||
-------- -- -----  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 270--9/29/99
<-------  ||  OsoaWeek  ||  Issues  ||  Book 21  ||  ------->
(Cup OWis270, Created v3 (10/3/99), Copyright 1999)

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

-------------------
OSOAWEEK
Ezine of Obliviana
Issue 270, 9/29/99
by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana
-----------

-------------------
LORD OF OBLIVIANA
-----------

Mon 9/27/99 * 8:47 PM

Hi. This is Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana, and here's what's Obliviana! Um... well, this is the first real issue of OsoaWeek since Issue 258 (July 6), about 12 weeks ago. I am going to make Issue 261 (July 28) from some writing I put on my website that day.

See, July 28 is Obliviana Day, and on that day I added some writing to the Obliviana Website. It is this writing which makes OsoaWeek261.

This current issue of OsoaWeek is the last issue before the release of Aerie Obliviana Version Three, on October 3, 1999--my 32nd birthday!

Now, as you may know, OsoaWeek is now "split" into two parts--OsoaWeek, and Get All Obliviana (GAO). GAO is my working file, the file I write in whenever I write. So, even though there haven't been any issues of OsoaWeek for awhile, there is GAO #2, which will be in Aerie v3, and which contains writing from the past several months.

At the end of GAO2, I set down my vision for the New Obliviana Foundation (NOF). NOF is an idea that is a candidate for the "Keystone Idea". Let me explain...

I've been working on Obliviana for a long time now. Its roots go way back into my childhood, but I would say that Obliviana really got underway in February of 1986, with my creation of Zope and the start of the Anything But Monday radio I did with my friend Mike Massotto.

That's over 13.5 years that I've been working on Obliviana!

Well, it wasn't called "Obliviana" until approximately halfway from then to now, but it has always been the same vision.

On this long journey of Obliviana development, I have always been irked by the question "What is Obliviana?" Quite clearly, Obliviana has a great number of individual elements and ideas, but I have never been able to draw all these ideas together... and to draw these ideas together, I need the "Keystone Idea".

The reason that I call NOF a "candidate" for Keystone Idea is that I have come up with numerous ideas which I thought were the Keystone Idea, only to discover later that such was not the case. However, each of these "failed" ideas added greatly to Obliviana as a whole.

Actually, NOF has two major ideas. First, Obliviana is, simply, the "Eighth Sense", and less simply, is the Eighth Sensory Medium. I would compare Obliviana to sound. We can receive and transmit sound, via ear and voice/other sound generating techniques. Similarly, we use our "Fonosta" to both "receive" and "transmit" Obliviana.

Now, it may seem that I have skipped a sense or two arriving at the Eighth Sense. The Sixth Sense is a widely-accepted idea, with many meanings centered upon the idea of a "psychic" sense.

The Seventh Sense is not really established, as far as I know, but to me it is obvious that it is the Sense of Wonder. I have dealt with this subject quite a lot in my writings.

Anyway, the second major idea in NOF is the idea of Little World of Racetracks (LWOR) as a realm of ideas, organized hierarchically and "geographically" in the imaginary place LWOR. LWOR as a playground of ideas. This idea is the basis of "Fonosta Device".

I feel pretty confident in NOF, but it will take time to see if it actually is the Keystone Idea.

In OsoaWeek258 (7/6/99) I described my storage project, and also the beginning of a new project--the Major Obliviana Backup. Well, I finished the digital part of the backup before I went on my trip to Nova Scotia with my wife Denice and sister-in-law Carrie. Now, I am in the middle of the analog part of the backup, which is focused on sound, but which may include some video, and will definitely include some scanning of graphical material.

The date of this issue (two days from now) is the 93 days-till-Y2K mark. I am very concerned about the possibility for disaster in January and beyond. This fear is part of the impetus behind the backup project, though a backup is absolutely called for regardless of Y2K.

I have had visions regarding Y2K, and I do see major problems in January and February and beyond--but I also see that the changes wrought will make the world more "ready" for Obliviana. In fact, I "see" that by June, the situation for Obliviana will be much improved, and hopefully the situation in the world in general will also be improved.

Now, on the subject of audiovisual material in Obliviana... I have been converting audio cassette tapes of my original material into MP3 format, and in this format I can fit 10-12 hours of sound on a single CD-R.

"Welcome to the Weasel Village Mall" (WTTWVM) has for a long time been the name of the Revolver in Obliviana that is centered on audiovisual content, with a focus on sound. Thus far, the WTTWVM project has not gotten too far, but I plan to finally get it moving. One aspect of the project is "Trash the Airport Meadow", in which I will take my existing material and make "songs" and "albums" out of it.

Another aspect of WTTWVM is "The Evil Farm", which is a movie I made back in early 1987. One thing about "The Evil Farm" that is interesting is that it is similar in many aspect to the recent film "The Blair Witch Project". So I am thinking of making a new version of "The Evil Farm" in QuickTime that can be distributed on CD or online.

And right now, I am working on Aerie v3. This version will not be a very major update, but it will contain all the OsoaWeek material up to now, GAO2, and the beginning of the Zope Revolver in Aerie.

So, this is pretty much where I am right now. Aerie v3 will be done this Sunday. And I will continue with the analog backup. And I will be working toward the implemenetation of NOF, which is a very major project that I foresee extending well into 2000 before it is ready to go.

But I will go ahead and set a tentative release date for NOF--July 28, 2000 (Obliviana Day 2000). 7/28/00. Wow. It's weird writing a date with that "00"!

In Aerie Obliviana, there is a detailed record of Obliviana starting on July 28, 1994. On that date, I released OsoaWeek001, which had my first attempt at a "Keystone Idea". If you're reading this at a time when Obliviana has indeed taken off, it might be interesting to go and read OsoaWeek001 to see just how far I have come. Also, you'll see that my ideas then were definitely on the right track, just hopelessly premature.

The other day I slept a long time and I had this long dream about a thing that was really small and inconsequential. After I woke up, I realized that Obliviana is indeed, even right now, very small and inconsequential in the eyes of the world. I believe that a year from now Obliviana could indeed be something big.

It took me about 8.5 years to get from February 1986 to July 1994. July 28, 2000 will be six more years.

It's weird. I'll be 32 on Sunday. And I realized that there are people my age who have teenage children! Weird.

Now, as far as OsoaWeek goes, I do plan on producing issues, rather than let them slip. One change will be that all issues of OsoaWeek yet to be in Aerie will be in a single file on my website, as opposed to being in separate files. This is a minor change, but I think it makes sense.

This is OsoaWeek270. Obliviana Day 200, in 43 weeks, will have OsoaWeek313.

Well, that's about it for now.

Get all Obliviana!

-------------------
SONG OF THE WEEK
-----------

Air, "La Femme D'Argent"
(Album: "Moon Safari")

-------------------
END
-----------



------->

------------------- -----------
-------- -- -----