Tag Archives: time

Distances by time

So TikTok has taught me something about travel in Canada. Apparently we are one of the only places in the world that describe distance using time. How far is Nelson BC from the Vancouver Lower Mainland? About 8 hours. Kelowna? 4 hours. Coquitlam to downtown? 40 minutes unless it’s rush hour, then it’s over an hour. My commute to work? 6-8 minutes depending on my timing through one annoying traffic light.

This will change. Many more countries will follow our lead. Not because Canada will have some kind of significant influence, but because of Google and Waze. As more and more people plug their destinations into GPS, they will start to think more like we do. They will come around to how much more sense this makes rather than discussing distances according to kilometres or miles.

We are just ahead of our time. 🤣

Meh

It’s 10:30pm and I feel like I’ve wasted most of the day. I did help my wife with some garage clean-up but we didn’t spend that long on it. I did have a wonderful dinner with my daughter, but then I came home and fell asleep on the couch. I started writing this and realized that I forgot to hit publish on yesterday’s post. I back dated it, hit ‘Publish’, and now I’m writing this before doing a meditation and a guilt-ridden workout, having not worked out yesterday.

This is the challenge of not having a routine. This is what scares me about the idea of retirement. I often need a schedule to be and feel productive. I can waste away time like it’s nothing and end up feeling like a day has completely escaped me. I didn’t even listen to much of my audiobook that I’m thoroughly enjoying. I didn’t take time to do archery, which I just mentioned enjoying yesterday (although I only published it tonight).

This is not me at my best. I’ve got to be present rather than simply let the present become the past without even realizing it. I’ve got to get active early in the day and set a personal goal or two to accomplish. It can be as simple as listening to my book, or writing this before 10:30pm… it’s not about needing to do anything great, it’s just about make moments of ‘meh’ into moments I value and appreciate. It’s interesting that my only two mentionable moments from today were with my family and my meh moments where when I was alone. I usually enjoy times of solitude, but now it’s obvious to me that I have to be more present and focused about how I spend my alone time, rather than wasting it away.

Beyond space and time

Part 1 – Time travel

When people imagine time travel, they often don’t realize that they are also talking about space travel as well.

How Fast Is the Earth Rotating on Its Axis?

The Earth rotates on its axis once each day. Because the circumference of the Earth at the equator is 24,901.55 miles, a spot on the equator rotates at approximately 1,037.5646 miles per hour (1,037.5646 times 24 equals 24,901.55), or 1,669.8 km/h.

At the North Pole (90 degrees north) and South Pole (90 degrees south), the speed is effectively zero because that spot rotates once in 24 hours, at a very, very slow speed. (Source)

In addition to this rotation, the earth is hurling around the sun at 30km (19 miles) per second! And, our sun isn’t stationary in the galaxy, it travels 792,000 km (483,000 miles) per hour (and still takes 230 million years to complete a rotation).

These numbers are mind boggling. Now, going back to the idea of a time machine, if I was able to go back in time to only 5 years ago, the earth that existed back then was millions of kilometres away from where the earth is now. I’d have to travel through time and space.

Part 2 – The light of the stars

When we look at the stars, we only see their history. The closest star, our sun, is not where we see it, it is where the sun was 8 minutes ago, because that’s how long it took the light to reach us. For stars that are light years away, they could already have gone super nova, and wiped out their solar system, and generations later our ancestors will still see that star, not knowing it no longer exists. We are literally looking back in time when we look out into space.

Part 3 – the edge of the universe

A concept I can’t wrap my head around is what’s beyond the edge of the universe? And if you have an answer for me, what’s beyond that? This to me is the definition of infinite… the idea that no matter how far away something is, there has to be something still farther away.

If you had a string that was infinitely long and you cut it in half, you’d have two strings that are infinitely long. Think about that for a while… then try to forget it. 😜

Why should we believe that our universe is the only universe? Could there be multiple universes in the empty void beyond our own? Could our entire universe be an atom in a massive other universe? What secrets do the edge of our universe hold? We will never know because it takes too much time for the light way out there to reach us.

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These are 3 ideas about space and time that peak my curiosity and make me marvel at life, the universe, and everything… while we hurl through space on an insignificant rock around an insignificant sun, in an insignificant galaxy… thinking thoughts that significantly challenge my intellectual understanding.

