Houston Karma

I just wanted to make sure you are all aware that we have moved to a new meeting location. We were previously meeting in the University of Houston campus, but now we moved to a location very close to the Galleria. Hopefully that will make it easier for most of you to attend and meet some cool people in the Houston area!

Our new location is:

1776 Yorktown St, 7th floor
Houston, TX 77056

You can find driving directions (and a link to Google Maps) at the following URL:

Directions

I hope to see you all there next week on Thursday at 7:00pm.

If you live in Houston, you’re probably finding out that yesterday comcast stopped supporting the old servers you use for outgoinging mail, which were smtp-houston.rr.com and similar names.

The new information is different from what comcast recommends in their FAQ. Instead, use this:

Server: smtp.comcast.net
Port: 25

So far, that’s been working. FYI

Museum of Natural Science - free Tuesday evenings

http://www.hmns.org/

Tuesdays 2 pm - 8 pm regular exhibits are free.

Museum of Fine Arts - free Thursday evenings

http://www.mfah.org/

Shell oil sponsors free Thursday night admission (4-9pm) to regular exhibits. Many of the city’s more interesting people show up at this time.

Houston Writer’s Guild - first thursday of month

Networking meetings are the 1st Thursday of each month at the The Daily Grind, 4115 Washington Ave, near the Heights. These meetings are informal and social. All Interested writers are invited and the meetings are free. Further networking is available through our email list.

http://www.geocities.com/houstonwriters/
Authors and Publishers - third thursday of month
We have resumed our monthly informal networking meetings on the third Thursday of the month at Cafe Express, River Oaks, Houston

Please join us Thursday, May 17, 2007, 6:00 PM
Cafe Express: River Oaks
1422 W Gray St
Houston, TX 77019
(713) 522-3100

http://www.authorsandpublishers.org/

General
http://brazos.booksense.com/
http://www.bluewillowbookshop.com/

Murder Mysteries
http://www.murderbooks.com/

Technical Books
http://www.brownbookshop.com/

http://www.soundexchangehouston.com/

http://www.soundwaves.com/

This list does seem very short. That’s because Barnes and Noble, Amazon and other giant corporates have mostly obliterated the independent record store.

Freecycle. You post a message saying what you have and where you’ll give it away, and someone responds and you meet.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HoustonFreecycle/

Craiglist has a section for giving stuff away free.
http://houston.craigslist.org/zip/

Our brilliant city decided to make us all uneasy and install automatic cameras at red lights around town. I think it’s a bad idea, even a stupid idea, to create more alienation when the real problem is traffic that drives people insane. But they got some instant revenue karma to the tune of six million dollars from it, so the fat people with political jobs are happy. Here’s how you can avoid their folly:

1. Know the locations of the cameras
http://www.click2houston.com/automotive/10103894/detail.html

2. When you drive, look for large white poles with both camera and flasher units pointed at the intersection.

Here’s a short list of links to help you and I both out.

http://cbtcws.cityofhouston.gov/events/
http://www.visithoustontexas.com/visitors/events.php
http://houston.craigslist.org/cal/
http://www.advancement.uh.edu/marketing/calendar/FMPro?-db=UHdates.FP5&-lay=DataEntry&-format=index.htm&-view
http://www.houstontheaterdistrict.org/en/calendarevents/monthly.asp
http://www.houstonbusiness.com/calendar/
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/5100892.html
http://www.onlyinhouston.org/en/calendarevents/monthly.asp
http://www.houstonculture.org/resources/cal.html