2010.11.08 Monday

Started off the day incorrectly. As soon as I finished my shower, I had to give praise to the porcelain throne. The steam and steamer don't mix well.

Work definitely felt too long today.

At home, I had to push myself to start getting some things done. To start off, I went skating for a bit to blow off some steam and get my heart rate up. I will need to get some new shoes before I go to the skatepark again.

Next up, put in some laundry, then start converting some more albums to mp3-compatible state. This current round of file conversion will put me right at 1400 albums. I think that is a good point to take a break and listen to whatever instead of sticking to my systematic ways. Cleaned off the pile of mail that was collecting on my desk, then emptied my trash cans. I don't know what it is, but just the inside of my bedroom's trash can smells terrible. As long as I have a plastic bag lining it, it's fine. Otherwise... wtf happened to this trash can. Doesn't even look that great.

I played around with the kill-a-watt a little bit. I have a floor lamp in my room that has a half-brightness and full brightness switch. Really weird power consumption... half brightness is about 80 watts, full brightness is 120. I wonder if I can replace the lightbulb with something that doesn't create so much heat.

Next item to try, an Xbox 360. First off, I have a gripe about the 360. Don't ever design something that requires an external power brick to provide power. Sure a laptop can be lighter without the DC adapter build in, but if you need real portability you'll have to lug around the stupid plug and adapter. Anyways, to my surprise the standby power consumption of this power brick is a measly 2-3 watts. And also to my surprise, the full power consumption of this power brick ranges from 100 to 150 watts. (Theoretically, that number could be an underestimate because I wasn't stressing the xbox to spin up a disc, or access data from the hard drive, or really do anything)

Next item, my cell phone charger. Standby consumption: 0 watts (undetectable). Cell phone plugged in: 8 watts.

If I'm not mistaken, my ceiling fan has 3x 15-20watt CFL bulbs in it. Using that to light my room might be a better choice to keep heat levels down while full brightness is needed. And I guess unplugging my phone charger when my phone isn't plugged into it is useless. What can I do about this xb360 that I stopped playing...