time perception
i have a 4-camera, motion-activated, digital video surveillance system from my old recording studio (bought after a burglary). spent months researching the subject and designing a robust structure to allow video capture in darkness, and recovery of the data even if the computer were destroyed/stolen.
because of some housemate problems last year, i installed the system in my room, and it runs continually. here‘s an interesting sequence (degraded intentionally) of a housemate snooping while i was out.
yesterday, i gathered my shower stuff, went to the bathroom, took a refreshing constitutional (i.e., #2), then showered. this, to me, seems like it takes ages. routine tasks drive me crazy — one reason i never had a conventional job after my teens. for some reason, yesterday i decided to check my exit and return times with the video, curious how long a constitutional and shower took me. i figured it was almost 20 minutes, considering i hadn’t rushed or anything. well, freaked me out when it was only 10, from exit to return.
i know, this isn’t earthshaker stuff on the surface, but think about the possibilities of being able to adjust, or at least expose internally, our time perception. if i’m programming or writing, time goes like a flash. i can and have sat programming at a computer many times for over 24 hours straight, with only quick breaks for meals, snacks, and bathroom. when i wrote and recorded hack music for a living, i would sometimes do binges of 36+ hours to meet deadlines. (if you ever have trouble being “creative”, just have somebody put a gun to your head. you’ll get creative RFN.)
the time normally goes quickly. but when i have to do something normal, it seems painfully slow. clipping nails is another one. shaving? forget it.
perhaps this isn’t a time perception thing, but a lack of appreciation for the beauty of executing a common task well. sometimes i’ve pulled out a nice, old-fashioned shaving kit i got for christmas a few years ago, and shaving is, under the right circumstances, kinda fun. but that’s even stranger to me, since i’m taking a task i hate and intentionally making it far longer! LOL
but that’s not too different from my programming standard for personal computer stuff. stated very roughly, it’s that generally i will happily and intentionally spend time writing and testing a program for a task instead of doing it manually in half the time. it was that preference that got me a career in computers to start with, since music was my profession, not computers. i found that in figuring out my business accounting to take less time when time was critical, i was becoming a database geek. heh heh. i’m one of the few people who preferred a computer career to a moderately successful, utilitarian music one. i learned a lot about humans in that transition too. it was in my first square job that i noticed the insidious socialism creeping through most businesses.
okay, enough yapping. that gets into a subject i want to write about one day — the often ignored similarities between business and government. of course, in addition to the immediate voluntary aspect, what makes business better, despite the many fuckups, is that it can be put out of business. so many people don’t get this beauty. they think that voting is the equivalent of firing a business.