Random Thoughts X: Impromptu Interpretations

[Valka D'Ur]

But the monthly rent would be cheaper!

How do you figure that? When you pay X per month, the landlord doesn't care how many months there are. They won't lower it if there are more months. They'll just rub their greedy hands in glee, happy to get another $1200 out of everyone.

 

[amadeus]

But the monthly rent would be cheaper!

That’s what you think.

 

[Takhisis]

Random thought: The year would make way more sense if it was 13 months, with 12*28+1*29. The semi-random distribution of month lengths bugs me.

I've already had this argument with… choxorn?

 

[choxorn]

We have? When? I have no memory of talking about month lengths with you.

 

[Takhisis]

You might be right. Doubt crept into em as soon as I posted it… I think it was you? And possibly/probably others? Late-night/early-morning sh-posting it was, whomever it was with in any case.

the time of day might explain why i don't remember it clearly

 

[amadeus]

For hundreds and hundreds of years, the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, had been Italian. However, in my lifetime I have seen three Popes: a Pole, a German, and an Argentine. No Italians.

This has no bearing on me as I’m neither Italian nor Catholic. It is more or less a random thought.

 

[BenitoChavez]

Random thought: The year would make way more sense if it was 13 months, with 12*28+1*29. The semi-random distribution of month lengths bugs me.

If we're going that route, why not divide the year into 10 months since things divisible by 10 are "better"? At one point the Romans had a calendar like this.*

Or...if you want the same number of days in each month you could have 5 months with 73 days in them each, or 73 months with 5 days each.** Take your pick.

Spoiler :

*This kind of reminds me of Americans using the Imperial system. Metric is technically "better" but getting a whole society to switch something that they aren't used to, when what they are using works well enough, is really difficult.
**Except every 4 years when there is a leap year***
***Except for years evenly divisible by 100****
****Except for year evenly divisible by 400*****
*****Calendars are crazy yo

 

[cardgame]

10 months of 36 I can get behind, but what do we do about the other five days?

 

[Kyriakos]

10 months of 36 I can get behind, but what do we do about the other five days?

Half of the 10 months have one extra day?

Anyway, if the months are 10, you can have 1, 2, 5, 10 or multiples of 10 seasons.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

10 months of 36 I can get behind, but what do we do about the other five days?

I feel like I heard somewhere that the Egyptians used a calendar si.ilar to this and they just pretended the extra days did not exist. Obviously they did, but they were not tracked as part of a year and were instead some bizarre "in between time" that didn't count as part of the calendar. I could be wrong though.

 

[cardgame]

Half of the 10 months have one extra day?

Now we're just back at the original problem!

 

[Syno]

The 5 missing days are state-mandated orgies and festivals mid-summer.

 

[Kyriakos]

Iirc in ancient Greece there were 12 months of equal number of days, but on occasion you'd get a 13nth month (when enough missing days were amassed).

 

[The_J]

If we're going that route, why not divide the year into 10 months since things divisible by 10 are "better"? At one point the Romans had a calendar like this.*

Or...if you want the same number of days in each month you could have 5 months with 73 days in them each, or 73 months with 5 days each.** Take your pick.

That's all ugly, sorry.
Having the months being basically 4 weeks is way more elegant.

10 months of 36 I can get behind, but what do we do about the other five days?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercalary_month_(Egypt)
You get basically another month with 5 days.
Also not elegant, naaah.

 

[BenitoChavez]

That's all ugly, sorry.
Having the months being basically 4 weeks is way more elegant.

We can now make weeks 18.25 days. Problem solved!

Honestly though, days and years are the only natural cycles. Since days doesn't evenly divide into a year you're going to get something 'ugly' somewhere when you subdivide into months and weeks.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother with this place.

 

[The_J]

Because you have nothing better to do, and for most of the time it's fun?

We can now make weeks 18.25 days. Problem solved!

Honestly though, days and years are the only natural cycles. Since days doesn't evenly divide into a year you're going to get something 'ugly' somewhere when you subdivide into months and weeks.

well, we could abolish months at all, but then the numbers are getting to big for most people to easily grasp .

 

[Kyriakos]

Because you have nothing better to do, and for most of the time it's fun?



well, we could abolish months at all, but then the numbers are getting to big for most people to easily grasp .

Even so, a 365 day "month" won't quite cut it, cause every few years you get a day more. Also, the average number of days is not exactly 365,25 either afaik.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Because you have nothing better to do, and for most of the time it's fun?

There are other places more fun.

 

[Takhisis]

10 months of 36 I can get behind, but what do we do about the other five days?

The 5 missing days are state-mandated orgies and festivals mid-summer.

See the Shire calendar. Hobbits keep a biunivocal relationship between date and day of the week and have a Yule mini-week as long as needed to keep up with both that and the actual seasons.