen [5] Adornment Regarding Adornment, I have to question the idea of having different Adornments in each Racetrack. It does make the system more complicated, but on the other hand, it adds a richness to the little world each player creates for themself. 7:29 PM One factor here is the total number of different Jots. Originally, I was thinking about there being a vast number of different Jots. But now, I see that number as being much more limited. New Jots in this system would arrive with much fanfare. This limiting of Jots justifies the "22 Adornments" thing pretty well. In the past, I thought that there should be nearly limitless Friction Enhancers, which I am now calling "Happens". But I think that a limited set is preferable, for a number of reasons. First of all, it helps create a cultural identity for Obliviana. Another big reason is that it keeps the system graspable and prevents it from being overwhelming. Mon 1/12/98 * 11:05 PM Saw "The Ice Storm" this evening. Great movie. Manhattan travelling to Port Authority from Quad Cinema on 13th St., headed for 1-2-3-9 trains but wound up taking the L to 8th Ave., and an E was just arriving. Perceptions totally different from the experience of the movie. On the bus, I went to put my seat back, and it went totally back--I was lying flat on my back. I had been doing Deepnotice. I had a vision which I think is very important--Obliviana is like clothing. I saw a vision of a black sweater, very comfortable, with an orange or red or white stripe or stripes across the belly. On the walk home from the bus stop I stopped (an impromptu Preshpark) and wrote down this slogan: "Supernatural Clothing for this World that Really does Exist" That was another theme I was thinking about--the real message of Obliviana--and I realized that one part of this message is that the world really does exist. It's not an illusion, a shared hallucination, a butterflies dream, or anything like that--it's totally real. It is the definition of real. And if there are other realms to existence, such as an afterlife or a Primal Realm, this world that we inhabit is a big part of the totality of existence. Tue 1/13/98 Somewhat darn windy outside. Okay. I came up wih this slogan for Obliviana while walking from the subway to the bus this evening, in front of a store called "R.A.G." or something. Here is the slogan: "Obliviana: Clothing for your Presence" As soon as I came up with this, I started feeling really, really strange. I feel strange right now thinking about this phrase. So--how exactly is Obliviana clothing for your presence? Okay. In terms of the aspects of a person, the physical body is a big thing; it's the easiest thing to comprehend about a person. Then there's a plethora of possible supernatural bodies, such as soul, spirit, astral body, ethereal body, etc. In Obliviana, I am not concerned with these sorts of possible supernatural bodies. In fact, in Obliviana, I am not even concerned so mich with the mind, at least in the context of Presence. So, Presence is not a supernatural aspect of a person, but rather, the idea that a person can only physically be one place at a time, and this place is always moving. It is this constantly-moving being somewhere that I mean by Presence. Okay. That definition was not too great, but I'll keep on going. In Obliviana, I have talked a great deal about Situation and the structure of Situation. Your Presence is yourpoint of location as it moves through the world. If you left behind a trail, and if you imagine such a trail, and if such a trail got brighter every time you passed the same way, and you looked at the world and looked at your trail, you'd see some incredibly bright trails representing your daily commute to work or school, the environs inside your home, etc. Then there would be numerous dim trails representing ways you've gone infrequently. But the big thing would be that almost all of the world would bear no "you-trail". Now, I contend that the shape of the "you-trail"is defined by the structure of Situation. You are "naked" in this aspect of your life. You don't perceive this stuff directly. Obliviana provides you with tools to understand your Presence and it opens up a whole new vista for you. Okay. My reasoning here is still lacking. In Obliviana, I don't want to require faith; I want Obliviana to make sense in a common sense way. This common sense aspect is evident in a Jot like Neverbeen. Neverbeen's Happen is going someplace you've never been before. So, I can safely say that if you do Neverbeen you'll go places you've never been before. But is there value to going to places that you'd normally have no reason to go to? Okay. I think that it's fair to say that of all the places you could go to in your daily non-leisure routine, there are some places which would hold no interest to you, but there are a lot which could be very interesting to you. I think this is common sense. So, by deliberately going to new places, you will inevitably have cool new experiences. Yes, part of this whole Neverbeen thing has to do with a personal aesthetic--you need to be able to appreciate aspects of a location. But, I still contend that there are plenty of places right around ou every day that you have never experienced, and some are bound to be interesting and exciting to you. I think that in Neverbeen I have a pretty solid argument. I want to have a similarly-solid argument for "Clothing for your Presence". Regular clothing provides us with protection from the elements. Specifically, it keeps us warm andarmors us against potentially harmful elements in our environment. In addition, it helps keep us clean and provides us augmentation for our identity. Without clothing, humans would be limited to hot climates. With clothing, humans have moved to inhabit much of the world. Extreme environments, such as the Arctic, underwater, and space, require elaborate clothing for survival. So, I am saying that in regard to Presence, most of us are naked, and can therefore only exist in hot Situational "climates". With "Clothing for your Presence", you can travel through more inhospitable Situational "climates". When you think of being someplace and you get an uncomfortable feeling, or when you ARE in a place and you're very uncomfortable, these are examples of the fact that you are reaching the limits of you hospitable Situational environment. So, how does Obliviana clothe you in this regard? The challenge here is to go to new places and do new things and to perceive the world in different, richer ways. Motivation is the prime factor here. When you're motivated, you plot a course. Where does motivation come from? I think that it comes from your area of Presence, and that is why you don't stray very far from that area. Obliviana provides motivations which can carry you outside your "rut". Again, here, I realize that I'm being awful vague about this stuff. But there is something incredibly important here. "Clothing for your Presence" Your Presence consists of where you are and what your situation is and how you're perceiving the environment and the way you feel and the atmosphere. Your Presence is a powerful thing. You are able to experience this amazing world. And you are in control of your Presence. But far too many people ignore their Presence, they neglect it, and wind up living "sucky" lives because their Presence is in a terrible Rut. Your Presence is not a mystical or supernatural thing. It is what you are doing and experiencing over time. So why does a person's Presence fall into an unpleasant rut so often? Very simply, it is because the person is ingoring and neglecting their Presence. Even when someone decides to "break out of their rut", they don't deal with the problem at a direct Presence level, but rather, they try to use variant mundane motivations t try and break out of the rut. It's kind of like being in thrid gear in your car, and you want to go backwards, and you try second and fourth gear, and then give up. Fri 1/16/98 * 12:06 AM The reality is that if I want to make a living from Obliviana, a whole lot of people are going to have to spend money on Obliviana regularly. Now, I realize that Obliviana hasn't gone anywhere yet. I don't even have a small fan base. I have nothing. But I realized earlier today that if I had several hundred fans of my website, it might make me feel good and stuff, but it wouldn't really bring me that much closer to making money with Obliviana. If I had millions of dollars to spend promoting Obliviana, I could definitely make some money. SOME money. You spend a lot promoting something, it's gonna make a certain amount of money, but you can't guarantee that it'll net a profit. Low overhead is possible with Obliviana, meaning that I can make money with less people spending less money as opposed to having a company with a lot of overhead. The Internet does seem to be a way to run a business with very little overhead. Also, no middleman--people come directly to you. In fact, if I weren't so jaded about the Internet like everyone else, I might see an amazing opportunity to run a very small business with very big profits. Websites are cheap. Anyone, anywhere in the world can access it. They're connected right to you, no middleman. So what's the problem? Clearly, the main problem is that you have to get people to go to your website, which is pretty tough. Then, you have to hold their attention. Then you have to make sure they'll come back. Then you need them to spend money. Out of these challenges, I would say that getting people there in the first place is the toughest. Keeping them there, making them want to come back, and getting them to spend money are also pretty damn hard. One big question is whether or not I'm going to use the mail and physical products. The great lure of NOT using physical products is that it cuts overhead big time. The question is, how vital to making money is delivering a physical product to someone? Well, how do you make money without physical products? The product you deliver has to be delivered over the Internet, in the form of software and content. In the form of bits, one way or another. You can sell access to content. Right now, people seem