I'm Against Daylight Saving Time

 Opinion 

   Standard Time , Please 

    Daylight Saving Time was one of the worst tricks to ever be placed on people since the other bad things we placed upon ourselves.  We didn't even standardize time until 1883. It could be anytime zone you wanted it and people just had to accept it. It's 5:31pm in Saint Paul but 6:09pm in Minneapolis ...good. Anyway, the trains did all that, and the world standardized time. Good. 

   Back to Daylight Saving Time. Don't blame Ben Franklin for this dumb tradition, he was joking. Apparently, it's either people in later years couldn't read jokes any more or they just wanted to scapegoat a dead guy, and I hope he haunted them until their final breathes.

   This is going from an American view, so sorry non-American country readers, though many of you would live in a country sane enough to not do Daylight Saving time. 

     So here's a dumb idea: hey it's 2am, nah, screw you , it's 3AM now, and there's nothing you can do about it. Why? Beacuse someone said let's do this every year, in 2007, they even moved it up to the 2nd Sunday of March, which for something called Spring forward, sure takes up time before Spring and it's called summer time, it sure goes seep into fall, by the first Sunday of November. 

 

But, yes you lose sleep that one day, but the problem with modern industrial society, is that we follow clocks.  "Hey you, go to work at 8AM" no matter what its 8AM, so now you have to adjust do something you used to at 8AM now at the former 7AM because some jerk said it's 8AM now. It's pure stupidity.   

   

    Put your pitchforks down, those are for farmers, and by the way, farmers shouldn't be blamed for the suffering inflicted upon us. You see, farmers, work on their  own time. They use daylight yes, but the animals follow the sun, like humans used to do, until we decided that we'd rather not and wonder why things are screwed up.  Your cat, doesn't tell time, they don't care if you moved your clock up from 5am to 6am , they'll still meow at at you when they feel like it.   The farmers follow animal time, not your weird scheduling.   The vegetables and fruits don't follow time; corn doesn't need your stupid clocks.  

  It's called Daylight Saving Time (not savings, cut that out!) funny enough, you aren't saving energy. You're aren't. Kids have to go to school, schools use energy, moving the clock up one hour doesn't change the energy usage. They aren't holding classes outside, and still have to use electric lights. Going to work in your prison cubes? Your prision cube uses power and you still have to work the same amount of time in your prision cube. 

   

 Good work, Daylight Saving Time is both a lie in both saving you time and energy.  "But, I'm going outside more...because the sun is still up at 6:39PM" , In May, the sun would still be up at 6:39PM on year-round standard time, and two, no you aren't. Plus, if you are, which you aren't, you might be using your car, you are still using energy and the sun would still be up between April and October at 6:39pm in standard time. 

   "But I enjoy the sun being up at 8:02pm in July" , No you don't it's 88 degrees, the high was 99, what are you talking about?  If you do, I better see you out there, between 6-9pm , just be outside.  Most are inside wondering what they've done to deserve this hot death punishment. The sun going down at the standard time would be some relief from the death laser of the sun baking our internals as we wish for the sweet relief of death. 

  

   What? Oh yeah, every answer the pro-DST people can give is weak and flimsy like the gas milage of the 1992 Chevy Suburban. Also, "But we get more daylight in the evening" ah, but a later morning, when we still have people locked to time, yay!   

   

   It is good for business, that's right! Many of you use your "extra sunlight" not for sunlight stuff, but you go shopping so that everyone can see that you bought stuff with your money.  Like I said before, the sun would still naturally be up, because nature, and how everything is set up: at 7pm in the month of may,  doing in March when it's still slightly cold is just an excuse. 

       I could bring up the stuff you see all the time like Daylight Saving Time has increased car-accidents, but I'll give to the fact the weather changing, more people are out in general. The morning hours during the early months of DST also don't help because of that locked time you have to do, but it still being dark, and yet, the functions of society pretend this makes sense. Heart Attacks, but the problem there is that there's bad sleeping habits in our society and more stress , and Daylight Saving time doesn't help that in it's first few weeks. 

