|| Return to Homepage ||
9/8/02 - Here are the "missing" 47 issues of OsoaWeek, from issue 370 (9/1/01) thru issue 416 (7/20/02).
370-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 370, 9/1/01 (Book 29, No. 6 / Tarb 15547 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Sat 9/1/01 * 3:48 PM Wow. September. So, the overall situation. Ridiculous. A little over a month ago, I finally discover the secret "keystone" that I have been questing after for so long, and establish a new direction for Obliviana based on that idea. Then, a few weeks later, my resolve starts to waver... and now, I am back in a deadlock. The idea was, of course, the whole 209 thing. The problem that came up was that in order to do 209 in the most direct way, Bluffcosm would be shoved into the background. Now, there were two factors that brought me to this deadlock. First, I'm not really 100% thrilled about being the guy who's saying "Here's a new supernatural idea! Try it out!". Back when I had the breakthrough, I realized this would be a potential problem. The other factor is that I love Bluffcosm, and I cannot abide it being shoved into the background. So, a week or two ago, I finally came to the conclusion that I was gonna have to bring 209 and Bluffcosm together. But this brings up another issue: Bluffcosm is not a project in which I can envision an easy path to success. That is, it looks like it'll be much harder to gain some kind of success with Bluffcosm in front than with Bluffcosm in the rear. I don't know... this whole thing is just extrememly aggravating. And the whole thing with Bluffcosm, even more than with 209, is that I have no money to invest in it, so it needs to really strike the right nerve in society for it to move forward. So I've been trying to find the "right angle" for Bluffcosm... so I'm back to searching for a "keystone idea". And there's also the problem of the naming of things... I am committed to the overall project being called "Obliviana Super Occult Amusement", but all the audio stuff is identified as Bluffcosm.com. So I still don't have an answer for that. Over the past month, I came up with a great new direction for Obliviana, and then I rejected it. I can't help but think about the whole "fear of success" thing. Is it that, deep down, all I want to do is constantly quest after a keystone idea, without ever having to face the pressure of real success? I don't know. I really have a passion about Obliviana being "The New Computerized Audio Entertainment". And I do think that 209 can be a big part of the such an implementation of Obliviana. So it's not like I'm rejecting 209... I am rejecting 209 in a non-audio-focused setting. So the real problem now is how to get the whole thing going. Cuz like, Bluffcosm has been around for a year-and-a-half, and I have a LOT of great material online, and... it hasn't caught on. So that's why I feel I have to come up with a new way of presenting Bluffcosm to people, cuz the current way isn't working. But then again, I haven't done much promotion for Bluffcosm, so that's another factor. The New Computerized Audio Entertainment. 7:25 PM A return to the old classic style of videogames. This is gonna happen. And it is something that I've been thinking about for a long time. Arcade games. It's gonna happen. Cuz the arcades are dying, the new breed of games are totally DIFFERENT than the classic games. People can argue better or worse, but I think it's clear that they are different, and to me, they are MUCH worse. With Bluffcosm, a return to the old classic style of radio. These forms of entertainment that have vanished from the scene, what made them great is still there, but they have vanished nonetheless... I would like to be involved in the new classic videogame thing, but that would be in the future. The new old time radio thing, that is NOW!!!!! 9:08 PM The idea I had last week, audio segments, checklist/gameboard... gotta move forward with this idea... Tue 9/4/01 * 10:39 PM Blue Oyster Cult's 1988 album "Imaginos" is freaking amazing. Just thought I'd mention that. I've been getting into Blue Oyster Cult lately... So, yesterday, I came to a realization. I realized that 209 has to be at the center of my endeavor. I know that I am resistant to it, but I must move forward with it. The whole "crisis" of the past few weeks has served to further convince me that 209 must be at the heart of Obliviana. See, for the past few weeks I was in the state of seeking after a new keystone. I was back in that state... and I was seeking after something... a system, gamelike, "cult"-like... and it was so weird, because I was mentally shoving 209 into the background, seeking after some different system. Well, the final outcome is that in my current state, with my goals and my ideals, I am indeed "forced" to make 209 the center of Obliviana. I know this all sounds very weird. In my mind, I straddle the two poles of taking this whole Obliviana thing seriously, and seeing it as a harmless delusion. And looking back at the past 10 or so years, I can interpret events as either a plan which is coming to fruition, or a subconscious way for me to avoid success, to stay on the road of questing, without ever arriving. Yes, there are these two "poles", and as I said, I straddle them. But, I must move forward from here, and I have but one course. I will pursue developing Obliviana Super Occult Amusement, with 209 at its heart, and The New Computerized Audio Entertainment as its "soul". I do believe that the ideas at the core of Obliviana (Stormjaunting, 209, using the freedom we have all been squandering) are absolutely good. But as I wander around and look at the people around me, I really have to wonder if anyone would care about something like Obliviana. But I know there are people out there that would potentially be interested. Perhaps not a very large percentage of the population, but a lot of people nonetheless. I began the new Obliviana on July 28, over 5 weeks ago. For much of that time, I have been stalled, but like I said, that stall has serve to make me more certain of the course I must take. Now, what about my reluctance to introduce 209 to the world? Why am I reluctant? I think it's pretty simple. I can imagine the kind of resistance I'm gonna get to the idea of a 209-centric Obliviana. And I am not anxious to be in that position. But, I have decided that I will move forward! 11:44 PM "It has been lost and forgotten, a certain type of freedom, but we feel the loss every day. With Obliviana, you can regain some of that lost freedom." Sat 9/8/01 * 11:52 AM Well, where am I? The band I'm a part of, Fuzzy Daupner, is going on a hiatus. I am disappointed that this project did not get further, but it may continue in the future. And, I am at a standstill in Obliviana, but I am ready to start moving again. I was hoping that 2001 was gonna be a good year creatively, a fresh start, etc. And while it has been quite decent in terms of new material created in a number of areas for me, I seem to be farther from success than ever. And the problems with Fuzzy Daupner are very upsetting to me. So, right now, I gotta establish a new direction. The requirement now are that Obliviana be: 209-centric and Bluffcosm-centric. And I am back to the quest of creating a simple game system that can expand into the full system. Great. Back to the quest. But it's not quite as bad as it seems. Stormjaunting is well established, and that is the center. Okay. Get all Obliviana. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 370 Well, think, yelling folklore is my passion blue. The pain of days, how mental notes metamorphose into cacophony, and you are just as beautiful as ever. I can tolerate the many ways and days of Allison, in a way of nerdy measurement, but it is too comfortable, I think, and I must seek other avenues of tiring myself here. (((From OsoaWeek066--10/27/95))) ***** Wow... this one is really awesome... and I have little or no memory of writing it! It's funny... just today I was thinking about "how mental notes metamorphose into cacophony". All the little "to dos", long past relevance, weighing you down... (Reviewed 9/1/01) ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 171 * 9/4/01 * 1021 Some sort of impossibly remote rock and roll past, smash it against the clearthinking mind. ------------------- END -----------
