Dan Zen Teaches at Sheridan in Interactive Media – Reviews and Ratings

Click to see more Sheridan Interactive Media Grad Shows

I teach at Sheridan College in Canada.  Here are some student reviews over the years – I hope this is not inappropriate – if you think so, please message me.  I teach Interactive Coding in the Interactive Media post-grad program and also teach in Web Development, Web Programming, Interactive User Interface Design in Sheridan Computing courses.

If I had to spend 3 hours in a class room and 9 hours at Sheridan, I wouldn’t want it to be for any other class.

Dan Zen is the best University [UofT Gaming] teacher I’ve Ever had.

The course is the greatest!

Class is always fun, innovative and interactive

Best Professor [large underline]

Wonderful learning experience, wish he can teach more courses!

Great Prof.

Great professor who understands and is enthusiastic about the course / topic he teaches

Great Professor 🙂

Amazing class.  Truly engaging and enthusiastic prof makes the process of learning code and game theory a blast and therefore very informative and a great learning experience was had.  Prof used a great number of effective methods to describe complex concepts and codes and make them easy to understand and accessible.  Fantastic experience [multiple underlines]

Professor Dan Zen is an excellent instructor and teaches with lots of passion and understanding.  He is able to teach a lot of important details within a short time period.  Great class and great Professor.  Thanks.

Thank you Dan!!!!!!! You are really the best!!!  Also I love ZIM, I will use it commercially if I have an opportunity to develop campaign for a client, whether I continue to work in PR or in coding or UX!

Great enthusiastic attitude in course material and communicating effectively to students.

On of the best classes I’ve ever had thus far.  His energy and interest has kept me awake during class, something I wish all instructors had.

Great enthusiasm for Professor and good to work with.

Great prof!

He is an amazing prof.  He teaches very well and knows how to explain.  Very understanding.

Great Prof!

Great prof and course!

Very enthusiastic about the material; explaining coding in an easy to understand way

Great teacher.  Keep up the good work

Best class I’ve ever had!  Prof Dan Zen has very high enthusiasm and makes going to class very enjoyable!

Best course I have ever taken at Sheridan. 🙂

Great and unique course, recommend to all – applied learning through out – class experiences were great [underline]

I like this class very much.  It is fun and enjoyable and at the same time you learn a lot of new things.

The prof is proud of what he does and teaches a great course.  Very fun class to be a part of.

Very enthusiastic professor!  Looking forward to your classes next year!

Dan Zen is a great prof who shows a lot of enthusiasm while teaching.  Good Job!

Dan Zen is extremely enthusiastic and a great professor.  Easy to talk to.  By far one of my favourite professors

Excellent teacher, the only on I’ve met so far who encourages class participation and interaction with other students.  Explains the lessons very clearly with lots of hands on activities and exercises to ensure comprehension.  Very enthusiastic.

Prof. Zen is a very enthusiastic and knowledgeable teacher who makes learning experience very enjoyable.  This is arguably my favourite course in comparison to all others taken as a UofT student.  I look forward to coming to class every week and hope to enroll in other courses taught by him.

I enjoy how he teaches.  He should teach a workshop for professors.  He makes the class enjoyable – thank you.

The course was very well taught with lots of enthusiasm and always in a good mood.

I think Dan Zen expresses great interest in teaching and he is very well informed and full of ideas.

You are awesome!! =)

Professor Dan Zen is just so much fun to learn from because he brings his enthusiasm to class and is passionate about games.  Best professor I have had in my University time span.

Great enthusiasm, wide knowledge, coding expert, extremely helpful. Great teacher.

Very eccentric and enthusiastic

Very good prof, Dan Zen.  Very descriptive and explains things well.  Highly recommend for future reference.

Great professor.  Provides a unique learning experience combining many effective teaching techniques.

Professor has been very supportive in helping me learn coding and I have found this course very valuable.

He is very enthusiastic about his work and gets students just as enthusiastic about the course work.  He is also very helpful and understanding.

