Aug 25, 2003

It looks like the second expansion for Neverwinter Nights is going to finally resolve some serious issues with the game (especially issues Chris has with the game):

  1. Lack of a kensei => New prestige class, weapon master
  2. Inability to see much of a playing field => Unlocked camera, meaning you can swing the view around to just about anywhere in the hemisphere above the floor around the character
  3. Boring henchmen => New scripting elements including romance
  4. Two character party maximum => Ability to bring along two henchmen

Aug 21, 2003

Survey

* General stuff...

Full name: Michael Paul Bibik Jr

Age: 23

Place of birth: Southfield, MI

Birthdate: 08.04.1980

Nicknames: M.

Current residence: Bellevue, WA

Previous residences: Livonia, MI; Ann Arbor, MI

Occupation: Program Manager, Critical Response Team, Windows Mobile, Microsoft

Previous jobs: Dishwasher/icre cream scooper @ Rebecca's, clerk/photo tech @ Rite Aid, cook @ South Quad Down Under, system administrator @ UMich Student Publications, intern@Yazaki North America, CTO @ Buzzhost.com

Parents' names: Cheryl, Louise and (to some extent) Michael Sr.

Siblings: NA

Pets: Well, I have three cats at my parent's house: Buster, Lucky and Ty (all kitties)

Eye color: Hazel leaning toward green

Hair color: dark brown

Hair style: Short, clipper side and back, usually combed forward

Height: 5'11"

Weight: Pushing 190lbs.

Piercings: NA

Tattoos: NA

Shoe size: 11-13 depending on the shoe style

Race: Caucasian

Religion: NA, I have no faith either

Zodiac sign? Leo



* Favorites...

Favorite food: Spicy chicken pad thai, grilled salmon

Favorite restaurant: P.F. Chang's, Macaroni Grill

Favorite fast food: Arby's, Wendy's

Favorite non-alcoholic drink: Diet coke, decaf vanilla latte

Favorite alcoholic drink: Bass ale, rum and coke
Favorite actor: Kevin Spacey, Edward Norton, Brad Pitt (yeah, yeah, I know...)

Favorite actress: NA

Favorite movie(s): The Godfather, Pulp Fiction, Se7en, Fight Club, American Beauty

Favorite tv show(s): SportsCenter, 24

Favorite singer/group: Radiohead, Aereogramme, Sparta, Hot Snakes

Favorite song: Hot Snakes - If Credit's What Matters, I'll Take Credit; System of a Down - Chop Suey!; Bad Religion - Give You Nothing; Belly - Superconnected; Blackalicious - Chemica Calisthenics; Coldplay - Trouble; Esthero - Breath From Another; Mudvayne - Death Blooms; Sunny Day Real Estate - Guitar and Video Games; The Hives - Hate To Say I Told You So

Favorite color: Midnight blue, fire engine red, dark silver

Favorite animal: Cats, degus

Favorite teacher: Dr. Steven Easter, neurobiology

Favorite toy: Computers, Pocket PC Phone Edition, Smartphones
favorite place to shop: Best Buy, Home Depot

Favorite websites: slashdot.org, fark.com, google.com, slickdeals.net

Favorite month: NA

Favorite season: Fall

Favorite candy: Peanut M&Ms, Snickers

Favorite fruit: Just about all of it

Favorite thing in your room: Super comfortable bed with 1000 (yes, three zeros) thread count sheets

Favorite radio station: 107.7

Favorite flower: Tulips

Favorite sport(to play/to watch): Racquetball (play it every day), football, hockey

Favorite halloween costume: NA

Favorite bible verse: Definitely NA

Favorite roller coaster: Raptor

Favorite vacation: Well, my vacation with my family to San Fransisco was interesting because I had never been in California, let alone that area; Palo Alto is everything Ann Arbor wishes to be. My spring break trip down to Florida with 7 girls was also fairly amusing

Favorite memory you wish you could relive: Almost all of college, other than the studying and exams part