371-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 371, 9/8/01 (Book 29, No. 7 / Tarb 15589 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Thu 9/13/01 * 11:49 AM For those in the future who may not know the exact date offhand, today is two days after the "Attack on America" (or whatever it will ultimately be called), when the World Trade Center was destroyed. I loved the World Trade Center and the area around it. For well over a decade I would regularly visit the WTC area. And it held a special place in my heart. Over the past few years, and especially over the past few months, I would, sometimes, on my morning commute, take the train into Hoboken, and then take the ferry over to the World Financial Center. I might step into the coffee place at the New York Mercantile Exchange to get an espresso, and then enter the World Financial Center by the Starbucks, take the escalator up, and pass through the Wintergarden, and to the walkway going to the World Trade Center. From there, I used to go down into one of the towers (the one with Windows on the World), and then walk through the shopping area to the subway. More recently, I started walking through the plaza between the two towers, and across the street to the subway entrance closest to where I wanted to get on the train. In fact, I went this way several times last week, and I also walked down there on day during lunch last week. Now, of course, it's all destroyed. It was about five years ago that I had an experience in that area that is very dear to me. It's detailed in OsoaWeek053. WFC, WTC, Park Row... I imagine that 10 years from now that area will be "back to life", though certainly different... I really want to write down all my impressions of WTC and environs... like I said, it was a very special place for me. Anyway, the place I work is still closed. I work for Scholastic, Inc., at the corner of Broadway and Prince. Manhattan south of 14th Street had been closed... they may move the line down to Canal tomorrow, which means I might be able to go to work. So my beloved World Trade Center has been taken from me. And yes, of course I care about all the people who were killed and injured and their families... but I'm thinking about how this affects me personally. Thank goodness, thus far I don't know anyone who's dead or missing. But I'm sure that in the weeks to come, I will hear of people I knew who were killed. Over the past month or so, several 209-related things happened in the Wintergarden, right by the entrance to the walkway to WTC. It was 3 mondays in a row. The first, I met this guy Joe I used to work with, a total coincidence. The next monday, I met him again, at the same exact spot... the timing was perfect. The next monday, I was wondering if I was gonna meet him there, and I was drinking espresso, and a little went down the wrong way and I spit it out all over my shirt, and the stain was so heinous that I went to the Warner Brothers store in thw WTC shopping mall to buy a new shirt. Well, that spot was hit by rubble from one of the collapsing towers. I saw some video from the Wintergarden last night, and it is devastated. Also, over the past several months, I would talk into my tape recorder as I traversed the plaza between the two towers. I tell you, going through the WTC area was something I looked forward to every day I went that way. And indeed, I very easily could have been going that way when the planes struck, but Denice was going in to work late, so I took the bus instead. If I took the train, I would have arrived in Hoboken at about the time that the first plane struck, about 8:45 AM. I would have probably tried to go over on the ferry, not yet knowing of course what was to come. At that point, it would have seemed like a fire had broken out... I would have had no clue as to what was coming. So, I would have likely been at the World Financial Center, by the ferry dock, when the second plane hit at around 9:00 AM. So I would have been right there. I think I would have kept my distance, but I would probably have been right there by the water, watching everything that transpired. I think, once it was clear that the situation was seriously worsening, that I would have gone back to New Jersey on the ferry. My neighbor was right there when it happened, and he managed to get back to NJ on the ferry, right after the first tower collapsed. But he was hit with the dust and debris, which I would have also been hit by, if I had gone in that way. The botton line is, it was too close for comfort. As it happened, I was late, and took the 8:55 bus. I started listening to Howard Stern, and heard him talking about a plane hitting the WTC. I switched over to 1010 WINS, the big AM news station here in the NY area, and as I was listening, an eyewitess described a second explosion. The newscaster said there were unconfirmed reports that it was a second plane. At that point, no one seemed to have any idea that these were big passenger jets. Once the second one hit, I started talking to a guy on the bus that I knew, who had also been listening to the radio. We realized that with 2 planes, it had to be terrorism. A girl on the bus started talking to us... her mother had just called her with the news. Then, as we talked, her father called her. Before she said anything, I was thinking that the bus was heading for the Lincoln Tunnel, which was a target in a foiled terrorist plot of a few years ago. She said that her father, who was in the NY State Police, told her to get off the bus immediately. She hit the button to get off the next stop, and I decided to get off as well. We got off at the Kingland train station in Lyndhurst. No one else got off. I called my wife. She had been sleeping, and she heard about the incident from me. My voice was shaking. I told her to meet me at the Dunkin Donuts, about a 5-10 minute walk away, because I was too upset to stand still. On my walk, I stepped into a cafe with a TV on. I saw the first images of the WTC on fire, with gaping holes in it. I was very upset, as it dawned on me that the WTC would never be the same. I imagined a skyline with the two partially-destroyed towers. I was listening to the radio as I continued on my way to Dunkin Donuts. When I first heard that they were passenger jets... I think I heard 767 frist, I got this feeling of horror in the pit of my stomach. I got to the Dunkin Donuts, and made a few calls. I had called work from the phone at the train station, and left a message saying, among other things "There's no fucking way I'm coming to New York today." (If that message is still on there, I'd like to record it.) So, my wife Denice came and got me, and we went to her parents' house. From their front yard, there was a clear view of the WTC. This is Belleville, maybe 15-20 miles away. I saw the Twin Towers on fire... then at one point I saw something happening... a bulge of smoke on one side. I yelled to Denice, who was watching it on TV, that something was happening. She said that one tower had given way and collapsed. Then things started happening very quickly. Reports of the Pentagon being hit, of a plane crashing in Pennsylvania, of 8 planes in total being hijacked, that more were expected to hit targets. At that point, the situation was extremely fluid... we didn't know what was gonna happen next. I begged Denice not to go to work. I wondered if we would be evacuated, if there was a biological or chemical attack. Well, things calmed down a little, but right now as I write this, it is barely two days after the initial events. And I don't know what's gonna happen in the coming days and weeks. 6:21 PM I still feel like I'm stuck in some kind of bad TV movie. And I still hope that I'll wake up on Tuesday morning, this all having been a dream. Because this is not fun, and the implications are not good. At this point, information has been coming out that seems to indicate that the U.S. will attack Afghanistan, perhaps within a few days. There is clearly the chance of such an attack prompting reaction from more terrorists already in this country and ready to act. I've been thinking yesterday and today that I'd go back to work perhaps tomorrow, but if not, almost definitely on Monday. If the U.S. does begin its invasion of Afghanistan over the weekend, New York City will, I think, clearly be in danger of further attacks. So, this whole situation is affecting me directly. And like I said, I really don't know what to expect over the coming days and weeks. Now, what about Obliviana? How does the "Attack on America" affect the future of Obliviana? Well, before the event occurred, I was at a virtual standstill in Obliviana development. I had gotten to a difficult place in the development, and was trying to find a way to move forward. The specifics are, I decided to pursue basically a 209-based Obliviana with a Bluffcosm-based audio format. But I was finding it difficult to determine the steps necessary to move in that direction. My "Plan B" for awhile has been to put all of Obliviana on hold and work on Severe Repair instead, with the ultimate goal of getting it published as a series of books. I do believe that focusing on one thing is an important element in success, and that I have been focusing on far too many elements over the years. But, such is the nature of Obliviana... and that nature has made it very difficult to move forward. I think that one effect of the coming "War on Terrorism" is going to be a reduction in interest in things like Obliviana. That is, a kind of ennui might drive people toward exploring reality in different ways. In this new environment of war, I don't think that people will, in general, have quite the same desire to explore. At this moment, I think that Obliviana should move forward in an audio format, with 209 involved, but perhaps not as strongly at this time as I had been planning on. "Do one thing, do it well." I have been struggling with this for some time. I think that Obliviana as a kind of radio station can be "one thing". Mon 4/15/02 * 9:19 PM Hey, it's 214 days later! Hello! So, what's been happening these past 214 days, you ask? Well, a lot of stuff... but thankfully I am back on track, and the idea I mentioned in the last paragraph there from 9/13/01, that's what I'm working on now... Obliviana Wander Radio. Obliviana as radio station. Of course, I went thru a lot of hoops to get back to this idea. The past 214 days are documented in several documents that I will probably make available in the future. But let me give you a rough overview of the past 214 days of Obliviana. Let's see. In November, I produced two "Stormtoons", which were my kind of compromise combination of 209 and Bluffcosm. By the end of November, however, I realized that 209 really was the keystone and all that, and that the July 28 website was a much better way to get the 209 message out there than Stormtoon. But, I decided that I wanted to hold off on working on 209, so I decided to work on Severe Repair. In the second half of December, I was off work for 18 days, and I spent most of this time working on the Severe Repair novel. Around New Years, my second draft was done, and I decided on 3 priorities for Obliviana: [1] Patience [2] 209 [3] Severe Repair I decided that I wasn't gonna release anything in 2002, apart from a series of texts called "Meta Obliviana". Well, my brother marked up the second draft, but I still haven't worked on the third draft. And, thankfully, Obliviana Wander Radio was born around the end of February, 2002. I got a huge MP3 archive of Jean Shepherd shows on 7 CD-Rs, and I've been listening every day. Also, I converted my entire CD and MP3 collection to "cheapo3" format... and the music sounds surprisingly good... like mono AM radio... So I decided that I could do a radio station... 