November 30, 2024

I created a new tag this morning and I noticed an old tag that I can never use anymore.

The new tag: Frugality. This morning's post about the "stingy challenge" in Chinese social media pushed me over the line. I went back into the archive and found 10 old posts that deserved the "frugality" tag — Remember the FIRE movement? Voluntary houselessness? "Financial Secrets of the Amish"? Remember when Scott Walker branded himself with Kohl's? Do you care about Sir Jeffery Amherst? Is Mr. Money Mustache still around? Remember me seeing "potential for resurrecting the old division-of-labor model in which one spouse earns a good income and the other contributes in kind, unpaid, saving many expenses and keeping the couple's tax-bracket low"? Want to know how frugality links the "Xi jacket" to the "Mao suit"? How Salon tried to make us hate Trump for his cheapness? It's all there, under the "frugality" tag.

The old tag: "Written strangely early in the morning." There's no earliness in the morning that can be strange anymore. I used to think it strange to put up the first post in the 4-o'clock hour, but now, it would only be strange if I put up the first post before midnight, and that wouldn't be "morning" yet — no "a.m." The last post in this once-important tag was January 23, 2022 — "Why Ayn Rand is trending on Twitter under the heading 'Sports.'" — published at 3:10 a.m. Yes, that seemed notably early, 3 years ago. But now, when I wake up, feeling refreshed after what seems like a long sleep, and I look at the iPhone hoping it's not too early — which wouldn't be strange at all — I'm pleased if I see it's at least 3 a.m. Yesterday, when I looked — ready to leap out of bed — it was only 12:35 a.m. There are so many old posts with that tag! Here's the first one, in my first year of blogging, 2004: "Did you see that the first post today has a 4:33 a.m. timestamp? And yesterday's was 5:02? My two-hour 8 a.m. class has completely transformed my biorhythms, apparently. I was already a morning person, but this is a bit eerie. At least the NYT is already here at that hour...." That was 20 years ago, back when "the NYT" referred to a folded paper concoction stuffed in a blue plastic bag.

39 comments:

mikee said...

May all your mornings be the beginning of a new day, and not the regret of days past.

rhhardin said...

We don't use a.m. and p.m. anymore. It's BCE and CE, eliminating the Sun basis.

Kay said...

One of my favorite uses of this blog is exploring what was posted before through whatever the interesting tag of the day might be.

Temujin said...

I have a similar thing waking up at 3-3:30 am and feeling awake and ready to get to things. If I make it to 5:30 it's a Major Sleep Event. The worst is when I've been in bed for just an hour or two, then wake up at 12:30 or so feeling awake, ready to go. Then realizing how early it is and wondering how I'll make it to 5 or 6.

Old person syndrome is no bullshit. Once upon a time I worked in the restaurant biz- for years. We used to work late, then play until dawn. But I'd sleep all day. Now I fall asleep in early evening, wake up in the middle of the night and wonder how people sleep at all.

rhhardin said...

Just get up, take the dog out, have a coffee, cruise the internet, and in an hour you're ready to go back to sleep. It's a treat for the dog.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

For the past week I've been wearing a shirt that still has the tag on it because maybe I want to return it to Amazon.

Kate said...

I always get up around midnight for an hour or so, then go back to bed. It's fabulous. It makes old person syndrome a blessing. Also, it keeps my back from locking up because I slept in the same position for too long.

J L Oliver said...

Old tag, new tag. Red tag, blue tag.

Jaq said...

You mean the "Son bias"

Jaq said...

I sometimes wake up at 4 and lament the days that I used to resent my elderly neighbor, who at four AM would be having coffee and talking to his friend on his porch, and I didn't realize that he was living his best life.

wild chicken said...

I can remember Ann's "two sleeps" thing. Whatever happened to that?

RCOCEAN II said...

Oh for the days of youth, when getting up before 8 AM was considered a hardship of unspeakable proportions.

