Tick Tock

Watch the hand upon the wall. - Tick

Watch the clock set in the hall. - Tock

An hour glass - sands of a brick.

Sun on dial - do not block.

Quickly comes the time of nick.

When opportunity comes to knock.

Waiting ever patiently. - Tick

The boiling of a kettle pot. - Tock

J.A.Scott

Darkness Saving Time

R.a.n.t. of week 11/04/12

"Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." - Benjamin Franklin

Was Franklin advocating Daylight Savings Time? Was his quote intended to praise an early morning sunrise? Actually no, so he's spared my wrath. How do I know this? Well research for one, but I've also picked apart his quote. To do this, I had to look at what he DIDN'T say. Notice he didn't say 'early to bed and late to rise', this would be an indication of someone depressed rather than wise. How about, 'late to bed and early to rise'? This could indicate a person not rested, consumed in too many projects, thus resulting in making poor decisions. Hardly a wise person. Also his quote is sound because getting adequate sleep does indeed make a person healthy. At least it makes for a healthier person than one who never allows his body to fully recharge. As for the wealthy bit, I guess that remains to be seen. I'll let you know after I make my first million. I wonder if Trump is an 'early to bed, early to rise' person.

So rising early isn't something I'm opposed to. But note, it doesn't mean I need sunlight first thing in the morning. No, neither does it mean I need the sun to help wake me up. That's what my alarm clock is for. If I needed to employ the use of the sun in my time keeping, I'd own a sundial.  My main problem (or rant) is never having enough light in the evening. In the winter months, I end my secular days and it's already dark. When this phenomenon happens, I rarely have the ambition to work on projects once I get home. When DST ends, the feeling is intensified, thus my rant. This causes me to start squandering time. Why? Because it's hard to motivate myself when the evening dark makes my body want to be 'early to bed'. With this squandered time, who can truly feel they made the most out of life? Wait, why did that sound so familiar?

"...do not squander time; for that's the stuff life is made of." - Benjamin Franklin

Ahhh, that's why. Well played Benny.

I Didn't Have Time

R.a.n.t. of week 10/28/12

I think I've spent enough time in the past few weeks ranting about things I directly have control over. This time, however, I've decided to go on about something I have less control of. As a parent, there comes a time when you have to assign duties or chores to your children. These chores can involve washing the dishes, sweeping the floor, putting the thyme away I accidentally left on the kitchen counter, I think you get the idea. What I hear time and time again when I check to see if the duties are done is....... You guessed it, "I didn't have time". (Okay, I'm done throwing in a 'time' reference for each sentence, well after this one). What annoys me the most about this statement is how inaccurate it really is. What our kids really mean is, "I mismanaged my time". The other day my oldest used this line to explain why his chore wasn't done. It was a reason he gave the second after he paused a youtube video he was watching. I inquired about the video and his response was he "just sat down".

It almost makes me wonder what the inspiration is for all the film and TV shows about time travel. No one is really interested in seeing the past or future, they just want to sit and watch TV all day and still have time to go to work. I half expect when Doctor Who goes off the air, the final episode will be him returning home just as his wife gets back from the grocery store asking if he found time to clean the leaves out of the gutter. To which the Doctor will reply he "didn't have time".

Running Out Of Time

R.a.n.t. of week 08/08/04

Confession time! I've been putting this entry off for awhile. Not because I'm getting tired of writing, but because I keep running out of time. No, not that I NEVER have time. There have been instances when I have a few free moments but squander them on TV or some other worthless past-time. Then when it's too late, I suddenly remember. The most annoying thing in the world is running around like a chicken with its head cut off, doing chores. Then you suddenly have a quiet moment and forget (at least I do) the project you've been wanting to work on. The past few weeks I was working on a special project of helping design a web page for a friend. This past weekend was supposed to be the time I set aside to finally dig in and get started on it. Of course things came up, I got busy, the chicken crossed the road, and I forgot about the project. Looks like I've got my plans set for this weekend. Seriously, one of these days, I need to get a personal organizer. Oh wait! That's right, I do have one. Now if I can only find the time to read the instructions and figure out how to operate it. I think I'll set aside this weekend for that.
Reprinted 11/14/12





*PLEASE NOTE - I recently found old R.a.n.t. articles posted to a website I once owned. I've decided to reprint them in my current run. However, ironically enough, I'm not to fond of the writing so I've decided to edit the articles and repost them. For comparisons sake, I've decided to run the edited version as well as the original. In a way, it's kind of fun to see how my writing has changed in eight years.

Original R.a.n.t.

I know I"m late in getting this rant out, part of the reason is I just ran out of time and the other reason is I forgot when I had the time. Don't you hate when there is something important to do but you are running around like a chicken with your head cut off, and then when you get a moment to sit and relax you totally forget about the important thing you are supposed to be doing. I'm also supposed to be updating a website for someone at work and because of the busy weekend I have not found time to do that either. I really need to get an organizer. Oh wait, I have one, I just need to find the time to use it. Maybe when I get a free moment next.