65 hours per disc, divided into 13 5-hour days, from midnight to 5 AM. Right now I am still in the development phase. I started putting together a 5-minute "Mini-Preview" of OWR yesterday. Hopefully I'll get that done soon. Last month, I got obsessed by the Korg Karma keyboard, an $1,800 synthesizer that would be perfect for my needs in OWR... virtually unlimited, copyright-free music and atmosphere and beats. I think I may get one once I can get my act together, clean up the room, etc. Now, in terms of the "rest of Obliviana"... Well, I do plan on reviving OsoaWeek here. I do want to keep OsoaWeek going. Beyond OsoaWeek, I think that I am gonna focus exclusively on OWR. Well, there is the issue of Severe Repair. I think that I will do it in audiobook format, as a part of OWR. I will do the third draft, and that will be the official version I will read. As far as sending it to a publisher, I am undecided. My instinct right now would be to hold off for the time being. If OWR gets moving, it might be easier to get a publisher, and they might want to change the text less if it is already in audiobook format. I mean, the book text and the unabridged audiobook text should be the same, right? So maybe I could get away with not having my book heavily edited. I'd still like to get at least one rejection letter this year... but I think that with OWR, I don't wanna fuckin' deal with mass media at all. I got my own media! I don't want no fucking mass media! Yeah. Tuesday 4/16/02 * 9:12 PM 24 and The Osbournes. The 2 best shows on television! Tuesday! And right now I'm between the two (24 was 7 PM - 8 PM). So. Production of Obliviana Wander Radio. And, I must also be working on promotion of OWR. I have to reorient myself... this is the new direction for Obliviana... it is gonna be all sound. All the debating, all the back and forth... I have finally arrived at a new plan. Will it last? Well, at this point, there don't seem to be a lot of alternatives. I mean, I am 100% happy with this plan right now, but given my history, I can't be sure that I am gonna stay the course. Alternatives... well, there's the Web. The Web, which I am trying to get away from with OWR. The Web was always so central to my plans. But now I realize that the Web cannot do what I have wanted it to do. OWR is a new plan, a new way of looking at things. And the whole radio thing... this has been a part of Obliviana for a long time... since before the beginning of Obliviana, even, back to my childhood. I believe with all my heart that OWR is the proper course for Obliviana, and I plan on following this course, into the future. This is THE plan. And note also a new idea in the audio idea: the idea of radio-station-like presentation, as opposed to "album" presentation. That is, presenting the content with a meta-level, talking about the content, sequencing the content, just like a radio station or TV station. This is as opposed to audio content you have on prerecorded media, such as music CDs. And it all has to do with the way people listen. The "radio way" is the right way to go for Obliviana. So I gotta get movin'! And I gotta reorient my mind! Sat 8/3/02 * 9:55 PM Hey! It's 109 days later! I'm finally getting OsoaWeek back on schedule, and now I have to come back to these "missing" issues -- 370 thru 416. Of these issues, just 370 and 371 (this one) have anything done in them from the past. So, I'm gonna do 372-416 retroactively (if that is indeed the proper term), doing just the Superior Review in each one. Well... that's about it. For the continuation of the current stuff, skip ahead to OsoaWeek417 (but I am writing a little something in 372...). And as I think I mentioned in this issue, there is a lot of writing from the "missing" time period that will eventually wind up in Aerie Obliviana, which I do plan on updating at some point... Get all Obliviana. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 371 The coomon sense. Betsy's in maze mayhem! Histrike line, Olympic style. Meaning, it has importance, it all means something. And you have trillions of years to figure it out. (((From OsoaWeek066--10/27/95))) ***** I like this one. "The coomon sense" has resonated with me at times. "Histrike line" is, as far as I remember, a made-up term (has some cool connotations). That last sentence is interesting. Kind of relates to a thought i have sometimes, which is that we will each live out the lives of everyone... that is, maybe it's possible to experience this world through experiencing the lives of everyone, one after the other, or... concurrently? This kind of implies that we are all the same person, just living through different lives at different times. Um... kind of a cool idea, eh? Also kind of scary, that we are all "I"... alone... Thinking! Haha, it's fun to think! (Reviewed 8/3/02) ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- Note (from 8/3/02): This is the last Duskaway! Kind of ironic, being that this one talks about being back to Duskaway. Anyway, Superior shall continue, but with its "phase 4". So now, here it is... that last of the Duskaways!!!!! DUSKAWAY 172 * 4/14/02 * 1022 Hurricainee. One word, a Superior seed, left here on 9/4/01, one week before 9/11. Kinda foreboding. Now here I am, over 7 months later, back to Duskaway. ------------------- END -----------
372-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 372, 9/15/01 (Book 29, No. 8 / Tarb 15631 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Sat 8/3/02 * 10:10 PM Hello. I'm coming back into the past to do these issues that I didn't do at the time. This will be the last Lord of Obliviana till OsoaWeek417, just so you know... it'll be all Superior Review in the meantime. Just one more thing. If OsoaWeek had been on schedule back in September 2001, this would have been the first issue post-9/11. I talked all about it in the last issue (371) from that time period. Okay, here we go... Superior reviews till 417! Enjoy. Get all Obliviana! ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 372 Yumpa revision yanposta; true and newly, icy confused lady, you couldn't know, but in that moment you could have been everything to her. For $1,000,000, I will give you back that moment. I am "The Another Maker", Tuesdays at nine, right here on your Wowverful Place for Obliviana, WWW, channel 67, Omaha, Nebraska. (((From OsoaWeek066--10/27/95))) ***** Let's analyze this one piece by piece, shall we? "Yumpa revision yanposta;" Nonsense stuff that sounds cool. "true and newly, icy confused lady, you couldn't know, but in that moment you could have been everything to her." This part is more in the "classic Superior style". I don't remember if this part refers to something real or imagined. "For $1,000,000, I will give you back that moment." The Superior shifts here, taking a meta-step back. "I am "The Another Maker", Tuesdays at nine," Another meta-step, imagining the being who gives moments back as a TV show. "right here on your Wowverful Place for Obliviana," "Wowverful" is just a playful nonsense variation on wonderful. "WWW, channel 67, Omaha, Nebraska." This refers to tapes I made in Montana in 1980, where I created an imaginary TV station called WWW, channel 67, Omaha Nebraska. It was my humor back then, thinking of TV station like WOR here in NJ, that it would be funny if it was all W's. Of course, I did not know that "WWW" would become what it became, World Wide Web, etc. Overall, a pretty decent Superior, but in that it refers to Obliviana stuff, less "universal" than some others. (Reviewed 8/11/02) ------------------- END -----------
373-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 373, 9/22/01 (Book 29, No. 9 / Tarb 15673 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 373 Can. Imtertrontransic prototype here in theme park. Her, you have unresolved feelings about she is. Rinter the old west, gimme telecommunications money any old time. Here we are, we have more days than we ever thought. The time technology, never knew it could be so easy, we could do ten thousand years easy. And we drift, unhappy yet truable. Missing?... mall is. Mall is. (((From OsoaWeek067--11/3/95))) ***** This is a weird one. Implies lots of things, kind of tells a sci-fi story. Made-up words: Imtertrontransic, Rinter, truable. Using made-up words there is the danger of the reader thinking it is a real word they just don't know. But I think that made-up words are cool. Of course, the ones that are capitalized and seem to refer to the name of something, like "Rinter" here, are a little different. Of course, at the beginning of a sentence, "Rinter" could also be a word that would otherwise be lowercase. Sitting here almost seven years later reviewing these Superiors is strange. The me of then, the me of now. What memories do I have of 1995? When I think, "1995", it's not like this big year's worth of memories comes flooding in. But I can remember key events, and I'm sure I have tons of memeories from 1995 that I wouldn't know were exactly from 1995. Anyway, this is a pretty good Superior. (Reviewed 8/11/02) ------------------- END -----------
