Time Zones
We live in a country whose landmass traverses over multiple time zones. There aren't very many others like ours if you stop to think about it. My native homeland is a tiny peninsula and the country is so small that it shares the same time zone with its neighbor Japan.
So while the lower 48 states alone cover a large swath of land stretched over four time zones, Korea and Japan are squeezed into just one.
I still have trouble with this whole concept which is a source of great annoyance. I've missed more than a few nationally televised events because of my failure to accurately translate the Eastern Standard Time to my local Pacific Standard Time.
It drives me crazy. Object oriented computer programming is so much easier.
Try to look at this from my point of view. The East Coast, which is to my east is three hours ahead. I get that. Kinda. And my relatives in Korea, which is to my west across the Pacific Ocean are also hours ahead of me. Both sides are ahead of me. Think about it.
Everybody in the whole world, regardless of whether they are to your east or west, is head of you if you live on the West Coast.
Got any funny stories to share related to time zones?
posted by David Cho @ 5/19/2007
14 comments
14 Comments:
For a morning person like me, that is kind of nice. It means I can call folks early, and it won't be early for them.
Here on the east it is not so fun. I'm in bed when anyone I want to talk to in the west is available.
Nothing really funny, but it always blows me away that went I travel to the Cook Islands I arrive there 19 hours before I left New Zealand... That's weird! Maybe I should call myself and remind me to bring the suncream!
My son has been in Australia for the past year. However, I don't have to worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia and I just talked to him.
LOL @blind-horse. That's great.
20 years ago I pastored a small church just on the Alabama/Georgia state line - also the Eastern/Central timezone line. It worked out great when a pastor friend of mine needed his pulpit filled while he was on vacation. I'd do our 11:00 AM service, and then drive 10 minutes and do his 11:00 AM service.
Brain, that is really neat!
Imagine the possibilities. You are running late for a date. All you gotta do is just call her and tell her to drive across the state line, and viola! You are early!
I have a tendency to cheat as much as possible when I travel. If at all possible I keep my body and time schedule as close to what it is at home. If that means I eat dinner at 8:00 pm because at home it is 6:00 pm....I do it. I go to bed at my usual time, I eat at the usual time, I wake up at the usual time. It makes it so I am not all messed up when I get home.
The only time this doesn't work is when I go out of the country and everything is completely opposite. My favorite is the same as san nakji's....when I came home from Australia, after spending 18 1/2 hours on an airplane, I got home 2 hours before I left. That is enough to mess with the mind! :)
JRA and SN, I haven't even figured out the west coast/east coast time zones, so I can't afford to start thinking about the Cook Islands/New Zealand thing.
But that sounds messed up.
Can't think of any stories, but it does get frustrating with relatives on both coasts. One set calls too late at night, and the others can never catch us, too early.
Dave! I just blogged about time zones! It was difficult living on the east coast, trying to communicate with friends and family back home. There was never really a good time to call that was convenient for either of us.
But what I really wonder is why on earth TV times are different in the Central time zone.
I used to live in the Central Time Zone and wondered about the earlier t.v. times too.
They are "early to bed and early to rise" people there (or so I was told).
I have several Australian visitors on "granny" and I stay confused all the time. They go into daylight savings the same time we revert to standard.
I'm way late with this, but...
I have to call people on the west coast all the time, to do interviews. I also have to call people in London, although not as often.
For some reason I can always get the London time right away, I immediately know which direction to count. But I am *forever* counting in the wrong direction for the west coast.
I've been doing this for years - decades - but I can't seem to learn. It's crazy! Especially since I know that when my baseball team is on the west coast, the games start late for us - that ought to give me a clue, right?
But still, anytime I make plans to interview someone in California or pick up the phone to call someone out there, I have to think, and think again - and usually I check with Allan just to be sure.
I'm generally a pretty smart person, but I can't seem to get this simple thing through my head. No idea why.
I am the only one of my immediate family that lives in the USA, and I always had trouble keeping track of how many hours ahead they all were if I wanted to call them.
Then I ran across this web site:
timeanddate.com/worldclock/personal.html
(Click on Configuration, then enter your cities)
It lets you enter a bunch of cities, bookmark the page, then it shows the current time for those cities. I always check that page whenever I am thinking about calling. It knows all the different Daylight savings times, too (they can be different for every country). Very handy.
Laura, its funny that you get it right with a different continent, but can't with other time zones on the same continent?
MATTHEW!!! Great to hear from you! Strange because within the last couple of weeks, I spoke with Corby, David, Daniel, and now you. Kinda surreal.
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