Desert Pond

Category: Start Writing Again

I start writing again, although I never really stopped. I did stop writing for fun and only wrote for work (boring, plain papers, presentations, business cases and emails). Now, I want to start writing again for fun…for me. You might not enjoy it but I think my mother will be by often.

  • Lower Electric Bills – Trick is Twofold

    I’ve been researching electricity usage, reviewing electric bills, and reading up on the cost per kilowatt hour nationally and state-wide for a current project. I’m always on the hunt for ways to lower my electric bills and have been writing about this online recently. Then a light bulb went off (it’s okay, it was solar powered). The problem needs to be tackled in at least two ways.

    Light Bulb by Caveman 92223
    Light Bulb by Caveman 92223

    First, rate – the cost you pay for your electricity. This is usually referred to as your cost per kilowatt hour (or kWh). You can lower this amount if your electric company offers what’s called an Off-Peak or Non-Peak plan which charges less per kWh for those kilowatts used during the time of the day when overall demand is lower. If you sign up for these plans and shift as much of your usage as possible to the off-peak times, you’ll lower your overall cost per kWh. Your electric company may offer other reduced-charge plans.

    Example:

    1000 kWh used at $.09/kWh would be a charge of $90
    1000 kWh used at $.08/kWh would be a charge of $80

    Second, total usage – the total kWh used in a month. This shows up on your bill and can vary month-to-month but is usually driven by changes in season and weather. If your home uses electric air conditioning, for instance, but gas heat like mine, your electricity bill is often higher in the summer and lower in the winter only because you’ve switched sources of energy used to set your home’s temperature.
    Making your home more energy efficient also helps reduce your total usage and has an impact on your electric bill. Even a reduction in usage of 10% makes a difference.

    Example:

    1000 kWh used at $.09/kWh would be a charge of $90
    900 kWh used at $.09/kWh would be a charge of $81

    Now, put the two techniques together. Lower your rate and your usage:

    Example:

    1000 kWh used at $.09/kWh would be a charge of $90

    900 kWh used at $.08/kWh would be a charge of $72 ?


    For information on the exact methods you can use to lower your electric bills, see my other online articles:

    Cutting Electric Bill
    How to Lower Electricity Bills
    Compare Electricity Bills
    Reducing Electricity Bills
    Solar Electricity for Your Home

    Good luck!

  • Writer’s Bump

    I have writer’s bump. Yes, I said “bump” not “block”. I might actually have bumps, now that I think about it. First, there’s a bump – a callous, really – developing at the base of my right hand from where my wrist tends to sit on the keyboard as I type or on the desktop when I use the mouse. Maybe it’s my badge of courage for having taken on so many writing projects I can’t see straight. Which leads me to my second bump – a big hill of writing in front of me that I climb and climb but seems to be growing.

    Don’t get me wrong. I’ll take bumps over blocks any day.

  • Spitting Out Posts

    I haven’t posted to my blog in so long I nearly forgot I even had a blog. I’ve seen some very nice, simple but effective blog posts lately on other sites and I think it’s time I squeeze in a few of those. Can’t guarantee they’ll be effective – or even entertaining – but if I focus on just writing and not word count, I’ll at least get back to blogging.

    You’ll notice my previous posts are a bit lengthy. I don’t think of myself as a talker, but when it comes to writing, I can go on and on. In fact, you should see some of the posts I’ve left in forum threads. I’ve nearly taken up the page which must frustrate a few folks. Today’s message: there’s nothing wrong with short and sweet. I suppose that’s what Twitter is trying to tell us.

  • I Heart New York City

    Today, after only 3 and one half hours of sleep, I climbed aboard a plane in Phoenix and dozed my way to NYC’s JFK International Airport. Tomorrow, I’ll be attending an all day meeting, but tonight I have nothing to do but keep myself occupied. After grabbing a cab at the airport and strapping on my seatbelt (a tip I’ve learned when being in a cab in NYC to keep from sliding left to right and right to left when the cabbie takes a sudden, jarring turn to fling the cab from one lane of the freeway to another), I watch, amazed, out the window at the buzzing mass that is New York City.

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  • Writing Contests Worth Your Time

    Yesterday, while doing some additional research on how to further develop a career in writing, I came across a question about a writing competition in a forum.  Competitions?  They have writing competitions?  I guess I should have realized that, but truly it hadn’t crossed my mind.  I ran off to my favorite search engine (hello Google!) and found several interesting, high quality competitions worth considering.

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