374-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 374, 9/29/01 (Book 29, No. 10 / Tarb 15715 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 374 Twas the mighty place to go, language, rushing to be, are many, & freeing the foulness inside to disperse or grasp. Rumtund, can we ever, I am trying, nothing J--marchoonis-oopial. There yet, yethery dusk trespassings, the glorious sting of the chill, it's like a symphony, with beauties there to blossom it. You don't know what I'm talking about--maybe--okay--I was with a group of friends, and we went to this private school at night and just walked into these buildings--inement of this building and had like a picnic and there were these girls there and one was so hot. But the memory of it, and the whole experience of it, was what I was thinking of when I started writing this Superior. Right now, I'm on the train, coming home from work, maybe gonna indulge in some reckless spending, maybe gonna get the new live Steely Dan CD. How successful is this blending of reality and poetry? I always said, Superior is not poetry. The strange ducking, I was full of yarn says you, and for many a fine pillow stuff, I was trying, and just the jay of thought, Fun or Fire. (((From OsoaWeek067--11/3/95))) ***** Well, first of all, "inement" I think should be "in the basement". I checked a couple other copies of this Superior, and they all say "inement". I know I use a lot of nonsense and made-up words in Superiors, but I think this is just a mistake. This brings up an interesting issue, the idea of Superior revision. I have been of the mindset that Superiors are "set in stone", pretty much. I did create some "B versions" of Superiors, which were revised Superiors, but they are not in the official Superior archive. I think that the "set in stone" rule is good for the base archive of Superiors. Superiors are archived as they were presented originally, in OsoaWeek. Were all Superiors originally presented in OsoaWeek? Yes, I think that that is the case. Okay, so let's get back to the matter at hand, the reviewing of Superior 374. And yes, this one does review itself to some extent, shifting meta levels like mad. Since it is not 100% clear, I want to clarift some stuff. When I jump up one meta-level to talk about the event that inspired the first part, this is all true. And all the rest of the meta-part is also true. At the end, I continue on with more classic Superior-style stuff. As a whole, I think this Superior is pretty good. But the "meta-level-jumping" Superiors are of a different class from the "ideal Superior", which stays at one meta-level and can be appreciated on its own. Am I talking about "meta-level" too much? I don't think so, though I think it could be seen as excessive. Meta-levels are a big part of Superiors. I was thinking of putting a joke based on meta-levels here, but I couldn't think of any. (Is this itself a joke about meta-levels?) (Reviewed 8/11/02) ------------------- END -----------
375-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 375, 10/6/01 (Book 29, No. 11 / Tarb 15757 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 375 Yikes, was a mouse saying, in time un the goi back to kings are trying to ilip, knowert, stoom a storm of the love. Have structure, I have mother, dealy smuckthing. Do you see me as infinite, for I am like so infinite. Muctches. Ah yes, solve it all with the smell of awesome smoke. I won't be there. Dangerous yesterday, call it a flyer, and I'm great with tomorrow. The dame, call her a woman, she is a person, here is an observation--that making a woman a love object may be far worse than making her a sex object--talking about crushes and obsessions, how one so innocent and so uninvolved can so fluster you, and who are you to do it, but it is nature, and we deal with it. Human beings are nothing without their difficulties. Listen to me, I'm one of them. I think. (((From OsoaWeek067--11/3/95))) ***** Here's something I wrote here a week or two ago: concordance of nonsense Maybe list all the nonsense words from Superior? Would that be worthwhile, really? Now, as to this Superior. Another one I have little to no memory of writing. I love the line, "Have structure, I have mother, dealy smuckthing." Overall, a little awkward, but pretty good. Several nice moments. (Reviewed 9/2/02) ------------------- END -----------
376-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 376, 10/13/01 (Book 29, No. 12 / Tarb 15799 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 376 As existing merely to regard the freeze aboard the good ship "Magnetic". My awareness is extending into sweet spaces. Finding your inner Norse goddess. I am Persephone. (((From OsoaWeek067--11/3/95))) ***** This is kind of an interesting Superior. Kind of tells a story. Kind of like, some kind of being observing a ship freeze, or maybe someone on the ship, freezing to death. "Finding your inner Norse goddess" is a cool line, also with the cold theme. And Persephone being a goddess, but not a Norse goddess. Pretty good, this one, I have to say. (Reviewed 9/2/02) ------------------- END -----------
377-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 377, 10/20/01 (Book 29, No. 13 / Tarb 15841 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 377 Astrid, when? Independence have to. Flyer foxmania the and turbulence and...! Some character blew apart... him was never was golo...! (((From OsoaWeek067--11/3/95))) ***** Well, this is not too good. It's a hyper kind of splatter of words, but not all splatters are beautiful garbage. The use of exclamation points here is especially annoying. But, there are some good points. A diamond in the rough? Um... I think that one key word here is "foxmania". I think that if it is taken to be all about foxes, which have occult overtones, it would be good. But these days "foxmania" could be taken as a reference to Fox TV... I don't like "golo" either. So, on the whole, one of the worse Superiors. (Reviewed 9/3/02) ------------------- END -----------
378-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 378, 10/27/01 (Book 30, No. 1 / Tarb 15883 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 378 Licklink tovevver. Arpon language. Moster dialomp. Piscincia rantramp. Regal night brawling to team ruin. Scumlayer dortnait. Niff of Gosub. Song "I love you more today than yesterday" loser feeling buying yogurt. Apron language. (((From OsoaWeek067--11/3/95))) ***** I have to say that my initial reaction to this one is pretty negative. Probably the "loser feeling buying yogurt" line is the best. A lot of substandard nonsense here. Arpon Language/Apron Language. Um... not too good. And the song... is it a real song? That song as accentuating the loserdom? Maybe in like a deli or something. "Regal night brawling to team ruin" is not too bad. Overall, though, not too good. (Reviewed 9/3/02) ------------------- END -----------
379-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 379, 11/3/01 (Book 30, No. 2 / Tarb 15925 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 379 Dortrait. Dorthate. House, wrappin efcayn, smelting paragraph, theories on nudity. She on TV am not naked unless nipple, pubic hair, buttcrack, or of course genitalia, are showing. Why not have a totally nude lady TV show where they block that stuff out only, with little flesh-colored dots? And... what sort of touching between these actresses would be okay to broadcast...? A touch on the shoulder, a kiss on the cheek, a hand on a leg... Sounds like this show could beat both ER AND Murder One (time specific reference... top TV show battling for supremacy, Thursdays at 10... if you're far past Fall 1995 in time, you might not get the reference at all.) I feel to continue... (((From OsoaWeek067--11/3/95))) ***** "Smelting paragraph" is probably the most interesting thing in here. This one, of course, starts out with some nonsense, and then goes into some observations. And the observations are kinda silly. The last sentence is interesting, kinda cryptic, kinda helps save the Superior from total oblivion. The "joke" here that the naked lady TV show would do well in the ratings is not very funny. Yeah, I got a lot of Superiors to review here, one after another, here in the "missing issues". I hope they start to get better! (Reviewed 9/3/02) ------------------- END -----------
