For the guitar player/hot rodder in your life, Gibson guitars is hosting a sweet giveaway in conjunction with Hot Rod Magazine. The picture above is the guitar I would have if I could trade my ex-wife for anything in the world. The Indian was discontinued a couple of years ago. I wish she was too...
Anyone living in the Metroplex knows that we are paying the highest rates for residential electricity in the country. Anyone who reads above an 8th grade reading level knows that the reason that is the case is because Texas loves business, and businesses love Texas. See, even in the wake of the California power de-regulation fiasco (which, if you have forgotten, lead to Enron and gaming of the grid that led to rolling blackouts), Texas forged ahead with its own de-regulation of the power industry in Texas. As a result, providers like TXU, playing apparently well within the rules, set their price to beat mark (which is based on natural gas prices, more on that in a minute) right after Hurricane Katrina hit. Natural gas was at, or near, record highs. So too have been our electricity prices. Admittedly, energy usage in Texas has been at a record high as well.
Fast forward a year later. Natural gas prices are off of last year's numbers because New Orleans was not completely smoted, and production is coming back online (I am purely guessing about that, don't bust my balls). TXU rates are set based on the price of natural gas, based on the once pre-dominant theory that power plants would be fueled by natural gas instead of coal. Two months ago, TXU tee'd up a request to the state of Texas to allow it to build 11 new generating units to meet increasing demand. Those 11 new plants are natural gas fired, right? No, beloved. TXU, experiencing record profits because of the price to beat mark, determined by natural gas prices, wants to build 11 brand new coal fired plants. (However, remember my advice from long ago, if you can't beat them, profit from them... ).
Coal is cheaper than natural gas, so TXU profits will be even greater (as long as current pricing stays in effect). Natural gas is cleaner than coal, so this must be some evil conspiracy to keep jacking up my sunsets by dumping more crap in the air, thereby perpetuating the cycle of harsh summers from gloab warming causing me and all my neighbors to use more electricity to cool our homes thereby requiring more coal fired plants, leading to more pollution, requiring me to use even more energy to cool my home... well, I made some ofthat up to, but you get the point.
One of the least consumer friendly industries is the power generation industry. I am as pro-business as most red-blooded Texas boys, but the power-gen folks are in the same category as those damned little college kids that show up at grandma's door with a cooler full of freeze dried steaks and a notebook full of ridiculous flip charts. Three hours later, Grandma is sucked into a contract that doesn't disclose the inflated prices she pays for the meat, the vegetable add-owns, or the "free" chest freezer that is supplied to house all of her new goodies. Friends, Texas power-gen is knocking on the door, and they have a chest freezer they wanna give you...!
So this morning I learn about this guy. This guy is the first of, I hope, many who will tip the scales back in favor consumers when it comes to dealing with residential power-gen. Power-gen is head and shoulders above the rest of us in learning how to game prices and keep screwing the other side. At ChooseEnergy.com, not only do they show you how to get the best deal on prices, they will alert you through email new ways to save money on residential electricity by learning, and gaming, the system. Even has a complete portion o f the site dedicated to 'splaining the current system in Texas.
Sorry, if I sound like a Man on Fire, but I am sick and tired of watching my friends and neighbors get hosed on their energy costs. There have been some dangerous, disheartening changes in this country the last few years, that have nothing to do with 9/11 or terrorism or the asshats in Lebanon. Salaries are stagnant, the cost of housing has sky-rocketed, retirement is a joke. Since bankruptcy reform, bill collectors and credit card companies have become more brazen (on both sides of the transaction). Hell, even the IRS is now farming out collection activities to private collection agencies. Grab your ankles friends.
The folks at ChooseEnergy.com are doing the rest of us a helluva big favor. Use him to switch, buy ad space, tell your friends and neighbors about him. Me, I am gonna sign him up for a different sweepstakes...
I was gonna save this for later, but since I have been so surly, and on a Sunday morning to boot... Please do yourself a favor and go check out this guy's work. He is called the Spirit Painter, and with damn good reason. The website does no justice to his works because of the subtlety of most of his work. I will do a post about him in a few days, because this was one of the mystical, magical experiences that the anonymity of the Internet allows me share. But as a primer, go see the site first...
ONE more thing (help, I cannot stop myself...)! Silver is sitting at just under $13 an ounce. Gold is far too high at current market, at least until new technologies require greater use of gold. Ten ounce and hundred ounce ingots/bars of silver are good buys. Try here, tell 'em who sent ya'!
That's it, that is all the freebies for you today. Go away and make your ex-spouse miserable and your children less embarrassed to know you. Look forward to the next freebie though, I will show you how to get a good deal on a free pinata, and if you hold it sideways, squish your eyes together, sneak a toke and look real closely, you will see that the damned pinata looks just like... Formerly Living.
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