WHY IS MY CLOCK WRONG

so i woke up today at 10:30am and said to myself, wow i am a lazy ass. i did nothing yesterday, yet i woke up today exhausted and already kind of annoyed. i would blame it on the gray weather but that would be conceding to a psychological weakness, and i am not weak in any area of life.

but when i got to my computer, the clock definitely said 9:30. did i add an hour to the clock while i was sleeping? have i been waking up an hour early for several weeks and not just not noticing it? all of these were possibilities. that is, until i went on fb and someone mentioned daylight savings. and it got me thinking.

maybe this "fall back" thing will help me out of my so-called weather-induced depression. after all, (a) i get an extra hour of sleep and (b) it is nice and sunny by the time i wake up. or here's another theory. maybe, like bears, humans need to go in something of a hibernation. mmm no. this is already a stupid theory because tons of people live in places where there are no seasons.

but to suspend logic and reason for a moment, let's say humans need to go into something of a hibernation. in places with four seasons, winter comes and slows life down. it enforces a certain rhythm on ppl's lives. there's a time and season for everything, says the bible and the byrds. what if you live in a place where, say, there is no snow. maybe a little rain, but you can still walk around in a tshirt and go about your life in a regular fashion. there's no rhythm to your life - it's just a constant pace 365 days a year. that makes life boring, repetitive and depressing. it's like eating your favorite food every day. it's great for a while but then you just crave all that crappy food like wendy's and chocolate bars and stuff. when you get a freezing winter forced on you, life slows down and you go inside with ur friends and family. and when the spring comes, there's euphoria like none other - outdoor football comes to mind. man that is awesome.

also, living in a city with four seasons also makes everyone go through some bothersome experiences, like scraping ice off your car, shoveling snow and walking through freezing weather. i guess nobody really likes those things, but doesn't the saying go, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger? i mean there must be some kind of truth in that. so multiply that tiny growth in character across millions of people that reside in a snowy city, and you've got a significant increase in high-quality people when you compare it to a place with blue skies and no worries.

aside - goddamn that damned phrased, "no worries." i dunno it just rubs me the wrong way. like if someone says thanks, and you say no worries, it's like.... yeah, it's no problem because i'm such a chill dude, and i don't really mind doing whatever it is you asked me to do. when i was in argentina and in a restaurant or something, if i said "thank you" to the waiter he would say "oh, please no, no." not like, "no it's nothing, don't worry about it." it's like, "no, no you don't need to thank me, it was my pleasure."

and here's the annoying thing about no winter. when people don't have anything to complain about, they conjure up some trivial cause to rally behind because... well, people are inevitable complainers. consider prop 2, here in california. it's something about how chickens and pigs should have some leg room in their cages. without reading up anything about it, i thought to myself - this is so stupid. of all the problems in the world, there's a group of people that would get this measure on the ballot? really? to defend the rights of chickens and pigs?

another aside: prop 2 is stupid on other levels. by forcing california farmers to pimp out their animals' houses, they'll be incurring a 20% increase in production costs. it's a fixed cost, so once they replace all their cages, they'll be back to operating normally - but they estimate 5 years for a complete overhaul. so in that time, people will buy cheaper, out-of-state eggs and pork, where they don't have these high cost standards. and when people walk into safeway, they don't really care to know where their eggs come from. they just buy the cheapest eggs. so for 5 years, california poultry farmers will get no profit, except from the 20 people that support prop 2 and are not vegetarians. these farmers will probably just move to some other product, and californians will be supporting out-of-state farmers with their cramped cages and in... inhumane? inanimal? conditions.

back to the original point. people rally behind these pointless or misinformed causes because there's nothing else to complain about. i think the word i'm looking for here is perspective. it's hard for people to have a realistic perspective of what's important and what you actually need when there are no pressing needs in your life. the only people that i can have normal conversations with are the ones that aren't from california. we talk about anything and everything, and the value of our conversation isn't in the words but the conversation. so it's not a matter of being offensive or saying something that's not politically correct. if i mention a negative opinion about someone to a californian, they give me this incredulous look because, isn't life supposed to be about warm fuzzy love? can't we unite under the cause to save our precious mother earth or fight for gay rights? no, and i don't like people who think we can.

well maybe it's because i've never been much a joiner to begin with. i'm much more interested in just being normal and interacting with normal folk. and when i say normal, i guess i'll invoke steinbeck when he describes america - complicated, paradoxical, bullheaded, shy, cruel, boisterous, unspeakably dear, and very beautiful. it's normal to be ugly and beautiful, to be full of insecurities and strengths. californians have reduced themselves to causes and niceties, and have foregone their beautiful complexity.

p.s. please do not comment saying i sound angry. i know that!

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anyway i made a new depressing mix:

We All, Us Three Will Ride - Palace Music
Ohio - Damien Jurado
Orphan Girl - Gillian Welch
Even While You're Sleeping - The Acorn
Albina - Horse Feathers
The Way I Am - Bonnie "Prince" Billy
Insomnia Song - Pajo
Last Rights - Damien Jurado
Bad Dream/Hartford's Beat Suite - Magik Markers