#he usually works 0900-1800

[dangraccoon]

yo adulting sucks ass

[thesaltyoncologist]

WTF do oncology fellows do?

WAKE UP: 0630 - 0755

My alarm is set for 0630-0700 most mornings. I rarely, if ever, get up at that time. I usually hit the snooze alarm for at least 30 mins if not nearly an entire hour, depending on the day. I’m actively trying to get better at dealing with mornings but I honestly just suck at it. Today I hit snooze for exactly 55 minutes before rolling over in bed, grabbing my phone, and jumping on my morning conference call at 0800.

MORNING SIGN-IN: 0800 - 0830

I have a research clinic once per week, and Monday is my research group’s day. This is the one day of the week where our patients who are on clinical trials are seen in clinic. We start the morning with kind of a virtual roll call of who will be physically seen in clinic, who is going to the infusion room for treatment, and if there are any people being seen for acute problems. It’s usually pretty quick, consisting something along the lines of: “Mr. X is here for C4D1 treatment with X for his prostate cancer” for each patient. After we run the list, my drag my ass from bed and get dressed. 

RESEARCH CLINIC: 0900 - 1400

What I do during each Monday research clinic varies. Today I had to physically go into the hospital because one of our patients was admitted and was scheduled to start treatment today. I met my boss up on the wards and we headed over to her room to give her and her husband an update on how the day would go. Nothing exciting, just a few hours of infusions. Provided she’s not one of the unlucky sort who have an infusion reaction, it should be a pretty dull day for her. The side effects hit later, especially after the number of cycles accumulates. She looks better today than during our last few visits. Definitely more relaxed and less emotionally wrecked. I’m sure the feelings are all still there, just controlled for the time being. She’s only 50 years old.

After seeing our patient, I head over to clinic where I work with one of our APPs who is working through a stack of papers for a second opinion later this week. It’s painfully slow work, made worse by the fact that no one seems to believe in writing an oncology treatment summary anymore. After a couple of hours we piece together a halfway decent treatment timeline. She’s another young patient who has burned through double digits worth of treatment regimens. Her local oncologist is better than his half-assed progress notes indicate, and he has her on an appropriate treatment. Unfortunately she doesn’t qualify for any of our ongoing trials. She’s only 45 years old.

We end the clinic in a similar fashion to how it begins, with a quick sign out of who was seen and the highlights of what happened. 

1400-1500: ANKI

I head over to the fellow’s office and my cubicle to knock out some flashcards. Oncology boards are looming in November. Anki has always been my go-to during medical school and residency, and it continued in fellowship. All of medicine has a base of memorization. It’s unavoidable. Anki is the best way of helping me pound staging and treatment algorithms into my head. Patients rarely fit into these standard scenarios, but again, having that base knowledge is key. Somewhere in between flipping through my cards, I remember the peanut butter sandwich I stowed away in my bag for lunch. Sandwich gone. Cards reviewed. I pack up and head home.

1500 - 1600: WALK THE DOGGO

It’s a mild but sunny day outside so me and the doggo hit the sidewalks. The actual mileage we cover is pretty minimal. His legs are short, and he has yet to meet a smell that didn’t intrigue him. That’s okay by me. The fresh air helps me clear my head.

1600 - 1800: DATA CRUNCHING

Back to the house where I try to knock out some more work. Today, I’m working through some clinical trial data. Clinical trials take so long to complete that it’s hard for a fellow to work on a singular trial, from start to finish. Most of the time we just work on different parts of different trials. This is a trial that was wrapping up right around the time I joined my research group. I saw the last few patients go on trial (and progress on trial, unfortunately). So now I’m working on compiling the data that will eventually be a new manuscript. Like the majority of research trials, this more than likely a negative phase I/II trial. It’s still a good way for me to learn the mechanics of compiling data and manuscript preparation. It’s been a while since I’ve written manuscripts. I’m rusty.

1800 - 1930: DINNER

My roommate cooks and I clean. It’s a pretty sweet deal. We usually have the news on while we eat, and tonight is no different. Probably the only thing I like about this part of the country has been the politics.

2000 - 2100: 

Time for a quick lifting session followed by a hot shower.

2100-2200: 

Watch an episode of TV with the roommate. Tonight, he’s playing some weird show on Hulu. I spend most of the show scrolling through tik toks. Once we get finished, my phone gets plugged in and retired for the night.

