Time and time again

I've mused about time and our perception of it a couple of times on this blog before. Sometimes thinking it for a by quickly without really noticing it, and maybe about how I felt I had a bit of spare time and not much to fill it with.

Luckily, the latter is no longer a problem. Between moving and looking after Kaleb, my hands have been pretty full. My only complaint here is that unboxing stuff seems to be taking ages, and I would rather be playing with Kaleb, which is a lot of fun.

My other observation, that time seems to pass by quickly, has also changed somewhat. While Kaleb has only been here about 2 and a half months, it feels longer. And the time spent together doesn't seem to zoom by quite so much, which I am happy about :-)

Perception

It is interesting how time and events can change your perception on things.

The major one, as I have pondered before is how ones perception of time changes. Interestingly, it is often time that changes your perception of time. One way to see this is thinking back to how long days and years took when you were younger, seemingly stretching on for ages, compared to an older perception when it doesn't "feel" as long. Note that time itself isn't speeding up around you, it is your perception that has changed.

Another example I noticed earlier today was when I was holding my son, and he was looking out over my arm to his mother. I suspect he was the first male to stare about 20cm below her face that she didn't complain about... So events also change perceptions.

I would say the biggest event of all that can change your perception on something is experience. It is easy to have an opinion on something never experienced, but once you have gone experienced it, your perception on it can, and often will, change. Knowing this (or at least expecting it), I tried to enter parenthood with as few perceptions or expectations on it as possible. So my experiences will be painted onto a blank, untainted canvas, if you will. I think it has helped in me adapting to the massive change so quickly and, like Liz pointed out, it feels natural and as though he's always been here.

Time and time again

I have blogged about time before, and was thinking about it again recently. This time (ha) about the abstractions we place upon it, and the effect of that (so one week is made up of seven days, for example). 

Organisation

I have somewhat impressed myself with how organised I have been regarding getting xmas presents this year. I think I have brought most of presents I needed to this year, and it's not even December yet...

Perception of time

Having just done my first week back at work after a week and a half off, I've noticed that the time seemed to pass at different speeds each time.

Luckily, the time off seemed to last and the time working went fairly quickly. I don't usually notice it as the weekends seem to go at the same speed (or at least my perception of it), so its only really apparent when I have longer off. The only time I really notice the working week has gone fast is when its seeming suddenly got to Friday. Long term, it doesn't seem as though I've been working for as long as I have since finishing my masters (which, granted, has been less than a year, but it doesn't seem like anywhere near it).

As said, this is just my perception of the time passing. Maybe the seemingly quicker weeks is because my sleeping pattern has changed from late nights and sleep ins when I was a student to early mornings for work.

Part of me thinks I should be more productive in my spare time, albeit the small amount of it that I have, but the problem then comes of not being able to think of anything productive I can be doing for a few hours after work with less energy than I'd like as I've been at work all day. Think I'll just stick with relaxing in my spare time for the time being, seems to be working for me for the moment :)

Short post on time

I don't know why but I was thinking about time the other day. Mainly about when the day starts - midnight. But as most people get up when its daylight, this means they've been sleeping for the first 6-8 hours of the day. Just seems a bit odd [1]. Daylight savings is another thing that confuses me slightly, coming up to winter it seems to suddenly take away any sunlight in the late afternoon, not really saving it at all [2]. 


I remember reading somewhere about a proposal to have a 28 hour day instead of a 24 hour one. This ended up as 4 days of working during the week (but longer days) and still 2 days of weekend. The main argument for changing it was because people are staying up late anyway and probably not getting enough sleep as it is. That and there aren't that many professions that really require the daylight to work. I am currently sitting typing this and it is pitch black outside, but thanks to the wonder of light bulbs, I can still work as if it were full daylight outside. 


On a similar train of thought, I wondered about changing global time to just one time. Switch to the 24 hour clock, and have all countries use the same time. So when it is 02:20 in the UK, it is 02:20 in Russia. The difference would obviously be how much daylight there is in that particular country. It would just mean that instead sunrise being at, say, 7AM, sunrise would be a normal occurrence at, say 13:15 in one country and 22:45 in another. Its not the time that would be changing, just how we humans are labelling it. 


OK, maybe that wasn't such a short post as I originally thought; I may have spent more time writing this (hah) then I initially thought I would. 




[1] I mean nowadays. I think the system being used is in place because 'midday' is the middle of the day (obviously), when the sun is the highest in the sky, back when sun dials were being used it might have made a bit more sense. But then again, if using a 12 hour clock, midday comes at the highest number and not the middle one...


[2] I know, I know, it moves to the morning, but come on, who gets up that early? Pfft.