to be willing to spend money on pornography. But I do not want to sell access to Obliviana content--I am philosophically against it, and hey, it's not pornography. I don't think people are gonna pay for access to Severe Repair and Zope. I have dealt with this issue in the past. One of my idea was "Predatorware", and I still think it's a pretty good idea, at least on paper. It involves selling a limited number of "Digital Artifacts" of a certain piece of content. Now, this idea leads inevitably to something like Sega's "Transactor", which is going to be used soon in the online game "Ten to the Sixth Power" and others. It is a system by which "Ledos" (Limited Edition Digital Objects) can be bought and sold in a secure way--for real money. I am philosophically against this also. These philosophies of mine seem to be pushing me toward physical products. But I dread the realm of credit card transactions, mailings, inventories, customer service, etc. So where does this leave me to make money? Advertising? I think I'm realistic about this. There's no way I'm gonna get Obliviana going with advertising. Ads could supplement my income, but only after I'm already making money with Obliviana. I say this because I don't have the money to get the hits I'd need to get that much advertising revenue. So again, where does this leave me? Having had a business in Anything But Monday which failed has left me much more realistic about business. I think this is better, though I now lack the blind optimism I once had. That optimism took Anything But Monday pretty far, but not far enough to make money. Now, as far a digital artifacts go, I am against defining them as things which can be sold to other people. In Obliviana, Jots are objects which by definition cannot be sold, since they represent personal effort and achievements. But they can be recorded and made "official" by Obliviana. This is a service that folks might pay for. There must be companies out there which can handle credit card transactions, for a cut of the money. I'll have to look into such service bureaus, but I don't like the idea of middlemen. It is a whole lot easier to use a credit card over the Internet as opposed to mailing a check or money order. I think that it is the Fonosta--the player's identity--where I can make money. This taps into the ego, which is a basic human drive, much like sexuality. It's a sad fact that you have to tap into this sort of stuff to make money. Maybe, though, it's not so bad. I mean, I believe in trading value for value. Ayn Radn's Objectivism as defined in her novel "Atlas Shrugged" holds this as a central tenet. What of value do I have to trade for value as represented by money? Content can make money, but right now, content has to be associated with a physical product to really make money. And it has to have money and connections behind it. This is what publishers are for. Middlemen. I want to go it alone. A person goes to my website, and sends their money directly to me. Why is someone gonna spend hard-earned cash on Obliviana? It has to be for some compelling reason. Running an all-digital business is a dream. No physical product, none of the hassles associated with that. "Micropayments" and other schemes on the Internet aren't a viable option right now. In the Internet we have now, folks are used to getting just about everything for free. Even those pay porno sites are easy pray for cheaters, with hackers sites containing passwords and stuff. If I am to sell stuff digitally, it will be sanction. That is, Obliviana recording and making "official" a Fonosta. But I don't think I can do Obliviana without physical product. In Obliviana, I have long had the idea of limited-edition PHYSICAL objects, as opposed to Sega's digital objects. Handmade, signed and numbered, all that. I still have the dream of an all-digital business, but I don't think I can do it. Nor does it seem to really be desirable for Obliviana--Obliviana is very much about the REAL world. If I can find a service bureau to handle credit card transactions, I could start selling stuff over the Internet. Heck, I could bypass that to start with and just accept check or money order via mail. I have long defined Obliviana as sort of a "lifestyle". I see folks getting into Obliviana pretty heavily. These folks would then be more likely to spend money on Obliviana stuff. Sat 1/17/98 * 2:11 PM Predatorware was a decent idea, but one beset with the problems of digital registration and verification, which leads to a massively expensive system like Sega's "Transactor". But the idea is good in that you are selling an artifact (in this case digital) directly connected to a piece of content that is freely available online. So, I was thinking that I could change the idea so that it is a physical item that is being purchased. The basic idea here is for an item, such as a little card of some sort, which describes the piece of content represented, and gives the URL where you can find it. The main reason for this would be to be able to hand something to someone which would let them go directly to a specific piece of content. Now, at first glance this idea would seem to imply the physical reference card being a free promotion to get people to go to the website. But the way I see it, since the website is free, these reference cards will not be free. Looking at this in another way, these physical items, I'll call them "Pinsers" for now (after "Analog Pinser") , are the actual product, with the content associated with em available over the Internet as opposed to being present in the object itself. For example, a Pinser of "Severe Repair" would contain a reference to where to find the story online, as opposed to the story being present in print form in the Pinser itself. The reason that Pinsers do not contain content: [1] Producing Pinsers is cheaper and easier than producing entire content in physical form, allowing for more cool stuff to be produced. [2] Web-based content can have aspects that are not possible to do in physical media. Now, a question that will inevitably come up is: "Does the Pinser contain a code number, like a calling card, which allows you to access the content?" Now, this is a decent idea, but it goes against my philosophies. My intention is to make all content-access free to everyone, with the Pinsers having value in these ways: [1] Collectibility--Pinsers will be strictly limited, and each one will be signed and numbered. [2] With Pinsers, you can organize them physically to help in your exploration of Obliviana. That is, you could have a stack of Pinsers you want to drink. Now, these two points contradict each other in that if a Pinser is a useful tool in experiencing Obliviana, it should not be limited. That is, a person who wants a Pinser should be able to get one. But limitation need not conflict with usefulness. I am philosophically against artificial scarcity to boost collecibility. But I don't think I need any kind of articifial scarcity. Pinsers are, then, to be high-quality, handmade items whose value will initially come from their appeal as objects, their usefulness in exploring Obliviana, and the fact that they are the only available physcial representations of Obliviana content. As far as production goes, it is my intention to meet demand. But since these Pinsers are going to be handmade, it is very possible that after, say, 100 have been sold, the next batch will be a little different. Now, I am thinking about Pinsers being the ONLY thing sold in the "Catalog of Obliviana". Well, I'll say that they'll be the MAIN thing. I do want to keep open the possibility of selling other stuff. Could other stuff, like T-shirts, have Pinsers of their own? Now, it's clear that the design of the Pinser is of the utmost importance here. I have had, so far, two major ideas in this regard. The first idea is to bring back my "Analog Pinser" design, in which the Pinsers will be little 4- or 8-page publications which can be inserted into the rubber and metal "Analog Pinser". Right now I favor my newer idea, which is to have each Pinser be a little plastic box with a printed piece inside, as well as some kind of unique object related to the content. Sun 1/18/98 * 8:47 PM Video game collecotr's meeting last night. I was at Wal-Mart in Brick at 5:00 AM this morning. Anyway, Let me get back to the issue at hand. While driving home last night, a just about 60 mile stretch of Parkway in light to heavy flurries, I came up with a name for this thing I've been talking about, and I'll be writing it down for the first time in the next paragraph. What I was calling "Pinser" yesterday I am now thinking of calling "Predahoary Box". This name came about from the term "Predatorware", which may have come from my fascination with alternate football league teams names, specifically the Arena Football League's "Orlando Predators". Anyway, "Predatory Box" comes from "Pedatorware", but I wasn't totally happy with the name. So I played around in my mind on the Parkway with alternating letters and I came up with "Predahoary", and I immediately thought of the word "hoary", which has several meanings, but generally means old and gray and venerable. So, the terms "predatory" and "hoary" are by implication combined in "Predahoary". I also think the word resonates on a number of levels, in its similarity to other words, such as "predicate" and "prehistoric", and it's general Asian or Native American feel. Predahoary Box. 9:21 PM Just did some Parkings. Mixed bag, some good material. So, Predahoary Box. What will it consist of? I am thinking back to the whole clothing thing, and I think it would be grat if you could wear Predahoary Boxes. The box will enclose other stuff, so the outside is very standardized. It should be possible to create a device to allow you to attach a Predahoary Box to a necklace or pin type thing. Or even a belt sort of thing. With this in mind, Predahoary Boxes have to be visually appealing. So, Predahoary Box with basically combine the Super Object idea with the Predatorware idea. Each Predahoary Box will contain a printed piece of paper, square, fit in box, with info on it. Could be single or folded-over once. Also, Box