MAD INVENTOR NETS AWARD! Dan Zen, maker of zany games and gadgets received the 2002 Canadian New Media Award for programmer of the year. Hopefully this will alleviate fears that his Spirogram, Grim Reaper's Age Guesser, Opartica, Teleporters, Web Ouija, and other crazy gizmos found at www.danzen.com are safe for public consumption. The award comes as good news to Dan Zen who is about to launch a new company called Agency Zen which will create exceptionally unique online gadgets, contests and games for other Websites. Dan Zen coined the term interactive advertising in 1995 and Agency Zen will draw on this experience to create custom "admusements" that turn a company's important message into engaging content. Samples of Dan Zen's work that were judged by a selection committee of 126 industry professionals include a prototype Austin Power's Golden Ball op art maker with Austin Power's character heads placed in the center of overlapping hypnotic swirling shapes and a Spy Kids Secret Messaging Service where messages left unprotected can be spied upon! www.danzen.com/agencyzen/cnma/austinpowers www.danzen.com/agencyzen/cnma/spykids Canadian New Media Awards www.cnma.ca Official CNMA Picture Dan Zen Award Pictures Agency Zen Friendly Makers of Online Gadgets agencyzen@danzen.com

Dan Zen thinks Opartica is something special! He obviously has not seen the bottoms of we barnacles! Even so, it is rather special that you can create your own Op Art swirling patterns and view them online or project them at dances. You can trade projects too!

Thank goodness Blimp Race III is over. I hate being far from water! Over 4000 people sailed with Marshmallow just beating the Binary Blimp!

Oh great! More spies in our midst. The Regal Eg Court is going to love this. You get to send messages and spy on other people's messages!

Baron Digbody's Castle is one place you won't find me going! And don't mistake me for a pumpkin like the last reader! This creepy caper is the latest of online interactive animated Moustache Mysteries and booklets are available to host your own party. Now, parties are something that I like to talk about! I once had a party going on all 70 floors of the Royal Eg Castle. But that's another story... Dan Zen would love to hear your feedback on the mysteries.

Molecules are something we barnacles just love so it's great to be giving you this message in a Molecular Reader... Professor Y is calling all Pilots to Save Earth by flying his remote control probes along the alien sphere that has enclosed our planet. We need to map the beautiful yet ominous patterns in hopes of creating a resonance to crack our way free. High scores, lounges, recruitment centers, history, guide and of course flying is all found in this ultra moderns 2020 site complete with Sensory System and Molecular Reader.

The Kula Pu Idol a Hawaiian bungalow mystery has been launched and is loaded with animated interactive characters more zany than me! The URLs www.moustachemysteries.com and www.mustachemysteries.com will lead you to the start of a new "Mystery Channel" which Dan Zen hopes will be picked up by adventuring portals. Dan Zen is hard at work with the Moustache on three more mysteries to be added over the next year. We'd love to hear your feedback on the mysteries.

Below is the new Dan Zen Garden. Stones are placed throughout the site. You can add your name for everyone to see!

DAN ZEN GARDEN - click on a name or add your name

Bla-bla-bla - the others all say I talk constantly. I am a very social barnacle and now I've shown them! Dan Zen has partnered with bla-bla.com to become one of the bla-bla network's game sites.

bla-bla.com is a growing network of independent sites that supports community (yeah!) and has great "channel" content. Check it out and bla-bla the Dan Zen word!

We are also bla-bla-ing advertisements to help support the Dan Zen content. Dan Zen has put together the special HYPNO site to welcome you to the weird and wacky world of advertising. Here you can see all the campaigns that Dan Zen has built and play cool interactive games with ads!

Hip Cats is here! Create hip dudes, introduce them to the scene and rate and date other Hip Cats! Watch the Hip Cat words change as you change the mood from Cyberpunk to Beatnik, Goth to Psychedelic, Urban to Surf. Tons of cool music, videos, and books are listed and Hip Cats is happening!

TURN ON - JACK IN - HANG OUT

HIP CATS

BLIMP RACE II has finished with the winning Blimp being The Ark narrowly beating Pillow Flight by 3,554 to 3,549 people! It was a great race with over 13,000 people creating hundreds of archives of curses and jokes inside the Blimps. The most popular e-mails were Hotmail, AOL, and Yahoo.

Shrinkray is over. The people are saved and the evil Eg Ry was foiled in his attempt to shrink humans for draining bathtubs and pools. The game certainly generated lots of comments - over 70 archives of 50 comments each. The most common comment was "this Bam-bams" and "what's a Scandinavian watch". The messages in the bottle can be read here.

Dan Zen becomes more fun when there are more people. The games will go faster. More people will predict in Prediction Train, more people will catch the Salamander, More Gorgolonians will fly saucers, more people will talk to you in the Dens. Please Invite your friends to any of the games using the game's invite button. It is very simple, all you need to know is their email. Then they will come and play Dan Zen too!

Every few months or when there is a new game, you may receive Dan Zen Telepathy. Here are some of the latest Telepathic messages. Past Telepathy.

Web Ouija and grim Reaper's Age Guesser have been the favourite games so far according to the Survey It would be wonderful to find out which games you like the best.

I'll keep you posted with survey information and other news as long as you keep tickling me. Have fun at Dan Zen, explore and be imaginative!

Eg Orna