7:00 Hour

More on the 7:00 hour, which I predict will be the topic of several posts. Our sacrificing skills aren't quite top-notch yet as neither of us suggested giving up the 8:00 hour as Sydney did. We wouldn't want to miss American Idol or, hmmm... that's really all we watch.

Yesterday, too, I spent part of the hour on the computer, which I feel guilty about. I understand that we can't turn off the computer for that short time, but I think perhaps we should let the poor machine at least rest for that time.

The second hour is an hour of our choosing, but it has to be during the time that we would normally be using the television, including playing video games like NCAA Football 2005, which I still play all too often. It has been the 6:00 hour both nights so far, but it may change tonight, it being Thursday and there's nothing on TV.

Also, we have turned on the lights as it gets closer to 8:00, but pretty soon the sunlight should allow us not to have to do this.

An Hour a Day

The first sacrifice in our Go Green challenge is - drumroll please - the 7:00 hour. That's right, in honor of Earth Hour we are going to turn stuff off for two hours each and every day, with 7pm-8pm being mandatory. Admittedly, this will apply primarily to turning the TV off as we have become regular viewers of the Wheel of Fortune/Jeopardy! hour. Between the two of us we are far superior to the contestants in the former, but we still need to bone up on our random trivia knowledge for the latter.

Some things, however, will not be turned off. The refrigerator for instance, but that's for obvious reasons. Clocks will be left on because that would just be a pain in the ol' keister each and every day. And most notably, our aging and temperamental computer, which with every shutdown, we - meaning usually Tiff - have to take the back off and jiggle a cord while flipping a switch to start it back up... all the while risking electrocution.

We will also be limiting our light usage for these times. I can't say that we won't use the lights ever, because we aren't freaks and if the weather is crummy, I don't want you people out there to think we are sitting around doing nothing. But we will make an effort.

Anyways, while I doubt seriously that this will make a huge splash in our power consumption, let alone the consumption of our community, state, nation, or world, it's more about the principle of the thing. And who knows, maybe we'll find we like the time away from the electric stuff.

Go Green

Last Saturday, many cities around the world turned out their lights. Inspired by the efforts of Sydney, Australia, who sat around in the dark last year, Earth Hour took place at 8pm local time hoping to reduce the amount of energy used.

Hmmm... the Opera House kind of loses it's glory without lights. Anyways, the effect of Sydney's 2007 campaign was a reduction of energy by over 10% for that one hour. This translates into a massive reduction of greenhouse emissions - according to their website it would be equivalent to taking 48,616 cars off the road for a year. That's pretty impressive. So impressive the world took notice and many cities followed suit. Here's the Roman Colosseum last Saturday:

So all this I would normally look at and think "Wow! That's really quite something! It's about time somebody started taking action." And then I would go along my merry way. This year, however, as John Duffy's Sacrifices is limping along, I thought it was the right time that I took action. The world has been sacrificing in the name of John Duffy for too long! It is only right hat I start sacrificing for it!

So, for the entire month of April I will go green in many different ways from recycling to conservation. I hope it works out.