2200 - 2300: WIND DOWN

Normally, I avoid all screens after around 8-9pm. Tonight is a little different since I decided to through my daily routine into a post. Normally, my wind down routine consists of reading my well loved and worn copy of ASCO-SEP... which is basically the Oncology equivalent of First Aid. Then bed. Rinse and repeat.

[pondwriting]

On The Subject of Kenku

by Jarvis Ipan

5th of Olarune 1288 0900

I'm starting this journal to chronicle my latest research into the Kenku. This race of humanoid bipedal birds is the subject of many stereotypes almost all of which negative. I'll summarize my past studies here.

1. A strong desire to fly and for high places. Either due to evolution or (as stated by the common man) by an old god of the Kenku they have lost their ability to fly over the last 50 generations. Because of this the Kenku are most comfortable up high in towers or trees.

2. A love for shiny things. Most Kenku will "collect" any shiny bauble within reach. Mostly used for trade among themselves because of the next fact.

3. Complete lack of creativity and craft. Kenku do not have the ability to create or express themselves in anyway. All tools, food, clothes, and objects must come from trade or theft which unfortunately is very high among their race. Many Kenku become highwaymen in order to feed and clothe themselves. This lack of cognitive function doesn't stop at creating art and objects.

4. Inability to form words and sentences without external stimuli. Kenku are not able to form or create words. They communicate with a complex set of mimicry. Words are learned based on the individual experience of a Kenku. For example one may learn the word "Bird" from someone on the street and begin using that. Another Kenku may hear a bird chirping and will mimic the chirp to mean the same thing. Once I've witnessed a Kenku purchasing a sword from a blacksmith. He couldn't request a sword for he didn't have the word to express it but he was able to mimic the sound of a hammer hitting steel with shocking accuracy. The blacksmith was familiar with this particular tribe of Kenku and was able to continue the transaction.

5. Almost perfect memory and mimicry. Once a word or voice is learned the Kenku can perfectly mimic it. The accuracy of this impression can fool most ears. Words and sounds are rarely forgotten by the Kenku. Most can mimic sounds they learned as a hatching. While the Kenku cannot produce for themselves they can learn from others. They are very adept at taking orders and carrying out repetitive tasks. Let me offer this as an example. If you give a man a hoe and a field he'll instantly know that he can farm the land. A Kenku will never come to this conclusion. You must teach him the technique, the spacing of the plots, and to what depth to dig down into the earth. After this the Kenku will be able to perfectly mimic this action for the rest of his life. It has not been concluded as to if the Kenku know "why" it is doing this task. I hope to answer this question in my upcoming studies.

My goal for this experiment is to see if, given proper training and guidance, a Ken is able shrug off these stereotypes and create for his or her self. I've recently acquired a fertilized egg from one of the local groups in town. The Kenku mother seemed to have no problems parting with the egg and I was able to collect it for only a few gold coins. I'm sure to get some criticism and complaints for this action but I assure whoever reads this that I have only purest of intentions. I've grown fascinated with the culture of the Kenku and wish to assist them in finding a more meaningful existence. Currently I have the egg incubating under a create light spell. I can see some movement within so I believe the hatching will soon be with us. I'll be sure to update as soon as the first cracks in the shell emerge.

8th of Olarune 1288 1300

Egg dimensions

Weight: ~15 lbs.

Height: 20 in.

Diameter: 18 in.

The young hatchling is quite compacted in this shell. I can already see cracks running along the perimeter of the newborns cage. It seems we’ll have a new Kenku in the world any time now. 

8th of Olarune 1288 2235

After much work on the part of the young hatchling he has finally broken through. A young boy 1 foot and weighing only 12 lbs. A tad small for their race but healthy which is all an old wizard can ask for. I must admit I was a bit… discouraged when I finally met the poor creature. I cradled him in my arms to keep him warm. Once his eyes opened I peered in deep and saw… nothing. Any empty vessel of a being showing no signs of life or consciousness. He just glared straight ahead unblinking. I was tempted to stop the experiment there but staring into those black eyes I saw something else. A kind of spark from deep within. Maybe it was the dilatation of pupils or the deep unblinking glare he gave me but I could sense he was absorbing everything. My speech and breath. The room and objects. The crackle of the hearth nearby. This young boy was taking in and trying his hardest to understand this new world around him. 