Favorite concert i've been to: Hot Snakes @ The Magic Stick

Favorite activity: Playing on the computer, working out, crying about not having a fast car

Favorite board game and/or card game: Euchre, Trivial Pursuit, Scattergories

Favorite magazine: Motor Trend, PC World

Favorite thing to do on the weekend: Sleep in, be lazy around the apartment, go out at night

Favorite soundtrack: NA

Favorite holiday: Christmas

Favorite day of the week: Saturday

Favorite quotes: "One must have chaos within to give birth to a dancing star" - Nietzsche

Favorite number: 4, 12

Favorite jello flavor: Strawberry

Favorite salad dressing: Fat free zesty italian

Favorite perfume/cologne: Allure



* Random Questions...

What is your dream car? Rally spec Focus RS WRC '03 or Evolution

How many times did you fail your driver's test? NA

What's your dream job? CIO of a Fortune 500 company

Who is your best friend? Jeff, Jamie, Jenn, Chris, Eric

How about your best online friends? Alicia

What do you think of ouija? NA

What's your bedtime? Usually 12:30 PM

What toothpaste do you use? Crest Whitening

Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Six feet under

What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up this morning? Let's just sleep in a bit longer; I took a shower last night so I can skip that this morning

Do you get motion sickness? Ocassionally when I haven't been in a car for a while (weeks)

Roller coasters—deadly or exciting? Exciting.

What are some future son names? Alex

Future daughter names? Julia

Do you like to drive? I adore driving. It used to be my primary source of stress relief, but now I just sleep or workout

Do you sleep with a stuffed animal? NA

Thunderstorms: cool or scary? Cool. Why would they be scary?

What do you wear to bed? T-shirt or undershirt and boxers

What is your method of falling asleep? Make sure I'm tired enough to fall asleep, hop in bed. The overwhelming comfortable nature of the bed takes care of the rest

If a guy asked for the shirt on your back, would you give it to him? Yes

Have you ever been in love? Yes

What's on the walls in your room? Right now? Nothing. I haven't had a chance to finish decorating my room

Do you type with your fingers on the right keys? Yes

When you meet a person of the opposite sex, what do you notice first? Overall dimensions, facial structure, hair, eyes

When you meet a person of the same sex, what do you notice first? Build, facial structure

Do you eat chicken fingers with a fork? No

If you could be a garden tool, what would you be? Napalm

What's under your bed? Two under-the-bed boxes (surprise surprise) filled with random stuff like extra PS2 controllers, duct tape, sewing kit, etc

What color is your toothbrush? I think it's blue and purple

What's the best advice you've ever gotten? Communication is key.

What's the best advice you've ever given? Ask whomever received said best advice because I certainly do not remember.

How many books of the bible have you read? None, thank god (pun intended, haha)

What is the last thing you ate? The 520 Special (BBQ pork sandwich with a hot link) and lemon cake at Dixie's

How many of your buddies are online? 25 on AIM, 10 on Windows Messenger (Microsoft internal messaging)

What's your ideal guy/girl? Easy to talk to, intelligent, filled with common sense, practical, exciting, funny, attractive, ambitious

What's your dream date? Anything that revolves around an in-depth, revealing conversation

Do you collect anything? I used to collect Akira manga, maybe I should finish off the series

Who is the perfect couple? NA

Where do you want to live? I'm happy here in the Pacific Northwest, but Chicago and Boston are both intriguing

Where do you want to honeymoon? Japan

How old do you want to be when you get married? Sometime before 29

How many kids do you want to have? Two

What's the best gift you've ever gotten? A huge wad of cash from my parents for high school graduation

Do you get along with your parents? It's better now that I am no longer dependent on them. If they start to get pissy, I simply threaten to leave. That solves just about everything

If a tree fell in the woods and nobody is there, would it still make a sound? Yes

Most embarrassing moment: Honestly, I feel the most embarassed when I call people the wrong name.

