So, back in October True Power sold my account to Discount Power and didn’t tell me. When I didn’t receive any correspondence regarding my November bill, I logged into True Power and it said I had a zero balance. The next day, Discount Power shuts my power off. After spending two hours on the phone, they couldn’t prove that they ever actually sent the correspondence. My wintertime electric bill went from $160 with True Power to over $400 with Discount Power…with the same kilowatt hours charge of 11 cents. The amount of extra “fees” is almost $200!

Aside from my screaming “do not use Discount Power”, I need some advice on good electric providers without a lot extra fees.

. . . a Marshall, Texas boy:

Christian Jones looked good and came in for lots of positive mention. T'Vondre ha kind of a tough day, but rushing the passer is not likely to be his strong suit anyway

Cliffs Notes: The Longhorns went toe to toe with one of the best teams in college basketball on Monday night for 45 minutes, but just couldn't quite get over the hump in a 76-72 overtime loss.

The Participants: NR Texas (14-7, 3-5 Big 12) and No.4 Houston (19-2, 6-2 Big 12)

Pre-Game KenPom Rankings: Texas (No. 36) and Houston (No. 1)

Game MVP: We'll split the honors tonight because Dillon Mitchell (16 points and 10 rebounds) and Max Abmas (20 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists) carried the team in the second half and into overtime.
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Second-Half Surge: After falling behind 41-30 early in the second half, the Longhorns went on an 24-7 run that completely turned the game on its head, giving the Longhorns a 54-48 lead with 8:20 left in the game.

Thing You Need to Know: The Longhorns probably win this game if Abmas gets a little help in the backcourt, but Tyrese Hunter and Ithiel Horton combined for 8 points on 3 of 8 shooting.

R-e-b-o-u-n-d-i-n-g: The Longhorns were out-rebounded 46-36 and allowed 15 offensive rebounds, which proved to be big in the final 5 minutes of the second half and overtime.

Hometown Boy Goes Off: The real MVP of the game was Houston senior guard and Manor native Jamal Shead, who scored a game-high 25 points, grabbed 8 rebounds and dished out 4 assists in front of a lot of friends and family.

Missing Person's Alert: For most of the first half Dylan Disu was just nowhere to be found, as he missed six of his first seven shots from the floor and only scored 2 points and grabbed 2 rebounds in the first half.

Slow Start: The Longhorns went 13+ minutes of the first half without a single player making more than a single bucket from the floor and at no point in the first half did the Longhorns get to the free throw line.

Tracking down History: After moving into 4th place on the NCAA' all-time 3-point shots made list a couple of weeks ago, Max Abmas knocked down 2 of 8 shots from downtown today to move within 19 of third-place Travis Bader (Purdue 2010-14).

Tracking down History II: Abmas came into tonight's game as the No.14 all-time leading scorer in the history of the college game, trailing former Kansas star Danny Manning by 38 points for 13th place all-time, which means that he'll go into his next game needing only 19 points to pass Manning.

ESPN Bracketology: This latest update was from Saturday morning. Losing the last two games probably means that the Longhorns won't be in the Tournament in the next update. It makes the game on Saturday against a very good TCU game paramount, as the Longhorns can't afford to slip into a 3-game losing streak.



The Current Big 12 Standings...

I hope you Lefties and Never Trumpers are proud of where The Big Guy AND the Left have taken our country.

What ever happened to him after he left Congress.

Break out the checkbooks Trumpettes.

