Measures.
The prologue:
I was browsing one of the myspace forums that I am a member of. Through a mixture of curiosity and boredom I started to search and click through some of the other forums that myspace hosts. Stumbled across a certain car related forum, and a 3 page argument between an articulate and amusing poster and a pretty dumb salesman. I had a look at the articulate and amusing poster's profile and ending up spending a good few minutes reading through his blog. One of his post's really struck a cord, which is what this post is based upon.
The post:
Seeing as I started school in the late 1980s I have never been taught anything other than metric measurements, but I seem to have picked up a certain number of imperial measures, meaning that now I use a mixture of the two depending on what it is, or the situation.
For example, I measure temperature in centigrade. I know that I don't really like being outside when it's 5 or below, and that I do quite like being outside when its about 15 or above. 0 is pretty cold, and minus number is very cold and anything over 25 is fairly uncommon and can be quite uncomfortable. Fahrenheit means nothing to me, you could tell me its 25 F or 105 F and I wouldn't know if that was good or bad.
I, and I have an incling that I'm not alone here, measure time in imperial. I remember a watch company, I think it was SWATCH, tried to introduce a metric time/internet time watch a couple of years ago (my 'couple of years' can mean any time between 2 years ago to about 8 years ago) where the day was divided into a daft amount of equal segments. Thus meaning that it would be the same time all over the world, say 106 'beats'. Instead of each country having it's own timezone, there would only be one global timezone, just meaning that 108 beats in one country could be the middle of the day whereas in another country it could be the middle of the night.
Distance is interesting. If I'm in the car then I use miles (and MPH for speed). I know how long a KM is, in that it is 1000m, but I can't relate that distance to anything, just doesn't make sense to me. If I am measuring something then I will either use CM or inches, depends on what it is. My skateboard is measured in inches, the diameter of my skateboard wheels are measured in MM. If I have to buy something to fit a certain space I will often take measurements in both.
Metres don't really mean too much to me because again I can't really relate to them. I know that I am nearly 6 feet tall, so I often use that as a base when trying to scale things. I have no idea how high a ceiling is in M, but I could easily guestimate it in feet.
If I'm cooking something (not often that my cooking involves more than putting something near a heatsource and leaving till it's burnt) I prefer grams. Although I can't relate to how heavy a gram is, nor an ounce for that matter. I hardly ever buy an ounce of anything ;)
If I'm weighing myself (which I do sometimes to see how 'underweight' I am - just goes to show how much of a nanny state we live in now, according to most BMI calculators I am officially classed as underweight/anorexic. I disagree with this as I'm not anorexic, nor underweight imo but because my BMI is well below the 'normal' 18.5 that's what I must be *sigh*)I use stones. Pounds mean nothing to me. At all.
I drink beer in pints, or bottles. I know a bottle is roughly half a pint (just short of) and I know that a pint is about 2 cans. Cans are a good base for me, I know cans, although the 440ml ones were invented just to screw my system up. I also buy bottles in litres.
The measure I use to buy petrol is £. When that number gets to the number that I can afford, then my cars full ;)
I don't mind litres, or ml, but what I do hate is when things are measured as 0.33l for a can of pop...it's not 0.33l it's 330ml. Also what is with using a comma as a decimal point? Decimal points are . not ,
Anyone else use a mixture of measurements?
In other news me and Phill walked down to eurocar (kroozin or whatever the hell it's called now) in town today. Got some shirts. It started thundering and lightening. We went in Gregg's and I had pizza and fair trade orange juice. Got the bus home due to rain and it was stupidly expensive.
I was browsing one of the myspace forums that I am a member of. Through a mixture of curiosity and boredom I started to search and click through some of the other forums that myspace hosts. Stumbled across a certain car related forum, and a 3 page argument between an articulate and amusing poster and a pretty dumb salesman. I had a look at the articulate and amusing poster's profile and ending up spending a good few minutes reading through his blog. One of his post's really struck a cord, which is what this post is based upon.
The post:
Seeing as I started school in the late 1980s I have never been taught anything other than metric measurements, but I seem to have picked up a certain number of imperial measures, meaning that now I use a mixture of the two depending on what it is, or the situation.
For example, I measure temperature in centigrade. I know that I don't really like being outside when it's 5 or below, and that I do quite like being outside when its about 15 or above. 0 is pretty cold, and minus number is very cold and anything over 25 is fairly uncommon and can be quite uncomfortable. Fahrenheit means nothing to me, you could tell me its 25 F or 105 F and I wouldn't know if that was good or bad.
I, and I have an incling that I'm not alone here, measure time in imperial. I remember a watch company, I think it was SWATCH, tried to introduce a metric time/internet time watch a couple of years ago (my 'couple of years' can mean any time between 2 years ago to about 8 years ago) where the day was divided into a daft amount of equal segments. Thus meaning that it would be the same time all over the world, say 106 'beats'. Instead of each country having it's own timezone, there would only be one global timezone, just meaning that 108 beats in one country could be the middle of the day whereas in another country it could be the middle of the night.
Distance is interesting. If I'm in the car then I use miles (and MPH for speed). I know how long a KM is, in that it is 1000m, but I can't relate that distance to anything, just doesn't make sense to me. If I am measuring something then I will either use CM or inches, depends on what it is. My skateboard is measured in inches, the diameter of my skateboard wheels are measured in MM. If I have to buy something to fit a certain space I will often take measurements in both.
Metres don't really mean too much to me because again I can't really relate to them. I know that I am nearly 6 feet tall, so I often use that as a base when trying to scale things. I have no idea how high a ceiling is in M, but I could easily guestimate it in feet.
If I'm cooking something (not often that my cooking involves more than putting something near a heatsource and leaving till it's burnt) I prefer grams. Although I can't relate to how heavy a gram is, nor an ounce for that matter. I hardly ever buy an ounce of anything ;)
If I'm weighing myself (which I do sometimes to see how 'underweight' I am - just goes to show how much of a nanny state we live in now, according to most BMI calculators I am officially classed as underweight/anorexic. I disagree with this as I'm not anorexic, nor underweight imo but because my BMI is well below the 'normal' 18.5 that's what I must be *sigh*)I use stones. Pounds mean nothing to me. At all.
I drink beer in pints, or bottles. I know a bottle is roughly half a pint (just short of) and I know that a pint is about 2 cans. Cans are a good base for me, I know cans, although the 440ml ones were invented just to screw my system up. I also buy bottles in litres.
The measure I use to buy petrol is £. When that number gets to the number that I can afford, then my cars full ;)
I don't mind litres, or ml, but what I do hate is when things are measured as 0.33l for a can of pop...it's not 0.33l it's 330ml. Also what is with using a comma as a decimal point? Decimal points are . not ,
Anyone else use a mixture of measurements?
In other news me and Phill walked down to eurocar (kroozin or whatever the hell it's called now) in town today. Got some shirts. It started thundering and lightening. We went in Gregg's and I had pizza and fair trade orange juice. Got the bus home due to rain and it was stupidly expensive.
posted by pruvaloo at 7:05 PM
2 Comments:
Nice post. True about all the measures. Hope you got the job kid.
Heya, well they offered me the job, but I wouldn't be able to afford to relocate based on the hours they were offering, so still looking.
Looks like I might not even be able to go back to uni either :(
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