Yes!

Is Ginger our energy-efficiency expert? I have a question. We were told in staff meeting yesterday to turn off our lights when we leave the office. The thing is, the cleaning lady comes through less than an hour after I leave, and I feel bad about leaving the whole floor pitch black for her. (HR lady was like, "She has a finger -- she can turn the lights back on." I don't care, it's shitty to have to walk through a dark office.) So, how much does it matter, really?

Are they flourescent lights? If so, for about an hour it's a wash, because regular flourescents use most of their energy in starting up. With regular lights, we're talking about a few cents a light, at most. If she's worried about energy efficiency, tell her to turn down the thermostat.

regular flourescents use most of their energy in starting up.

I've heard that's less true these days. It used to be they'd use about an hours worth of juice to start; I think now it's a minute or less....

It is a lot less that it used to be, but it's kind of a tossup over an hour, because it will use an additional spike of energy to turn back on. In the old days, it actually used less energy to leave them on all the time, but that's not true anymore.

Oou government has just banned incandescent lights. CFLs or nothing for us from now on, which is nice.

I didn't realize until last night that my kneecap is all one swollen bruise. Oops. No wonder it still hurts!

You know, I have never been able to see flickering refresh rates.

Oh, god. I have to change my screen resolution to run a macro, and even in the few seconds it takes me to up the refresh rate, I get all pukey and cross-eyed.

Annual review in an hour. t sigh

I hope we get there too, Jars. It makes a huge difference.

I have track lighting that I can't simply change to CFL, and other than that one more light to switch over. My apartment's all blue. It's weird.

I tried fleur de sel caramel at Trader Joe's a few days ago. Really good.

I've got an endocrinologist appointment today. Last time, he essentially told me that it doesn't matter how crappy I feel, my TSH levels aren't high enough to require treatment. This time, I am armed with a few old tests (showing that my TSH has risen significantly in the past year, so no, this level is not "normal" for me -- it's not even with the stated "normal" range, either, it's just not far enough above "normal" for him to think it requires treatment.)

You can get CFLs in warmer colors. Mine are all CFLs except a few converted oil lamps, which are not friendly to CFL shapes. They're hardly ever on, though.