Writing for Metblogs has the potential to be the most rewarding experience in your entire life. It’ll make you rich, famous, good looking, will help you lose weight, make your clothes fit better, and get you a super good deal on a new car. It will make you the most well known person on the entire planet. Yes, each and every one of you. Really.

OK maybe not. Actually those are all lies, but it’s fun at least. The truth is Metblogs is the largest network of locally focused blogs on the web, covering almost 60 cities around the world and we’re looking to add a few new bloggers/writters/authors to this fine site. If you wanna know more about us check out this wikipedia entry but it’s kinda boring so I won’t waste time repeating it all here again. If you wanna write for us, here’s the scoop:

• All author positions are volunteer. That means you don’t get paid.
• You must live in (or very near) the city you plan to write about.
• Anything you post must relate to the city somehow. That means you shouldn’t post a movie review, but talking about going to see a movie at a local theater is fine.
• There’s no requirement for how much you can or should write, but we ask that if we set you up as an author you make about 3 posts a week.
• You can post about things you love, you can post about things you hate. It’s entirely up to you

Additionally, because of our global network, there’s plenty of options for things you write to be read by people all over the world. Interested? Want more details? Post a comment and we’ll be in touch!

Listen to the audio interview with Lee Fisher:

Renewable energy production (from sources such as wind, solar, hydro, biomass, and geothermal) is coming on strong and mainstream for both utilities and smaller applications such as homes, neighborhoods, farms and ranches. Traditional power generation (from sources such as coal, gas, and nuclear) will be an important component for our baseline energy production for many years, but forward-thinking states are adopting (or increasing) Renewable Portfolio Standards (requirements to achieve specified amounts or percentages of power from renewable sources by particular dates).

Texas is host to the annual WINDPOWER 2008 conference this week. Everything in Texas is big and this conference is no exception with over 10,000 attendees and over 750 exhibitors. As we seek to transform Texas into the new energy capital of the world, it takes a number of different constituencies coming together to transition from the traditional ways we have been creating and delivering power.

Ohio’s Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher came to the conference to talk about the lessons they learned in passing their recent Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard, and the challenges and opportunities they face in implementing the legislation through their Public Utilities Commission.

To build consensus across multiple groups for this initiative, Fisher said the state leaders “built a very powerful coalition made up of those in the environmental and renewable energy sectors, the manufacturing sector, and small business, as well as labor.” He said that “developing the broad based coalition at the outset ” and “keeping the coalition together by regular communication” was a key component to getting the legislation passed. He also noted there was bipartisan support in the legislature, and it “couldn’t have been done without a bipartisan consensus.” One of the challenges they now face is to track and make sure the “benchmarks have teeth and are enforced.”

These initiatives bring more jobs, too. Fisher noted their “manufacturing and agricultural base, combined with their strategic location and well-built infrastructure” gives them “home court advantage when it comes to growing and attracting a renewable energy industry.”

When we bring new energy companies to Texas, it creates jobs and increases our economic diversity. At the city, county, regional, and state level, we can work together to improve our energy situation, ensuring reliable availability and affordable pricing. But, our elected leaders need to hear from us, and our government bodies need to know this is important to us.

Start local, get involved, meet with your community leaders, and start talking about how we can bring new jobs and new companies, to our region. Get to know your legislators, find out where they stand on developing renewable energy, and encourage them to bring more supportive and actionable legislation into the light of day.

By STEVE HARVEY
Cleantegrity

For the children, that is! The same people that help keep millions of teeth clean want you to vote for a hospital to receive an additional fun center for ill children. Colgate-Palmolive has already guaranteed one fun center for each hospital participating. Your vote will decide who gets an additional fun center. Right now, Houston is trailing in the no. 2 spot behind Detroit. Come on, peeps, vote for the kids!

Hey everyone! It’s been a while…

I’ve finally decided to devote the time & energy to make my private Graffiti Photo collection public. I’ve got hundreds of shots from around 2005-2007. As time allows I will be uploading in batches of 10 to the following flickr page. The master plan is to display images from other cities once I’m done with Houston. Probably starting with NYC.

