Welcome to BenWoods.com

I've finally launched the new BenWoods.com. Yes, it looks a lot like the old one. I upgraded to Drupal 8 (from Drupal 7). I managed to go all of 2019 without writing anything on this site. I hope to write a little more, especially as I launch a new book in the upcoming months. Thanks for reading!

When we booked our Disney trip, we didn’t consider too many hotel options. Once we made the decision to stay onsite, we looked at the cheapest Value resorts - All-Star Music, All-Star Movies and All-Star Sports. We had all but settled on All-Star Music when I found the Summer Quick Service Meal Offer. At the time we were booking, this deal was available only at Pop Century, a Value resort that is priced slightly higher than others.

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.

Spumoni Press is pleased to announce another new book! Brad Samuelson, author of Gnonsense and illustrator of Corporate Ties, will be debuting his latest book, Change Log: Version 1.0, at this year's Baltimore Comic-Con, Sept 28-30 at the Baltimore Convention Center. Stop by his table (A224) to check out the book, as well as original art, free sketches, stickers and copies of Corporate Ties.

As someone who likes the optimize as much as possible when it comes to vacation, I cannot stress enough that it's impossible to optimize fully the Disney experience (especially when your three children are 7, 5 and 2). There are so many variables that can happen during the day that over-planning can backfire. As our trip's primary planner, I divided my objectives into the following categories:

Hello again! My blog is back, so I'm sure that's exciting for all 14 of you who noticed that it was missing. You may also notice that the site looks considerably different than previous iterations. It has taken me some time to get this going again because I've again switched CMSs - this time, from modx to Drupal. Both have their positives, but we use Drupal a lot for work, so it was a no-brainer to use that for my personal sites.

Stop by any Krispy Kreme and pick up a free doughnut. If you need to figure out where to find a Krispy Kreme location, visit the website for additional details.

Unbeknownst to me, robots are starting to pop up all over the place. Not that I am the head robot counter or anything, but I thought I would have a better handle on what is being built. Apparently, though, EVERYTHING is currently in the process of being built.

Can you keep a secret?

Last week, I met with a special agent from the Department of Defense. I had my shrubbery costume ready (luckily, there were no dogs around), but it wasn't necessary. The agent led me into a room in the Crawfordsville Armory, looked both ways and closed the door. The questioning was ready to begin.

So the other day, I remembered I needed to contact Michelle Branch.

This seemed like a simple goal at the onset, but there were various problems: How would I go about actually doing this? What did I need to tell her? Who is she anyway?