 

   The drudgery of having to adjust and some saying "you should get over it" as you are being gaslighted into being told the old 7am is 8am now, when you know it's 7am.  

  

   What I am for, is not year-round Daylight Saving Time, let me be clear. Daylight Saving time is the time where the clocks get set hour head on the 2nd Sunday in March and ending on first Sunday in November, which is the return of Standard time. If you see time as EDT (Eastern Daylight Time, only use that between those months) otherwise between November and March it would be EST (Eastern Standard Time). I don't think we need year-round daylight saving time. I am for year-round standard time and the revocation of daylight saving time  altogether.  

   

  Now, if a state like Florida or somewhere finds benefit in having DST, then a state or city/county can decide, but I want standard time as the standard. You set the clock back one last time in November and never look back (ironic), in March, the clock stays the way, the Sun and Earth will do it's thing and we don't have to worry. States like Arizona and Hawaii (mostly) don't observe DST, and live  in standard time. (They are not on year round DST)  They are doing fine, Hawaii still has summer visitors, and Arizona still has a low of 91 degrees in the summer time.  

    Really, the concept shows how much unnecessary things we have in our society and the idea of getting rid of it makes sense. America has a bad sleep problem already, it would be better if we had investments in making it better for Americans to have healthier sleep and conducive society, instead of a clock change that doesn't do anything of use. It's mostly built on false promises and promotions. 

  

   So yes, I'm against Daylight Saving Time, I'm against year-round Daylight Saving Time, I'm against it starting so early, and in March. I'm for year-round standard time fully. I don't like proposals that make it year-round DST ,promoted as a solution to the change pain. I think they are promoted that way to make sure people don't notice and would rather do anything to get rid of a time change, instead of clarity.  

 

  Maybe one day, foolishness could take a holiday for a moment and we have a thought to get rid of this slightly meaningless thing. It's not the biggest problem in our society, but it's the little things. Also, if you think this post is a joke, future reader, I'm going to haunt you.

Christmas Posting 2021: #4: She Eats you when you're sleeping

 Christmas Traditions History

 

from Wikipedia

     Previously, we told you about a cat in Iceland that eats you if you don't get new clothing, especially if you were considered lazy.  Santa Claus might leave you coal  or socks, but at he doesn't eat you. Now are going back to Iceland, because they aren't done with the whole things that eat you for Christmas stories. (Are you okay there , Iceland?) 

               Today we are talking about Grýla  (spelled that way)  Grýla is another mythological character who is also more on the dark side of the holiday. Her story origins seem to take place around the 13th century, another story originally spread by word of mouth.  

         Grýla is  a Christmas troll , one of many, (which is a concern)  the main idea is that she lives in a cave in the mountains, which might explain why she's grumpy anyway, she leaves her home  and  gathers up the bad acting kids like one going to a grocery store for dinner would do, and brings  then home for her and her husband, Leppalúði, (you figure out how to say that yourself) make them in stew. 

       There are some different poems  about her  Smithsonian has one 

       

Down Comes Grýla from the outer fields 

        With Forty tails 

        A bag on her back , a sword in her hand

    Coming to carve the stomachs of the children 

    Who cry for meat during Lent 

 

       Which would be a new Christmas hit song , if someone sang it. (what?)  She wasn't originally part of any Christmas stuff, she was kind of brought in to it, people would be together and bringing up stories to tell since there was no TV and reruns of Home Improvement 's Christmas episode from season 1. It also provides a bonus of parents telling their kids to stop fighting or angry troll woman si going to be eating them. (Jimmy, clean your room, because if you are going to be sloppy, you'll be made in a sloppy Jimmy.)  Apparently she's always always hungry, so are kids not filling?  Maybe she should eat different things or add some vegetables to her diet, Charlie's liver and some onions on the side. 