Quaestor said...

"Remember when Scott Walker branded himself with Kohl's?"

It would have been more memorable if the former Governor had used red-hot iron...

mezzrow said...

This trend is present at my location, as well. If it's after 4, I just get up and get the coffee pot going. In my youth, circumstances forced me to adhere to milkman's hours, and this reprise feels inevitable. Watching the sunrise is the best part of most days - available about a ten minute walk away. I let others take the pictures.

A bit over fifty years ago, I got to run a milk route along the beachfront one summer. Getting that sunrise each workday was its own reward. Getting a fresh set of posts by 6AM is another. Hat tip to you and John Ellis.

Quaestor said...

"I can remember Ann's 'two sleeps' thing. Whatever happened to that?"

I recently watched a YouTube video featuring a Medievalist reflecting on the sleep habits of the Middle Ages. According to the scholar, two sleeps were the norm during the Middle Ages. I knew about the nighttime routines of monks and nuns -- short sleeps alternating with prayers -- but the notion of hard-toiling peasants and serfs breaking their their nights into two or more sleeps interspersed with necessary labor struck me as odd behavior

Ann Althouse said...

The 2 sleeps idea is good for understanding what's happening to you, but it hasn't made me want to use the intersleep time in any interesting way. I don't think reading on line is a good way to use that time. Do you get out of bed or not? You really shouldn't wake anyone else up, I don't think. I don't think turning on the television is a good idea — watching a movie or something. You can get into your sleeping position and listen to an audiobook and just see if you fall back to sleep. That's what I do if I wake up at, say, midnight. If it's at least 3, I get up, and not for an intersleep interlude. I just get up and act the same as I would if I'd stayed asleep until 5.

Ann Althouse said...

Here are 2 old posts of mine about 2 sleeps:

https://althouse.blogspot.com/2006/02/thats-not-insomnia-thats-natural-sleep.html

https://althouse.blogspot.com/2012/02/first-sleep-second-sleep.html

tcrosse said...

If it's past midnight I get up and do Wordle and Connections, even though I do much better at these later in the day when I'm more fully awake. Like noonish.

Jaq said...

I always figured that "two sleeps" was a way to provide a little interval for ensuring the next generation shows up on time.

planetgeo said...

The "two sleeps" habit is very common as we age. It's likely because we don't get enough sustained, vigorous exercise so our bodies just aren't tired. Also, many people tend to doze off soon after dinner, so they get in a "nap and two sleeps" habit.

Does it really make any difference, especially if you're retired? Whatever your sleep habits are, develop practices in the intervening periods that you love doing. Life is good when you make it good.

Narr said...

In retirement my wife--always a night owl--stays up till 2 am or later, by which time I've been asleep for several hours; I'll get up once or twice so I (and most nights, the dog) can make water (peasant genes at work?) and be up and fully awake by 830. Maybe 9.

I can get up early if I must, in fact prefer to get things like doctor or dentist visits over as early as possible, and was at my workplace at 8am for many decades, but am not a morning person.

Ice Nine said...

Waking up too early - at midnight?

Solution: Go to bed at midnight, like I do - for the express purpose of not waking up in those desolate wee hours. (And yes, I'm old.)

AlbertAnonymous said...

A new tag the size of an old tag….

Scott Patton said...

There could be a post that is... Written strangely, early in the morning.

Original Mike said...

"I went back into the archive and found 10 old posts that deserved the "frugality" tag "

I can't imagine how you do that, given what must be a very large number of posts.

Christopher B said...

A evolutionary just-so-story could be made that having some folks with the habit of arising in the middle of the night was probably advantageous for early humans. May as well be the elders who are less likely to be doing vigorous labor during daylight.

n.n said...

Antilib is affordable and available goods and services without the trillion dollar deficits in novel Green... green deals.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Old person syndrome is no bullshit.
Just seen:
Note to self, Do not sit on the floor
without a plan on how to get back up.

