daylight savings rant

Argh. There is no saving daylight, one can only move it around in relation to the time of day. And when that happens, I get cranky, everyone gets thrown off, people are late or early (depending on which time of year), and things get all messed up.

I do not like waking up at 7 a.m. in the dark, when I've been waking up to sunrise or brighter for the past month or so. It is now almost 7:30 and I am well-slept but groggy and bleary-eyed because the government likes to f*ck with its citizenry's circadian rhythms.

We are not farmers and no longer have an agriculturally based economy, or agro industries that even rely on work being accomplished during daylight hours. Plus according to wikipedia, DST doesn't actually result in saving energy and might actually cause us to use slightly more gas. Why do we do this?

(And no, I'm not planning on moving to Arizona or Saskatchewan just because they don't observe DST)

The Magdalene Sisters and Sex in a Cold Climate

Tuesday I was made of phlegm and menstrual cramps and could do nothing but curl up on my living room floor with herbal tea and a hot rice bag.

The one good thing that came of this was that I got to watch one of my netflix selections. This was one of those DVDs that netflix told me I'd like, but that I'd never heard of: The Magdalene Sisters.

It's a dramatization of the story of 4 women who were put in Magdalene Laundries in Ireland in the mid-20th Century. The Magdalene laundries were run by the Catholic church to help "fallen women" become penitent. It was originally designed to help prostitutes, but by the mid-20th Century they were primarily used to house (and get unpaid labor from) unwed mothers. The conditions were shocking, and the movie did a nice job of introducing us to a variety of deep characters. It's really not a happy pick-me-up film, but I enjoyed it.

The documentary, Sex in a Cold Climate, that comprises the bonus features section was even more interesting. (I think I'm on a documentary kick lately.) The interviews with women who had actually been through the Magdalene Laundries were so powerful. I highly recommend watching the film just for the documentary in the bonus features.