= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = ||  Obliviana Homepage  ||  OsoaWeek Archive in Aerie Obliviana  ||  OsoaWeek 339 and up  || = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 338, 1/18/01 (Book 26, No. 13 / Tarb 14191 / Year 7) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 338 Experiments in literature, can only be undertaken, by the talented. Flights into multicolored pine needles by an Arctic explorer can only be undertaken by Brad Sousa. Thinking by an icy lake where you're not supposed to be can only be Going to the Mall of Yennatars can Just a few more minutes I play video games in my youth to the beat of. (((From OsoaWeek059--9/8/95))) ***** I like this one a whole lot! "Brad Sousa" and "Mall of Yennatars" are totally made-up. There is some implication here that the end might lead back to the beginning, as in "to the beat of Experiments in literature". Bottom line, it's EXCELLENT! (Reviewed 3/4/01) ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 337, 1/11/01 (Book 26, No. 12 / Tarb 14149 / Year 7) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 337 Frandjiztastic. (((From OsoaWeek059--9/8/95))) ***** Um... this one has reverberated with me quite a bit over the years. A pretty cool fake word. I like it. (Reviewed 3/4/01) ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 336, 1/4/01 (Book 26, No. 11 / Tarb 14107 / Year 7) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 336 m' au'oniurplon olceu inlts f ,ryl tigsoLaraonnsl erhniagrehu ep eu asJpssvgdL (((From OsoaWeek058--9/1/95))) ***** See if you can figure it out! (Reviewed 3/4/01) ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 335, 12/28/00 (Book 26, No. 10 / Tarb 14065 / Year 7) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 335 Truon, is the subatomic is the a container for the a truth. Gum and sparklers--are you still the lovely? Night-colored glasses and a church parking lot--gotta be that burnout girl's nipples what make you hard. No mercy. (((From OsoaWeek058--9/1/95))) ***** Um... not terrible... but also not great. Well... it does have some elements which would make it a top-notch Superior, but it has several major flaws. The "Truon" sentence is a bit weak. From "Gum" to "lot" is awesome, and the mention of a burnout girl is good too, but the "gotta be" phrasing is perhaps out of place here, and the "nipples what make you hard" is pretty bad. I like "No mercy." a lot... but like a said, too flawed to be a top-level Superior. (Reviewed 3/4/01) ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 334, 12/21/00 (Book 26, No. 9 / Tarb 14023 / Year 7) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 334 Member in the Particulat. Ya I am no Knoodle. I hear about innocence, but I gotta wonder, these girls who hungered to have a penis deep inside their vagina, I gotta wonder. Are we missing the point? Desires--is it those Zen dufuses who seek to destroy all desire in themselves? No desire, satisfaction no problem. DESIRE! I WANT! Surrounding. Listen to me--all this sex, drugs, rock'n'roll--all that--tastes best as a spice to your main thust of building, creating, and solving problems. Thust not thrust. (((From OsoaWeek058--9/1/95))) ***** The first two sentences are quite good, but the rest of this Superior is somewhat pitiful. "Ya I am no Knoodle." is AWESOME. (Reviewed 3/4/01) ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 333, 12/14/00 (Book 26, No. 8 / Tarb 13981 / Year 7) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 333 Tearend. A men's clothing shop in Princeton. Quiet down. I was in Iowa. I was no one in particular. I made out checks, mailed them, then got that money out of an ATM. Kinda symbolic. What was I? I have ruffles. Forget it gammit. Dammit. (((From OsoaWeek058--9/1/95))) ***** Hmm... this is is not very good at all. Hey, they can't all be masterpieces. (Reviewed 3/4/01) ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 332, 12/7/00 (Book 26, No. 7 / Tarb 13939 / Year 7) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 332 Yunc, wish for the alcove of punishment I, knowing under the yearning for the athletic girl, was yearning for the cleansing of winter rain. Truth and orange juice, a breakfast at the Yesterday Joint, Come On Junior--piss me off. Trolls hide nearby, you put up with my bullshit cuz you wanna fuck me. But don't let the veil of lust hide the entire fucking world from you, wonderful one. (((From OsoaWeek057--8/25/95))) ***** Wow, this Superior is pretty damn good. I tellya, when I start to feel discouraged about my work cuz nobody is into it, I read something like this, and my understanding that I kick ass creatively is recharged! (Reviewed 3/4/01) ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 331, 11/30/00 (Book 26, No. 6 / Tarb 13897 / Year 7) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 331 Fiftia, enhance me. You have the moves the yesterday of me and the thing. Drowning in lustful juice we played tambourines and said fuck to the world. Come on. Stay awhile. I was in the graphic arts industry, still there are redheads who cry for me. (((From OsoaWeek057--8/25/95))) ***** In reviewing Superiors, I use the phrase "resonates with me" a lot. I just want to be clear in what I mean by this. I write Superiors and I read them, and I think about them. Some phrases from Superiors play over and over in my mind... kind of like when music plays over and over in your mind. And I think of some of them when triggered by a reference to something similar. This is all a pretty vague and subtle matter, not some kind of psycho obsession or something. I think it's just a natural part of the way the brain works. So anyway, when I say that a particular phrase resonates with me, I think that means that that phrase is pretty darn good. Now, onto the review of this one: The first sentence here has resonated with me for a long time. "Fiftia" is a made-up name that doesn't refer to anything. It's just a cool name. But those three words, "Fiftia, enhance me." bring up all sorts of intriguing connotations. The last sentence is very, very good also. The other sentences are decent, but nothing to write home about. The "fuck" there was written "f*ck" in OsoaWeek, because I was paranoid about using "fuck" for OsoaWeek at that point. Overall... excellent. The somewhat mediocre stuff in the middle keeps this from being a top Superior, though. (Reviewed 2/10/01) ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 330, 11/23/00 (Book 26, No. 5 / Tarb 13855 / Year 7) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 330 Doton. Dontad. Ilmp. Vast, am I going mask, these are ruinous tossings in bed, hearing psychic chanting--what is screwed. Being beyond all this. Sudden silence and a coldsnap--the thrill in her face--and another in a tuxedo at a wedding--she's love. Nothing wrong with winter. She's vast, am I going musk (((From OsoaWeek057--8/25/95))) ***** Overall, this isn't one of the better Superiors. But the last sentence redemms it somewhat, and is quite good in its own right. Of course, it refers back to the earlier phrase "vast, I am going mask". The nonsense words at the beginning are pretty lame. So all in all, a mixed bag of tricks. (Reviewed 2/10/01) ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 329, 11/16/00 (Book 26, No. 4 / Tarb 13813 / Year 7) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 329 So good you had to do it again. The delicious swerve of infidelity, even better as a hint. Lost in Manhattan, you're not cool. Barrage of baloney music. Just wanna go to sleep. This is not the 3 AM I know. (((From OsoaWeek057--8/25/95))) ***** This is a decent Superior. "This is not the 3 AM I know." resonates a bit (ie, it has played over and over in my head over the years). "The delicious swerve of infidelity, even better as a hint."... this is very interesting. Talking about the pleasure in vague thoughts about sex and stuff. Cool. (Reviewed 2/10/01) ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 328, 11/9/00 (Book 26, No. 3 / Tarb 13771 / Year 7) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 328 I like stampeding with a thousand naked girls through a dusty universe. I wanna thrill to the sound of an impossible musical instrument. Pay attention. (((From OsoaWeek056--8/18/95))) ***** Now this one is pretty darn good. The first sentence is a classic. The other two sentences are a bit weak, but that first sentence is probably among the best in all of Superior. (Reviewed 2/10/01) ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 327, 11/2/00 (Book 26, No. 2 / Tarb 13729 / Year 7) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 327 Suptormier. Is it a stranding, the buddy system, why was I holding hands with George at the museum--years ago--in the Cub Scouts...? Fun Time arcade--roller skating--bitch den mother wouldn't let me play any video games. Bike trick, cheated out of gum, quit the fuckin' cub scouts, man. (((From OsoaWeek056--8/18/95))) ***** Like a number of Superiors, this one starts off with a nonsense word, and a little whimsical phrase ("is it a stranding"), and then moves into talking about something specific. In this case, the Superior is about some memories of mine from my days in the Cub Scouts. I was holding hands with this kid George, but it was just to be silly. And going to the Fun Time Arcade, with a roller rink in the basement, and the den mother not letting me play any videogames. And the "bike trick"... The den mother had this game... start at the top of the driveway, on a bike, and lift up your feet, and try and get to the bottom without falling... just with gravity. The reward was some gum. So I tried and succeeded. Then I told the den mother I'd like to try it again, just for practice. In my mind, I had already won the gum, and was just doing it again for fun. In this second try, I failed, and the den mother said that since I failed, I would not get any gum. Well, that was that. I quit the Cub Scouts. (Reviewed 2/10/01) ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 326, 10/26/00 (Book 26, No. 1 / Tarb 13687 / Year 7) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 326 Like a Torigowar, she was really bright without being really hot. (((From OsoaWeek056--8/18/95))) ***** Well, first of all, "Torigowar" is a completely made-up word. But like all nonsense worse, it has connotations through the words it is similar to. This Superior has resonated with me a bit over the years. Overall, not too bad. (Reviewed 2/10/01) ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 325, 10/19/00 (Book 25, No. 13 / Tarb 13645 / Year 7) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Thu 12/14/00 * 5:35 PM Hey. What's up. Frank Edward Nora here, Lord of Obliviana. And, um, Obliviana is once again all messed up and screwed up. But what else is new? I'm unemployed, I got a haircut, and I'm wearing sneakers. And at the moment I'm smoking a pipe with some latakia pipe tobacco. I went to Princeton last night, to Little Taste of Cuba cigar store. I threw Snapple jellybeans out the window of my Jeep because they had spilled out into the little container thing in the middle. I was driving thru Plainsboro when I heard Gore's concession speech, and I was sitting outside the Woodbridge Center Mall, in the freezing cold, listening to Bush's acceptance speech on a little radio. Um... so what is going on with Obliviana? Well, even though it is in some serious doldrums at the moment, it continues on! I realized recently that my overall view of Obliviana needs to change. I am holding Obliviana tightly to me, as if I don't want to allow it to face the dangers and perils of the world. This clinging has succeeded in protecting Obliviana: it has no audience. No audience = no chance of rejection. So I must stop this clinging. I must let Obliviana out into the world! Now, let me deal with a big issue in Obliviana: confusion. When people check out the Obliviana website, they often comment that they don't understand what it is. And often, my response is that I, too, am deeply confused by Obliviana. Well, this situation has to change. Now, another big issue in Obliviana is the Keystone Idea. This is like my own personal Holy Grail. The Keystone Idea will end the confusion and bring all the disparate elements of Obliviana together. Over the past few years, I have often felt very close to the Keystone Idea, only to have that hope slip away. Now, here's another big issue: that I have "bitten off more than I can chew", that Obliviana has so many different elements and schemes and directions and projects that there is no way that one person could hope to keep up with it. Well, there are some of the problems. But there is one overarching good thing: I am very confident in the quality of my creative work in Obliviana. So... what does this all add up to? Well, first of all, one of my big goals for Obliviana is that it could make money, and be a real company. So I should try and move in that direction. The reason I haven't worked more toward this goal is, I think, a fear of success on my part. One aspect of Obliviana is indeed online content. In the past, this was seen as a viable business model. You know, get an audience and sell banner ads. Well, in the year 2000, this business model has become a joke. No one, it seems, can make money with that business model. 6:14 PM So how can Obliviana make money? Well, I did start Thinkfang.com, a whole new idea, about giving away entertainment for free online... that is, the aspect of any given piece of entertainment that can be computerized. I love the word "computerized"; its been out of use for too long. Anyway, Thinkfang is about giving stuff away for free... is that a good way to make money? Well, I think that, counterintuitively, it just might be. At its core, this system serves as a promotional platform for mail order sales of stuff. The Keystone Idea... where is it... Thu 12/21/00 * 2:52 PM Today, I am officially giving up on finding The Keystone Idea, giving up on the Vision of Obliviana. It has been a long, hard road to get to this point. I have been seeking after my own personal Holy Grail for well over 13 years now. But the search is over. I realized that The Keystone Idea of the Vision of Obliviana (KIVO?) was something that I would never discover. It was something that was holding me back. I was of the mindset that "As soon as I discover KIVO my life will get moving." Well, I have discovered KIVO. I have discovered that it has been something to allow me to shield myself from failure, shield myself from an audience. I figured that everything would just naturally fall together when I got KIVO. But KIVO had such high requirements that it was effectively impossible to satisfy and discover. KIVO served a purpose... it got me to where I am now, which in terms of my creative work, is a good place. It has also gotten me to a point in my personal life where I am in a bad position vis-a-vis money and work and career and all that. No doubt about it... my quest for KIVO is over. Now I can focus on all the individual elements in Obliviana without needing to link them together in a unified way, which was at the heart of KIVO. I just want to produce cool stuff and have an audience for it. I don't need to create the game-cult that was also at the heart of KIVO. I neither need nor want to be the head of such a game-cult. So what does this mean to Obliviana in general? Well, Obliviana is still what it has always been: a collection of various kind of entertainment created by me. Everyone has always been confused by Obliviana. I could never answer the question "What is Obliviana?" Now I can. Obliviana is the publishing company for the work I create. That's it. No over-arching game, no cult, no nothing. Just a publisher. "The works of Frank Edward Nora, Creator of Cool Awesomeness"...? Anyway, I do think that KIVO can remain an interesting subject. I have developed dozens of different highly complex schemes in my quest for KIVO. Now that the quest is over, it might be cool to go back and look at the different ideas sometime. 3:24 PM So... being that this is the last issue of Book 25 of OsoaWeek... a new Book... Book 26... is right around the corner. Actually, it should have started nearly 2 months ago, but I'm all screwed up and trying to catch up and everything. So Book 26... maybe it can reflect my new direction, my new ideas... Hey! I just had a cool idea! Maybe Superior 2000 should be "Bye KIVO." Hmm... Mon 2/5/01 * 10:01 PM It was nearly 7 weeks ago that I gave up on KIVO, and things are going much better. I have been focusing on Bluffcosm, which makes me very happy. And I am working on Fuzzy Daupner a little more. And I intend to work on Severe Repair this year. All the other things in Obliviana... they are all on hold. And the whole stupid quest for KIVO... that is OVER. And considering that I am writing this almost 16 weeks after the date of this issue of OsoaWeek, I have decided to skip over Book 26, and continue in Book 27. 27... 2+7=9... I take this as a sign that the next 3 moths will continue the trend of clearing away crap from the past... and that Book 28 (2+8=10, 1+0=1) will signal even more of a new beginning. Obliviana is still very much alive. See ya in Book 27! Get All Obliviana. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 325 Ling, the glory, the safety. Colors of your team, you cling to the concept of being able to feel pride in something. Buy the original memo book this Superior was originally written in. I'm writing it now. I'll even sign it for you. Signed, Frank Edward Nora. (((From OsoaWeek056--8/18/95))) ***** Okay, first of all, I have no idea where that memo book is right now. I have so many boxes of Obliviana stuff that it will probably be a long time before I find that memo book. Now, let me present to you the other 3 Superior that refer to "Ling": SUPERIOR 153 Ling, the safety, the glory, the glass factory, the sweet liquid shop, the antechamber of a school, kids five minutes from going home, full of amusement. The older ones have higher matters--they're now full into sex. I'll just drift. Whatcha doin'? Driftin'. SUPERIOR 502 * 3/14/96 Ling the jock... have seen everything... yes I am on route 18... pine fresheners and fantasies of oral sex... potholes, music... fighting for the sake of it... look at it... people WANT problems, deep down... everyone has problems... see, humans can't exist without problems everpresent... challenges... the ecstasy of solving... this is what it's all about... bigger problems masking smaller ones... or of course, vice-versa. I am a thinker. I am smarter than most of you. But I'd never say that in public. Interpreted: "ling the jock" = perform cunnilingus on the athletic girl. I'm fucking insane. SUPERIOR 629 * 11/8/96 Oh yeah specificity! Yeah. Talking about partially smoked cigars... I got two here... a big one and a little one... in the ashtray my girlfriend gave me for my birthday... next to the big Swiss Army knife I bought off a guy at work once... he joked that it fell off the back of a truck... let me tell you... the fucker has been so goddamn useful, it would have been worth paying full price for it... Victorinox is the REAL Swiss Army brand... yeah... 1996, eh? Yeah... living in the past... I feel like it... like I'm a time traveller... like 1996 is in the distant past... what is wrong with me... cuckoo... like when I said in some Superior "Ling the jock", and I said "I am fucking insane."... ling the jock... perform oral sex on the athletic girl... as in cunnilingus... yeah... to be cool. (Reviewed 12/14/00) ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 139 * 12/14/00 * 989 The millennium is ending, like the end of a song. The new millennium is gonna be a new song. I want to be in synch with the new song. What did I say once, "What isn't the world song?" But I want Obliviana to succeed, whatever the cosmic crap is going on. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 324, 10/12/00 (Book 25, No. 12 / Tarb 13603 / Year 7) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 324 Gotta deliver silver confetti torrential rain to the horny pieces of ass at college. What I blew up. Donut break. Keep on stumbling, you're bound to jackolantern sooner or later, kin. Thine ray ignored, quiet mind pub. It comes to mind, college kids fucking so much they have to take a donut break and joke about it, and a loser guy is there and he gets totally insane over it, how these people joke about having sex, when he'd do anything to just have it once. (((From OsoaWeek055--8/11/95))) ***** Now THIS is a major Superior! The first sentence is a killer! This one has two parts... the second part staring with "It comes to mind..." In fact, this second part is like a Superior Review itself! A top-notch piece of work. (Reviewed 11/12/00) ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 138 * 11/6/00 * 988 Yest Nike cloud winderful. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 323, 10/5/00 (Book 25, No. 11 / Tarb 13561 / Year 7) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 323 What is "football"? Get away from me! Going back a little for this one. Don't make uneducated guesses. Driving in Pluckemin. What was it I could understrawd? Yeah, gimme a questioning storefront. Good enuff. (((From OsoaWeek055--8/11/95))) ***** Overall, not too shabby. (Reviewed 11/12/00) ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 137 * 11/6/00 * 987 Joker Wheelweasel, Joker Washweasel. Building some time shall get smashed up. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 322, 9/28/00 (Book 25, No. 10 / Tarb 13519 / Year 7) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 322 Release the waste. I wrote that taking a shit in this same spot, UC at Drew U., stall closest to door. That was 1988. This is 1995. Ten years ago, maybe to the day, I came to Drew. And discovered 209. Ten years later, I'm just about there with my core endeavor. Signed, Frank Edward Nora. (((From OsoaWeek055--8/11/95))) ***** And THIS is 2000, over five years later, and I'm still "just about there with my core endeavor". This Superior is getting me a little angry about the elusiveness of my "core endeavor". I do think I'm almost there, this time with "Thinkfang". But looking back at me looking back... it's time for things to move forward! Come on! (Reviewed 11/12/00) ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 136 * 11/6/00 * 986 Time of light rail and TellMe. The so the tightfire so there. Micedeco the deceniums. Alligaptada Reality Paucity Times. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 321, 9/21/00 (Book 25, No. 9 / Tarb 13477 / Year 7) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 321 Cunnilingus wasn't unclaimed freight. (((From OsoaWeek055--8/11/95))) ***** I have always been a bit ambivalent about this one. It does seem kinda stupid, but it has its merits. It has reverberated with me somewhat. There is no "meaning" behind this, it's just a very raw and random writing. (Reviewed 11/12/00) ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 135 * 11/6/00 * 985 Entertainment releases latched and robed in chaos. The Accuracy Occurrence -- Sand Eld Ave. Zu Evenj, Succumedieval Succaneer. Succumedievaluccaneer. Lore enforcement raging raqer ranger. Trahaf Trahas Godlevel. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 320, 9/14/00 (Book 25, No. 8 / Tarb 13435 / Year 7) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 320 Tiny signature. Used to spell it signiature. Yak. Formare. Formore, I mean. Winds of change--September is a windy force. Gotta run. Runr, is runner. Gots. No good. Unable to think or write clearly. maybe a few more words for now--history, foam, hickory, and smiles. (((From OsoaWeek055--8/11/95))) ***** This one has a bunch of problems, but a few refreshing bright spots. "September is a windy force", and "history, foam, hickory, and smiles" are very nice. (Reviewed 11/12/00) ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 134 * 11/6/00 * 984 Loomnast, Javrin Pade, Southantha Lathinest, and Furnitus. Nonjutra, and My Rocktime Games. Accuracy Stations, Bojjo Tour, Pathen, Datolt, Vozon Valloth. Why aren't there amusement places all over the place? ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 319, 9/7/00 (Book 25, No. 7 / Tarb 13393 / Year 7) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 319 Drime, Dryme, Dryhme, Dhryhme, Drieme, Driahme, Deriam, Dorihm. Come, miniature golf, come go. Up a stairway in a dream, opening into your real basement, come, it's amazing. Your jaunt on the thin and narrow and safe for your life. Ya don't know it. Ya could be here, ya could be wonder full. (((From OsoaWeek054--8/4/95))) ***** Besides the banal first sentence, I really have little memory of this one. The second sentence is kinda cool, the stairway and at the top of it your basement. But overall, this one isn't all that great. (Reviewed 11/12/00) ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 133 * 9/13/00 * 983 Butterflies are insecto beast. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 318, 8/31/00 (Book 25, No. 6 / Tarb 13351 / Year 7) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 318 You Ale. (((From OsoaWeek054--8/4/95))) ***** This one, like last week's, has reverberated in my mind quite a bit over the years. It is purely a weird two words; there is nothing "behind" it. (Reviewed 11/12/00) ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 132 * 9/13/00 * 982 Beon Friction tabla, scoc, dusk lane restaurant way. Poor Jacstas, variant the chesslike. Desolate places, gotta go to them. We are trapped in tiny slices of the world. Seek a way to breakout a little. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 317, 8/24/00 (Book 25, No. 5 / Tarb 13309 / Year 7) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 317 Try Becka. Last blast, LAST BLAST! (((From OsoaWeek054--8/4/95))) ***** A top-notch piece of work. This one has reverberated in my brain quite a bit over the years. (Reviewed 11/6/00) ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 131 * 8/21/00 * 981 Morris County Mall, vaguest of mall memories, I sought and found you yesterday. The indoor mall part I found demolished. I went to Bradlee's, and also Radio Shack, the only store still inside mall, its short area undemolished. And I talked a little to a Radio Shack guy about the destroyed mall. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 316, 8/17/00 (Book 25, No. 4 / Tarb 13267 / Year 7) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 316 The romance of being very sick. Rap star--Aorta the Final One. Night experience near Columbia University, what was it. That Marjorie! Lying on her mattress with her, why didn't I make a move? I did a lot with her. We coulda gone out, ya know? Ah, fuck it. That past's fulla shit like that. Stuff you woulda or shoulda, or even, coulda. Fuck that shit. Another 316: I have to say I love this woman. In my heart the psychedelic burning of the heart. This hasn't happened for awhile. Analytically, I gauge its strength and estimate how long it might last. I just wanna let myself go, let myself feel it as strongly as I can. Might as well take a splendor bath in emotion when it's available. (((From OsoaWeek053--7/28/95 --AND-- OsoaWeek054--8/4/95 (due to a numbering error -- see below).))) ***** Hmm... a lot of stuff going on here. I believe that the "Another 316" thing happened because of a numbering error -- I had two 316s, I think. So I just combined them to solve the problem. Marjorie was a real person, and in this Superior I am referring to a real experience. All in all, a most awesome Superior. (Reviewed 11/6/00) P.S. I checked, and it was indeed a numbering error. ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 130 * 8/21/00 * 980 Feelteams Daxodalf. Another wostalf pangton iltiflid. Ashton and Awother, unexpected songs. The good luck of experiencing natural wonders as part of the background of your daytime. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 315, 8/10/00 (Book 25, No. 3 / Tarb 13225 / Year 7) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Tuesday 9/26/00 * 11:22 PM Ohhh... just found a weird typo in last issue... down toward the bottom of Lord of Obliviana. So yeah, what's going on in Obliviana? It's the doldrums, man. I'm not too happy with the situation in Obliviana right now. I am behind on just about everything... and even if I was totally on top of everything, I'd still most likely be nowhere. Ugh... Obliviana as hobby, instead of as potential awesome company... I'm just shaking my head right now. This is not the way I thought things were gonna go. See, part of it is I got this new job and I wake up like 2 hours earlier but get home around the same time as my old job, so I have less time during the week to work on Obliviana. AND I have had something of a creative block lately... AND I am back to trying to figure out an amazingly complex challenge... namely, how to get people interested in my online content... and how I can make money on it eventually. Cuz I know that like I said even if I do everything I want to do in Obliviana right now, I will still have no audience and no success to speak of. So I'm trying to solve the question... a question similar to the whole Keystone Idea of Obliviana thing that drove me so crazy till I finally had to put it on hold... well, it's back again, albeit in a slightly different form. I still have hope, but I have to say that the current situation is not all that great. I need some good luck. I know that sound pathetic to say, but I do, I need some good luck. I don't know, man. I'm so tired, I gotta go to bed, and I've only been writing for 10 minutes. Later. Mon 11/6/00 * 9:08 PM 41 days later, here. Wow, I didn't even remember starting this issue... Anyway, I do have some good news. I have made progress on the project I mentioned 41 days ago... the way to get people interested in online content. I'm still in the early stages of development, but it has a name... "Thinkfang". In October I registered "vendingyamp.com" and "thinkfang.com". Vending Yamp is an idea that is a big part of Thinkfang. 10:27 PM... Okay, the time has come to catch up. I shall do the next 13 issues with Superior Review and one Duskaway per issue. So here we go! Get all Obliviana. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 315 My highname daft. My fellows are within. Trucks are a big part of life. What I give you see today these girls came up to us. If you think, if you have confused, and I knew. I knew, I knew. Dumb landscape, ya know where you are. Escape anytime. (((From OsoaWeek053--7/28/95))) ***** Excellent! A+! Yo! (Reviewed 11/6/00) ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 129 * 8/21/00 * 979 Aldo Fonatics, nervous excitement, the lost people gather, allowed themselves to be dependent on their reflex reactions, kind of being jerks to people sometimes. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 314, 8/3/00 (Book 25, No. 2 / Tarb 13183 / Year 7) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Friday 8/18/00 * 9:22 PM Hey hey! What's going on! Frank Edward Nora here, Lord of Obliviana, comin' atcha now. It's been a very interesting few weeks since I last wrote in OsoaWeek... so let's go! Get ready to hear all the cool stuff! First of all, something really interesting happened at 8:48 PM, 7/25/00. I was finishing up OsoaWeek313 for "publication", and I had it and several other issues in one file, adding HTML "carriage return" brackets, and when I had done it said "313 occurences replaced". So there were 313 "carriage returns" in the document... and OsoaWeek313 is the first issue of Book 25! La la la! Hoo hoo! So, then, um, on 8/10/00, last Thursday, I got laid off of my job in prepress, which I'd had for over 5.5 years. But I have a new potential job already, which looks like it could be pretty cool. And then since Tuesday I've been cleaning up and organizing all my stuff, y'know, since I'm such a mess. And I've made a lot of progress. It's tough for me to be creative while in the midst of cleaning and organizing. On Monday I'll be starting this new job, so I'm not gonna have a whole lot of time off, most likely. Just this week. But it's cool. Look at all I've accomplished in Obliviana in the past decade -- and I was working full-time for all but a year or so of that time -- so I know I can get stuff done in Obliviana while also having a "day job". In the course of cleaning up, I found a little notebook from a year or so ago with some notes on future Severe Repair Cuplines... I'm glad I found it... it's a good first step on my new Severe Repair writing phase... I've fallen behind on ZopeTV, but I'm gonna catch up... I gotta! I'm quite far along in the September Wave of Blufftoons, with a lot of awesome sounds! As far as my shifting my game/occult stuff to the "back burner", I have gotten used to it, and I'm cool with it. I am not trying to supress all thoughts on the subject, but I am trying to keep it from interfering with my current projects. My next big challenge is the next version of Aerie Obliviana. I am commited to getting it done by October 3, 2000 -- even if it means that it will include only the bare minimum of additions (OsoaWeek, Duskaway, Get All Obliviana). I've also been working on Fuzzy Daupner (the band, at FuzzyDaupner.com), and a new website called InternetRockBands.com. So you can see that I've been pretty busy! Now, along with the putting the game/occult stuff on the side, I've also kind of set aside my "delusion" that Obliviana will be successful in a few months. See, for well over a decade now I have felt that my creative endeavors were always just a few months away from really getting big and making money and all that. This "delusion" has been very important in keeping me motivated, and I have accomplished a huge amount of stuff with its help. So how will it affect me to not have this "delusion" helping me? Well, I still have faith in Obliviana, but I realize that it's still gonna be quite some time before it'll "get big". And, as you can see, I have to start catching up on OsoaWeek again. I caught up with the last issue, but I'm very much behind again now, so I gotta get moving! Wow... August 18, 2000 already... Mon 8/21/00 * 11:51 PM Wow, I'm finally about to finish this issue. Just wanted to mention that for over a week now I've been totally obsessed with Jet Set Radio, a Japanese import game for Dreamcast. It'll be out here in the U.S. in November, with the title "Jet Grind Radio". It's a truly wof well over a week ER!spell" wonderful and addictive videogame! Now I shall put this issue online, and my creative "dry spell" of well over a week will offficially be OVER! ------------------- HEMISINISTER REVIEW ----------- ***PENNSYLVANIA SHOW CAVES AND OTHER ATTRACIONS*** My wife Denice and I went on a cool trip to see the caves of Pennsylvania the last week in July, 2000. Here's a brief overview. *TOTAL DARKNESS* All cave tours do total darkness, and it's really cool. They turn out the lights and the darkness is COMPLETE (except for Laurel Caverns, where you could see light coming from under a door). *WOODWARD CAVE* Probably the best of the bunch. A very intimate cave experience. Surreal campground setting. And Davy Jones of The Monkees is a regular visitor! *PENNS CAVE* Awesome! You take a boat through this cave! It's an amazing trip! *INDIAN CAVERNS* Cool run-down 1930s-or-so-era rounded building. Indian artifacts, graffiti from the 1700's, and all that jazz. *LINCOLN CAVERNS* Actually two separate caverns... the main one was discovered when they were building a road back in the 20s or 30s. They were blowing up areas and found the cave... neat! *FALLINGWATER* A house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, considered by many to be one of the greatest works of architecture in the world, ever! I was totally blown away... neither words nor pictures can really describe it... a truly awesome experience, to walk through it. *LAUREL CAVERNS* This cavern lacks the cool formation seen in other caves, and there's some sports-center type thing built in the cave, and Haunted Mansion-style chandelier-type lights, a lame lightshow, and perhaps the world's worst minitaure golf course. *WEST VIRGINIA* Speed limit... 70 MPH! It's the only time I was ever in this state, and I didn't even get out of the car we were there so briefly! Great to be able to say I've been there. *GREEN MOUNTAIN WIND FARM* Turning a corner in the farmland we saw eight 200-foot-tall windmills! An amazing sight, like something you see in a sci-fi movie. A total surprise! And they were just built this year. *CORAL CAVERNS* Their brochure says they close at 5:30, but they actually close at 5:00, so we didn't get to see it. Screw them! *HERSHEYPARK* Chocolate World is a damn fine Disney-style dark ride... and it's free! Great Bear is an insane rollercoaster that thrilling just to watch. A rather unique mega amusement park! *INDIAN ECHO CAVERNS* Enormous main room in the cavern is breathtaking. Lots of curious formations. And a really long, tiring staircase to get to and from the cavern. *CRYSTAL CAVERNS* The only one that starts with an orientation video. Several restaurants and stores and things. *LOST RIVER CAVERNS* Okay, this place is a real mess. First of all, the inside of the building is unbelievably dreamlike... you know... those fucked-up places in dreams that make no sense. There's like a path that goes down, past a waterall and guns and animal heads and everything. Then you have to squeeze between a railing and a wall, with maybe 8 inches clearance. The store has a motley assortment of junk and rare gems. In the cave, there's a wall of beautiful flowstone, which they totally ruined by jamming tons of candleholders into it for underground weddings. By far the lamest of all of Pennsylvania's show caves. And get this... you pay as you exit! If you're a connoisseur of truly fucked-up places, you gotta check this place out. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 314 Like. The wavvat. Turlington, supermodel. Tile morning, wasn't a bit fennow. It's the way. Truesaid. Have arrow understanding this. Craw Clarendon. My weretime of glock. Yes in it moshin', we bluster do, dawn thorofare. Wunt. Crud. If the world has drains on the floor for souls. (((From OsoaWeek053--7/28/95))) ***** Well... what have we here? Another rather decent Superior, I'd say! Let's take a look, shall we...? Made-up words: wavvat, fennow, Truesaid, weretime, Wunt. Turlington = Christy Turlington, supermodel Craw Clarendon = a font glock = kind of gun (maybe it's normally capitalized?) Um... what the heck? This Superior kinda rocks! Come on! Okay! ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 125 * 8/7/00 * 975 Flyer old hatchoo. Splendid tobacco, a period of time seem odd and not great. But we assault the mystery, however feebly, maybe gods are impressed. Humid discomfort, many levels of worry. Go love overwhelm precip, breathe. Reward yourself with a distraction adorable in its diversion. DUSKAWAY 126 * 8/18/00 * 976 Feel the that ways have been a sweet drummers. Distract Over-Offices, feel the way tant, seldom bash into videogame wall. Gotta say, Grand Canyon Concourse in my mind, a big locale in my mind, Contemporary Hotel, Walt Disney World. Sense of awe at the vast amazingness of my own history in this life, and I revere past times, and to think that it's just been a few decades, it's really cool. The power of Wonder, of goodness, it's so great. Gotta keep in touch with Wonder. Gotta keep that channel open. DUSKAWAY 127 * 8/18/00 * 977 Sill, embrace the confusion, the lack of evidence. Make no mistake, we don't know what's going on. This world and us. Appreciate the mystery. But you could hide from it, and that's a shame. The big questions fuel us in our fun and fumbling journies. So let's keep on being silly and radical, it can only be good. DUSKAWAY 128 * 8/18/00 * 978 Drew University, I went there from Fall 1985 to Spring 1987, and I went back quite often even after I transferred to NYU. I have magical memories of the place, and a number of major "story arcs" happened with me there. Demon Wars, Anything But Monday, 209, the roots of Obliviana, and girls. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 313, 7/27/00 (Book 25, No. 1 / Tarb 13141 / Year 7) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Tuesday, 7/25/00 * 8:38 PM Happy Obliviana Day 2000! The 209th day of the last year of the 20th Century! Today, I am launching ZopeTV (www.ZopeTV.com). Zope is back! Daily comics! Oh yes! And in Bluffcosm.com, a whole new Wave of Blufftoons is here, the August 2000 Wave! And look! OsoaWeek is back on schedule, back on track! And Superior just keeps on moving... 4 per issue of OsoaWeek... Superior 1000 is not too far away... So what's up with Obliviana? [1] Monthly Waves of Blufftoons in Bluffcosm.com. [2] Daily comics in ZopeTV. [3] Weekly OsoaWeek. [4] 4 new Superiors every week in OsoaWeek. [5] I'll soon be starting work on a new version of Aerie Obliviana, scheduled to be released on October 3, 2000. [6] A new wave of Severe Repair, scheduled for release on January 1, 2001. It is possible that the new matieral will be presented here in OsoaWeek as I'm writing it! This could start within a month or two. So, there you go! Obliviana is back on track... and the other parts of Obliviana will be back in 2001! Cool. Get all Obliviana. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 313 Hint of pepper in the air and she's finally with me. Today for adventure, tonight for sexual adventure. Why are there computer graphics in my thoughts? Dear home, I depart, and must hope you'll survive. You have a mundane life, not here, but at most a day out of a fortnight, like. (((From OsoaWeek053--7/28/95))) ***** Back in early 1996 I put together something called "The Superior 30" in which I put the best 30 Superiors up to that point. This Superior made it into the Superior 30, but with some modification. I did revise a few Superiors in Superior 30, something that I'm still not too comfortable with. In the case of this one, I don't know that the change was needed. Here's the "B" version... SUPERIOR 313B Hint of pepper in the air and shešs finally with me. Today for adventure, tonight for sexual adventure. Why are there computer graphics in my thoughts? Dear home, I depart, and must hope youšll survive. You have a mundane life, not here, but at most a day out like. So, the change is the deletion of "of a fortnight,". I guess I thought that this last part was the weakest part of this otherwise very strong Superior. But the change is for the worse, in my current opinion. In any case, this is absolutely a great Superior. ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 121 * 7/25/00 * 971 Scrutiny of a nostalgic whim, to revere a situation in your past, but while experiencing it, the previous version of you was not so thrilled as you would be now to relive the thing. It is distance, I say, that makes this so. Inaccessibility, that it could be so many ways. Reality always disappoints, one might say. Past and future are our personal paradises, for sure. But the present can sometimes be nice. DUSKAWAY 122 * 7/25/00 * 972 Happy so much crap is out of your control. Else you'd be responsible. Distribution of wealth, we are all so insane that I want to hug the consciousness. DUSKAWAY 123 * 7/25/00 * 973 Risk. Valuable storm-form artifact, consider the behavior of tornado, as in being sentient. To be satisfied with your worldview, mental crutch, it's okay, but don't think of it as real. The rhetoric about the nature of reality. I see a major gap, the gap in our view, a big hole that most people don't want to think about. But here's one thing I am sure of: the scientific conception of outer space is totally wrong. DUSKAWAY 124 * 7/25/00 * 974 Luck important. Teens are right to be pissed off. The world is a bunch of insane people telling you what to do and forcing you. And killing your will to fight back, and they almost always succeed. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 312, 7/19/00 (Book 24, No. 13 / Tarb 13099 / Year 6) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Tuesday, 7/25/00 * 4:35 PM Hey! It's the last issue of Book 24 of OsoaWeek. And the end of year six of OsoaWeek! With this issue, there are now six years worth of OsoaWeek! July 28, 1994 was the date of the first issue of OsoaWeek. But I trace the true start of Obliviana back to June 7, 1986, with the start of Halfevil Graphics. A long time and still Obliviana is nowhere, yes, I know, I've said it many times before, blah blah, okay. I have no audience. Not even a small community of a few hundred people. Nothing. Nada. Zip. And other words means "zilch". To a casual observer, this lack of an audience might be seen as an indication of a lack of quality. This is not the case. Rather, it is in a lack of quality presentation. And, as well, I have been burdened by a massively confusing vision which has been massively confusing to myself and others. Um... so what's up with the future of Obliviana, standing here at the end of Year Six? The future still looks good. I am creating content that does have potential commercial value. It is content that has the potential to gain an audience. So I am not really all that discouraged. But I realize it could still be many years before I get an audience or make any money with Obliviana. Yeah, all things considered, Obliviana is doing pretty darn good. Get all Obliviana. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 312 Seedling. Command-A, delete, command-S. I like tits. Cloth. The tortoise was in a dangerous casino. Bang. Renew your mindwave. This months! As far far as where I am. The insanity of him personal lexicon. College girl thing--The Tape Recorder Babies. Glenn Miller Slaughter for President! (((From OsoaWeek052--7/20/95))) ***** Wow. Now this is another really cool Superior. A lot of stuff going on. Let's take a look at it, shall we? "Command-A, delete, command-S." is a description of a series of three keystrokes on a Macintosh computer which would result in the destruction of a file. It's basically, select all, delete all, and then save. "Glenn Miller Slaughter" is just a weird name I made up. Cool, eh? "The Tape Recorder Babies" is something I made up, like a college girl band or club or whatever. And there's a lot of other good stuff in there, too! ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 117 * 7/25/00 * 967 Fill ecto haze or frazzle, Alpine Denizen Meditation Ride, littling plundera Junz-Junz happenstance Observation Deck. Looping, the guide, does branding xojine the celebrating cool people friendliness. Same type of mysterious looping, octodank the old comfort way. DUSKAWAY 118 * 7/25/00 * 968 Dream on Spring Run Lane, guy in car, my father and me and my family stalk him to a house near a park. We have a house near there, and there are games where little beads are the prize, and cash them in for like tens of thousands of dollars. I turn the shower on in the wrong way, now we have to find the complex instruction manual to turn it off. I tell my siblings, and they ask me if I think they care in the least about the troubles of the maid. Then gargling with gasoline, I recall hearing about how people do it, and how it's not all that dangerous. And in the dream, the experience of gargling with gasoline was pretty realistic, with taste and smell and all that. Dream logic is fascinating. I mean, I am a thinking me in dreams, using intelligence, but with a different set of foundational notions. DUSKAWAY 119 * 7/25/00 * 969 Talking about the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail, it is a cool little railroad. I look forward to its extension to the Newport Center Mall, Hoboken Train Station, and beyond. Stuff to look forward to, good to have in your bag of tricks. Every day things are a little different. Like in trying to figure the world out, after every session of sleep you have to reorient yourself, and thus we are kept more confused. DUSKAWAY 120 * 7/25/00 * 970 The feeling of thrill, and the finding of the yielding to a want somewhat. How easy it is to forget a coolness after a few days, but to keep reminding the yourself is hard. The profound confusion and the major delusions are an absolute keystone foundation of human life. If you are not confused and not deluded you are gonna be fucked. So goals of complete organization and understanding and perfection are kind of dumb. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 311, 7/12/00 (Book 24, No. 12 / Tarb 13057 / Year 6) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Tuesday, 7/25/00 * 3:51 PM I'm eating Pop Rocks right now. I've been looking for them everywhere, and I finally found them at Blockbuster. I've been letting my facial hair grow for about 3 weeks now. I don't know how much longer I'm gonna let it go. It's kinda cool, but kinda uncomfortable, too. A Concorde jet crashed in Paris today. The folks at the news channels must be thrilled, a RATINGS BONANZA! They make more money when lots of people get killed. Great, eh? I've been listening to the August Wave of Blufftoons, and I have to say that it's awesome stuff. But I know that it's gonna be hard to get an ausience, cuz it's not the kind of thing people are used to listening to, and people are very resistant to new things. My focus for then five months is production. I have specific goals that are reachable. As far as promotion, I'll do a little, but I have little hope that I'll gain any kind of audience in the next five months. I'll wait to 2001 to focus on the promotion issue. Many times over the past decade have I wondered how much longer I could keep going with Obliviana the way I was. Well, the answer is till July 2000. This month, I changed my approach to Obliviana drastically. I do believe that this choice will be good for ALL of Obliviana in the future. But there is also the element of Obliviana having "failed" to some extent. But I really don't think so. I have, for years, held to the (somewhat irrational) idea that Obliviana would be a huge success in three months. For years! Well, now I have kind of given up on that hope. I am taking control of what I can control -- production of entertainment-related projects. So yeah, I am a bit bummed by this whole change, but I am absolutely positive that I made the right choice. Get all Obliviana. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 311 Nother held a brass-looking rod, made of short segments of pipe connected by piper connectors. We must have "adios". When the chair says something weird to you. Working in a problem. Meet Lamar the Macho Chemist. What isn't the world song? (((From OsoaWeek052--7/20/95))) ***** Some of the raw notes seen in "Balbi's File" in OsoaWeek051 wound up in this Superior. The first sentence was taken from work on Severe Repair, from the part where Snoppy opens up the vault where the superpowerful artifacts are. Overall, this Superior is awesome! Many parts of it have been bouncing around my mind for years. The "adios" sentence is cool. "What isn't the world song?" is also awesome. And, of course, "Lamar the Macho Chemist!" And might I venture to say that Superior 311 is vastly Superior to the band "311"? it surely is. ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 113 * 7/22/00 * 963 Becoming Festival Cugmetch & Lonertronica. Dreamfriend Lottery. Dreamfriend Shakedown. Dreamfriend Shatterpike. Shatterpike Daydreams, and The Vixen If. DUSKAWAY 114 * 7/22/00 * 964 The masked and the striped long distance lipdy lippy. Whaize, to have had the word rife. Possirl Coulptidri. Louup loulp loul coulp coulpt coulptihri. That civil maniac is supersonic. DUSKAWAY 115 * 7/22/00 * 965 Pent Breeze, a slit of timeright, glamour absolutely fantastic tiredness, in a good way. Lighting mistiner the uktra night and ultra night. DUSKAWAY 116 * 7/25/00 * 966 Jire the plinjoo awesome weather pointless sadness ozone flannaster! Axe rewanda exhopie lashal tantant. Us and vehicles and gray road and hope for a new start. In the dream, gargling gasoline, and reassuring myself it's okay. And stalking and wealth and family, okay. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 310, 7/5/00 (Book 24, No. 11 / Tarb 13015 / Year 6) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Tuesday, 7/25/00 * 1:01 PM Saturday, Sunday, and Monday I spent each whole day working on Bluffcosm, and now the August Wave of Blufftoons is finished! 17 new Blufftoons, with almost 2 hours of material in total! And EVERYTHING for the August Wave is done -- MP3.com, Live365.com, Laser Hinterland, Bluffcosm.com News... Everything! Now, today, I'm gonna catch up with OsoaWeek! Two days till Obliviana Day 2000! And ZopeTV is ready for launch! It's been weird for the past week or so... I've been having to suppress thoughts about game design and 209 and stuff like that. I mean, I made the decision to put all that stuff on hold for the rest of the year, and dammit, that's what I'm gonna do! I am making progress in my new direction for Obliviana! Okay, things are going kind of okay! Okay? Get all Obliviana. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 310 Into the hole in the supermarket floor. People we like people. Terrible rocks and stones to be smashed on. Friend's father's car, can we steal it. Buy. Bingo! Punctuation thunderhole. I may have been subject to information overload. Quitting coffee was one step away from this. (((From OsoaWeek052--7/20/95))) ***** This one is weird in that I do not remember it too well. Many of the Superiors I've been reviewing have been very familiar to me, but I guess this one didn't leave that much of an impression. Yeah, overall, this one is just not that great. But it has some interesting stuff in it. The first line refers to the somewhat supernatural nature of supermarkets, which has been a minor theme of mine. This line is definitely Severe-Repair-like. The last line refers to me quitting coffee, which I did for a few months back in, probably, 1995. See, I was having a triple mochaccino every day, and I started getting like heart palpitations, like my heart beating real fast. Those drinks must have had 3 or 4 shots of espresso in them! So I quit caffeine for a few months, and I was pleased to see how easy it was to do. Caffeine is addictive, but only very mildly. In fact, I find my addiction to caffeine to be a pleasurable aspect of my life. The yearning, and then the satisfaction of the yearning. There are some other somewhat interesting aspects to this Superior, but it's just not one of the better ones. ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 109 * 7/22/00 * 959 Amusemement, Orientation Jugs, bopardgame. New games ultimate frisbee cosmic wimpout, cosmic ultimate frisbee dungeons. LintimpRee. Tabdulla... DUSKAWAY 110 * 7/22/00 * 960 Cool Obliviana guy carries around coffee beans in his Jukewand. Off the wall -- silly bastards play... Zhiziego, ioffee, weirb... p1events. Flawnshipping-2 Portal. Improper storm management? Vipeo game arcapebook. DUSKAWAY 111 * 7/22/00 * 961 Old booh book called seed vaft. Elinceabeth, Elancabeth. A series of hip movies based on trains. DUSKAWAY 112 * 7/22/00 * 962 Lypers, Mypers, Nypers... Yankeppy. Her last name is Sathering. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 309, 6/28/00 (Book 24, No. 10 / Tarb 12973 / Year 6) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Thursday, 7/19/00 * 10:51 PM Well, I have grown more accustom to my new focus in Obliviana: Bluffcosm.com, ZopeTV, Severe Repair, Superior, OsoaWeek, and Aerie Obliviana. ZopeTV is coming along quite nicely, and I am starting to think about some of the challenges surrounding the next version of Aerie Obliviana. And I have grown more comfortable with setting aside the whole supernatural / game / 209 thing till 2001. Yeah cool! I have returned, in some ways, to where I was at in 1986. ZopeTV is kinda like Halfevil Graphics, Bluffcosm.com is kinda like the "Anything But Monday" radio show. Looking back, it's very clear to me that "Anything But Monday" lost a great deal going from audio to print. The medium of a Revolver is core to its value. With Zope, I have decided to keep it a black-and-white comic strip. I could have added color, but Zope's monochrome aspect has long been an ideal with me. I also thought of doing Zope in audio in Bluffcosm.com, but I realized that it wouldn't really work in that medium. So I am happy with my current 6-prong, 6-month Obliviana development phase. But I don't want to make it seem like the supernatural / game/ 209 thing (which I'll call "Dashic" from now on, since that is its name now, and it's easier to write the "supernatual / game / 209 thing") is bad in any way. But I've been working on it hard since 1987, and though I have developed a huge body of wonderful work related to it, the "Keystone" has still pretty much completely eluded me, and the project in my current development phase have been neglected because of my work on Dashic. So I think it's definitely a good time to give Dashic a rest. After the 6-month "cooling off" period, I hope to have a new perspective on the whole thing. And, of course, I am also working on the band Fuzzy Daupner, which is not an Obliviana project, but it's AWESOME! Um... I'm really looking forward to working on Severe Repair again... I'll probably start to get back into it next month... And what about, like, success? Well, Bluffcosm is out there, and I'm very happy with what I've accomplished thus far, and I think that with further development it could gain an audience. ZopeTV, as well, could gain an audience. And Severe Repair... it has MAJOR potential... But my goal for the next 5.5 months is productions. I have some pretty challenging goals, and achieving them is what is important to me. Any kind of audience or success or whatever is secondary in this development phase. A month or two ago I had to let go of 1-800-OBLIVIANA. And then, a few weeks ago, I suspended Dashic. I have viewed these events as a kind of faltering of Obliviana, but I think that actually, it is a sign that Obliviana is healthy, and just moving forward in new directions. But still, it's been tough mentally for me the last few weeks. Now, however, like I said, I'm getting comfortable with the new situation. And hey baby, ZOPE IS BACK! ZopeTV is actually online now, though its official launch is not till Obliviana Day, July 27, 2000. Go ah3ead and check it out now! www.ZopeTV.com! Get all Obliviana. ------------------- HEMISINISTER REVIEW ----------- MOVIE ***X-MEN*** X-Men is an awesome, wonderful movie. It's a miracle -- it really is! I really thought this movie was gonna suck. I used to be a huge X-Men fan back in the '80s. And I hafta tellya, they really nailed the characters and the milieu! They got it right! Wow! ***** MUSIC ***Artist: PHISH -- Album: RIFT *** I've been listening to this album a lot lately, and I have to say that it's pretty darn good! I downloaded a lot of Phish stuff a few years ago, and I got into them somewhat. I never went to one of their concerts, and I don't plan to. But their music is quite decent at times, I must say. Yeah man. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 309 Be puncst. Scream. I'm falling asleep, I like America. Give me the scholars I need. Please interpret the hell out of me. I could use it. Man who was I. Vegetarian. Into the hole in the supermarket hole. Life as a human, 1967 thru 1995 so far. What a cherished treasure. (((From OsoaWeek052--7/20/95))) ***** Um... a lot going on here, y'know? Reference to the interpretation of Superiors, and how I'd like scholars in the future to interpret Superiors. And the somewhat hackneyed theme of the treasure of being human. I like the supermarket line, too. ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 105 * 7/6/00 * 955 These are annoying fuckers. Titwunn. Is promotional artifacts. Hydro-slake-planto. DUSKAWAY 106 * 7/13/00 * 956 You're adopting the hippie scenics. The music of the smell of lighter fluid. Blue corrugated metal intenso-quirkforce love. DUSKAWAY 107 * 7/19/00 * 957 Popher Clockslide. Pin diversion, beach foom la la the need houses. Pal tarrits phasing two-ting. Bloo clop, equals Stuvallico Experiences. DUSKAWAY 108 * 7/19/00 * 958 Why and why said on that bright college day did they think of the ten years in their future. Boxful of electronic games, and a brief moment with a parrot in a pet store. Let's bring together the ride, paint ripe with the possible, and rest just a little. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 308, 6/21/00 (Book 24, No. 9 / Tarb 12931 / Year 6) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Thursday, 7/6/00 * 9:24 PM So last issue I tried to explain Obliviana. I just wanted to add a very important idea... I want to publish all my creative stuff all on my own, retaining control over everything. This idea helps to explain why I am so nowhere with Obliviana. And now, I would like to make an announcement that means a great deal to me. I feel messed-up now because of this decision, but I think it's the right one. I have decided to suspend work on the supernatural/game side of Obliviana for the rest of the year. I will focus on the entertainment side of Obliviana, with these five projects: [1] Superior. 