will contain an object or objects, related to content in some way. Each paper inside will be signed and numbered. Price? This will have to relate to the cost of making it. I would have to say that $10 is the starting point here, as a very rough estimate, and I'll go higher or lower from this. Mon 1/19/98 * 12:40 AM So, what's gonna be on the Predahoary Paper? Think album cover... CD cover... something like that, for one side. Data on the other side, including the all-important URL. Could the Box be sealed permanently? Krazy Glue? Now, the paper in the box along with objects. Paper loose. What about that? Way to stick paper to Box? Glue? No. I wanna keep it simple. No glue in any way. Maybe a standard plastic cube to keep it stable? Heavy paper and cube? Maybe. Burn holes in it? To string it? paper clip unfolded, into flame, then into plastic? Maybe. Very brief way of writing here. Whoah, pretty introspective writing. Keychain little chains through holes? hang them up? On wall or in a row? Cool, maybe. Tue 1/20/98 * 9:03 PM "Predahoary Box" becomes "Codingseed Box". "Predahoary" just wasn't working. Also, I have the design just about complete now, and "Codingseed" is a very appropriate name, as well as having a long history in Obliviana. Basically, I used a soldering iron to melt two holes into the top of the box, on the right side, and I put a white pipe cleaner through, with two pony beads of different colors. Inside there's paper with printing, black plastic cube to keep paper back, and another object, unique to each Codingseed series. So, I have the design now, and I'm working on the printed part design, and then what? This URL thing kind of conflicts with the whole New Surface O thing. 9:19 PM There are a number of major areas in my current Obliviana design, some of which are in conflict with each other: [1] LWOR/Surface O. The web interface. Strict navigation rules (must "drive" to where you want to go). [2] Fonosta/Game of Obliviana. Jots, etc. [3] Codingseed Box. Connected via URL to specific "blocks" of content. [4] "Amorphous" content, with broad Revolvers, and a mass of content that is not subdivided. [5] 209/Stormjaunting. More involved form of Blooming Jots. Okay. First of all, Codingseed Boxes provide a specific URL, whereas the LWOR interface requries "driving". This may not be a conflict, but an added value to the Boxes, since they give you a direct route to content, as opposed to "driving". Now, on to the issue of "amorphous" versus "blocks" content. I think it's clear that "blocks" of content are a better way to organize content. Thu 1/22/98 * 12:31 AM Codingseed Box seems an awful like something that could be used in Stormjaunting. This is one idea that begin to merge the five major areas of Obliviana listed above into one thing. I really want Obliviana to be perceived as doing one thing. I want to have a single product. Or rather, I want a single product to be the focus of the whole endeavor. I attached a Codingseed Box to my Jukewand. Very interesting. This is definitely a step in moving towards the focal point I seek. Fri 1/23/98 * 1:06 AM Looks like Bill Clinton is in big trouble. They even mentioned on the news the possibility of his having to resign. I don't want to get my hopes up, but I can't help but fantasize about that fucker resigning in disgrace. It would be a rare treat to watch that villain squirm as he announed his resignation. Anyway, on to other topics. Did a lot of work on the "Wall-Mounted Chaos Generator" today. More on that later. Now, one issue about Obliviana that I have dealt with in the past is its "goodness". I want Obliviana to be a truly good thing for the people who play it. Aha! "Play it." Obliviana is a game, so the Codingseed Boxes are part of the game. Okay... As I said before, I want Obliviana to do one thing, to be known for one thing. It's clear that Obliviana is a game. The one thing is the Game of Obliviana. This is easy to say, but not so easy to develop. See, I don't want Obliviana to be a game and entertainment system and occult system and science fiction thing and comic thing and philosophical thing etc. etc. Rather, I want Obliviana to be a single thing which incorporates all the disparate elements that are a certain part of the system. So, Obliviana is a game. In order for this to work, the game has to be played by people, and all the other stuff in Obliviana has to be part of the game. Severe Repair trivia? I don't know if that kind of stuff will be a part of it, but yes, something like Severe Repiar does have to be a part of the game. A person has to be able to play Obliviana. The game has to be very specific, very understandable, and very playable. One thing that Obliviana lacks vis-a-vis being a game is a clear beginning and ending. Now, games do not necessarily need to begin and end, but it does help. Another potential problem with Obliviana is leaving too much up to the player. I believe that a playe should have very clear guidance in terms of what to do, or at least in terms of the range of choices available to him or her. This does not mean that some players cannot move in their own direction, it just means that a player will have guidance if needed. I guess that the existing game that is most similar to my idea for Obliviana is Ultima Online. It is similar in that it does not have a beginning or an end, and in that there are no clearly-defined goals. But there ARE goals in Obliviana. It's just that a player can move in whatever direction they desire. Just as I am conceiving of Obliviana as a game first and an entertainment system second, perhaps Obliviana can be a simple, specific game first, and a complex, freeform game second. I believe that Blooming Jots in a Fonosta notebook is a great foundation for Obliviana. But I do not want to tell people that the value of Obliviana is in the aesthetics of Blooming Jots. I want the value of Obliviana to be something much more understandable. Obliviana as a common denominator, as a pretense for comminucation between people. Fonosta as a very concise representation of a person's "state" in Obliviana. ! I put that exclamation mark there so that the file length here would be 155555, which breaks down to 8. Also, because I think I've hit on something very important. The Digital Superworld is beyond my control and beyond my grasp. Obliviana cannot compete in creating online worlds. But Obliviana can be a thing a person brings with them into the Digital Superworld, as a point of reference, as a pretense for communication. "What's you Fonosta?" or "How's your Fonosta?" as an opening to a conversation. Fonosta is the key. I've known this for a long time. I need to refine Fonosta so that it can be the way I'm describing. Sat 1/24/98 * 1:08 PM I think that my new thinking about Obliviana has led me full circle back to the Fonosta notebook, the system I "introduced" on my website a few weeks ago. The major difference in my new idea is on the nature of Jot, which is something I hadn't delved into entirely anyway. Today has the feel of a day in college somehow. Windy and not so cold outside, and I'm drinking 7-11 coffee and stuff. So--the idea here is that your Fonosta is, at any given time, in a "state". An example I thought of last night was like, in a certain state, you'd be looking out for birds and anything bird-related. Then you might move on to twigs. Stuff like that. 2:42 PM Form of Fonosta. This is the bug question. Fonosta Device is an 11x19 vertical "crest" that visually represents the contents of your Fonosta. 5:56 PM Form of Fonosta. Right now it's a notebook. But it should also be a text file. Maybe this text file should be generated and edited via a program? If such a file is chronological, a program should be able to totally parse it to get the full picture of your Fonosta. "How's your Fonosta?" I suppose that Fonosta is perfectly suited to PDAs. But I need to develop it in a pre-computer way first. I guess that the design of Fonosta should be medium-independent. That is, notebook or PDA or whatever else, the design of Fonosta is the same. But it has to work with non-electronic formats, such as notebook. My current view of Fonosta is that it is Jot-based, and "set" in LWOR. The idea of themes, such as birds or twigs, as I mentioned before, could be encoded as Jots. Jots can represent ANY sort of activity. I think that I need some kind of "Meta-Jots", meaning, for example, that to get a certain Meta-Jot, you'd have to Bloom a number of a certain kind of Jot. This would help define "state" of a given Fonosta. 9:01 PM Hooked up my Genesis here in my office. Playing some Sonic. Brings back memories. Evokes atmospheres. Where am I at? Oh yeah, Fonosta. It seems to me that Fonosta is made up of challenges that are currently being worked on. This is where "Meta-Jots" come in. A Jot is Bloomed by doing one thing. A Meta-Jot is Bloomed by doing a lot of stuff. Now, a Meta-Jot could be considered a regular Jot, but such a Jot would need a page of its own to keep track of the progress of its Blooming. Maybe Meta-Jots are actually Octagons? Hmm... yes, this would seem to be the case. Just had a vision of the Princeton Junction train station. Now, this idea would put Octagon into a little bit of a different light, and thus change the nature of the system as I have developed it. 10:15 PM I guess that the new Octagon idea will involve Blooming a set of Jots to Bloom the Octagon. The question is, will this involve a specific set of Jots, or will it be more freeform? 