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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.