Apartment composting....in the winter?

We have a garbage disposal in my apartment, which is a new appliance for me. At first, I really enjoyed it. No more throwing food scraps in garbage! I didn't realize that the scraps just went into the waste water for the sanitation plant to clean out and send to the landfill anyway. I had previously brushed off the idea of a composting area while I lived in an apartment, but I am revisiting it again. Apparently there are lots of people who compost while in an apartment:http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/apartment-compost-guide.html

I've done some research and I can either do vermicomposting (as system of turning food waste into potting soil by use of worm) or regular composting, which uses microorganisms.  Neither seem completely feasible in an apartment, especially since we don't have a lot of hidey-holes to stick a stinky bucket of rotting food. I could use our balcony, but I'm not sure how that works in the winter. Apparently, you should not let the compost pile freeze (especially if you have worms!).  They suggest insulating the compost pile, but that doesn't seem feasible on a balcony.

So if I can't compost on the balcony during the winter, here is the question for now: should I wait to start composting until Spring or should I coerce my roommates into letting me compost in the apartment? Opinions?

Righty-tighty, lefty-loosey

Today I went through my apartment and checked all of our light bulbs (all 31 of them) to see if I needed to buy CFLs (compact flourescent lights). Of the 31, I need to replace 18. Supposedly our apartment managers (names shall not be mentioned...) have gone through the apartment and made it more energy efficient, but as far as I can tell, they changed the bulbs in the common area and ignored the ones in the back of the apartment. Actually, that is pretty typical of the follow-through in our apartment's office (except for the time I got stung on the butt -- but that's a different story!).  Anyway, the light fixtures were more difficult to check than I thought. A lot of them were sealed really tightly and I had to enlist help from a roommate's boyfriend to do the last one for me. Sadly, reciting the childhood phrase "righty-tighty, lefty-loosey" does not mean you can untwist anything!

When will I buy the CFL's, you ask? Considering my schedule in the next week, I have no clue! But very soon! Or ... actually, maybe after my next paycheck. Finances are looking pretty slim after that Sam's Club run.

I need to come up with future projects to further this experiment, so here are a few I have thought of (with a little help from David Bach's book Go Green, Live Rich):
--Use greener make-up. I have always heard about all the toxic chemicals in make-up (here is an article from the Huggington Post) and David Bach says there are affordable brands of toxic-free make-up, so why not? Plus, aren't a lot of them tested on animals?
--Unplug appliances. I know this one is supposed to be easy, but my outlet is behind my desk! I can't reach it without contorting myself and shifting half the furniture in my bedroom around. I wondered if surge protectors still use ghost energy when switched off, but I think they do. There are, of course, special surge protectors you can buy...if you have extra $$$ to spend on a new surge protector. Also, does this extend to things like the living room lamps? Because I can see my roommates getting frustrated if I start unplugging those regularly. On the plus side, even though I use my coffee pot daily, I unplug it all the time!

I'll let you know more when I am struck with another genius idea!