Damned Early Daylight Savings Time!
 

Thanks to an advisory from "experts", the U.S government has decided to push daylight savings time much EARLIER this year, and for much longer, too. Believing that it would save more energy and time, the U.S government sanctioned this move only a little while ago (like I heard about this only last week?)


Dammit, now is NOT the time I could afford to lose an hour of sleep! :gonk:

This cost me an hour out of my final day of Spring break. Every year I maintain a little bit of hope that they'll get rid of this outdated concept, but I doubt that will happen any time in the near future.

Now begins several months of remembering that my watch is an hour behind, because I won't change the time on it until a really boring day of class comes along.

On the plus side, I get an extra hour of sleep around my birthday every year, so I don't complain too much.

I know people think its antiquated and that it only has to do with farming, but there will be huge energy savings because of this. DST is far from outdated.

Plus, I love that I live in a place where I don't have to change my clocks. Of course, it would be a disaster if Arizona did it, as air conditioners would be running for an extra hour every day.

Sin, the change has been in place for a while now, I know it was put in place sometime in 2006, so it is at least a few months old.

Those coots almost caught me this time with it... I still came out on top though, got up on time and made it to work.

Don't forget to update Windows and Java.

At least this whole thing was cushioned by the experts over at The Daily Show.

I don't mind this. Now we have more time for tennis practice.

So what's the point of ever turning them back, then?

I like how we have to maintain the illusion of longer days and that it works out somehow, but I've always liked "falling back" rather than "springing forward". I woke up at noon, but it was actually 1, and waking up at 1 is annoying. This early DST though has screwed our VCR settings (we have to do it manually now instead of auto), and my cell phone provider (for some reason they haven't updated the time yet). At least the computer figured it out ;)

One reason is that the standard clock is the standard clock for a reason. Noon is supposed to be the time when the sun is directly above you and midnight is supposed to be the time when the sun is directly below you.

Part of the problem is that if you want to set uniform dates for DST, a year round DST screws over the northern United States, when sunrise can come as late as 8:30 am and sunset comes at 6:30 pm, which doesn't lead to much energy savings, in fact, you could say that people have to run their lights more because of the late sunrise and they don't leave their houses until just before it starts warming up, which means the heaters run more.

There are times when the US has gone on a national year-round DST. One I remember was World War II and another was the gas shortages of the 70s. Back when they did that (this goes with the point about it being too dark in the morning), they cited an increase of morning rush-hour traffic accidents.

Plus, you could argue that DST simply adjusts sunrise to our clocks, which means we get more natural sleep patterns, like societies before time keeping.

BlueMikey, you're the 2nd Internet person whom I've met who knows that sort of thing. I'm impressed and a bit terrified.

From my experience of working on the farm (along with my father's opinion on this), DST is horrible. We still work just as long in the fields doing planting. If a farmer slouches off because it gets dark earlier, he won't last in the business. I don't see the need to inch things an hour further, as it just takes an hour of sleep and gets our internal clocks out of whack.

I'm grateful that my old man doesn't want me to waste my free time on the farm anymore. Otherwise, it'd feel like getting up at 4am tomorrow because of this...

Our joke is that it is still carried out nowadays so that lawyers and politicians can get in an extra hour of golf =p But hey, we're but a couple of yokels. What do we know.

Still entitled to our opinions on the matter. Not here to debate it, just stating my opinion.

Daylight Savings Time couldn't have appeared at a better time for me. At least the hour is taken out of my break as opposed to my sleep time right before my lectures. I'd rather not go through the embarrassment of showing up an hour late for class because I forgot to set my clock for Daylight Savings Time or I slept through my alarm anyway.

I was caught unawares. I completely missed my ride to church this morning. And my computer didn't automatically adjust. Its wierd. Personally I don't mind DST. Because quite frankly, it means an extra hour sleep in the fall, and in the spring, it means that an extra hour of light is tacked onto the end of my day. Makes things great.

we lose and we gain, point being, there is no point.
Just set your clocks. I don't care to pay attention about the energy saving, its just another small task to go thru 2 times a year.

Don't forget to check your smoke alarms!

I've heard that farmers don't like it, but I just don't get why. I mean, it's not like there is a specific time a farmer needs to start. After all, the cows wake up with the sun, not with the alarm. What does it matter what the time on the clock says to a farmer? There's still the same amount of daylight.

Additional Spam:
Haha, houses burn down all over Arizona.

Well, farming is an endless list of jobs and labors that need to be handled. Most don't operate on a "40 Hour Work Week" basis. My old man works *at least* fourteen hours a day, six days a week.

Time is money, quite literally, and the sun makes a slave out of you. Every minute of sunlight is valuable and has to be made use of. Why not just work the normal amount of time? Because then you run a risk of falling behind. When a few weeks of rain hit you and ruin your progress, you end up quite far behind and need to bust your ass to catch up. As a result, you literally *have* to make use of as much time as you can. Slacking off will come back to haunt you.

This DST spiel throws things out of whack and leaves farmers often working an extra hour every day. If a farmer gets up at 5am, he'll still get up at that time irregardless of how long the sun will be out DST on *or* off. And he will keep working, along with his workers, until the sun goes down. As a result, my old man's work hours are extended from fourteen hours a day to fifteen hours a day. Instead of calling it a day at 7pm, they call it a day at 8pm.

That is why farmers hate daylight savings. Few folks have longer, harder days than them -- this I can say with certainty.

I just don't like the fact that I lose a hour of sleep.

Gah, I was called into work today since someone called in sick. I was told to come in at 3:00. The clock on the computer said 1:30. I was all cool with that until I checked my watch, it was actually 2:30 and I had to leave as soon as they called me.

Damn early DST screwing up the automatic time change on the computer >.<

Needless to say I wasn't really happy all day >.>

Lost an hour of sleep and had to download a patch so my PC could cope with the bumped-up DST kick-in date.

But I do like the longer days, though. Gives me more time in the evenings to work on my car :D

I'm just glad that Arizona doesn't go along with this bullshit.

I got so fucked over from this; the first time I have had to go to work at 5AM is when this damn change has to happen.

So I go to bed early and what happens? I wake up 30 minutes later unable to sleep until worktime, meaning I coasted through work on 1/2 an hour of sleep (on the first day of my new position no less)!

I hate that time moved up a hour on Sunday. That cut into my sleep and my stupid phone didn't automatically update like it usually does, and I could have missed my ride back to campus. And it's really messing up my sleeping. I tried to go to sleep early yesterday, and it was really light outside...eh. Stupid advisor board. I need that hour...