Playing Games with the Roosters

In previous posts, I've mentioned the roosters, geese, dogs, and chickens just across the street that awaken me all hours of the night. Well, there's been a funny development here. The last two Monday mornings I've gotten up around 2:00 am in order to listen to NFL broadcasts over the internet before heading up to Taipei or Taichung for work/class. The first week, I had the ceiling light in my bedroom on. But the light emanating out the windows, even though they're glazed windows and even though I had the screens drawn, was enough to cause the birds across the street to commence with their morning wake-up calls. During radio commercial breaks, I turned down the sound on my computer and also turned off the light. The animals quieted down almost immediately. I played this game several times over the course of an hour or two just to see how consistent the birds were... very consistent!

Yesterday I didn't turn on the ceiling light at all, because the noises were still annoying enough to me even though I wasn't trying to sleep. But amazingly, just the light from my desk light and notebook screen were enough to start the birds crowing... I repeated the experiment off an on another 2 or three times. Maybe the noise will lead the neighbors to cover over the chicken coops a little better...

In a related development, I bought an air purifier for my bedroom yesteday. It will serve a double-purpose: in the on-line reviews I read, everyone was complaining how noisy it was! At least it can help drown out the neighborhood noise... :-)