This is a long article, but worth the read.
For two decades, CFLs lacked precisely what we expect from lightbulbs: strong, unwavering light; quiet; not to mention shapes that actually fit in the places we use bulbs. Now every one of those problems has been conquered. The bulbs come on quickly; their light is bright, white, steady, and silent; and the old U-shaped tubes–they looked like bulbs from a World War II submarine–have mostly been replaced by the swirl. Since 1985, CFLs have changed as much as cell phones and portable music players.
One thing hasn’t changed: the energy savings. Compact fluorescents emit the same light as classic incandescents but use 75% or 80% less electricity.
What that means is that if every one of 110 million American households bought just one ice-cream-cone bulb, took it home, and screwed it in the place of an ordinary 60-watt bulb, the energy saved would be enough to power a city of 1.5 million people. One bulb swapped out, enough electricity saved to power all the homes in Delaware and Rhode Island. In terms of oil not burned, or greenhouse gases not exhausted into the atmosphere, one bulb is equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the roads.
November 3, 2006
Wednesday was a kind of productive day for me. It started off pretty badly, but ended on a nice note.
My Aunty Julie from California is currently in New York City with some friends of hers to celebrate a milestone birthday. She called us Wednesday morning to tell us that they were by the Today Show studios and that we should watch. Cool, but she called at 7am. I went to bed around 5 am and as soon as both my Mom and Grandma talked to her, they came rushing into the room to turn the TV on – at a very high volume and were asking me to put a blank tape into the VCR for them. I was pretty annoyed. I was tired, I was trying to sleep and they kept trying to wake me up so I could watch the TV for them while they got ready to go to an appointment. ARGH! I haven’t had a good nights sleep in months.
So, they left for for my Grandma’s appointment and I could finally get back to sleep again. But, when I got up, I had to take my Grandma to the hairdresser and my mom to an eye exam. Cool again, especially since that meant that I would finally have some time alone and a little privacy.
I spoke with my neighbor downstairs and she just ordered DSL service from the local phone company and was having a hard time getting it to work on her computer. I volunteered to take a look at it that afternoon. She was using a pretty old laptop that her ex bought off some teenager on a bus! It looked like her DSL was up and running, but her computer was missing some necessary drivers and well, and ethernet card. She had a ethernet to USB converter, but since her computer was old, it didn’t have the necessary driver files for it to work.
Anyways. Traffic was exceptionally bad again yesterday. Why? Oh, just another disaster hit the island that day. It’s been raining semi heavily for the past 3 days and there was a major mudslide on one of the highways here. The highway is 4 lanes with a divider in the middle. The earth and debris completely covered 2 lanes and partially covered the other 2. That highway got shut down as soon as it happened. The problem is that there are 2 small highways heading to that part of the island. A lot of people commute on them everyday, so all of the traffic had to be diverted to the other highway. I mean, it totally wasn’t as bad as that day in September when a major highway had to get shut down because some moron didn’t pay attention to the height restrictions on the overpasses.
On the first working day of every month, the local Canon Camera office has a photography exhibition and reception. My friend Fred knew about this because the husband of one of his co workers works at Canon. Well, he’s been going to this off and on for several months. Not because of the photos, but because of the copious amounts of free food at these things! The photos up this month are just the run of the mill “ooh look at the pretty ocean and beach!” pictures – technically very nice, although it would have been nice to know if they were film or digital, but nothing very “new” or creative. The food was good though. 
It was kind of a Hawaiian theme and so they had haupia for dessert. Haupia is a kind of coconut pudding that is firm like jello and quite tasty in my opinion. They even had a haupia covered brownie. Oh, that was yummy.
Fred has been bugging, er asking me to do a craft night for months, so we then headed to my house for an evening of painting and crafting. I decided to do a Shrinky Dink name pendant and I worked on it diligently for over an hour – tracing out the letters, cutting them and BAM! – the damn name splits into 2 pieces. Um, not what I wanted. I figured I could try to salvage it with maybe a small jump ring in the middle, so I whipped out my hole puncher to make the holes and BAM! the thing falls apart even more. CRAP! Needless to say, I did not make a Shrinky Dink that night.
Jeez, my life is boring.
November 3, 2006
I didn’t work out last night, I was too tired and so I decided to take a rest day.
Tonight, I did Get Ripped! by Jari Love again. I do really like this workout. The only weird thing was that my left hand started cramping during the section with the chest presses and skull crushers. It was just odd. I mean, I know my left hand is weaker than my right due that injury I had, but it’s never really cramped like that before. I guess I should try massaging it a bit tonight or something.
I found out that the her Get Ripped! Slim and Lean has been spotted in a Ross store again! Wheee! Now I need to start scouring local all the local Ross stores again. It is in my Blockbuster Online queue, but I don’t know when I will be getting it, I want it NOW dangit!
November 3, 2006
