Oh, my aching head. (link may require a bit of information from you. tell them you are male, born in 1932, and live in 86001. that should throw them off…)

At 2000 hours, on March 28th, 2008, we are told that the city of Phoenix and all Valley residents “who care to join in” will turn off their lights for one hour.

Give me a freakin’ break. The “organizers” are saying this is mostly a “symbolic gesture” meant to show that “each person” can “contribute” to “reducing” their “carbon-dioxide” “emissions”.

So will not breathing for an hour. And, if you buy into this whole “man has caused the earth to become overheated” claptrap, perhaps you, too, should join in the “not breathing” crowd. That way, the seeohtwo emissions will be GREATLY reduced, and the rest of us can continue to live on this earth without being bombarded by the media panic-du-jour. (early 1970’s – global cooling and the ice age; mid 1970’s – population boom and an overpowering of earth’s resources, which lead to 1970’s – “energy crisis” – etc., etc., ad nauseum …)

Look, I’m not saying you shouldn’t do your part to reduce your energy consumption, but for crying out loud, let’s have some common sense here. Turn off your lights when there is sufficient outdoor light to illuminate your area. Turn off lights that aren’t being used (you know, like in the room you just left). Unplug electrical zombies that aren’t being used – like the microwave, the stereo, the TV, your cell phone wall charger, your electric rechargeable razor after it’s charged – they suck power even when you aren’t actively “using” them, and that would certainly reduce energy consumption.

(nuh uh, cary – my tv doesn’t use any power when it’s “off” – that’s why it’s called “off”!)

(really? how does it know when the remote tells it to turn on? it’s called a “wait state”, when it’s just sitting there, “waiting” for a signal from the remote)

*sigh*

So, Cary – (you ask, hoping i don’t drop back into snark mode) how do you save energy?

I’ve outlined several ways above. Mostly, I try to avoid using electricity where and when possible. But, there are times when I have to use it – like on the computer, or when I’m working in the shop, or when the sun goes down. Other than that, I try to keep my use to a minimum. I do leave my DISH receiver plugged in all the time, though – otherwise the schedule doesn’t get updated, and I can’t find my favorite races…

I think the number one thing that we, as a people, can do to reduce energy consumption (notice I didn’t say anything about impacting the globe here…) is to unplug the “convenience” appliances – the chargers – that come with the mobile technology that is our life now. Just doing that will make a bigger impact than turning your lights off and sitting in the dark for an hour.

clarification: leaving your phone plugged into the charger after it is fully charged is when the electricity is vampired. any electronic item that can be controlled by a remote control device sits in a “wait” state; that is, it uses electricity while scanning for the signal that tells it to turn on. while I have some cfl bulbs in use, i have been reading nasty things about these bulbs – it can take up to ten minutes to reach the brightness of the incandescent it replaced, they contain amounts of mercury so if they break you have a hazmat situation on your hands (according to federal regs, anyway – i remember playing with mercury in science class), also when they break they can send shards farther than an incandescent will, simply because instead of the vacuum in the incandescent the cfl bulbs are pressurized. just thought i’d clear a few things up. thanks for listening.

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