Have you ever felt like there is just not enough time in the day? With the addition of Dylan to our lives, it has become difficult to find enough time for work. And free time? Forget it. I keep trying to figure out how to squeeze more time out of the 24-hour day. Like Nigel's amplifier knobs that go to eleven in This is Spinal Tap, I need something more. A few extra hours would really make all the difference.

One idea is a clock with extra hours:

A clock like this is amazing: it gives you two extra hours a day, and all you have to do is shave off five minutes from every hour. Would we really miss them? If I am teaching a class, will the students really notice or care? They would probably love to leave a few minutes early, but give them an inch, and they will take a mile. Soon, we will slide down that slippery slope of wanting even more hours, until our days consist of micro hours smaller than seconds, time becoming a proverbial Phoenix needing to be reborn.

Many college courses only last for 50 minutes (with a few minutes to get to the next class or smoke a cancer stick), and really, normal hours seem a little long anyway. So let's corral all those extra minutes into a couple of extra hours. I know what you are thinking: 13 is a very unlucky number for half a day. Also, dividing a day up evenly becomes very difficult. But you cannot have a better world without sacrifice! Two extra hours might make all the difference.

I have always been fascinated with time, especially flexible, melting time, like in The 1931 painting Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali.:

Influenced by this painting, I even wrote a movement of a Wind Quintet entitled Melting Clocks. Each instrument plays a pulse at a different rate, and I represent little baby clocks and grandfather clocks ticking their respective tocks, all at different speeds.

Perhaps other people are fascinated with this idea, so much so that you can purchase a real melting clock:

Maybe I am living on the wrong planet. Many planets have longer days. On Mercury, apparently, ca. 1,407 earth hours equal one day. If there were ever aliens on Mercury, did they all die from sleep deprivation? That seems like overkill. I would be happy just to have an extra hour or two.

Or, maybe I am a member of the wrong species. Although I would not want to be a cat or dog, a tortise might be cool, except that they move so slowly. Maybe that is why they are blessed with extra years.

Ultimately, the best idea might be to just embrace longevity through healthy living. I recently read Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough To Live Forever by Ray Kurzweil. I was curious about this book since Kurzweil made synthesizers a long time ago (he then sold the company), and they rocked. He is a true modern Renaissance man.

Finally, maybe we all just need more of ourselves, as I have mentioned before, like in Multiplicity or Being John Malkovich.

Or, maybe the ultimate way to have more time is to not waste it.

Nuff said...