I’ll try to stick with what parts of the Kenku culture I can. As such I won’t be bestowing a name on the young hatchling until he’s older. Kenku are unable to come up with names for their young. Most are given a name after their first birthday after they “learn” a skill or interest. Kenku will usually adopt a name from what others call them. I once meet a stonemason and his Kenku assistant Clang. Named so after the sound of chisel hitting stone. Once taught Clang could mold and fire bricks better than the stonemason himself. 

I must say having a young companion here has brought warmth to this old tower. It’s not quite so lonely up here anymore.

28th of Olarune 1288 1030

Not even a month has gone by and the boy has already started with his first steps. I’ve read about the advanced growth the Kenku exhibit but I couldn’t imagine it being this quick. Just yesterday the young squire attempted to imitate the high pitch squeal of my teapot. I think it may be time to start some training exercises. Some things are harder to adapt to. He’s taken up roosting in my beard during naps and I’m still not quite used to chewing up his worms for breakfast….

12th of Dravago 1288 1800

It has been just over three months after the birth of the young squire and he’s now fully mobile. He tends to stay on top of the bookshelves and other high places. Why I had quite a fright when I went I went to make my midday tea. I opened the upper pantry to fetch the teapot and out tumbled the young hatchling. He landed square on his feet and pranced off like nothing was off. I do say I almost saw the great library in the sky. This one is quite nimble and surefooted to be sure.

He seems to have the first developments of speech. I talk to him quite frequently and I think he’s started to mimic my more common phrases. Mostly “Get down from there!” and “Tea time!” The youngling adores his times outside. The weather has been agreeable so we sometimes take walks around the garden. He’s always trying to scurry up any tall object he can find in the yard. He seems to be able to adequately observe the things around him. As I’m writing this the young boy is admiring the shooting stars and when there’s a cool breeze coming down the mountains he waits. Letting the cool air wrap around him. I do enjoy his company and admire his curiosity.

 18th of Sypheros 1288 1300

    Studies have had mixed results with the young hatchling. He now has a word for every object in the kitchen but can’t seem to form sentences that express what he wants. I fear I’ll need to teach him every word in the dictionary and every common sentence. Mathematics may be the death of us both.

20th of Vult 1288 1215

    I say. This boy has gone completely mad. I left a ladder out while trying to reach a book from the upper shelf and the young squire seems to have claimed the rafters of the tower for his own. He refuses to come down and has stolen every shiny object that wasn’t nailed down. Of particular importance was my pocket watch. A family heirloom and dwarven made. I suppose I could move some more boards up there for the poor boy. It’s not his fault the desire to fly is so strong. I’ll be sure to move a bed roll up there for him.

8th of Olarune 1289 0900

    What a year it has been. I’ve gained countless pages of research and insight into the Kenku. I can’t express my joy for this wealth of knowledge. Training time has quickly become the highlight of the day for both of us. I tried teaching the boy the structure of grammar but he just doesn’t grasp it. It seems that spark of creativity inside all of us accounts for much more than we give it credit. I’ve gone back to having him mimic common phrases for the time being. Mathematics may be a lost cause. He can correctly answer any math problem I throw his way but only if he’s seen it before. 2+2=4 but 2+3 is a mystery to the poor boy. I’ll teach him what I can and hope that one day he can begin making connections.

    Art is also a struggle but from no fault of his own. I’m no artist myself so during painting time he draws the same stick man and shapes I’ve shown him. He’s started to decorate his space with these drawings as well. I was bringing him his morning tea when I noticed he had swiped the white paint and a brush. Stick men and stars littered the walls and ceiling of his nook. I let the boy have his fun and left the drawings alone. We sat in his loft and sipped tea when I brought up the fact that he didn’t have a name yet. He was partly leaning outside the window near his bed roll watching the clouds roll by. His black feathers rustling in the wind. When the wind would pick up he would mimic the sound of the breeze running through the trees. I’m not sure if that was him telling me something or if I was imaging it but that’s what stuck. He seemed to enjoy it and gave me a smile.

