ugh, I hate it when irssi freezes.
anyways, say the engine keeps a list of objects that can be seen. these may be
specific to senses; at the very leat I want short and long-range sense (taste
vs. sound, etc). now, the lowest level can cycle through these continuously...
or the engine can push the objects at hte senses when something changes...
also, any new objects added should gte immediate attention. not sure if a norn
cares about objects leaving their view. most likely not, unless they're
looking at it at the time.

but... as it cycles through, the norn needs a way of telling it to fix on
certain things, it needs a way of telling hte higher levels they *need* to
focus on something. basically we need some consistent focus mechanism, with
some sort of unique-ish id that can be used to make sure we're reporting data
for the right object. and we need to make sure the norn doesn't mistake a
change of focus from something making a fuss for a change of the
attributs of the object it *was* focusing on.