One must not hold one's self so divine as to be unwilling...to make improvements in one's creations.
~~~~~~~ Ludwig van Beethoven

Beethoven also said that "To play a wrong note is insignificant, but to play without passion is inexcusable." Ok, so we're supposed to believe that one of history's greatest composers---maybe THE greatest---was philosophic about mistakes? That even HIS work needed a little correcting once in a while? Say it ain't so!

Yep, it's true. But all too often, we feel the sting of our mistakes for far too long, and we allow our intolerance of flaws and errors to put us into a competition with our Creator, holding ourselves to be "so divine" as ol' Ludwig put it. When we do that, we take the artistic beauty of our humanity, and transform it into nothing more than an ugly bundle of mistakes and flaws. God didn't make us to be little gods, He made us as humans who are imperfect, and in need of His help. Acknowledging that imperfection, we are free to play with the passion that comes from knowing the privilege it is to be human, and leaving room for improvement along the way.

Today, we can be content to let God be God, and accept our lives with their need for improvement, but without the wrath of our own condemnation.

Find your peace. Blessings to all,
NT
Mark 4:39; Phil 1:6
In loving memory of Allen Jones, who learned to play with passion.

I realize this news is a few weeks (maybe a month) old. I might have missed a thread (did a search and didn’t see one), but I am surprised Lloyd Austin being the hospital and his boss having no idea where he was wasn’t more of a scandal. There’s a lot going on in the world right now. You would think that knowing where the secretary of defense is would be important. I would have guessed that this would have been a major scandal. It seems like it was only in the news briefly.

How is this not a bigger deal and curious how a supporter of the Biden administration would defend it? What am I missing?

Ok bro can somebody explain this to me. Have seen from some respectable sources, and also from Douche Supreme himself—Looch.

Detroit was very talented on both sides of ball. Impressive team that was fun to watch. Lots of stars. They have an excellent front office and drafted well. It looked to me like they “got there” by having a badass team. The coaching and schemes also looked solid, as they should on a pro team with best players in world.

Did they luck into a bunch of wins after reckless decisions that seemingly made no sense in the moment? I saw them kick ass in the few games I watched, with exception being when Campbell fisted his own cornhole to lose to the exceedingly meaty oaker Cowboys.

Anywho wondering where this phase came from. Hard for me to believe that such a good team got within 3 points of Super Bowl because of (not in spite of) aggy buttmunchery in coaching decisions.

https://www.businessinsider.com/eco...ally-pandemic-jpmorgan-income-markets-2023-12

The majority of Americans have burned through their excess savings piled up during the COVID-19 pandemic, and in the coming months, JPMorgan says it is likely that almost everyone will be worse off financially than they were in 2019.

In a Thursday note, the bank's top stock strategist Marko Kolanovic said 80% of consumers, a group that accounts for nearly two-thirds of consumption, has already depleted any savings cushion they may have built during lockdowns.

"It is likely that only the top 1% of consumers by income will be better off than before the pandemic," Kolanovic wrote, pointing to the growing signs of credit card and auto loan delinquencies, as well as Chapter 11 filings.

The chart below shows how, by June 2024, every income group except the top 1% is on pace to dip below their March 2020 levels of inflation-adjusted liquid assets, in the form of deposits and money market funds.

JPMorgan estimated previously that excess savings had peaked in August 2021 at $2.1 trillion, boosted by government stimulus checks. That's since been whittled down to below $148 billion, per the firm's calculations as of October.

"Consumers are facing tighter credit conditions and rising rates, wind-down of Covid-era stimulus and relief programs, declining excess savings and liquidity, and multiple years of above average inflation," JPMorgan strategists wrote at the time.

As Bank of America wrote in a recent note, the plight of elder millennials is particularly difficult.

Older millennials — a demographic of Americans born in the 1980s that holds significant influence on the US economy — have had to navigate the 2008 financial crisis in addition to the pandemic during critical working years of their lives.

The two economic storms, as well as mounting childcare costs and sticky inflation, have made it difficult for the sizable cohort to own a house, save for retirement, and comfortably spend money within their means.

JPMorgan notes that, fortunately for now, there is little sign of systemic weakness in housing, though the market remains largely frozen amid high borrowing costs.

"There are no significant delinquencies in residential mortgages yet, as consumers locked in low interest rates," Kolanovic said. "However, existing home sales have dropped near record lows, and ~$6.5 trillion of commercial real estate debt remains an overhang."

Looks like a victim to me. Poor thing.

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And here are some classic stages of rape healing:



In fairness, Trump as despicable as he is, was never convicted of raping anyone.

Does anyone know how to ship a bottle of bourbon to a friend in CO? As an aside, this was a special limited edition bourbon for the 100th celebration at SFA. Can't order from a local retailer or CO retailer. USPS doesn't ship liquids. Google shows that UPS/FedEx will ship from a local retailer but not an individual. Some comments say with one or two bottles, just claim it's fragile glass and shouldn't be an issue. Anyone have experience?

