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I will be participating in the 2007 BookExpo America, which will be held May 31-June 3 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City. This will be my first book expo, which is billed as "the premier event serving the U.S. book publishing industry."
Sitting in front of a computer all day (not to be confused with Otis Redding's "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay") isn't that glamorous. In fact, it's pretty easy to relax, lose focus on what you are typing slightly, hIT teh wrogn keys, and ... er, what was I saying?
Oh yes, the issue of people falling asleep at their cubes. Wouldn't it be nice to have nap time? At least in New Jersey, bosses aren't enamored with the notion of providing beds for employees.
Microsoft Office 2007 is missing one minor annoyance, er, ingredient that everyone commonly refers to as "Clippy." Yes folks, I'm talking about the talking paper clip, which ranks up there with file folders and the cubicle as the greatest workplace inventions in the history of ... um ... the workplace.
George W. Bush is trying - yet again - to slash funding for NPR and PBS. This week, Bush proposed a new budget with devastating cuts to public broadcasting. "Sesame Street" and other ad-free kids' shows are under the knife. So is the independent journalism our country needs.
Enough is enough. We've fought this fight before and won - but we can't afford the risk anymore. With the new Congress, we can make sure this never happens again. We need Congress to insulate NPR and PBS from the political winds.
In the latest IM tellin', Sean and I debate the rules that really should govern ninjas, among other things.
Sean: vampires, by nature, are essentially smooth criminals
Sean: if you think about it
Ben: that is a good point ... almost like ninjas
Sean: ninjas are not smooth criminals
Sean: because you cannot by any means measure a ninja to be smooth or not
Sean: because....who is going to see them?
Before reading too far into this post, I should first let you know that if you need details about many Disney World food establishments, you will not find that here. When doing research for the trip, one of the more universal tips from bloggers regarding saving money was to bring in your own food, snacks and drinks. Outside of glass containers and alcohol, everything else is fair game to bring.
If you have read the book already, feel free to rate it as well as write a little review. If you haven't read it, you can rank it anyway ... of course it will be good! If you are interested in purchasing it, you may do so from Amazon, but I would recommend buying it directly from me, just because that seems easier, don't you think?
Check out The Developers on Amazon.com.
If you're here, you've probably already figured this out. But just in case you aren't paying attention ... here's to the new and improved website!
I'll be adding plenty more items in the upcoming weeks and months, but the tough part was getting it started. I've built the site using MODx, which has to be one of the best, if not the best, PHP-driven content management system.
Feel free to check out new and old articles, leave comments, take the surveys and let me know if you find stuff that doesn't work!
There was a bit of a buzz recently when America Online changed its instant messenging Terms of Service. The change seems to state that AOL is allowed to use anything posted by users whenever it sees fit. Which, of course, means that if you told a buddy "AOL sucks!" while on AIM, you could be in big trouble and possibly be forced to sit in the back row of a Village People concert.
One of the toughest things I have found as a new novelist is finding objective reviews. It seems that most friends and family members, as truthful as they may be, have insider information that makes it difficult to be unbiased. While I have received a few great reviews from people I did not know, I haven't received a large amount of bad ones. Which might be good, but then again, who wants to review a bad book?