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   es0mhi (es0mhi@tilde.zone)'s status on Sunday, 14-Dec-2025 20:39:55 JST es0mhi

   Occasionally, I ask my students what their favorite phone app is. By favorite, I mean the app they use the most. The answers are not what you would expect—if there is anything to be expected.

   But what about me? It would be an exaggeration to call it my most-used app, but it's one I use frequently and can't do without. It shows the sun times: sunrise, sunset, hours of usable light, solstices, etc. It's terrible that I often have to plan my days according to how much sunlight is left. But that's due to the latitude at which I live. It's horrible; I hate it.

   The winter solstice is only some seven days and three hours away. Then we'll be on the other side. But why does the period from September to December always feel so much shorter than the period from January to May?

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     simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Monday, 15-Dec-2025 00:55:05 JST simsa03

     in reply to
     I can understand that you hate being aligned with natural cycles, esp. when at times workload makes you hurry and busy. But on the other hand I think it's very nice that you're so close to natural rhythms – even when it involves or makes use of electronic devices. Which reminds me of older debates we had in my youth and early adulthood on what constitutes the more authentical experience of nature, unfiltered and unmitigated, solely by the senses and the body, or by the use of technical means? (We indeed had such discussions in the early 1980s, and a bit later, when even thoughts of abandonment of technolgy for ecological reasons sounded viable and reasonable.) But your attunement also shows in your question. To me it's pretty obvious that the period from autumn to winter feels shorter than the one from winter to spring because of the shorter amount of daylight per day from autumn equinox to winter solistice and longer amount of daylight from winter solictice to spring equinox. And it also sounds like you're not a night owl who indulges in late night activities. So, yes, the days feel shorter because there are fewer hours of daylight, compared to days feeling longer because there are more hourse of daylight. To me, autumn and winter is the best time of the year, perhaps because I was born in November, and the "Raunächte" (the 12 nights between December 25 to January 6) being the most wonderful days of the year in which I live in a dream-like state between the old and the new year. And the time of the year I most dislike is early summer to late summer. Too much light, too many colours, to much heat... So that may be a further reason of your feeling uncomfortable: Perhaps it has something to do with your date of birth. If it is, e.g., around early summer, then it sems obvious, to me at least, that as a newborn you must have been delighted to bath in light and colours and warmth. But that is only a suggestion.
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     es0mhi (es0mhi@tilde.zone)'s status on Monday, 15-Dec-2025 05:48:29 JST es0mhi

     in reply to

     • simsa03
     • simsa02

     @simsa03
     @simsa02

     You make some wonderful points in your response. Some are spot-on, while others miss the mark entirely.

     Essentially, when it comes to the contrast between nature and culture, I always side with culture. However, my chosen lifestyle — which means I spend most time in the countryside— forces me to adapt to the cycles of nature more than I would like. Over time, I have come to terms with this. Perhaps I have already gotten used to it. In some ways, I can even see advantages to it.

     I am definitely a night owl, though; I rarely go to sleep before three in the morning. This is part of the problem. When the sun doesn't rise before 8 a.m., as it currently does, there are only eight hours of daylight to get urgent tasks done outside. I would actually have to go to bed earlier. "Being aligned with natural cycles" sounds like a nice romantic idea, but I often feel compelled by it.

     However, you were right about the other thing: I love summer and prefer it to all the other seasons. In fact, I could do without these altogether. Winter is just a long wait for summer. I do my best to escape it in my dreams whenever possible. I only realized how much I love summer after traveling to the Mediterranean, especially Greece. As a child, I don't remember being particularly enthusiastic about summer, hot weather and plenty of light. (My wife finds it downright "unheimlich" how positively the Mediterranean climate affects my mood and energy levels.)

     I was born in May. I'm quite skeptical of your assumption that this inclination has to do with the date of birth, although it does sound reasonable.

     So far, the winter here has been extremely mild — I can live with that. But lots of frost and snow flurries for you.

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     simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Monday, 15-Dec-2025 06:22:33 JST simsa03

     in reply to
     Well, thank you for the good wishes regarding frost and snow flurries. In fact, I love the frost, even snow flurries, but give me British rainy weather, cold, cats and mouses pouring, fog, mist, etc., and I blossom. Perhaps it's in part not by birthday but lineages of ancestry some of which stem from North Norway (Tromsø), others from Kalinigrad. Anyway, give me puddles and mud, and I live; hand me dry weather with temperatures above 25° C, and I get depressed and want to stay indoors until late autumn.
     
     I can see how you combine being a night owl with lamenting about short days as their constraints run counter to your preferred lifestyle. (Me as a 3 AM-er as well, I don't have such quarrels as I can often start work late in the morning.) And with regard to the time of birthday, I have been noticing in freinds and relatives some seeming correlation of birthday and preferred time of the years as well as the weather. But perhaps I have just been lucky.
     
     Cheers to you, and many cups of strong coffee to get you started at unbearable times.