Shows very high enthusiasm in the classroom and attends to every question raised by each student.  Makes learning a lot of fun and uses many examples to relate to the concepts to make it easier.

Very fun class!

-> Great professor -> very fun and interesting class

I never thought a teacher could actually make me be more interested in programming.  Congratulations Dan!

Awesome classes conducted in active interesting way. Having fun while learning makes the knowledge gained stay in mind much better and longer.  Awesome semester!  Thank you!

Dan Zen has done amazing things in the past and speaks from a breadth of experience. He makes time for every student and is fantastic at catering to individual needs.

You are so relatable and it creates a great environment in the classroom and amongst the students. You appropriately integrate fun and humor to make the lessons engaging and enjoyable.

Dan is really knowledgeable and is a great resource for learning coding. He is great at teaching to all skill levels in the class. The material is quite intimidating but Dan keeps it interesting and engaging. My interest and desire to master programming keeps growing as the term progresses.

Interactive Coding is a great course and I am so surprised at how much I already know how to do with it. Dan Zen is a great instructor and he is very enthused about the topic, even at 9 in the morning.

Dan Zen is a great instructor. He is truly unique and has a way of explaining material in an engaging way. Even though my strong suit isn’t coding, I know since I have started I have learned a lot and Dan opened my eyes to the beauty world of coding. Another great thing about Dan is that he does not only teach us how to code but rather to think creatively and challenge the status quo of society. He makes us think and explore ourselves and find what we are passionate about and express that idea in a unique way.

Dan Zen is an absolute pleasure. He is very passionate about his work, technology and very happy to share with us his passion and zest. He is very dynamic, keeps the classes going with interesting stories of his rich past experiences and it always pertains to the subject and lesson in hand. I am very very happy to have met Dan as he reminds me of myself where the zaniness, wackiness, creativeness is always welcome in an environment that fosters creativity, advancements in new technology and overall brotherhood and sisterhood within the classroom and outside. Thanks Dan!

I have never met a professor that instills so much inspiration and learning encouragement as Dan. My main reason to join the program wasn’t to learn, it was to be taught and inspired by him. With such a complicated curriculum as programming interactive media, Dan is able to amazingly make everything clear. Whatever was not clear to me, Dan brought comfort in telling us that it will come in time. And it did. It really is all about the teacher. I am sure I would have given up on coding if it wasn’t for the dedication, professionalism, and pedagogical understanding that Dan possesses. What a teacher. I will truly miss him when the program ends. Dan has given me the logical tools and creative inspiration I need to delve deeper into programming, and for that I thank him so very much.

Professor Dan Zen does an exceptional work within this course. Throughout the learning process which is taught really well, students feel comfortable with the methodology and the teacher. The teacher really engages himself and concerns if all the students are learning. Which is really a plus. Awesome work!

This is my favorite course. The assignments allow a lot of freedom to design what we want to create, making us very proud of what we produce. Dan gives us enough tools to play with, and let our imaginations go wild. The assignments are also catered to various skill levels, so everyone is learning at their pace. Everyone is given the option to explore and challenge themselves if they wish. Interactive Coding is great!!!!

Interactive Coding has been an exciting class and one of my favorite classes.

It has been amazing to delve inside the mind of Dan and analyze his creations (feather series). Having Dan actually explain the steps he took to create a certain Class or application was thoroughly helpful. Even though I found this class a bit outside of my scope of understanding, I did learn the holistic approach to Multimedia Pioneering.

For an intro class, I think the assignments were very appropriate, in terms of learning multimedia pioneering. Assignments helped me understand it better. The prof was always very approachable and was available for help. Great enthusiasm for technology and for this course subject.