10:31 PM It's really tough for me right now to work on this Fonosta issue. But it is the single most important thing in Obliviana development right now, so I better get it done! I already have Octagon in the system. Right now, an Octagon is obtained from a set of eight Jots. This is clearly no longer appropriate. The way I see it, a Fonosta will contain one or several Octagons being worked on. It will also contain past Octagons, both achieved and "wrecked". I do see a limit in the number of Octagons that can be active at any given time. Because of this, if you have an Octagon that you really can't Bloom, you can choose to wreck it. So, in this model, Octagons are the only things that exist at the highest level, which is the level of the Fonosta Device, which is the graphical representation of the Fonosta. Octagons are very desirable and should therefore be pretty difficult to Bloom. I see an Octagon taking from a week to a month to Bloom, maybe longer. But I have to wonder if a "Meta-Octagon" is called for here. That is, a goal that is many months or even years in the making. This brings up the question of whether there should be a simple two-level hierarchy of Jots and Octagons, or whether there might be multiple levels of hierarchy. Or maybe this can be taken care of by defining sets of Octagons, thereby preserving the simple Jot/Octagon system of hierarchy. One thing is for sure--Jot Blooming as I have defined it will remain intact in the system. How then, do you Bloom an Octagon by Blooming Jots? 11:09 PM Are Octagons the colorful "cartridges" I have been evisioning for a long time? Maybe. Octagon has to be hard to get, but it has to have value beyond just having it. Sun 1/25/98 * 12:18 AM Okay. I know I'm pretty close, but I can't make that final leap. The Fonosta system I developed was good, but it was very weak in terms of Octagon, and it is Octagon that I am concerned with now. It seems to me that an Octagon should be something like bowling or Pac-Man. By this, I mean that it should have a number of "dots" or "pins", all of which need to be collected or knocked over to complete the Octagon. Okay. Stage Two Jots are used in Deals for Jots. Then Stage Three is used in Octagon. ! Okay, this is making some sense. Jots in Stage Three are available to "knock over pins" in Octagons. Sun 1/25/98 * 11:21 AM Stage Three spend in Octagons. 12:19 PM This new idea is good. Now I need to develop the structure of Octagon. Like I mentioned earlier, I want Octagon to contain a number of "pins" or "dots" to be knocked over or collected. I think the bowling paradigm is better than the Pac-Man one. So I'll call the things in an Octagon "pins" for now. I see this system involving the knocking down of multiple pins with the right Jot or set of Jots. Mon 1/26/98 * 10:08 PM This Obliviana development is getting to be quite difficult. I did make that last big breakthrough, but now I'm struggling with the next phase, which is developing some of the specifics of Octagon. Octagons do indeed have "pins" which must be "knocked over", but what the heck does this actually mean? What form will Octagons be in? I had thought that a few weeks ago I had Obliviana on stable ground. Now I'm back to the muddle of the middle of development. Pins. Pins. Pins. Configurations? And what about the themes? Are Jots to be themed, or are Octagons going to invlove themed Bloomings? For example, Neverbeen is a Jot, and "Neverbeen to a library" is a themed Blooming. Okay. One thing would be, here, okay, a Jot without a themed Blooming would knock over a few pins, whereas a themed Blooming would knock over a lot more. I think that in this new idea, Octagons have to be based in the FOW grid. It makes sense that there should be 209 pins to be taken out, though as I commented, each Jot will have the potential to take out more than one Pin. But at the very least, a Jot will be able to take out a single Pin. Right now, I do not see the big picture of the Obliviana system. I'm seeing a thing called an Octagon with 209 pins, but I'm in a numbed mental state where I'm not really seeing much more. This pretty much sucks. So let me try to see the big picture here. Blooming Jots is an excellent pastime. With Octagon, there is the added incentive of working on "clearing" your Octagon. Yeah, it's making sense. Now I gotta design an Octagon. Tue 1/27/98 * 11:19 PM Okay. Blank FOW on paper, fill it in in different ways as basis of system. "Non-electronic videogame." This new idea somewhat negates the four-stage Fonosta notebook idea. This new idea calls for sheets of paper with a blank FOW on them, to be filled in while plaing Obliviana. This idea is much more in tune with Obliviana then the four stage idea. But I don't know if this new idea replaces Four-Stage, or if it should co-exist with it. The main question is how Jots are Bloomed in this new system. Okay. I see that a Jot can be drawn in four squares on a blank FOW, with the four squares below it representing the four Stages. Stages are preserved, but it's all done in FOWs. A FOW can fit 16 such Jots in this configuration, with each Jot separated from the others with a one-square "gutter". In this new idea, the FOW is the foundation upon which everything is done. This is the proper way things should work in Obliviana. Wed 1/28/98 * 7:56 PM I have come to a point in Obliviana development where I am totally confused by everything. From last Thursday: "I really want Obliviana to be perceived as doing one thing. I want to have a single product. Or rather, I want a single product to be the focus of the whole endeavor." Okay. This is the aspect I had lost. This is the key. From last Friday: "As I said before, I want Obliviana to do one thing, to be known for one thing. It's clear that Obliviana is a game. The one thing is the Game of Obliviana." 9:57 PM I am reading over my writing from the past week and it is very helpful. Had I not written this stuff down, I'd be totally muddled right now. The first big thing was the redefinition of Octagon as being "spent on" by Stage 3 Jots. Then the bowling paradigm, then the design of Octagon, or at least that part that has "pins", as a FOW. Then, I began to conceive of blank FOWs as a kind of potential "non-electronic videogame". Then I began to think about replacing the 8-area notebook design with FOWs. This is where I am right now, and I think that last step might not work. Right now, I am still very much in favor of the 4-Stage Jot Blooming System. The design of the notebook page is secondary to the actual design. I went to Canal Rubber in search of rib matting that might serve as a rubber stamp to do a FOW with on paper. No grid-style matting, though. I got ribbed, witht he idea of having two pieces, one vertical and one horizontal. But I don't think this is going to work, at least as the primary notebook design. I think I will keep my original notebook design. This would mean that the Blank-FOW system would coexist with the 8-Area system. Since I want Obliviana to be a single thing, it is understandable that I wanted to also put the Jot-management system in the blank-FOW system. This is quite tempting. But it means that I have to provide some means of creating FOWs. I could just have people use graph-paper notebooks. And of course, I could print my own notebooks, but this is something that would require a capital investment. 10:36 PM It seems to me that the medium of the Fonosta is not as important as the design. Fonosta is meant to be a system that COULD exist without computers but which is also very suitable for computerization. Jots and Octagons. Little World of Racetracks and Forge of Wander. Set of Octagons as definition of Fonosta. 10:45 PM Let me focus back on Obliviana being one thing. Obliviana is a game--this is the one thing it is. The goal of this game is to put Octagons into your Fonosta. Now, are Jots part of your Fonosta? Yes. Fonosta is the record of your game-playing in the game of Obliviana. Every action or "move" in Obliviana is represented by a Jot. [1] Get Jot [2] Bloom Jot [3] Use Jot to get more Jots [4] Use Jot to help clear an Octagon So, how are Octagons gotten? First of all, a player will be able to work on only a limited number of Octagons at any given time. The maximum number here is 8, and it might be less. I am thinking of a system whereby Octagons may be obtained by the number of Jots a player has in Stage 4 of any Mile. That is, once you have 32 Stage 4 Jots, say, you may obtain your Octagon #1. Actually, you'll probably get a free Octagon to start with, so 32 would get you your Octagon #2. Stage Four Octagons are not "spent" per se, because acquisition of Octagons is based on your activity in Obliviana. That is, at the Octagon level, it is you "experience" in Obliviana that determines when you may obtain a new Octagon Thu 1/29/98 * 11:37 PM I did my oldstyle smoking a cigar outseide Letterman show thing this evening, saw some kid from Pennsylvania who wrote a cookbook, talked to a few people. Then I went to Virgin Megastore and wrote a Superior (Parking) on the toilet. Then I played a demo of Parappa the Rapper, and then I saw that my bus was in 15 minutes and I rushed through the theater disctrict and caught my bus. Just like old times! I wrote another Superior on the bus. Okay, so Times Square and stuff usually inspires me creatively. So where am I at? I think my development has reached a plateau--the new Octagon idea is good. But there are many more levels to this development. I have the deep part--the structure of the system. Now I need to figure out what an Obliviana player will experience from Obliviana. Since Obliviana is a game, maybe I can use traditional games as a starting point. [1] Boardgame: Buy it, take it home, play it. [2] Video Game: Buy it, take it home, play it. [3] Online Game: Log onto site, play it. [4] Sport: Organize a game, play it. Again, I come to the issue of playing the game, and most games have a definite beginning and end; they have individual sessions Sat 1/31/98 * 2:00 PM Okay. Game you keep on playing. Some kind of sessions. Jot Blooming is the session. Session starts when you decide to Bloom a Jot. Session ends when it is Bloomed. 