4 new ones every week, in OsoaWeek, along with Superior Review. Superior will continue like this into the foreseeable future. Superior 1000 (Duskaway 150) will be released in OsoaWeek320, 9/13/00. [2] Zope TV. Tentative release: 7/27/00. Daily Zope comics! [3] Bluffcosm.com. Monthly "waves" of Blufftoons, with a number of Blufftoons per "wave". Starting next month, August. [4] Aerie Obliviana v4 (Version Four). Tentative release: 10/3/00. Update OsoaWeek, Include "Duffy the Soapsud", some "HG Docs", some kind of "wild system", and more. [5] Severe Repair. Major continuation/expansion. Tentative release: 1/1/01. I have to say that making this decision is a first for me... since I started working on the supernatural/game aspect of Obliviana around 13 years ago, I don't think that I ever decided to "suspend" it like I have now. During the past 13 years, I have always felt that the supernatural/game system I envisioned would become a reality in a matter of months. And even right now, I am having trouble shrugging off the feeling that if I just keep working on it, it will indeed become a reality in a few months. But it's friggin' July 2000, and I have been neglecting the entertainment side of Obliviana quite badly, especially Zope. And around two months ago I essentially suspended work on Bluffcosm.com to work on the supernatural/game aspect. And I DID make progress, but I did not arrive at a final design. Rather, I arrived at a new starting point. I'll start working on the supernatural/game side of Obliviana again in 2001. It's less than six months away, so it's no big deal. And hopefully I'll be able to achieve the goals I have set forth for myself in the entertainment side of Obliviana. This decision is a little cathartic, but in general I'm still trying to adapt to my new frame of mind. To have chased after something for 13 without catching it is quite frustrating. Taking a break from this pursuit is pretty rational. And I'll get back to the chase next year, and who knows. Maybe I'll find the system I've been looking for. But no matter what, Zope, Severe Reapir, Bluffcosm.com, Superior and Aerie Obliviana are my projects till the end of the year! Get all Obliviana. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 308 You think you. Formerest the day one return. Gotta mean something. We are bad? No no. Damn look at it. Formerest--the most former--the original one. The day one, the one of light. Not Christ. Someone else. When I had a beard and was agile, you loved me. Thinking of a lover, Shannon. Damn I am a time traveller! I am! I have to accept that I am a time traveller! (((From OsoaWeek052--7/20/95))) ***** Let me refer back to Superior Review from OsoaWeek297 (11 weeks ago)... *********** ******************* SUPERIOR 297 Let me start this on. Malls mean so much to me. I am to explore it. U. Let us begin. There's story here. Knowing you is from jumping today. Friend, I can tolerate the. Formerest the day one return. The stores in those mall exit halls, less frequented, often suck. (((From OsoaWeek051--7/13/95))) ***** Okay. This phrase "Formerest the day one returns" appears in 3 other Superiors: SUPERIOR 50 Formerest the day one return, line a time in everyful killy. Of the one road I was along, say the way it is like a structuran. The leap of the true can trail all with the hark of a sharp bird, a say. My impressions justice of the what is no preserva, into free dear tours. What is up there I wonders. SUPERIOR 222 Formerest the day one return. Can I destroy your resistance to coolness? We shall jolast the memorate. By it I mean, strong vision of log flume, and it I mean, shopping area as always am, I was saying, ujric. Bemore, croud and maltern. Fhemberhemb. SUPERIOR 308 You think you. Formerest the day one return. Gotta mean something. We are bad? No no. Damn look at it. Formerest--the most former--the original one. The day one, the one of light. Not Christ. Someone else. When I had a beard and was agile, you loved me. Thinking of a lover, Shannon. Damn I am a time traveller! I am! I have to accept that I am a time traveller! I see that in 222, there is the mall/shopping theme again. 308 will actually appear here in Superior Review in 8 weeks! But now, overall, I think that 297 is pretty cool. Malls really DO mean a lot to me. And a lot of exit hall stores really do suck. ******************* *********** Yeah man... you think you... And I gotta admit I'm a time traveller! Yeah man... Yup. ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 101 * 7/6/00 * 951 We are so much in the dark, we keep on moving by dream logic. Yes, we're in the dark, our fundamental questions cocky in their certainty that our flailing efforts won't leave even the barest of scratches. I view the night airport as a symbol. DUSKAWAY 102 * 7/6/00 * 952 A state called being a loser is caused in part by the state of being enslaved in a very confusing way. Slaves who think they're free are much easier to control. DUSKAWAY 103 * 7/6/00 * 953 Beckon. Eisenclocks. Farphatude. Windopo. Yeah. DUSKAWAY 104 * 7/6/00 * 954 Those windered cars of days, the heater contrasting extreme cold. Enthusiasm, dilapidated fresh one, smiles are bitter crossbow bolts, man. Crossbop. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 307, 6/14/00 (Book 24, No. 8 / Tarb 12889 / Year 6) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Tuesday, 7/4/00 * 1:35 PM If you've been reading OsoaWeek, you might really wonder what the heck I'm talking about with Obliviana. And well, there are parts of Obliviana that make sense and parts that don't. "Severe Repair" is my online semi-hypertext science fiction epic. It's over 1000 pages worth of stuff, and there's a link to it on Yahoo. A few people have emailed me over the years about it, but it is still extremely obscure. "Superior" is my quasi-poetry thing, and it's been big in OsoaWeek recently, with both new ones and the Superior Review. I read Superiors in front of an audience in Soho, NYC once. And people have been mildly interested over the years, but not to any great extent. So there are two aspects of Obliviana that are pretty easy to understand. Writing that is meant to be read and enjoyed! "Bluffcosm.com" is my online comedy radio-type thing. I am finally back to working on it after a hiatus of around 90 days. It is fun and weird stuff you listen to. Also pretty simple, eh? "Zope" is a comic strip-type character and universe. I have neglected Zope very badly in recent times, and I plan on bringing Zope back into activity in Obliviana very soon. A comic strip you check out and have fun with. Simple! So far, Obliviana seems pretty simple, right? Entertainment in a variety of media, to be experienced and enjoyed! But ah, things get a bit more complicated from here on. I have for a very long time viewed Obliviana as something with 8 major aspects. With this idea, Severe Repair, Superior, Bluffcosm.com, and Zope are one-half of Obliviana -- the "simple" half, in terms of understanding. So what about the other half? The other half consists of a game that has many intertwined aspects... "Airport Meadow" is a boardgame that is, in my opinion pretty damn good. While the stuff in the simple half is relatively easy to present online, this game is not easy. I'd have to write it as a program, which is a project that would be very involved. I could sell it as a real boardgame, but it would cost a LOT of money to produce. "Little World of Racetracks" is an imaginary place I developed that I have in the past conceived of as the online world of Obliviana. "Dashic" is a system whose goal is to make every day a new adventure. "Stormjaunting" is a part of this system. "Scrip" is a system of pieces of paper. "Fonjo" is a game idea... "Devastating Nightscape" is a computer game I've been trying to develop for many years now. "Pelter" is a set of abstract digital images. And I have other games, like "Vamershee" and "M31". Hmm.... So this complicated half consists of games, supernatural systems, and computer stuff. This is the area that I have been struggling with so much over the years. 2:04 PM I have often mused on the two major sides of Obliviana, the Entertainment and the Supernatural. But it is as much Games as it is Supernatural, that side! I have had the thought of focusing on the Entertainment side and putting the Supernatural/Games side on the back burner. But I have a vision, and I really want to make the S/G side a reality! One thing I can say is that I have, for a long time, sought to make Obliviana something that can exist fully apart from computers. So in terms of the S/G side, the computer stuff cannot be in the forefront. I guess that what I'm really looking for is a single game which incorporates all of the aspects I have developed. And it was only recently that I decided to name this game Dashic. Well, I gotta keep on working on all this! Get all Obliviana. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 307 Neither the trowel nor the dame are you, wonderful you. We see the nights of cool life, pinball along, sleek, doing drugs, doing the intercourse, in scene, I wonder am I you. Taken certain hours, of am we gods, I can say, we were terrible gods. It could not last. Maybe we suffered torturous childhoods just to deserve this brief ingition. But I am not you. You are ashes and I am juggernaut. (((From OsoaWeek052--7/20/95))) ***** This Superior refers back to... SUPERIOR 3 Neither the trowel nor the dame are languid. Look, the state of night far college drive. See, the girlfriend is just barely a friend, young nightmare. In sleep I know I think. A daze is my only seen in a mall with a games are good. No pretend car! Both these Superiors deal with a character that is screwed-up and relating to a lover. Or, it could be a character dealing with his or her own dark side. There's a lot going on in these two Superiors! Delve in, my friend! ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 097 * 6/23/00 * 947 Places relate to people. Without the prurient interest we would be somewhat robotic. We live with architecture. Don't screw people over, it may cause them deep misery. Getting coffee at a mall is usually not a problem. Are you TV show no one is seeing? DUSKAWAY 098 * 7/4/00 * 948 The trandint nature of sanity. The art other people do, and how it makes you think, I am talking about places at malls. That travel urge, wanderlust, yeah yeah, hoo hoo. I am at tobacco store at mall. La la distractions gotta work on real stuff. DUSKAWAY 099 * 7/4/00 * 949 A thousand people will experience a thousand years in a year, a statement that is not all that profound. Your relationship with the big you, the you of all the memories. Asking the interesting questions. If you have reached a level of wisdom, you can see that it's silly to artificially make yourself believe one big idea over another. Actually, that may not be true. DUSKAWAY 100 * 7/4/00 * 950 Dream of digging a hole, when I was a kid, to dig way down, to discover and build. Holes like that never got very far, but the dreams were big. Dreams, the vision things, are good entertainment. Wanna get famous, daydream about it, that is a majorly decent form of amusement. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 306, 6/7/00 (Book 24, No. 7 / Tarb 12847 / Year 6) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Sunday, 7/2/00 * 4:53 PM Hey look! The date of this issue of OsoaWeek is the 14th Anniversary of the start of Halfevil Graphics and the official beginning of Obliviana! On that day, the day less than a month ago, 6/7/00, I put up a graphic on Dashic.com of The New Octagon. And I thought that The New Octagon was maybe the Keystone Idea of Obliviana. And maybe it is... but then I moved on to working on the Core Game Using Scrip, the foundation of Dashic and probably all of the Obliviana system... Less than a month later, here I am, and I have made progress on the Core Game. A travelling exhibit with dark ride-like elements... just an idea... a place to go. That last sentence was just a random thought/idea. Wow man, Obliviana Day is in 26 days! No... 25 days cuz this year is a leap year. I gotta come up with something cool for Obliviana day, c'mon! Get all Obliviana. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 306 Very clear, been here, clue me in, we all live on top of the drive-in movie theater screen. What is "scorn"? I was fall-ass drunk. We all are tied with rope. Sexy people, the next day we play sadly in a drainage area. Who had this vision. If a street is a freakin' stab in the heart, what was my name? Never be apart, across time, from my hightime. (((From OsoaWeek052--7/20/95))) ***** There has always been a connection between Superior and Severe Repair. The Superior sets forth a scenario that is very much like a Severe Repair story. And who knows... maybe it will become a story in Severe Repair someday! ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 093 * 6/15/00 * 943 Stoke an imaginary fire of every colors and many attributes of temperature and other things, like spitting out little pieces of candy. DUSKAWAY 094 * 6/15/00 * 944 All the woods with flavored smoke, the evolution freaks, do they have a reason why it tastes good? The slow abandonment of the quest for truth. Person wearing dalmation spots, the patterns of tiles in interior design. New places are a tonic, natural or manmade, and maybe even they are the same. DUSKAWAY 095 * 6/15/00 * 945 Yesterday in Times Square a trash can burst into flame as I passed by it. I noticed a weird smoke smell over the smoke smell of my cigar as I crossed the street. I saw the smoke smoldering out of the metal mesh can with a pink plastic lining bag. I passed it, and looked back to see it erupt in flame. I passed the South American native band and nodded my head to the music and shared a smile glance with one of the players. DUSKAWAY 096 * 6/15/00 * 946 The Tilted Trapezoid, fun and food down home rustic. Form allegiance with places, hate other places, talk about the weather, the shared interesting things. Talk about celebrities. People 50 years ago had orgasms thinking about how great life would be in the year 2000. The near-total unpredictability of the future is rad, man. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 305, 5/31/00 (Book 24, No. 6 / Tarb 12805 / Year 6) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Sunday, 7/2/00 * 4:29 PM Year 2000 is half over. Hello. I am Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana. Welcome to my silly struggle. I've started working on Bluffcosm.com again, after a hiatus of around a month-and-a-half. And I've been working very hard on Dashic, the "Core Game" in particular. And also I've been working a lot on Fuzzy Daupner, the band I am creative director, etc. for. Check out fuzzydaupner.com. It's summer, and everything is kind of in suspended animation. I'm messed-up in many different ways every day, but nothing major, and working toward the success of Obliviana. Obliviana is not a blank slate, but since virtually nobody has ever heard of it, I still have a blank stale in terms of people's first impressions and stuff. An audience... an audience for Obliviana... Bluffcosm.com is something that is fairly straightforward. But it still hasn't "caught on". Working with no promotional budget and no connections it's hard to make people notice Obliviana. Some parts of Obliviana are still way too confusing for people to realistically get into, but Bluffcosm has at least the potential for people to... um... get into... I don't know, man. Friggin' 14 years. 14 years of working on this stuff. But I guess it would be worse now if I had a burst of major success that I couldn't maintain. Like, imagine if Obliviana really took off in 1994, and big for a year and then fell apart. I think I would be worse off now. But I don't know. OsoaWeek, where I compain about the state of Obliviana... Ah, but c'mon. Talking to you, my readers, whatever part of the future you're in, is therapeutic for me. So, uh, I'll just keep on working on everything here, and hopefully someday I'll achieve a good success. Get all Obliviana. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 305 Oil of hijo de puta. August brings feet stigmata. We're not pussing. Hit with the sweet winter blast. Nostalgia ruined your transmission. (((From OsoaWeek052--7/20/95))) ***** As a whole, this Superior is pretty good. But the whole does not rise to the heights of several of the parts of this Superior. "Oil of hijo de puta." is a cool phrase. "August brings feet stigmata." refers to some sores on my feet which I had around that time which were somewhat stigmata-like. "We're not pussing." is interesting and cool. "Hit with the sweet winter blast." is one of my favorite phrases in all of Superior. "Nostalgia ruined your transmission." has a number of interpretations. The "transmission" could be a broadcast of information, or it could be a car's transmission, or it could be the transfer of something... All-in-all, a solid Superior. ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 089 * 6/15/00 * 939 Major sparks of the briefly famous young, and it's distilled down to the insides of a lot of people's minds. And most of us have been in tourist attraction caverns. I'd like to go on a cavern trip, checking out like over 20 caverns in a week or two. It'd be a major experience, I think. DUSKAWAY 090 * 6/15/00 * 940 Cuban cigar and light rail so far, this June 15 of the year 2000, a Thursday. And Scrip is the challenge these days for me. I'd like to think that a lot of you reading this are in a future where Obliviana Scrip is a big thing, and not a fad, but continuing on to the horizon. DUSKAWAY 091 * 6/15/00 * 941 Harborside and a ferry ride and espresso at the New York Mercantile Exchange. Drinking it at the World Financial Center. Take-out sushi at the World Trade Center. At the platform of the 1-Train uptown, a golden dollar for a busker who's just getting started. On the train now, heading for work, coming up on the end of a hedonistic inbound commute. DUSKAWAY 092 * 6/15/00 * 942 Who is ignoring almost everything? Everyone! ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 304, 5/24/00 (Book 24, No. 5 / Tarb 12763 / Year 6) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Wednesday 6/21/00 * 10:51 PM Hey. This is OsoaWeek, the weekly ezine of Obliviana! Y'know, in an alternate reality, Obliviana is popular. And millions of people read OsoaWeek every week. But in this reality, Obliviana is almost infinitely unpopular, and MAYBE one or two people read each OsoaWeek the week it's released. And look! This is issue 304! Three-hundred and four issues! And no one's reading, and I just keep on "epublishing" this fine periodical. Cool man! Ah! Thunder. Thunderstorm developing outside, awesome. Big thunder. Better save now! Don't wanna lose what I've written so far in a power failure! I'm listening to the best of The Strawberry Alarm Clock right now. Some "best of" albums are referred to in Superior 304, from way back in 1995, and reviewed here in OsoaWeek304. Uh... so what's up in Obliviana? Another few weeks, another few major breakthroughs, and as always, Obliviana is just barely out of reach. I would be an utterly deluded and pathetic fool if it weren't for the fact that I'm consistently producing cool works of creativity. From games to comedy radio, fiction to poetry, supernatural to graphics, I'm producing good stuff! Just look at the Superiors down there, which I wrote one week ago. It is really awesome stuff. So, even though I have thus far failed in my overall goals for Obliviana, I have achieved a great deal in the process of seeking those goals. As they say, "Shoot for the Moon, you..."... what was it again? "If you miss you might hit the stars..." Maybe... In the past few weeks, I have indeed been making major progress on Obliviana. And I'd be really excited about it if it weren't for the fact that I have been in this same situatuin many times -- making major progress and things looking bright for an impending launch into success for Obliviana, only for that not to be the case. The Year 2000, "Y2K", is nearly half over. But I have achieved a great deal in these past 6 months. In the past few weeks, even as I've been making so much progress, I've been getting very frustrated by Obliviana always being "just out of reach". I know that maybe everything is going according to plan, and that Obliviana needs to be in the right place at the right time, and that time is still in the future. And yes, I realize that if, say, my 1995 vision of Oblivian "took off", that I might have settled for less than the full bloom of my vision. Um... to clarify, if Obliviana became successful, and was "big", and famous and made a lot of money, I might not have had the drive to keep going on this deep-level development that I have been engaged in... Wow. That last paragraph is quite unclear. Anyway, this much is clear: Obliviana is still in development. I am still very enthusiastic about it. It has not "failed" yet. But I AM getting frustrated with the lack of success. Obliviana is a vision, and I still have not discovered the full scope of that vision. I still don't have the "Keystone Idea". I do think that when I get the Keystone Idea, that I'll be able to move Obliviana into success. And I have been working on a potential Keystone lately, and it's looking pretty good. Whoah. Just as I was in the middle of writing that last sentence there was a BIG thunderbolt. It startled me. A sign!? And just a few weeks ago, I developed The New Octagon, and I thought that it might have been the Keystone, and it could absolutely be a part of the Keystone, but it is not the Keystone in and of itself. I "premiered" The New Octagon on the Dashic.com page on 6/7/00, exactly 14 years after I began Obliviana with the launch of Halfevil Graphics. I know that it says "Year 6" up on the masthead, but that is measuring the time since the launch of OsoaWeek... Yeah, it's raining pretty hard here in Nutley at 11:19 PM. Get all Obliviana. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 304 The exciting algebra of a naked chick. The exciting algebra of novelty. Greek god--blank R E blank--???--FRED!!! GREEK GOD FRED!!! A Star Wars level paucity of female characters. It ain't mine and it ain't yours. A few sparks flew. Curiosity mark only--dull. Do you like fame? Oh--haha! Super ultra mega mark. Why do I want the best of the Monkees and the best of Bob Seger? Was of answer if answer equals gym spider web 1982. I cam't not identify your place. Really Ares. If Norse, Frey. (((From OsoaWeek051--7/13/95))) ***** This is a wild, deep Superior. It would take a long time for me to do a full interpretation of this one, and I don't really want to. So like read it and get into it! ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 085 * 6/14/00 * 935 When a warbling goes higher, and memories from school form a street gang in your head. The perceived permanence and near-godhood of a beloved entertainment company. The loving embrace of breeze coldness in the autumn, walking on a hill. Perception is big. DUSKAWAY 086 * 6/14/00 * 936 The Alwaysan. Valorpid my wanderchake, Jogga. On Pown rollerglast international Jozo Year. On down road with the distractions, eventually on down to Sussphonicle. Artificial feelings at the unfamiliar college art exhibits. DUSKAWAY 087 * 6/15/00 * 937 The experience is added to the heap, and its place in the wonder brigade is cemented by your heap management. DUSKAWAY 088 * 6/15/00 * 938 Okay, let's chat and shoot the bull about life. Totally non-understood, life, and it's a fine mystery that drives our souls. Several people, together in a night location, positing theories, challenging evidence, having a blast playing like kids in the muddy sandbox of the unknown. I have to think that the gods smile on places like this occurrence. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 303, 5/17/00 (Book 24, No. 4 / Tarb 12721 / Year 6) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Tuesday 6/13/00 * 8:48 PM Hello! I just finished up the last issue of OsoaWeek, and now it looks like I'm gonna finish this one tonight as well! I'm very happy to be back working on OsoaWeek, since I was away from it for well over a month. And it's cool to be writing Duskaways again. I want to talk a little about Luckmood. This new word of line basically refers to a person's mood, with the idea that luck -- the kind of things that happen to a person beyond their control -- is tied to mood in an unexplained way. And there's an aspect of Luckmood that is somewhat bewildering -- people do not seem to be completely aware of the fact that no matter what your current Luckmood is, it will change, and the issues that seem pressing in one Luckmood are not pressing in another. I remember maybe ten years ago a talk radio host -- it might have been Barry Farber -- talk about this issue. I recall him using an example of wanting something very badly, and it being very important to consciously realize that the state will pass. I have observed this phenomenon in my own experience innumerable times. And I, like, I believe, most people, do not consciously realize that the Luckmood will pass. It's kind of like being in a dream, where obvious inconsistencies are totally ignored. It's like, when in the midst of a particular Luckmood, that one feels as if that Luckmood will continue on like that forever. How often have you made conclusion about the future when in an intense Luckmood, only to laugh at those prognostication when in a gentler Luckmood? It's a very interesting subject. So anyway, I am right now in the midst of reorganizing Obliviana in the light of some recent breakthroughs. And I think I MIGHT have arrived at the Keystone Idea, though only time will tell. Well, I'm catching up with OsoaWeek. If I keep up this pace, I could be caught up in a week or two! Get all Obliviana. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 303 I am strong arming reality. I might buy books for all my living progenitors this evening. Talkers of laughers. There is gonna be a road turnoff. I am of the variation. I'm so highway, you're very night. (((From OsoaWeek051--7/13/95))) ***** Well, first of all. this Superior is very cool. Let me go over it sentence-by-sentence... [1] I am strong arming reality. "Strong-arming" is a word that should usually by hyphenated, I believe, but it not have the hyphen here adds meaning. Like, I am strong in the act of arming (providing weapons for) reality. This does relate somewhat to an idea I have had in Obliviana for some time: "Actual Reality" as opposed to "Virtual Reality". Making the real world a cooler place to be instead of seeking to escape it... [2] I might buy books for all my living progenitors this evening. This refers to a strange little episode in my life. I bought my mother, father, and grandmother each a book--out of the blue, no explanation. And they were kind of expensive, too. I just did it cuz I found cool books that I thought they would like, and I felt like doing it. I have often wondered if they thought it was weird that I did it, especially since it was the only time I did something like that. Maybe I'll ask them sometime... [3] Talkers of laughers. An awesome line. I checked all of Aerie and the Internet, and this phrase does only exist here in this Superior. (The Internet search found the two Aerie pages this Superior is on). Really cool and deep. I'm proud of this sentence. [4] There is gonna be a road turnoff. I vaguely recall coming up with this line, maybe while driving, and being excited about it. It has a great sound, and it has a very universal symbolic implication... that a chance for change is coming up... [5] I am of the variation. Awesome. [6] I'm so highway, you're very night. Another amazing line. Evokes images of highways and nights, highway kinda male, night kinda female, kinda sexual maybe. Wow. Another one I am VERY proud of! ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 081 * 6/13/00 * 931 Feel the moving air. Same old the a changing attitude. Gotta be attracted to some entertainment properties and repulsed by others. And even all that poetry the academics say is so good, how could you really know? DUSKAWAY 082 * 6/13/00 * 932 Mouth noises and stay most normal. The Nomma Megaliths. Imagining what life was like in earlier American centuries. Sowald Fair people burning memories that'll last even reincarnation. The jackoff circus wheel. DUSKAWAY 083 * 6/13/00 * 933 Seem. Seem. Yeah it's what you can know for sure, what a thing seems like. That is truth. Seem is undeniable. So seem is cool, and seem is a useful tool. DUSKAWAY 084 * 6/13/00 * 934 Being forwarding Hamper-Igloo the Masterquit. Quarrel Orchard, star of a part of Severe Repair. Hello Severe Repair, a new wave of you coming soon. Oh and referring to Severe Repair here was not premeditated, it just happened! I have a book on commercial interior design in my Jeep, and I have the massive 1973 (or 1972 or 1974) Sweets Catalog in my storage. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 302, 5/10/00 (Book 24, No. 3 / Tarb 12679 / Year 6) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Sunday 6/11/00 * 10:57 PM I just put the previous issue of OsoaWeek online, and I added some red text on the homepage reading "OsoaWeek updated 6/11/00". So, in Obliviana, I have reached a plateau of sorts. The Dashic stuff I talked about last issue is stuff that is at a very foundational level, but it has been that level for a long time that has been impeding my progress in Obliviana. And I think I have brought that foundation to a much stronger state in the past few weeks. Eventually, Obliviana is something that I would like people to be into, and something that will offer products and services in exchange for money. And the money Obliviana makes should exceed the money it costs to run Obliviana, and then it'll be a business! Even with all this progress I've made, the distance between here and businesshood seems longer than ever. At 32, I have lost some of my youthful superfaith. That superfaith is double-edged however. I had it with ABM Magazine and it didn't result in success, though it got further as a commerical venture than Obliviana has ever gotten. My view of Obliviana's future has changed somewhat. Pretty much ever since I started with Obliviana in earnest, I have always had a mental attitude that perhaps 3 months in the future it would "take off". At this point, that timeframe has grown longer, maybe 6-8 months. That is, I see Obliviana as possibly "taking off" in 6-8 months. And this does change my state of mind. And, more than ever, I acknowledge the possibility that Obliviana might never get anywhere. So I am losing some faith in Obliviana. But it was a VERY good stretch of time that I was hyper-faithful! I mean, January 1990, ABM Magazine is over with, and I set forth in earnest on Obliviana. So we're talking like over ten years of major faith, of the three month in the future success expectation. And I do consider it a major accomplishment to have been so hopeful for so long. This whole line of reasoning implies a lack of control on my part, and a strong dependency on luck. This is pretty true. I want to do Obliviana on my own terms, and I don't have the money to do that, so I guess I have been hoping for a very fortunate string of events to make the Obliviana business a reality. Well, as is quite obvious, I have had no such luck. But I want to be very clear in this: I have been making consistent, major progress in Obliviana over the past ten years. So I can't complain on that front. And to be fair, I have just arrived at what could be the Keystone, and I really do need the Keystone before any kind of success is possible. There was thunderstorm last week that restored my faith somewhat. I saw the storm coming from near Battery Park in Manhattan, coming from New Jersey. It hit with a hurricane-like gust, and it was an AWESOME experience being in that storm. At that point, my faith was faltering a lot. The storm helped me get some faith back. In conclusion, I know I am a loser, viewed from some perspectives. Unable to achieve something, and making all sorts of excuses. But I have succeeded in creating a large body of creative work, and I take great satisfaction in that. But Obliviana becoming a business is very important to me. Get all Obliviana. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 302 A freckle of mine went nuts. (((From OsoaWeek051--7/13/95))) ***** Um... I may have conceived of this one as a freckle like coming to life and jumping around and spazzing out and stuff. But I also know it can be taken in some kind of skin cancer kind of context. I don't know. As a Superior, it's pretty cool, though. ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 077 * 6/13/00 * 927 Let's make decide. The our emotions ethjozotica. Clashing constantly is built-in doing. The public space, people are allowed in. Freeseem, but restricted by connections that define us. DUSKAWAY 078 * 6/13/00 * 928 Allo, looks like four buildings. Think, cluelessness is in all of us, not just you. It'll be a while before this one is in Superior Review. Library basement, but could there be more than one basement here? DUSKAWAY 079 * 6/13/00 * 929 Fashion dark ride, gurgling fake brook, The Taufsode Roll Call. Zano Key Zany. Rildidrums Rilp Rilpazer. Attune vade walls to a floral straps. DUSKAWAY 080 * 6/13/00 * 930 Looping slum. Hooxomicshop. Deal traders have fun in a night spot. All the little exceptions to your little rules. Promo animation and a girlfriend's street. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 301, 5/3/00 (Book 24, No. 2 / Tarb 12637 / Year 6) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Thursday 6/8/00 * 11:19 PM Hey. As you can see, I've fallen behind with OsoaWeek. In the last issue, I took a look at the overview of Obliviana. That was 4/27/00. The two weeks following that I spent working hard on Bluffcosm. But with the completion of the "Audio Stupidity Punks" CD around the middle of May, I shifted my focus to the a different area of Obliviana, and I have made progress. First off, I have a new domain name and a new fledgling website: Dashic.com. I want to go over a little the issues I have been struggling with in the past few weeks. Oh, and by the way, I'm planning on catching up on OsoaWeek by doing them more often. So I'll stay here and write in the "past", eh. Okay. So I've been working on Obliviana for a long time. And I'm looking for something to bring all the elements together. I call this the "Keystone Idea of Obliviana". Now, Stormjaunting is something that I have a pretty good handle on. It's a major part of the "occult" aspect of Obliviana Super Occult Amsement. I decided to use a word that I have had a difficult relationship with to call the supernatural side of Obliviana: "Dashic". So now, Stormjaunting is a part of Dashic, which is a part of Obliviana. Another apsect of Dashic is "Your Fonosta Device". This is an aspect that I have worked on a LOT over the years, without making much progress. In fact, if you go back to OsoaWeek001, you'll see my first attempt at Fonosta there. I think there have been 3 or 4 major attempts to establish a Fonosta system, none of which got very far. Another aspect of Dashic is Octagon. I got the vision for Octagon on May 22, 1997, and the whole story is in OsoaWeek148. What I got that day was a very vague vision, but a strong one. And I have worked very hard in the past three years to figure Octagon out. And in the past few weeks, I have made major progress. Another aspect of Obliviana is games. For a long time, I have had a vision of Obliviana being based on a scalable gamelike system. The idea is that the core of the system would be a superb little game that just about anyone could get into, and the entirety of Obliviana could be incorporated into the game structure as the system scaled larger. So, in the past few weeks, I have been focusing on the Fonosta / Octagon / scalable game as a thing that combines all three. Much of this work is recorded in Get All Obliviana 4, which will eventually be in Aerie, so if you're far enough in the future, you can head right on over and check it out! These three things are indeed related. Octagon is now a major foundation of Obliviana. This is quite remarkable, since the 209 / Forge of Wander (FOW, the 11x19 grid) has been THE major foundation for a long time. Octagon has not replaced FOW; it just now stands perhaps equal with it... I don't know... I have a new word in Dashic called "Luckmood". It describes a situational state that a person is in. I have observed in my life that mood and luck are related, and that different things can affect Luckmood. I have observed that Stormjaunting absolutely affects Luckmood. And just yesterday, I came up with the "new" Octagon, and in my initial tests, I have found that it has an effect on Luckmood in a way similar to Stormjaunting, but with some very different qualities. Also, whereas Stormjaunting using FOW is an involved process, using the new Octagon is very simple -- it just involves looking at the new Octagon! Wow. I always try and imagine what it would be like for someone else to read stuff like this that I'm writing. I know it's all very strange, but I am basing my work here on observation and experience. I think that Dashic is a really cool thing, and I want to keep on developing it and sharing it. I do, of course, hope that I will get the system to a point where I am happy with it, and I think that once I get it to that point that some other people might get into it. But make no mistake -- I have a vision, and I am motivated by that vision. Okay. So with Octagon, I added an element which I feel is right, but this new element is not as mathematically and logically sound as the basic Octagon I have been working with for the past few years. I have been talking about the 80-sector, 8x2x5 Octagon for along time. And now, with this added element, it has 112 sectors, and is more like 8x2x7! This sudden appearance of 7 in the system is interesting, since my recent Storm subset for Stormjaunting contains 49 Storms -- 7x7. This subset is based on the finger method, and its goal is to focus on the Storm that can be defined with the easiest finger-points. And there's more! I have been talking about Glyphs as being a major part of Fonosta and the scalable game for a long time. I have called them Jots, and also Glothjyps. But I have never arrived at a glyphical system that works -- until now. See, I started a week or two ago with the 80-sector Octagon, making patterns by making some sectors white and some black. The results totally blew me away. I knew that I had my Glyphical system! With the addition of the new element, a new level of glyphical richness emerged. Over the past day or two I have been a little unsure of this new Octagon. This morning, I even extended the lines of the new element to make a 128-sector Octagon, but it just wasn't right. On the Dashic.com page I have the first intro from 6/5/00, when I launched the page -- that day is 209 days till the end of the year! Yesterday, on 6/7/00, I added a graphic of the new Octagon, along with the words: Obliviana 14th Anniversary, June 7, 2000 The New Octagon -- Is it the Keystone? Dashic.com ...and the Obliviana "wings" logo. See, on June 7, 1986, I started Halfevil Graphics by printing "Big New Ark" #1 on my father's photocopy machine. I view that day as the real beginning of Obliviana, though the publication of the first issue of OsoaWeek, July 28, 1994, is the start of the Tarb "time-recording" / date system. So... is it the Keystone? It's too early to tell. I am very enthusiatic about the new Octagon, but I've been in this same situation too many times before. I come up with an idea I thinkis gonna be the Keystone, and then it doesn't work out. Like last Summer, the last day of Summer, I came up with an idea that I thought was the Keystone, and I was really excited about it, but it didn't work out. (See the end of GAO3 for all the details). So, how about Fonosta and the scalable game? Well, I expanded an idea that's I've had around for awhile -- Scrip -- and I've made great progress. The idea is very simple -- pieces of Scrip represent Friction Enhancers, and once you do what is described, you write some info on the Scrip and put it in your Fonosta. Scrip is a cool idea because it has a strong aesthetic angle. It's business card-sized (3.5" x 2"). With the computers and inkjet printers of today, just about anyone has the potential to make Scrip! Anyway, I'm really tired and I gotta go to bed. I'll continue this next issue! Get all Obliviana. ------------------- BLUFFCOSM NEWS ----------- Sun 6/11/00 * 10:33 PM Okay. I guess I should present the contents of the Bluffcosm page here, especially since I am in a lull in Bluffcosm activity, and the contents of the news page now represents the entirety of the first phase of Bluffcosm development. * * * * * * * * Bluffcosm.com News Thursday 5/25/00 9:45 am -- Bluffcosm.com Radio has finally been updated with 12 new Blufftoons. The brand new Bluffcosm.com CD, "Audio Stupidity Punks", which features 10 great Blufftoons, is available NOW at MP3.com for only $5.99 plus S&H (the lowest price they allow). I just got ten copies myself yesterday, and they're AWESOME! I registered a new domain name, Dashic.com, which will be the occult part of "Obliviana Super Occult Amusement". Watch for the initial Dashic.com homepage SOONŠ I haven't yet started on the next wave of Blufftoons, but I will soon, and there's a whole lot of awesome stuff that'll be comin' your wayŠ including "The Evil Farm"! In MP3.com news, Blufftoon 21, "For Joey" was #62 in General Comedy the other day, 5/22/00! The day before it was #954. Cool, huh? I realize it's been 11 days since the last update. I've been focusing on other aspects of Obliviana, as well as the band Fuzzy Daupner, which I am a producer/director/lyricist for. But don't worry. Like I said, there's a new wave of Blufftoons coming in the next few weeks. Watch out! It's gonna be radical fun! Sunday 5/14/00 3:28 pm -- Laser Hinterland is updated! There are 6 new entries: "Birthday 1977 (Full Version)", "Pen Buying", "Bluffcosm Banter #1", "Bluffcosm Banter #2", "All About Zope", and "Train Crap & Blood 9.5: Cotton Candy". The 2 "Banter" Blufftoons are gonna be on Bluffcosm.com Radio as well. So that's what I gotta do next--update the stream! Sunday 5/14/00 2:00 pm -- The artwork is done for "Audio Stupidity Punks", the first Bluffcosm.com CD! See it above, and click for larger image! The art still needs to be approved by MP3.com, so wait a few days before buying it! It's a really awsome CD, man. Friday 5/12/00 1:30 am -- I created a Bluffcosm.com D.A.M. CD at MP3.com! It has 10 Blufftoons on it, and it's almost an hour long (MP3.com imposes a limit of about an hour on the D.A.M. CD's). I didn't do the cover art for it yet, so hold off a few days before buying it! I'll post the cover and interior artwork right here on this page as soon as I complete it. And thenŠ it'll beŠ BUY BUY BUY, eh! Tuesday 5/9/00 9:30 pm -- Five more Blufftoons uploaded to the MP3.com page last night: "Tailor's Proverbs", "Birthday 1977", "It's a Tuck-In", "Making Polarized Worlds: Part 1", and "Pebbles". They are all available NOW. Of the remaining six in this wave of Blufftoons, 4 are headed for Laser Hinterland and two are gonna be on Bluffcosm.com Radio. Watch for news on these SOON! Monday 5/8/00 11:25 pm -- I uploaded 5 new Blufftoons to MP3.com yesterday: "Beublin 10: Good Morning", "Beublin 11: Buck Lanters", "Beublin 12: Balconies", "Beublin 13: The Royal Mall" and "Arcade Phantom".Only 3 of them are up now (Beublin 12 and Arcade Phantom are not up). I'll be uploading a few more tonight. I'll be updating Laser Hinterland and Bluffcosm.com Radio in the next few days. Sunday 5/7/00 9:46 pm -- SIXTEEN new Blufftoons are all done and ready to go! More on these soon. There's a thunderstorm brewing outside here right now. Um, I'm listening to Bluffcosm.com Radio right nowŠ Train Crap & Blood #8 is onŠ coolŠ Saturday 5/6/00 1:07 am -- I got rid of my links to Listen.com. From Listen.com: "We are currently processing your information. The reason why it was up, then taken down is because it was forced published from a datafeed. Then we had to take t down in order to review it. It will be back up sometime soon." Here's what I posted on Listen.com. I'm including it here because it'll probably be gone if they ever put Bluffcosm.com back up: "Hey! This is Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Bluffcosm! It'd be, like, real cool man if you could check out some of my Blufftoons and review them here at this awesome website listen.com! Come on people, I wanna see some comments, okay? Bluffcosm.com -- totally original audio content that rocks. And it's friggin' weird, too!" In other news, Bluffcosm Laser Hinterland is here! It's the place where all the odd Blufftoons that aren't available anywhere else are available! I mentioned it before, but it wasn't named yet. I added one more, "Bluffcosm Alpha Intro" (Blufftoon 1). Check out the page, the link is at the top of this page. I decided to forget about using idrive.com for now. I have room on my site for a good number of Blufftoons at 32kbps. Yeah, and talking about links, I finally updated the link graphics on this page, with the "card" links that are on the homepage, but at half size. The old link graphics may be avaiable in the future in Laser Hinterland in the "Banner Boneyard". The Bluffcosm.com website has been down sporadically recently. I called up my web presence provider, and the guy said he'd go upstairs and check the server out himself. It seems to be back up now. Y'know, this page used to be the main Bluffcosm page, but now it's the Bluffcosm News page, so I should identify it as such. I'll change the title of the page, at least. It was "Bluffcosm.com -- People are gonna be hearing this on the Internet!". I'll change it to "Bluffcosm.com News". Cool. Wednesday 5/3/00 9:02 pm -- Hi. I'm Stormjaunting, and I'm in the Virgin Megastore in Times Square right now, writing this on my Palm V. I'm on chorded Storms 5 and 8. I got a really cool new idea about Stormjaunting earlier near the World Financial Center. It'll be cool to bring Stormjaunting back into the spotlight a little. In my homepage redesign, I brought back an online fortune-telling game called Ciffipur Pathways which debuted on 1/1/99, but which I took offline later in the year. It is related to Stormjaunting somewhat. Now, the Bluffcosm status report: Live365 stream: cool. MP3.com page: cool, missing links are back. Listen.com: I resubmitted Bluffcosm there, but I'm getting rid of my links to there ASAP. Idrive.com: I'm not 100% convinced that it's cool yet. I still have a lot of audio production to do on the Blufftoons-in-progress on my hard drive. But a few more should be ready in a few days--including ones in the new unnamed category I mentioned the other day! Here at the Virgin Cafe, I got a double espresso before and paid for it with 2 Sacagawea golden dollars. Then I saw that I had a ripped-in-half dollar bill, and instead of dealing with it later, I folded the two halves together and put it in the tip jar. It was a little weight lifted off my shoulders! Last night, Fuzzy Daupner played a showcase at Barnes & Noble in Clifton, NJ. It's a new rock band that I am involved with. I handed out a lot of Bluffcosm.com promo cards there. And the show was GREAT! Well, that's about it for now. I only got 4 hours of sleep last night, and my bus isn't till 10:15, so I'll be home around 11. So at least today's update is done now! For me now, another 45 minutes of browsing and video games and Times Square coolness! Tuesday 5/2/00 -- I completed the redesign on the Bluffcosm.com / Obliviana Super Occult Amusement homepage. It looks pretty cool! In other news, I am creating a new category for Blufftoons -- as yet unnamed -- for Blufftoons which don't fit in with the Live365.com stream or the MP3.com page. I'll come up with a name for this stuff soon. Till then, check out the first two on idrive.com. They are "For Joey (Full Version)" (Blufftoon 31) and "The Flint Orwell Program (Radio Only)" (Blufftoon 32). Monday 5/1/00 -- The MP3.com page is cool except that the links to other artists are gone. I added a new animated banner-type top to the main page. It has 19 cool slogans! Monday 5/1/00 -- Bluffcosm.com is operational again. Sunday 4/30/00 -- It was an utterly friggin' beautiful day today. Yesterday, too. Here's a Bluffcosm status report: Live365 Stream: Cool. MP3.com page: Cool. Listen.com page: still uncool, gone, destroyed, whatever. Bluffcosm.com: THE SERVER IS DOWN! Great. In other news, Me and my wife Denice were playing Cosmic Wimpout with our friends Nick and Tara, and two of the first three games we played ended with Nick getting 5 sixes. And this was the first time he was playing the game! If you're not familiar with Cosmic Wimpout, check it out HERE. So anyway, I have a LOT of Blufftoons in the works. Probably like over ten. I have to get some completed! Hopefully I'll get a few done this week. Saturday 4/29/00 -- New "Beublin A. Richardson" Blufftoons recorded today! I play comedian Buck Lanters, who was referred to very briefly in several of currently-available Beublin Blufftoons. It'll take me awhile to put this new stuff together, but it should be done by next weekend. In other news: Live365 Stream: Cool. MP3.com page: Cool. Listen.com page: uncool, gone, destroyed, whatever. Friday 4/28/00 -- This has been a pretty insane week. UmŠ well, today, past midnight, I created a new set of graphics for the Bluffcosm.com homepage. They look like cards and they're awesome! I'll try and put up a graphic of what it looked like before, which was pretty lame. Yesterday I did a Bluffcosm data spreadsheet, and I found out that there is over 10 hours worth of Blufftoons now! In other news, it looks like my listen.com page is down. My Live365.com stream is going just fine. I found out from tech support there that it went down because of server upgrades or something. Wow. It must have been a real inconvenience for all zero people listening at the time. Anyway, I have a bunch of Blufftoons in the works, and they should be available this weekend. And as well, I plan on getting together with Peter Litkey tomorrow to record a new epsiode of Beublin! Tune in, yeah! Thursday 4/27/00 -- I finally got up to date with OsoaWeek. Check it out. The latest issue has a lot of stuff about Bluffcosm in it! Thursday 4/27/00 -- The Live365.com stream was down again this morning. I had to go and reset it. That's the second time it stopped working, and mere hours after I started the new playlist. So, if you ever try to listen and get the error that Bluffcosm is not broadcasting, just try again later. Thursday 4/27/00 -- I finally updated the Live365.com stream! There are 29 Blufftoons on there! It's gotta be way over 8 hours of stuff! I'll figure it out exactly tomorrowŠ Monday 4/24/00 -- The Live365.com stream was down for a few days, but it seems to be back now. Sunday 4/23/00 -- All 7 new Beublin A. Richardson Blufftoons are up on MP3.com now. I also made Bonnie's Tarantula Farm "Beublin 8", and The Flint Orwell Program "Beublin 9". Saturday 4/22/00 -- More new stuff on MP3.com! "Existence", "Montana 1980 Part 1", "For Joey", and "Ping Pong". Go and check 'em out, man. The original 13 video episodes of "Beublin A. Richardson" are now 7 Blufftoons! (12 of the episodes are paired together to form 6 Blufftoons, and the last episode is by itself). They'll all be on MP3.com in a day or two! I haven't updated the stream in awhileŠ but I will soonŠ Wow! Bluffcosm is on another cool website -- listen.com! You can post your reviews and comments on Bluffcosm there! Go on, do it! You have to join the site, but it's free and it's no big deal. And listen.com provides a list of similar artists for artists they list. For Bluffcosm.com, they say that these artists are similar: Tom Waits, John Belushi, George Bush, Patti Smith, Soul Coughing, and several more. Wow! I added a banner to MP3.com the other day, and I'm adding a listen.com banner today. Thursday 4/20/00 -- New stuff on MP3.com! "Cooper" is a very amusing segment from Train Crap & Blood #9, over a third of that entire show, in fact! Also, another great Blufftoon called "For Joey". Yeah! More stuff! Sunday 4/16/00 -- A new Blufftoon "The Hot Kestrel" is on MP3.com. It's a cool little horror movie type thing. Tune in, yeah! Friday 4/14/00 -- The 18-minute Blufftoon "Throat Ripper Scene" is on MP3.com. It's definitely not the kind of thing that people are used to listening to, but I think it's pretty awesome, so give it a chance, eh. Blufftoons are meant to be listened to over and over again, like songs. Oh, and this word "Blufftoon" is being used for the first time here. A Blufftoon is a feature/episode/sketch/etc. in Bluffcosm. I came up with this word because it was needed; no existing words can adequately describe the basic units of computerized sound in Bluffcosm. So there you go, Blufftoon! Wednesday 4/12/00 -- "The Flint Orwell Program" is on MP3.com. That and "The Mini Car Show" are on the stream now. And hey! Check out this REVIEW of "Bonnie's Tarantula Farm"! Monday 4/10/00 -- A new feature is on MP3.com--"The Mini Car Show". It'll be on the stream soon. Bluffcosm.com was mentioned on another website! It's "Girl With Blue Stuff" a fan site for my sister-in-law Carrie. Check it out here! New epsiode of "Beublin A. Richardson" recorded on Saturday, called "The Flint Orwell Program". It'll be on MP3.com and the Live365 stream soon! Also, we recorded the somewhat infamous "Train Crap & Blood" 9.5, "Cotton Candy". This is the first "half" episode of TC&B, and you just might be able to catch it it the stream sometimeŠ Digitization of the audio of the original 13 video episodes of "Beublin A. Richardson" has begun! A LOT OF AWESOME STUFF IS COMING!!!!! 4/7/00 -- Bluffcosm.com is on MP3.com! I'll be making an official link to it soon. Right now, I just have one track on there, "Bonnie's Tarantula Farm". Above, check out two pieces of art I made for the MP3.com page. 4/7/00 -- There's a cool new feature on Bluffcosm.com--"Montana 1980: Part One". I recorded this as a kid in 1980, and it was something like a parody of a TV station. The amazing thing is, I called the TV station "WWW"! Cool, eh? 4/6/00 -- "Train Crap & Blood" episode 9--"75432" is on the stream! Check it out! (The other episodes are off for the time being so you can hear the new one!) 4/2/00 -- "Train Crap & Blood" episode 9 recorded! It'll be on the stream in a few days. 3/31/00 -- Bluffcosm promo card (see above). Click for larger image. 3/28/00 -- Hey! A new slogan! "People are gonna be hearing this on the Internet!" And new script type up there, "The wonder of computerized sound, brought to you by the awesome creative power of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement. Listen often, dear enthusiast of coolness!" 3/27/00 -- I figured out that the problem with converting at bitrate 32 was having the sample rate at 44. With 22/32, the files sound just fine. So I redid the Live365.com thing so that it's all at a 32 bitrate, meaning that folks with 56K modems can listen. Yeah! Also, I added a cool Beublin thing called "Bonnie's Tarantula Farm". Check it out! 3/24/00 -- Bluffcosm begins broadcasting today! It's trueŠ but in the Internet world of today, "broadcasting" doesn't necessarily mean very muchŠ See, I started a "channel" on Live365.com. The main content right now is all 8 epsiodes of "Train Crap & Blood", which I did in the early nineties with my friend Peter Litkey. My brother John and our friend Dave Kopperman were also on most of the shows. One thing I want to point out is that I was acting like a real prick on epsiode 1, "Pennsylvania". I cringe when I listen to it. And it's really just on that one epsiode, I believe, that I act like such a jerk. I recorded an intro in the car earlier, driving to 7-11. It's about 3 minutes long, and it's presented between the episodes. I put it through a lot of filters and stuff to get it to sound like it does. So to listen to Bluffcosm on Live365.com, you'll need a high-speed Internet connection -- 56K won't cut it. The reason for this is that in order to accomodate 56K connections, I would have to convert the MP3's to a lower bitrate. When I tried this, the sound quality was so poor as to be unacceptable. And it's not like all that many people are going to be listening in the near future anywayŠ ***** 2/28/00 -- Hi! It's exactly 10 weeks after I "premiered" Bluffcosm with the message below. Well, Bluffcosm is still here, but I have decided to use the name for a different idea. Whereas the previous idea had to do with a kind of virtual world, the new idea deals with audio content. This audio idea is something I've been working on for a LONG time, and the project's code name up till now has been "Welcome to the Weasel Village Mall". Now, it's BLUFFCOSM! Watch for Bluffcosm to get into gear, sometime between tomorrow and like 4 or 5 years from now. Hahaha! I'm fucked up! P.S. Isn't it cool, the Bluffcosm logo looks a little like a radio tower! Also, 11/19/99, the date of Bluffcosm's "establishment", is the last date with all odd numbers in it till January 1, 3111. THE FUN OF COMPUTERIZED SOUND! Or maybeŠ THE BASIC COOLNESS OF COMPUTERIZED SOUND! 11/19/99 -- Today, Bluffcosm.com leaps forth into existence! About 1576 days ago, on July 28, 1995, I started my other website, Obliviana.com. In that time, I managed to accomplish a great deal, but attracting an audience was not one my accomplishments. Bluffcosm came out of nowhere. Just a few weeks ago, I came up with the word "Bluffcosm", and it has thundered ahead in this short time to become my second website. Bluffcosm is very much a part of Obliviana--but it has to be in its own space, apart from the need to fit in with the complex web of ideas and content that is Obliviana. Stay tuned for Number 1 of the Cosm, "Jadehead Bluff". All contents copyright 2000 Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana. E-mail: obliviana@aol.com CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO OBLIVIANA.COM FastCounter by LinkExchange * * * * * * * * So there it is, the news page, representing all of phase one! It's here in OsoaWeek now, so I don't need to present it here again. Parts of this text are in the past few OsoaWeeks, so it could be a little frustrating for you to have to wade through the same text over and over. Hopefully at this point I'll just be presenting updates, as was my initial intention, but things are kinda screwed up with OsoaWeek right now, y'know? ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 301 I don't even know what money I have. On a train, see a car carrier on a mid-distant bridge, through the trees. The conductor tending to the passengers like a fretting nanny. The guy who predicts the future--you know--they named the spaceship in "Alien" after him. (((From OsoaWeek051--7/13/95))) ***** This Superior kind of sucks. The ship in alien was called "Nostromo", I believe, and the guy in question is Nostradamous (spelling?). So it was a kind of a joke, that someone might mistake the one name for the other. Not a high point in Superior history, this one. ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 073 * 6/11/00 * 923 Okay here the for tuner and tuning fork campfire latenight have friends. Dazy fromday. Hoho hello. Lunar interesting people likers. The every moment sucks kind of thing. Freedom turned up way too high. Sad to see the aftermath of some revelry. DUSKAWAY 074 * 6/11/00 * 924 Dimming the level of the darking distractions Paula. House of several houses, and a themed game that goes over several days. The super excited perception of reality after a movie sometimes, like you're the hero, for a little time. Ofater Tel Violenta... meaning less... We have to do major, amazing things in the present NOW. DUSKAWAY 075 * 6/11/00 * 925 So light and joy full of fun, joke, joke, the airport concourse conures images of the childwhen maximum. Just childjoke. So the going without things. Going to a place, cruise on wasting time. The patheticness behind the curtains of the individuals. Mink long time ago. DUSKAWAY 076 * 6/11/00 * 926 Able to know and like the forms of entertainment. The shocks of the tapping, the tap into the unknown place or energy. Bun the tuenue... Solid make hear there and vague dance club what. Vague and very, the fucking stupid facade. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 300, 4/26/00 (Book 24, No. 1 / Tarb 12595 / Year 6) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Thursday 4/27/00 * 2:24 PM Oh! OsoaWeek 300! The first issue of Book 24! Tarb 12595! Wow. Anyway, I'm doing this issue and the previous three today. I fell behind because of all the work I've been doing on Bluffcosm.com. So I want to talk about all that, and also talk about all the stuff in Obliviana, and where it's at and where it's going, and all that. Bluffcosm.com is a part of Obliviana. But unlike any other part of Obliviana thus far, it has its own domain name and its own individual identity. Bluffcosm.com is an internet comedy radio station kinda thing. It is audio entertainment. Featues in Bluffcosm.com are called "Blufftoons". Right now, I have about 30 of them, with a lot more coming. Let me go over the history of Bluffcosm... This'll be the rough overview of the history of Bluffcosm... Childhood... My father tapes me as a very young child... I get a tape recorder for my tenth birthday and start making tapes... I get a super 8mm camera and start making movies... Summer 1985... I borrow a video camera from a friend of my father's, and make a Dr. Who movie with my friends... February 1986... I start the "Anything But Monday" radio comedy show with my friend Mike Massotto. We get kicked off the air. We publish a magazine version of ABM. Summer 1986... I start publisheing minicomics as Halfevil Graphics... Fall 1986... I "borrow" my grandfather's video camera (he later just gave it to me)... ABM is back on the air... we make a series of comedy videos called "Weird University"... content in ABM Magazine #3 almost gets used kicked out of college... January 1987... I make the movie "The Evil Farm" with a bunch of juvenile delinquents... I record several albums of music under the name "Little Frankie Nora"... Fall 1987... I transfer from Drew University to NYU, studying Film and Television... 1988.. ABM grows into a real publishing project... the radio/audio/video aspect is very much deemphasized... 1989... Anything But Monday Magazine gets published for real. After four issues, it falls apart... 1990... Dejected and depressed and graduated from college, I get a real job and work on experiemental magazines... 1990-1991... With my friend Peter Litkey I make a movie called "Beublin A. Richardson" and do a series of 8 radio-type shows to tape called "Train Crap & Blood". 1994... I start OsoaWeek, my weekly ezine of which you are now reading issue 300. 1995... I start the Obliviana website. Late '90s... Constantly working on Obliviana... one aspect of it, code-named "Welcome to the Weasel Village Mall" is the idea that will become Bluffcosm.com! Early November 1999... I come up with the word "Bluffcosm" while developing ideas for a childrens-type book project with my wife, Denice... I like the word so much that I register BLUFFCOSM.COM! November 19, 1999... Bluffcosm.com goes online! On the web page, I describe Bluffcosm in a vague way as a kind of virtual world. At this point, it is not associated with the audio content idea. Then, 10 weeks later... February 28, 2000... I make a new homepage banner and announce my intention to make Bluffcosm.com the audio entertainment thing, the idea that had been code named "Welcome to the Weasel Village Mall". March 15, 2000... I buy a cool Sony pocket tape recorder for Bluffcosm... March 24, 2000... I check out a website at work called Live365.com... Then in the elevator going home, people from the fifth floor get on, and mention Live365.com! On the way home, I realize that I have content ready to go... see, last Fall I started backing up audio tapes to MP3 format, prompted somewhat my Y2K fears... so, I go home, record an intro while driving to 7-11, get everything ready, and start broadcasting! April 7, 2000... I start putting Blufftoons on MP3.com! Well, there you go, a very rough version of the history of Bluffcosm.com. So... AN OVERVIEW OF OBLIVIANA SUPER OCCULT AMUSEMENT ON APRIL 27, 2000 300 weeks ago, on July 28, 1994, I released OsoaWeek001. This is the official beginning of Obliviana. But Obliviana's roots go back way further. 1986 was the years that what was to become Obliviana really began. And I started using the name Obliviana several years before OsoaWeek001, but I still consider 7/28/94 to be the official start of the Obliviana Super Occult Amusement that exists today. So, 300 weeks later, what have I accomplished? In terms of creating awesome stuff and developing Obliviana, I have been very successful. But in terms of getting an audience and making money and all that, I have not been successful at all. Over the past 5.67 years, I have struggled with the question "What is Obliviana?". I have sought after the "Keystone Idea of Obliviana" that would bring all of its disparate elements together. Many times, I thought I had the Keystone Idea, only to realize with a few weeks that it wasn't going to work. ALL of these new ideas, however, have expanded and enriched Obliviana, so it's not like I've been wasting my time. My vision for Obliviana has always pretty much been to create a very interesting and involved game that would rise to the level of a subculture. This idea does have cult-like aspects, which has always disturbed me. Especially so because Obliviana has a very supernatural aspect in Stormjaunting. But indeed, my thinking has been along the lines of a benign sort of cult. But over the years I have become keely frightened of the phenomenon of cults. I see everyone involed in a real cult as a victim, both the leaders and the followers. So I have always held back from a course that would promote Stormjaunting in a cult-like way. And it has always been hard to bring together the two major sides of Obliviana -- the supernatural side, and the entertainment side. The Keystone Idea would bring these together. Another aspect of Obliviana is that I want it to be something that could have existed 30 years ago, or 70 years ago, or 200 years ago. In this idea, the supernatural aspect is very much in the forefront. For a long time I have had the vision of Obliviana having 8 major subdivisions, or "Revolvers". Let me present to you these 8 as I see them now... [1] Aerie Obliviana -- "Obliviana Central" -- Obliviana Archive -- OsoaWeek [2] Severe Repair -- science fiction -- with Superior as a part of it [3] Zope -- comics/cartoon series [4] Bluffcosm -- audio entertainment! [5] Airport Meadow -- boardgame -- other games, too [6] Halfevil Graphics -- Pelter -- Balbitype -- Codingseeds [7] Little World of Racetracks -- virtual world [8] Stormjaunting -- supernatural So how about this as the Keystone Idea -- SOUND. Bluffcosm is the biggest thing in Obliviana right now, and it is all about sound. Several of the Revolvers could be adapted into sound fairly naturally. Others, though, would not be so adaptable. I view Obliviana as a long-term thing, with its various aspects blossoming at different time. Right now, it is the time of Bluffcosm. And the two Revolvers that can be made into sound naturally are Severe Repair and Zope. Severe Repair had been the biggest thing in Obliviana before Bluffcosm. Severe Repair could be made into sound in two major ways. Read by me, like an audiobook, or fully produced, like a radio drama. Obviously, the audiobook idea is far simpler to implement. Zope, however, would need to be produced like a radio comedy, with voices for all the characters, music, sound effects, etc. "Airport Meadow" is a title that I've had around for awhile now. It is from the sentence "Trash the Airport Meadow" from Superior 8. I have been flirting with using it for a number of things, but in light of all the stuff that's been going on in Obliviana, the previous name of the boardgame, "The Game of Obliviana", just wasn't going to work. So, I just decided today to call it "Airport Meadow"! The name works in many ways. Well, that'sabout it for now. Get all Obliviana! ------------------- BLUFFCOSM NEWS ----------- Here is the complete text of the Bluffcosm.com News and Information page as of 3:09 PM, 4/27/00: ***** Thursday 4/27/00 -- The Live365.com stream was down again this morning. I had to go and reset it. That's the second time it stopped working, and mere hours after I started the new playlist. So, if you ever try to listen and get the error that Bluffcosm is not broadcasting, just try again later. Thursday 4/27/00 -- I finally updated the Live365.com stream! There are 29 Blufftoons on there! It's gotta be way over 8 hours of stuff! I'll figure it out exactly tomorrow... Monday 4/24/00 -- The Live365.com stream was down for a few days, but it seems to be back now. Sunday 4/23/00 -- All 7 new Beublin A. Richardson Blufftoons are up on MP3.com now. I also made Bonnie's Tarantula Farm "Beublin 8", and The Flint Orwell Program "Beublin 9". Saturday 4/22/00 -- More new stuff on MP3.com! "Existence", "Montana 1980 Part 1", "For Joey", and "Ping Pong". Go and check 'em out, man. The original 13 video episodes of "Beublin A. Richardson" are now 7 Blufftoons! (12 of the episodes are paired together to form 6 Blufftoons, and the last episode is by itself). They'll all be on MP3.com in a day or two! I haven't updated the stream in awhile... but I will soon... Wow! Bluffcosm is on another cool website -- listen.com! You can post your reviews and comments on Bluffcosm there! Go on, do it! You have to join the site, but it's free and it's no big deal. And listen.com provides a list of similar artists for artists they list. For Bluffcosm.com, they say that these artists are similar: Tom Waits, John Belushi, George Bush, Patti Smith, Soul Coughing, and several more. Wow! I added a banner to MP3.com the other day, and I'm adding a listen.com banner today. Thursday 4/20/00 -- New stuff on MP3.com! "Cooper" is a very amusing segment from Train Crap & Blood #9, over a third of that entire show, in fact! Also, another great Blufftoon called "For Joey". Yeah! More stuff! Sunday 4/16/00 -- A new Blufftoon "The Hot Kestrel" is on MP3.com. It's a cool little horror movie type thing. Tune in, yeah! Friday 4/14/00 -- The 18-minute Blufftoon "Throat Ripper Scene" is on MP3.com. It's definitely not the kind of thing that people are used to listening to, but I think it's pretty awesome, so give it a chance, eh. Blufftoons are meant to be listened to over and over again, like songs. Oh, and this word "Blufftoon" is being used for the first time here. A Blufftoon is a feature/episode/sketch/etc. in Bluffcosm. I came up with this word because it was needed; no existing words can adequately describe the basic units of computerized sound in Bluffcosm. So there you go, Blufftoon! Wednesday 4/12/00 -- "The Flint Orwell Program" is on MP3.com. That and "The Mini Car Show" are on the stream now. And hey! Check out this REVIEW of "Bonnie's Tarantula Farm"! Monday 4/10/00 -- A new feature is on MP3.com--"The Mini Car Show". It'll be on the stream soon. Bluffcosm.com was mentioned on another website! It's "Girl With Blue Stuff" a fan site for my sister-in-law Carrie. Check it out here! New epsiode of "Beublin A. Richardson" recorded on Saturday, called "The Flint Orwell Program". It'll be on MP3.com and the Live365 stream soon! Also, we recorded the somewhat infamous "Train Crap & Blood" 9.5, "Cotton Candy". This is the first "half" episode of TC&B, and you just might be able to catch it it the stream sometime... Digitization of the audio of the original 13 video episodes of "Beublin A. Richardson" has begun! A LOT OF AWESOME STUFF IS COMING!!!!! 4/7/00 -- Bluffcosm.com is on MP3.com! I'll be making an official link to it soon. Right now, I just have one track on there, "Bonnie's Tarantula Farm". Above, check out two pieces of art I made for the MP3.com page. 4/7/00 -- There's a cool new feature on Bluffcosm.com--"Montana 1980: Part One". I recorded this as a kid in 1980, and it was something like a parody of a TV station. The amazing thing is, I called the TV station "WWW"! Cool, eh? 4/6/00 -- "Train Crap & Blood" episode 9--"75432" is on the stream! Check it out! (The other episodes are off for the time being so you can hear the new one!) 4/2/00 -- "Train Crap & Blood" episode 9 recorded! It'll be on the stream in a few days. 3/31/00 -- Bluffcosm promo card (see above). Click for larger image. 3/28/00 -- Hey! A new slogan! "People are gonna be hearing this on the Internet!" And new script type up there, "The wonder of computerized sound, brought to you by the awesome creative power of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement. Listen often, dear enthusiast of coolness!" 3/27/00 -- I figured out that the problem with converting at bitrate 32 was having the sample rate at 44. With 22/32, the files sound just fine. So I redid the Live365.com thing so that it's all at a 32 bitrate, meaning that folks with 56K modems can listen. Yeah! Also, I added a cool Beublin thing called "Bonnie's Tarantula Farm". Check it out! 3/24/00 -- Bluffcosm begins broadcasting today! It's true... but in the Internet world of today, "broadcasting" doesn't necessarily mean very much... See, I started a "channel" on Live365.com. The main content right now is all 8 epsiodes of "Train Crap & Blood", which I did in the early nineties with my friend Peter Litkey. My brother John and our friend Dave Kopperman were also on most of the shows. One thing I want to point out is that I was acting like a real prick on epsiode 1, "Pennsylvania". I cringe when I listen to it. And it's really just on that one epsiode, I believe, that I act like such a jerk. I recorded an intro in the car earlier, driving to 7-11. It's about 3 minutes long, and it's presented between the episodes. I put it through a lot of filters and stuff to get it to sound like it does. So to listen to Bluffcosm on Live365.com, you'll need a high-speed Internet connection -- 56K won't cut it. The reason for this is that in order to accomodate 56K connections, I would have to convert the MP3's to a lower bitrate. When I tried this, the sound quality was so poor as to be unacceptable. And it's not like all that many people are going to be listening in the near future anyway... ***** 2/28/00 -- Hi! It's exactly 10 weeks after I "premiered" Bluffcosm with the message below. Well, Bluffcosm is still here, but I have decided to use the name for a different idea. Whereas the previous idea had to do with a kind of virtual world, the new idea deals with audio content. This audio idea is something I've been working on for a LONG time, and the project's code name up till now has been "Welcome to the Weasel Village Mall". Now, it's BLUFFCOSM! Watch for Bluffcosm to get into gear, sometime between tomorrow and like 4 or 5 years from now. Hahaha! I'm fucked up! P.S. Isn't it cool, the Bluffcosm logo looks a little like a radio tower! Also, 11/19/99, the date of Bluffcosm's "establishment", is the last date with all odd numbers in it till January 1, 3111. THE FUN OF COMPUTERIZED SOUND! Or maybe... THE BASIC COOLNESS OF COMPUTERIZED SOUND! 11/19/99 -- Today, Bluffcosm.com leaps forth into existence! About 1576 days ago, on July 28, 1995, I started my other website, Obliviana.com. In that time, I managed to accomplish a great deal, but attracting an audience was not one my accomplishments. Bluffcosm came out of nowhere. Just a few weeks ago, I came up with the word "Bluffcosm", and it has thundered ahead in this short time to become my second website. Bluffcosm is very much a part of Obliviana--but it has to be in its own space, apart from the need to fit in with the complex web of ideas and content that is Obliviana. Stay tuned for Number 1 of the Cosm, "Jadehead Bluff". ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 300 What is it that you are doing? I am sucking and destroying a lie. (((From OsoaWeek051--7/13/95))) ***** This is a Superior that has gone through my mind very strongly over the years. It is very powerful, but it could be misinterpreted. And I have often worried about the potential for it being interpreted wrongly. There is a really rebellious feel to this one. Um... I guess I have to get into it deeper to explain what's going on with it. I am a friggin' weirdo, and I have pretty much always believed that I was some kind of super-powered entity in a past life/existence. I have mellowed out a lot, but I still think along those lines, though not as powerfully as I have in the past. Anyway, the "lie" that this Superior refers to, to me, personally, relates to me being trapped here as a regular person. And the "sucking and destroying" of that lie would be the process of "getting my powers back". So this Superior became something of a personal mantra on this subject. It was long after it had become a big thing to me, these words, that I thought of this other interpretation: that the "sucking" referred to like sucking dick, and that the lie was pretending to be straight. This has disturbed me a great deal in the past, that people might read into it that way. There was another similar thing, a little magazine I made, "Forge of Wander" #1, which had a pink cover and a triangle with Zope in it. A few people questioned me as to the unintended pink triangle, because that is a symbol, the pink triangle, that was used by Hitler and the Nazis to identify gays, and it has been used by gay rights groups more recently. And there have been several other cases of people thinking either that I'm gay or that something I've created is gay-oriented. Well, I'm not gay, but I am a friggin' weirdo, and I have often felt like an unwanted outsider. Whatever. ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 069 * 4/27/00 * 919 Pace of change use of the stop action technique called pixellation as a kid in super eight millimeter movies. Known as childhood awesomeness. And blobs of clay with craft store googly eyes as a new kind of theme. DUSKAWAY 070 * 4/27/00 * 920 The current time and the limited overview of the past in the mind. Day after day of similar things, building up and if you are creative can be used for creative challenges. Cool places visited made cooler with the memory process. Use the past to invigorate the creative today. DUSKAWAY 071 * 4/27/00 * 921 Stay on top of your mountain, junkyard of colored beads, wow how many playing cards and the used bookstore. DUSKAWAY 072 * 4/27/00 * 922 This Superior is in OsoaWeek 300. 300 weeks ago OsoaWeek began. 300 weeks before that, I was at NYU, and Anything But Monday Magazine and Zope and Nomadi and Halfevil Graphics and all that were already well underway. 300 weeks earlier, I was into astral travel, and dimensional travel, and also doing creative things, and my animated movies were even earlier than that. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 299, 4/19/00 (Book 23, No. 13 / Tarb 12553 / Year 6) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Thursday 4/27/00 * 1:58 PM I am doing this and the next issue and the previous 2 issues right now. So for the current info and stimulation, go to issue 300! Get all Obliviana. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 299 It was too bright; I had no sunglasses. What I saw excellent breasts. When you sit, you're always so much shorter. Friday s heavy. What that's meant to be an s. Saliva is a good thing. I only give money to Chinese homeless--if a Chinese guy can't get a job, you know there's something really wrong with him! These ponderous, ungood... (((From OsoaWeek051--7/13/95))) ***** Um... This one is a mess. But the last sentence really brings it all together, and actually makes it kinda good! ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 065 * 4/20/00 * 915 On to a vibronnodo haskashwillin. The worry is street happy the numbness of the college experience. Paffadeiry. Okay, sting of this spice is immensely pleasurable. Pleasume. You feel a certain way in The Sharper Image. DUSKAWAY 066 * 4/20/00 * 916 Old things, and just think, all of our history being managed by people as flawed as you and me. The hippies were sheep like most people, followers of leaders, conformers. Needed that herd of others around them to dress and act that way. But some are elite, and true individuals. I wouldn't be writing this if I didn't think I was one of them. DUSKAWAY 067 * 4/20/00 * 917 Washn't Blonbah. The joy of the completed work, artifact, of creativity. Idealized and themed worlds of the past. Purpose in a society that is treading water. Can't change X cuz people Y will react violently in way Z. Just get a personal force bubble of meaning and purpose, share it with a few friends, and it's cool. DUSKAWAY 068 * 4/20/00 * 918 That is despicable nomenclature. Mainy. Someone with a pair of dull scissors and no imagination. They are truly loathsome. The new you Stumlontees. Tanjo Dauetierz. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 298, 4/12/00 (Book 23, No. 12 / Tarb 12511 / Year 6) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Thursday 4/27/00 * 1:57 PM I am doing this and the next 2 issues and the previous issue right now. So for the current info and stimulation, go to issue 300! Get all Obliviana. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 298 I'm always excited about happiness. Got the right kinda midnight. (((From OsoaWeek051--7/13/95))) ***** This is one of my favorite Superiors. It is, quite simply, UNBELIEVABLY AWESOME! ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 061 * 4/19/00 * 911 Ceekawns Field Rental. It's been a weird few weeks. DUSKAWAY 062 * 4/19/00 * 912 The lumens are pregnant with allegory and disappointment. Sont meeting in treehouse pleasure and line dant. See Pleazuzen. Doin' it for the ramble of the spirit. DUSKAWAY 063 * 4/19/00 * 913 Doors are queer. Lips are intricate ideas. The amazing one-second analysis you can do on a person just by looking at them. The overwhelming presence of fate and luck and destiny and coincidences. And folks have to desperately deny this wonderful aspect of nature, for some reason. DUSKAWAY 064 * 4/19/00 * 914 A magazine called Amassing seen in a dream in a half sleep on a bus. Several copies of the mag on an empty seat in a dream replica of the same bus. And writing this on a little computer on the bus. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 297, 4/5/00 (Book 23, No. 11 / Tarb 12469 / Year 6) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Thursday 4/27/00 * 1:56 PM I am doing this and the next 3 issues right now. So for the current info and stimulation, go to issue 300! Get all Obliviana. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 297 Let me start this on. Malls mean so much to me. I am to explore it. U. Let us begin. There's story here. Knowing you is from jumping today. Friend, I can tolerate the. Formerest the day one return. The stores in those mall exit halls, less frequented, often suck. (((From OsoaWeek051--7/13/95))) ***** Okay. This phrase "Formerest the day one returns" appears in 3 other Superiors: SUPERIOR 50 Formerest the day one return, line a time in everyful killy. Of the one road I was along, say the way it is like a structuran. The leap of the true can trail all with the hark of a sharp bird, a say. My impressions justice of the what is no preserva, into free dear tours. What is up there I wonders. SUPERIOR 222 Formerest the day one return. Can I destroy your resistance to coolness? We shall jolast the memorate. By it I mean, strong vision of log flume, and it I mean, shopping area as always am, I was saying, ujric. Bemore, croud and maltern. Fhemberhemb. SUPERIOR 308 You think you. Formerest the day one return. Gotta mean something. We are bad? No no. Damn look at it. Formerest--the most former--the original one. The day one, the one of light. Not Christ. Someone else. When I had a beard and was agile, you loved me. Thinking of a lover, Shannon. Damn I am a time traveller! I am! I have to accept that I am a time traveller! I see that in 222, there is the mall/shopping theme again. 308 will actually appear here in Superior Review in 8 weeks! But now, overall, I think that 297 is pretty cool. Malls really DO mean a lot to me. And a lot of exit hall stores really do suck. ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 057 * 4/19/00 * 907 Fooltash Wanting. Egrary Gullsay. Menthoo Ahithtar. Zhablin Toms. DUSKAWAY 058 * 4/19/00 * 908 Could be appeal of obedience to masters. The need for a master, very sad. Lotta fucks out there happy to fill the role and suck dry those who obey them. DUSKAWAY 059 * 4/19/00 * 909 Piarund and Ocladazoo were stalking the lively and, yes, semi-imaginary archery target solar system. DUSKAWAY 060 * 4/19/00 * 910 When talent is nurtured with attitude the beautiful wild. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 296, 3/29/00 (Book 23, No. 10 / Tarb 12427 / Year 6) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Thu 3/30/00 * 2:02 PM Hey! Another great issue of OsoaWeek! Get all Obliviana. ------------------- BLUFFCOSM NEWS ----------- Thu 3/30/00 * 11:13 AM Bluffcosm is movin', man! Let me present to you the new updates from the main Bluffcosm page... ***** 3/28/00 -- Hey! A new slogan! "People are gonna be hearing this on the Internet!" And new script type up there, "The wonder of computerized sound, brought to you by the awesome creative power of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement. Listen often, dear enthusiast of coolness!" 3/27/00 -- I figured out that the problem with converting at bitrate 32 was having the sample rate at 44. With 22/32, the files sound just fine. So I redid the Live365.com thing so that it's all at a 32 bitrate, meaning that folks with 56K modems can listen. Yeah! Also, I added a cool Beublin thing called "Bonnie's Tarantula Farm". Check it out! 3/24/00 -- Bluffcosm begins broadcasting today! It's true... but in the Internet world of today, "broadcasting" doesn't necessarily mean very much... See, I started a "channel" on Live365.com. The main content right now is all 8 epsiodes of "Train Crap & Blood", which I did in the early nineties with my friend Peter Litkey. My brother John and our friend Dave Kopperman were also on most of the shows. One thing I want to point out is that I was acting like a real prick on epsiode 1, "Pennsylvania". I cringe when I listen to it. And it's really just on that one epsiode, I believe, that I act like such a jerk. I recorded an intro in the car earlier, driving to 7-11. It's about 3 minutes long, and it's presented between the episodes. I put it through a lot of filters and stuff to get it to sound like it does. So to listen to Bluffcosm on Live365.com, you'll need a high-speed Internet connection -- 56K won't cut it. The reason for this is that in order to accomodate 56K connections, I would have to convert the MP3's to a lower bitrate. When I tried this, the sound quality was so poor as to be unacceptable. And it's not like all that many people are going to be listening in the near future anyway... ***** Last night I added a link to listen to Bluffcosm on the Obliviana.com homepage, which reads "Click here to listen to Bluffcosm right now!". I also changed the link to the Bluffcosm page to read "Click here for Bluffcosm.com News & Information". Right now, Bluffcosm.com and Obliviana.com have the same IP address. But with these new links, things should be cool. So now I have to work on Bluffcosm on several fronts. First, I need to begin to work on the archive of stuff that I have, and start putting stuff on. Second, I need to develop programming strucutres and overall broadcast style elements. That is, how Bluffcosm will sound, its attitude, etc. And also, I need to start creating new content, and also introductions and commentary on existing content. There's a lot to do in Bluffcosm! ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 296 Thisis a lot. Thisis a lot of thesis. Okay--walkway to the Hall of Science? At Drew University? There was a. Reverser. It'd be good to go back. To wake up in the past, in my body, but with my today's mind. Spend a day there, go to sleep, then return. It would be helpful, useful, all that. Wouldn't cause any harm. To reality, it could just be a dream. Anything I did in that day would be erased as soon as I went to sleep. I think this technique can work. Because it can happen without going bad. But... would it make me live in the past? Every day, would I plot where to go that night? Life would take twice as long. Hmm. Maybe if it were tiring/draining, and you could only do it every few weeks... Okay. Let me see. (((From OsoaWeek050--7/6/95))) ***** This Superior is pretty interesting. It's a discussion on an idea of mine called "soft time travel". I've explored this idea further in Severe Repair. To make it clear, "hard" time travel involves physically travelling through time with your body and clothes everything. "Soft" time travel involves going back in time by waking up in a body in another time, which could be someone else's, but which is generally your own. The idea is your current mind in your past body. In terms of the "single timestream" idea, changes you make in soft would have an effect on the present. But in the "multiple timestream" idea, the current timestream is not affected by time travellers altering the past. Ever since I was a teenager, I have been very much obsessed with time travel, and its more extreme cousin, dimensional travel. I have mellowed out on the subject a lot over the past decade or so, but it is still fascinating to me... ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 053 * 3/27/00 * 903 Quiet tree. Religious graphics pollute the visual landscan. DUSKAWAY 054 * 3/27/00 * 904 Thru several windows the last few times for an over-familiar route. A record store called Beeky's or something, at the Quakerbridge Mall, is not there anymore. Hanging out in the virtual Mercer County of my mind. The very weird mind maps. DUSKAWAY 055* 3/27/00 * 905 Okay, meeting to solve a problem. Seems like we can squeeze but the barest amount from the sponges of present situations. Later we wish we had squeezed more. Oh, hi. DUSKAWAY 056* 3/27/00 * 906 And a great hello to the bead game Fonjo, the, uh, new game that's gonna be comin' your way from Obliviana. Still in development, just wanted to say hi from here in Superior. Fonjo, you're gonna be great! ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 295, 3/22/00 (Book 23, No. 9 / Tarb 12385 / Year 6) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Thu 3/30/00 * 10:00 AM I started writing this a day or two ago, but my computer crashed and I didn't have time then to get back to it. I was saying that I was listening to Bluffcosm, which is something I've been doing a lot in the past few days. Right now, I guess I'm pretty much the only one listening, but I plan on changing that in the near future. Anyway, Bluffcosm is, of course, the big news in Obliviana. As of the date of this issue of OsoaWeek, though, it wasn't even broadcasting yet! So maybe I'll leave the Bluffcosm News till next issue, which I'll be working on right after this one. Yeah, I tellya, it's weird. Obliviana has been drifting for so long, and now Bluffcosm is really starting to pick up steam. And the thing about Bluffcosm is that it uses a very different medium than I've been using in Obliviana. I mean, Obliviana in recent times has been Internet-based text and graphics. Computerized sound is a very different medium, and many other aspects of Obliviana can be presented in this medium as well, via Bluffcosm. So things are looking a little better in Obliviana. It's weird, a few weeks ago the big thing in Obliviana was the new boardgame, and now Bluffcosm has thundered ahead of it to be my main focus of the moment. This by no means means that I'm abandoning the boardgame... it's just that I'm ficusing more on Bluffcosm now. And indeed, Bluffcosm is something that is definitely easier to get to people than the boardgame. Pretty much anyone with a fairly recent PC will be able to hear Bluffcosm on the Internet. The boardgame requires a huge amount of work to get into people's hands. But the beauty of Bluffcosm is that it can help get the game into people's hands! And the same goes for Bluffcosm and the rest of Obliviana. Many of the Revolvers in Obliviana can be fully presented in Bluffcosm. Severe Repair, for example, can be presented as an "audiobook". Zope can be presented in audio. As can Superior, and a whole lot more... So things are looking pretty good. Now all I have to do is get people to listen to Bluffcosm. And, of course, to do this I have to keep on making Bluffcosm better and better, and also promote it, and also get lucky, and also catch a cultural wave. Get all Obliviana. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 295 Would you like to know. Echoless yawn. Kohut--sheet metal place of my youth. Truth. (((From OsoaWeek050--7/6/95))) ***** Well, Kohut was indeed a sheet metal place of my youth. I lived in New Brunswick, NJ till I was about 3, and there was a sheet metal place next door, and in the wonderfully-warped perceptions of a young child, Kohut was a weird and mythical place. So I guess I write the word "truth" to convey that it was true and not one of the many random, fantastic thoughts I write in Superiors. "Echoless yawn" is interesting. "Echoless" implies a wide-open space, and freedom, and possibilities. And then, responding to that with a yawn... interesting. But as a Superior, I have to say that this one is pretty weak overall. ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 049 * 3/27/00 * 899 Delt of the all, car la dungeotronic morning. Create the subcultures little. And the crushing force of jadedness as culture runs with time. Perceiving them as miserable, as don warehouse outside lights in the tight night. DUSKAWAY 050 * 3/27/00 * 900 Let's get the tag of the stores. And the muffling debilitation of not knowing some things. The artifacts of the native cultures are cool cuz it's so unreachable, and your feelings about it will never be struck with the less-sparking reality of them. DUSKAWAY 051 * 3/27/00 * 901 So train, hanging with the people never seen before or again. Night depression to mall and arcade. There are so many losers that it's too comfortable. DUSKAWAY 052 * 3/27/00 * 902 Space laser music and spaceship games. The space place that will last only so much more time. Innocent culture. Sincerity and the naive is damn useful and valuable. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 294, 3/15/00 (Book 23, No. 8 / Tarb 12343 / Year 6) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Sun 3/19/00 * 11:21 PM Hey. I drew a chart of Obliviana yesterday cuz my computer was crashing so much so I wanted to do something waiting for it to boot back up one time. And today I saw a pattern in it, and a little later lines of sunlight played on it. I'm still working on the defining of Obliviana. It is very frustrating, but I am making progress. Bluffcosm is gaining steam. It is part of the "new" Obliviana that I am now working on. And I really do need to revive Obliviana from its current slumber. And I will. Get all Obliviana. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 294 A lesbian farmer was the day. Call it Reainstorm. (((From OsoaWeek050--7/6/95))) ***** This is a Superior which has bothered me a little over the years. And I've wavered between it being pretty darn good to it being one of the worst Superiors. Like many Superiors and parts of Superiors, this one has played over and over agin in my head at times, like might happen with a song. This Superior has two sentences. The first is pretty cool, and it could evoke a number of different visions. It is the second one that I have a little trouble with. What I have here is clearly the word "rainstorm", capitalized and with an E added. This gives the word a very interesting quality. I would say that the word now looks like Irish or Scottish or something like that. Now, as a kid such accents and stuff were cool. Like in comic books, such as X-Men and New Mutants, there were Scotting and Irish type characters... and of course Scotty from Star Trek... and a Scottish character in that book I never quite finished reading, "A Mote in God's Eye"... Anyway, I don't know. I guess that ultimately, I'd say that this Superior is pretty good. ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 045 * 3/19/00 * 895 Okay, a truck stop or a diner type place. The calling of the cardboard message. The big block of hard Bazooka gum after going with my mom to pick up my sister from ballet class. And the toys and awesomeness of 1970s suburbia. Yeah and a couple or several diners from memory. DUSKAWAY 046 * 3/19/00 * 896 Desire and distraction. A pure smell. Waving the hand, your hand. Getting caught up in the moment, too hyper maybe. And the streets after the parties, and the ruined promise, the unfulfilled potential. And the complex delusions that keep us moving. And watching very cool TV shows. DUSKAWAY 047 * 3/19/00 * 897 The arena rocks the mind, the steadfast home of personal fantasizing. Locations from the past and the hopes for the future, in sparkling True World aspect. Real World. Original World. Yes it is wonderful there. Don't forget to enjoy your fantasies, cuz they're better than the real thing in some ways. DUSKAWAY 048 * 3/19/00 * 898 The euphemism electrified. More likely spiritual in nature. Entertainment. People are fickle bastards maybe in this field. Our world is narrow, and that is not so bad. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 293, 3/8/00 (Book 23, No. 7 / Tarb 12301 / Year 6) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Sun 3/12/00 * 2:12 PM Hey. This OsoaWeek is pretty late. So I wanna get it done. I'm still working on the overall definition of Obliviana. It's a very challenging conundrum! I have all these separate elements, and I have to piece them together into a cohesive whole... Hopefully I'll make some real progress soon. Get all Obliviana. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 293 The hot museum, I stand in it. Left to yumma. I cold hall with railings, musty smell and scientific wall. The old house, scented old, why is it young people live here. No one who lived during the Civil War is still alive. The entire world of that time--all the people--are dead. Reincarnation. With it, they're not all dead, just different people. Living can become such a mess. Isn't it refreshing to know that you can restart a new life, just like restarting your computer? I don't know. If you accomplish things in life you might not feel so bad about having to die. (((From OsoaWeek050--7/6/95))) ***** This Superior has a structure which exists in a number of Superiors. It starts off more weird and abstract-like, and then I move into talking about a certain subject in a more descriptive way. Overall, this Superior is pretty decent. The "weird" first part (up to "...live here.") is quite cool. ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 041 * 3/12/00 * 891 Hope satisfies on a daily basis. The recording stars, like a bare hope of some leisure days. They ever changing, and spots near highways are with you a long time. Keep going straight ahead in all the meanderings. Will it someday get results. DUSKAWAY 042 * 3/12/00 * 892 Have to talk about mall in the rain, instead of staring at a candle flame, meditate in the interaction with the mall instead. DUSKAWAY 043 * 3/12/00 * 893 Say the word "lost" something, and it is like a cool, remote kind of saying, like the subject is apart from everything. "The Lost Archer", for example, as a title. Who is this guy? He sounds like a very cool character. And how about "The Pulse Dawn Grenadier"? DUSKAWAY 044 * 3/12/00 * 894 Complex wood beam system, looking up, ceiling of old building. The dreams of the dreamer, and the endless fantasies of the realization of the dreams. And colder weather and warmer weather. Creams of the dreamer. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 292, 3/1/00 (Book 23, No. 6 / Tarb 12259 / Year 6) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Sat 3/4/00 * 11:44 PM Hello friends. Frank Edward Nora here, your awesome Lord of Obliviana, haha. So what's up in Obliviana? Well, this issue, Duskaway reaches 40. 40 Duskaways so far! It seems like I just started it the other day. And Duskaway 40 is Overall Superior 890! Looking toward the goal of Superior 1000 and beyond... See "Bluffcosm News" below for another interesting advancement in Obliviana. With the new Obliviana boardgame and Bluffcosm, I am beginning to see a new organizational structure, which could perhaps lead to the legendary Keystone Idea of Obliviana that will mesh all the disparate elements of Obliviana together into a coherent whole. Yeah! Get all Obliviana. ------------------- BLUFFCOSM NEWS ----------- Hey! Time for Bluffcosm News! "Bluffcosm" is a new name for an idea I've had for some time. It's sound! Computerized sound! Here is what is on the Bluffcosm web page right now: (((green BLUFFCOSM LOGO))) Established November 19, 1999 By Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana (((in script))) "Interactive entertainment, audio only, a cool realm of computerized sound, with unique Obliviana content. Listen anytime on your portable MP3 player. A total audio interface, someday..." 2/28/00 -- Hi! It's exactly 10 weeks after I "premiered" Bluffcosm with the message below. Well, Bluffcosm is still here, but I have decided to use the name for a different idea. Whereas the previous idea had to do with a kind of virtual world, the new idea deals with audio content. This audio idea is something I've been working on for a LONG time, and the project's code name up till now has been "Welcome to the Weasel Village Mall". Now, it's BLUFFCOSM! Watch for Bluffcosm to get into gear, sometime between tomorrow and like 4 or 5 years from now. Hahaha! I'm fucked up! P.S. Isn't it cool, the Bluffcosm logo looks a little like a radio tower! Also, 11/19/99, the date of Bluffcosm's "establishment", is the last date with all odd numbers in it till January 1, 3111. THE FUN OF COMPUTERIZED SOUND! Or maybe... THE BASIC COOLNESS OF COMPUTERIZED SOUND! (((blue BLUFFCOSM LOGO))) Established November 19, 1999 By Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana (((in script))) "The Bluffcosm awaits, that imaginary universe of intense little virtual theme parks, a place where your dear sojourns are rewarded with strange and wonderful computerized treasures. Enjoy!" 11/19/99 -- Today, Bluffcosm.com leaps forth into existence! About 1576 days ago, on July 28, 1995, I started my other website, Obliviana.com. In that time, I managed to accomplish a great deal, but attracting an audience was not one my accomplishments. Bluffcosm came out of nowhere. Just a few weeks ago, I came up with the word "Bluffcosm", and it has thundered ahead in this short time to become my second website. Bluffcosm is very much a part of Obliviana--but it has to be in its own space, apart from the need to fit in with the complex web of ideas and content that is Obliviana. Stay tuned for Number 1 of the Cosm, "Jadehead Bluff". ------------------- HEMISINISTER REVIEW ----------- ***PENS*** *UNI-BALL GEL IMPACT--BLACK* UPDATE A day or two after the "probe" (see last issue), I took the pen out of my pocket and its exterior was entirely smeared with ink! Very soon, my hands were quite ink-stained. I observed later, strangely, that nothing else in my pocket had any of the ink on it... hmm... Anyway, I looked at the cartridge, and it was total chaos in there. The gel and the ink were all splayed asunder. My probing must have disturbed the delicate balance betweek ink and gel. Once again I must stress that the Uni-Ball Vision Black/Fine is the greatest pen in the world. This Gel Impact pen is inferior, with or without a disastrous probing. ***MUSIC*** *STEELY DAN--TWO AGAINST NATURE* I love Steely Dan. I've listened to the box set of all their studio recording innumerable times. This new album is 20 years after their last album, but it is absolutely their NEXT album. It's total Steely Dan, and all the songs are as stunningly brilliant as their existing work. "Two Against Nature" is, I think, a unique event in rock music. A lot of groups lose their ability to create great music over time. I'm VERY happy to see that Steely Dan does not have that problem. Let me tell you, Steely Dan is not the easiest band to get into, but once you're into their music, it is a marvelous journey. I've heard songs hundreds of times, and I still discover new things about them. Get Two Against Nature, and the box set (Citizen Steely Dan), and the three solo albums and the one live album. You'll be quite happy you did, if you're not one of those party poopers who irrationally hate Steely Dan. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 292 When will this new train car eventually have to be dismantled? Who'll have the tools for the job? Black guys go "day-um!" The Yourself Needle. The Yourself Missile. The Yourself Miracle. $14.86--the kind of change I like! Got on a 9-train and it was hot as an oven in there. Thought I saw a guy holding a piece of wood, but it was a crumpled-up brown paper bag. Don't be overly dramatic at the card game. (((From OsoaWeek050--7/6/95))) ***** Well, they can't all be winners. The "Yourself" stuff isn't too bad, but in general, this Superior is a bit sub-par. 1995... ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 037 * 3/4/00 * 887 Whiz lo zap zooma, patch of street high, all the coolness, seven hours later you feel like an asshole. Supachoose your own veeveehicle. Like name something Dormouse to be cool like referring to Alice in Winderland. All the ice cubes held in glasses by people like you exploding. Test button, not sure what it tests. Hello, I am a sentence at the end of a Superior that kind of sucks. DUSKAWAY 038 * 3/4/00 * 888 An aetherwillow daytrip, light. Dimension traveller for three weeks so far, at a musical instrument store in some alternate world. And a dog and a cat and some family and friends in my homeworld. Jennifera Belltings, amazing cosmic daytrip, dark. Little pocket pinball games at home. DUSKAWAY 039 * 3/4/00 * 889 Little park by the railroad tracks, very calm 11 A.M., concrete rising wrecked by weather, overcast and very bright. The prizes in my pockets, the photo vest has pockets that may be cool. Waiting for people, shake a little shaker, wish I had a paint gun. DUSKAWAY 040 * 3/4/00 * 890 For the years, lualont riders in tunnel, tried to be one of the riders but failed. In store they act cool, they are in a group, called a little culture. To put stripes on many things, this is a good trend for the next few years. Stripewanderall. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 291, 2/23/00 (Book 23, No. 5 / Tarb 12217 / Year 6) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Thu 2/24/00 * 11:19 PM Well, I did a lot more work on my boardgame. It's coming along very well. It's reached a whole new level. So I registered the domain name BLUFFCOSM.COM and I premiered the site on 11/19/99 (the last date with all odd numbers in it for well over a thousand years). Hey, I started writing this paragraph at 11:19 PM! Cool... Anyway, Bluffcosm was an idea that has drifted away somewhat, and I am left with the cool name and domain. A nice challenge, to incorporate something called "Bluffcosm" into the new boardgame-centric Obliviana. Get all Obliviana. ------------------- HEMISINISTER REVIEW ----------- ***PENS*** *UNI-BALL GEL IMPACT--BLACK* This pen is pretty cool. I took the ink cartridge out and the top of the tube was open, and I saw the gel in there, with the black ink suspended in the clear gel. I probed it with a paper clip and I noted the way in which the ink interacts with its gel carrier. Kind of disturbing. I wiped the paper clip off with a paper towel, but I didn't really touch the gel. The paper clip is used to remove bad disk from computers. All in all, a pretty disturbing affair. The pen writes smoothly, but it "stutters" some. I still prefer the Uni-Ball Vision Black/Fine. It (Vision) is the best damn pen in the world. Okay. ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- ***SUPERIOR NOTES*** The first series of Superiors is from 1 to 728. The second series, Parking, is from 1 to 122. The first Parking can be considered to be overall Superior 729, and the last, overall Superior 850. Thus, in the third series, Duskaway, which I am working on now, to determine the overall Superior number, add 850 to the number. So, the Duskaways in this issue, 33, 34, 35, and 36 and overall Superiors 883, 884, 885, and 886. I think I will add this number to Duskaways from now on. ***** SUPERIOR 291 Beavis and Butthead are delightful. What I saw was a video game called Satan's Ping. Like an evil Pong. Damnation, ash, and cross-country deliveries. I got into the song "Rise" by Public Image, Ltd. unaware of the Sex Pistols. Got another Public Image, Ltd. album out of the Hillsborough Library, at a strip mall, with Peter Litkey's card, the first time I visited him. Just heard "Never Mind the Bollocks" a months or two ago for the first time. Played a Sex Pistols slot machine at the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas. Saw a piece on the Har Rock Hotel on Primetime Live a few nights ago. Beavis and Butthead are God. (((From OsoaWeek050--7/6/95))) ***** The stuff referred to in this Superior is all real except for "Satan's Ping". "Damnation, ash, and cross-country deliveries." is a cool sentence. Also not real, but also not really a specific thing that is referred to. "Saw a piece on the Har Rock Hotel on Primetime Live a few nights ago."--"Har" is misspelled, and it was not intentional. I would have corrected it when I was putting Superiors into Aerie, but I'm not sure if it really warrants the trouble of correcting it. I never got into the Sex Pistols. I heard "Never Mind the Bollocks" a few times but it never really clicked with me. PIL is a band that I am also not into, though I have their "Cassette" cassette. The Clash rules, however. I forget what "Primetime Live" was. Um... was it a "20/20" type show? I mentioned my friend Peter Litkey here. He starred in my "Beublin A. Richardson" movie, as well as the "Broadcast Magazine" "Train Crap & Blood". And he has gone on many Stormjaunts with me. He was also in my wedding party. Hey Pete! What's up! We should get together soon, man. ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 033 * 2/16/00 * 883 Turbulent downpours rife with coniferous dance moves. Panting steel drum happy time. Knopsneakee family daytime friends and lasers. Some losers are 22 and 32. Prairie Joy the teleportation jackass. DUSKAWAY 034 * 2/16/00 * 884 Naked in W.I.N.T.E.R. Nude in W.I.N.T.E.R. Wild Intrepid New Teen Euphoria Room. DUSKAWAY 035 * 2/24/00 * 885 Sand Happo Cranch, feeling post-rain weak friend afternoon. Tilporo is my jandual fail. Identified four distinct stairways, embed/unsure confetti-type shapes. Bon is pleased as to something from the visited country. DUSKAWAY 036 * 2/24/00 * 886 West Broadway is this road, man, and like all these losers act like they're cool there. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 290, 2/16/00 (Book 23, No. 4 / Tarb 12175 / Year 6) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Wed 2/16/00 * 12:08 AM I got like 3500 beads the other day, for game development... Um... so I am continuing in the development of The Game of Obliviana... it's coming along pretty well... here's another great issue of OsoaWeek for ya! Get all Obliviana. ------------------- HEMISINISTER REVIEW ----------- ***THE L. GREAT CD'S*** What are L. Great CD's? They are music CD's (ie, albums) that are unbelievably awesome. In order to be an L. Great CD, I must love it more and more every time I hear it, never tiring of it. All the songs on it must be incredible. It must be an album that I have heard many tens or even hundreds of times, to be sure that it is L. Great! I'll be reviewing L. Great CD's one at a time. Here's one I'm really into right now: *L. GREAT CD #1* Artist: Ned's Atomic Dustbin CD: God Fodder Year:1991 I got this album on cassette in the early nineties, and I liked it quite a bit. I remember going on a trip to Pennsylvania with a friend of mine and we listened to it over and over again on the whole multi-hour trip. Then, a year or so ago I came across the CD version for 25 cents at Disc-o-Rama on W. 4th St. in Manhattan. It was missing the cover, but remembering how great it was, I bought it. It wasn't until the past few weeks that the album's true greatness became apparent to me. I had always enjoyed listening to it, but now I am utterly enthralled by it. There is really like nothing else I have ever heard. I can listen to the album over and over again without getting tired of it. "God Fodder" was their first album, so I bought their second album, "Are You Normal?" last week. I've listened to it a number of times, but it hasn't really clicked with me yet. I will keep on giving it a chance, since it did take me a long time to truly appreciate "God Fodder". Ned's Atomic Dustbin is no more, but there are a number of fan sites on the Web. There is a third album which I would like to get also, but it got very mixed reviews. 1991 was an amazing year for music, with Nirvana's "Nevermind" , Tori Amos's "Little Earthquakes", Guns'n'Roses' "Use Your Illusion I & II", and Metallica's "Metallica" (Black Album) to name a few. Oh yeah, and also that friggin' Pearl Jam with "Ten". Well, "God Fodder" is right up there with all of the ones I mentioned. So go out and get this amazing CD! It's still around in some record stores, and getting it online should be a snap! It's L. Great! ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 290 We deal in oxygen. Whacked out on coffee and in a mall is like the building block of my past. We are all life cannot be planned it's an instrument to be played. You can learn the basics, but to get good at it, you gotta get the feel for it. Zaps are needed in this auditorium. I am audience, I am pussy eater. Let me near you. There are waves in here. (((From OsoaWeek050--7/6/95))) ***** This is an excellent Superior. Let me go over it piece by piece! 01--We deal in oxygen. This whole Superior can be interpreted in a number of ways. This first sentence, for example, can be viewed in different ways. Firstly, it could be a commentary on how everyone is dealing with basic needs and desires, oxygen repreenting such things. But another interpretation could be of the narrator being a cynical kind of powerful character talking about how that which he or she and their cohorts are in the business of selling is something that people either desperately need or desperately want. Movies, drugs, sex, etc. But as I said, it's very open to interpretation. 02--Whacked out on coffee and in a mall is like the building block of my past. Drinking lots of coffee and wandering around malls is something I have done a lot. It's a leisure time activity that I greatly enjoy. It also helps me get my creative juices flowing. In this sentence, referring to the "past", I may be saying that in my understanding of my own past, the mall/coffee thing looms large. In conjuction with the first sentence, there could be the implication that in the mall/coffee experiences I am searching and yearning for something, the "oxygen". 03--We are all life cannot be planned it's an instrument to be played. This, and the next sentence, are comments on life, specifically comparing it to playing an instrument. The "awkward" construction of this sentence has a purpose. Like, I am thinking "We are all...", referring to something universal in human experience, and then coming up with the commentary on the nature of life. The lack of punctuation and stuff gives this sentence a different feel than "We are all... life cannot be planned; it's an instrument to be played." 04--You can learn the basics, but to get good at it, you gotta get the feel for it. This is expanding on sentence 03. It may seem a little too obvious, but I think that this potentially weak line is fully justified by the tone of the next. 05--Zaps are needed in this auditorium. Flows well from 04. Implies perhaps a speaker talking about life (03, 04), and the listener is not impressed, and wants some "zaps"--excitement, stir things up, etc. 01 also can be seen as being said by this speaker. 02 also, but to a lesser extent. 06--I am audience, I am pussy eater. In line with the interpretation I have been developing, the listener here could be reponding to the vague, generalized rhetoric about life, saying that he is a real person in the real world, one that "eats pussy"--realness, sexuality, down to earth, etc. 07--Let me near you. Perhaps the pussy eater is having sexual feelings for the speaker... Or, it could be the speaker trying to push more rhetoric... 08--There are waves in here. "In" the auditorium, or more broadly, in life, things are fucked up, wavy, coming and going... ***** Well, that was a bit of a tough interpretation. I only spent a few minutes writing this review, and my intent is to touch on some possible themes implied in the Superior. But ultimately, the value of Superior is indeed that they are all very open to many different interpretaions. Yeah, yeah, whatever. ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 029 * 2/15/00 Yes, on our way to meet Ownez. Pisintegrate pisintegrate. Ownez is major master, magico-wonderfulo little shops in flea market-like areas. Hi, The Timber Valuables. The Snocwave Directive. DUSKAWAY 030 * 2/15/00 Make little worlds and dwell there. Places... Lighting... Water... think Enchanted Tiki Room... The Gray Lonter Plutarch, The Gray Lont. DUSKAWAY 031 * 2/15/00 Not than she reacts, her little life merries, than she might ressleplode. DUSKAWAY 032 * 2/15/00 I'd rather be Timenapping Demigoddesses. Demigoddess Timenappers do it whenever. I was a teenage Demigoddess Timenapper. Timenapping Demigoddesses viewer--I appreciate the finer things in time. Timenap Me, I'm a Demigoddess. Chrono-Lassie: Timenapping Demidoggies. Timenap you, buddy! ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 289, 2/9/00 (Book 23, No. 3 / Tarb 12133 / Year 6) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Wed 2/9/00 * 10:04 PM Hey. It's been a good Obliviana week. I pretty much finalized the new board for The Game of Obliviana, and I started playtesting it with my wife. The board is rife with possibilites. I'm still very much in the midst of developing a new set of rules. So, after so many weeks of waiting for a breakthrough, I am finally on track to truly move toward KIO, the Keystone Idea of Obliviana. This issue of OsoaWeek introduces a new feature, "Superior Review". Check it out! Hey, check out the date! It's 2/09/00! Cool, eh? Well, I gotta work on the rules... Get all Obliviana. ------------------- HEMISINISTER REVIEW ----------- ***VIDEO GAMES*** *CRAZY TAXI* Sega Dreamcast This is a very significant video game. It is, in its conception and its gameplay, truly a classic game. First of all, Crazy Taxi is original. And it's concept is simple. You're a taxi driver, pick people up and drop them off at their destinations, and keep on doing this till time runs out. In a field with so few original games, this game really stands out. And the gameplay is very reminiscent of classic video games. There is no "ending". You keep on going till you run out of time, and your goal is to get a high score. This is a game in which the cutting edge 3D graphics are integral to the gameplay. The incredibly detailed cityscapes are alive with activity, and you're driving through it all. Crazy Taxi is a league of its own, and you'd be truly crazy not to buy this game if you have a Dreamcast. In fact, even if you don't have a Dreamcast, this is a great reason to buy one! ------------------- SUPERIOR REVIEW ----------- SUPERIOR 289 Nightmare Chablis Rough Girls. Fuckin' hot hippie psycho. Das Damncover/The Damncover. Saccharon--sweet boat of the dead guy. He eats Vietnam peas. Teenage Ringleader. Standing with a backpack or the guy's head. Standing by a windowby. Naked Girls, Basically. Flaky 30 something lady hyper over a new technology. It's an ornery little bird, but look at the way it bites. Shooting symbols in the air out the back of an airplane with shaving cream. Burn the candy at both ends. I like The To Tawers by J. R. Token. I had this dear of the dawn. These Repeating Patterns. (((From OsoaWeek050--7/6/95))) ***** Welcome to Superior review. I got the inspiration to do this just a few minutes ago. The idea is that I will be presenting the Superior whose number is the same as the current issue of OsoaWeek. And after the Superior, I will make some comments about it. Okay. Superior 289. First of all, you'll notice that this Superior doesn't have a date associated with it. Well, I didn't start dating Superiors will Superior 439 on 1/1/96. So I guess I'll have to include the issue of OsoaWeek it was presented in for the next 150 weeks. Actually, it wouldn't hurt to include this info even after that. Let me go and figure out that issue now, eh! I want to mention that in searching past issues of OsoaWeek, I looked in Aerie Obliviana online. Aerie Obliviana is awesome. Now, one cool thing about Superior 289 is that it was the one chosen for the Superior index page in Aerie. Specifically, it is in Superior Vestibule Ten, which contains 274-304. So out of all 31 of those, this is the one I chose as the best. The first two sentences, "Nightmare Chablis Rough Girls. Fuckin' hot hippie psycho.", are awesome. I remember writing this somewhat, I think when I was living in Clifton. I think I was reading from a notebook or something, and I used a lot of the stuff I wrote down pretty much verbatim from the notes. Let me go through this Superior sentence by sentence. I'm not saying I'm gonna do this every week, but I think that for this one it's called for. 01--"Nightmare Chablis Rough Girls." Can be looked at in a number of ways. A Severe Repair style group of supernatural beings, or maybe the name of a girl gang. Whatever, it sounds awesome, and is a Superior classic. 