These humans have created some beautiful imagery over time and I feel very fortunate to have captured their work because most of it is non-existent at this point. I hope you enjoy these and derive as much inspiration from them as I have:

http://flickr.com/photos/shumate/sets/72157603437263331/

I love this cooler weather now, cycling is so much better. And what luck! We’ve got two big events this weekend that let you take advantage of your set of wheels.

The October Critical Mass

Dress up, come out and ride! Critical Mass rides are self-organized, non-commercial and non-competitive, just fun. Starts at Tranquility Park on Friday the 26th at 6:30pm to ride at 7:00pm. Find out more at Critical Mass’ Myspace

Moonlight Ramble 2007

Saturday night/Sunday morning brings us the Moonlight Ramble, an all-ages annual rolling bike party through the city. Costumes, bikes, noise, people all night long. A ride with your choice of 8 or 20 miles, starting at 2am (the second one) and rolling from the GRB Convention Center downtown and path through the city.

Registration for the Moonlight Ramble is $30/person and all proceeds benefit Bike Houston. Find out more info on the flyer [pdf] and the FAQ.

So, come out and support cycling, fun and great people. And remember to dress warmly, its gonna be in the low 50’s.

One thing I love almost as much as eating, is getting things free. I just found a way to get both at once.

In celebration of three successful years in Houston, Krystal, the fast food restaurant known for its tiny burgers with big taste, is giving away two free hamburgers to Houstonians on Saturday, October 27. As a long-time consumer of said burgers, I am excited to be getting two free ones Saturday. Okay, its not like they cost a lot in the first place, but damn - it sure is a great excuse to go and scarf a few down.

The two free Krystal hamburger give-away is going on at the restaurant located at 1623 FM 1960 Rd W in North Houston anytime during store hours (drive-thru is open 24 hours and in-store dining is open 6a.m. - 11 p.m.) on the 27th. You will receive two of the famous hot, fresh, small, square hamburgers that have made the restaurant a cultural icon across the South and trust me, you’ll be hooked.

West Fest - Houston, Oct. TX 2007
Originally uploaded by Mr. Waldo.

I really love the Waldo wheatpastes all over Houston. It really makes the city more enjoyable.

I know street art tends to divide people. Something like Waldo this is not really destructive and it provides and interesting flair that is quite unique. Is that a crime? Is it tasteful? What do you think of it?

Get your geek on bigger and better than ever. The second BarCamp Houston kicks off Saturday the 25th and it is a veritable who’s who of Houston area technologists. Those of you who joined me at BarCamp Houston last year might be shocked to hear that as of this blog post there are 144 attendees signed up and growing.

For a complete wiki on what a BarCamp is click here

As far as the details of Saturdays event:
Date: August 25, 2007
Time: 9:00 A.M.
Location: Houston Technology Center
Cost: Always free!
Format: Presentations, development projects, and demos
Estimated Attendance: 150

Sign up and if you attend, make sure you pull me aside to say “Howdy!”

I was allowing my attention drought disorder to run wild the other day and managed to surf 4325 different websites. Website #4324 was a review of a Web 2.0 social networking site (these sites spring up like roaches, although some don’t have as many diseases (-; ). The new site is Yippykya.com and they propose that you can meet friends, make money, or get discovered. I’m choosing to make friends through other outlets and I have no artistic abilities worth bragging about so naturally all I want to do on this site is make money. I was thoroughly frustrated after creating an account, clicking on the option to make money and then being told to create an account. So, I don’t really have a good review about this site but maybe you do. Oh well. They had a launch party on the June 27th (yeah, sorry for the delay, did anyone else even know about the site?). They are developing the Houston community first and will branch out to other enormous cities at some point in the future. You can read another review (maybe a little more favorable) at Profy.com

Wow, this story over at the Chronicle is incredible. An inmate was erroneously released and proceeded to find the person he shot in the head….to say “I’m sorry”. Makes me wonder about the real effect of serving time. Should there be more of an emphasis on rehabilitation versus just locking up the bad guys? I think so. Not necessarily every convict can be rehabilitated. But it seems this guy was temporarily released and wanted to make amends. Large cities like Houston would seem to benefit from more rehabilitative programs and more effort in that direction. Is this guy an example of how “correctional facilities” really are correcting behavior? I doubt it. Seems like this guy is more of an exception. What do you think?