9:28 PM If indeed Obliviana is be a "single thing", this will be accomplished by the nature of Jots, in which anything in Obliviana can be converted into a Jot. This is an idea that I'd been working with for quite a while, but it seems to make a lot more sense to me now. So, in designing Core Obliviana, I can pretty much ignore everything else, and just deal with Jots. "Core Obliviana" may not be the right term here, since I've used it to mean something different. So let's call the Jot-level development "Foundational Obliviana" for now, or "FO". In FO, I want to have as few elements and aspects as possible. First of all, there are Jots. A Jot has a number of elements, some of which extend beyond FO. Let me list the FO-level Jot elements: [1] NUMBER: Each new Jot that is created is given a sequential number. [2] NAME: Each Jot has a unique name. [3] GLYPH: Each Jot has a simple graphical character that represents it. [4] HAPPEN: Each Jot has an action which must be performed in order to "Bloom" it. This action is the Happen. I think that's it for FO-level Jot elements. All Jots are obtained through Jot Deals. A Jot Deal defines the cost of obtaining a Jot. The cost consists of Bloomed Jots and/or Time Jots. In the case of Time Jots, the cost involves not Bloomed Jots, but time passing and other situations, such as a player's birthday. Each Jot passes through four Stages. When a Jot is obtained, it is placed in Stage One. When the Happen of the Jot is accomplish, the Jot is Bloomed, and it is moved to Stage Two. When the Bloomed Jot is spent in a Jot Deal, it is moved to Stage Three. Stage Three Jots are spent on Octagon Clearing, and are then moved to Stage Four. At Stage Four, a Jot has completed it's cycle, and it stays in Stage Four forevermore. Octagons are the other major objects in FO. Sun 2/1/98 * 8:42 AM Octagons. Getting an Octagon. Clearing an Octagon. Nature of Octagon. Octagons are objects, each of which represent a large number of Bloomed Jots. One of the functions of Octagon is to provide a "snapshot" of a player's activities in Obliviana. In other words, to simply list all of a player's Jots would be very confusing and overwhelming. By listing Octagons instead, the overview of a player's activity in Obliviana is much easier to understand. Every Octagon has a "FOW Clearing", for lack of a better term right now, which is a set of 209 "pins", all of which must be "knocked over" in order for the Octagon to be "Bloomed". As a basic rule, one Stage Three Jot can knock over a single pin in an Octagon, no matter what. Certain Jots will be able to knock over more than one pin. Octagons, like Jots, have Names and Numbers. Instead of Glyphs, Octagons have "Devices", which are most intricate graphic designs. And, instead of Happens, Octagons have Themes, which are one factor which can allow a Jot to knock over multiple pins. For example, if an Octagon Theme is "Books", Jots which are Bloomed with a Happen that involves this Theme, the Jot will be able to knock over more pins. In the case of, say, the Jot "Neverbeen", if you go to a library or a bookstore you've never been to before, you'll be able to knock over more pins in the Book-themed Octagon. Now, Octagon has aspects that go beyond FO, which involves eight categories. But I'll get into that later. 9:35 PM I want to go over what I have so far in FO. February 1, 1998, and I'm still in a developmental stage. Twelve years ago exactly, I was a few weeks away from creating Zope and starting Anything But Monday. Twelve years later, here I am, still developing. Anyway, FO is a system which represents the essence of Obliviana--Jots. Actually, FO does NOT specifically represent the essence of Obliviana. As I have described FO, Jots could have any sort of Happens at all--not necessarily Morcful ones (Morc = Motion Relative to Corridor). So, FO is a system of managing little challenges. Jots represent the challenges, and Octagons serve as both a motivation for the system and a representation of a player's experiences. Octagons are meant to take a considerable amount of time to clear. I am specifically thinking of a few weeks to a few months. I estimate that a player should Bloom between 1 and 8 Jots per day. If the average is two, and if each Jot only knocks over one pin, and if only a single Octagon is being worked on, then it would take about three-and-a-half months to clear an Octagon. Mon 2/2/98 * 11:53 PM Today I did a spreadsheet which lists the Storm number associated with each Racetrack Mile. And it opened my eyes. Forge of Wander is the basis, and though I knew this, it gave me new confidence. Start off with a square, this is a Storm. Forge of Wander (FOW) is a grid 11 Storms wide and 19 Storms high, with 209 Storms in all. With FOW, you can do all sorts of amazing things. This idea is at the heart of Obliviana--the very simple idea that this grid can be the basis for all manner of games and activities and discoveries. Thu 2/5/98 * 1:26 AM Obliviana is what is it. Jots and Forge of Wander. Friction Enhancers and 209. This is the basis of it. Thu 2/5/98 * 10:18 PM I was just on a website about extict Walt Disney World attractions and plans. This evoked a very emotional response in me, especially the details of the "Western River Expedition", which was to be a wild west version of "Pirates of the Caribbean". Reading about the long-long attraction "If You Had Wings" made me yearn for time travel. "Western River Expedition" made me yearn for full-blown reality travel, where I could travel to an alternate timeline where this attraction was actually built. Reality travel and time travel and subject which have somewhat obsessed me for most of my life, waning in the past five years or so, but not waning completely. Anyway, I had kind of a revelation: the simple game of Obliviana is entering Jots into Storms on a FOW. I'm not quite sure why I haven't thought of this before. Maybe because this is THE idea, and maybe I haven't been ready to have THE idea till now. This idea resonates very strongly with me, as my slogan "Clothing for your Presence" did to me a few weeks ago. The overall idea here is that there will be a basic game that is very, very simple, and all the other aspects of Obliviana will flow from this idea. The idea that is currently on my website is very similar to this idea--in that it centers on Blooming Jots--but it differs in a very major way in that it does not include FOW or 209 directly. So, entering Jots on a FOW takes care of this. Specifically, the process of Blooming a Jot would begin by drawing a Jot in a Storm, then Blooming the Jot, and then marking the Storm containing the Jot to signify that the Jot is Bloomed. Why didn't I think of this before? I don't know. Anyway, this feels very much like the right idea. I feel like playing Nintendo 64, but I will keep on writing here till I get this idea totally set down. Okay. [1] Medium. Paper. One FOW per sheet of paper. FOW is grid of squares called Storms, 11 wide and 19 high. Lettersize, 8.5 by 11 inches. At a half-inch per Storm, the FOW is 5.5 by 9.5 inches, leaving a .75 inch gutter top and bottom, and 3 inches total horizontal space left over, which could be split at .75 to the left and 2.25 to the right. [2] Since I am almost certain to use 8.5-by-11 paper, the half-inch-per-Storm estimate is pretty solid. This is a space that certainly large enough to draw a Jot, along with some other information. I think that all the info relating to the Jot-Blooming should reside in the Storm. Therefore, I need to come up with a data set that is small enough that it will be easily fit into the hlaf-inch-square space. [3] The Jot itself is the main piece of data. I also want to have a Jot Number, which would be sequential, and which could be used to refer to a journal that could detail the events of the Jot-Blooming. In addition, a date (and maybe time) is absolutely vital. As well, there has to be some way to distinguish between an Unbloomed and Bloomed Jot. This could be done by the recording of the date, or by another method. [4] One question is whether it is important to record the time of the entering of the Jot as well as the time of Blooming. I think such data could be included in the Journal. So, I think that a Jot-Blooming session will begin with the entering of the Jot and the Jot Number, and once the Jot is Bloomed, the date is recorded, indicating that the Jot is Bloomed. [5] A Jot will be entered into a FOW only when the Blooming is imminent. Therefore, a "start date" is not needed as a piece of basic data. [6] The date can be entered in the traditional "2/5/98" form, or in the more precise and slightly more space-economical Tarb form, as in the Tarb right now, "7741". Note that this number will reach five digits sometime next year. But it won't reach 6 for about 50 years. But for the simple system, the traditional date will prevail. [7] The way I evvision it, the Number will be on top, with the Jot in the middle, and the Date on the bottom. [8] So, is this the extent of the Simple Game? No. I haven't developed it totally yet. [9] First of all, a set of Jots must be had, in print form. Then, multiple FOWs, since each holds 209 Jots and no more. As well, multiple FOWs could be active at any given time. [10] The purpose of using a FOW is, of course, because it represents 209, which is at the heart of the supernatural aspect of Obliviana. [11] The idea of the Simple Game is to establish Obliviana in a playable way, accessible to the most people. [12] So, in the simple game, what are the goals? Filling up a row or column (Dire or Flip), and eventually filling up an entire FOW. Are these goals to be entirely freeform, or are they to have some structure? [13] The FOW is the Fonosta Device. But there are multiple FOWs! Multiple FOWs are necessary, since a player needs to be able to Bloom more than 209 Jots. Hence, a system of representing multiples of the same kind of Jot. This would then allow for a single Fonosta Device FOW. [14] This idea necessitates one more datum per Storm, and that is a mark indicating that the Jot has been recorded as part of a set for the Fonosta Device. This could be in the form of another number, to the right of the Jot Number, indicating the number of the Device Element the Jot is "part" of. [15] So, the goal of the Simple Game is to forge Your Fonosta Device. [16] This is the right idea, "THE idea". NEXT I have to work on the Jots. Fri 2/6/98 * 10:32 PM Olympic Opening Ceremonies going on. Very fruity as usual. I made prototypes for the FOW sheets. I see these as a product I can sell, with many limited editions and stuff to make it cool. FOW Sheets. Not a very good name. Forge of Wander Pages. Forge of Wander Scrolls. I'll have to work on this more later. As a kid, there was a show on Saturday morning called "Ark 2", about folks who travelled around a post-nuclear world or something in a cool vehicle. I