Please consider "arc"  which is  introduced at
http://www.paulgraham.com/arc.html.

http://www.paulgraham.com is a treasure trove for anyone interested
computer languages.
Whether you choose arc or not  having perused this site will make you
final choice better.

When I discovered ruby,  I vetted it by noticing that matz knew  lisp,
smalltalk, and perl.  Other
language inventors started from other traditions  without mastering this
basic triad and in my mind
mislead newbies.  Without a grounding in l-s-p you are bound to reinvent
the wheel. Actually my current
vetting  check is for  l-s-p -r.  I don't know what Paul thinks of ruby.
Although he does not speak
highly of o-o.


YMMV,

John