I am very proud and honored to be in the presence of Dan Zen and absolutely love the way he thinks and delivers the material. He introduces us to ideas that one may not necessarily explore and also touches on ideas and notions that I wouldn’t think that others would understand, yet I have experience with. A progressive, futuristic, outside of the box thinker. I really enjoy him and his deep thoughts. Thank you very very much Dan. So much fun and laughter. I look forward all the time to the end of the week. He brings laughter and joy to the class and it makes me feel good especially since the material is quite heavy. Absolutely love it! 🙂

I love this course. Mainly because I find it the philosophical counterpart to programming. Since programming is about creative an environment with artificial intelligent, this course fits great in the curriculum. Dan teaches us about the future and how this technology affects us and even though some of the talks and experiments we create maybe not applicable who knows in the future. I mean, most people did not believe when Bell created the telephone it would substitute the telegram. In conclusion, I love Dan’s vision and the way he shares it with us.

Dan Zen on Consumption and Creation.

It’s A Consumer’s World

We have seen a difficult trend for independent interactive content creators: Fifteen years ago content creators were paid for creating content. Ten years ago creators were downgraded to receiving advertising money. Five years ago creators had to pay to have their content shown. Today, content creators have to pay consumers to partake in their content.

This, of course, is a generalization, but in the digital world the contemporary consumer seems to get what they want at very little cost.  They now assume that music, entertainment and information should be (and there are often ways to get it) free. This however makes it tough for creators of original content to make a living and to optimally produce content.

For instance, my own site http://danzen.com has 3 million page views. At a minute a view this is 50,000 hours of entertainment.  And yet, from dozens of different attempts at monetizing, the site has made about $500. That is a payoff of one cent an hour.

The concern, however, is not just the money — interactive content creators are often happy if people simply use their tools or experience their environments.  A far greater concern is that people are partaking less and less in independent interactive content.  “Interactivity” can be broken down into types and when referring to interactive content I mean interactivity beyond just navigation to where people can create and communicate with one another.

People today are spending increasing amounts of their time on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Here, they share pictures, stories and videos that comprise authoritative content, but they rarely share interactive content or take the time to go out and engage in interactive experiences.  We can deduce that the attention span of people online has been greatly reduced.  They write and read in 140 characters. The status post is the new blog. They are no longer accustomed to spending time reading a story, let alone creating a story.

Alongside social media usage, people are increasingly partaking in online gaming.  For the most part, gaming is consumption of thrill and is not really creation.  Puzzles have the mindset of creation and they hone the mind of the user but the output does not benefit society.  Creation via programming also hones the mind, and has the added benefit that the output usually helps society: it educates or entertains and can provide environments to communicate or organize.

On a positive note, today there is more creative practice executed in a day than in all of history up to 1950.  Millions of songs, art pieces, stories and the like are being made on a daily basis. Proportionally, though, I think less people create. This is probably because there is just so much to consume and to consume is so much easier. Also, creative renaissances come and go, just like any other trend. Those trends may also differ in different regions.  I would not say that in North America it is currently “popular” to create although the Maker movement is gaining traction.

Creation and Mobility

A recent factor in the creation versus consumption balance has been the onset of mobile devices.  Smaller mobile screens and somewhat reduced controls can limit creative production.  For instance, graphic designers use many panels in an application such as Photoshop and require precise selections that would be hard to achieve on a mobile device. Even if the interfaces improve, there is often distraction when being mobile, especially in busy areas, and so surely this is not the correct platform for true creativity. Even so, workstations, the ideal site for focused creativity, are being abandoned for mobile devices.

[There are of course new ways to create using mobile – and we can improve on some of the old ways!]

Naming Interactivity

People gravitate towards things they are comfortable with. The Internet is a new medium – even more so a medium of mediums – and yet the majority just use it to consume articles, listen to music, view pictures, watch videos and play games. These mediums are easily recognized with single established names and the user has clear expectations before partaking.

We do not have a name for a digital interactive feature. We may call it a tool or an application, but this is far from suiting all interactive features.  Could we call it an environment or medium instead?  Perhaps, but these categories seem a bit broad. If we had a specific made-up name for an interactive piece, project or feature then perhaps there would be more support for sharing and partaking in it because people will instantly understand what is offered. For instance, Neal Stephenson in The Diamond Age calls them “Ractives”.

