Anne Frank's Diary Computer

Okay, folks. Here's my consciousness-raising for the day!

First, we need to start with Amsterdam's Westerkerk church, which is just a handful of blocks away from our apartment. Here it is, smack-dab in the center of stores and canal houses on the Prinsengracht canal (one of our street's bookends, remember?).

Here's a view of the clock tower as seen, I imagine, by Anne Frank from the hide-away during her WWII captivity. She says in her diary that the clock's chiming was a source of comfort for her during that time. When Donica and I visited the Anne Frank House 9 years ago, I remember reading that she could look out of her attic window and see just the tip of the tower.

So, on Monday this week I was passing by the Westerkerk and saw this huge exhibition around it's walls, all about the ecology and the part we play in bringing Mother Nature back to balance.

If you could enlarge this poster enough to read the last paragraph, it says: "By not putting electronic equipment on standby but turning it off completely, or by buying energy-efficient technology, we save not only the climate but also money--sometimes as much as 100 Euros per year."

Right then and there, on the spot, I made a decision to start turning my computer off completely every night, and not leaving it in hibernation mode. That's been two nights in a row now, and it is definitely my commitment. Maybe the rest of you have already been doing this. Good for all of us and the world.

I'm now calling my laptop "Anne Frank's Computer," a constant reminder of doing the right thing for Mother Nature!