NOT THAT YOU'D NOTICE...

I've recently made quite a few changes to the HTML coding of my blog page, not that you'd notice though. After I had redesigned my page awhile back (three years ago) from THIS to what you currently see, there were a bunch of annoying things that the site would do visually that kept bugging me. I'm no expert at HTML and web design, but I've had fun toying with my page, learning things along the way. So once again, I put my newbie skills to the test to solve the following two issues:

• when viewing my page with a widescreen LCD, the baby blue part of the top and bottom of my title bar would extend over to the right, however past the "confessions of a dangerous mind" part, the graphic between the baby blue bars would turn grey...
  
• whenever my page would be minimized the writing would all squish together, and the sidebar info would also squish and drop to the bottom of the page...

So I finally managed to solve both issues, which makes me feel proud of my completely hack skills, hence my useless sharing of such information :-) I'm starting to feel like I should redesign again though, but we'll see. I suppose I should just try posting more blog entires first, lol... ahem.

So there have been two controversial issues that I've been pondering in my mind lately. They're only controversial because they've become pop-culture issues that I do not seem to side with pop-culture on. The one issue is this whole Earth Hour business. Don't get me wrong, I love the Earth and think there is so much we can do to make a difference; however, Earth hour is not one of those such things. I was quite surprised to see how quickly the pop-culture machine moved on this whole thing, utilizing mass media and other forms of advertisement to attempt a movement of sorts. Again, I have nothing against movements, my bowels make them everyday... sometimes twice... but my problem lies at the heart of this event. (Momentary pause to allow that brilliant, albeit disgusting, remark to fully settle in... ... ... ok, we can continue) The flow of logic is that if everyone shared across the globe in turning off their lights/electricity, then their unity would cause energy consumption to drop to a massive low, which would then help to showcase the negative impact of electricity on our world.

For those who don't know, as I didn't at the beginning, the issue is that the majority of Earth's electricity is created by using fuels such as coal and oil, which when burned release massive amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere. These are considered greenhouse gases, which are supposedly a leading cause of negative climate changes across the Earth, aka "Global Warming". So, if we reduce our energy consumption, then that would decrease the amount of electricity that would have to be generated, which in turn would decrease the amount of greenhouse gases. Just so we're clear, I one hundred percent agree with this cause. Earth Hour does little, in my opinion, to lend to that cause.

First, the notion of Earth Hour: everyone turns off their lights at a given hour. This is retarded on so many levels. The stipulation is that no matter where you are, you would turn off your power at that given hour, say 8pm your time. This means that every time zone would actually be turned off at separate times, decreasing the potential for a large scale decrease in consumption. Furthermore, just because the consumption may decrease, it has no effect on the energy that is being created - hence no effect on emissions from making the electricity. Energy companies have no choice but to create the energy that would typically be needed during that time period, or face potential brownouts across cities in case energy users decided to skip such an hour and consume. Or like other retarded groups who are anti-earth hour, and advocate consuming twice as much energy during that hour just to spite others... which, make no mistake, is ONE HUNDRED TIMES MORE RETARDED then observing Earth Hour... Moving on... the point is that you are not actually accomplishing anything positive for the Earth during that hour, as the energy is still being created with emission levels remaining the same.

The major players/organizers of Earth Hour have acknowledged this very point, but argue that the hour is meant simply to draw attention to massive carbon emissions from energy consumption. Now my stance on this is debatable in my own mind, but more of my thoughts side against this concept as being successful. The majority of the people that have participated in Earth Hour were/are simply doing so as a popular social thing to do, at the same time it makes them think like they're doing something to help. If the event were to continue to occur as has been suggested as once a month, it would simply be the same thing until shortly after when the fad would end, and people would go back to consuming like normal. At that point, the whole concept of educating people is completely lost. This is what frustrates me about Earth Hour, it doesn't do anything and it doesn't effectively convey what people can do to help.

The reason that this is debatable in my own mind, is because the mere fact that I'm posting to try and inform people based off of my opposition to the event, is in fact producing exactly the kind of dialogue that I think people should be having, also they have a handful of energy saving tips on their website (though not comprehensive)... soooo, yeah, in that sense my argument is self-defeating; however, I stand by the fact that this event has the potential to do SO MUCH more than it accomplishes, and what it does manage to accomplish (apart from average people like myself becoming self-informed), is actually worse than not doing anything. It simply deceives the average person into thinking that they're helping when they're really not, and it leaves them unaware of what they COULD be doing to ACTUALLY make a difference. Also, I doubt the vast majority of people go to their website or even knew they had one, which makes their tips a little out of reach if you ask me.

If they would only use their new-found media presence to pump tips and guidelines for healthier energy consumption, then I think it would be so much more successful than trying to have a monthly lights off event. There are so many simple things that we can do to help, and here's how:

In order for carbon emissions to decrease based off of consumption, then the whole world needs to decrease their consumption over a sustainable consistent period, permanently. Once average consumption decreases, then the energy makers simply will make less energy, and this in turn will lower emissions. So simple things Linds and I do:

• turn off any and all lights in your house/place of business when not needed, and try to minimize the amount that you actually need
• replace your bulbs with fluorescent ones that consume a ridiculously low amount of electricity to generate the same brightness
• turn off any and all electronics when not in use, even go as far as to unplug devices like T.V.'s, as most keep using energy even when off due to a built-in standby mode
  
• use your major appliances (dishwasher, washer, dryer) during low peak times of electricity usage, typically anytime after 8pm
• use a programmable thermostat and lower/raise (depends on the season) the temp when you're home or away at work, or sleeping
  
• in the winter, set the thermostat to a degree below what you typically find comfortable (most tips say to go to an exact temp, but I think it's more reasonable to do it this way)
• in the summer, set the thermostat to a degree ABOVE what you typically find comfortable (for example, we find 23 degrees Celsius to be comfortable for the summer and 22 for the winter, so we go 21 in the winter, and 24 in the summer typically)
• you know what... instead of continuing to list things off, I've found an awesome website that has a TON of useful and easy things you can do - I don't do all of these things, just so you don't think I'm all high and mighty, but it's still really useful info: http://www.city.davis.ca.us/emergency/power/tips.cfm
  

Anyways, so it's not that I don't care about the Earth, it's more that I think Earth Hour is just a waste of peoples efforts and time, and no one seems to be focusing on what should REALLY be done to help.

I think I'll save my other hot topic for a later post, as this turned out longer than I expected. I'll tip my hand though: it has to do with the whole Olympics in China issue. :-)

Final Confession of the Day: I think my greater issue with all this stuff is that it significantly irritates me how people join causes without becoming self-informed of the issues first. They simply hear something on the news, radio, paper, (dramatic pause) facebook, and then take that as reality without researching what's actually going on. We are information consumers who are without the desire to actually understand what ingredients are being put into the information that we're digesting. I always refuse to take sides on issues until I become informed first, and even then, I refuse to consider my opinion as more then that... a simple opinion. So yes, all my rantings here come with the absolute disclaimer that I could in fact be a complete and utter moron... cheers! :-)