I ended up participating in Earth Hour (kinda). I'd told Seth about it, and we heard a story about it on the radio while we were doing a massive clean up of the kitchen (we even moved the refrigerator to evict the herds of dust bison that were living there). At 8PM, I said, jokingly, Oh, it's Earth Hour. And Seth went around turning off the lights that we normally leave on, and even turned off the tv. I turned it back on, as it was only "unnecessary" appliances that were to be turned off. We did leave the sound system off and just listen through the tv itself.

At about 8:30, the doorbell rang. I had to turn on lights to go see who it was -- a young man trying to sell newspaper subscriptions to get a college scholarship. I turned him down, since I find the paper stuffed full of things I don't read, and I'd trying to cut down on the amount of waste paper I generate. The kid kept saying, "Don't you want a young man like me to go to school?" I told him I was protecting the future environment for him. And then I discovered it's not very easy to fold clothes by the light of the tv (especially when they show dark scenes).

Have you ever read "Tinker" by Wen Spenser? Someone picked it out for our book club, and I really liked it. It's a mix of tech and magic, with a kick-ass young woman protaganist.