Welcome to BenWoods.com

We're having a blood drive at work today. I unfortunately will not be participating today, or ever again, because the American Red Cross refuses to stop calling me.

This is a strange predicament for me because I've been a fairly loyal donor for about 15 years. But due to the Red Cross' refusal to remove me from its calling list, I'm really not that interested in donating again.

Here are two recent releases to check out the next time you're in the need of a new book.

"Love Betrayed" is a nonfiction novel by author Karen Hinton. It's a book for traumatized wives who find themselves reinventing their lives after dedicating decades to their husbands.

I haven't had a chance to post much on my blog lately. I think most people know why I haven't ... baby on the way, new house, a bunch of new websites and a new book. Anyway, I don't want to quit on the blog completely, but I'll probably consider a new format at some point, especially since I will be contributing to the Spumoni Press blog as well. Until then, be sure to check out spumonipress.com, as well as my latest post - First year = crazy year.

I had expected this note would give you an exact date, preferably in December, to announce the launch of "Corporate Ties." Unfortunately, it will have to wait a bit longer. I've been slightly busier this fall than anticipated … we purchased a house, we're preparing for a baby in March, among other things. The good news is that once I have a decent block of time to devote to the book, I should be able to finish it.

Until then, here's a new excerpt from the book.

Fellow Baltimore writer Spencer Compton will be sharing commentary from his new book, "Get Real" at 7pm tonight (Oct. 26) at Red Emma's Bookstore and Coffee House.

QUESTION

Is it ever appropriate to use profanities in an email?

LAEL: YES

It's okay by my standards to use profanities in email to people that you would normally say profantities when speaking. However, you should becareful not to tell grandma to kick @ss in tomorrow's bingo tournament ... As with all things email related, you should be careful what you write because you never know who is going to see it.

AMANDA: YES

You've probably seen the signs hanging around your place of business, or maybe you've seen ads in the newspaper promoting a way to get rid of your old computer. "Donate your computer to a third-world school!" or "We recycle your old monitors!" Those seem like noble ideas, but they also beg the question: What is actually being done with your trash?

I'm not ashamed to say I like to cook. I rarely do cook, though, because I never seem to have enough time, or enough energy, or the dog ate my homework.

Some of the stuff I cook, I make up as I go. Other things I've borrowed from my mom, and the rest I pull out of my cookbook. I never thought of looking up recipes on the Web, because if I had time to do that, why wouldn't I just pull a recipe out of the cookbook?

If you use Yahoo email and you are one of those people who save every email, it looks like you won't need to empty the trash anytime soon.

Yahoo announced that in May, the company will over unlimited storage capacity.

Some people walk around with a cellphone like it is the actual meaning of life. "Cellphone, please tell me again your perspective of good versus evil." Oh wait, maybe the person was just talking to their philosophy classmate.

Anyway, I've come up with some simple tips that probably most of you won't agree with, but I think it would make the world much more livable.