I would love it if a time standard was picked and then we stuck to it. I am completely serious. I hate changing my clocks twice a year (the actual changing is no big deal, but my body does not like the changes).
For the record, 9AM in Detroit is 1 hour different from 9AM in Saskatoon for 6 months of they year, and 2 hours different the other 6.
Gorsnak,
Resident of Saskatoon, and you can have my year-round CST when you pry it out of my cold, dead hands.
I start work at 0500 and except for about two days in midsummer it’s pretty much dark on the way to work. I work inside a building with limited access to windows, so it doesn’t really matter when it gets light out. I get off work at 1330 every day and even at winter solstice it’s still hours until it gets dark. I don’t care what y’all do with the clock, it’s all the same to me! Get up early, ya lazy barstards and stop complaining about how early the sun sets–buncha babies…
You’ve got my vote.
Can you add to the platform some sort of flex time so the people who want to whine about the axial tilt of the planet can move their working hours to a point at which they don’t bother the rest of us with their kvetching?
I don’t care about darkness. I don’t care about light. If it’s dark, I can turn on a lamp. If it’s light, I can shut the damned blinds. Mankind has, historically speaking, demonstrated a great ingenuity toward the problem of acheiving the desired level of illumination. For my money, it can be dark at 3:00 PM and high noon at midnight, then reverse itself the next day if the sun’s feeling spunky. I care not.
What I do care about, however, is all this fucking about with what time it is. This is stupid. There is no good reason to do it. The intentional result is something that ends up pissing off about 50% of folks anyway (as this thread serves to indicate), and as a special bonus, it’s a downright pain in the ass to figure out what the hell time it is anywhere. I live in Virginia. My uncle lives in Arizona. I want to call him, but I want to make sure he’s neither at work (he works at home and I don’t like to disturb him) or in bed. So, in addition to the time zones (which I also think are goofy as hell; I fail to see why we need to approximate the same lighting conditions relative to time of day for all places of the same latitude, but that’s a different rant), I need to consider whether we’re on DST or Standard, because Arizona doesn’t fuck around with the clocks. (On a possibly related note, people in Arizona never seem to have to worry about WHAT THE HELL TIME IT IS, because they know).
Okay, so it’s annoying, and the actual benefit is (clearly) debatable. But wait! There’s more! In the fall, when the clocks get set back an hour, if anybody misses the memo (and I know it’s a difficult memo to miss, but you know some people do), those folks show up for work an hour early. Pain in the ass. No big deal, no harm done, but annoying nonetheless. In the springtime, however, well, things get a little more serious. Nobody clued you in about the annual clockfuckery dates? Guess what, Sparky: you’re an hour late for your job! Hope your boss is understanding…or at least, nice enough not to fire your ass as he rolls his eyes and mutters about how nobody seems to do this in the fall. Good luck with that, and be sure to thank the fine folks who support DST! Maybe they can help you with your resume!
Okay, so let’s recap all the wonderful features of Daylight Savings Time:
- Annoying.
- Chock-full of clockfuckity goodness.
- Annoying.
- Potentially dangerous to one’s gainful employment.
- “Benefit” which roughly half the population hates, and a not-insignificant number doesn’t care about one way or the other.
- Half the fat of the regular version, but 35% higher in carbs.
As opposed to my plan of CHOOSING WHAT THE HELL TIME IT IS, which features the following characteristics:
- You know what the hell time it is.
- Other people know what the hell time it is where you are.
- You know what the hell time it is where other people are.
- You know with certainty what the hell time it will be 24 hours from now.
- You lose a “benefit” which roughly half the population hates, and a not-insignificant number doesn’t care about one way or the other.
I dunno. I guess it’s a toss-up.
I wouldn’t mind the time changes if (a) my parents didn’t have so damn many watches and clocks and (b) if they didn’t both instantly lose all ability to perform simple tasks like clock-changing the moment I step over their threshold.
I’m still holding on to my hope that the computer, the microwave, and all the televisions will one day take over the house when I’m not there.
I was about to write a similar rant, but you’ve put it so beautifully, Shag.
I’m a cyclist, and this new standard time it killing me. If you aren’t fucking bright enough to abide by DST, then we can still have Roland’s plan of CHOOSING WHAT THE HELL TIME IT IS such that we have permanent DST.
See? I’m tellin’ ya. We could do this. Heck, let’s get totally super-crazy and set the clocks two hours ahead next spring, so that it doesn’t get dark until 10 or so! Do whatever you want, just stop dinking around with it after you do it. You’ll get no argument from me.
OK. Here’s my plan:
24 hour cycles are for losers. Humans are meant to sleep a lot more than 8 hours at a time, and meant to stay awake for a lot more than 16 hours at a time. (We do need to sleep about a third of the time, though.)
36 hour cycles is where it’s at. You stay awake for 24 hours straight. That’ll get you nice and tired. Then you can sleep for 12 hours. Overall, you’d be getting the same amount of sleep (One third of your life.)
You heard it here first. Now, if only we could do something to get the damn sun to play along…
I’m dead serious, folks. When humans live on space stations this is how they should set the clocks. It would be great. No more forcing yourself to go to sleep even though your not tired. No more only getting eight hours of sleep at a time when you want more.
[QUOTE=Debaser]
24 hour cycles are for losers. Humans are meant to sleep a lot more than 8 hours at a time, and meant to stay awake for a lot more than 16 hours at a time. (We do need to sleep about a third of the time, though.)QUOTE]
I vote for that too. That is the way my cycle goes when I have no obligations for long stretches at a time. I believe the ability to stay up late and sleep in on an irregular schedule is mainly governed by intelligence. Those that wake up early like clockwork are descended from serfs who were forced to toil the land starting early every day. Their ancestors sure didn’t get that way by having strong critical thinking skills .
It has become clear that we are being held hostage by older people with deteriorating pineal glands, 6 and 7 year olds, and caffeine fueled junkies. Congress at least had enough sense to slip a slippery slope extended DST plan in there. What is wrong with the rest of you?