380-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 380, 11/10/01 (Book 30, No. 3 / Tarb 15967 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 380 To accomodate futurians, you must precognate their nature, or they'll just laugh at you. Pierce Brosnan is the new James Bond. I took banter too far at work on occasions in 1990 and 1991. Ha! Ha! I am warm and kicking, out here, able to ingore or pursue you as I please. Please, be in a hotel lobby in 1983. You expect the mirror image to mimic reality, you have a lot to learn. To look like that... personality... everyone around me... they all know each other... to simulate madness... caught in the scary streets of the city... and at a 7-11 in the suburbs--can you feel it?--a rising tide, a monster of a subtlety. Do you feel the need to judge, Siskel & Ebert Jr.? (((From OsoaWeek067--11/3/95))) ***** Hmm. Definitely better than the last few. Kind of hits a stride and goes with it. But it's not without its problems. Let me comment on some of the references in here. First of all, it is funny that as a futurian, I do kind of laugh at the idea of Pierce Brosnan as the new James Bond, but it is a way to kind of define the time it was written in, 1995. The banter stuff... at my job back then, I did banter, and was quite hurt several times when another person told me to stop bantering so much. Something like that. I think "ingore" is just a mistake, though it could be taken to be "en-gore you", perhaps like make you gory, um... Hotel lobby is just a vision... I do idoloize the early '80s in a myriad of ways. "A monster of a subtlety"... that's an awesome line. And the whole part leading up to it, a lot of manic energy, real good. The last line kind tof takes the wind out of the sails of the whole thing, with the lame semi-joke of someone calling someone who criticizes "Siskel & Ebert Jr." Overall, pretty darn good, even if it does have its rough spots. (Reviewed 9/3/02) ------------------- END -----------
381-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 381, 11/17/01 (Book 30, No. 4 / Tarb 16009 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 381 Bopsindrid the Detergent. Savior elsewhere. (((From OsoaWeek068--11/10/95))) ***** I love this one. It's "resonated" with me a lot over the years. Really a top-notch Superior. (Reviewed 9/3/02) ------------------- END -----------
382-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 382, 11/24/01 (Book 30, No. 5 / Tarb 16051 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 382 It is not my business to manage a junkyard. It is not my business to maintain a warehouse or complex shipping operation. It is none of my concern to tend to the needs of an office building. I do not choose to deal in matter, for I am the businessman of the digital time. That which I sell is immaterial. But in service to the immaterial is a great material infrastructure, which is kind of a bummer, considering the dream of the digital world. (((From OsoaWeek068--11/10/95))) ***** This one is interesting. It refers to the dream of being able to make money purely from digital content, a dream which has been pretty much destroyed in the past couple of years. There's the idea of the "pure" and "clean" world of digital content, and the ugly reality that there is a lot of "impure" non-digital stuff in the service of the pure digital stuff. And I really don't look at myself that way anymore, even though it was somewhat tongue-in-cheek back then. Right now, I am still working on Obliviana, but I am now planning on selling physical items (Dashic Deeds, etc.) to make money, using the Internet as a part of the business, but not the only part. As a Superior, this one is okay, but not great by any means. Being "interesting" is not the same as being "good", yeah? Um... (Reviewed 9/3/02) ------------------- END -----------
383-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 383, 12/1/01 (Book 30, No. 6 / Tarb 16093 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 383 To me, to me, to me. Is there any way to avoid being self-centered? For even the greatest effort to be selfless revolves around how cool it is to be selfless and how awesome you are for being so. And for all your consciousness, you are with you. What is left. Not at all afraid. Spur of the moment. Carpe diem. Trouble ahead. The romance of trouble. Life is just constantly trying to keep yourself entertained. (((From OsoaWeek068--11/10/95))) ***** Wow, this one is quite good. No nonsense words, just straightforward observations, but it works! Well, it does get a little "poetic" with "What is left. Not at all afraid. Spur of the moment. Carpe diem. Trouble ahead. The romance of trouble.", but that's what makes it cool, the shift in tone, and then the cool and cynical statement at the end. Refreshingly good! (Reviewed 9/6/02) ------------------- END -----------
384-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 384, 12/8/01 (Book 30, No. 7 / Tarb 16135 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 384 This morning, awakened by alarm clock, I pissed but went back to bed. I slept for 45 minutes, then woke up again. My apartment was cold. I took a shower. And I knew, it was too late to get a $2 parking spot, so in a few decadent seconds I decided to turn The Weather Channel on and get back under the covers, still wet from the shower. And these were ten minutes which seemed like an hour. Such comfort, such indulgence. I am now on the train, late for work, but there's no way I'd trade that ten minutes just to be on time. (((From OsoaWeek068--11/10/95))) ***** This one is pretty good. A little slice of life, based on reality. At the time I wrote this, I was living in Plainsboro, NJ. The commute was a long and difficult one, and parking was a nightmare. Also, at that time, November 1995, I had just broken up with my girlfriend of 2.5 or so years. Well, this Superior is very interesting to me, being that I was the person being talked about, myself. Maybe others can get into this little slice of life too. Um... Indulgence. Little indulgences. OK. (Reviewed 9/6/02) ------------------- END -----------
385-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 385, 12/15/01 (Book 30, No. 8 / Tarb 16177 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 385 You can have the capacity, stars are ripe adorable partners. Evil is long ago, my child, so for those walking backwards, collision is likely. I look like a slacker, not a worker. But I make more than most of them. (((From OsoaWeek068--11/10/95))) ***** Hey, this one is pretty interesting. A lot going on. I have pretty much no memory of writing this. I think it's pretty cool to be able to read something I've written and see it from a totally fresh perspective. Weird. Like, the 2002 me now, and the 1995 me... same person? Different person? I have to say, 1995 me seems to me to be a somewhat different person. An no, this is not mental masturbation, it's fucking cool insight and thought, okay? To get into this Superior, there are three distinct ideas, and they fit together quite well. Let's look at this one in-depth, shall we? Because I think it deserves it. "You can have the capacity," Hmm... you can have the ability to do something. You can HAVE the capacity. The power. Interesting... "stars are ripe adorable partners." Now this... this is intriguing. Is it talking about like famous people being lovers? Or perhaps stars as in "lucky stars", good luck being a great partner? Well, this first sentence is full of different meanings, and that's what makes it exceptional! "Evil is long ago, my child, so for those walking backwards, collision is likely." Here is even more coolness. Wow, I'm so happy I wrote something as cool as this! The contrast of the idea of evil being long gone, with the idea of those walking backward hitting right into evil. And the voice, saying "my child", like who is it? "I look like a slacker, not a worker. But I make more than most of them." Now this part is a true observation of reality. I do look like a slacker, but I have a job and I make decent money. I guess back then I thought I was doing OK in the salary department. Right now, I can't complain exactly, but I do have severe financial problems (like most other people my age). But yeah, even now, I look like a slacker. Um... and the whole, this part contrasting with the other parts, um... Well, let's put it this way. This is one of the best Superiors! (Reviewed 9/6/02) ------------------- END -----------
386-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 386, 12/22/01 (Book 30, No. 9 / Tarb 16219 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 386 Was I to be pure, experience raunchiness, to the pine tree area. Can there BE a jumpiness more altruistic--but I apologize--that may not mean anything. Checkerboards are a whole kind of occult life, I mean that. You are in a human body, and you like to huff and puff and blow the world apart sometimes. Do you want to return to the Primal Realm? Consider the smell of rice cooking. Why that? (((From OsoaWeek068--11/10/95))) ***** Hey, here's another good one. Let's examine: "Was I to be pure, experience raunchiness, to the pine tree area." Great sentence. A lot going on. "Can there BE a jumpiness more altruistic--but I apologize--that may not mean anything." A little self-reference, but it works well here. "Checkerboards are a whole kind of occult life, I mean that." I'm not sure if I really "meant it" at the time, or was just playing around, but it does relate to my current work on Obliviana. At times, I have represented the Forge of Wander in a checkerboard pattern, and I do now consider Obliviana as a kind of "occult life". "You are in a human body, and you like to huff and puff and blow the world apart sometimes." Cool. Could mean just the frustration of being human, or maybe something like really blowing the world apart around you, then going back and erasing and editing out the event. But, um, maybe I'm the only one who would interpret it that way. "Do you want to return to the Primal Realm?" The Primal Realm is a term I use for the world as it was originally created. Something happened, either to the world or to us humans or both, and we are no longer in the Primal Realm. This is all conjecture, but I do seem to have memories and impressions of the Primal Realm. "Consider the smell of rice cooking. Why that?" This implies that that smell is something that is "Primal-Realm-like", which I think it kind of is. So, overall, this one is pretty darn good. (Reviewed 9/6/02) ------------------- END -----------
