About Me

In a Nutshell

Name: Ben Babcock
Age: 18 (born September 20, 1989)
Location: Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada
Interests: Literature, writing, science fiction/fantasy, web design/development, life, the universe, and everything

The Sleeping Giant, a local geological formation

I’m a 19-year-old in his second year at Lakehead University, where I’m studying math, English, and concurrent education. One day, I may even become a high school teacher—stranger things have happened.

In fact, this website, shouldn’t even exist. One day, four years ago, I decided to make a website. Then it snowballed. A lot. Before you know it, I’m learning PHP, writing my own blog software, and whatnot.

Since the summer of 2006 I’ve worked at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery as a front desk attendant. Most of my job could fit under the title of “glorified receptionist”. I answer the phone, charge admission and gift shop purchases, tell people about the exhibits we have on, etc. If there’s setup needed for events or other miscellaneous tasks the full-time staff need doing, I do those too. That being said, I can’t complain. My job is way better than most available to kids my age. When I don’t have anything specific to do there is plenty of downtime. And of course, I get plenty of crazy stories, such as the time I unloaded 650 telephone books.

When I’m not studying, coding, or working, I’m usually reading or writing. I enjoy literature, and I’m a voracious reader. My favourite genres are science fiction and fantasy, but I don’t read those exclusively. I also enjoy writing. I’ve written a novel—not a good one, mind you—which I’m procrastinating about editing now, and I have a couple of ideas for another. One day I would like to be a published author.

The World Wide Whoa

Go Back, Back in Time…

Being a young’un, I only barely remember the days before the World Wide Web. I do remember the days of DOS and Windows 3.1. I remember that when we logged into the computers at school we’d get presented with a DOS menu screen and could then “boot into” Windows 3.1—oh my! So advanced! From there we played games, because we were in grade four. I don’t recall the gradual conversion from Windows 3.1 to 95/98 and then to 2000/ME. My high school still doesn’t have XP, as far as I know….

But enough reminiscing about the days of yore! My first real experience with the Internet came after I got my first email address back in March 2004. Soon after I created my very first Geocities web page, and from there I was unstoppable. I probably would have conquered the world if I hadn’t gotten distracted by the world of programming. Instead, I learned PHP, and from there I was sucked into a vortex of technology and web development.

Yes, I Like Star Trek…

I joined the Star Trek™ Simulation Forum a few months later and became acquainted with the world of online text-based roleplaying. I’m still a member of three STSF sims, Sky Harbor Aegis, Challenger NX-05, and USS Excalibur. Over time I’ve experimented with various formats of roleplaying and liked most of them to a degree. Live text-based roleplaying is the only one with which I’ve been able to stick, however.

And to think, I gave up the call centre for this…

Then in July 2004 I found InvisionFree, a free message board host. I joined the support board initially to ask questions so I could help a friend out with a project. Soon I found myself answering other people’s questions. It very quickly became addictive—I’d spend an hour or two every day just squatting in the support section and answering topics. I didn’t even venture into the community section most days. Eventually, I was promoted to the support staff, and from there, to administrator. I still do support and occasionally poke my head into the community section before ducking out and running away in fear.

When Al Gore created the Internet, I wonder if He intended humans to bring their tendency to follow fads along with them. “Social networking” is just the latest movement for the masses. The thing is, social networking should be a part of the Web. That’s what it’s for, at least in my opinion. People who live at opposite ends of the Earth suddenly have the ability to communicate with each other, and that’s wonderful.

However, these social networking sites that continuously materialize are now just getting annoying. Once upon a time I was a member of Neopets. I’m still a member of DeviantART. ¹ I once visited and contributed quite frequently. Nowadays I’m less inclined to look at deviations, and even less productive myself. But I digress.

MySpace? YouTube? Facebook? Bebo? And any other fun-filled action-packed thrill-ride website? It’s starting to get excessive.

MySpace is the scourge of the Internet. I do not want to spend ten minutes loading your profile on my high speed connection only to be bombarded by huge images of your pets and friends, loud music that has no business being on a web page, and your horrible, horrible profile design. No, it is not “cool” or “fab”. It’s dangerous, and my browser hates your guts.

YouTube is actually kind of cool. It’s become a social phenomenon because it allows for the re-democratization of journalism. Suddenly you have people who are in Iraq, people who were in New Orleans—they were there. And they have videos and opinions that they want to share. I’m not an avid user of YouTube, but it certainly holds the potential to be a useful tool for humanity.

I was reluctant to join Facebook at first. I just didn’t see the point. However, after much pressure from my friends, I acquiesced and joined up. Turned out to be a great decision, because less than a week after I registered I was reunited with two friends whom I hadn’t seen for 10 years. Talk about good fortune! Facebook requires responsible usage—it is very easy to go overboard, adding too many frivolous applications to your profile and spamming your friends with invitations to abet you in this ill-fated endeavour. If you ignore the applications, however, it can actually be a very useful tool.