Interactivity and Personal Growth

From a personal growth standpoint, we have been led by accountability concerns towards only being our “legal” self.  The opportunity to explore personas to interact with abandon has been greatly reduced and marginalized.  For instance, we are required by policy to be only ourselves on social media sites such as Facebook – any other personas are removed or at least viewed with suspicion. This is a shame.  There needs to be more opportunity to interact with imagination and passion – not just in second life or dating sites but in our average every day life. A site such as http://hipcats.com, allows you create personas and interact with others , making it possible to explore new ways of thinking and acting which may actually lead  to real life transformation.

Slowing Down in Conclusion

It would be great if people slowed down a little and spent more time thinking and creating. The Internet is a wonderful medium to favour creative collaboration.  Perhaps exploring fresh personas would give people a better ambiance for creation and help tip the world back to a healthy balance.  If your character is an artist or inventor, then you might realize — hey… I can be an artist or inventor! Creative writing can often lead to self-transformation and even invention.

I suspect that I am preaching to the converted. If you feel the same way and want your friends to know, please share the article!

Half Century Celebration and Dan Zen Museum Launch Red Carpet Extravaganza

Here is the link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl280Rrn2do for the Dan Zen Museum Launch and 50th Birthday party. Here is a Video Table of Contents:

1. surreal-like introduction – well, why not – I am chronicling my past.
2. an upstairs section with the physical inventions
3. happy birthday and opening speech in Theatre
4. split screen with talk from theatre booth mixed with dancing
5. concluding theatre talk
6. Dan Zen museum Website promo

MISSING: interviews and parts of speeches and here and there.

Thanks to the Staircase and amazing staff, Catherine for much of the footage, Christine for the YesUmNo, Ada for the music, RoseAnne, Madeline, Elliot, David, Cheryl and all who helped move and put up with the moving (still ongoing).  Also, thanks all for the wonderful presents – I am just about to get thank-you messages out.  Thanks for all those who sent wishes but could not be there – the 100’th party will be a cape and sash theme.

A few clarifications, I say that I am the world’s number 1 psychedelic dancer according to Google – not the best psychedelic dancer – that credit goes to each and every person who dances psychedelically. And… the unfortunate new name of Interactive Multimedia is Interactive Multimedia Management (not Business) we are fighting it http://danzen.com/petition/imm.  Also… it was great to see the TRANSLATION TUBE being used – but… there was a stone in one end so that it balanced when sitting on the table – if we only took the stone out, the whispers would have been much much better.

 

The Dan Zen Museum is up and running but some final tweaks and edits are still to do before it replaces the main Dan Zen interface.  The URL is http://danzen.com/museum and I still have 50-100 more stories to add to the stairs.  Thanks again to all who came out and sent wishes and made it one of the best nights of my life 😉

Supplemental links:

Facebook Event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/207807509414895/

Pictures by Todd:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danzen/sets/72157642442992504/

Staircase Theatre:
http://staircase.org

YouTube Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl280Rrn2do

Dan Zen Museum:
http://danzen.com/museum

Dan Zen Creativity Framework:
http://danzen.com/creativityframework

Dan Zen Facebook Page:
http://facebook.com/danzenpage

Dan Yen over One Billion Deck Dollars in RichDeck!

In roughly 1,500 transactions, Dan Yen has grown his RichDeck empire into $1,109,927,000 Deck Dollars. Currently in second place is Silent B89 with $654,309,000.

http://danzen.com/richdeck

RichDeck is the game where you buy companies and make money from people buying franchises or you buy franchises and make money from getting your friends to accept franchise cards. There are also four types of companies, each providing special bonuses for franchise owners:

a) Cool Bonus: 1% the franchise price for each day a friend who accepted the franchise product signs in to RichDeck.

b) Health Bonus: 1% the franchise price for each week the owner owns the franchise.

c) Environment Bonus: 1% the franchise price for every 100 people who log in to RichDeck.

d) Time Bonus: 1% the franchise price for every day the owner logs in to RichDeck.

