Welcome to BenWoods.com

During high school and college, I worked at Kentucky Kingdom amusement park in Louisville, Ky. Besides battling racuous crowds and the blazing heat, one thing that was interesting to me was trying to keep track of the different people I was seeing throughout the day. As a games attendant (a.k.a. carnival barker), I would attempt to personally say things to people that I saw multiple times, whether at different games or at different parts of the park. This was mostly just a sales tactic, and I think the customers likely thought I was training to have my own magic show.

Raymond and Damon are back to their shenanigans in "The Surprise Visit," the second book in the Caimans at Work series.

Raymond and Damon are busy with many orders these days. Their friend Clara stops by the shop with an urgent request. Will the caimans be able to help her before time runs out?

In the web world, an upgrade is usually a thing of joy and agony. On one hand, you want to have the latest and greatest, but on the other, there are usually so many hoops to jump through that it can oftentimes be better to wait until the last minute.

I guess in this case, I'm a little late to the game with Drupal 9, but I've finally upgraded this site - all the way to 9.1 with the Gutenberg editor. Now it is time to dance.

I decided to write a little bit here about my hobby of collecting trading cards. Maybe this will turn into something of interest to the Internet, or at least my kids will have some background info on me when I move along.

The first time I remember receiving cards as a gift was the Christmas of 1983. We were at a neighbor’s house - the boy who lived there was in my brother’s class - and Santa was giving out 1983 Donruss rack packs. The most interesting thing about this is that Santa was either related to or was Vinegar Bend Mizell, a former major leaguer.

Seen as a move that might lead other newspaper chains to do the same, The New York Times acquired About.com for about $410 million, as reported in this Reuters article. This also comes on the heels of the Dow Jones & Co. Inc. deal to purchase the website MarketWatch Inc. as well.

There are at least 56,828 things to do during spring break. If you have a credit card, or know how to use a stolen one, the number grows exponentially. But there is one activity that rarely gets a lot of hype this time of year.

Some people live a paper airplane's throw away from relatives, but most do not. I'm also betting days, fortnights, maybe even months have passed since your last family visit.

As a web developer, I have always heard stories pertaining to the lack of knowledge people have about computers in general. Maybe you have heard the one about the person who called tech support because her computer wouldn't come on ... during a power outage. Or maybe you are familiar with the story about the guy who used his CD tray as a cup holder.

Nintendo has owned up to the problem with the wrist strap problem. The games firm has announced that it will replace broken straps for its Wii console.

Rejoice! Not that I have a Wii, but I just cannot stand to see broken televisions, windows, dogs, etc.

AOL has had its moments over the years, but attempting to level a tax on sending email is just a bit over the top. Fortunately, with the help of MoveOn.org, there's an online petition you can sign to thwart this from starting.

The organization has created Our Open Letter to AOL to help prohibit AOL and other ISPs from setting a tax on emails. Let's face it: Would you pay to send an email?