Welcome to BenWoods.com

It helps tremendously to have the chance to work with an actual editor with any writing project ... especially a full-length novel. Patrick Coyle provided a lot of great feedback with "Polos to Ties," which is probably one of the main reasons I've received decent feedback so far from literary agencies. I'm still looking for a reasonable deal, though, as finding the right agent isn't always the easiest thing to do.

In the near future, I plan to post the first five chapters of the book, but I'm also waiting a response from a second editor as well.

You'll notice that I haven't been writing much, for a few good reasons. At work, we've been pretty busy, and we just moved into a different office. In my spare time, I've been devoting most of my time sending out book queries and proposals and also working on my girlfriend's school's website.

But let's face it: The important thing happening right now is men's college basketball. Who will win their conference tournaments? Which teams will make it to the Big Dance? What team will win it all?

There are two important links you need at this stage:

As people make advances every day in technology, we also lose stuff that we don't need to know anymore. When was the last time you rewound a videotape? If you can think of anything you don't need to know anymore, check to see if it's on this list of Obsolete Skills.

I don't agree with all of them (you still need to know how to compute sales tax if you are a business owner!), but it's a pretty good list nonetheless.

I'm not absolutely certain about this, but I think I have a similar basic understanding of Leonardo Da Vinci as your typical educated U.S. citizen. I know he was a brilliant artist during the Renaissance and dabbled a bit in science and engineering endeavors.

With the multitude of problems facing education in America today, it's oftentimes difficult to even consider that anything will ever be resolved. However, there is one thing afforded to U.S. citizens that can give educators hope: the ability to vote. With the presidential primaries in full swing, and the general election coming up in the fall, here's a quick rundown of where each major candidate stands:

Democrats

Hillary Clinton