The top five reasons springing forward sucks

I hate this night, when the world decides to steal an hour of sleep.  I can cite many reasons for this dislike; here are the top five.

5.  The name is stupid.  I'm not springing in any sense, nor am I moving forward.  I'm simply watching a perfectly good hour of sleep vanish.

4.  Do we really need Daylight Savings Time anyway?  I don't think so.  Energy savings are debatable at best, and we're no longer primarily an agrarian economy.  I'm for bagging it and stopping this useless bit of clock changing.

3.  Saturday night is just a mean night to do it.  We take some of the shiny off one of the two great weekend days, with work coming fast on its heels.  If we must do this silly thing, let's do it on a weekday--and live with everyone messing up their work schedule.  Better that than ruining a perfectly good weekend.

2.  Our bodies adapt to nature, not to clocks.  We're wired to adapt our sleep to the state of the world.  Let's go with that over contorting our sleep schedules to handle this clock change.

And the number one reason I dislike this tradition is

1.  Dammit, Leroy, they're stealing my sleep!  I'll give up the extra hour of fall back not to have anyone ever steal my slumber.  I don't get enough rest to give up any of it.

The debut of the techsplainer

and a lot of other good information awaits you in the latest episode of Now with PT.



Enjoy.

A decent ear worm

Usually, when a music virus invades me, the song is bad.  This one hit me last week, but I quite like it, so I don't mind living with it.



I know I know I know.....

Enjoy.

The Gaslight Anthem deliver the power of rock and roll

Earlier tonight, a group of us that included Sarah and Ben went to the Lincoln Theatre to catch the show by the visiting Gaslight Anthem.  The Lincoln is in some ways quite cool and in others way too grungy, but it'll always be near and dear to me as the place I took Sarah for her first live rock-and-roll concert. 

I very much enjoyed tonight's show.  Lead singer Brian Fallon roared his way through a 90-minute set that, to all of our surprise, did not include an encore. 

Click an image to see a larger version.

When I'm at a rock concert, I forget for at least a few moments, and often for longer, my age, my fatness, my job, everything except the music.  I'm sixteen again, the music pounding through me and letting me know that others share my dreams, that I can do it--whatever it is.  I soak in energy and really am that angry, lonely, horny, artsy, frustrated teenager once again, howling with the music. 

Live music has its own special power, and I can't imagine ever stopping wanting to attend concerts.

I will always love rock and roll.



Photo courtesy of Sarah.

I'm with Holden

If there's any more snow, I'm packing up and heading out, as Holden nearly did in the recent storm.

Click the image to see a larger version.

The next time I want to see snow is when I hit Whistler for TEDActive.

Truth is, I don't even want snow there, but I accept its inevitability.

I'm ready for spring.

A new Mumford and Sons album

is coming May 4.  In a move that already seems to be upsetting some hardcore fans but that I applaud, the album, Wilder Mind, is all-electric, as you can see in this teaser below.



I'm psyched!

Talkin' RAH at the library

As I mentioned in an earlier post, today Dave and I were the guests of the Eva Perry Regional Library for a discussion of the works and influence of Robert A. Heinlein.  Outside, rain was falling and threatening to freeze, but inside a hearty group of travelers braved the weather to come hear us talk. 

Click the image to see a larger version.

Amazingly, another four people later joined us, so we had a fairly full house.  (Even more surprising is the fact that the people who did not come with us greatly outnumbered those who did.) 

Everyone in attendance seemed genuinely interested in Heinlein, so we had a good time talking about the man and his works, fielding questions, and on more than one occasion, heading off on related tangents.

I'm thankful to the Wake County librarians who organized this event and who will be hosting other similar discussions during March.  These folks do great work keeping our libraries running and generally promoting books, and I am grateful for all that they do.

I also want to thank those who came to hear us talk.  You guys were crazy for going out in this weather, but you made the afternoon a lot nicer than it would have been had Dave and I faced the prospect of a room empty save for those who had come with us.  (We also thank those folks, but it's nice to have an audience you didn't bring.)

I did receive more than a few questions about my next book, so I better get busy on it!