just recalled, for some reason, a plan I had to somehow reproduce the wristband communicators they used with several kids from the neighborhood. I never happened, but in that moment, I thought it was really cool. Is that what's happening now? An idea that seems good only to turn out to be bad? Well, I am not so blindly optimistic as I once was. This is something that has very definite positive and negative aspects. Optimistic, you are toally motivated. Pessimistic, you avoid costly mistakes. I have to say that in the context of "Obliviana is what it is", the idea I currently have has got to be very close to the right idea--or it even could be THE right idea. The idea of a FOW-based game is satisfied with this new idea. And with a bunch of blank FOW Sheets, folks can play all sorts of cool games. I like the idea of people experimenting with their FOW Sheets. I am releasing FOW Sheets for sale, and they might be considered collectible. This would mean that experimental extra sheets would cost money, and would "deface" a potential collectible. So I am thinking of granting permission on the FOW Sheets themselves to make photocopies for personal use. Well, here I go again, allowing my idealistic side to screw over my business side. I mean, really, it would be better to sell pads or books of these sheets than to sell individual sheets and allow photocopying. "Allow photocopying." Well, whether or not I give permission, if I charge too much for these things, and there's a demand for them, folks will definitely photocopy them. One question I have here regards portability. Stormjaunting requires mobility--and preferably, something you can fit in your pocket. It is possible to use smaller FOWs, but then, just the Jot will fit in the Storm. It could therefore be possible to use both small and large FOWs, and indeed, this might be a good idea, but for the Simple Game, I need to have a single format. The 8.5-by-11 paper idea has similarity with my old ideas "Document Holder" and "Wreck Document". If you take this size paper and fold it up to transport it around, and write on it on difficult surfaces, such as your knee, you'll wind upo with a Wreck Document--all wrinkled and stuff. But I see this as a good thing! Simple Game is definitely going to be expanded upon, but Simple Game must be able to be played on its own. 11:49 PM Sent E-mail to the guy who runs the "Widen Your World" page about defunct Walt Disney World attractions. I have a photo of a map on the wall of a room in the Contemporary Resort Hotel from a trip with my family when I was a kid of a map of the resort including some hotels that were never built, and I asked him if he knew of such a map and if he had a scan of it and if not, I'd scan it for him. Anyway, back to Obliviana. On the issue of Simple Game versus Expanded Game: I will promote Simple Game as the main form of the game of Obliviana. So, what are the steps to introducing Simple Game? (By the way, the term "Simple Game" is just for developmental use--I will not be using the term in any official way). [1] The "FOW Sheet" must be named and designed. I see there being a number of different "editions" of the FOW Sheet, but one overall design. [2] Jots. I need Jots. The basic Jots should be included on every FOW Sheet. [3] I need to develop a Journal format. I do want Obliviana to be playable without Journal, with Journal as an "expansion" of Simple Game. [4] Your Fonosta Device. "Special" Jots will represent multiples of regular Jots. That is, the Jots on Your Fonosta Device will be the regular Jot glyph plus added graphical elements to indicate a specific number of Blooms. [5] The Fonosta Device Jots will be formatted exactly like regular Jots--numbered, dated, and with the second number representing where the Jot is "Harvested" to. For example, eight Neverbeens can be Harvested into a single Device Jot. Eight of these can be Harvested to a Jot representing 64 Neverbeens. [6] Regarding Device Jots, should these necessarily be on a different FOW Sheet? If so, what happens to the Device Jots that are Harvested to another level? There could be an 8-level FOW Sheet, and a 64-level FOW Sheet. Sat 2/7/98 * 1:04 PM Okay. First of all, I want to have eight basic Jots to put on the standard FOW Sheet. Along with these will be instructions for playing Obliviana. So, a person could obtain a single standard FOW Sheet, and from the information on it, start playing Obliviana. I would like to include a postal address on the FOW Sheet, but I don't have a P.O. Box right now. Well, the first FOW Sheets can have the web address, that'll be enough. So, specific Jots. [1] Neverbeen [2] Deepnotice [3] Preshpark [4] Pebbleswitch [5] Fourofthings I am considering "Manydisposals" as a basic Jot. This would involve getting a free pamphlet, such as are available at banks and stuff, and then ripping parts of it off and throwing it away in at least eight separate legitimate trash cans. "Deepnaming" requires a Journal, and therefore might not be good as a Basic Jot. Now, I wonder if I can make Simple Game a little more gamelike. OBLIVIANA A GAME "Turn the boring world around you into a glorious theme park you never have to leave!" Sun 2/8/98 * 12:17 PM I think that I am near the completion of Simple Game. But I do feel a little powerless to guarantee this, since I have been in this position many times in the past, where I've thought I was definitely there, just to realize after a few weeks that the idea wasn't right after all. Well, I do fear the same thing happening again, even though there are elements of this current design that give me some confidence that this time, it might work. When I was still living with my parents in 1991, I was mostly unemployed, and I liked going to the Bridgewater Commons Mall to think and to Bagelsmith to get coffee. Wandering around a mall alone, high on caffeine, meandering, lost, you have a lot of time to think. Yeah. A lot of time to forge youeself, to mature, to become a well-rounded individual. To be able to live with yourself, be comfortable with yourself, to be comfortable in many situation of life you might otherwise feel uncomfortable in. What am I saying? I guess I'm back to that well-worn theme that it's good that it's taking me a long time to develop Obliviana, because the longer it takes, the better person I will be when it becomes successful. This idea carries only so much weight. There comes a point a diminishing returns, if that is the right phrase. That is, at this point, I can't see the value in continuing to delay so that my personality might develop a little bit more. I am implying that there is some higher plan at work here. I think there is, probably something in myself, an awareness of what the right system for Obliviana is, but not a conscious knowledge of such--only an ability to judge a system as inadequate. Another mall vision--going out to the Lehigh Valley Mall (I think that's the name) in Pennsylvania. Lazy twilight there, Stormjaunting but at that time it was called Zoning. Yup. Time to think. Time to develop Obliviana. 1998 now. 4:27 PM Making Simple Game more gamelike. This sounds like the opening to another change. But Obliviana is what it is--and Simple Game embodies what Obliviana is very well. What is the motivation behind Obliviana? THIS is what is important. THIS is what I absolutely need in Simple Game. Because even I, Lord of Obliviana, do not Stormjaunt very much, even though I want to. Your Fonosta Device is the key to motivation here. Rhyme and reason for Jot placement on the FOW is another big thing. From the American Heritage Third Edition: Blotter: 2. A book containing daily records of occurrences or transactions: "a police blotter". Forge of Wander Blotter. FOW Blotter. FowBlotter. Fowblotter. Hmm. Blotter. Could be the name. "Choose a Storm at random, whichever appeals to you at the time." Data entry area: Enter your name, the date you start this Blotter, and the number Blotter it is. Should the Device Jots be different than regular Jots? Regular Jots serve the purpose of recording what has happened. Your Fonosta Device serves the purpose of showing, at a glance, all the Jots you have Bloomed. Mon 2/9/98 * 12:08 AM Ah! 2/09! Cool day. So, I was thinking of Your Fonosta Device as more abstractly graphical than just a set of Jots. But I am also thinking that Your Fonosta Device cannot be a part of Simple Game. I want to focus on Blotter as the single component of Simple Game. It shall contain all that is necessary to play Obliviana. Entering Jots into Storms. But what is the goal? Filling up the board? What are the 8 Jots? [1] Neverbeen [2] Deepnotice [3] Preshpark [4] Pebbleswitch [5] Fourofthings These are the ones listed above. I must come up with more. Fri 2/13/98 * 8:51 PM I am very happy to announce that the Forge of Wander sheet is nearing completion. I produced the second prototype today, and it is very close to being final. I have all eight of the initial Jots. Here is the list: [1] Neverbeen [2] Pebbleswitch [3] Deepnotice [4] Preshpark [5] Fourofthings [6] Deepcompare [7] Manydisposals [8] Donext I am very exited about FOW. By the way, the Forge of Wander sheet is now officially known as FOW, without the "sheet". Even though the FOW is the grid, I am calling the sheet it is on FOW also, to simplify matters, and since it is right now the sole medium for the FOW. FOW contains instructions, and is completely self-contained. With just this single sheet of paper, you can play Obliviana. It does contain the Obliviana URL as the sole means of contacting Obliviana for more information. I want FOW to be used for other games besides the basic Obliviana game. For example, I am thinking of developing a version of Obliviana Classic that uses FOW as its board. Or I could release a different version of FOW for Obliviana Classic. It would just require smaller components. I also want to release Vulpine as a single sheet of paper, printed on one side. Sun 2/15/98 * 4:37 PM I have FOW. The first release is very near. This changes the situation with Obliviana considerably. All of the variations of Obliviana that I have been working on must now be reinterpreted in the context of FOW. The idea of