Fast days

Yesterday went by ridiculously fast. I said to my secretaries at 10:20am, “I need a time machine to go back an hour and get all the things done that I thought I’d get done by now.” One of them said, “I think there’s a song about that, 🎵’If I could turn back time’🎶”.

Some days are like that, they zip by and even when you are working diligently, time escape you. After lunch was the same, except more interrupted. The interruptions and the follow up on them are expected in a job like mine. Other people’s priorities can become mine… I’m there to support my staff and students. But some days, like yesterday, happen so quickly that they seem to race by as if someone pressed and held the fast forward button.

I came home and after dinner I did a couple things I had planned to do in the morning. One job was about 5 minutes, the other about 30. Neither were very hard. Neither could get done during the day. The scary thing is that every June gets like this… but it’s not June yet and I’m already feeling the year-end crunch.

I might not be able to turn back time, but I wouldn’t mind if it slowing down just a bit!

Longer days

Last night it was still bright out at 8pm. This morning I could see the blue light of the morning, rather than complete darkness, at 5:15am. This is such a welcome shift from the winter gloom that darkens the skies at 4:30pm and doesn’t brighten them again until after 7am. It might still be spring but the feeling of summer is here.

I enjoy waking up to a room lit by natural light. It feels so much more effortless to begin my day. I find myself more eager to get the day started, and find that my eyes widen to take in the light in a way that darkness doesn’t invite.

It’s hard to believe it is almost the end of April. I feel like the year has simultaneously been long and drawn out, while it has also disappeared in the blink of an eye. It has felt long with restrictions being something always on my mind, both at work and in my personal life. Meanwhile, every year seems to go faster, and time slips by without the realization that the days and months are gone.

As the days get longer, I’m left wondering how the years seem shorter? Perhaps it’s because to a 10 year old, 5 years is half a lifetime, and to a 53 year old 5 years isn’t even a 10th of my life. Does time go by faster simply because relative to my age, any significant unit of time represents less of my total life?

Whether that’s the case or not, I’m reminded to value the time I’ve got. To cherish the family and friends I have, and to seize the enjoy the moments that make up my day… starting with the appreciation of natural light helping me to start my day, and reminding me that summer will be here in no time at all.

Reconnecting with friends

Yesterday I was listening to a podcast and there was a poem on Friendship by David Whyte. I shared a minute of it on Twitter and a few other places.

I think that the absolute hardest part of the pandemic has been the challenge of not seeing friends and family. Yes, we can connect digitally, but I miss those face-to-face connections. However, if I’m honest, I am missing an opportunity that I didn’t take full advantage of before the pandemic. I didn’t take enough time to see friends even before restrictions were in place.

Life gets so busy and we all get caught up in our own worlds. This is a lame but honest excuse. We spend our days without filling it with the company we enjoy. We get caught up in routines and recycle our days rather than plan them. I hope to be more intentional when things open up.

I have a buddy that I see and don’t see in waves. Sometimes we get into a rut where we see each other and just sit and chat about life and the awesome history we have together. Sometimes we get bored with that and plan experiences because we want to make new memories rather than rehash the old. Right now, I’d like nothing better than to sit and have a beverage with him and just be in his presence.

Connecting for the sake of connecting… that’s what I’m looking forward to. Hugs, clinking glasses, and sharing time in the presence of friends.

Stealing attention

Yesterday I received 3 spam phone calls. I also deleted a number of emails that were basically advertising products and services. Daily we are bombarded with unsolicited requests for our time and attention. Sometimes I take the time to block phone numbers and mark items in my email as junk and block the sender. Other times I just move on.

I wonder about the people behind these messages, especially the malicious ones designed to fool someone into giving up money in some form of scam. How do they rationalize their behaviour? What motivates them?

I can’t imagine waking up in the morning hoping to swindle someone as part of a successful day. I similarly wonder about jobs like paparazzi and gossip writers. And people who troll others on social media.

Our attention is limited, and there are people who spend their time trying to steal this resource (and other resources) from us. As much as we try to avoid it, it’s there. Sometimes it’s easy to skip, other times or I find these interruptions take too much energy.

If you want to be entertained, watch videos with a search like, “wasting scammer time”. It is entertaining to watch, and while somewhat vindictive, it feels like a worthy endeavour… not one I would do, but one I appreciate. I like to know that there are people out there making the effort to slow down and frustrate people who are malicious; people who are time and attention thieves. They deserve their attention being stolen too!

