As you may or may not know, I started the Pearland, Texas, Facebook fan page a year ago. At that time I was using the Pearland city logo. That’s a no-no, kids. The city was kind enough to send me a nice letter from an attorney asking me to cease and desist. I ceased using it.

What that allowed me to do was ask Pearlanders to help me come up with a logo. A Pearland student — Anna  or Annie– took the photo that is currently the page’s logo.

Because we’ve been using this logo for some time now, I was wondering if we could top it.

So, with that said, I’m starting a new contest: Create the page’s logo. I am accepting new logo designs between now and March 15. The winner will receive free advertising for their business, nonprofit, event or whatever for two weeks. Two weeks of being recognized via a daily wall/news feed posting as the winner, along with whatever you’re promoting. The Pearland page now has more than 3,800 followers and nearly 200,000 post views per month.

If you don’t have anything to promote, cool. If you do, cool. If I don’t receive any submissions, cool.

If you’re interested, drop me a new logo submission by March 15 at druth@rice.edu. I will announce a new logo within days.

The new logo should be something that someone from outside Pearland would gain something from — hint, using the city name is probably key. Photos, graphics, whatever. Put your creative Pearlander brain to work.

Due to weather-related rotating electric power outages planned by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas ( ERCOT), consumers and businesses are urged to reduce their electricity use to the lowest level possible, including these steps:

-Limit electricity usage to only that consumption which is absolutely necessary -Turn off all unnecessary lights, appliances, and electronic equipment -Businesses should minimize the use of electric lighting and electricity-consuming equipment as much as possible -Large consumers of electricity should consider shutting down or reducing non-essential production processes.

ERCOT has instructed utilities to begin rotating outages to compensate for a generation shortage due to numerous plant trips that occurred because of the extreme weather.

Rotating outages are controlled, temporary interruptions of electric service, typically lasting 10-45 minutes per neighborhood.  The locations and durations are determined by the local utilities.  Critical need customers such as hospitals and nursing homes are generally not included.

It is not known at this time how long the need for rotating outages will last.
See more conservation tips at “Powerful Advice,” Public Utility Commission of Texas: www.puc.state.tx.us./ocp/conserve