Daylight Savings Time

My favorite day of the year is June 21st because that is the day that it says light out the latest. I enjoy sunlight. I like being able to go out at night and have the last glimmering specs of twilight still present at 10pm. Today the sun went down at 4:18 here in Seattle. Sunrise was at 7:50, giving the city 8 and a half hours of the sun's ultraviolet glory. This corresponds almost perfectly to people's work schedules, effectively forcing people to drive to work in the dark and drive home in the dark. I find that criminally depressive and I've blogged about how I hate that the sunlight doesn't match up people's schedules. This year I took a stand, and changed nothing.

Yep I changed nothing, but everyone around me changed. Because I enjoy the extra hour of sunlight, I decided to stay on DST this winter. So far it has worked out terrifically. Basically I never set my clocks back an hour and it's great. I get out of bed at the same time as I have all year, but now I get to work an hour early. If I oversleep by an hour, I get to work right on time. I work my 8 hours and go home but it's an hour earlier in the day. I get an extra hour of sunlight and I can show up an hour late for anything and be right on time. For me the bars close at 3AM instead of 2AM and my Michigan Football games don't start at 9AM but at 10AM giving me what seems like an extra hour of sleep.

This could all be accomplished by converting back to standard time and adjusting my schedule. But for me it works because time is all about perception. I wouldn't be able to go to bed at 9:30PM usually but when I look at my clock and says 10:30, I realize that I have to get to bed. It's the same thing with getting up in the morning. The only way I'll get out of bed is if my clock tells me if I don't I'll be late. I have the same amount of time from when I leave work until I go to bed, but it seems like more because I have more sunlight and I actually get to enjoy a little of it.

Come March when everyone talks about how great the extra hour of sunlight in the summer is I'll remind them that I've been enjoying it the entire time. I'll also mention how I won't be losing that hour of sleep during the switchover.

Not a great day

June 21 is my favorite day of the year. It is my favorite for two reasons. The first is that June 21 was always the beginning of the summer throughout my primary education. June 21st still means that the summer is just getting into swing and lazy days and the beach are in the near future. The second reason that I love June 21st is that it is the longest day of the year. I really love having the not set until 9:15 at night. I wish all days would be like June 21st.

Today was not a good June 21st.

I woke sideways on a bed in Las Vegas and was too drunk to tie my shoes. I then endured 9 hours of epic-hangover traveling to get back to Ann Arbor only to find that my room had been broken into. Luckily I had my computer with me, but even if I didn't I do have my much discussed computer lock. I'm not sure the total extent of what's missing but I can tell you I am down a Maglite, Airsoft pistol, switchblade and digital camera are all missing. The most disappointing loss though is my American flag with a semi truck superimposed. It will be missed. Also, let me know if any of your friends just picked up a totally sweet American Flag.

Time Zones

Ya know what really dunks my donut? When times zones are unrepresentative of people sleep habits. I mean really. It's like the bane of my existence.

It's like this, people don't go to bed when the sun sets, and they don't get up when the sun rises. Without Daylight Savings Time, the sun would rise at 5am and set at 8:15pm in June. In January the sun rises at 8 am and sets at 5:30 pm. Sure maybe half the population is awake at 8am but no one goes to bed at 5:30. That's dumb.

This is a chart of the percent of people awake at any given time of day for Ann Arbor Michigan. I made it using my best estimate of when people go to bed and wake up. The blue box is the sunlight times in summer with DST, so it is shifted over an hour.

My point is that the box should be put in the center of people's day. The boxes should be centered around 2pm. And why don't we observe DST all year round? Does anyone really like the sun setting at 5pm? Why not have the sun rise at like 9am and set at 6pm.

Furthermore, I live on the western edge of my time zone so people on the east coast have the sun rise at 7:15 am and set at 4:30 pm in the winter. Even with daylight savings time the sun rises at 5:30 am in June.

I feel like I'm the only person who cares about this. Everyone I try to explain this to doesn't think it's a big deal. But even Venezuela decided to change it's time zones by 30 minutes to fit peoples lives better, and if Chavez can do it why can't we?