Rewind

A year ago we were heading towards the March break and, at the end of February, had no idea that we would return from the break doing remote learning. I was recovering from breaking my kneecap, and not mentioning Covid-19 or physical distancing yet here on my Daily-Ink. That changed in March.

What a year it has been! Part of me wants to call it a rollercoaster ride, part of me wants to call it a long straight drive on a deserted road through the prairies. No matter how you look at this past year, it is nothing any of us expected a year ago.

Rewind to the end of February 2011, I was a principal in China, and found out I’d be coming back to BC to be vice principal of the adult learning centre. This would lead me to my current position both with Coquitlam Open Learning and co-founding Inquiry Hub.

Rewind to February 2001 and my wife and I had a 1 year old who completely changed our lives. February 2002 our second was born.

Rewind to 1991 and I had not graduated on time from university and went to a different university to finish my degree, choosing this school so that I could play varsity water polo. This brought me back home and I ended up lifeguarding and coaching at a high school. I wouldn’t be a teacher today if I hadn’t made this move and got experience working with and coaching students.

How will I look at February 2021 a decade from now? Will it be a blur in the covid years, or will it be stepping out into a post-covid frontier? Maybe that’s going to be February 2022… I think we will have to keep driving the long prairie road for a while, and look forward to slow and gradual changes in the coming year.

Thinking time and space

The last few weeks have been busy. That is a statement I could probably say at any given point in the school year, but specifically I’ve been task busy recently. What I mean is that my day disappears with me doing what I need to do and not at all what I want to do. I haven’t had much thinking time.

So at the end of last week I started a drawing on my office whiteboard. It a hero’s journey metaphor for our school. I’m not ready to share the drawing yet, ideas are still being put together. But I can share a couple parts I’ve already written about:

Teacher as Compass

And,

Learning and Failure

I’ve probably only spent about an hour and a half over 4 days on this, not too much time… But this time has allowed me to think… It has given my brain permission to go beyond the tasks at hand… It has excited me about the journey ahead.

It’s easy to get caught in the hamster wheel, racing to nowhere, but getting there quickly. It takes intentional effort to step off the wheel and to pause long enough to think, to be creative. My whiteboard has become that space.

Yesterday after lunch, I was working on a section of the board where my secretary could see me making notes and she said, “You are having so much fun on that board.” For about 15-20 minutes I was! I’ve created some thinking time and space in my day. It’s not only time well spent, it’s time that charges my batteries and help me see value in all the other things I must do. It reminds my of why everything else matters, because our personal journey matters… if we make time for it.

Commuting time

My wife and I live in the same school district we work for. That wasn’t the case when we first got married. We commuted for 45 minutes each way, and sometimes it took longer going home. Traffic was a factor that we had no control over. Now, my wife’s commute is 20 minutes and mine is 7 minutes.

Our biggest unknown is the light at the end of our street that can take over two minutes to change early in the morning. For me, that’s one of just three street lights I need to go through. While the pandemic has changed the need to commute for many, I’ve been required to go to work every work day in 2020 and to start this year. So for me the short commute remains a significant bonus. And with the lack of driving anywhere else beyond the grocery store, I’ve been filling up my family van about once every three to four weeks.

While my commute is short, there are people now working from home that used to have very long commutes. I wonder how they have used this extra time given to them? Is there something people have intentionally done with that time?

If you have been ‘given back’ the time you used to spend commuting, what are you doing with it? I’m not judging. The reality is that my short commute can be a curse sometimes. I can get lost in my work after school and stay later, because it’s only 7 minutes to get home. I’m not always taking advantage of the short commute in a positive way. But I want to hear about how some people have added value to their lives thanks to a shorter commute.

For me, since moving to my current home in 1999, (minus the the 2 years I lived in China), I’ve spent 19 years with a short commute. My furthest job out of 5 school locations was a 15 minute drive away, and that was only for a year and a half. One of my jobs was 5 minutes away, with a single street light to cross, another was 6 minutes away and involved no crossing of streetlights unless I dropped my kids to daycare. So, I’ve been blessed with an insignificant commute for a long time. And so I’m genuinely interested, if you had a long commute, and the pandemic has eliminated it, what are you doing with your extra time?