387-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 387, 12/29/01 (Book 30, No. 10 / Tarb 16261 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 387 If these are all words. Dear translator, you're fucked, love Frank Edward Nora. I wanna come to describe something in my life, I have had some jobs, deer have walked through my yard, I am new to this, under you. And the fall foliage, altogether, humming with dry magic, we are swept into a major metropolitan astral plane. Haha, jajajo, umimum, tempermine. Temp ermine. (((From OsoaWeek068--11/10/95))) ***** Wow, yet another good one! The sentence "Dear translator, you're fucked, love Frank Edward Nora." is one that has resonated with me for a long time. I think I was pretty proud of myself for writing it at the time. The rest of the Superior I don't really remember too much. It's the idea that if Superior gets popular, that there may be an attempt to translate it into other languages, and that the translators would be fucked with all the nonsense and made-up words I use. I remember reading something about the translations of Lewis Carroll nonsense stuff, and translators seemed to be pretty clever about it. But the thing about made-up words is that they are "on the map" of all words, relating to real words in many different ways. This is demonstrated by the whole company-naming thing, where the made-up name is judged by its connotations and relations to other words. Now, this Superior has three parts. The first part is: "If these are all words. Dear translator, you're fucked, love Frank Edward Nora." This part is good, but the next part is really something: "I wanna come to describe something in my life, I have had some jobs, deer have walked through my yard, I am new to this, under you. And the fall foliage, altogether, humming with dry magic, we are swept into a major metropolitan astral plane." Now this by itself would be a fantastic Superior. As it is, it does work fairly well with the other 2 parts. The last part is perhaps a demonstration of something difficult to translate: "Haha, jajajo, umimum, tempermine. Temp ermine." "Umimum" looks kinda like "minimum", but maybe it could be seen as "um I mum", as in, "eh, I'm not talking". "Tempermine" could be seen as "temper mine", but right afterward it is shown as "temp ermine", like a temporary weasel thing. Yeah, cool, altogether, it's a good one! (Reviewed 9/6/02) ------------------- END -----------
388-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 388, 1/5/02 (Book 30, No. 11 / Tarb 16303 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 388 Donkey Kong, you have been with the three girls I lust after, for many hours, they all play you. Mario is always facing right or left, obeying Cynthia, Diana, and Molly's anonymous commands. But you, Kong, you face them, every time they play. If only I could reach you. But I guess, in the long run, it'd be easier to reach one of them than a fictional character like you. (((From OsoaWeek068--11/10/95))) ***** This one I am familiar with, though I can't say that I'm exactly thrilled with it. (Reviewed 9/6/02) ------------------- END -----------
389-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 389, 1/12/02 (Book 30, No. 12 / Tarb 16345 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 389 Is the act of saving the document and is like thunder in history. Cremate the opposition, they're gone man. Imagine if the world weren't wild with change, the panther would be obsolete. I'm not coming up the driveway just yet. I have some more spice and cowardice in me, the delicious bombing of the production. Is it. The walk and. (((From OsoaWeek069--11/17/95))) ***** Hey, hey, what can I say? This one is awesome, awesome, awesome. (Reviewed 9/6/02) ------------------- END -----------
390-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 390, 1/19/02 (Book 30, No. 13 / Tarb 16387 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 390 To those who think Superiors are randomly generated by a computer program, you are foolish. They are all written from my mind. Can you not see this--is it not obvious? Superiors bring me great pleasure, I'm a fan. I like writing and reading them, especially a long time after. A lot of them, I just wrote and only read a couple of times, so going back, I can have a genuine thrill. Superior is remarkable literature. (((From OsoaWeek069--11/17/95))) ***** I remember back then several people thought that Superior was just random nonsense, and here I was defending it. Interesting the reference to going back to read Superiors after a long time and getting a thrill, because that is what it's like doing Superior Review. And yes, I am without a doubt the number one fan of Superior. Remarkable literature? You bet. (Reviewed 9/6/02) ------------------- END -----------
391-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 391, 1/26/02 (Book 31, No. 1 / Tarb 16429 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 391 Standaback, Diamhardy. Ten years from now you'll thank me. (((From OsoaWeek069--11/17/95))) ***** This one contains a reference to this one: SUPERIOR 165 Fallaback, Hanson, the days of smoke and swimming are done with. Strange needle tonight, the friend of a friend and his cool walls. Discovery night, and you're trying to worship Freya. Predatory car, magic branch, Lord of the Mall. If it weren't for constant competition, things would be pretty dull around here. "Diamhardy" is a made-up name. The phrase "Ten years from now you'll thank me.", as I recall, doesn't refer to anything specifically. It's just an interesting phrase. As a Superior on its own, 391 is decent, but nothing to write home about. 165 is, of course, an absolute classic. (Reviewed 9/7/02) ------------------- END -----------
392-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 392, 2/2/02 (Book 31, No. 2 / Tarb 16471 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 392 Was the nap a means to avoid it, or just my disorganization, or what? Cute. (((From OsoaWeek069--11/17/95))) ***** I like this one a lot. It's really good. (Reviewed 9/7/02) ------------------- END -----------
393-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 393, 2/9/02 (Book 31, No. 3 / Tarb 16513 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 393 I am paralyzed by so many forces, but these same forces could prove a potent fuel for motion. Writing this, I am moving forward. Are there choices, which result in branchings into the ahead, or is it more qualitative? But I think I know the cause of it all. (((From OsoaWeek069--11/17/95))) ***** Awkward, lame. (Reviewed 9/7/02) ------------------- END -----------
394-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 394, 2/16/02 (Book 31, No. 4 / Tarb 16555 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 394 A few in the tunnel. My heart is blazing with a bittersweet pain. It's a good, human feeling. Something I wouldn't feel if depressed. Yes, I have a lot. Every day smoothes over the destruction of the last a little. October is over--I'm ready for to reap what the winds of change have sown. (((From OsoaWeek069--11/17/95))) ***** Starts off strong, but with the word "depressed" it goes downhill. Gets awkward and kinda lame. Overall a bit below average. (Reviewed 9/7/02) ------------------- END -----------
395-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 395, 2/23/02 (Book 31, No. 5 / Tarb 16597 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 395 Through with the tunnel. A New York Times page in my back pocket, a story about people who live inside a nuclear missile silo. They call it love, and I love feeling it. They had a poor little hedgehog on Larry King the other night--it was scared to death and held itself tightly in its ball shape. I know what I want. (((From OsoaWeek069--11/17/95))) ***** First sentence refers back to the previous Superior, 394. Overall, this one kind of meanders and goes nowhere. But... the last sentence does kind of redeem things... somewhat... not enough to make this Superior good. (Reviewed 9/7/02) ------------------- END -----------
396-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 396, 3/2/02 (Book 31, No. 6 / Tarb 16639 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 396 Pony tail new brunswick. Mr. Toad, come on. Parking Lot World, I wanna talk about my desire for you. Yeah, life is a sequence. Science, let me tellya, look at a halftone with a magnifier and all you see is dots. Nothing. Playing computer keyboard. People romanticize freehand and typewriter writing. Too little unbelief, where is society up to. (((From OsoaWeek069--11/17/95))) ***** "Parking Lot World" is a made-up thing. "Mr. Toad" is referring to the Disney character, most famous for "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride". I love the first sentence. New Brunswick is a city in New Jersey, so that's what I'm referring to here I believe, as opposed to the Canadian province. The lowercase for New Brunswick is intentional and gives a different feel than "Pony tail New Brunswick" would. As far as the rest of this Superior, it's a mixed bag. But it definitely has its moments. Overall, a little above average. (Reviewed 9/7/02) ------------------- END -----------
