Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Bakers' Dozen, Bloggers' Double Dozen
Only 24 hours in the day? Not by my calculations.
Let's do a quick, back-of-the-envelope calculation to investigate the veracity of this common misconception in a completely unbiased and impartial manner.
As we all know, there are 8760 hours in the year, or approximately 8750 if we round down conservatively to the nearest 50. Those 8750 hours are divided into the number of weeks in the year which, if we also round down out of fairness, number approximately 50. A quick burst of long division shows that 8750 / 50 works out to, approximately, 175 hours in each and every week, give or take a few minutes. Of course there are 7 days in each of those weeks, which results in, if my arithmetic isn't off, approximately 25 hours per day instead of the much-hyped "only 24 hours in a day" figure.
This is fantastic news for sleep-deprived bloggers everywhere. While bakers have long been given a free pass to round their "dozen donut" count up to 13, we bloggers only now receive our own much-needed dispensation.
I've been doing a little experimentation with this figure lately, just to make sure it actually makes sense in the real world and is not just some theoretical oddity. And you know what? Despite a few technical glitches, it's going pretty well.
For the last few days, I've been attempting to live and blog according to my new 25 hour day, which as most bloggers can tell you is exactly what it takes anyway. The problem is that I haven't yet found anyone who is making a usable 25 hour alarm clock -- surely there must be someone in the world, but alas, I've been forced to improvise a solution.
So I just live off the 24 hour clock, and then add an hour. Simple, isn't it? I get up at the same time as usual, between 6 and 7 in the morning. But then, instead of going to bed at my customary 12 or 1 or 2 at nightwhen I feel too exhausted to blog anymore, that's when I add my 25th hour -- which I use to stay awake and blog an extra hour. That time is great for answering incoherent comments, or writing idiotic blog-fill posts that make no sense. Then, after my 25th hour is up, I go to sleep and get up again the next morning as usual. I can't say as I've felt that burst of extra energy yet, or any sort of second wind, but I am confident that good things are around the corner because I've been in the midst of hitting the wall for days now and good things always come once you break through that wall.
So feel free to post incoherent rambling comments, and I should have plenty of time to respond, once that bloggers' 25th hour rolls around again tonight. I hope I don't fall asleep and miss it.
Just in case I do, here are a few good posts you can read if you're awake a little extra tonight:
Check out this week's Haveil Havalim at Soccer Dad's, the blog carnival so great they had to post it twice: Part I and Part II. The esteemed non-American-football Dad also has another great post on Qana and oddities in ensuing reactions. It just goes to show that there's always something worth reading at Soccer Dad.
Do you know much about what it's really like to grow up in Saudi Arabia's educational system? Isaac Schrodinger can tell you about it, he lived it, brutal teachers, rigid dogma and all.
Daled Amos has an amazing series of questions about the building collapse in Qana. I don't know what the answers are, but, as usual when Israel stands accused, a little investigation might have been nice before the condemnations flew. Elder of Ziyon, Riehl World View and Confederate Yankee are on the case too.
If you haven't read about Jameel's adventures in the North yet, get over to the Muqata right now.
General Treppenwitz makes an astute military prediction.
I'm glad there are people like Captain Ed at Captain's Quarters who just get it and, more importantly, are so capable of sharing it with the rest of us.
Dr. Sanity tag teams with Shrink Wrapped to explain Hizballah's willingness to use human shields as part of the difference between shame-based cultures and guilt-based cultures. It explains more than that. Check those two out, regularly if you can.
Yael has found a fascinating speculation on the relative value of civilian casualties from Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey.
A reminder: if you're a blogger and you've written something truly great this week, why not submit it to the Watcher's Council for its weekly blog roundup and voting. The Watcher of Weasils makes a weekly offer that interested bloggers can follow a few guidelines and email him a link to their most sterling of posts in an email with the subject line "LINK WHORAGE" -- of course, if you'd prefer to be a little less crass you could probably get away with "BLOG PUBLICITY WHORAGE" instead. Details on the offer can be found here. Enter before midnight tonight, literally, depending on what timezone you live in -- this week's nominations close this evening.
Hmmm. Is that a double dozen yet? I don't think I can count anymore. Can you tell I'm a little tired? Seriously, I've got stuff in the pipeline. I'll have a good post of my own up soon. Really.