02--"Fuckin' hot hippie psycho." Works well with the sentence 01, and resonates as well with 10. 03-"Das Damncover/The Damncover." Imaginary German title, maybe a band name. Maybe inpired by the movie "Das Boot", which in English is "The Boat". 04-"Saccharon--sweet boat of the dead guy." A silly Anything But Monday-like thing. Saccharine is an artificial sweetener, and Charon is the guy from Greek or Roman mythology who ferries the sould of the dead across the river Styx. 05-"He eats Vietnam peas." Just sounds good. 06--"Teenage Ringleader." Resonates somewhat with 01. Also, the capitalization of the second words implies that this might be the name of a character in some capacity. 07--"Standing with a backpack or the guy's head." I recall this as being an observation I made on the train communting to work in Manhattan. The train was crowded, and I was looking at something, and it could have been either of the two things mentioned. 08--"Standing by a windowby." This is a reference to another Superior: SUPERIOR 89 Sitting by a windowby a parkway by a place, I am in no state to write here, and as I jam in no way to bite here and it was in the hallway and it was broken and I got a lot of food and soda out of the vending machines and these people were doomed. (((From OsoaWeek012--10/13/94))) I often think about phrases in Superior, as they are somewhat mentally addictive. In this case, I remembered it in a slightly altered form. 09--"Naked Girls, Basically." The capitalized third word implies that this might be a title of something. 10--"Flaky 30 something lady hyper over a new technology." An interesting vision of a person who's going overboard about the potential of some new technology. 11--"It's an ornery little bird, but look at the way it bites." This is a weird one, and perhaps one of the weaker links of this Superior. I like the word "ornery". 12--"Shooting symbols in the air out the back of an airplane with shaving cream." This could be from a dream, or from a train-riding vision. 13--"Burn the candy at both ends." Clearly a variation on the common phrase "burn the candle at both ends". I have used the word "candy" a number of times in Superior. When I use it, I really do mean candy as in the sweet food product. But I have at times wondered if people might take references to candy to mean candy as in a euphemism for heroin. I just recalled a phrase "Candy is a blessing in these times.", and when I looked it up, to my amazement, I found out that I was so troubled by the potential for the phrase to be looked at in a drug context that I changed it! Look: SUPERIOR 63 This day this disaster. Blendblast, car benenen. Spinach pasta's yumyum. Not in the maze of a life, but the bane of a company. So we can inside a black orange through now gone in windy yesterdays clear begun in times of withforall. Mint is a blessing in these times. Go to a store and relax and these are the days of sleep. So juice is a drink. (((From OsoaWeek008--9/15/94))) 14--"I like The To Tawers by J. R. Token." This is an imaginary misspelling of "The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien". I admire the qualities of good misspellings. Another imaginary misspelling that I used in Severe Repair is "I like Snoppy", which would be a misspelling of "I like Snoopy". Like stuff kids write down, y'know? 15--"I had this dear of the dawn." A nice line. I recall that the "dear" was not specifically a love interest in the way that I originally conceived of the line, but it can certainly be seen in this light. 16--"These Repeating Patterns." An interesting way to end the Superior. Again, the capitalization implies that this could be the title of something. Definitely to some extent a reference to fractals, a subject that is always all over the place in that various media I drink in. ***** Wow... looking back on myself four-and-a-half years ago... and the notes this Superior was based on were probably a bit older even... ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 025 * 2/3/00 7:57 pm. In my pocket earlier today, in the pocket of my black button-up shirt, were three items that were cool together. Redemption tickets, maybe about 20, orange in color, from the Broadway City Arcade across from the Port Authority Bus Terminal. I got them last night playing a new game, Namco's Quick & Crash, a shooting game. Also I had the game Cosmic Wimpout, consisting of 5 dice in a plastic tube. I got the game this morning at The Compleat Strategist, a game store across from the Empire State Building. I almost didn't go, but at the last moment I veered off my morning commute course and took subways S and 6 over there. I was the first customer, at 10:30 AM. The third item was a laser print of my new Obliviana gameboard, dated 2/1/00. Yeah and also it's pretty interesting, my current bus tickets (which I buy in sets of 40) have 3/2/01 as their expiration date. 2-1-0 and 3-2-1. Cool. DUSKAWAY 026 * 2/9/00 Vary your attack types Cheryl. Acquire 55 variations of the Van Hoze Buildinq. Squares or triangles the same color as your token provide extra attack points equal to half the wager. Let's go to bed. DUSKAWAY 027 * 2/9/00 Why, if free, are we so not free? DUSKAWAY 028 * 2/3/00 Games of 1980. Games of 1981. Games of 1982. Games of 1983. Heat develops. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 288, 2/2/00 (Book 23, No. 2 / Tarb 12091 / Year 6) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Wed 2/2/00 * 12:50 AM Well, some good news. I had a breakthrough in Obliviana. It is not THE breakthrough, but it could lead to that. I got the idea in bed that Wednesday night (1/26/00). Basically, it adds 4 neutral Pilferids to FOW (Forge of Wander). This combines Octagon and FOW. Octagon is 8x2x5=80, and now those numbers can be randomly generated in FOW with the SC (Storm Codex) deck. This new system opens up many new possibilities. The "track" around the FOW now has 52 "non-neutral" spaces--and I have mapped the alphabet twice and the weeks of the year on it. This may not make a lot of sense to you, but then again it might, if you're in the future and you're a player of the game of Obliviana. More next week! Get all Obliviana. ------------------- HEMISINISTER REVIEW ----------- ***TV*** *FREAKS AND GEEKS* It's about freaks and geeks (AKA burnouts and nerds) in high school in the early '80s. I can relate having been a total geek in high school in the early '80s. The show is aweome in many, many ways. The cast is amazing, and it really gets the feel of the time. And yes... I just confirmed it, Coach Fredricks is Biff (Thomas F. Wilson) from the "Back to the Future" trilogy! And Joe Flaherty from SCTV is the father! Watch it! *THE SOPRANOS* Surpasses the hype. ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 021 * 2/2/00 1/13/00 8:56 pm. M3 bus downtown. Got on by Rockefeller Center. Saw "American Beauty" before at Virgin Megastore. Damn cold. First time on city bus. Storms from last night still affecting me. Earlier, I shattered a fluorescent bulb at work. DUSKAWAY 022 * 2/2/00 Rooftop Railway Fugue. Shatterfirj Arcanas. Hompinaha Hoptobo. Nioctresni Arcade Parlor. The Lintimpee Arch-Rald. DUSKAWAY 023 * 2/2/00 We want to go on vacation every day, every hour, every minute. I was standing on the snowbank which may have been kind of weird. Roasting coffee beans down at Photon in '88. The dungeon games in the flickety flames as the fliskatine area. DUSKAWAY 024 * 2/2/00 Ranald Comforter, Jeveller Dauntles, Dean Toace, and Fromi Paft. That good kind of tired... the world responds. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 287, 1/26/00 (Book 23, No. 1 / Tarb 12049 / Year 6) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Tue 1/25/00 * 10:14 PM Welcome to Book Twenty-Three of OsoaWeek! The 23rd period of 13 weeks in Obliviana has begun! Big snow storm today. Biggest in several years. I stayed home from work and played a lot of videogames. This past week was pretty intense for me as far as Obliviana development goes. I made some progress, but I have not yet gotten to the "big breathrough". 286 weeks ago I began OsoaWeek. Here's a quote from that issue: "Ah, how refreshing it is to be here at the beginning of such a wonderful enterprise. The time has come for Obliviana Super Occult Amusement to burst upon the scene! Yes, it's beautiful, isn't it? Can't you see it?" Exactly five-and-a-half years later, I still see it, but not clearly. And when I wrote that, I was already 8 years into Obliviana. It's like, up till a few months ago, I was battling my way up a mountain, to a goal. But a number of weeks ago I got to the top, and the goal is still eluding me. 10:45 PM I corrected an error from last issue. In Duskaway, I had 13 twice. I mention this only because 13 is very significant in Obliviana, and there will be no other record of the change. Well, here I go, another week at "the top". Scroll on over to the next issue and see if I got anywhere, willya? Oh, being that this is issue 287, I was thinking of doing an "Ode to 287", Route 287 here in NJ being a big highway in my life, not so much now as it used to be, but still a big thing in my life. But I'll leave such an "ode" to the future. Maybe I'll do "odes" to all the big roadways in my life. Get all Obliviana. ------------------- HEMISINISTER REVIEW ----------- ***MOVIES*** *FANTASIA 2000* Intellectual hubris and banal celebrity introductions are two of the many factors that make Fantasia 2000 a disappointment. The whole idea behind the original 1940 Fantasia is that average people didn't have enough exposure to classical music, so adding animation to it would get folks into it. Well, classical music is very much integrated into our media-saturated lives of today, so what was 50 years ago a good idea is now really pointless. I like that the film is an IMAX exclusive; it's cool to see a full-length movie in an IMAX theater. And all the new fottage looks great on the enormous screen. The only problem is, the one original segment included, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" starring Mickey Mouse, looks really, really crummy. It is, however, far better in every other way than any of the new segments. The new segments of Fantasia 2000 are all pretty cool, but they feel empty and joyless. There's a lot of technically-impressive animation, but not too much spirit. The celebrity hosts are very annoying, and the worst part involves, I believe, Bette Midler. She hosts a segment where rejected ideas for Fantasia segments are discussed. She's trying to be funny totally ripping apart idea that are all much better than the segments that were finally produced. And they invoke the name of Walt Disney himself, talking about his original intentions for Fantasia. Well, it is nice that they tried to fulfill his original intention of rereleasing the film with new segments, but it's a very weak attempt. It's like when the Disney company tries to say that Celebration is a fulfillment of Walt's original idea for EPCOT. But, despite all my complaints, I would say that Fantasia 2000 succeeds as an IMAX animation showcase, and that it is enjoyable. But when compared to the original, and in the overall concept of the failings of the current Disney organization, it makes me angry. *AMERICAN BEAUTY* My top five films of 1999 are: [1] Fight Club [2] The Straight Story [3] Eyes Wide Shut [4] American Beauty [5] Being John Malkovich American Beauty is definitely the kind of movie that could be the best movie of the year, but last year was a total bonanza of great movies. Everything about is movie is awesome, so its few flaws are more than made up for. But let's look at these flaws, shall we? The movie flirts with a number of cliches. The homophobic ex-Marine harboring homosexual feelings. The brooding, intelligent youth who videotapes everything. The shallow, success-driven wife who can't take it anymore. Et cetera. The wife subplot, the one with Annette Bening, is something of a weak link. Her character is less believable than the others. But as I said, these few minor flaws can't take away from the film's greatness. Kevin Spacey's performance is especially impressive. Check it out! *GALAXY QUEST* The premise is cool--what if an alien race intercepted Star Trek TV epsiodes and based their civilization on the show. And then, what if they decided to recruit William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and crew to help them in a time of crisis. In the movie, the show is not Star Trek, but a fictional show of the 70s and 80s called Galaxy Quest, clearly very Star Trek-like. The idea is good, but the execution of the idea is very... laid back. This is a lazy and low-impact movie. It's fun, but there's not much too it. It's not good, and it's not bad. It's about as close to the middle as a movie can get--a perfect 5. This is an ideal movie to be on cable a lot. ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 017 * 1/25/00 Be trio be, thux water pioneer hall transportarky. The running water serenity mind. Airport as symbol of potential. Meaning slash slash of fighting game. Night comic book store commute home. DUSKAWAY 018 * 1/25/00 Diltave, balsa wood magical theme restauarant model. Duntopl, deep breezy bookstore back alley. The adolescent poetry as brave response to the encompassing nothing of the unknown. And the good old times duck theme. DUSKAWAY 019 * 1/25/00 That whole idea of the main road, safe but why not think about what is a few blocks parallel to it. DUSKAWAY 020 * 1/25/00 I want to say that here in Duskaway 20 we can look out the windows at the panorama of Superior. It is with a pleasant painlike feeling similar to the emotion of deep nostalgia that I consider the wonder and magnitude of Superior. And here's a quote from someplace in Superior -- "I am fucking insane". ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 286, 1/19/00 (Book 22, No. 13 / Tarb 12007 / Year 6) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Wed 1/19/00 * 12:42 AM Well, another week and still no big breakthrough in Obliviana. I've been working hard on it, though. I have a vision, and its realization seems just out of reach. It's like, I could get it in five minutes or five months or five years. It's quite frustrating, but I think that once I get it, it will have been worth all the effort. A really, really, really cool game. That's what Obliviana is going to be. Let's just hope that it's closer to five minutes than five years... Get all Obliviana. ------------------- HEMISINISTER REVIEW ----------- Here are some things I'm looking forward to: [1] Sacagawea Golden Dollar Coin (March) -- This cool new U.S. coin could very well change... um, well... change. It's a dollar coin that look like it will make up for the utter disaster of the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin, which so similar in size and appearange to a quarter that it is pretty much useless. If the Sacagawea takes off, it could mean the end of the dollar bill! [2] Dreamcast Game: Crazy Taxi (Feb. 1) -- The arcade version is very cool, and I hope the home version will be awesome, because there aren't many good games for Dreamcast right now (but Soul Calibur more than makes up for it). [3] Steely Dan--Two Against Nature (Feb. 29) -- The band's first album since 1980's "Gaucho". In fact, the two members have only released three solo albums: Donald Fagen's "The Nightfly" and "Kamakiriad", and Walter Becker's "11 Tracks of Wack". I heard a few clips of TAN, and it sounds awesome! [4] Chrysler PT Cruiser (Spring) -- This is a really cool-looking new vehicle, and it'll be interesting to see them around on the road. [5] Book: "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman (Sept. 1) -- Well, I thought this was coming out in March, but Amazon now says it's delayed even further. It's the third installment of the "His Dark Materials" trilogy, and I'm reading the last chapter of the second book, "The Subtle Knife", right now. Both this second book, and the first book, "The Golden Compass", are quite amazing. ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 013 * 1/8/00 Good day 1/8/00 find Dreamcast magazine 2, Indian restaurant calculator reads 209.00. Cinnabon mixup (espresso/extra sauce) but I'm smiling wide about the magazine. DUSKAWAY 014 * 1/18/00 This kid Bianca was ten the last time I saw her. In De La Soul caught a fleeting glimpse of a cultural thing that could have been and still could be. Aggressively nonchalant comic book let me explain it. The dudes that published it thought they were gonna be all famous and shit. But they had some pleasure in the fame fantasy. DUSKAWAY 015 * 1/18/00 Some kid videotaped me on Carmine Street on January 10, 2000. He said "smile for the camera don't you look like a nice guy". I guess he meant I looked mean or angry or whatever. But I always look upset when I'm thinking. DUSKAWAY 016 * 1/18/00 I am still reeling from the utter normality of 2000 so far. As so many people believed, nothing happened. No disaster. I wanted to prepare more, but all I wound up doing was buying ten gallons of water, for about six dollars. Boy I'm glad I'm a procrasinator. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 285, 1/12/00 (Book 22, No. 12 / Tarb 11965 / Year 6) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Wed 1/12/00 * 8:18 PM Hey. It's day 12 of the last year of the 20th Century. This is the second to last issue of Book 22 of OsoaWeek. Right now the Tarb is 11969. And I have Storms 5 and 8 on. 8:37 PM I turned the Storms off. Anyway, I've been working on Obliviana a lot this past week. I have shifted my focus back onto Obliviana as a game. It's very frustrating, in that after years and years of development, where I'm at is so similar to where I've been. But the specifics of my current set of ideas is new, and I have gained much experience in the past few years, and... Anyway, I am getting closer and closer to where I need to be. If there were anyone following OsoaWeek in real time (as opposed to reading issues long after they were released, in Aerie), I imagine it would be quite frustrating, to hear me complain week after week about how I'm ALMOST there. And the understandable response such a reader might think could be "He's never gonna get there. He's just a fucking psycho." Well, I've been at this a long time. I have a vision. And yes, it is very frustrating. And I wonder how much longer I can keep going like this before I give up on this core quest. But I SEEM to be getting VERY close. Now some of you out there might be wondering just what the hell I'm talking about. Well, y'see, Obliviana is something that I have produced a lot of stuff for, but as of yet, there is nothing holding it all together. It is effect with the cause totally hidden. But I get ever closer... Yeah, get all Obliviana. ------------------- EMAIL ----------- Subj: as the world turns? Date: Monday, January 10, 2000 6:51:58 PM From: cosmicfrog_2000@yahoo.com To: obliviana@aol.com hey frank! just trying to get some attention. um, i checked out your website, i love it! one thing, why? in no way offensively at all, but i got lost on your purpose larry ----- Subj: Re: as the world turns? Date: Wednesday, January 12, 2000 8:53:13 PM From: Obliviana To: cosmicfrog_2000@yahoo.com Larry, Indeed, Obliviana does lack purpose right now. I've been working hard every day to try and figure out the "Keystone Idea of Obliviana" that'll bring it all together. I've been working on Obliviana for over 13 years now, and back around the time I started I really believed in the idea of being persistent and never giving up. If I had known back then that 13 years later I'd still be seeking, I'd probably have quit. But even without a core, I am very happy with what I have accomplished in Obliviana. But until I get this "Keystone Idea", Obliviana will remain profoundly confusing to everyone, especially me. 11010001ly, Frank P.S. How was Devil's/Demon's Alley? ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 009 * 1/7/00 My coat is out of control. Prestigous city streets are a wonderland and a horrorland. The emptiness and the sound of splashing water from nowhere seen. Whisk risk library road. A game in mall wanting, and the blossoming of the mall experience. DUSKAWAY 010 * 1/7/00 Mathematical pastimes and sex play. Don't radiate heat radiate paint. How fake is Jupiter. Destruction room. Get to Tales of the Flipped-Out Calculator. DUSKAWAY 011 * 1/7/00 No cord, ambulance dude, road blocked, weird photo, click clack, guitar strap, coffee spill, tea spill, sirens, weird Christmas, couple fighting, young supernatural conversation, illegal turns, unexpected stuff. Storm 2 may have been on the whole time. DUSKAWAY 012 * 1/12/00 Obsessing on a wall map of Walt Disney World and the smell of Silly Putty. Roar at vagueness, distractionas can wear you out, friend. Jerry Harrison Casual Gods and Dayworld by Philip Jose Farmer. Pliable no good thunderdaisy decoration, very blasting rain mess, and you hoot like an owl in the slush of another place. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 284, 1/5/00 (Book 22, No. 11 / Tarb 11923 / Year 6) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Wed 1/5/00 * 10:30 PM Hey, it's 2000. Here is some Tarb info for the dawn of 2000: 10 PM 12/31/99 to 2 AM 1/1/00: Tarb 11898 2 AM 1/1/00 to 6 AM 1/1/00: Tarb 11899 So I decided to rename Superior 3 from "Dusk Overland" to "Duskaway". I had forgotten that back on Obliviana Day 1999 I presented a rough game idea called "High Glyph Overland". And also, I think that "Duskaway" is better. I am presenting here the first four Duskaways, the same as last issue except their titles have changes. So, Y2K came and "nothing happened". My predictions were pretty much totally wrong. I would get enraged by so many people saying in the past few months regarding Y2K, "Nothing's gonna happen." But they were right. Nothing happened. Everything kept on going. So I'm a little messed-up, having expected some level of problems. But whatever. It being 2000, I have the psychological push I need to revamp the direction of my work on Obliviana. It's interesting. I referred above to the "High Glyph Overland" thing (see OsoaWeek261), and at that time (last July) I printed out a sheet with the game rules and graphics and stuff. And then the other day I made a new printout and I've been carrying it around with me, and I think I have a new idea that might help me move toward KIO (the Keystone Idea of Obliviana). Well, that's about all for now. Get all Obliviana. ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY ----------- DUSKAWAY 001 * 7/18/99 Steal gla gla piratint. Droning of so many other people. Flyer sting. Tissue paper in the shoe stores and those who don't ever take ferries. Guy who bugs, he got D Fleepleflase. Fired up again, imagining patterns in tiles on rest room floor. DUSKAWAY 002 * 7/27/99 The solo bright cloako, weed's junky waterfount. A million garbage. Tea jass tangent pretty one. DUSKAWAY 003 * 8/23/99 The same sense of purpose can make computer solitaire fun and make people join cults. Major issue like buying bottles and the stores you have to go to to get them. This is silly and major, this glorification of the self. Major spring. DUSKAWAY 004 * 12/30/99 Wear seldom shades, pole ice shatterer called the pole stoat. The fake weathered look. Dilt Pazzerhaun. The Weekall One building block. Spun siviniliver OK. DUSKAWAY 005 * 1/1/00 Tivian, the share experience walls, like as telling dreams can't get it across. And the specialness you connect to cool mundane spaces, like parking lots. You can't get it across walls. And revere, Tivian, childhood episodes like religion. It is distance we love. DUSKAWAY 006 * 1/1/00 Cool summer day in that town, creative works that are becoming irrelevant. The former hippies, creative dreams weak and smashed. Lack of luck, talent, ambition. Somehow, as meetings at the mall, perservering motor new sunlight. DUSKAWAY 007 * 1/5/00 Erotic Eagle, Dusk Overland, end of Parking, new here at Duskaway. To think of kids in the Sixties into ragtime music, that it was so old then. And the meaning that a dream of mine from several years has to me, not possible to share that feeling, at least I wouldn't impose it. Yeah the dynamite of that word, impose. It's an unvocalized scream from the screech of overwhelming nostalgia, vague nostalgia. Huth. DUSKAWAY 008 * 1/5/00 Decide to do a stupid thing, the feedback can be distracting. Reading about the guy with the museum dream, he was after something. Disorder and time ride side by side, help ease my profound confusion. Stupid idea gotta fight the rejection of the massive craziness slash through pine forest. Make a face no one sees a little private sneer at whatever is out there. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 283, 12/29/99 (Book 22, No. 10 / Tarb 11881 / Year 6) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Thu 12/30/99 * 11:18 PM It's the last OsoaWeek of the 1900s! It's NOT the last OsoaWeek of the Century or the Millennium, since both the 21st Century and the 3rd Millennium do not begin till 1/1/01. But what the heck, let's just go ahead and have a good time! Well, my predictions of Y2K doom from a few issues back have turned out to be totally inaccurate so far. Here we are, 24 hours and 41 minutes away from 2000, and still there has been no panic, no problems to speak of. So my predictions regarding problems in November and December were wrong. Today there was news of several terrorists being arrested. This could be viewed as a good thing or a bad thing, the bad thing being that there are potentially a lot of terrorists out there, the ones caught being a few out of many. Or, the ones in custody could be the only ones. Um... okay... So, I gotta go to bed soon so I get get up bright and early and watch Fox News as 2000 hits the Pacific. But I do want to present to you this issue, in which there are a few news things for ya! First off, I have added the Tarb to the masthead up there. A Tarb is a period of 4 hours, and the Tarb number (in this case, 11881) is the number of Tarbs that have passed since 7/28/94, when I the first issue of OsoaWeek was released. Now, in the past few issues, I referred to "8x2x5=30". This was a mistake on my part. It should actually be "8x2x5=80", of course. Just wanted to clear that up. Fri 12/31/99 * 12:02 AM "Erotic Eagle". This was the name I was thinking of giving to "Superior 3" before settling on "Dusk Overland". So yeah! Superior is back! Parking is over with, Parking (Superior 2) has 122 Superiors. I decided to end it because I haven't worked on Superior for a long time, and it's time for a new series. The first few Dusk Overlands are from this past summer, and I wrote them on my Palm V. They were written as Parkings, but when they were written, the last Parking was already 3 or 4 months old. Whatever. Anyway, Dusk Overland is here! Well, as you can see, I am now under 24 hours away from Y2K. You, reading this, are most likely way in the future of the me right now, and you know what is going to happen in the world as 2000 dawns. But I am still very much in the dark. It could be no big deal, or it could be a big disaster. I don't know. All I know is, OBLIVIANA IS GONNA ROCK IN 2000! YEAH ALRIGHT! Get all Obliviana. ------------------- HEMISINISTER REVIEW ----------- Movie ***MAN ON THE MOON*** Interesting and thought-provoking, but not really a good movie. The movie is trying to do Andy Kaufman-esque things at the expense of telling the story of Andy Kaufman. While Jim Carrey is good at portraying Kaufman, I was never able to get away from "hey, that's Jim Carrey playing Andy Kaufman". Courtney Love is horrible for the movie, as her presence ruins the tone of the film in every scene she's in. But again, it's like "hey, that's Courtney Love, she was Kurt Cobain's wife in real life". And also of course, there's "look, Danny DeVito, playing Andy's agent, but in the scenes from Taxi the real him as could have been portrayed by someone else is not there." And, uh, "Norm MacDonald, playing a castmember of the show 'Fridays'". The legend of Andy Kaufman is potentially diminished by this movie. In the movie, he comes off as an artsy, self-centered jerkoff. I liked the way I thought of him before the movie, as a mysterious weirdo. In fact, I still think of him that way, despite the movie. The more I think about "Man on the Moon", the less I like it. ------------------- SUPERIOR 3: DUSK OVERLAND ----------- DUSK OVERLAND 1 * 7/18/99 Steal gla gla piratint. Droning of so many other people. Flyer sting. Tissue paper in the shoe stores and those who don't ever take ferries. Guy who bugs, he got D Fleepleflase. Fired up again, imagining patterns in tiles on rest room floor. DUSK OVERLAND 2 * 7/27/99 The solo bright cloako, weed's junky waterfount. A million garbage. Tea jass tangent pretty one. DUSK OVERLAND 3 * 8/23/99 The same sense of purpose can make computer solitaire fun and make people join cults. Major issue like buying bottles and the stores you have to go to to get them. This is silly and major, this glorification of the self. Major spring. DUSK OVERLAND 4 * 12/30/99 Wear seldom shades, pole ice shatterer called the pole stoat. The fake weathered look. Dilt Pazzerhaun. The Weekall One building block. Spun siviniliver OK. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 282, 12/22/99 (Book 22, No. 9 (Year 6)) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Sun 12/19/99 * 11:02 PM Well, I started a little while ago writing OsoaWeek276, and now here I am, back to the present! Year 6... wow... Yeah, 6 years of OsoaWeek, but my work on Obliviana stretches back at least to 1986... So now, let's look forward to the year 2000, shall we! 2000! The last year of the 20th Century, though most people will mistakenly think they're in the 21st Century. Oh well. So, will Obliviana finally take off in 2000? I am hopeful that it will, but I realize that judging from the history of Obliviana, that I could go through the entire year without getting the major breakthrough I need to get Obliviana moving. One thing is for sure--every year of Obliviana has brought a huge amount of cool stuff. So if nothing else, I hope to create more wonderful ideas and content. But I do hope that 2000 will the the year that I finally get Obliviana to where I want it to be! There is one aspect of Obliviana that I have been intending to make a reality for quite some time: SOUND! See, I have had the idea under the code name "Welcome to the Weasel Village Mall" for a long time. I already have a HUGE archive of sound, from my old Anything But Monday radio show, to the various videos I have made, and the various tapes I have made, and a lot more! A little over a year ago, I worked with my wife Denice and my sister-in-law Carrie to record and produce Carrie's first album, "Fuzzy Daupner". And just last month, we finished recording an update of Fuzzy Daupner, which increased the 8-song CD by 5 songs, for a total of 13 songs. It's on mp3.com, so go check it out! (www.mp3.com/Carrie Engdahl). Also, I've been helping a local band, "stanleybirch", with their Internet presence, and I got their mp3.com page going. (mp3.com/stanleybirch). I've been playing around with a bunch of audio programs, and also I've been recording a lot of my old material to computer and archiving it in mp3 format. So even if I don't get my breakthrough in 2000, it will be a year of SOUND for Obliviana! Get all Obliviana. ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 281, 12/15/99 (Book 22, No. 8 (Year 6)) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Sun 12/19/99 * 10:59 PM Hi. Here's another email and reponse: ----- Subj: OSOAWeek Date: Sunday, December 5, 1999 3:28:28 AM From: zardoz@mailcity.com To: obliviana@aol.com Hey there Mr. Boy209, Ive been reading some of OSOAWeek, and I just can't fathom how you could rate True Lies a better movie than Fast Times at Ridgemont High. So far, I have browsed through issue 17, mostly reading HR, HT, LA/LO, SO, MB, NJ, & DY. Having the CN at the end of the file is kind of annoying. All in all, it is pretty funny. Jay 2C: 14-2 ----- Subj: Re: OSOAWeek Date: Tuesday, December 7, 1999 12:41:34 AM From: Obliviana To: zardoz@mailcity.com Jay, Well, I have to say that Fast Times IS a better movie than True Lies, but True Lies is the movie we were watching when I kissed my wife for the first time. As far as the contents at the end, I did change that, probably starting in issue 27. Thanks for giving Obliviana some attention, Frank ----- Get all Obliviana! ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 280, 12/8/99 (Book 22, No. 7 (Year 6)) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Sun 12/19/99 * 10:45 PM THE TALE OF DSL Okay. So in in this issue, I'm gonna tell you about my experience in getting DSL. I have it now, and I'm thrilled with it, but as you will see, I had to work hard to get it... It all started in the middle of November. At work, I heard about a special deal the Flashcom was offering. It was for DSL (high speed internet access) with 418K download speed. This is approximately 8x faster than 56K! Anyway, I ordered it, along with two other people at work. But then, the next day, I found out all this stuff about it that the sales man didn't tell me, such as that it would take 4-6 weeks to be installed, that it might not be available to me, that it might be slower than expected, etc. So I called to cancel it. They said that I could cancel the one-year commitment if I did so within 24 hours. What it was, it was a special offer of about $40 a month, as opposed to the usual $50 a month, but it required a one-year commitment. Installation and modem were included free in the offer. So okay, I called to cancel and they said I had to send them the request by filling out a form on their website, but I told them I was at work, and that I would not be able to do it till I got home, and that would be AFTER the 24-hour period. So the person said that they would go online and fill out the form for me. So they did it, and they guaranteed me that it would be okay. Okay. So then, on Friday, December 3, I think, a guy from the installation company called me and said they were ready to install my DSL! Apparently the cancel order did NOT go through. But I figured, what the hell, I'd go ahead. So the guy came the next day and looked in the basement of the apartment building I live in, and didn't find the DSL line. So the next week I called them back, and they said they found the line, so a guy came mid-week, and again didn't find the line. Then I called the apartment office and found out that the main telephone terminal was in the basement of ANOTHER building in my apartment complex. So I scheduled an apartment for Saturday, Dec. 11, and I told them that the guy had to come early, while the maintenance people were still there. Well, I waited all day, and finally the guy came at like 5:30 PM, and we went to the basement of the other building, and we found the DSL line dangling there on the terminal, not connected to anything. So again, nothing could be done. Early the following week, Bell Atlantic (my local phone company) came again, and finished the job they should have done in the first place--wiring the line into my apartment. When I got home the line was ready, and my wife told me that Northpoint, the company that handles the DSL connection, said that I could hook up the modem myself, and I did, but the DSL line was dead; I got no signal. So then I called Flahscom tech support a number of times, and FINALLY the line came on last Thurday, and the DSL was active, and I got my high speed Internet and you know what? It was all worth it, all the bullshit. DSL is awesome! The End. Get all Obliviana! ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 279, 12/1/99 (Book 22, No. 6 (Year 6)) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Sun 12/19/99 * 10:37 PM Hello. I'm in the middle of catching up on OsoaWeek. In this session, I am writing issues 276-282. And hey! I've gotten to December! So let me present to you something from the time period this issue represents... an email I got on Nov. 30, and my response. I think the letter is from Australia, judging from the .au in the sender's email domain... ----- Subj: Aerie Obliviana Date: Monday, November 29, 1999 10:01:05 PM From: doddj@mcsaatchi.com.au To: obliviana@aol.com Frank, I am a long time reader of Science Fiction books and in the past few years I have begun to discover Fan Fiction and amateur writers on the net. I came across your Web site after searching for epic fan fiction. I am deeply intrigued by your Severe Repair stories and have been reading through them voraciously. However, I must confess as to complete confusion over your whole "Little World of Racetracks" / "Forge of Wander" thing. As far as I can tell this seems to be some kind of online RPG or MUDD, you are creating, however, I don't understand how it works, or where it fits in to your overall scheme. Nonetheless, your work is great and I look forward to seeing more of it. PS I have no idea why your pages hit rate has suddenly gone up, but congratulations all the same. Joshua Dodd ----- Subj: Re: Aerie Obliviana Date: Tuesday, November 30, 1999 1:53:15 AM From: Obliviana To: doddj@mcsaatchi.com.au Joshua, Wow, man. The email you just sent about Obliviana means a whole lot to me. See, I've been working very hard on Obliviana for many, many years, and I've been doing it with pretty much no feedback at all. Only two people that I know of have read Severe Repair to any extent--my brother, and a friend of mine. I've been working on it for well over ten years, and I'm very happy with it. But to hear good things about it from a complete stranger is a wonderful thrill for me. As far as "Little World of Racetracks" and all that, I have to say that I am also confused by it. See, I have a vision, and I've been trying like hell to make this vision a reality, and I am still working vigorously on it, but I have not yet broken through. So "Little World of Racetracks" and all that is part of this Obliviana vision that I have yet to fully understand. But "Severe Repair" is a separate thing from this vision stuff. And I do plan on adding to it soon. I have faith in Severe Repair... maybe someday it will reach an audience... And by the way, my hits have started going down again, so I guess I might never know what caused the increase. Thanks for writing, and I look forward to hearing from you again! --Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----- Get all Obliviana! ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 278, 11/24/99 (Book 22, No. 5 (Year 6)) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Sun 12/19/99 * 10:21 PM LITTLE WORLD OF RACETRACKS Little World of Racetracks (LWOR) is something I have been working for quite some time. It's an imaginary world that is a major part of Obliviana, and over the years its potential role has changed many, many times. As I've talked about in the last two issues, I am still questing after a real definition for Obliviana. I know at this point that Obliviana is going to be a game--this is something that I have known for a LONG time, but my thinking on Obliviana changes all the time, and I drift away from ideas and then drift back to them all the time. A while ago I thought that I had indeed arrived at "the answer", and it involved LWOR. In fact, it was on 9/22/99, at the end of Get All Obliviana 2 (check it out in Aerie!). Huh. Just three short months ago. The idea involved using LWOR as a world of ideas, with different ideas being "based" in specific parts of LWOR. This is a good idea, but the problem is--and I was vaguely aware of the problem at the time--that this is a system to organize a set of ideas, and in order for it to work, I need THE RIGHT IDEAS! So it was not the Keystone Idea of Obliviana (KIO), but it was a step in the right direction. Anyway, Little World of Racetracks is really cool. It's based on the 11x19 grid of 209 squares, and in this aspect is incorporates the idea "11x19=209". As well, there are 8 Major Racetracks, 5 Minor Racecourses, and 2 Ways (the Waterway and the Railway). In this aspect, it incorporates "8x2x5=30" (the Octagon aspect of Obliviana). This may not make a lot of sense to you, but let me tellya, I was always very focused on the whole "11x19=209" aspect of Obliviana, and the "8x2x5=30" Octagon aspect was something it took me a long time to (somewhat) understand and accept. Anyway, with all this in mind, LWOR is indeed the "imaginary world" of Obliviana, but as I mentioned, its potential role has always been changing. What I can say right now is that when I finally crack KIO, LWOR will be ready and waiting to be a major cornerstone of establishing Obliviana. I just wat to add here that as I've been continually working on Obliviana for all these years, I've been leading a somewhat normal existence. I have a steady job and I'm married to my wonderful wife, Denice. Yes, people around me are bewildered a bit by Obliviana, but I just keep moving ahead with it. Well, it's almost 2000. Hopefully the winds of change that are coming with 2000 will help me achieve KIO. In 12 days, it will be an hour-and-a-half till 2000. And Christmas is only a little more than five days hence! Yeah! Cool presents! Cool man! Get all Obliviana! ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 277, 11/17/99 (Book 22, No. 4 (Year 6)) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Sun 12/19/99 * 10:09 PM Hello! Welcome to OsoaWeek277! I hope you enjoy your stay. Well, let me tell you, some people have been checking out the Obliviana website, and everyone is confused by it. People get the impression that I am intending for Obliviana to be some kind of MUD or something, and I have to admit to people that I don't really understand what Obliviana is either. But I really don't want it to be a MUD. An online community. Such a thing would be secondary what Obliviana really is. That is, Obliviana is this cool thing, and people want to communicate about it, so an online community kinda thing is called for. But the MUD aspect would be, as I said, secondary. So, we get back to the issue of what Obliviana is, as I talked about a few minutes in last week's issue. Obliviana is a game that transcends computers. It uses parts of the human mind/spirit that have until now been totally forgotten. And I'm trying to remember. But also in trying to define Obliviana, you do have to look at what Obliviana already IS. I mean, this is Obliviana Year 6, after all, and there is a lot of stuff in Obliviana, even though it is still undefined. Aerie Obliviana is by far the most important existing part of Obliviana. Aerie is an "online book" that right now contains pretty much complete archives of OsoaWeek, Superior and Severe Repair, along with some Zope material. This represents many thousands of pages of writing, a huge amount of content. I have big plans for the future of Aerie, but even as it is now, it is, in my estimation, a pretty impressive accomplishment. And then... then there's Little World of Racetracks... and I'll talk about that NEXT ISSUE! Get all Obliviana! ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 276, 11/10/99 (Book 22, No. 3 (Year 6)) by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Sun 12/19/99 * 9:54 PM Well, the last time I worked on OsoaWeek was 46 days ago. But I do intend to catch up! So first of all, I'm going to institute a few OsoaWeek formatting changes. As you may know, I have usually made format changes from Book to Book (a Book being 13 issues, 13 weeks), But Book 22 started without me being aware of it, since it was in the middle of the last time I did a big catch-up of issues. Anyway, I'm now going to put the Book number and the issue number within the Book in the heading. And the year too! Pretty wild, huh! And also, I am getting rid of "Song of the Week" for the time being, because I don't feel like straining to come up with what songs I was into for each of the past 7 or 8 weeks. Okay. So, what's up with Obliviana? Well, Obliviana is in a kind of "suspended animation" at the moment. I have been struggling to get the last piece of the puzzle, and as yet, I have not gotten it. I have been making steady progress, however. And I think I have zeroed in on the nature of the missing piece of the puzzle, which is definitely a step in the right direction. And y'know what? I'm gonna describe it to ya! So what I got in Obliviana here is, I have this 209/Stormjaunting system, which is this awesome supernatural system that is quite easy to do, and which is awesome. The problem is, the system is lacking a context, and it is this context that is the missing piece of the puzzle. It's gonna be like a game, where Stormjaunting and other associated activities are motivated and organized in a way that people can share with one another in different ways. Well, there you go. And now, I'll move on to writing the next issue. See ya there! Get all Obliviana! ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 275, 11/3/99 by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Wed 11/3/99 * 9:54 PM Hey! First of all, you gotta help me out. Sometime in the past few weeks, the Obliviana website began getting a major increase in hits. I went from getting about 1 hit a day to getting over 30 hits a day in the past few weeks. Today, my counter reach 1000! (Since 1/1/99). Most of these hits were in the past few weeks. So if you're reading this, and it's still like November or December 1999 in your current timestream, AND if you know why I might have gotten this sudden increase in hits, please email me at obliviana@aol.com. Also, in general, I have to say that even though I have gotten an increase in hits, I haven't gotten any emails regarding the site. So if you could send me an email about the Obliviana website, I would be ecstatic! Anyway, I want to talk a little about Obliviana in general. First of all, I think Aerie Obliviana is a major milestone in Obliviana. It contains a huge amount of information in a highly organized way. And I'm planning to add lot to Aerie in the coming months. Now, as to the question "What is Obliviana?", I still don't have an answer, but I am getting closer. The existing material in Obliviana is quite wonderful and extensive, but it does lack a "Keystone Idea" that would bring all the disparate areas together. It is this "Keystone Idea" that I am currently focusing much of my efforts on. Huh. I just mispelled the word "efforts" as "effforts". This is a little disturbing. F is the 6th letter of the alphabet, and hence fff can be seen as repreenting 666. 666 is commonly known as the Biblical "Number of the Beast", but I understand it more to represent a period of time--specifically, a time of great change The misspelling has brought the subject up, so I might as well say something about it. Y2K is less than two months away now, and I am worried. Many people seem to be programmed to say "Nothing's gonna happen", without any real knowledge of the dangers. The next six months will be a period of troubles, or maybe more precisely, a period of heightened troubles. And it will most certainly be a period of change. I welcome this change if major change is to come. The '90s have become stale. Political correctness has been an annoyance for sure, but it is giving way to apathy. At least misguided liberal youth CARED about stuff. I think more and more, kids and people in general care less and less. Stale. An economy that looks great on paper, but everyone is working harder to get less and going into debt in the process. The highest taxes ever. And apathy about all of this. And the whole thing about the year 2000. A few years ago, I thought that this period of time--the last few months till 2000--would be very exciting. But it's just a very dull, numb feeling. Excitement about it being 2000 offset by fear of Y2K disasters. The rise of the Internet, and the general advances in computer technology have been pretty cool, though. The state of music right now is pretty lame, but this year has been a great year for movies. So I don't know. The '90s are not all stale, but in general, I would like to see some major change, and I think it's inevitable. So as far as the dangers go, we got the computer bug, which will certainly cause a lot of problems, but it probably won't reduce us to a Road Warrior society. At least in the US. Terrorism, looting, rioting... these are BIG dangers. And one danger that I haven't heard many people talking about is the potential for elements of the US government to use the Y2K disasters and the general apathy of the people to alter the nature of government in a more totalitarian direction. And also, there is the whole religious angle. A lot of people believe that some kind of Judgement Day is near. And I have to think that even if the average person doesn't pay these theories much heed, it must be in the back of a lot of people's minds... Anyway, I might as well give my predictions, for what they're worth: In general, Y2K will be worse than most people are predicting, but we in the US will be somewhat back to normal by Summer 2000. Other countries may be more severely damaged. Trouble will start later this month, from, say, the 14th to the 24th. This will relate to people reacting to warnings from the government. December will be marked by an ever-increasing state of preparation. I believe that due to this preparation, the actual crossover to 2000 will not result in instant disasters; the last week of December and the first week of January will be similar. The preparation for Y2K and the fear it will generate will hurt the economy, and I see January as being a very dark time. Many people may not be able to go to work, and this will result in damage to the economy, and specifically to distribution of needed supplies. Also, I think it's a safe bet that it will be a rough winter. January will be a time of despair--it might seem as if things will only get worse. But in the USA, at least, we will recover, and by the end of February, things will definitely be looking up. As far as specific problems beyond the preparations, I see computer bug-related problems being severe in some areas, but not in an overall sense. Terrorism will, I believe, also be a problem, but not as widespread as some fear, at least in the US. Okay. So in general, I see everyone getting very much scared out of their wits, and the US suffering a period of trouble, followed by a time of optimism. It will be like America was given a slap in the face to wake it up. The world beyond the USA will in some areas have very severe problems. I think that in the next several years, America will be focused on trying to help the rest of the world recover. This will bring people together, and give us all a common cause. Well, that's my prediction. I realize that I will almost certainly be totally wrong about all this, but come on man, it's fun to predict! Oh, and I also predict that Obliviana will finally launch for real in 2000! Yeah man! Get all Obliviana! ------------------- SONG OF THE WEEK ----------- stanleybirch, "Hello Peru" (Album: "Producto Peruano") ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 274, 10/27/99 by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Fri 10/29/99 * 12:17 AM Well, it looks like I've finally caught up. I just wrote OsoaWeeks 271, 272, and 273, and now I'm writing 274. My parents went to Turkey last month, and they got me a cool Meerschaum pipe, which I just smoked for the first time. Meerschaum is quite excellent, y'know? So where is Obliviana at? I feel that it is almost ready to become real, to burst forth. All that I lack is the Keystone Idea... So what could this Keystone Idea be? Well, it has something to do with the human condition. Sleeping, aging, situational corridors, taking so much for granted. Something about the names we call ourselves, what we think of ourselves as. Obliviana as the "Eighth Sense". On Columbus Day, a week or two ago, I left work early and took the subway to Brooklyn and walked over the Brooklyn Bridg back to Manhattan. Than I took a subway to Roosevelt Island and took the Tramway back to Manhattan. Then I walked down 57th Street, to the Sony store, all that. The other day I was inspired to work on a children's book project that I have given the working tital "Ten Iol Brats". I want my wife Denice to illustrate it. So, that's about it for this OsoaWeek writing session. Four issues in under and hour. And now I'm gonna put 'em all online! Get all Obliviana! ------------------- SONG OF THE WEEK ----------- The Dust Brothers, "Who is Tyler Durden?" (Album: "Fight Club Soundtrack") ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 273, 10/20/99 by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Fri 10/29/99 * 12:03 AM So in the past week I've had a mall debut disappointment and a movie debut surprise... um... well, whatever the opposite of "disappointment" is... Anyway, here in the Garden State of New Jersey, a new mall opened up last week on 10/21/99, called Jersey Gardens, located in Elizabeth, near Newark Airport and the IKEA by the Turnpike. I only heard about the mall a few days earlier, from my sister-in-law Carrie. Well, I checked out the mall's website, I got the info, and I was really looking forward to it. By the way, I've had a lot of sushi lately, the vegetarian kind, and particularly avocado roll and ume shiso roll. Just thought I'd mention it. Anyway, I went to Jersey Gardens after work, and it was amazingly crowded, and it was huge, but I was somewhat disappointed by it. The movie that was awesome was Fight Club. I saw it this past Saturday, and I tellya, I think it's the best movie of the year. Better than The Matrix, Phantom Menace, AND Eyes Wide Shut, and these are all awesome movies. I saw Fight Club again the other night, and it was totally awesome the second time, and I can't wait to see it again. It was this past Saturday, 10/23/99, and the New York Post reported that Howard Stern was separated from his wife. Stern was on the air on Monday and Tuesday talking about it, but he was off on Wednesday and Thursday. I assume he'll be off today as well. This news has definitely struck a nerve. Howard Stern is a major part of the cultural landscape around here, and his faithfulness to his wife has been a cornerstone of his appeal. This breakup is a disappoinment to many people. With Y2K just 63 days away, and many people fearing that various parts of this world will break apart to some extent, Howard Stern's breakup seems to be part of a Fall 1999 theme... things falling apart... foundations failing... the winds of change starting to rage... And Obliviana is still fetal. Well, at this point, it seems to me that Obliviana is ALMOST ready to burst forth onto the scene... and maybe the change that is coming with the dawn of the year 2000 will help Obliviana come forth. Because whatver the level of disaster, it finally being thee year 2000 will be an exciting and potentially change-ridden thing... Get all Obliviana. ------------------- SONG OF THE WEEK ----------- Bjork, "Human Behavior" (Album: "Debut") ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 272, 10/13/99 by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Thu 10/28/99 * 11:47 PM So I checked my website, and for the past week or two I've been getting like 30-40 hits a day! I tried a few searches to see if someone linked to my site or something, but I haven't been able to figure out what spurred the increased visits. But it's cool! If anyone reads this in this time period, and you know of some reference to Obliviana in the media that may have caused this upswing, please email me at obliviana@aol.com and let me know! So right now I'm writing several issues in one sitting, which started last issue. Just tryin' to catch up. Having OsoaWeek up to date will be one less thing weighing on my mind. So I still haven't done a review of Nova Scotia and PEI in Hemisinister Review. I should do that soon. So I had a breakthorugh in Obliviana a few weeks ago, and I said then that it would have to stand the test of time. Well, with some perspective, it is absolutely a great breakthrough, the "New Obliviana Foundation", but I am still lacking that single sentence, that single simple idea, that KEYSTONE IDEA, that will set everything into motion. The idea of "The Eighth Sense" is a part of the New Obliviana Foundation, and this idea is, I think, close to the Keystone Idea, but I am not quite there yet. If you've read lots of OsoaWeek and Get All Obliviana, you probably know that I do have a supernatural side to my life. It's something that I deal with almost every day, but I try and keep it in perspective. It's mostly me dealing with supernatural forces, my own personal forces, and not me dealing with any kind of supernatural entities (other than making it clear to any entities out there that I don't want any contact with them). This may sound quite insane, and I realize this, and I accept the possibility that it could be some kind of delusion to, paradoxically, help keep me sane. But I'm pretty sure there's some truth to it. On a different subject, I went to a "NAVA" videogame meeting down at my friend Mike's store in Howell (www.videogameconnections.com) a few weeks ago, and there was a MAME arcade cabinet there, called "Vertical Hold", with all vertical games, made by the great John Dondzilla. It was really cool. And on another different subject, I did some work on Little WOrld of Racetracks a few weeks ago (probably somewhat concurrent with the time period of this issue of OW), and I did discover a cool potential basis for Racetrack Stunposso and Waterway Jincafurhee, by futting squares and circles into the "free space" of LWOR. So I think I'll be able to come up with the layouts for Stunposso and Jincafurhee pretty soon. Anyway, let me wrap this issue up and move on to the next one! Get all Obliviana. ------------------- SONG OF THE WEEK ----------- Bjork, "Army of Me" (Album: "Post") ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 271, 10/6/99 by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- Thu 10/28/99 * 11:33 PM This issue is over three weeks late, but I'm gonna do this issue instead of skipping it, man! Okay. Where the heck am I at? Well, right now, it's 64 days and 25 minutes till Y2K. I walk through Times Square on my way home from work most days, and 42nd. Street is becoming quite interesting... I'm getting more and more glimpses of the entertainment complexes that I assume will be mostly open by New Years. The Broadway City Arcade is already open, and it's pretty cool. So I'm really into videogame emulation, especially MAME, a program that emulates over 1700 arcade games, and which adds 30-40 games every couple of weeks. Recently, I was thinking of starting a MAME review site, starring Zope, and to be called "Zope's Arcade Night College". I still think I might do it. I got a start on my Analog Backup of my old tapes, but that project is now stalled, but I will get back to it soon. My sister-in-law Carrie put on a concert on 10/23/99, and it went really well. I recorded it and made a CD. My wife Denice did a painting for the cover and I did the graphics. It looks pretty awesome. I had a dream last night, and I was driving with my parents when I saw a Stealth Bomber with an A-10 Warthog attached to the top of it. It veered behind a building, then I spotted it again, and then it was clear it was gonna crash. I braced myself, and it crashed, and then... it was like I was trying to figure out what would happen if something like that happened... like the lights going out... Anyway, it was a few months later, and I knew the plane was gonna crash again, and I was trying to get ready, but I wasn't ready yet. Playing with Boba Fett toys in a bathtub as the time approached. I sat in a car with my father, and said that I had been in the same exact spot when it happened before. Then I had to run back into this building, back to someone else's apartment, to get something or do something, with the crash imminent... Pretty clearly a fear-of-Y2K dream. Y'know, if nothing happens, then making fun of people fearing Y2K will be a funny subject in the future. But let me tellya, right now, it's not really funny. I feel kinda numb. Oh well. Let me continue next week... which I will write right now! Get all Obliviana. ------------------- SONG OF THE WEEK ----------- Bjork, "Hunter" (Album: "Homogenic") ------------------- END ----------- ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----