 I think Breeze is a fine name. Happy birthday Breeze. You brighten my every day. (A few lines mark out this last sentence)

24th of Barrakas 1293 1500

    Breeze’s vocabulary has grown to be quite robust. He can speak and write quite well. I think it’s time to move to more complex studies. I want to see how the boy does with magic and alchemy. My theory is with the advanced memory of the Kenku they would be quite adept at casting spells. Think of being able to cast any spell without first memorizing and preparing it first. A very powerful skill indeed.

1st of Zarantyr 1294 0930

    Magic may have been a mistake for the poor boy. He made quite a critical error when trying to cast lightning. I instructed him to change the spell slightly in order to increase and decrease the power. I never showed him how to do this. My hope was after all this training he may have picked up some kind of self-motivation. I pushed the boy too far. The affect was a very strong lightning strike right on himself. It’s not all lost though. Breeze did successfully increase the power of the spell with no direction from myself. He’s in his loft healing from the minor burns. Other than some scotched feathers he seems fine. Another… unexpected outcome from this is his voice. After the strike his voice seems to have been pitched up and he’s talking much faster than he used to. Before he was, more or less, using my voice as his own. He adopted my way of speaking for his own needs. I don’t see this new development as a negative though. I see it as taking on a voice of his own. He’s not talking through me anymore. He’s talking for himself as an individual. It’s also quite humorous listening to him recall his adventures outside in such an… enthusiastic tone.

For now I’m going to halt all attempts at magic. Without the proper magical safe guards a spell can go wrong in an instant. It would take years to teach him every scenario for a spell going wrong. I don’t want to take that chance again.

8th of Olarune 1294 0900

    Happy birthday Breeze. I think we’ll have your favorite meal tonight. Night crawler stew. You’re so large now you can barely fit in my lap. Of course that doesn’t stop you from trying to roost in my beard.

2nd of Barrakas 1294 1500

   You talk about your adventures in the garden often. I hang at your every word as you tell me how you slayed dandelions that looked like dragons. I always know the plots and endings because they’re from the bed time stories I tell you. I cherish them all none the less.

8th of Olarune 1295 1800

Happy birthday Breeze. You tell me more and more about leaving the tower and seeing the world. I have to say selfishly I wish you never leave. This time with you has been a blessing and I don’t with it to end. I dread the day you finally leave.

11th of Zarantyr 1297 1500

I fear my time left with you is growing short. You talk of exploring the world every day and I have nothing left to teach you. 9 long years we’ve been together. You haven’t reached maturity yet but I know come spring I won’t be able to keep you here. These walls are your cage. You must go out and explore. I just hope one day you’ll come back to visit your old wizard father. It’s the best job I’ve ever had and the best of my 104 years. I’ll remember them fondly.

8th of Olarune 1297 0900

    Happy birthday Breeze. When I came to bring you your morning tea I noticed you weren’t in your loft. I know you’ve gone to explore the world and have great adventures. I hope you find everything you ever wanted out there and ride the winds back to me one day. Since you’re not fully grown I was quite worried. I wish you had stayed just a couple more years but I saw your goodbye note. Two things I never taught you. Painted on the wall of your loft was a stick man with a large bushy beard and under that the three words I never had the courage to say…

I love you.

I’ll need to put this away before the ink smudges.

8th of Olarune 1297 0910

My pocket watch seems to have gone missing.

[elevenhoursinfront-blog]

6th November 2017

Steve was up at 0400. Monday morning and back to work... He woke me up getting ready so I went to the toilet and tried to get back to sleep. At 0530, the fire alarm in my room went off, again. It scared me half to death and I couldn't reach it to turn it off. Luckily, it went off by itself before I pulled my room apart trying to use things as a stall.

I fell back to sleep until my alarm went off at 0900. I was starting at 1100 so I only had an hour and a half to myself. I laid in bed until 1000 waking up, flicking through my phone. I had my cereal, got showered and ready. I was half an hour early so I thought I'd go to the office to see if I had any post but they weren't in which was typical. I went back to get my bag and what not and left for work. As I was leaving, I saw Rod in the office so I ran in and he had two parcels for me! Yay!

I couldn't help myself so I ran back to the room and opened them. One from my Mum which was a card, as always, and some more clothing. Bras, knickers and socks that were seriously required. Also some new trainers (only from Primark, but they are gorgeous!) My other parcel was from Steve's Nan and Grandad which were swimsuits! I was in serious need of these so I was over the moon. My only swimsuit has lost elasticity and falls off me where ever I go so I am so, so grateful!