  The BBC has  fun tidbit about her, fun to me 

She is in a perpetual bad mood, mainly because she is always hungry. And it's not only children who attract her ire - her first two husbands bored her so much she ate them.

            

     She sounds like she needs to eat a Snickers, also she ate her first two husbands, which is easier than divorce. 

       We don't know what she looks like, fully.  Like that poem above says she has 40 tails , some say 15, each of which has 100 bags with 20 children in each bag.  Most of the stories say that she's ugly. She might have hooves. The amount of children she holds also changes some figure out that maybe 30,000 kids in a country with a population of 366,425 people, would be noticeable, unless Iceland had more people and she just ate them.  We aren't sure how many heads she has.      

   The point is she's ugly, creepy, and scary. Her name slightly translates to "growler" which is apt. 

   Grýla isn't alone, she is married  to a troll named Leppalúði. Which he's doing better than her first and 2nd husbands. They were named Gustur and Boil (the 2nd one was just asking for it with that name) they had children. There's another folk group called the Yule lads who are the children of Leppalúði and Grýla . The Yule lads will be getting some talk later. 

      How is did she get into Christmas?  Around the 19th century is when pomes and tales would start connecting her to the holiday. This is also when they started to connect the Yule Lads and our friend,  Yule Cat, into the the story as well; they had been standalone. 

             There have been attempts to get rid of Grýla's story , after her "sons" were softened, there have been attempts to have her killed off or make her less people eat-y. It has not been able to be squashed. There  Grýla statues and other features in Iceland and it's story you kind of just don't want to die.  The story has historical context of the idea of something lurking in the dark winter, especially in a country where daylight is short in winter.  The idea of working hard for the short hours in winter and making sure the kids behave fits how a story like this comes to be in the first place. 

    So don't lazy, get new clothes, don't be a loud naughty child or you'll get eaten. If you make it, we'll see you next time. 

Based off my post from 2017

My sources

https://icelandmag.is/article/mystery-origins-and-history-strange-icelandic-yule-lads

https://grapevine.is/mag/articles/2009/05/08/monsters-and-mythical-beings-gryla/

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/568050/gryla-christmas-troll-iceland

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/why-icelands-christmas-witch-much-cooler-and-scarier-krampus-180967605/

https://is.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gr%C3%BDla

http://notendur.snerpa.is/systaoggaui/grylukvaedi.htm

                  

Christmas Posting 2021: #3: Send me a Card, please?!

 Christmas History 

  

             In  modern times, digital has seemed to take over as a thing, yet, it's still interesting that we have physical mail for different things. A Christmas tradition that's well noted is the simplest thing: a card.  To be honest, a joke can be made that there's a card for anything since card sellers need to have money for the other parts of the year  or something. 

   Christmas cards are part of the more modern revival of Christmas during the 19th century, though if you look it up there are accounts that first recorded Christmas cards were sent by Michael Maier to King James I of England and Henry Ferdrick, the prince of Wales. Our story does take us to the United Kingdom though, to the more modern usage of a such a thing. 

    A man named Henry Cole  had a problem. Sorry, Sir. Henry Cole, he was a well known educator and brushed elbows with the finest people of that century.  He wrote books on art and architecture, children's books, was the director of the London Museum, and founder of "Journal of Design".  

     His problem with all this was that made him a busy man, and he also was well-liked to the point where might have too many friends.  1843, he got letters from friends and associates, a lot of them. Thanks to also modernization of the British postal system, people could send letters much eaiser than before. 

     Sir Cole, wanted to thank these people for taking time out of their nice 19th century days (of not dying from drinking the water and stuff) and writing him letters. He didn't want to be rude, so he decided to get on working on that. Then he found a thick piece of paper and was interested in it (maybe he went mad for a moment)   

    He found an artist friend, after being inspired by a school days tradition of giving paper for Christmas to parents with special illustration. His friend was J.C Horsley and he went and asked him to design an idea he had.  A family at a table celebrating the holiday, and images of people helping to poor to ensure compassion.  Since this was the 1850's and not the 1350's they could also have 1,000 copies made easily on a stiff paper, with a pre-marked "To:____" and a "A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to You."  wording. 

