guess I'm one of those people who find it
hard to
write about himself. It's not that I'm afraid of revealing too much
(as you can tell by the main page), it's just that I want to make
this thing complete without boring anyone. Then again, I may have failed
already. Heh. I guess I'll start off by saying that my name is Ming-Si
Cliff Chen (Ming to all my friends, family, and any teachers who actually
knew who I was). I was born on August
1st, 1974 in Euclid, Ohio, a small suburb of Cleveland. As you can tell
by the name, I am Chinese. Being born in the country has of course
Americanized me, however I occasionally try to get back to my roots. More
about that later.
I moved around a lot when I was a kid, my father being an upstart engineer who always seemed to be getting transferred or in pursuit of a better job. Moving was one thing that I dreaded and still dread mainly because I had to leave all my friends behind. It's probably affected my life and my mindset a bit, as I'm one to hate drastic changes and I like to stick to things that work best. Most people will vouch for that. The state count looks like this: Ohio to California to Illinois to Michigan to Indiana back to Michigan. It's a small wonder that I hate the Midwest so much.
I currently reside in Ann
Arbor, Michigan where I am going to school at
the University of Michigan. For the
first two years I pursued a Pharmacy
major but all that chemistry really got to me. I then decided to switch
to Computer Science and that's where I am today. The truth is, I'm really
in CS so I can play with all this fun stuff and get away with it. I'm
hoping to graduate in a year and a half, and then I'm getting my butt out
of here. As of now, it looks like I'll either wind up in
California or New Jersey. Anything with a
moderate climate and no heavy snowshowers will be fine with
me.
Although I'd been using computers since 1984 (I have the very first Mac
that came out in 1984, and it still works!), I didn't really develop a
strong interest until February 1993, when a friend got me a Unix
account. "What can I do with this?", I asked. He told me to "Try typing
IRC or nn, and
just play
around". That would explain my addictions to the IRC and newsgroups.
IRC has been described (among other
things) as "A global chat room where people engage in idle chatter". That
would probably hook almost anyone as I immediately spent endless hours
chatting with people all around the world, many of whom became very good
friends. Most people who become addicted are there for the sole purpose
of chatting. I, however developed an urge to learn more about related
topics. Unix and the Internet quickly became my interests as I slowly
picked up Unix commands here and there and learned more about newgroups,
file storage/transfer, and net applications. Pretty soon I was helping
other people do the same which amazed me since I was totaly clueless just
months before.
IRC pretty much led me to all the things that I'm doing today. In early
1994 I learned how to use a scanner and do graphics manipulation because
of the lack of face to face contact on IRC. I figured it was a lot easier
to do a 10 second transfer of an image file to a friend, rather than
developing and mailing an actual picture (and it IS). Soon after, in April
1994 I
discovered an even better way to reach people, the World
Wide Web. With
the help of friends I set up a webpage and tried to encourage friends to
find browser software so they could look at it. Back then of course the
WWW was much more obscure and it seemed that only the most computer
literate of my friends would be able to develop an interest. Luckily the
web boomed and today many of my friends are writing and viewing webpages
daily.
I really enjoy helping people use the net more to their advantage. I just feel lucky to have found this and to have learned all the tricks. I still enjoy those moments when I'm amazing my friends by telling them sport scores, concert dates, and news events way before they can even hope to find out.
At the moment I'm still urging friends to learn more about the net. It amazes me when friends who were totally clueless about starting up a computer are now ftp-ing a scan of them that I did 2 minutes ago. Other friends who have no idea what RAM is, are now writing webpages. Solid proof that it can only be an advantage.
Non-Computer Related:
My other interests include sports, movies, reading, music, and
travelling. I love to play any sport thrown at me and I live for pickup
games of baseball, football, or basketball. Unfortunately my dream of
playing in the Major
Leagues, NFL, and NBA all at the same time have not
come true yet. The most obscure sport that I've played is lacrosse, which
I did for a year in high school.
I also enjoy a wide variety of movies. I'm more into the one's out on
videotape then the one's currently showing mostly because I rarely have
enough money to shell out for a current movie. I think the fact that I
worked part time at a video store with access to free movies has somethig
to do with it too. My current favorites are Pulp
Fiction, Clerks, Highlander,
the Back to the Future trilogy, anything Tarantino
has
ever touched, and of course I love the obligatory Star Wars movies.
Reading is something I usually do in my spare time in between other
things (ie - I read while I'm downloading something). I'll pretty much read
anything I can get my hands on, but my
favorites are magazines dealing with current events, computers, or the
internet, books about TV shows, sports or people, and any newspaper I can
get my hands on. For some reason I'm really into staying on top of
things.
Music is an important part of my life simply because I enjoy it so much.
It can add a mood to a situation, or it can get me motivated. Besides
that, it just sounds good. My musical tastes are rooted mainly in classic
rock, although I do like a few of the newer groups and just this past
year I've been getting a bit into dance music. Some of my favorite bands
are RUSH,
Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Crosby,
Stills, Nash, (and Young), Smashing
Pumpkins, and many others.
Travelling is something that I really enjoy. It's nice to get out every
so often and see a new place and experience a different setting. I
usually head out to California once a year during the summers. The trip
that had a great impact on me was a trip I took to Taiwan in the summer
of 1993 as part of a group called 'The Study Tour'. This group was made
up of all Chinese-Americans and the goal was to give us some exposure to
the land, the culture, and the accomplishments of the Taiwanese people.
The trip had a great impact on me in that I wanted to learn more about my
roots and preserve the culture that came with it.
Computer Related:
At the moment my computer related interests lie in doing any form of
communication over the net. As you can see, I'm a web addict. I can also
usually be found on the Internet Relay Chat. What is really interesting
me right now is real time vocal and video communications using the net.
I can usually be found playing around with the various Mac and PC
applications used for audioconferencing. These include Internet Phone for
the PC, and Maven and Netphone for the Mac. I guess you could sum it all
up my saying that I'm sick of telephone bills. I'm also an active
participant in the world of videoconferencing, where I use a
revolutionary application called CU-SeeMe. CU-SeeMe allows
anyone with a
computer, a decent net connection, and an inexpensive camera to do live
real-time videoconferncing. Something that I just couldn't pass up.
Debbie is my wonderful girlfriend. We've known each other for over two
years and I think that she is the most fantastic person I have ever met.
I really can't think of anyone else who understands me better than her.
Debbie's the type of person who I can enjoy a comfortable silence with.
She's the type of person that most people dream about. The one who will
go with you for a long walk on a warm night, the one who will cheer you
up, the one who will make you feel secure. I think the word that would
describe her is 'Perfect'. Debbie is also very computer literate
and she's one of the few who can understand me when I'm having an
exciting moment babbling about something cool I just discovered. And what
else would make a guy like me proud then to say that she has her own webpage.
My philosophy on Life is pretty simple. Either things are cool, or they suck. It's just that simple. I'm constantly wondering why people can't all just be cool about things and not overreact about them. Getting mad is such a waste of time. Going out of your way to ruin another person's life is pointless. I know life will never work out that way I describe it here, but the least I can do is hang out with people who share the same beliefs. If you think it about it, it really does make sense.