FOW is to create a foundational center for Obliviana, from which all the rest of Obliviana logically emanates and to which the rest of Obliviana is anchored. FOW is a great idea. It IS a single sheet of paper that can provide an individual with a great deal of entertainment, and beyond entertainment, a lot of insight into the nature of reality, or more mundanely, examining one's life in ways not yet explored. I have been developing Obliviana for a long time. Considering the nature of FOW, it would make sense that FOW came first, and the rest of Obliviana was developed after FOW. But the exact opposite is true--the foundation was built AFTER the main structure. This idea is central to the nature of my existence over the past decade or so in particular, and my whole life in general. I believe that people desperately need problems to occupy themselves. I am very lucky to have had, and continue to have, a problem that is in the form of a grand challenge--the challenge of Obliviana. Back to the idea of the foundation coming after the structure is built. In this model, it is clear to me that the structure has to be rebuilt from the foundation. It will certainly be easier to rebuild this structure rather than start from scratch. But it's still a lot of work. FOW is a single sheet of paper, and the idea is that all one needs is this sheet of paper in order to play Obliviana. And while this is technically true, there is a much larger realm surrounding the playing of Obliviana. I will focus on an individual player. No matter what, a person will have an existing set of data regarding Obliviana. If the person has never heard of Obliviana, he or she will still take their first look at a FOW and try and understand it by comparing it to similar things that they already understand. I think that a person who just has a FOW in a vacuum will probably find it interesting, but will not endeavor to play it. In order to start playing Obliviana, a person will need to get the impression that other people are playing Obliviana. If the person directly observes contemporaries playing Obliviana, then the impetus to play will be very strong. Hearing about people playing Obliviana from the Obliviana website will also provide incentive, but probably not as much. Wed 2/18/98 * 9:11 PM Blank today. Came up with some ideas for games using the FOW last night. I'll present these later. I am having trouble getting to the next step of Obliviana development. On Monday, I went to the Menlo Park Mall and did all eight Jots, starting my first FOW. 11:21 PM After playing Obliviana on Monday, I felt a little blank, and that feeling has continued up till now. I don't know exactly what to make of this feeling. Maybe it's a subconscious awareness of how hard it's gonna be to get people playing Obliviana. I don't know. FOW looks like graph paper, very boring. How do I convey what it's really all about? And... what is it really all about? Man, I'm back to this again? I was feeling so great five days ago when I made FOW Prototype 2, and now I'm blank and confused. I guess the problem here is that Prototype 2, while very far along in developing the "FOW sheet" idea, is not there yet. Playing Obliviana, I had some questions, such as having more than one Jot "active" at any given time. Also, for example, Pebbleswitch does not state how much time and/or distance must pass between switches, and this caused some confusion. I think that it is the process of initiating and Blooming Jots that is somewhat weak in this current system of Protoype 2. So I gotta work on it. Fri 2/20/98 * 12:54 AM Tuxedo place, Bloomfield Ave., pass the old ABM office, arcade, play new games, home, listening to loads of instrumental music, preparing to make a tape. Online Disney stuff auction, bought a Yacht and Beach Club poster and sticker, recording "Dazed and Confused" on Encore. Thinking about Obliviana a lot too. Cultrual statement. Protoype 2 makes a cultural statement, though very vague. Cannot help but make a cultural statement. I'm working really hard on Obliviana. It's a major challenge. And I know there's something good at the end of this development. Because, even if I just stop at what I have now, it's pretty damn good. But I know what I'll eventually develop will be utterly fantastic. Goodnight. Tue 2/24/98 * 11:27 PM When was the last time I updated my website? I don't know. I've been working on creating my computer game "Devastating Nightscape" for the past couple of days. And I'm back to the old "What is Obliviana?" thing. On the bus before, I actually thought to myself the words "Screw Obliviana." This thought shocked me. I have never been that hostile toward Obliviana in the past. But the development process is seriously trying my patience at this point. I have so much that is not of Obliviana, not of 209, not of Super Occult Amusement. So I am beginning to question whether or not I should continue to focus on Obliviana, while letting my other work remain in obscurity. I know that I am not going to abandon Obliviana, but now, for the first time, I am beginning to feel like Obliviana is taking much too long to develop. And I still cannot answer "What is Obliviana?" I was watching Dateline on NBC earlier, all about a cult in Sedona, Arizona called The Aquarians. It reinforced in my mind my pledge to NOT allow Obliviana to become a cult. But Obliviana IS very supernatural, and is, by its nature, prone to becoming cultlike. Maybe if I knew what Obliviana actually was I'd be better able to determine whether or not Obliviana has the potential to become a cult. Let me step back here and try to analyze the situation with myself. I'm 30 years old. When I was in high school, I was so conviced that I was going to become a dimension traveller that I didn't think I'd even have to worry about going to college. Wow. I've unknowingly stumbled into an analogy. Is Obliviana now what dimensional travel was then? An unattainable goal designed to shield me from the realities of life? I know this is not the case. And I know I have to snap out of this funk. Obliviana is very much developed. I am now seeking the final element that will truly tap into the force of Obliviana. But here, referring to Obliviana as some kind of Primal Force, I am risking falling into cult stuff. My intention vis-a-vis preventing anything cultlike from happening is to not enunciate any theories about the unknown. This is not easy for me. I believe that if a person comes up with idea about the unknown, and people start to take this person seriously, a kind of "snowball effect" starts, where followers reinforce the beliefs of the cult leader, and the cult leader passes back these reinforced ideas to the followers. In this way, everyone involved is a victim of the ideas. It doesn't even matter if the ideas are true or false, since the ideas aren't going to be verified one way or another. So what you have is one person who has a lot of power over other people. And this situation usually seems to become a horrible thing where many people are seriously hurt, in a wide variety of ways. I am a human being. I don't know what the heck is going on. I don't want Obliviana to become something like Zen, where you never really know what is. Obliviana means, at some level, "that which is forgotten". Well, I still haven't remembered. Let me get right down too it. The Forge of Wander, made up of 209 Storms, with 11 columns, called Flips, and 19 rows, called Dires. Each Storm is a combination of a Flip and a Dire. Attuning oneself to a Storm, according to my direct experience, has an effect on situations and probabilities and perceptions. Okay. So this is what Obliviana is about, this is what it is! The problem, then, is one of the method of "attuning" yourself to a Storm. I have established a number of ways of "setting a Storm" over the years. I think though, at this point, that all the methods I have come up with are insufficient. The numbers 11 and 19 are very much related to male and female. 11 is ten fingers plus one penis. 19 is 20 fingers and toes, minus one vagina. I know this sounds pretty deranged, but it does make sense, at least to me. A day or two ago I had a vision that Storms should be set using the hands. I know that admitting to having visions is not good if I want to prevent my becoming a cult leader. But also, I want to be honest here. I want to also say that I was not at all happy with this idea of using the hands to set Storms, but I have come to accept it. Okay. So setting Storms via the hands. I think it's pretty obvious that since we have two Pilferids (Pilferid being the term that refers to Flips and Dires), Flip and Dire, and since we humans have two hands, it makes sense that one hand should represent one Pilferid, and one should represent the er. Since the two Pilferids have very strong sexual identities, Flip being male and Dire being female, I think that assigning the hands should bear this in mind. I could go in two directions here--set the hands absolutely, or allow people to choose which hand is which. Now, regarding the way in which the Pilferids will be set by the hands, it will have to involve each hand alone--meaning that the hand will not be touching anything else. The hand positions will also have to be comfortable and easy to do, for both the dextrous and clumsy. Looking at the hands, it is clear that though there are five digits, most easy positions involve the thumb interacting with the four fingers. 