Welcome to BenWoods.com

I would bet my lunch money that to get to the page you are currently reading, you probably didn't type a 32-bit numeric address written as four numbers separated by periods.

A few weeks ago, while doing research (if you can call it that) for a column, I came across a site devoted to myths and legends. I thought I had visited just about every genre of Web sites, but boy did I miss a big one.

Paranormal Web sites seem to be fairly normal these days. Not that I'm completely surprised by this, but I was shocked to see the latest reports of phenomena. I really must be out of the loop because now there are theories on Mothman, Owlman and Goatman out there. I swear I did not pull these names from an episode of "Power Rangers."

There are thousands of way to make your Webpage interactive these days, from Java applets to Flash to sticking your head through your computer screen and giving the monitor a twirl. But today we will be discussing forms, one of the most elementary ways to conduct hand-to-hand combat on the Internet warfront.

Sometimes I have a hard time getting my work finished because I have different questions popping into my head. I try to ignore those questions to move on with my life and wash all of my electrical appliances, but it's just no use.

Now, whenever I have a really tough question, I just hang out at Ask Jeeves. Even if I don't always get my questions answered, the service is great and the buffet is amazing. OK, so there isn't a buffet, but if there were, I'd probably never leave the site.

Colors. Colors.

Perhaps you have noticed the various possibilities of color schemes on various Web pages. Perhaps you haven't, because you actually pull your sweater above your head and type on your computer with your toes. Either way, deciding on the perfect shade or hue can usually be done. It's just not as easy as picking up a crayon.

A large portion of people, including me, have tossed away a home land line in favor of just using a cell phone. Of course, that can be problematic on occasion, especially if your cell phone service is bad.

There might a remedy available, even without going through on of your local telecom companies. Gizmo (not to be confused with the little guy on "Gremlins" touts itself as a free phone for your computer.

How easy would it be for the United States government to keep tabs on people via the Internet? Soon, Congress could call a vote against Net Neutrality, which would allow ISPs to deliver partner websites faster than others. While this would be disruptive to the World Wide Web as a whole, this still wouldn't give access to data logs from all ISPs.

I thought of a new way to determine how many people

actually were reading my column: I decided to hand out

chocolate to everyone who visited any of the four Web

sites that carry me.

Unfortunately, logistics won't allow that, plus I don't

have any chocolate; I ate it all. Instead, I thought

we would discuss music file types and get your opinion

on music taste while we're at it.

I have one simple request for Christmas -- that someone, ANYONE, will finally be named president. Yes, we have George W. and Al, but if they name Al W. George out of Minot, N.D., instead, that would be fine.

What caused this whole problem? The people of the United States, of course, always trying to stir up trouble, whether it's at the local moose lodge or bingo hall. Can't people fill in the correct circles? Can't people count votes right? Can't people use turning signals when changing lanes?

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?