november 2024

Hello and Happy Holidays!

This newsletter is a bit late because Ashley and I have been busy moving in to a new place together :)

Ashley among the boxes

moving

We didn’t hire movers for my stuff—it was just me and my dad.

in the process of moving

When you’re forced to put everything you own in boxes and move them into the elevator, then into a car, then out of the car, then up the elevator, then into the apartment, then into a corner stacked on top of another box—it makes you realize how much stuff you actually own.

Too much, as it turns out.

Sorting through all my stuff hasn’t left much room for writing. That said, here are some thoughts from November.

time to fall back

Like nails grating on a chalkboard, Daylight Savings Time is here once again.

As is my custom, I’d like to spend some time railing against it. Last year I said:

Ah, daylight savings I hate you.

But this year, I’d like to be a bit more specific.

This is what our year looks like. We start on January 1st in Standard Time (ST), then our clocks “spring forward” in March to Daylight Savings Time (DST). Then in November, our clocks “fall back” to Standard Time.

standard time

Overall, we actually spend more time in Daylight Savings Time than Standard Time—about 65% vs. 35%.

This raises the question: Why call it Standard Time when it happens for a minority of the year? It’s obviously not the standard, it’s the exception!

Up until (very) recently, I thought the opposite—I believed our clocks fell back to DST. That’s why I felt so aggressively opposed towards it, because it stole an hour of daylight at the end of my day. But this is not true! Standard Time steals the hour!

So really, I’m opposed to Standard Time. But saying “Ah, standard time I hate you” doesn’t have the same ring to it.

time shift

Really, I’m opposed to the time shift —the gaining and losing of an hour at seemingly random points in the year. Like even if DST gave us three extra hours of daylight, having to time shift at some point during the year makes it all worse.

The time shift is bad because:

it disrupts my natural circadian rhythm
it raises risk of car accidents

This is how I see it: Daylight savings represents the concept of having to time shift at certain points in the year, not the time zone. No daylight savings = no time shift.

To make it clear where I stand, here are the options, ranked in order of my preference:

Permanent DST
Permanent ST
DST + ST + time shift (currently selected)

the election

Here’s something: The rest of my twenties will be spent under a Trump presidency.

Here’s a list of takes about the US election I found interesting.

This Jon Stewart video - including this Chris Cuomo quote:

Focus less on who is WOKE and more on who is BROKE
This PodSaveAmerica clip

Trump has put together the most diverse coalition that a Republican President has had in our lifetime in this win.
This Ezra Klein tweet

That there’s more affinity between Democrats and the Cheneys than Democrats and the Rogans and Theo Vons of the world says a lot.
This chart:
This Matthew Yglesias’ substack

Race is a social construct, but biological sex is not. Policy must acknowledge that reality and uphold people’s basic freedom to live as they choose.

…

Politeness is a virtue, but obsessive language policing alienates most people and degrades the quality of thinking.

bread

I’m getting back into baking this month! Here’s a loaf I baked for Friendsgiving in October and another one.

misc

This is the first November in a while I haven’t gotten sick—even with a flight to Toronto in between.
Aren’t we lucky to get prettier sunsets in winter?
I realize I like Thai food more than Vietnamese food.
This clip of Jameis Winston realizing he’s going to play football in the snow:
We saw a double rainbow!

See you next month!