Hi, I'm Ben Oakes and this is my geek blog.
Currently, I'm a Software Developer at Hedgeye.
Previously, I was a Research Assistant in the Early Social Cognition Lab at Yale University and a student at the University of Iowa.
I also organize NewHaven.rb.
I do development with Ruby, JavaScript, SQL, HTML, and CSS. I have an amazing fiancée named Danielle Smith.
For those of you who don’t know, our much-beloved football coach, Coach Bladt, has been hospitalized. For more details you can view his website, of course.
Really, I hadn’t grasped the severity of the situation, but it’s starting to come into view. Please recover soon, Mr. Bladt. We’re counting on you for our third straight football state championship! How can I make that not sound pompous without using smilies?
The senior class voted a few weeks ago for awards for members of our class. My friend Tom got “Most Artistic,” Krissy got “Best Hair,” and so on, without much surprise. I was expecting to get “Most Musical,” if I were to get any award at all. So, when student council members interrupted our class to give out awards, and I didn’t get anything, I was actually somewhat depressed for a moment.
Then, about ten minutes later, they came back with two other awards–one being mine, and another for Ross. I couldn’t believe what I had gotten: “Most Likely to Succeed.” I didn’t expect that one at all. I was definitely expecting someone–anyone–else to get that one. I mean, I don’t even know what I’m going to do for sure in the future.
Who knows what will happen? The class hit the nail on the head with most of the other students, maybe I’m just to hard on myself. I could see myself being successful. Heck, I think that’s sort of one of my goals, although loosely defined.
Either that, or they didn’t know who to vote for, and for some reason a majority just happened to vote for me. I like those chances. I still can’t believe I’ve been put up in the ranks with Jamie, the female recipient of the award. If you would have told me about this anytime before this year, I definitely wouldn’t have believed you. Ever.
Oh, and by the way, Eric got “Most Musical” for males. I’m glad it went to him. It was rather decidedly between us two for choices. Congratulations!
Some of my favorite childhood movies are on TBS right now: Back to the Future Parts I, II, and III. I don’t know if they were good movies to watch when I was only a few years old, but they’ve always been my favorites. I think I’ve seen Part II enough times that I can quote most of the dialogue fairly accurately (which really annoys my sister, especially since she’s only seen it a few times).
I’ve always wondered what would happen to language if time travel were actually developed. Okay, I’m a geek–let me explain myself. The part I’m most interested in knowing about is how tenses would work. I would think that the current compliment that exists in our languages today wouldn’t cut it. Think about how confusing it would be to go to the future and talk about something that hasn’t happened yet, but will soon. Or, if we can change the outcome of the future (however unlikely that might be), and we have come across circumstances that existed differently in another timeline. It would just be a mess to get others to understand the concepts we’re trying to convey.
The only reason that we have the perfect tenses is because we have the ability right now to know about the past, or actions still occurring from the past, or continuing from the present into a set time in the future (but without much accuracy). If you assume a person in the future could have a good idea of what is to come, he could speak about this in a standard way that most people would comprehend.
So, I would imagine that over time another tense would develop, similar to the perfect tenses (has been, had been, will have been, etc). Sure, the future perfect might fit the bill in some cases, but it would ultimately conflict with other meanings.
This has just been running through my head for a couple of years now; I’ve finally written it down. Could be a good premise for a Science Fiction book about time travel. If I find time, I might write it.
Having just finished On the Road, I’m now in search of a new book for College English. His book was a solid step away from what I usually think of as literature, but it was strangely refreshing. I think I want something different for my next book though. Earlier, I readFoundation and enjoyed it also. I was thinking maybe Herman Hesse’sSiddhartha. Buddhism was my inspiration to go with Kerouac for the last novel; maybe it will lead me further.
I finally saw Super Size Me last night. Very interesting. After we couldn’t find Full Metal Jacket at the Video Place, I saw it on the shelf. I like documentaries, as do a few of my friends, so it wasn’t a hard decision to make. If your stomach is easily upset, do yourself a favor and don’t watch the “Smoking Fry” bonus feature. Especially if you’ve eaten at McDonald’s lately.