397-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 397, 3/9/02 (Book 31, No. 7 / Tarb 16681 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 397 Need to refine. Life is. Buildings take an awful lot of effort to construct. English language, best ever, gets stronger the more foreign words it sucks in. Like me? Yeah e. (((From OsoaWeek070--11/24/95))) ***** Not too good. (Reviewed 9/7/02) ------------------- END -----------
398-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 398, 3/16/02 (Book 31, No. 8 / Tarb 16723 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 398 Yeah be. Hmm, could be a new retro-hippie catchphrase. Mindy, Mindy, Mindy, Mindy. (((From OsoaWeek070--11/24/95))) ***** What the hell. That Mindy crap has to go. But I do like the whole idea of a retro-hippie catchphrase, and this one has resonated with me for a long time. "Yeah be".... (Reviewed 9/7/02) ------------------- END -----------
399-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 399, 3/23/02 (Book 31, No. 9 / Tarb 16765 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 399 I have jaulo to porta. Waiting for the next thing to happen, we pretend colorful fictionals. Autumn leaf, red and dead, have you a thought in your head? What of me is steel-like? The dove, ancient idiot, the dove. (((From OsoaWeek070--11/24/95))) ***** I think this one is strong overall. "Jaulo to porta" is nonsense with a spanish edge. I love the last sentence. (Reviewed 9/7/02) ------------------- END -----------
400-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 400, 3/30/02 (Book 31, No. 10 / Tarb 16807 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 400 Slow overpass, time of thinker, the yeseholution of the self. Done hinterland, I was overland, and the newspapers are losing interest. A jug of something... Any today does explode because Susan 594-011. (((From OsoaWeek070--11/24/95))) ***** This one is very good, and definitely has a different tone than than the average Superior. "Yeseholution" is a great nonsense word. As far as "Susan 594-011" goes, it too is just made-up, with no logic behind it, if I recall correctly. Overall, excellent. (Reviewed 9/7/02) ------------------- END -----------
401-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 401, 4/6/02 (Book 31, No. 11 / Tarb 16849 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 401 Meantime. Century gang. Harsh y'know. Madness is a luxury you can ill afford, where is that? Resplendent blender--the of meaning. Maybe a housewifet--don't take away her feminism, mind poison. Chances are, in a literary sense, her focus on the blender chaos life beyond her control. What I know about awesome. This was heavily edited. (((From OsoaWeek070--11/24/95))) ***** This one has some references to other Superiors, and even back before Superior. "Abaxial Usufruct" was the predecessor to Superior. I wrote it in early 1990. Here is an excerpt from Abaxial Usufruct 122, "Yhosphoroscope": Taurus (April 20 - May 20) Fondle the abrasive surface of an obsidian grave, if you will. Madness is a luxury you can ill afford. Your problems are just an overripe tomato and you are a blender set on puree. Draw on popcorn. Eat little Swiss Army knives in a bowl of milk for breakfast. This material, fake horoscope stuff, started off in Anything But Monday Magazine, which I published with a friend back in the late 1980s. So Superior 401 stretches WAY back with its references. I guess when I wrote it, the "madness" line came to mind, and I wondered where it was from. Here is a Superior that draws on the "Yhosphoroscope" stuff: SUPERIOR 47 Eat breakfast on a Frisbee. Invent the first portable stomach. Lubricate something close to your heart. Madness is a luxury you can ill afford. Draw on popcorn. Use the best pancake emblem, if you will. To avoid starvation, try eating some food. Fuse pencils and pinecones together. Have a public servant touch your knee. I guess this one kind of brought together some of the better sentences. Now, the phrase "what I know about" is from this Superior, one of the best ever: SUPERIOR 200 What I know about Rome, chances with young women, and living in the world's coolest treehouse. Wild saw-mangled energy motorcycle, take the plunge Barry. Laughing on wingtime the spot gravellette. Earth hole wandering, just another airday tramp. Emma, the flask of the, Wallace, of splinter of congress of them, I opened the theater. And looking forward, here's another reference to "what I know about": SUPERIOR 424 Back home, dark and cold, college friend memories, stabbing shame, no pony tail today. Go on. Friendly colonial street, weight of the daily childness I can Louisiana and--a bar--I--screwed it all up, it is she--and I cannot return--again and again--the way out, forget about the other girl--but no girls--and... and... and... I am here. What I know about. Please. I assume that "housewifet" was intentionally misspelled. It may have been a mistake that I decided to leave in. A lot of self-reference in this one, 401. I think that it really was heavily edited, perhaps thankfully. Um... overall, a pretty good Superior. Inspired reference back to earlier Superiors. And a lot of interesting ideas. (Reviewed 9/7/02) ------------------- END -----------
402-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 402, 4/13/02 (Book 31, No. 12 / Tarb 16891 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 402 Thor panther clothing, your feminine side with a baseball bat and a bottle of whiskey. When the bra strap goes loose, you know you're into the tit experience. Eye the clock at 2 PM, hours to go before you go home. You need a 2 PM where you're free as a psycho, causing trouble in amazing places. (((From OsoaWeek070--11/24/95))) ***** The first sentence here is an absolute Superior classic. In fact, I named a character "Thor Panther Clothing" in my sci-fi novel Severe Repair. She's a member of the Rillekon's Road superhero team Pseudoairport. Now, the second sentence really brings the Superior down. The third sentence is not much better. The last sentence is actually pretty good. Overall, this Superor is definitely above average, but kept from the top by its weak middle section. Yeah, get rid of sentence 2 and 3 and it's a top-notch Superior. (Reviewed 9/7/02) ------------------- END -----------
403-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 403, 4/20/02 (Book 31, No. 13 / Tarb 16933 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 403 I have to youward, I am bashful but persistent. No smoking a cold walk yelling aimlessly at an empty Revolutionary War park town. Yeah, an old fence. Yeah, pretending to be just you, chess and game, theme park crapola takes up 19% of your brain. Toofar, a place for mystery and meeting sex partners. (((From OsoaWeek070--11/24/95))) ***** Yeah, this one is cool. Some nice ideas and images. "Toofar" is made up, but clearly made from "too far". But as one word it takes on a kinda goofy hue. So yeah, pretty good. (Reviewed 9/7/02) ------------------- END -----------
404-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 404, 4/27/02 (Book 32, No. 1 / Tarb 16975 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 404 People matter. I have long hair, it's for my image. A massive intellect makes for tough emotional development. Think of what you can build--build it. (((From OsoaWeek070--11/24/95))) ***** This one is about me. About the long hair, I have long thought about my image as "Lord of Obliviana", which thus far has not been of much use, since very few people have seen Obliviana is any form. But the long hair... I love having long hair, and for more than my "image". I hate short hair. Long hair is super-nerdy, I know. And I am a super-nerd. Anyway, as a Superior, this one is average. (Reviewed 9/7/02) ------------------- END -----------
405-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 405, 5/4/02 (Book 32, No. 2 / Tarb 17017 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 405 The feelings are delightful here. There's a fire burning between us. Love and lust and everything nice. Here, there is uncertainty. The race to the first kiss, in constant euphoric pain. The effort, if I don't make it I'll never forgive myself. The effort, if I fail at least I'll know I tried. No. This one I play to win. (((From OsoaWeek071--12/1/95))) ***** This does, I believe, refer to some real-life events. I think there was a girl I went out with once or something that I was into, but it never went anywhere. I think that's what this Superior is about. So I didn't "win" in this case, but I met the woman that would become my wife about six months after this, and I am still very happily married. (Reviewed 9/7/02) ------------------- END -----------
406-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 406, 5/11/02 (Book 32, No. 3 / Tarb 17059 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 406 Rave Janssen, cutest little movie star, just 19, here in my bed. It's like S&M, the eroticism of her being so much better than me--rich, famous, beloved--and who am I? It turns me on. Of course, I dream of making it to the top like her. The dreams themselves are pleasurable to run through my mind. I realize I may as well derive as much pleasure from these visions as possible, since my chances of making it are slim. She's on top. (((From OsoaWeek071--12/1/95))) ***** This is pure fiction. I love the name I made up for the girl movie star, "Rave Janssen". A pretty good one. Maybe Rave Janssen will show up in Severe Repair sometime. (Reviewed 9/7/02) ------------------- END -----------
