http://www.benwoods.com/rss1 RSS en Welcome to BenWoods.com 2006 120 http://www.benwoods.com/agent-wrapup literary agent list, you know that I've contacted a boatload of agents. Although some of given "Corporate Ties" favorable responses, I have not obtained an agent.

  Well, it's now time to move ahead without one. ]]> Sun, 14 Feb 2010 18:32:15 -0600 http://www.benwoods.com/agent-wrapup Ben Woods http://www.benwoods.com/im-a-robot has constructed a robot in my likeness.

  All right, I guess "constructed" isn't the right word, as he hasn't built the robot (at least, not yet), but he has created a fair number of robot friends at the appropriately named site, my robot friends. Most of the mechanical inventions are based on O'Connor's friends, but he occasionally throws in a Santa Claus, Abraham Lincoln and so forth. ]]> Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:48:45 -0600 http://www.benwoods.com/im-a-robot Ben Woods http://www.benwoods.com/european-countries-stop-using-ie French and German governments are recommending their people to use safer alternatives to IE. ]]> Tue, 19 Jan 2010 07:36:52 -0600 http://www.benwoods.com/european-countries-stop-using-ie Ben Woods http://www.benwoods.com/book-review-creative-firing-by-chester-burger
  Enter Chester Burger's book "Creative Firing: Why Management Firings Happen - and How to Reduce Them." This book runs through the gamut of upper management decisions and how to maintain some control and honor throughout the endeavor. I've read many a business book, and even though this book was published in 1972, nearly every principle still applies. ]]> Sun, 17 Jan 2010 17:26:37 -0600 http://www.benwoods.com/book-review-creative-firing-by-chester-burger Ben Woods http://www.benwoods.com/check-out-the-nba-lowlights-stay-for-livin-large Basketbawful, a blog about the worst of the worst in the NBA. If you know me, you're probably wondering why I would be reading this, considering that I follow college basketball exclusively, not the NBA, the NBA development league, European leagues, Upward basketball, etc. If you don't know me, I'm not sure how you ended up on this site, but feel free to look around and DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING.

  The site author has a running story called "Livin' Large," which, for all intensive purposes, is a coming-of-age story set a few dorm rooms down from where my college experience began. It's a great story, and I will admit that maybe I think it's so great because it's easy for me to relate. Nevertheless, I'd recommend that you check it out. ]]> Thu, 07 Jan 2010 07:35:36 -0600 http://www.benwoods.com/check-out-the-nba-lowlights-stay-for-livin-large Ben Woods http://www.benwoods.com/introducing-the-animal-holiday-party offer it in PDF format for anyone interested in reading. Also, the cover art was designed by online comic legend Brad Samuelson. You may know him from his comic strip AsTheGrassGrows. ]]> Sat, 19 Dec 2009 18:41:47 -0600 http://www.benwoods.com/introducing-the-animal-holiday-party Ben Woods http://www.benwoods.com/octopus-uses-tools-whats-next some octopuses pick up coconut shells and hide in them, the first evidence of an invertebrate using tools. ]]> Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:24:26 -0600 http://www.benwoods.com/octopus-uses-tools-whats-next Ben Woods http://www.benwoods.com/literary-cubist-mughal-interviewed-by-harfordneighbors Mohamed Mughal last year at a writers' conference, and we shared opinions and the like on our writings. He is a self-proclaimed literary cubist, and he's in the process of finishing his second novel, "Christmas in Mecca:  A Cubist Novel in the Existential, Absurdist Tradition of Canonical Literature, Squeezed from the Eternal Consciousness of Adam Hueghlomm." Anyway, HarfordNeighbors.net recently interviewed Mughal, so find out more about his writings on that website. ]]> Mon, 07 Dec 2009 07:58:02 -0600 http://www.benwoods.com/literary-cubist-mughal-interviewed-by-harfordneighbors Ben Woods http://www.benwoods.com/bing-maps-launches Bing Maps. I took it for a quick test run, and in general, it's pretty comparable to Google Maps. There's hardly a discernible difference between the two, honestly. You can change routes pretty easily, look for local businesses and email links to friends. Probably the strangest thing I noticed, however, is that the base URL turns into bing.com/maps, instead of remaining maps.bing.com. I'm not really sure why they wouldn't just use the subdomain for the entire maps site. I didn't notice any features that really distinguished Bing from Google, so unless a reason to switch arises, I'll stick with Google Maps. ]]> Thu, 03 Dec 2009 06:38:37 -0600 http://www.benwoods.com/bing-maps-launches Ben Woods http://www.benwoods.com/if-youre-at-your-computer-166-hours-a-week Wed, 25 Nov 2009 07:46:38 -0600 http://www.benwoods.com/if-youre-at-your-computer-166-hours-a-week Ben Woods http://www.benwoods.com/introducing-mrs.-annathena-gilly-gully
That's Maurice, and his antics cause a few problems in the story. Mrs. Annathena Gilly Gully from Puddle Rumple Tilly Willy by Chellis Jensen, talks about teasing and name calling, and how two generations finally come together. It is written for children 7- to 9-year-olds, and has already been approved enthusiastically by hundreds of children, their teachers and parents. The story is available in both book and CD, plus a song “We Might Even Get To Be Friends”. ]]> Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:36:28 -0600 http://www.benwoods.com/introducing-mrs.-annathena-gilly-gully Ben Woods http://www.benwoods.com/warrant-unnecessary-for-email-search-by-u.s.-government government can take a look at your email without any notice. ]]> Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:59:49 -0600 http://www.benwoods.com/warrant-unnecessary-for-email-search-by-u.s.-government Ben Woods http://www.benwoods.com/chapter-art-updates-for-corporate-ties Corporate Ties," for a number of reasons. The biggest, though, is that I want the book to be super awesome and not cause too many issues, which of course, is causing a delay. In the meantime, I've picked up a bit with the marketing side. I've enlisted two graphic designers to assist me with artwork for the book.

