Daylight Time Change Changes This Year
Or…Have you considered your computer settings?
Writers need every hour we can eek out of every day, so when lawmakers change Daylight Time (and Daylight Savings Time) on us, it just makes us think about that obnoxious “loss of an hour” more than we usually would.
Rather than bore you with the usual tripe about why we move our clock hands back and forth every spring and fall (because, really, your news stations and various web sites will use those stories ad nauseam over the next three or four weeks), let me give you the useful info you need concerning this year’s change in Daylight Time’s beginning.
This year, Daylight Time begins March 11 instead of the first Sunday in April. And Daylight Savings Time will begin this autumn November 4 instead of the last Sunday in October. Why?
Legislators passed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Pub. L. no. 109-58, 119 Stat 594) in 2005 to help us conserve more energy. This is a laudable goal, and I’m not complaining about that. I recognize the fact that we don’t actually “lose” an hour in the grand scheme of things by “springing forward” an hour at 2 a.m. March 11 because we “gain” that hour back November 4 when we “fall back” an hour. But, oh man, we writers with day-jobs need all the hours we can get! Can I get an amen?
Besides cutting into your writing time this weekend, Daylight Time will pose a problem for your computer clock. Hmm.
See, my settings have always been such that my PCs automatically spring forward an hour at 2 a.m. the first Sunday in April and fall back the last Sunday in October. I’ve always put smart hamsters in those wheels. But this year the hamsters get a new challenge. Did the folks who built my computer in winter ’06 know about the Energy Policy Act of 2005? Chances are good. Will my “Adjust for Daylight Savings Time” feature kick in March 11 only and not again April 1? It’ll be a good practical joke for those cute little hamsters to play on me, eh?
For those of you with computers built behind that curve, you can buy software (ooh, Capitalism at its finest – the conspiracy theorists should be on top of this) to make your life easier. Or, novel concept comin’ up here, you can reset your computer’s clock when you get up March 11. (And you might want to check it April 1.)
Call me old-fashioned.
It’s the dragon in me.
In good news, there are no time changes in my novel Choices Meant for Gods. Chariss doesn’t have to rail at Master Rothahn for reminding her of the loss of an hour of sleep or training time. No one passes a bill dictating when to light the lanterns in Arcana.
And to all you folks in Indiana, aren’t you glad you opted into this last year? ;)
“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”
Tags: Daylight Savings Time, Daylight Time, Energy Policy Act, Choices Meant for Gods, writing
Or…Have you considered your computer settings?
Writers need every hour we can eek out of every day, so when lawmakers change Daylight Time (and Daylight Savings Time) on us, it just makes us think about that obnoxious “loss of an hour” more than we usually would.
Rather than bore you with the usual tripe about why we move our clock hands back and forth every spring and fall (because, really, your news stations and various web sites will use those stories ad nauseam over the next three or four weeks), let me give you the useful info you need concerning this year’s change in Daylight Time’s beginning.
This year, Daylight Time begins March 11 instead of the first Sunday in April. And Daylight Savings Time will begin this autumn November 4 instead of the last Sunday in October. Why?
Legislators passed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Pub. L. no. 109-58, 119 Stat 594) in 2005 to help us conserve more energy. This is a laudable goal, and I’m not complaining about that. I recognize the fact that we don’t actually “lose” an hour in the grand scheme of things by “springing forward” an hour at 2 a.m. March 11 because we “gain” that hour back November 4 when we “fall back” an hour. But, oh man, we writers with day-jobs need all the hours we can get! Can I get an amen?
Besides cutting into your writing time this weekend, Daylight Time will pose a problem for your computer clock. Hmm.
See, my settings have always been such that my PCs automatically spring forward an hour at 2 a.m. the first Sunday in April and fall back the last Sunday in October. I’ve always put smart hamsters in those wheels. But this year the hamsters get a new challenge. Did the folks who built my computer in winter ’06 know about the Energy Policy Act of 2005? Chances are good. Will my “Adjust for Daylight Savings Time” feature kick in March 11 only and not again April 1? It’ll be a good practical joke for those cute little hamsters to play on me, eh?
For those of you with computers built behind that curve, you can buy software (ooh, Capitalism at its finest – the conspiracy theorists should be on top of this) to make your life easier. Or, novel concept comin’ up here, you can reset your computer’s clock when you get up March 11. (And you might want to check it April 1.)
Call me old-fashioned.
It’s the dragon in me.
In good news, there are no time changes in my novel Choices Meant for Gods. Chariss doesn’t have to rail at Master Rothahn for reminding her of the loss of an hour of sleep or training time. No one passes a bill dictating when to light the lanterns in Arcana.
And to all you folks in Indiana, aren’t you glad you opted into this last year? ;)
“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”
Tags: Daylight Savings Time, Daylight Time, Energy Policy Act, Choices Meant for Gods, writing
posted by Sandy Lender | 9:49 AM
4 Comments:
It's just one more thing to keep our little minds occupied so they can go about manipulating the world politics to make their lives a little easier.
What I've never been able to figure out is how they came to the conclusion that this would save energy. After all, regardless of what time our clocks say it is, we still have the same amount of darkness and light every day, don't we? (I mean, although that figure changes each day, through the earth's rotation around the sun, how many hours of sun/darkness per day is predetermined by that isn't it? Not by what we deem it to be through a simple setting the clock ahead an hour each spring.) JMHO there! And keep in mind, I am not a rocket scientist either!
Tir, Jeni,
I think a software manufacturer called up his/her congressman and said, "I need some extra income; can you do something that will force people with old computers to purchase a software patch for the time settings on their computers?"
Voila! Daylight Time change!
;)
See, I saw the movie Sneakers. I could give the character Mother a run for his money.
Sandy L.
"Some days, I just want the dragon to win."
A better way to save energy would be to have us all hibernate in winter. It's simply way too cold for decent folk (at least here in Michigan).
I'd just as soon them do away with Daylight Savings all together. It messes with your internal clocks too much.
Post a Comment
<< Home