After going through those, it was 1100. I had to leave for work. Oops. I walked fast and got there for 1110, they wouldn't even notice so I was fine. I was told that we had to dig out the old coffee machine, clean it and get it working for 1200 as we had a man coming in to fix our usual one. It would take an hour maximum. They're so greedy for money, it's going to be an absolute nightmare getting the other coffee machine going that they may as well just say 'no coffee for 1 hour'. It's just bloody ridiculous.

The bus came at 1130 and it was manic. We didn't get the other coffee machine off and swapped over until just after 12. The man was coming at 1230 and it needed to be cold for him to open and fiddle with.

The guy came but he needed to speak with the boss to find out what exactly was wrong with it. I tried to ring Rachel but she didn't answer and then turned her phone off... Great owner, manager and boss there. He fixed what he could and needed a supervisor to sign the paperwork and take the coffee order from him. All the new girls pointed at me as supervisor and I turned around. It took me a minute to realised that I was the longest staff member here... Not ideal. I didn't know what I was signing for and I didn't really feel comfortable with it. I read the paper and there wasn't anything out of the ordinary so I signed and he left.

I spent the day getting stuff ready - fridges, fruit fridge, teaching the girls how to make Iced coffee, smoothies and juices. They were really starting to get what was going on so that was good. I felt much more at ease and I wasn't running around like a headless chicken.

I was told by Rachel that I could have Tuesday off but that wasn't the case. They put me on the 1200-1900 shift. Typical. Steve has a day off Thursday so I wrote on the rota 'Charlie day off'. If you're not going to give me a day off, then I'll say I'm unavailable.

Steve text me to say he had finished at 1745. I finished at 1800 so at least we would be home at the same time. I asked Louisa to pick me up, if she could because my feet were absolutely killing me. Worse than normal. I couldn't stand on them any longer. Luckily, she said yes so I made us both a pineapple and watermelon juice and waited out the front.

I saw Steve and the boys drive past me so he would be in before me. I waited 10 minutes for Lou and she pulled up. She was running late from her other job which is fine. I got in and Steve wanted to go to IGA and I needed cereal so I had to go with him. He wanted super noodles for work. I grabbed the car key off Lou because I couldn't walk anywhere else and we quickly did our shop.

We bumped into one of the Aboriginal men that we worked with on the Watermelon farm. He managed to bag himself a new job elsewhere which is great, especially now he is pregnant! We said our congratulations and went back to the hostel. I jumped in the shower but Steve had to go pick up the rest of the gang from the Seafarm as they don't drive. At some point, we would be able to sit down, I'm sure...

He got back, got showered and it was 1930/2000 already. I didn't realise we didn't have much milk left so Steve had a bowl of cereal and I had some cereal with his leftover milk. He watched a film on Netflix and I played one card game with Louisa, Hayden and Arnold outside. By 2100, Steve was ready for bed. I was pretty tired too but I didn't want to sleep yet. Steve said I needed it so I laid down to try...

I must've needed it because I was out like a light.

[tape-hiss]

Time, time, time

Hello! This post is about time in my fictional universe, and is appropriately a little bit late. Let’s just say I’m running on Aetherian time.

I did a lot of math for this one. Also, thought a lot about how we perceive time.

So real talk: I have avoided showing clocks and calendars thus far in Aetheri because I didn’t want to do the math to come up with a fictional time system that both worked and didn’t make story events IMMENSELY complicated to coordinate. What I came up with works, but you’ll have to suspend your disbelief a little, because it’s oddly convenient (by design) for a supposedly alien system of time.

There’s a larger question at hand here than just the mechanics of how spirits measure time--how does a species with a lifespan of around a thousand earth years measure time? How do they perceive its passage?

It’s probably obvious by now that spirits don’t seem to move at any slower of a pace than humans; they aren’t like ents, for example. The spirit-vs-human perception of time is actually a pretty lively albeit tiny field of study in Escalus. The way spirits treat time seems to mirror the way that humans do, just on a much longer time scale, which some people seem to think says something about the plasticity of the brain, about its structure, about how it compartmentalizes things.

