March 6, 2006: Insomnia 
I haven't been able to sleep lately. Heh. It makes me crazy. Things are okay though. I'm back in school since staying in school is cool and drugs are bad, so I'm taking math classes and stuff. Oh I have an exam in five hours, so it's time to start studying for that.

You'll probably get a kick out of the new thing on F Sharp... it reflects my current mental state and employs some pretty slap-happy scripting.

Oh, and you might not notice it, but I pretty much got rid of that invisible frameset that this site was stuck in before. AJAX is a much more elegant method of dynamic server communication. Not that you should care, but the site has a slightly more elegant architecture, and it should now be visible to search engines. The Chess and Sillyputty pages are now using invisible IFRAMEs since the code to these pages is too horribly done for it to be worth converting to AJAX. Between now and when I built these pages, I've had nearly two years of commercial web site development in a full-time business environment, so you can be sure that forthcoming pages will be much more well-coded. I apologize for n00bish PHP code that you can't see anyway! Woo hoo! Fun fun fun!

Um yeah, that surely made tons of sense. I need to study for my music theory exam now. Ta ta!

 May 3, 2005: well it's been awhile... 
I've been kind of slammed with work. I plan to redesign Zinn-X.com very soon... right now I have a review of the Stasis NV6800C1 posted here.

You probably have no idea what that means. Anyway, the new site should look similar to that and be advanced to a new level of standards compliance. And there will actually be content.
It will probably be stuff for geeks though since I am now a full time computer nerd. So probably no more videos of crazy shit, although you can still get the final Scream Team video here. (37 megabytes).

Unfortunately, I doubt I'll ever be coming back to the Midwest. Too much has changed. I never expected to be making money out here. I never expected to enjoy my job. But the unlikely happened: I have a reason to stay, and my family is following me out here.

Just a news flash. It's been so long I doubt anyone reads this old site.

 October 12, 2004: new town, new job 
Hmm, it's been awhile since I updated... nowadays I'm living in Santa Cruz, have a tiny room all to myself and work at a computer company doing tech support and programming. Life couldn't be better. So whatever.

When this entry becomes visible on zinn-x.com, it will mean that the DNS change for the domain has successfully propagated and that the site is now hosted on my company's server.

My friend Duane Roberts of Mind Projection Internet Solutions had been giving me free hosting before, and for that I am eternally greatful. My employers are offering the same, and since they're an ISP, I have a lot more control over my setup and it's a bit closer to home. (The old server was in England)

As for updates, no guarantees for the time being. I'll try to get back to Zinn-X when I have another break from reality. If you're reading this message and you aren't me, then you're about one of ten people who regularly visits this site... so ... congratulations. I just wish this had caught on more for all the hundreds of hours I put into it.

Um... whatever.

 September 8, 2004: happy birthday to me 
Yipee! I'm not a teenager anymore. Is that something to be happy about? I dunno. Maybe it means I'm getting old and obsolete. I hope to be about a quarter done with life now, (plan to die at 81) and so far so good.

I just got back from the Canadian Rockies road trip... it was amazing! And apparently I'm not half bad at photography. Check out the new photos page. Maybe I'm just full of myself again...

So Monday is the big move. I'm not sure if I'll have Internet access anymore... Jesus! That thought scares me! I would take Internet over proper nutrition. So, guess I'll shell out $$$ for DSL and only eat Perkins and Starbucks every day instead of Aqua and Red Lobster. And I'll have to get a BMW instead of a Porsche. Too bad. Santa Cruz, here I come!!!

 August 27, 2004: skipping town 
up for two days straight now so busy just had so much to do recorded awful song with brother and illustrious andy zelman (hidden in obscure part of site) walked to food n fuel with broom for no reason and forced people at cub foods to listen to awful drank perkins bottomless pot of coffee paint living room ran out of paint while watching wet hot american summer eat a lot of oatmeal and cereal chug coffee (share with dad since he's getting up at time but he has to work) record a song (on music page) mow the lawn the blade got jammed in damp grass i should mow more than once every five weeks find out other site i run has been completely destroyed plot revenge to destroy perpetrator get more paint finish painting the room with the painting roller do laundry spill ink in the washing machine whoops clothes ruined (new wardrobe time) ask for money no money is given burn cd's for the road cd burning software crashes repeatedly anger rage cursing finally works have dandy warhols bohemian like you stuck in head all day damn damn damn damn i'm gonna go to santa cruz and beat that internet company that didn't hire me out of business i'm going to steal all their clients and see how they like me doing the same thing for half their price and still get rich

i'll be back in a week.

 August 25, 2004: In god we rust. 
If you look around you see a simple world cuz it's too easy.
You dislike gray and I dislike you not since I am too lazy.

