What time is it?

Next weekend is the start of Daylight Saving Time. I have expressed my feeling towards this bi-annual waste of time before...pretty much every time we need to adjust our clocks. As a guy who loves watches, I have to adjust each one of my many watches. Already, I have to deal with months shorter than 31 days, and turn that little dial just to keep up. I also have a watch that keeps track of leap years, and never needs batteries...yet I have to deal with "spring forward, fall back".

The theory is that changing the clocks results in saving energy and more day light. Uh, day light does not care what time it is. The earth is rotating on its axis and around the sun whether we like it or not. Adjusting the clocks is not going to have any effect on this. You are going to have to talk the sun and earth if you have a problem with the amount of daylight. I do not think they are budging.

Energy is another argument. I argue that the amount of energy of people changing their clocks and watches twice a year and the energy saved is a wash. What about the time (and money) lost in the work place from people that forget to change their clocks...phone lines being clogged with friends and family reminding others to set their clocks? Heck, I am wasting valuable Wii time writing this and you are wasting time reading this.

Granted that most of the industrial countries participate in this 'trend', less than half the world reset their clocks bi-annually. Some places like Arizona and Saskatchewan do not do this, they are way ahead of their time. Oh, and not everyone starts the change on the same day, there is no global date for this 'energy saving event'. Just like how we cannot agree on Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, Coke or Pepsi, metric or standard.

Speaking of standard (yeah, I kinda forced that last sentence to make an argument), they call regular time "standard time". Note that "standard time" is from late October to mid March, that is about five months. Seems to me that daylight saving time is more of the standard than the so-called "standard time".

Which leads to my billion dollar idea...NO MORE SETTING CLOCKS!!! Here is the proposal, and I have options for the stubborn.

1) Stick to one "standard time", I vote for summer time, since it is used seven out of the tweleve months.

2) Meet half way, set the clocks 30 minutes ahead of "standard time".

There you have it, spread the word and stop wasting your time!