bryan knight doing stuff on the internets.

New music creates conundrums…

So I have recently got into Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. I had a couple tracks from them, but hadn't gotten too into them... so I got their latest album and I am in love with it. My current favorite track is C.I.A.... and my current favorite line is What I stand for, I mostly stand behind. What I am, I mostly can’t hide....

In mid december, the Audi started making an odd noise, and instead of getting it to Al right away, I decided to park it in the garage and see how hard it would be to NOT drive. I would not pay my january parking, and I would start taking more public transportation. I would try to carpool and not use the camry. I figured it would save some money, but really, it would be more environmentally aware. I had been thinking I hadn't been doing enough personally, but I did spend enough time thinking, reading, learning, and talking about it. But wasn't acting on it enough. Along with the less driving, I was making a conscious effort to turn lights off, not let the water run longer then needed, and I bought more of the CFL light bulbs.

Well, it is march now, and I have only recently bothered to get the Audi fixed, and that was because I had been thinking of selling it. I haven't had a car of my own since december and it is fine. I take the bus to work and back, maybe the L. Sometimes rebecca picks me up (which I realize uses gas, but the camry gets significantly better gas mileage than the audi, and it is rare that she drives me when she wasn't already out. She does drop me off on the way to the burbs on monday and wednesday, but it really isn't that far out of the way).

I have swapped almost all the lightbulbs on the 3rd floor with CFLs, and I am happy with them, light output wise. Rebecca says they are starker and more institutional feeling. I think that is partially true, but I think it is also partially due to the built in resistance that most people feel towards them. I am fine with it, and I think rebecca has already forgotten about it. I think mason's room looks better now since it is now brighter (one of the 75W incandescent bulbs had recently burned out) and the greens look better in the light. The first floor has then in a few places too. I am going to pickup a pair of dimmable, indoor flood CFLs for the den to see how they work with the dimmer. If they are fine, I am swapping out the ones in the living room too. That would be pretty much all the normal bulbs. We still have some halogen fixtures, and I am not going to swap those fixtures out. But they aren't the most used ones.

I was also looking at this, The Energy Detective. It is basically a digital electric meter the runs off any outlet in your house. You have an electrician wire up part of it into your circuit breaker box. Then you plug this into any outlet, and it will give you current (instant) energy usage, usage for the month, etc. I think it would be a great tool to monitor our energy usage. It is $150 and requires install (although it allegedly takes less than 15 min to install).

I just checked. In 2006, I spent $1022 on the electric bill. Perhaps in 2007 I can get that down to $800?