There’s two rather different ways on the whole that spirits seem to perceive time, and it all seems to depend on what happens to them. Vlad and Numair are singular examples of each, in fact, and they’re even around the same age. Not a hell of a lot has happened to Numair in his 300+ years alive; he’s spent most of that time in Escalus, in the Palace, and so to him life seems to blur together--it doesn’t seem particularly long, just uniform. This is pretty normal for spirits. They live in a flat land under a wide sky. Time just smudges together, rather like a Sunday afternoon where you’ve done nothing all day and then suddenly it’s night.

On the other hand, Vlad’s had a lot happen to him; he’s seen and done a lot, and has been a lot of different people. Spirits like this seem to actually shed their past lives somewhat. It’s a little like you thinking of an event that happened to you a decade ago, and describing it as like another lifetime--but in spirits, this seems to be a fully-realized, psychological experience. It’s a dissociation from past events, good or bad, that spirits will often describe as like a death and rebirth. It doesn’t come in an instant--it almost always corresponds to major life changes--but what’s sort of weird about it is how total it is. Spirits will often refer to this sort of jokingly as their ‘past lives,’ but, only sort of jokingly.

Obviously the prevailing view on this is that it’s merely a psychological coping mechanism, maybe even a physical one. Spirit brains are not significantly different-looking (it seems) than human brains, although they keep themselves up much better over the years. Maybe the secret of this is just that spirit brains are able to clean up much better.

Anyway, that’s the soft part of spirits and their perception of time--now for the hard mathy stuff.

So..............we don’t need to go through this whole damn thing, but my meta for this is that I needed to A) use Suuhl and Yil somewhere in making Aetherian timekeeping, and B) it needed to match up to Earth time, or at least not drift so far that I’d have to do bonkers calculations to figure out corresponding times in both universes.

You may remember Suuhl and Yil as being Aetheri’s two moons.

Suuhl is the blue one (so called because it’s a much further away, more ghostly object, and ‘suuhl’ is the Aetherian word for ghost) and Yil is the red one. Suuhl orbits Eoroe (which is the planet’s name--Aetheri is just the country) every 91 days, and Yil orbits every 30.33 days. Eoroe is slightly more massive than Earth but rotates at almost exactly the same speed--therefore, an Aetherian day is equal in length to an Earth day, although the way it’s measured is different.

(Ardh, which is where the Symphony Archipelago is, is essentially indistinguishable from Earth as a celestial object except for its topography. Just to make things less complicated.)

Time is measured in Aetheri by the following:

dheidt (1 dheid = 2 seconds)

rymmat (1 rymma = 90 dheidt = 3 minutes)

huurat (1 huura = 24 rymma = 1.2 hours)

leit (1 lei = 20 huurat = 1 earth day/24 hours)

vaact (1 vaac = 5 leit = 5 earth days) - this is an Aetherian ‘week’

yilruumt (1 yilruum = 30.33 leit or 30.33 days) - this is one ‘month’ or ‘moonth,’ namely, this is the orbital period of Yil--the ‘Yil-round’

suuhlruumt (1 suuhlruum = 91 leit or 91 days) - this is a ‘season’, which stretches from a soltice to an equinox or vice-versa; it’s also the orbital period of Suuhl or the ‘Suuhl-round’

ieirt (1 ieir = 365 leit or days = 4 suuhlruumt + 1 extra day) - this is a year, obviously, the time it takes Eoroe to go around its sun.

If you would like to see very roughly how Aetherian measures of time compare to the Gregorian calendar, I have made a goofy spreadsheet for you to check out, which you can see here. 

Some of these measurements are a little odd, particularly the yilruum, which is essentially a month. Aetherians will use a yillruum only in non-specific instances, since it includes a third of a day--you’d use it to talk about a section of a season or suuhlruum. There are twelve yilruumt in a year, three per season, each named for a dominant constellation in the sky during their time. (Essentially this is the Aetherian zodiac, and yes, they do have astrology based on it.) The names of the yilruumt are included on the linked spreadsheet; they’re just named after things like animals, tools, and so on.

When you talk about a date in Aetherian, generally you describe it as being the nth day of the season in the nth year pre- or post-war. Hawk was born on April 4, 1986; Aetherians would describe this as the 13th day of Summer in year 6989 postwar. (There’s a caveat to this, I’ll get to it.) Dhuv, the Aetherian ‘month’ Hawk was born in, roughly corresponds to March 23-April 22, and wouldn’t be used to describe his birth except in an astrological context.