Designer Brad Samuelson, who is also the creator of the online comic "As the Grass Grows," has begun creating icons for the beginning of each chapter. I've included a few below. Also, I'm working with designer Sean O'Connor, creator of my robot friends, to create a new cover for the book. It should be a fun couple of months preparing the book, but I'm ready to put it on the shelves ASAP! ]]> Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:18:58 -0600 http://www.benwoods.com/chapter-art-updates-for-corporate-ties Ben Woods http://www.benwoods.com/new-business-book-for-women-the-corporate-dominatrix The Corporate Dominatrix: Six Roles to Play to Get Your Way at Work." From the website, the book "shows women how to role-play their way to success by employing the tactics of the six mistress archetypes of The Corporate Dominatrix: Goddess, Queen, Amazon, Governess, Nurse, and Schoolgirl." ]]> Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:38:36 -0500 http://www.benwoods.com/new-business-book-for-women-the-corporate-dominatrix Ben Woods http://www.benwoods.com/dress-codes-for-avatars avatars will have business dress codes by 2013. How do people come up with this stuff? ]]> Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:38:14 -0500 http://www.benwoods.com/dress-codes-for-avatars Ben Woods http://www.benwoods.com/search-old-old-old-newspapers Chronicling America has a number of scanned newspapers from 1880 to 1922 from various American states. The site, which is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program, allows users to search based on topics and zoom in to read papers from the more than 100 years ago. ]]> Sun, 04 Oct 2009 20:04:57 -0500 http://www.benwoods.com/search-old-old-old-newspapers Ben Woods http://www.benwoods.com/ridiculous-inventions Life's list of 30 Dumb Inventions. I'd say there are probably more than 30, but this list is pretty good. I will admit, though, that I'm a big fan of the flying platform. I could use one of these as a substitute for city driving! ]]> Sat, 03 Oct 2009 21:11:31 -0500 http://www.benwoods.com/ridiculous-inventions Ben Woods http://www.benwoods.com/Baltimore-Book-Festival-school-fundraiser Baltimore Book Festival ... as a customer, though, not as a vendor. But I still feel as if I should be more a part of the action. So, for the rest of September, I decided to give away a few copies of my workplace humor novel, "The Developers," in conjunction with raising money for Southwest Baltimore Charter School. The school is currently selling ChicoBags, which are reusable shopping bags (and for what it's worth, we're selling the purple version). The bags cost $5, and with each purchase, I'm throwing in a copy of my book. Anyway, if you are out of town and interested, I'll just add $2 for shipping. Send me your address, and I'll send you bag+book. ]]> Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:25:28 -0500 http://www.benwoods.com/Baltimore-Book-Festival-school-fundraiser Ben Woods http://www.benwoods.com/woman-wins-after-being-fired-for-confrontational-email the company fired Vicki Walker for sending an email that highlighted a specific date and time in red, as well as an important message in all caps. ]]> Tue, 08 Sep 2009 07:44:52 -0500 http://www.benwoods.com/woman-wins-after-being-fired-for-confrontational-email Ben Woods http://www.benwoods.com/mapping-the-reviews "The Developers" reviews. By this count, it looks like 18 plus Washington D.C. It would be pretty cool to hear from someone in every state, but let's face it, how many copies of my book are lying around in South Dakota? ]]> Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:39:22 -0500 http://www.benwoods.com/mapping-the-reviews Ben Woods