IF ONE PERSON COMMENTS BELOW AND REQUESTS A RESTART
Dan Zen will restart the game.

RICHDECK RULES

You start with ten million Deck Dollars.  The object of the game is to buy and sell companies and franchises and make billions!  Here are the rules and some examples.

1.  You can own any number of companies and franchises but no duplicates.  Companies can only be owned by one player and you can always buy* a company.  Company franchises can be owned by many players and you can buy** a franchise for the franchise price.

2.  When you own a company and someone buys a franchise, you get paid the listed price of the franchise. Also, if someone buys your company, you get what you paid plus 1% the starting price.

3.  When you own a franchise, you make money*** by sending the product to friends.  You also make money from one of four bonuses listed on the card.

4.  At any time, you can sell a company to the ‘bank’ for the price you paid.  You can sell a franchise to the bank but you must wait at least one week after the purchase date.  You will still receive money from any sends (see 3. above) accepted after a sold franchise.

* As long as you have enough money, you can always buy a company for 1% the starting price more than the current owner paid.  Prices will be worked out for you.

** You cannot buy a franchise if you own the company.  But you can buy a company if you own the franchise.

*** The friend will receive an e-mail with a product picture and an accept link. If the friend accepts, then you will receive the list price of the product.  The friend will also receive the price of the product plus ten million deck dollars if they have not already signed up for RichDeck.  The friend cannot be you and can only accept the particular product once per owner of the franchise.

EXAMPLES

The starting price of the Glass Car company is $20,000,000.  If a first player buys the company then they would pay this amount to the ‘bank’.  If a second player buys the company then they will pay the first player $20,000,000 plus 1% the starting price which is $200,000 so this makes a total of $20,200,000.

You can then buy the company for what the current owner paid ($20,200,000) plus 1% the starting price ($200,000) which makes $20,400,000 and the current owner cannot stop you.  But they could buy back the company for $20,600,000 and you could not stop them. If that player does buy the company from you then you get $20,600,000.

Now, if you decide to buy a Glass Car franchise instead of the company then you would pay the owner the franchise price of $2,000,000.  You can then send out glass cars to friends and make $200,000 each time the car is accepted by a friend.  You also make one of four types of bonus below – in this case the cool bonus.  If you want to sell your franchise then you have to wait at least one week after your purchase date then you will get $2,000,000 back from the bank.  Note that the owner does not pay the money back.

A Personal Copter and Glass Car

Here is the account records of Dan Yen current leader of RichDeck.

PLAYER: DAN YEN
MOTTO: How much wood does woodchuck buy?

WORTH: $1,109,927,000 dd CASH: $673,777,000 dd
COMPANIES: MOON MANSION, LUNAR RESORT, SCIENCE SQUAD, GLASS CAR COMPANY, CENTRAL LEMONADE CO
FRANCHISES: OASIS, 10,000 ACRE PINE FOREST, RUNNING COURIER CO, ERGONE CHAMBER, ENVIRONMENTAL SOUND, LASER HAIR CHAIR CO, FRESH AIR CO, SOLAR LAGOON BATH, AZTEC SUN TEMPLE, SCIENCE SQUAD, PLANETARIUM OFFICE, CENTRAL LEMONADE CO, SOLAR FARM, GLASS CAR COMPANY