Pet peeve: Washington drivers, people insisting they are right when they are wrong, inconsiderate people in general



* Have you ever...

Been attacked by a big dog? Yes, and I have a huge scar on my face to prove it!

Been to africa? No

Been toilet papering? Yes

Been toilet papered? No

Been in a car crash? Sort of. We were the third car in a chain of five cars that was hit at a stop light when the brakes went out on someone's car

Had a boyfriend/girlfriend? Yes
If so who? Jenny Meek, Jeni Borrusch, Emily Lahtinen, Jamie Adamson, Katherine Herbruck, Laura Washnock-DiPietro and Leah Trzcinski (last names included in case you wanted to google them)

Been kissed? Yes

Been asked out? Yes

Said yes? Yes

Asked someone out? Yes. Ok, let me see if I can figure out who asked whom for each of the people previously listed: JM, she asked; JB, she asked; EL, I initially asked and was turned down, later she asked me and I accepted; JA, we both sort of revealed that we liked each other and it developed from that; KH, we both knew something was developing but I ended up making the first move; LWD, we both knew something was developing but she made the first move; LT, I asked

Smoked? No and I never will

Been arrested? No

Been to another country? Canadaland

Made prank calls? No

Stayed up all night? Yes

Ordered from qvc? No

Called a psychic? No

Had detention? Twice. Once for tripping a kid in middle school and once for goofing off in chemistry in high school

Taken a picture of yourself with a milk mustache and sent it to the milk people? No

Gotten into a fight with your pet? Buster and I play fight all the time

Been to new york? No, but i'm going in like 10 days!

Been to Florida? Yes

Been to California? Yes

Been to Hawaii? No

Been to Mexico? No

Been to China? No

Danced naked? Yes

Wished you were the opposite sex? No

Had an imaginary friend? No

Had a dream about something really crazy and then it happens? No

Stalked someone? Yes

Had a mud bath? No



* Do you prefer...

Oen or pencil? Medium pen or thin mechanical pencil, depending on what I'm working

Rain or snow? Rain. I live in Seattle!

Day or night? Night

Chocolate or white milk? White

Cookies or cake? Cookies

Coke or pepsi? Diet Coke

Sprite or 7up? Diet Sprite

Mt. dew or surge? Diet Mountain Dew

Chocolate or vanilla? Milk Chocolate

Type or write? Type. Have you seen my handwriting?

Summer or winter? Summer

Coffee or cappuccino? Coffee

Shower or bath? Shower

Boxers or briefs? Boxers

Hot or cold? Cold

Apples or bananas? What type of apple? If it's something tasty like a fuji or gala, then apples

Condo or house? House

Santa or rudolph? Santa

Math or english? Math

Wal-mart or Target? Target

Chocolate or vanilla cake? Milk Chocolate

Croutons or bacon bits? Croutons

Two doors or four on a car? Two

Coffee or coffee ice cream? Coffee

Mud or jello wrestling? Jello



* Who was the last person to...

Call you? Jeff

Sleep in your bed? Jamie (not as bad as it sounds...)

Spend the night? Jamie (also, not as bad as it sounds...)

Share a drink with you? Jeff, Russell, Lee, Dan, Anna, Aaron

Go to the movies with you? Jeff and his girlfriend

Accompany you to the mall? Jamie

Yell at you? Leah

Send you an e-mail? Test lead of my team at work



* Which one of your friends...

Have you know the longest? Chris

Knows you best? Jamie

Is the loudest? Dan

Is the quietest? Jenn

Is the most funny? Chris Z.

Will be famous? Unknown

Will have the most kids? Unknown

Will get married first? Unknown

Will invent something? Unknown

Will be on t.v.? Unknown

Will break a record? Unknown



* Do you believe in...

god? No

Aliens? Other life forms, yes

Heaven? No

Hell? No

Yourself? No

Love at first sight? No



* What's the first thing you think of when you see the following words...

