I’ve got three or four websites I need to knock out and I’m looking for a host. Not a single one of the sites will have more than five pages, and will all probably be under 10mb per. It’s a very light network load for each, too, quite specialized and mainly being genned up to have a minimal web presence for the requestor. Again, nothing spectacular…no DBs, no e-commerce, no whoopdie-do Flash. Just info.

So, I’m not too hip on adding a fourth bidness (web hosting reseller + super-crappy designer) to the TFG empire, although I could go that way. No, what I’m mainly looking for is a place that will host MANY domains (10? 20?) for low-volume, nichey stuff for people who, and I quote, “haven’t even turned on the computer in six months.” As of now, GoDaddy’s $3.95 per month is the best bet, but even that seems high for what I’m talking about.

Step-by-step directions for fancy-pants redirection, with domain name propogation, to one of my already-existing domains would be fine, too. Hell, I’m a cheapskate.

…from my long-time pard, Otis (the lawyer, not the pokerer). Cormac McCarthy’s new novel, No Country for Old Men, comes out Tuesday. I’ll knock you down if you get between me and Borders that morning.

In 1980 southwest Texas, Llewelyn Moss, hunting antelope near the Rio Grande, stumbles across several dead men, a bunch of heroin and $2.4 million in cash. The bulk of the novel is a gripping man-on-the-run sequence relayed in terse, masterful prose as Moss, who’s taken the money, tries to evade Wells, an ex–Special Forces agent employed by a powerful cartel, and Chigurh, an icy psychopathic murderer armed with a cattle gun* and a dangerous philosophy of justice. Also concerned about Moss’s whereabouts is Sheriff Bell, an aging lawman struggling with his sense that there’s a new breed of man (embodied in Chigurh) whose destructive power he simply cannot match.

Longish, too, at 320 pages. Of course, I’ll devour it in one sitting and have to wait ten more years for another one, slowly and carefully re-reading all of his old stuff for the fifth or sixth time. I’m telling you, there is simply nobody writing today that is as good as McCarthy. But if there were, I’d seriously never get any work done…I’d have my nose buried in books 16 hours a day.

I have to be giggly-sad at all the hoopla over yet another serving of Harry effing Potter, as well. It’s simply inescapable. Cormac McCarthy probably doesn’t need the dough, but I’d love to see him receive 1/100th of the attention that the kiddie magic book will get. Not only for McCarthy’s sake, but so that the reader will be well-served.

* What the hell’s a cattle gun? Wonder if they mean the bolt gun used in slaughterhouses?

Storms send natural gas cost soaring

Fears that a hurricane would damage vital production platforms or destroy pipelines in the gulf – as Hurricane Ivan did last year – have sustained the higher prices even on days when crude oil eased.

From September through February, Ivan cut off about 7 percent of the Gulf of Mexico’s annual oil production and 4 percent of its natural gas output. Over the last week alone, Hurricane Dennis has curtailed less than 1 percent of the region’s yearly production.

In recent years, gas futures have traded above $10 during winter months, the result of energy companies’ diminishing ability to keep up with soaring demand.

Until now, the growing problem had been partly masked by a weaker economy and milder weather, said Peyton Feltus, president of Randolph Risk Management, a Dallas-based consultancy.

Relief isn’t expected until the end of the decade, when imports of liquefied natural gas should supplement U.S. supplies.

“We have had extremely mild winters and summers for several years now,” Mr. Feltus said. “We haven’t experienced nearly what the upside potential is for natural gas.”

Ahem…

Now what’s odd about this story in the DallaSnooze is no mention of the Barnett Shale in their backyard. An-t-way, the seismo guys came by this weekend to finalize the thumping plans. They’re operating under the Quicksilver flag, and that makes sense as they seem to be the biggest operator in this neck of the woods. Corkscrew has insider information on Chesapeake out of Oklahoma buying up $277MM worth of leases in Johnson County, as well.

I’m hanging on by a couple of fingernails here, so any movement south is good news. Every time I take the southern route to or from Dallas, it seems like I see a new rig somewhere. It’s driving me nuts that I can’t find anything similar on this side of the river…maybe they’re marching in from the west.

It’s nice to get up on Sunday morning and have live sport on the teevee. And have the leaders already on the course. Now I only have to get through four hours of the doofus announcers saying claret jug every 2 minutes.

Looks like, too, that the top golfing dudes are destroying the Old Course. 12 under for a major seems wacky. It would be fun to have a tournament to make these guys play with persimmon woods and blade irons. Preferably do it on one of these Scottish goat ranches, too.

ZZZZZZ UPDATE: Zzzzzzz…. The only thing enjoyable about that was the British Airways commercial that featured cricket. Speaking of the cricky, does anyone know of any package for Dish Network that has a cricket channel? It can’t possibly be that far out in left field. And I mean for a little less than $250 for one bloody series. A FoxSportsNet-Midlands or something like that?