You’ll notice there’s a day 0 on the Aetherian calendar--this is their winter solstice and their new year. It’s considered a ‘nothing’ day, there to balance out the calendar, more or less.

But Adrien, you say. What about leap days?

Ho ho, I say, Fuck.

There’s no need for a leap day in the Aetherian calendar--it’s balanced out perfectly, there is no time lost. However, this does mean that there’s some drift between it and the Gregorian calendar, to the tune of about 59 seconds every day, until the next leap year comes round and puts it all back on track again. I’ll be straight with you: I’m not smart enough to figure out how to calculate for that. The consequences in-universe is that you just need to have an Earth clock and an Aetherian clock around at all times if you want to know what time it is in the other place; the consequences IRL is that I don’t actually know if Hawk’s birthdate matches up to the 13th day of Summer or the 14th, but I suppose it doesn’t matter that much.

That said, trying to figure out what time it is in the Archipelago vs Aetheri is a big pain in the ass. I made a rough scale, but again, it doesn’t account for time drift caused by leap days and of course time zones:

Aetheri uses what’s essentially military time; as above, 1 Aetherian hour (hurra) is 1.2 Earth hours, so there’s some drift over the course of the day between the two time scales. I suppose this will only matter in the actual comic when you consider that Ardh is about two hours behind Aetheri, so i.e. 0800 hours in Ardh is about 0900 hours in Aetheri, but say 1800 hours in Ardh is 1700 hours in Aetheri. Hoo.

On the upside, Aetherian clocks are generally pretty easy to read, although they’re often unmarked. Rather than having numbers on them, they usually work by filling bars or circles, and you generally just get a feel for what time it is. Sort of like reading an analog clock, but less exact.

They do usually include the year in the outermost ring, as based on a 100-year century. Beyond that, you’re on your own; you should probably know what millennium it is.

(The date above is something like 12:30:30PM on the 30th day of Winter, 2005.)

So that’s about it! This is one of those technical things I need to have sorted out for when we spend a bit of time in-comic telling stories in both Ardh and Aetheri at the same time. My only other conjecture is this: if spirits’ idea of a base unit of time is worth two of our own (two seconds that is) then I wonder if that would affect the way they perceive speed in music? If their idea of a ‘beat’ is twice as long as ours, does our ‘average’ tempo music sound very fast to a spirit?

Maybe! I don’t know. That’s a question for anyone with any kind of musical theory knowledge to answer.

Thanks for being patient with me y’all! It’s been rough times. And thanks for reading!

[elevenhoursinfront-blog]