        

More after the Jump

Christmas Posting 2021: #2:You killed the Aluminum Christmas tree, Charlie Brown

 Christmas  History 

        The concept of the artificial Christmas tree has been around for a few centuries as much as the true triumphant return of Christmas as a concept.  Thankfully, this post is not about real vs. artificial Christmas  which a debate created to divide us.

     Artificial Christmas trees have been made of different materials over time such as feathers, most now are made of PVC plastic.  We are going to talk about a very specific kind of treat, the aluminum tree. 

   You are sitting and watching "A Charlie Brown Christmas" which was made in 1965, and something odd is mentioned: that being an aluminum Christmas tree, you sit there puzzled and wonder "is that some weird joke?  Christmas trees made of metal?" 

              These metallic trees were real and they existed. (redundant to make a point)  They were the first artificial trees to not be sold in green, which is interesting since you can get artificial trees in any color you want. (Like red to make you think it's on fire!)  They were first introduced in 1955. They were popular in the 1960's (because the 1960's were weird, this is going to offend someone) The trees were made of aluminum and some were aluminum coated paper which if you do math, is not the best idea. 

Goes great in you red empty void room/ source: Reddit

More after the Jump

Christmas Posting 2021: #1: Meow

 Christmas Traditions 

image:PBS 

            Do you have a cat? Do you worry about said cat deciding to eat you?  That was a strange question.  Today we are looking at a Christmas tradition and tale (or is that tail?) from Iceland.  It's about Jólakötturinn, or the Yule Cat.

           Receiving coal instead of gift for Christmas  is not most kids' wishes, but that still might be better than say being eaten.   The rules for this seem very simple, you are supposed to have some new clothing by Christmas Day.  (not sure why a cat would care about you having new clothes or old clothes, why is this cat so fashion conscious) If you don't , the cat will eat the kids. 

          I don't think it even matters if the kids are good or bad (unless they taste bad?) just have new clothes or die!  There is a mixture it might not just eat kids; it might also eat adults, you know, just for full measure.    

          There's a poem because of course there is, and this should be made into a song that becomes a hit! 

You all know the Yule Cat
And that Cat was huge indeed.
People didn't know where he came from
Or where he went.

He opened his glaring eyes wide,
The two of them glowing bright.
It took a really brave man
To look straight into them.

His whiskers, sharp as bristles,
His back arched up high.
And the claws of his hairy paws
Were a terrible sight.

He gave a wave of his strong tail,
He jumped and he clawed and he hissed.
Sometimes up in the valley,
Sometimes down by the shore.

He roamed at large, hungry and evil
In the freezing Yule snow.
In every home
People shuddered at his name.

If one heard a pitiful "meow"
Something evil would happen soon.
Everybody knew he hunted men
But didn't care for mice.

He picked on the very poor
That no new garments got
For Yule - who toiled
And lived in dire need.

From them he took in one fell swoop
Their whole Yule dinner
Always eating it himself
If he possibly could.

Hence it was that the women
At their spinning wheels sat
Spinning a colorful thread
For a frock or a little sock.

Because you mustn't let the Cat
Get hold of the little children.
They had to get something new to wear
From the grownups each year.

And when the lights came on, on Yule Eve
And the Cat peered in,
The little children stood rosy and proud
All dressed up in their new clothes.

Some had gotten an apron
And some had gotten shoes
Or something that was needed
- That was all it took.

For all who got something new to wear
Stayed out of that pussy-cat's grasp
He then gave an awful hiss
But went on his way.

Whether he still exists I do not know.
But his visit would be in vain
If next time everybody
Got something new to wear.

Now you might be thinking of helping
Where help is needed most.
Perhaps you'll find some children
That have nothing at all.