407-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 407, 5/18/02 (Book 32, No. 4 / Tarb 17101 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 407 We think of places, but they're nothing without you there. Yeah, still in time, all of 'em exist. Yup. Time travel and how small you are. Every moment there's a whole world of space. What can they hope to experience? But it's wrong. Consider repetition. Actions have no reactions. The axe of us gone. (((From OsoaWeek071--12/1/95))) ***** Kinda mysterious. Some interesting ideas implied. Kinda average. (Reviewed 9/7/02) ------------------- END -----------
408-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 408, 5/25/02 (Book 32, No. 5 / Tarb 17143 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 408 This one I play to lose. My heart was wacky, I was just this funny one to her. Any fire there may have been was just in me. The cement slab thought--there will be no first kiss. No more uncertainty--she'll never be my girlfriend. The feelings are ambiguous here. I tried. No euphoria, not painful. (((From OsoaWeek071--12/1/95))) ***** Well, here's the followup to 405, about the girl I liked. Pretty good Superior. I like the last sentence. (Reviewed 9/7/02) ------------------- END -----------
409-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 409, 6/1/02 (Book 32, No. 6 / Tarb 17185 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 409 I am a formula made of ace. That tingling sensation, that broad smile of a morning panorama. Air pressure confusion, you're at a mall far away, phones aren't working right, and you have money. Getting away in a night of flurries, never to return, what the humanity you seek is beyond you. And I cannot help it. (((From OsoaWeek071--12/1/95))) ***** The first sentence here refers to this Superior: SUPERIOR 236 I am a wristwatch made of mist. Commanda Royal Blue, the cinnamon backlash affair. Junction, the mystery of the man made of milk. Here is a comment I made about it in OsoaWeek087: Tue 3/12/96 * 7:44 AM * Amtrak * Tarb 3560 ... I don't know why, but a phrase from Superior 236 keeps going through my head, as kind of a personal motto... "I am a wristwatch made of mist." What the hell could it mean? Looking ahead, it's referred to in two more Superiors: SUPERIOR 430 Avoid escalator in office building train station, they who sing, who confuse in a fish bowl, and the sporting event, calibrate. Sometimes well a year never ever, kissing, dreams of relationships wake to nobody next to me. I am hurt. It's good though. The more I get hurt emotionally and get over it, the more I grow up. I am a wristwatch made of mist. Didn't I tell you that. Too weak, needs editing, but I never do that. SUPERIOR 669 * 2/19/97 Being the wristwatch made of mist, a potent phrase here and a potent vision but what does it mean? That the information we need is with us always and almost perceptible? I have a vision of a shopping center in Somerville. Like I was a ghost, going back there, to a place I haven't been in years. Me and my dad and my brother used to go to a sushi bar around there. I must remember if I become a father how much the time I spent with my father meant to me. Now, back to reviewing 409... it's a pretty good one, definitely above average. Okay! (Reviewed 9/7/02) ------------------- END -----------
410-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 410, 6/8/02 (Book 32, No. 7 / Tarb 17227 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 410 Prelude to the informative day. Find. Some of the stars, might be her body when she was 23. I love the feeling of being really tired. I am marvelous--something precious in the display case, seems too valuable for the security level here. So I'm in this hotel. Funny, I can make one call and be having sex with two women all night long. Good women. Not whores. Friends. Part of this whole tapestry of power. But my hand isn't moving. My eyes are all over the phone, but my hand can't obey me. Ironic, what are my concerns? (((From OsoaWeek071--12/1/95))) ***** Just a fictional meandering. (Reviewed 9/7/02) ------------------- END -----------
411-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 411, 6/15/02 (Book 32, No. 8 / Tarb 17269 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 411 Let me know. Yeah, I wrote a lot more of this, but it got destroyed as the computer crashed. Erections on transit, writing erotica. Will any of them call me? Have no time for them. Snowfall is unwelcome. Again. Whatever. Didn't lose much. (((From OsoaWeek071--12/1/95))) ***** This one seems to be based on real events. Taking the train to work, long commute. I had a Mac laptop I would write on. And I think that when I was writing some particularly erotic passages in Severe Repair I probably got an erection on the train. Um... This was in the time of me being kind of messed-up romantically, with these 3 girls, liking them one after another kinda, getting nowhere, as also referred to in 405 and 408. Decent Superior, nothing great. (Reviewed 9/7/02) ------------------- END -----------
412-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 412, 6/22/02 (Book 32, No. 9 / Tarb 17311 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 412 Nose. Airsh Niobrahms. Metropark, Breasts. Oh! Just, can I write? Not feeling good. 412, wow. Just remember the inner peace. Yeah? Lust is candy. I don't want the abandoned playground. Or do I? Inner peace, emotionlessness. No. It's about keeping my emotions under control. (((From OsoaWeek071--12/1/95))) ***** "Airsh Niobrahms" is completely made-up. Metropark is a train station in Iselin, NJ. Some kind of interesting meandering thoughts here. Average. (Reviewed 9/7/02) ------------------- END -----------
413-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 413, 6/29/02 (Book 32, No. 10 / Tarb 17353 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 413 Dome owe bitch joint Sally queer underground box xaw, Gail always does licking Victoria says evil does zoom. (((From OsoaWeek072--12/8/95))) ***** I like this one. Kind of a pent-up energy blasting forth. "Xaw" is made-up, variation on saw, I guess. Lots of sexual stuff here, seems like lesbian stuff. Sex and drugs and evil... evil does zoom... (Reviewed 9/7/02) ------------------- END -----------
414-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 414, 7/6/02 (Book 32, No. 11 / Tarb 17395 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 414 Two of tools. I have to say I am calm. Rinse is preydive. Bluvven. Blunventem... preyjive. We spink jiv for us. You what you write. It was tising (album name) panucking. (((From OsoaWeek072--12/8/95))) ***** Kind of interesting, but not that great. (Reviewed 9/7/02) ------------------- END -----------
415-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 415, 7/13/02 (Book 32, No. 12 / Tarb 17437 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 415 Winter telling of my self. X. Solitary at mall, browsing to burn off energy. Cry about the Internet. Bald cuckold. Xmas everywhere--call me unmoved. Seeking innocence, but confused as to where childhood and society mesh. Bench and do origami--the best path often has aimless loserness passages. Mall of America--one day and it's all over my mind. Princeton--a chilly morning, did I call Kerri? (((From OsoaWeek072--12/8/95))) ***** Kerri was my girlfriend of 2.5 or so years that I broke up with in October 1995. The Mall of America trip was real. I lived in Plainsboro at the time I wrote this, near Princeton. Don't know where the "bald cuckold" reference came from. I like the idea that "the best path often has aimless loserness passages"... because it seems that there have been an awful lot of passages of aimless loserdom in my life, and hopefully I am on the best path! Kind of an okay Superior. The first sentence is quite good. (Reviewed 9/7/02) ------------------- END -----------
416-------------------OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement Issue 416, 7/20/02 (Book 32, No. 13 / Tarb 17479 / Year 8) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- Note: Superior Review only from 373 to 416. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 416 Getting there side. Speckle, find the lost coffee shop owned by Judy. Cry for help--yours and friends, lost and alone, bewildered by dating. Self, I have to make myself more attractive. A good sort of pain, like after a workout. My old apartment, the walk to the train station, wishing it to end, now it has a magical edge. I don't know. (((From OsoaWeek072--12/8/95))) ***** First of all, I just want to say that this is the last of the "missing issues" of OsoaWeek that I have been working on, and the Tarbs are good! That is, adding the Tarbs from this to the next issue (already done) matches up. I had been worried that maybe there's be a mistake somewhere. But luckily, the Tarbs ae cool. Now... let's see... 416... Uh, well, a pretty average Superior. "My old apartment" was in Iselin. At the time of writing, I was living in Plainsboro. And at that time, I was kind of messed up with trying to get a girlfriend and all that. Okay! The missing issues are done! Cool! (Reviewed 9/7/02) ------------------- END -----------
|