It's just you must consume, absorb, have every
Thing that you do not need, but want, sickening me.
You pull me in, absorb my will, instigating
My life in this charade of your humanity.

Program us to tune out, drop in for a function
Of yours. Keep us fearing the worst every second
That you herd us into this cage you call freedom
It's not too late to break away from an awful pattern

Binary has a place--oh yes but its not perception.
Strangling someone else takes place through a disconnection.
Fueling the war machine keeps us in a misdirection.
Dividing us and them. (oh we're so much better)

Break it, smash it, throw it away:
Your dominated mind,
Or take all you see from an evil on top;
You might as well be blind

When the world bites back and it's time to pay
This hypertrophic charge,
It's a pretty price and I hate to say
"In god we rust at large."

 August 22, 2004: updates galore! 
Hellohello!
The unemployment is going wonderfully. I've had a nice amount of time to work on the site in this short window of time before life gets serious again. So here it is: a brand new game for your gaming pleasure. Actually, two games in one. Check out the "focus" page, and be sure to notice the buttons in the lower corners.

Oh, and I couldn't get that stupid Men Without Hats "We can dance if you want to" song out of my head, so I did a cover of it to mock it. Check it out on the music page. Sadly, the damn thing is still stuck in my head.

Believe me, more updates are soon to come. The upcoming project should be VERY cool when it's ready.

Peace out!

 August 6, 2004: it's unemployment! 
Long time, no blog, eh? Perhaps I've been feeling more than a little sheepish at having pansied out of my truck unloading job. Having heavy machinery fall on your head and getting thrown into piles of damp, filthy laundry does tend to make a person less enthusiastic. But the temp agency has gotten me various other crappy manual labor jobs since. Whatever.

In any case, I've saved enough up to return to Santa Cruz and get a place, so that's good. Speaking of Santa Cruz, the Univerity (which I can no longer afford)sent me a packet with some forms the other day. But it wasn't just ANY packet of forms. No, it was super deluxe. The forms arrived in a high quality, full-color printed folder that looked like it had been designed by a professional graphic designer. "WOW," said I, "this is eye-catching and aesthetically pleasing!" And it only probably cost $3 to print the damn thing. Multiply that by 15,000 resident students (forget postage and graphic designer fees), and the whole project still doesn't cost as much as it would cost me to go to school there this fall as an out-of-stater. But that's not my point.
What really bugs me is that the place spends tens of thousands of dollars designing, printing and mailing total frivolities when they're broke, their students are broke and they have to raise the cost of tuition faster than inflation to keep from totally collapsing. It just doesn't make sense! I tell you, it's crazy!

Um, as for the site, no major updates lately. I've been thinking about making a computer game in Flash and even designed a few sprites. Here's our hero, the fabulous Zinn: Hope you like. Ta ta for now.

 July 19, 2004: it's work! 
Howdy.
Last time I blogged, I believe it was the night after my first day on the job, I was raving about my crappy job. Thankfully, my company rewards the long-time employees who tough it out and hang in there. So on my second day, I got promoted.

Now I work on the loading docks. It's 50 hours a week of heavy manual labor. And you know what? I love it. It's much more fulfilling than folding napkins all day, it's getting paid to work out, and it's driving trucks around. And all the overtime I'm getting makes it even better!

Ahh, I love my job. I suppose the promotion could have had something to do with the last person who had the job being fired, (and who subsequently returned to threaten my manager, if only to have the police called on him) but I like to think of it as a gift from heaven.

It is all part of my plan to return to Santa Cruz this fall. Since I'm out of state AND the economy is fucked, it would cost $40,000 to go back to school at the University of California in Santa Cruz for another year. Screw that. I'm saving up money to move down there, get a place, and work until I establish residency. Then it will be relatively free to go to school there and Pop Tarts will grow on trees.

And no more midwest.

 July 14, 2004: chess update 
Per the request of the illustrious AndyZelman9000 (who totally kicks my ass at chess) I've made it so that each player starts out with their pieces on the bottom. Before, white would always be on the bottom, and black would always be on top, but no more!

I had to modify quite a bit of code to achieve this, so new bugs may have been introduced. So, as always, be on the lookout!

I hope this makes the game feel more like natural to whoever plays as black. I really appreciate comments, suggestions and feedback, and hope to get more of them!

Blah, it's 5:40 AM and I have to go to work soon. Which sucks (more than it normally would) because I can't sleep because I've been having nightmares about how I hate this job. I have to stand slightly hunched over for 8 hours in this 120 degrees Farenheit laundry room and fold napkins and towels as quickly as possible as they're spat out of this giant industrial drying machine that blasts hot air in my face. It's so much fun, the nightmares were about how I wish I could work their 24 hours a day, 7 days a week but CAN'T.

Whatever, at least it's $$$. Peace out.