you might have noticed how earlier this week i remarked that the world is moving too fast, i am right. while not everyone may be as sensitive as i am to have recognized this fact, we're all currently moving faster. in the words of Mr. T Experience, don't slow down you're gonna crash.
it's all relative*
around its own axis the earth is spinning on average over 1000 miles per hour, fastest at the equator and slowing to near nothing (linearally) at the poles [we're also rotating around the sun at roughly 18 miles per second all while our entire solar system is moving at a velocity of 155 miles per second around our galaxy]. as long as we're moving at a nearly constant velocity, we feel nothing because our bodies actually sense accelerations or changes in velocity. do you know that we're speeding up? i do.
because our path around the sun is an ellipse, the speed of the earth varies throughout the year. our speed is fastest when we're closest to the sun (the perihelion) and slowest when we're farthest (aphelion). the aphelion occurs in july (no wonder cancers can seem so distant), and currently we're speeding up toward our highest velocity in january. i'd like to write a love poem to my perihelion, but i haven't met him yet. in the meantime, take a look at my analemma, and no this has nothing to do with seepage.
the analemma is the great big figure 8 etched by the sun in the sky. if you read more about it, you'll learn about the equation of time and how the sun drifts around helter skelter, and you'll learn that at certain times of the year there will be an 8 minute difference between your watch and the position of the sun in the sky. which tells you how utterly foolish it is to wear a watch, and may explain why i've been thinking so much about the white rabbit lately. whatever is a girl to do in this topsy-turvy world?
*i like einstein and i feel we are kindred spirits. like me, he was wrong about some things "in some very special circumstances. But he was also very, very, close to being right, and probably always will be." incidentally, einstein is also a pisces.
because our path around the sun is an ellipse, the speed of the earth varies throughout the year. our speed is fastest when we're closest to the sun (the perihelion) and slowest when we're farthest (aphelion). the aphelion occurs in july (no wonder cancers can seem so distant), and currently we're speeding up toward our highest velocity in january. i'd like to write a love poem to my perihelion, but i haven't met him yet. in the meantime, take a look at my analemma, and no this has nothing to do with seepage.
the analemma is the great big figure 8 etched by the sun in the sky. if you read more about it, you'll learn about the equation of time and how the sun drifts around helter skelter, and you'll learn that at certain times of the year there will be an 8 minute difference between your watch and the position of the sun in the sky. which tells you how utterly foolish it is to wear a watch, and may explain why i've been thinking so much about the white rabbit lately. whatever is a girl to do in this topsy-turvy world?
fall back
remember to turn your clocks back on sunday, at least those of you that live in my same temporal reality. when i was wee i trusted daylight savings time quite implicitly, i also thought that summer seemed to move so slow [this is because i was a nerd and eager to return to my studies, and because time is moving slower in summer as we know...so there]. i know now that DST should not hold the faith of a little girl, controlled as it is by old men. it's entirely complicated as to whether we're actually saving energy or saving lives with this tradition, and i wasn't around in 1973-74 to let you know how that attempt at restructuring time really felt. i guess i will find out in 2007. in the meantime, since they've always messed with our daytime by changing our spring forward date, while fall back has consistently occurred this last sunday of october, i would say it's ok to be happy that we have this extra hour of sleep.
please slow down and sleep a little, you're making me tired.
please slow down and sleep a little, you're making me tired.
*i like einstein and i feel we are kindred spirits. like me, he was wrong about some things "in some very special circumstances. But he was also very, very, close to being right, and probably always will be." incidentally, einstein is also a pisces.
3 comments:
I think the best thing about living in Indiana is the lack of a daylight savings time. Let's face it, the transition is pretty jaring. You're thrown backwards in time, into darkness, to wake in the dark, trudge through the rest of our quotidian indoors only to emerge at the end of the day, in darkness. Thankfully, I'll be prepared for it.
I think this is why the Blackhawks and the Bears continue to disappoint. Seasonal depression in Chicago must be rampant.
that sounds reasonable, rory. i would just like to note in the spirit of i told you so friday, that i never inferred time was moving faster in that post. i stuck to velocity. i can't read this magic link because i refuse to wonder about how such tricks are done. in the words of ELO, we have to believe it is magic.
I believe those are not the words of ELO but those of ONJ.
After the Shins and Dead Kennedys, I'm not sure we need another creepy musical confluence, but I guess these things come in threes; I heard "Strange Magic" by ELO on the radio this morning.
O, Wendy... why must you keep walking meadows in my mind, making waves across my time?
todd
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