Daylight Savings

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Daylight Savings

March 9, 2008 in Random | 1 comment

I have previously stated on several occasions that my favorite day of the year is the day in mid February when pitchers and catchers officially report to camp for Spring Training.  Yes, I am a baseball nut, however this also signals the beginning of the end of my least favorite season – winter.  Don’t get me wrong – it’s not that I dislike the cold, the rain, or the occasional snow.  I actually quite enjoy all of the three, as well as the annual appearance of “Storm Team 12” or 6…  or 4.

It doesn’t matter what channels in your local media market are occupied by local news teams – they’re the same everywhere – the only thing up for debate is exactly how much time will be spent on remote at a dry, albeit cold freeway overpass.

No, what I dislike is the unending darkness – the fact that one begins work under the slowly retracting cover of night, only to find that the covers have already been pulled back over the world by the end of the workday.  It reminds me of the nights I spent working the graveyard shift while in college – not a very pleasant time.  Additionally, with the winter comes my busiest time of the year at work.  It seems that people have more house fires in the winter due to all the makeshift portable heaters, fireplaces and Christmas-related items, meaning more time on the road, and tighter timeframes under which to work – all in the dark. 

So, two paragraphs in, and I can already hear you – “yeah Chris, so what’s the point?”

Well, the point is I also dislike daylight savings time.  Or, more importantly, the fact that it’s 11:23 right now, I am not at all tired, but yet I have to get up in four hours in order to make the 8:30 appointment I have four hours away.  You see, this combines some of my least favorite activities – beginning work while it’s still dark, followed by working (yes, working in general – while I do like my job, it is in fact still work), and finally, getting home from work after dark. 

 “Yes, Chris, but daylight savings time ensures that it will in fact be lighter later – its good for the economy – you want the US to prosper, right?  You’re not un-American, are you?”

Shut up.

This is my time to complain, and I’m going to get my money’s worth.  Normally I don’t care either way - I would prefer we do nothing but move the clocks back, but I realize that by year four of doing this my plan would have seriously backfired – and for what, an extra hour of sleep?  No, that’s no good.

My major qualm is that the first work day into DST will be spent being unnecessarily tired inside a house that isn’t mine, working, and by the time I make it back to my place it will already be dark.  It just seems like it got personal this year.  While the winter is ending, and with it, hopefully my busiest season, one of the harbingers of that change is showing up just in time to twist the knife a little.

Father time, you are one hell of a bastard.

I don’t want my MTV; Sports Musings

October 20, 2005 in Life, Sports | No comments

Fall is here, and in these pre-turn-back-the-clock weeks, daylight is quickly becoming but a fleeting acquaintance, or at least it seems that way from the daily confines of my cubicle. Perhaps it just feels a little more taxing seeing as I’ve recently been staying up far too late on school nights, and have been getting up earlier than normal in my attempts to actually standardize a morning routine for the first time since high school. Really, this was all done in an attempt to improve my bad attitude… at least my early morning bad attitude.

I apparently failed to realize that when one wakes up an hour earlier than normal, it is typically best to avoid going to sleep two hours later than normal… and even better to avoid doing so for a week solid. Needless to say, I’m having trouble focusing right now.

What? You were looking for an interesting update? I know… I know.

As evidenced in my previous post, the past few weeks have brought with them a little actual change, and a lot of ideas for change. Most evident of this is the fact that I am actually seriously considering giving up my cable TV. No, this isn’t a monetary thing (though donations are accepted) or a suicide thing (I’m not giving AWAY my TV), rather, I think I watch too much of it.

The thought here is that if I had less History Channel, college football, and COPS to watch, I might read more about history, get in shape for my impending college football comeback (which begs the question- if I returned to school, would I have NCAA eligibility seeing as I have graduated, but never played a sport? I say yes…) or I could go out and break some laws, in turn completing some sort of divine circle and actually being on one of my favorite shows!

Actually, the reading part and the activity part are probably the greatest impetuses for this idea, though the Ronnie Dobbs-esque celebrity is also alluring. A secondary reason is the simple fact that I am not home very much anymore, and hopefully I will soon live somewhere where there are more entertainment options, allowing less time for simply laying around, and more for culture and personal growth.

Along those lines, last weekend I made a trek to the Portland Art Museum to check out the new Mark Building, view the architectural updates to the old Masonic Temple it is housed in, and of course, view some art. The only hitch was that I know very little about art… though I think I avoided saying things like, “wow, that’s pretty!” I did sense a few looks of utter contempt from hipster art snob wannabes though, (you know, the ultra-skinny, ultra pale guy with dyed, jet-back, ear-length hair, too-tight Interpol tee, black glasses and beret… I hate that guy…) so the trip was definitely worth it.

On the subject of entertainment, I received my half-season Blazer tickets in the mail last week, and went to the first two pre-season games against Seattle and the Clippers. From what I saw, this may be another very long season for the Blazers fan. How could I have been so wrong in my April 15, 2004 post? In that column, next year was the current last year, which was, as we all know, quite ugly. There were some bright spots – Martell Webster looks like he’s for real, and Sebastian Telfair, if he can ever develop a consistent mid-range jump shot, has a chance to be a monster. In the meantime though, I have a feeling I’ll be witnessing a good number of growing pains from my cozy seats in section 305.

Since I’m talking about sports now, I’ll go ahead and make another bold prediction – the Oregon Ducks are going to win out. After a tough loss to USC, they have rebounded, and have begun to show the promise that a roster full of big time recruit was supposed to bring two years ago. Unfortunately, I think they are peaking at precisely the wrong time, and could still conceivably wind up in the Sun Bowl with a record of 10-1. Here’s hoping UCLA loses a few down the stretch.

Really, that pretty much sums up the last few weeks – personal growth, culture, bad basketball, good football, and hopefully this weekend, some good basketball for a change (Blazers/Kings Saturday night) and some more good football (Linfield/Puget Sound Saturday). Look for the next post to be chock full of politics, as I unleash my theories of divine intervention on the GOP and try to find the greater meaning behind this unprecedented hurricane season. (Global warming, anyone? Not so fast…)

One last thing- I just checked my email and found a note from the US Navy Reserve saying they viewed, and liked, my resume. My only question is this: is it strange that when I first saw this notice in my inbox, the first thought in my mind was of the “Royal Nayvee” Monty Python sketch?