oobi sunt?
(oobi mail)

For some time now, we've been kicking around the idea of an e-mail version of oobi. We haven't worked out the details on that ... not sure it will even work. We're amenable to suggestions. Someone wrote in with a BBS version that apparently didn't work out so well (see below).

For now, what we're doing is pasting oobi images on standard-issue envelopes, addressing them, and "setting them free."

We're taking odds, here, people.

If you think of a viable oobi method, let us know.

The following is a description of the BBS oobi attempt.

In the late '60's a company produced a product that was intended to circulate the US (if not the world). It was orange and roughly egg-shaped. It opened at the middle and had two black eyes painted on it to make it cute.

The idea was to simply send Oobi on its way by leaving it somewhere conspicuous and then as it is was picked up by others and they read the instructions, they too would send it a little further (or alot depending on where they happen to be going). I bought a couple of them, as they came in a two-pack (if I recall), and wrote name and location as the instructions indicated. After some time Oobi was to return to you, a little worse for wear, but intact and with a list of all the people that had helped to move Oobie along. Unfortunately I never saw Oobi again.

Of course the grand idea of Oobi was to bring the world a little closer together by allowing a person to travel and make new friends vicariously through Oobi. Well, I have nothing against unity. And I really don't know what good any of this is, but I decided that it is time for a shot at an electronic Oobi. And here is where it begins, in Martinez California on March 16, 1995. All that is asked of you is that you upload this file to a BBS that you use. One that is as far away as possible and add your name (real or handle) to the list below. There is nothing more to it. We might simply call it an experiment, and you can be a part.

I will upload Oobie as OOBI001.zip and as YOU upload it to another BBS, rename it with a filename one digit higher. That way if it comes back here, I'll know that it is not the same Oobi I sent. Oobis with lower number filenames can be deleted from the boards to keep the clutter low.

So here goes:

Mark S. // Martinez, CA // March 16. 1995