27th April 2017

My alarm went off at 0900 for breakfast. Steve was up and out as per normal. I'm so jealous of how well he wakes up. His alarm goes off once and he's up and out of bed straight away. I got down to breakfast and sat with Megan. She had an interview at 1400 & another with My Home at 1530. She gave me the number for My Home to ring in hope for an interview. This company hires anyone. Meg had pancakes and I had muesli but I couldn't eat it all. I went to my room around 1030 and called My Home. I was so scared but I was so annoyed about being unemployed, it pushed me to ring. I got an interview straight away for 1400 that day. I was that excited I ran to Megan's room on the 7th floor! My Home is a company that started in the U.K. (Surrey and St Albans). It's a company that provides cleaners to go to your house and do the house work... Over here they only employ backpackers. There's always a huge turnover and there's new staff every week. Easy work, Monday - Friday, weekly pay. What more could I want? Cherry worked there and the guy told her he only employs pretty girls. I got ready for my interview and left for the station at 1300 with Meg. We both had to get the train on the same platform but different directions. I had to go to Camberwell to the head office. I was so nervous, I really wanted this one. I spent ages getting ready making sure I looked good enough but not too much, if that makes sense. I got to Camberwell station after 10 stops due to the train doing the city loop which was annoying. I had a 15 minute walk to the office. I thought I was going to be late but I had 10 minutes spare. I got to the office and had to fill out an employment form. There were 4 other girls there at the same time, doing the same thing. I was crossing my fingers and my toes. I had my one on one interview with the big boss which was good. He invited me back for a second interview. This usually takes place on another day but he has said to wait around for an hour until 1530. I walked outside feeling so confident. I was buzzing. Employment here I come! Money isn't great but it's better than nothing. It's about $18 an hour. Camberwell had nothing around except a petrol station. It was below 10 degrees and raining. I went into the petrol station to grab a coffee and to waste the hour somehow... I stood outside the shop part of the station out of the rain. I rang Steve and spoke to him for about half an hour. People must've thought I was really weird just standing there. Oh well. I was dry so that's better than nothing. I text Meg asking how long she'd be. I was excited that we both had the same interview. We had to pretend that we didn't know each other which would be a great laugh. I went into the office and had to fill out another employment form. Meg sat next to me but we didn't speak. Every now and then I'd catch her trying hard not to laugh. We had to turn away from each other otherwise we'd make it obvious. We went for our interview that went on F.O.R.E.V.E.R. The main man went on how what a business is, how the market works, what people want etc... His side kick came in and went over what they want, how it works and all the policies and stuff like that. It almost felt like we had the job. There were 4 of us, all British. Megs and I, another from Birmingham and another that I didn't speak too. She was annoying - a real brown noser. We had to watch a DVD to learn even more about the company. After about an hour and half of talking, we had to have another 1-1 with the big boss. It wasn't an interview though. It was "do you understand how we work?", "Can you do it?" - done. He said to us all to ring at 1800 to find out whether we got the job. He would then invite us in the next day regarding contracts etc... How exciting. I was really happy at the thought of possible employment, even starting tomorrow! There's like 5 people that work for My Home in the hostel I live in. There's a girl in my room at the moment that works there. She said the employ the world and it's wife! There's 5 main offices in Melbourne and 40 girls that work at each one. (They only hire girls). I have to be able to drive, which I can, but I'm nervous. Driving in a different country is scary. It's not too bad here because it's the same side but they have odd roads. You have to queue on the left to turn right... Plus it's an automatic and I drive manual. Oh dear. Megs and I got back to the hostel around 1740. I had to ring in 20 minutes. This is the moment I had been waiting for, for what seems like forever. I was feeling positive. It was free food Thursday and it was Mexican week. The only free food that's actually worth queuing up for! This day is getting better and better. 1800 turned up before I knew it and I rang. I spoke to boss man's side kick who said that they hadn't made a final decision yet as it ran over so long. He said he'd call me back shortly. Megs took like 5 calls before getting through. She got the job and starts tomorrow morning! Everything is looking up. Megan is a primary school teacher back home so that's what she really wants to do out here. She is waiting for her "working with children's check" to come through the post then she can work in a school. Until then (roughly three weeks), she can clean! I didn't receive a call for a while but I knew Megan had been told so I rang at 1830. I panicked in case I was being pushy. The phone kept on ringing with no answer or answering machine... My heart dropped into my stomach. I knew from that moment I didn't get the job. How? I don't understand? I didn't have to do anything in the second interview except watch a DVD on the company. I rang 4 more times and still nothing. I guess he lied about making a decision and see that was my number to ignore. He didn't have the balls to actually tell me though. I have no idea where I went wrong, especially when we weren't asked anything specific. They don't ask for people with experience. They ask for reliability and trust - that is all. They literally said "all we look for is a presentable person that's reliable and trustworthy". I hadn't eaten all day but I suddenly wasn't hungry. I text Steve to go for dinner without me. I told Megs I hadn't got it and she was confused too. I spent the next hour crying in a toilet cubicle. They say travelling creates the biggest highs and the lowest lows - they aren't wrong. I couldn't stop the tears, I couldn't stop thinking about why I wasn't good enough. I tried to FaceTime my mum in hope she could make me feel better but she was at work. My dad text me saying not to let it get to me but I did exactly that. I went into my room, turned the lights off and got into the top bunk. I cried for a further 2 hours on and off. Steve came up at one point and realised I was upset. He stayed with me for the rest of the night. Mel and Megan were asking for me but I didn't want to be around anyone. I have no idea why I let this get to me, but it did. Badly. My eyelids were swollen, my face was deep red and my head was pounding. Steve started making me feel better and I stopped crying over time. My stomach was rumbling. I didn't get food and I got into bed properly at 2230. I just want to sleep this horrific day off and hope that maybe something good will happen tomorrow. I'll look back on this day and wonder why I let it get to me. That's the beauty of this blog I guess, to look back. But right now, I want to skip forward, way forward.