Perhaps searching for those
That live in a lightless world
Will give you a happy day
And a Merry, Merry Yule.

      

        The traditional story  is very old, but most written sources are from the 19th Century, which kind of makes sense as Christmas was getting more embracement then.  There are also versions of the story where the cat just kind of comes around and steals your Christmas food instead. (I'd rather just be eaten than STARVE to death) Or some cases, the cat is said to eat the children and the food, which seems more rude somehow. 

         This cat isn't normal sized, I mean, it would be hard to eat people at standard cat size. It's said to be bigger than the tallest houses. (What's the tallest house in Iceland? Also, do high rises count?)  On Christmas night, it peers through the windows( so what if you had blinds?) to see what kids have gotten for Christmas. (Meow, Xbox, Meow, Red Rider B.B. Gun, Meow, no new clothing, die!)  You  don't have to go all out and buy new wardrobes, new socks count.  I'm  not sure how the cat can tell if they are new or just really well taken care of. (Hmm?)  

          The legends that were passed down, again oral history being key, is that he's a pet of family of trolls of the Yule Lads, which is like an Icelandic tradition of Santa like gift giving. They weren't always Santa like, but they also a famous mother for tradition. We aren't fully sure when it was officially started.   Iceland's middle ages economy was based on wool, and it was important for people to produce it.   They needed most of society to make wool to  make sure people worked hard enough to work on wool production.  Meaning not being lazy was important.  

     The idea is to say  hey finish your chores, you get new clothes as a reward, if you finished before Christmas, anyone who didn't was lazy and deserves to be eaten.  So the lazy kids don't get clothes, the cat eats their dinner first, then the kid.  What about the families who don't have the means to get new clothing or didn't have the means to make new clothing? Uhhh. 

        Maybe, if you have the means, would also inspire the idea of helping those who don't uh not get eaten. 

    So if you get your kids new socks as one of their Christmas gifts, tell them that you just saved their lives Meow! This is not the only Icelandic child eating Christmas story, so I'm kind of concerned.  

 Thanks for reading, we'll be back next time, after we confuse the giant cat with a giant laser pointer. 

 

Based on a previous blog post I did over at mychillerChristmas 

my sources: 

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/each-christmas-icelands-yule-cat-takes-fashion-policing-extreme-180961420/

https://web.archive.org/web/20050108092720/http://www.simnet.is/gardarj/yule11.htm

https://grapevine.is/icelandic-culture/art/2008/12/10/the-christmas-cat/

also a song  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4xG6hQWsno  

            

 

Christmas Posting 2020 #2: THE Christmas Song

  Christmas 

                                     Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...

Christmas Posting 2020: #1 Christmas Lights

 Mychiller Christmas on Croglog 

          One of the most noted features for the Christmas is the Christmas Lights. That's right they are part of the decorating process more than anything, they go in the trees, the go on the walls, anywhere where you can reach them with an outlet, or stretch with an extension cord. (wonderful)  

        It works for the time of year where darkness settles in before 5PM, bringing light to dark winter' s night, where the nights are long. Christmas is the light in the darkness , so to speak.    Where did the idea of putting a bunch of extra lights on things for a holiday come from?

  

      There's a story that connects us to the protestant reformation, specially, Martin Luther. (Yes) There's also the idea the Christmas tree idea conceptually originated in what is modern Germany where yes, Martian Luther was also from. (timing!)  The story goes that Luther was in the German forest thinking about his sermon (of course!)  and wasn't paying attention to time and it got dark.  Of course, this is a forest, meaning that things live there, and some of those things like to come out a night, and they might also be a danger.  Luther grew worried, and wandered around until he realized that the night means starts.(That's right he saw Ethel Merman, oh you mean the other stars, never mind!)  

         The twinkling stars and especially in the evergreen trees. He was inspired and didn't get eaten by animals, that'd be a dark story. 

I'm impressed 

more after the jump