11 and 19. The nearest multiples of 4 are therefore 12 and 20. In both these cases, one variation is discarded, arriving at 11 and 19. Maybe this is more the basis of the system, rather than the whole penis and vagina thing? Anyway, with a coefficient of 4, Flip is 3 minus 1 and Dire is 5 minus 1. I think it makes sense that the system for setting Pilferids on the hands should involve 5 different ways of the thumb interacting with a finger. Mon 3/2/98 * 10:34 PM Wow, less than a week since that last entry, and so much has happened. I did come up with the right hand system, and it works better than I could have imagined. Went to a bachelor party Friday night. The groom is my friend from college Andrew. We met at a cigar bar at a place called Degustare on Rt. 34 in Wall Township. To my amazement, there was a guy there who tormented me in high school, to the extent that I recall fantasizing about getting revenge on him in the future. I think he was a little uncomfortable with the whole thing. Anyway, I had a nice conversation with him, and I realized that I don't hold a grudge against him. In fact, while I remember hating him, I can hardly remember the incidents that caused that hatred. Anyway, we went to Atlantic City, and I tried not to drink, but to be social I had a few beers. Then, while gambling, I used the new hand method of Obliviana, on Storm 105, very briefly, but less than an hour later something totally fucked-up and bizarre happened, and so I think I have learned my lesson about alcohol and Obliviana. Not that I didn't already know it, but really, alcohol and Obliviana are 100% incompatible. Also in the past week I have been working on "Devastating Nightscape", a computer game that I originally designed in 1991, but never programmed. The updated design is much more ambitious, but still true to the original design in many ways. I think, though, that this new Obliviana "hand method" is the most important thing in Obliviana right now. I have been rather stunned by the early results of using this method. I would have to say that the hand method is approximately 10 to 100 times more powerful than any of my previous systems. The hand method is exceedingly simple, and its effects are absolutely noticable, at least to me and the two other people who have tried it so far (my wife and sister-in-law). I assume that it will have a similar effect on just about anyone who tries it. The effect is somewhat druglike. I have felt a good soirt of tired after being on a Storm with this method. And it should have enhanced situational effects. In fact, it should be much more powerful situationally than any method I have previously used. This leaves me in a somewhat confused state, considering the rest of Obliviana. Little World of Racetracks Forge of Wander Sheet Plastic Box (I forget right now what I decided to call it) Devastating Nightscape Severe Repair (new idea--have a web-based FOW of all 209 Cups...) Etc. How does it all fit together? It seems to me that "Hand-Method" Obliviana is a thing that has the potential of being used in a wide variety of ways. One of the things that has been on my mind in the past few days is how this new method could become the basis for a cult, and how I absolutely do not want to let that happen. Indeed, Obliviana is a very powerful force. If it comes into widespread use, it could be very good, but it could also be very bad. It is my responsibility to encourage people to use Obliviana in a good way. In order to do this, I need to know WHAT this "good way" is. I am sure that all the work I have done on Obliviana as a whole is germaine to the "final product". One important aspect of this is that Obliviana is a game. Since the core supernatual Obliviana has the potential to be used in a wide variety of ways, it makes sense that one such way would be as a game. A game that uses Obliviana. A game that involves Obliviana. Game and entertainment system. Something that just IS, that does not need to be justified. It can just BE. BE, on the strength of the reality of Obliviana. 11:29 PM Obliviana is what it is. It can be cryptic and confusing. All the stuff that has been such a part of it will continue to be a part of it. With the "hand-method", I think that the formula is complete. The kind of disorganized, totally disorienting website I have now is not bad--it is good. Well, maybe the site I have now is a little TOO screwy. But you get the idea. Obliviana doesn't need an explanation. Or rather, it if DID have an explanation, it could succumb to the same cult-mechanics as any supernatural phenomena. I am referring to Obliviana as a whole, the entertainment stuff and everything. I gotta get that SR FOW going. Tue 3/3/98 * 11:40 PM I did the preliminary SR FOW, sans links. Would probably be batter as an image map, but the way I have it now is almost complete--I just have to type in 209 links. Anyway, I do like the idea of Obliviana remaining as it is, in large part. That is, the upcoming successful Obliviana will be a lot like the current Obliviana. I also like my new, less regimented philosophy. I don't have to define everything. I can be vague. I can say that Obliviana is a game, and that exploring all of Obliviana is playing that game. Thu 3/5/98 * 10:32 PM So, I have a new vision for Obliviana. How can I implement this vision? One big question is how chaotic Obliviana should be behind the scenes. Clearly, I have been operating in a way that has brought me no real attention at all. I think it's safe to assume that if I keep on going the way I've been going, I will continue in obscurity. I think that there is an issue of form and content here. Contentwise, Obliviana can be chaotic. But formwise, I think that Obliviana should be orderly. And Obliviana should be defined to some extent. Obliviana is a game. So everything in Obliviana should relate to the game. Mon 3/9/98 * 8:16 PM I'm still trying to define Obliviana. How many days is it into 1998? How long till the Summer of '99? 10:02 PM Well, here I am, still confused about Obliviana. I though I had some kind of answer with "Obliviana is what it is", but in trying to manifest that vision, I am again running into the problem of visions losing their "sparkle" when translated into reality. I have to say I am deeply confused about Obliviana. Like I'm laying on a wet rock beach, semi-conscious, faint traces of Obliviana around me. I have tried to solve this challenge is a number of different ways, all of which usually result in a temporary euphoria and the illusion that I have finally hit upon the proper scheme for Obliviana. But it never lasts. I have always operated with total faith that I would eventually "solve" the riddle of Obliviana. Now, though, I am beginning to lose that faith. I have always had great enthusiasm for Obliviana. Blind optimism. And I don't think that I will lose it. It's just that I am really beginning to lose my patience with this whole this. I am tempted now to set aside Obliviana as a whole and focus instead exclusively on Severe Repair and Zope. I do have this new "hand method", and it is very powerful, but I don't really know how to integrate it in with Severe Repair and Zope and the other entertainment stuff, and how to make it all into a game. From 8/23/96: *********** Before, I was thinking of the whole dimtrav aspect as this cool thing some people might get into, but now I see it as... as an ice cold bottle of water, presented to a man who's dying of thirst but doesn't quite know it. Thus will Obliviana slake the thirst in man for wild pioneering. ******************* This seems to strike a chord. Tue 3/10/98 * 11:32 PM Obliviana offers a variety of amusements. These amusements... they are available to amuse you... you can amuse yourself... with the various aspects of Obliviana. Various amusements. Various amusements. Brought together. With a unifying game. Not a broad thing, not all things to all people. But a specific thing. Severe Repair, Zope, Superior, Welcome to the Weasel Village Mall, Halfevil Graphics, Super Object, Primitive, Confounder. 209, Forge of Wander, Friction Enhancer, Jot, Little World of Raetracks, etc. Little world... Every experience you have... a new way to have fun... keeping records... Obliviana will be a very specific thing. Incorporating "hand-system". Very supernatural, very cool. Coolness of a specific little thing, cool. This cool guy Frank Edward Nora creates this cool stuff. Get into it. Play the game of Obliviana. Does it have to be a game? Set of Amusements? Wed 3/11/98 * 11:22 PM The last time I saved, this document was at 209099 characters. Now it's very near 209209. In fact, the last zero there WAS 209209. Oh well. As a person, you are limited in the amount of entertainment you can drink in. The explosion of alternative channels of distribution of entertainment, now centered on the Internet, creates a much larger pool of potential entertainment. This means that out of the total pool, you will be drinking in a far smaller percentage of the total than in the past. I started thinking about this because I know that Obliviana is just one out of millions of entertainment sites with questionable value. Okay. Now let me work on my new vision. Obliviana is a little world, where your character, or "Fonosta", lives. This world is a Little World of Racetracks. It has only one book, Severe Repair. It has only one comic strip, Zope. It has only one series of poetry, Superior. Etc. Your character will become a fan of this stuff. Mon 3/16/98 * 10:59 PM Smoking a cigar from a Quik Chek on the corner by where I used to live in Iselin, a corner that used to have a normal kind of house. I started smoking the cigar on my walk to the subway, and kind of wrecked it, wrecked the wrapper, on Sixth Avenue. "Your character will become a fan of this stuff." No. Obliviana is a set of 11 Revolvers which coincide, but which don't need overt connections. So, what the hell has happened to OsoaWeek? I really have no sense of what issue is supposed to be out now, how many issues I've skipped, or anything else. I have totally lost touch with OsoaWeek. Okay. On the website, the latest issue of OsoaWeek is 176, 12/8/97. It has writing from 11/5/97 to 12/5/97. This current issue I am writing in began on 12/9/97. I have been writing this Lord of Obliviana feature for over three months. How long is it? Over 135K. Wow. That's a lot. We're talking just about 25,000 words. I'm ready to upload this issue of OsoaWeek and work on once again redefining Obliviana. So: 14:7:176: 12/8/97 (Book 14, Issue 7, Overall 176) 14:8:177: 12/15/97 14:9:178: 12/22/97 14:10:179: 12/29/97 14:11:180: 1/5/98 14:12:181: 1/12/98 14:13:182: 1/19/98 15:1:183: 1/26/98 15:2:184: 2/2/98 15:3:185: 2/9/98 15:4:186: 2/16/98 15:5:187: 2/23/98 15:6:188: 3/2/98 15:7:189: 3/9/98 15:8:190: 3/16/98 Well, that's it. I shall release OsoaWeek190 right now. Get all Obliviana! *OW* -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----