LATEST HISTORY:
01-07: Received $500 dd TIME bonus on LASER HAIR CHAIR CO for signin
01-07: Received $20,000 dd TIME bonus on PLANETARIUM OFFICE for signin
01-07: Received $20,000 dd TIME bonus on CENTRAL LEMONADE CO for signin
01-07: Received $40,000 dd TIME bonus on SCIENCE SQUAD for signin
01-07: Received $720,000 dd HEALTH bonus on AZTEC SUN TEMPLE for 9 weeks
01-07: Received $90,000 dd HEALTH bonus on OASIS for 9 weeks
01-07: Received $9,000 dd HEALTH bonus on ERGONE CHAMBER for 9 weeks
01-07: Received $9,000 dd HEALTH bonus on ENVIRONMENTAL SOUND for 9 weeks
11-07: Received $200,000 dd for accepting CENTRAL LEMONADE CO from THEDORE BAGWELL
11-07: Received $100,000 dd for accepting ISLAND WITH RESORT from THEDORE BAGWELL
11-07: Received $400,000 dd for accepting SCIENCE SQUAD from THEDORE BAGWELL
11-07: Received $100,000 dd for accepting 10,000 ACRE PINE FOREST from THEDORE BAGWELL
11-07: Received $100,000 dd for accepting ISLAND WITH RESORT from JAYKEEN
11-07: Received $200,000 dd for accepting GLASS CAR COMPANY from AKUA
11-07: Received $500 dd ENVIRONMENT bonus on FRESH AIR CO for 100 signins
11-07: Received $20,000 dd ENVIRONMENT bonus on SOLAR FARM for 100 signins
11-07: Received $10,000 dd ENVIRONMENT bonus on 10,000 ACRE PINE FOREST for 100 signins
11-07: Received $8,000 dd ENVIRONMENT bonus on RUNNING COURIER CO for 100 signins
11-07: Received $500 dd ENVIRONMENT bonus on SOLAR LAGOON BATH for 100 signins
11-07: Received $800,000 dd for accepting AZTEC SUN TEMPLE from MURAD
11-07: Received $200,000 dd for accepting PLANETARIUM OFFICE from GUMUSOGLU
11-07: Received $500 dd TIME bonus on LASER HAIR CHAIR CO for signin
11-07: Received $20,000 dd TIME bonus on PLANETARIUM OFFICE for signin
11-07: Received $20,000 dd TIME bonus on CENTRAL LEMONADE CO for signin
11-07: Received $40,000 dd TIME bonus on SCIENCE SQUAD for signin
11-07: Received $960,000 dd HEALTH bonus on AZTEC SUN TEMPLE for 12 weeks
11-07: Received $120,000 dd HEALTH bonus on OASIS for 12 weeks
11-07: Received $12,000 dd HEALTH bonus on ERGONE CHAMBER for 12 weeks
11-07: Received $12,000 dd HEALTH bonus on ENVIRONMENTAL SOUND for 12 weeks
11-07: Received $4,000,000 dd from JOKIC buying franchise, SCIENCE SQUAD
11-07: Received $2,000,000 dd from JOKIC buying franchise, GLASS CAR COMPANY
11-07: Received $4,000,000 dd from THEDORE BAGWELL buying franchise, SCIENCE SQUAD
11-07: Received $4,000,000 dd from JAYKEEN buying franchise, SCIENCE SQUAD
11-07: Received $2,000,000 dd from AKUA buying franchise, GLASS CAR COMPANY
08-14: Received $100,000 dd for accepting 10,000 ACRE PINE FOREST from NT
08-14: Received $200,000 dd for accepting CENTRAL LEMONADE CO from NT
08-14: Received $5,000 dd for accepting FRESH AIR CO from ANDREW_
08-14: Received $100,000 dd for accepting CLIFFSIDE CONDOMINIUMS from ANDREW_
08-14: Received $400,000 dd for accepting SCIENCE SQUAD from SARU

Dan Zen “You are in the Dark” – New Interface Launch

Dan Zen launches a new interface!

Here is a look back through the various interfaces.  Click on any picture to go to the interface.

The “dark” interface is better suited for mobile and like the interfaces of the past offers a touch of playfulness with a light metaphor of early text based games.  [It almost made me want to make one of those.]  There is the recent http://altura.mobi if you are in the mood for text based interactive storytelling.

Up top we have the Dan Zen logo as a pixel art logo this time around (click it too).  Note that each interface is represented by a vertical totem logo variation.  There is a * link to a surprise feature, an about link, a contact link, a text ad and a GOGO Ad.