If you really, really liked this -- or even really, really hated it -- there's lots more:
Let's do a quick, back-of-the-envelope calculation to investigate the veracity of this common misconception in a completely unbiased and impartial manner.
As we all know, there are 8760 hours in the year, or approximately 8750 if we round down conservatively to the nearest 50. Those 8750 hours are divided into the number of weeks in the year which, if we also round down out of fairness, number approximately 50. A quick burst of long division shows that 8750 / 50 works out to, approximately, 175 hours in each and every week, give or take a few minutes. Of course there are 7 days in each of those weeks, which results in, if my arithmetic isn't off, approximately 25 hours per day instead of the much-hyped "only 24 hours in a day" figure.
This is fantastic news for sleep-deprived bloggers everywhere. While bakers have long been given a free pass to round their "dozen donut" count up to 13, we bloggers only now receive our own much-needed dispensation.
I've been doing a little experimentation with this figure lately, just to make sure it actually makes sense in the real world and is not just some theoretical oddity. And you know what? Despite a few technical glitches, it's going pretty well.
For the last few days, I've been attempting to live and blog according to my new 25 hour day, which as most bloggers can tell you is exactly what it takes anyway. The problem is that I haven't yet found anyone who is making a usable 25 hour alarm clock -- surely there must be someone in the world, but alas, I've been forced to improvise a solution.
So I just live off the 24 hour clock, and then add an hour. Simple, isn't it? I get up at the same time as usual, between 6 and 7 in the morning. But then, instead of going to bed at my customary 12 or 1 or 2 at nightwhen I feel too exhausted to blog anymore, that's when I add my 25th hour -- which I use to stay awake and blog an extra hour. That time is great for answering incoherent comments, or writing idiotic blog-fill posts that make no sense. Then, after my 25th hour is up, I go to sleep and get up again the next morning as usual. I can't say as I've felt that burst of extra energy yet, or any sort of second wind, but I am confident that good things are around the corner because I've been in the midst of hitting the wall for days now and good things always come once you break through that wall.
So feel free to post incoherent rambling comments, and I should have plenty of time to respond, once that bloggers' 25th hour rolls around again tonight. I hope I don't fall asleep and miss it.
Just in case I do, here are a few good posts you can read if you're awake a little extra tonight:
Check out this week's Haveil Havalim at Soccer Dad's, the blog carnival so great they had to post it twice: Part I and Part II. The esteemed non-American-football Dad also has another great post on Qana and oddities in ensuing reactions. It just goes to show that there's always something worth reading at Soccer Dad.
Do you know much about what it's really like to grow up in Saudi Arabia's educational system? Isaac Schrodinger can tell you about it, he lived it, brutal teachers, rigid dogma and all.
Daled Amos has an amazing series of questions about the building collapse in Qana. I don't know what the answers are, but, as usual when Israel stands accused, a little investigation might have been nice before the condemnations flew. Elder of Ziyon, Riehl World View and Confederate Yankee are on the case too.
If you haven't read about Jameel's adventures in the North yet, get over to the Muqata right now.
General Treppenwitz makes an astute military prediction.
I'm glad there are people like Captain Ed at Captain's Quarters who just get it and, more importantly, are so capable of sharing it with the rest of us.
Dr. Sanity tag teams with Shrink Wrapped to explain Hizballah's willingness to use human shields as part of the difference between shame-based cultures and guilt-based cultures. It explains more than that. Check those two out, regularly if you can.
Yael has found a fascinating speculation on the relative value of civilian casualties from Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey.
A reminder: if you're a blogger and you've written something truly great this week, why not submit it to the Watcher's Council for its weekly blog roundup and voting. The Watcher of Weasils makes a weekly offer that interested bloggers can follow a few guidelines and email him a link to their most sterling of posts in an email with the subject line "LINK WHORAGE" -- of course, if you'd prefer to be a little less crass you could probably get away with "BLOG PUBLICITY WHORAGE" instead. Details on the offer can be found here. Enter before midnight tonight, literally, depending on what timezone you live in -- this week's nominations close this evening.
Hmmm. Is that a double dozen yet? I don't think I can count anymore. Can you tell I'm a little tired? Seriously, I've got stuff in the pipeline. I'll have a good post of my own up soon. Really.
