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What's the deal with your nickname? How did you get it? If your nickname is self-explanatory, then tell everyone when you first started using the internet, and what was the first thing that made you say "wow, this isn't just a place for freaks after all?" Was it a website? Was it an email from a long-lost friend? Go on, spill it.

Let's see.. zempf is itself mostly a meaningless word. It all started as a gibberish word my friends had come up with & sounded like a good unique name to choose. My ex-girlfriend thought it was weird enough that she got me personalized license plates saying the same, which are now proudly displayed on my wall to confuse people who visit my room.

I first started using the internet my sophomore year in high school, 1995. My mom was pregnant with my brother & sister and got a modem so that she could do some work from home while she was somewhat incapacitated from carrying two kids around in her stomach. Anyway, the modem was something I'd been asking for for a LONG time, ever since the lazy days of my Apple //c (Christmas 1987, I remember it well), and once it was hooked up & a phone line installed, I was quickly addicted to calling local BBSes. Got my first exposure to the actual internet through CWRU's (now defunct) FreeNet. It was an awesome service, and I still fondly recall having to redial 200-300 times just to find an opening and connect.

My first website came soon after I actually started paying for internet access (this after going through the free trials of every service I could find.. AOL, CompuServe, INN, Prodigy, GNN) & put up a page dedicated to that greatest of indoor soccer players, Otto Orf. Thank god all traces of that are now eradicated from the web forever.. I hope.