The PalmOne Treo 650 was just formally announced. I’ve been using my (don’t laugh) Zire 31 more than I ever thought I would, considering what I paid for it. Being my first foray into the handheld world, I thought it was enough to not break the bank, plus if I were to lose it, not hard to replace. Now I don’t know what I would do without it. Of course, the screen makes me wish I would have gone for the Tungsten E.
My uncle had bought me a TracFone, which I was always scared to use, fearing running out of minutes. Since I’m going of to college just next year, a cell phone might just become more useful. At nearly $600 the Treo 650 had better be the best thing I will ever own; judging from the media’sresponse, it might just be. However, I’m sure I’ll wait for my Zire to die. By then, I hope, there would be a drop in price.
On that note, I went searching for a Palm OS magazine today, but all I could find were general mobile computer ones. It would do, I suppose, but if half (or more) of the magazine is about Pocket PC, it’s not really worth the money. Anyone know of one?
Here are the photos of me with Jerry, as promised:
That’s me on the far left and Jerry’s on the right.It’s still spooky how similar our shirts were…Someone decided that we could look even more alike if I would wear a hat.
If you have no idea what these photos are about, feel free to look at the previous post. Again, a reminder to visit his band’s web site. There’s even some mp3 clips if you fancy.
Update: Their site is no longer around. I still have the CD, so I might see if I can post a couple of mp3s up here with their permission.
There are some things in life that you just don’t expect. One of those things happened to me today.
For those of you who don’t now, I play saxophone. Several people have told me that I play quite well, but I’m a pessimist and just plain like to criticize myself. I just can’t believe them. It has helped me grow in many respects–though I should still practice much more than I do.
This all started at the Hoover Jazz Festival last year. There was a mall nearby and some friends and I decided that we should go. I ended up being late for the jazz combo’s warm up (which was scheduled about an hour before we had to play, which I didn’t realize). I remember running and running from the mall back to the Festival, feeling like such an idiot. But things panned out differently than I could have foreseen.
Being that I was late, several people were out looking for me. One of these was Sami’s uncle Jerry. He told me that he “walked around saying ‘Ben Oakes, Ben Oakes’” while looking. Of course, I showed up, never saw him (as far as I can remember), and went on to play. He was in the audience and was impressed with my ability (and other’s, I’m sure). So impressed, in fact, that he decided to use my name as a sobriquet when singing karaoke. Apparently, he sings this somewhat often.
I was informed of this while working one day by Sami and her mother. It was not something that you hear every day, so it got filed away into my brain. “Wow,” I thought. It’s interesting how one can affect people without really trying.
After work today, I got a phone call. It was Sami saying that her uncle was in town and wanted to get his picture taken with Ben Oakes. I said that I would (there wasn’t much else that I was doing) and showed up about twenty minutes later. By sheer chance we were wearing almost the same shirt and pants. Allegedly, he recognized me while driving home from the grocery store. Yes, several people told me to worry because I had a stalker (He lives in Illinois; I don’t think I’ll have to worry). They took the picture with a digital camera; it will be as soon as they send me a copy.
He turned out to be a pretty cool guy. We talked for a litte while and it seemed like we had several things in common (minus the name). His wife Mel (at least I think that it was his wife–there were too many people there that I didn’t know) is into computers, gladly, so I’ll have a picture soon. She suggested that we email back and forth, which I would be glad to do. Next time I visit my grandmother in Illinois, I might have to take a side trip.
I ended up walking away with more than just a interesting story. He’s in a rock band and felt obligated to give me one of their CD‘s. It was professionally printed and recorded too. This is not what I was expecting to do tonight, but I’m certainly not complaining.
If anyone else wants to join the “Ben Oakes Fan Club,” leave a comment to this article and I’ll put you in contact with Jerry. I’ll be signing pictures all week.
