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Ben Hanks Humor Contact Information: Ben Hanks benji@xmission.com http://www.xmission.com/~benji (Under Construction) Contributions: I'm the humor editor for the site. Submissions are welcome. Even hate mail can be pretty funny, so feel free to contact me. Basics: I'm a sometimes student (but not now), currently pursuing web development. I'm 24 years old and quite single. View a fuzzy pic of me. Hobbies/Interests: I love hiking and camping in moderation (no computers out there). The internet. You can find a job, get an address, check the movie listings, read jokes, find out how to cheat at games, and shop for computer paraphernalia all in ten minutes and while you eat a donut. Music. Life without music would be like an opera...without.....music... Girls. Oh, baby. Girls. Just wanted to emphasize it. Religion, Philosophy, the Philosophy of Religion, Religious Philosophy, etc. Turn Offs: Stupid People Stupid People who think they are smart Windows Lovers Windows Lovers who think they're smart Windows Lovers who try to convince me Windows is better with the logic that there's more software available for it Hairy or manly women *shudder* Virtual Make-out in chat rooms. I mean really, Get A LIFE Turn Ons: Girls that wear their hair in a pony-tail Girls who don't see being feminine as a sign of weakness People who are more interested in finding out the truth than proving that they are right Freeware Entertaining Books: Anything by Robert Heinlein. The man was a creative genius and as broad-minded an author as I've ever read. Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card. Anything by Dave Barry is dang funny. The Dilbert Principle by Scott Adams. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Very entertaining in a dry, victorian kind of way. Executive Orders by Tom Clancy. Jack Ryan makes a very cool president. Favorite Movies: Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back Monty Python and the Holy Grail Saving Private Ryan How refreshing for Hollywood to make a war movie that approximates reality. The Cutting Edge. A funny two hour battle of the sexes. Bed of Roses While You Were Sleeping. Sandra Bullock: no further explanation needed. Favorite Music: I like most alternative, especially Alanis Morisette (even though she's a bitter, scary "Angry Girl"), Sarah McLaughlin, Matchbox 20, Third Eye Blind, and the Cranberries. I like smatterings of just about everything else except gangsta rap, elevator music and twangy country. Basically I like one or two songs from any given band. The Bands who have more good songs than lame songs go on the all-star list (in no particular order): U2 Rush Duran Duran Erasure/Yaz Depeche Mode Nat King Cole Sting/The Police Chicago Peter Gabriel INXS The Bare Naked Ladies Enya The Pet Shop Boys The Thompson Twins The Cure I also like some Classical, some Opera (Mozart's Requiem rules), Men's A'Capella (like the Nylons), and some Broadway (like Phantom and Les Miserables). Favorite Games: Marathon Infinity. The best all-around first person shooter ever made Shadow Warrior. The best shooter for when you're in a bloodthirsty mood Age of Empires. A realtime strategy game with depth. Mechwarrior. Big walking tanks are cool. Mines. Simple but totally addictive. Any good flight sim. I hope to get Falcon 4.0 soon. Xwing vs. Tie Fighter. Sickly enough, not available for the Mac. Bio: I'm the fourth of five boys. I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah. I have attended college at Snow College in Ephraim (a tiny central Utah town) and at Utah State University in Logan. I still live in Logan, although I'm on hiatus from school right now. I liked Snow College a lot. I was in a show choir there and had a great time. It's one of the friendliest schools anywhere. I was studying psychology there but I switched to Computer Science when I got to USU (decided I didn't want to starve). I served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints (yes, that makes me a Mormon) in Buenos Aires, Argentina for two years (when I was 19-21 years old) and am still an adherent to that faith. I take a live and let live stance on religion. It's one of the most personal decisions a person makes and nobody likes to be told what to think. I enjoy a good religious debate but I loathe arguments deeply. When I first got into computers I wanted to be an applications programmer but I dislike the tedium of long pages of code that have little visible result. Web programming/design attracts me because it has a deep artistic dimension to it. Visual creativity is more readily expressed on the web than in applications. I'm a Macintosh Convert of about two years, thanks to my brother Mark, who is a software engineer (and my personal computer mentor). He saved me from a life of pain by convincing me to get a Umax instead of a crappy Wintel box. It was love at first Mac and I now own a rev. B iMac and I love it (although I drool over the new 333's with bitter lust). I have developed a healthy disgust of the way Microsoft does business and avoid their products whenever possible just out of spite. Created: 08/01/99 Updated: 11/09/02 Top of page Top of Section Home