The main body as has five sections roughly as follows:

1. Guidance
2. Media
3. Games
4. Feedback
5. Create

The first section is always at the top and the others randomly rotate.  There are little >> marks after links that will pop up more options.  The other links pop up a new browser window or tab.  You can use key press letters to launch the links as well.

We hope you enjoy the site.  The design makes it simple to feature items although it is a bit more exploratory which is good or less good depending on your mood and purpose.

Dan Zen

-12-

Dan Zen Interview and Article on The Fair Observer

Yuna from the Fair Observer in Munich interviewed me on Skype – it was cool.  Have a look – there are two articles, one is an interview and the other a piece that I wrote about creation and consumption – it got edited a little (less pictures, less links – my title used Consumption rather than Consumerism – does it matter?).

http://www.fairobserver.com/article/interview-dan-zen-mad-inventor

http://www.fairobserver.com/article/state-interactive-content-2012-consumerism-and-creation

All the best,

Dan

-12-

Interactivity Scale

Interactivity, computation and distribution are the three main distinctions between the Internet and the authoritative content of TV, Print and Radio.

The following is a chart showing aspects of interactivity with examples.  These are ordered by general purpose going from simple navigational interactivity for consumption at the bottom to enhanced interactivity for creation at the top.  There is often a blend of these aspects, for instance, you select and move a collage piece as you organize it.  The scale shows tendencies.

Click the picture for full size.  Let me know if this is useful or used.

Inventor Dan Zen
http://danzen.com

–11–

Dan Zen Site Launches New Tree Blossom Menu

Dan Zen has a new front menu in the form of a tree with animated blossoms and leaves.  A new signature totem logo is at left and the tree grows from the Node Zero logo from Nodism.

This menu was planned about 3 years ago. The previous Deck of Creations from 2005 has been moved to Creations under the Fun branch of the tree.  The deck was designed to accommodate any number of features.  This can sometimes be a bad design as there is less intensive to update.

The new design reveals a shift in focus for Dan Zen over the last 5 years from game and gadget features to a wide range of areas.  The occasional game has been made but the main focus has been on the following topics:

PHILOSOPHY
Nodism Philosophy of Connection
Environmental Ideas

MUSIC
Thee Gnostics – Psychedelic Space Rock Band

PHOTOS
Focuso – Out of Focus Photography
Flickr site of Dan Zen Photographs

EDUCATION
Teaching aspects of Inventor Dan Zen
Tools of Inventor Dan Zen

SOCIAL
Dan Zen Facebook Page
YouTube site of Inventor Dan Zen
Twitter Site of Inventor Dan Zen

BLOGS
Dan Zen Blog of Inventions, Games, Gadgets and Communities
Beryea – a Language, a Culture, an Island
Zen Vlog – Video Logs of Inventor Dan Zen
Inventor Stories and Ideas

All the best!

Fritz Wolfgang Sigismund Fassbender Song with Missing Black Sock Wig

Dan Zen wearing a wig of unmatched socks fondly plays Peter Sellers playing Dr. Fritz Wolfgang Sigismund Fassbender in What’s New Pussycat 1965. Sellers wears a long black wig and looks really groovy. He’s a bit of a mess personality wise.

See the video

The song deals with wanting to be hypnotized into being Fassbender – the song was written at the tail end of the Chessmen times part way into the psychedelic times of the Chessmen – still to be recorded and on the way to the Swinging Gurus and the space band, Thee Gnostics – soon to come out with some videos…

Grab the MP3

The song was made from all voices – I ended leaving the backing guitar in for a bit of filler. But all else is voices with minimal effects aside from some delay and reverb. I have been looking forward to doing more vocal sound recordings. I have started in on some experimental works to follow some of the experimental vocal works during Gnostics and side projects.

Mismatch Socks 1
Mismatch Socks 2 from Inventor Blog

-08-