Zarban

This is the weblog for Derek Jensen, AKA Zarban AKA Tysto. I started a personal blog at Tysto.com back in 2003 in HTML and converted it to WordPress in 2009. Security holes allowing hacking eventually took their toll (I got tired of paying GoDaddy to fix it), and I shut it down in 2023.

In 2008, I created a WordPress database of 10,000 fan-made commentary tracks for movies and TV at Zarban.com. It eventually got hacked and ruined, so I shut it down, but I kept Zarban.wordpress.com and, in 2023, made it the home of my new personal blog.

I chose to use Zarban.com instead of Tysto.com because people didn’t know how to pronounce Tysto. (It’s “TISS-toe”.) In Scandinavian languages it means “hush”, and that was a kind of theme for the blog for awhile.

I was a business consultant for 20 years (1995-2015), writing training and documentation and eventually creating and leading corporate software training efforts. I then did some property tax IT support work. After leaving my job in 2018, I became a volunteer historian and genealogist and now serve on the boards of several non-profits.

I also created WhiteHouseMuseum.org in 2008 and documented the history and architecture of the White House. But that was built in HTML and kept getting hacked, so I shut it down in 2023 as well. Hopefully, that will return in some form.