Red: The color of my bathroom

Blue: Sky

Green: Grass

Pink: Cotton candy

Purple: Underwear (what can I say; I'm a freak)

Black: The Evo I almost bought

White: Shoe laces

Sheep: Wool

Dog: Stench

Cat: Buster

Winter: That soy sauce stuff that UMich used one winter to remove ice and snow but ended up staining all of the buildings

Summer: Driving

Spring: Laying out in parks

Autumn: Running through leaves

School: Textbooks

Church: Weddings

Socks: My stuffed drawer full of them

Friends: The meaning of life



* Last question...

Did you have fun filling this out? It was a great way to kill time at work

Aug 20, 2003

Jeff and I have started an actual honest-to-goodness workout routine. We are shooting to work out at least 5 times a week (more depending on work load and possible visitors) and we are going to track our progress. Currently, we take a notebook with us to record the exercises, weight and reps. When I get back to work the next day, I update an Excel spreadsheet with the data. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the information, but never fear. I'm a huge dork; I'm bound to make charts and graphs representing our progress.


Since we also play racquetball every day, we sometimes don't get enough time to do as many exercises as desired. Yesterday we were able to get through bench press, leg press, rope tricep pushdown, lateral pulldown, left and right obliques, hamstrings, and abdominals.

In the past two days, I found out that a lot of people still check this site at least a few times a week for updates. Maybe I should give the people what they want!

Aug 18, 2003

More pictures!

Aug 17, 2003

I think I'm going to adapt certain automobile terms from the UK. Here are some proposed changes:

  • Hood = Bonnet
  • Tires = Tyres
  • Gas = Petrol
  • Sedan = Saloon
  • Wagon = Estate

My car has barely 2,300 miles on it and I already have to make an insurance claim. I was driving on 520 from my apartment to the good Target in Redmond. I'm following behind a Red Ford Expedition at a decent distance. Out of nowhere, I see that he is about to run over a 4'x4' piece of plywood. The SUV drives directly over it so that it goes between his wheels. The downforce air pressure from the SUV causes the wood to fly up into the air.


It flips slowly and at just the right angle so that when I PLOW into it, it is like hitting a wall. Most of the board shatters into hundreds of car-scratching pieces but one 1.5'x1.5' chunk sticks to my bumper since I'm driving 60 MPH. I pull off to the shoulder, slow down, the piece slides down and I run it over (possibly causing unseen tire damage).


I just called the insurance agent and thankfully it will be covered. Unfortunately, the adjuster is booked until next Saturday and I will have to pay my $250 comprensible deductible. Oh well, I'm not that upset. If I had bought a sports car, I would have been a bit peeved.


Here are some pictures of the damage:

Aug 14, 2003

CNN.com - Major power outage hits New York, other large cities - Aug. 14, 2003: "Unlike fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, electricity is difficult to store. Instead, the power is generated as it is used. " Bwahahaha, people are dumb. Correction, Americans are dumb.

Aug 7, 2003

Why does Treetop's Berry Juice contain pear juice, apple juice, grape juice and finally raspberry juice? I mean, I guess it's not false advertising since they didn't call it Berries Juice; There is just a single berry. When the front says "Berry from 4 fruit concentrates", I would imagine 4 berries concentrates, wouldn't you?

Pictures from my birthday!

From now on, all cell phones without some PDA functionality will be referred to as dumbphones. That is all.

Aug 4, 2003

I just googled my site for Stair Dismount and I can't believe I never blogged it before! There is a new version called Truck Dismount which takes the premise of Stair Dismount (define a few variables, launch the dismount and see how much damage the body takes) but instead of stairs uses a moving truck and a few ramps! I really shouldn't be playing this at work, but it's terribly addictive. It has a good mix of complexity and ease of entry. The complexity is a time sink because you keep tweaking things trying to create bigger crashes and more damaging launches.

Aug 3, 2003

Ok, lots more pictures!