Quaestor said...

Althouse asks, "Do you get out of bed or not?"

If I wake up, I always get up. The lizard must be drained.

I often listen to an audiobook, but sometimes the voice leads me into an dream, often unpleasant. I was listening to "The Sleepwalkers" by Christopher Clark just last night. Evidently, I got into REM sleep at the point in the narration covering the brutal assassination of Serbian King Alexander I and his wife Queen Draga. I don't recall the details, but the dream was bloody and troubling. The leader of that assassination plot was the same villain who arranged the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife.

Marcus Bressler said...

It is getting harder and harder to get out of bed. Even though I do some exercise, I am going to bring it up to my GP, my hematologist, and my vascular surgeon at my next appointments ... which all will be within 30 days.

Marcus Bressler said...

I had a dietary manager job at a psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents that had a 5 a.m. start. It was just two miles away and I got up at 4 and made it to work on time. I got off at 1:30 p.m., almost always going straight home and taking what I term a "power nap" - 20-30 minutes or so. That would allow me to stay up, alert until 10 p.m., so six hours of sleep at least five days a week. If I napped longer than 30 minutes, I would awaken groggy. I never used an alarm; my body got used to just waking up within that time frame. I've worked nights as a chef and partied until the sun came up but slept most of the day. I've gone back and forth and I cannot tell you which one I prefer.

Jupiter said...

I usually wake up around 3:00, and think about physics for an hour or so. I often find that while I was sleeping, I found the solution to the problem I'd been working on. I just need to work out the details. Then i go back to sleep.

n.n said...

Blogger conservation practices.

rehajm said...

…what I came to say. Would hate to think a tag was terminated…

Heartless Aztec said...

I was having the same sleep cycle as you were /are. I went to the THC bakery and bought a dozen Cinnamon indica cookies of which I eat one about 8pm and then I sleep like a log from about 9-10pm to 4-5am. I've tried Ambien, Xanax, melatonin and hot toddies. They all worked to a point but didn't carry through an entire 8 hour sleep cycle. The key here is indica cookies as opposed to sativa cookies, the former is "sleep" inducing and the latter being "lets create" inducing.

Original Mike said...

If you learn anything, let us know (I have the same problem).

Aggie said...

Back when I was managing drilling operations on site, my sleeping hours were always structured around key activities. But I got into the habit, after doing it some years, to waking up based on the rig noises. Rigs back then were loud, rattly, vibrating things (nowadays the big rigs are electric and mostly quiet). Every 30 ft you drilled, you had to shut down the pumps and pick up a new joint of drill pipe, then go back to drilling. If the pumps shut down for more than a few minutes, something was up. I would come awake every time the rig broke its mechanical routine.

typingtalker said...

We used to call overnight work the third shift and, in some industries, workers were/are paid a premium to keep the factories running 24/7. These days I think of FedEx pilots using little toothpicks to prop their eyes open as they navigate the dark and empty skies.

john mosby said...

Quaestor: "I often listen to an audiobook, but sometimes the voice leads me into an dream, often unpleasant."

Yes. Some sleep-story horror stories:

- A former girlfriend subscribes to the Calm app for sleep stories. On Burns Night, I was looking forward to a nice lulling brogue. Unfortunately, the story was Tam O'Shanter, a rather gory ghost tale. Just wired me for a couple of hours.

- The Hallow app features scripture readings by Jonathan Roumie, the guy who plays Jesus in The Chosen. He is actually an experienced voice actor who can do all sorts of accents, not just the cheesy Middle Eastern one. So he does all the characters in the Bible. Unfortunately, for the temptations of Christ in the desert, he did a very unsettling voice for Satan. "CHANGE THESE STONES INTO BREAD!!!!" doesn't really lull you to sleep.

So one has to select the material carefully if one wants white noise from human speech. I like C-SPAN for this purpose. Hardly ever spikes above a dull monotone.

JSM