From a Cedric Golden article in the AAS today, gotta love it: 🤘

"Three days before San Francisco’s NFC title matchup against Detroit, a reporter had an interesting query to head coach Kyle Shanahan about the 49ers' home field advantage: “How important is the 12th Man going to be on Sunday?”

It’s a question that’s asked in various forms to coaches before most every football game played on the planet, but the phrasing didn’t sit well with Shanahan.

“We don’t call them the 12th Man here,” he answered."

Follow the link below to view the article.

Shanahan still bleeds Texas orange

I'm sure I'll catch some flack but when I see an grown man wearing an NFL jersey, I assume about a 20 point deduct in average I.Q.

She wants to look into a lady bird deed. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

I am curious which network will televise the game. Will this be CBS's rights to the new Big 10?

Afternoon or night game?

The only other game that weekend that has any interest would be, Colorado vs. Nebraska.

Wife and I are going to head out on a much needed date night tonight. Looking for the best meal in Austin where we have a realistic shot at a reservation this evening. Price doesn’t matter just don’t know anything about the current dining scene as we are out in the burbs. Been to all the usual Austin hot spots, Uchi, Jeffries, Uchiko, Red Ash etc.

Offensive tackle Ty Haywood is one of the country’s top overall prospects in the 2025 recruiting class and he has offers from programs all over the country. To this point, the Denton Ryan standout has taken things at a pretty slow pace with his recruitment, but he’s hoping that changes over the next couple of weekends with two big campus visits.

This weekend, Haywood is hoping to make his first-ever stop at Texas for a UT junior day. He’ll follow that up with a trip to College Station the following weekend to get a closer look at the Aggies’ program.

“I’m just looking for the experience with the coaches and the facilities, things like that,” Haywood said of the pending visits.

The 6-6, 270-pound Haywood actually saw the Longhorns play twice in the fall, but this will be his first time on the Forty Acres. Haywood was in Waco when Texas defeated Baylor and he was also at the Cotton Bowl when Texas and Oklahoma squared off. He likes what he’s seen from the Longhorns and has developed a solid connection with Texas offensive line coach Kyle Flood.

“Texas is a pretty good school. Coach Flood, he’s a pretty good guy. I’ve talked to him once or twice. He wants me to get down there,” Haywood said. “He has a good O-line. Whatever he has going on there is working. I’ve talked to coach Sarkisian too. Hopefully I can make it down there on Saturday.”

Haywood holds about 30 scholarship offers at this early stage and said he’s keeping an open mind to all of them. He’s not in a hurry to narrow his focus or make a final decision, saying a commitment probably won’t happen until next fall.

“Right now I’m completely open. I really don’t know (when he’ll trim his list),” Haywood said. “Hopefully (he’ll decide) in my senior season.”

Texas has had success in recruiting Denton Ryan in recent years, including recently-named freshman all-American linebacker Anthony Hill. Haywood has heard positive reviews from Hill about his first year in Austin.

Ranked No. 59 on the Rivals100, Haywood is a fantastic prospect but says there’s always room to get better.

“I’m still improving on being a better player. I can still work on some things. Being a lineman, you can never really be perfect, but you can get the most down that you need to dominate the person in front of you,” Haywood said. “I guess (coaches) like the way I play. I’m violent, good feet, good hands, drive them off the ball. I’m physical, definitely.”

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This was a further exploration of what I wrote about in 10TFTW.

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During that conversation [with wife and children], I really ached to be home with them. I fantasized about crawling through the phone to be home with them.
~~~~~~~ Ron Harris, and wife Carol

NOTE: Little different format today. Work with me.

Harris was working on a production at the Fairmont Hotel in New Orleans. Late one night he calls home, and afterward he felt exceptionally lonely. He later wrote that he was "...in that pitch-dark room...and the ideas just came to me, right here in this very room. The word 'very' electrified me." He got out of bed and began to write, in the dark because he didn't want anything to change. Two days later his wife joined him, and using the piano in the hotel's showroom, they collaborated in writing "In This Very Room," inspired by their faith and love of family.

As I read this story, I wondered if they knew how fortunate they were. Not so much for their talent---the world is full of talented people, some of them right here at TG--- but what I really wanted to know was whether they recognized the great blessing they had in that kind of family love. To have a home you yearn for, that you share with the best people you know, and they with you. I hope they know. Some of us here at TG do know; others don't. But there's something in the lyrics to that song that we can all have and share. Check out the excerpt below.

Be blessed my friends,
NT
Romans 8:38-39

In this very room, there's quite enough love for one like me,
And in this very room there's quite enough joy for one like me,
And there's quite enough hope, and quite enough power
To chase away any gloom,
For Jesus, Lord Jesus...is in this very room.

I’m ready for it.