Time Flies

There is some emerging science behind the perception that time passes more quickly as we age — or appears to pass more quickly, I should say. It's documented to some extent in this article: Physics explains why time passes faster as you age.

My personal theory has been that the longer we live, the less of a percentage each unit of time is in our lives. So, if you are 5 years old, your most recent year, the fifth year, is 20% of your life. But if you are 80 years old, the most recent year (the 80th year) is only a little more than 1% of your life.

Because we forget so much, I believe that, in a certain sense, an 80 year-old doesn't feel like they've lived much longer than a 5 year-old, so the percentage is of some importance. That's just my theory, which is totally unprovable by the way and certainly not part of the physicist's explanation.

However, as referenced in this article, Bejan, is theorizing on the matter. You can read the whole piece or quickly read the 4 main points that I have cribbed, below.

Time is happening in the mind’s eye. It is related to the number of mental images the brain encounters and organizes and the state of our brains as we age. When we get older, the rate at which changes in mental images are perceived decreases because of several transforming physical features, including vision, brain complexity, and later in life, degradation of the pathways that transmit information. And this shift in image processing leads to the sense of time speeding up.

There’s an inversely proportional relationship between stimuli processing and the sense of time speeding by, Bejan says. So, when you are young and experiencing lots of new stimuli—everything is new—time actually seems to be passing more slowly. As you get older, the production of mental images slows, giving the sense that time passes more rapidly.

Another factor in time’s perceived passage is how the brain develops. As the brain and body grow more complex and there are more neural connections, the pathways that information travels are increasingly complicated. They branch like a tree and this change in processing influences our experience of time, according to Bejan.

Finally, brain degradation as we age influences perception. Studies of saccadic eye movements in elderly people show longer latency periods, for example. The time in which the brain processes the visual information gets longer, which makes it more difficult for the elderly to solve complex problems. They “see” more slowly but feel time passing faster, Bejan argues.

And the Seasons they Go Round and Round

Sue pretty well moves from one decorating season to another. Christmas gives way to Valentines, Valentines to Spring and so on into summer and autumn and back to Christmas.

We are presently into Valentines, and there are red hearts springing out of vases.

It's a macro, so the heart is quite a lot bigger in the photo than in reality.

Saturday Smile

A Saturday Smile for you or at least I hope so. I think it's a somewhat appropriate follow-up to the previous rotary phone post, at least a little bit. It has to do with age anyway.

When I saw all of these ointments (or are they unguents?)* on the bathroom counter just now, well ... I just had to ...

I recall the time when we were at the cottage, and I had to gather and arrange my various ointments and unguents next to the bed. I said to Sue, "Do you remember when we could just go to bed?"

*From Wikipedia: An unguent is a soothing preparation spread on wounds, burns, rashes, abrasions or other topical injuries (i.e. damage to the skin). It is similar to an ointment, though typically an unguent is less viscous and more oily. It is usually delivered as a semi-solid paste spread on the skin and is often oily to suspend the medication or other active ingredients.

Can You Teach New Dogs Old Tricks

Fun is made of seniors trying to cope with new technology. In point of fact, most of us mange fairly well for the most part. True, I sometimes need a bit of help with smart phones and their associated devices, but I get most of it most of the time.

But how about kids with dealing with old technology? Well then, maybe the shoes are on the other feet in that case.

In the video, two boys are given 4 minutes to dial a number on a rotary phone. They don't quite make it.

Enjoy.

Of Pens and Garages and SayWhatItNess

Say what? Well, perhaps I could have been clearer.

No, we do not keep pens in the garage, but the pens in question did come from the garage (tire store) where we have our tires changed.

And no, it isn't Canadian Tire.

And yes, they are superb pens.

However, many sincere thanks for the excuse to post when I had nothing else to post about today.

And also for the opportunity to post these selfies, which I have taken this week because I don't know quite what else to do with my camera in winter.

Setting up the camera on a tripod, getting yourself in the frame, and then clicking remotely, is quite an interesting procedure, let me tell you.

So, I have good reason to look perplexed.

Which is, apparently, what some of you felt when reading my previous post.

Hmmm?

Scatterbrained

One recent night as I was reading rather late, I came across something that I wanted to note.

I raised myself from the chair and found my favourite pen by the computer. (Believe it or not, it was a freebie from my local tire shop, but it feels just right in my hand and writes really well.)

Then I realized that I yet to find paper or notebook, so I went in search.

Once I had obtained the notepad, I'll be darned if I could find the pen. I looked and looked . . . to no avail.

I like that pen so much that I trundled downstairs to find a similar one. (Yes, I grabbed more than one from the garage but not on the same visit, so I'm not super greedy.)

In the morning, after being up for several hours, for some reason, I reached into the sweater pocket of the same sweater that I had been wearing on the previous evening.

You already know what I found.

In my pocket.

All along.

Scatterbrained am I.

Morse of Course

Recently, I wrote about spending New Years Eve with an old friend: that friend being Morse.

And yes, since then, we have been re-watching the series. The plots are complex enough and our memories short enough that we get a lot out of the episodes to the point where we will likely watch them again . . . someday.

Morse is the one detective over whom I actually get sentimental. I really like the guy and his partner, Lewis. Poor Morse is unlucky in love and pretty much of a loner outside of work: a flawed but human and likable person.

But I had never read the Morse books by Colin Dexter. Sure, I had thought about it more than once, but so many things just pass through my mind and just keep on travelling at light speed into the emptiness of space.

This time, however, I found myself checking out the series on Amazon/Kindle. But how much would I like the books as opposed to the tv series? I wondered whether they would be worth the investment.

But wait a minute there, AC. There is a library in town, and perhaps . . .

And they did! So in the middle of the night, I checked the website, put one on hold, and picked it up the next day.

The Remorseful Day* was the final installment of the series, proving that it's true — the last shall be first (as far as reading order goes). Indeed, I found myself becoming sentimental all over again. But they key point is that I liked it.

The book version and the tv version (of the same episode) were close enough that I could picture Morse and Lewis very well. I didn't find a big disconnect between the two presentations. While I can see some differences in the characters (for example: Morse in the novels does not seem quite as crusty as Morse on the telly), they are substantially similar, which I found myself appreciating.

I enjoyed the book well enough that the very next day saw me returning it (read, of course) and picking up another Morse: this one containing the first three novels in one volume.

And so, I sat down yesterday (yesterday as I write this), and read all of the very first novel of the series, The Dead of Jericho. Since I consumed it in one day, I suppose that it is superfluous to write that I quite liked it.

Dexter is both an accomplished writer as well as a clever writer. I can appreciate his vocabulary and turns of phrase very much but also revel in the cleverness of the plot. Having recently also watched The Dead of Jericho, I could visualize the characters and scenes quite well. Although, they changed the plot somewhat for tv, the broad strokes remained very similar.

I will continue to read Morse and will most likely purchase whatever novels are not in our little, local library.

*That must be a very intended play on words: The ReMORSEful Day, which is something that I can also appreciate. But you knew that.