captain's log, entry two ( video )

[winscenario]

[ The feed starts with Jim greeting the viewers with bright blue eyes and a smile. He’s at the farm, in what looks like an office he’s managed to put together, sitting at a desk with journals and various papers scattered across the surface. ]

Hello, Asgard. For those who don’t know me, I’m Captain James Kirk. That’s Klaus Hargreeves over there.

[ He motions behind him, to where Klaus is busy… doing something or other in the background. Klaus abandons whatever he’s doing to approach the desk and greet their viewers properly. ]

Hey, hi, hello! [ An enthusiastic fingergunning motion with the hand not holding a pen. ] So, I was talking to a friend of mine, uh, however long ago about how we really need something to tell the days apart. Like, obviously, we already know when it’s daytime and nighttime, even without having to go back to our godhauses during the latter, but we don’t… have anything like a calendar?

Which is why we’re here. [ Klaus twirls the writing utensil between his fingers then points it toward Jim, evidently quite pleased with their progress already. ] Working together on something to help all of us out in the long run.

Of course, we want your guys’ opinions of how we should go about this since not everybody’s worlds are the same. [ Another gesture toward his partner, that way Jim knows he can take the floor once he’s finished for the moment. ]

[ Jim nods along to Klaus’s explanation, waiting for him to finish to continue talking. ]

I realize this might seem pointless to some of you, but maybe not all. So what we’re curious about is what measures of time you use in your world, if any at all. I’ve noticed that most places measure it through hours, days, weeks, months and years, which is more or less how we do it where I’m from. It goes like this…

Sixty seconds makes up one minute, sixty minutes makes up one hour, and twenty-four hours makes up one day. Each week has seven days, and a month can have anywhere between twenty-eight and thirty-one days. A year has 365 or 366 days. However, space travel is fairly commonplace where I’m from, so we also use stardates, which is a more universal way to measure time across all planets that are either part of or allied with Federation space, or in some way related to the Federation.

I’m curious to hear about how everyone measures time where they’re from. If you have a calendar, and how it works. How long are your days and years, if you have them at all. And if you don’t measure time at all where you’re from, why is that? How do you keep track of events that happened, or events that will happen in the future? Or is time just a construct your species doesn’t adhere to in general?

[ Jim realizes he’s rambling like a nerd sssssoooo he shuts up to let Klaus get a word in if he wants to, and finish the announcement for the both of them. ]

As you can see, we’re both pretty excited about it! I think it’s safe to say, we’d ideally like to get something on the bracelets that’s easily accessible to everyone. [ He glances toward Jim for confirmation, somehow grinning even wider. ] Until then, [ A beat while he plucks up a piece of paper with haphazardly written numbers, ] it’ll be good ol’ reliable paper.

We can definitely ask the gods about making as many copies as necessary, I think. Pretty sure they won’t mind? If so, then no worries, we’ve got this. [ Their hands will certainly be tired afterward, but hey, worth it! ]

Thanks, as always, for your attention, you lovely people!

Comments

video

[hikikomori_king]

We measure time very similarly to you, now. Although before we had moon or sun, the count was somewhat different.

[winscenario]

The thought of any kind of life existing without a moon or sun admittedly baffles me, even if I've met one or two life forms capable of existing in such an environment. Just... not humanoid ones.

Did you measure time at all, before then? Think you can explain it to me?

[hikikomori_king]

I can try! Before we had Moon and Sun we had the Two Trees - Telperion the Silver and Laurelin the Golden. We call them trees for they had fruit and flower, but... they were light, living light. They waxed and waned in a cycle with each other, so we knew not darkness excepting those who lived beyond the range of their light, and that range was great indeed. Their dew was gathered in vast pools from which the Lady Varda spun stars. So we counted time by the cycle of their light - let me see...

I think... so one Valian hour is ... around 7 hours, which is a about how long it took the Trees to come to full 'bloom', and a day was around 12 hours, which was the full cycle of Telperion & Laurelin waxing and waning, and one year was 12,000 valian hours, or... um... around 9.5 solar years.

[winscenario]

That's... fascinating. I mean, I-- in my reality, we couldn't even fathom something like that. But see, that's the kind of thing I'm curious about. I've met many different species in my travels, and every sentient race I've met had some way or other to mark the passing of time.

I'm sure there must be identities with a non-linear existence, but any species who is born and dies, or lives among things or creatures that do, have some kind of way to count the time. Maybe it's just because it's what I was born into and it's ingrained in me, but... honestly, I feel kind of lost, not being able to tell what day or time of the year it is. Even if it's a different time from back home.

[hikikomori_king]

I wish you could have seen them... the Trees were... they were so beautiful. When they were slain... the darkness was terrifying, for many of us had no experinece of it before. But the last fruit and flower have become our Moon and Sun now, so something of that light is preserved.

[ And in the Silmarils, but not even here will Turgon invoke the cursed things ]

Well, we do not age and die as you do, but I agree, that marking time can be useful, if only to allow us to track progress and co-ordinate efforts.

video;

[iustise]

[Jim, your nerd is showing and it's really quite charming, just in case you weren't aware.]

While it is true that it is very neat to break the day down into such neat categories as that, minutes, hours, seconds, it is only easy to do so if one possesses a clock or a watch. Expensive, luxury items both. It is often much more reliable to simply judge the time of day by the position of the sun, I am told.

[For better or worse, John does own a watch, being aristocracy. His father gave it to him, for his eleventh birthday. It was the last gift he ever received from him.]

[winscenario]

[ Yes he is aware but he won't mind being called out on it either. ]

Oh, I'm sure we can program a watch into the bracelets. Watches aren't at all luxury items where I'm from, everyone has access to the time-- in fact there are several watches set up in public locations, and with the technology we're slowly but surely getting access to here, that should be easy enough to set up.

[iustise]

It would certainly be more convenient to have something that one might carry around on one's person, yes. I do have this.

[He digs his pocket watch out from his jacket and holds it up to show off.]

The trouble is that it's very difficult to keep it in time, however, with nothing to wind it to for reference.

[winscenario]

There's that, and the fact that we don't yet know for sure just how long a day is, here. Still, with your watch we might be able to reverse engineer some kind of timer that will help us measure how long the days here are. That would be a great start, and would save us a lot of unnecessary work.

What do you say, John? Willing to give us a hand?

[momsboy]

I've been using the Galactic Standard Calendar, as my team usually did when traveling across the stars, but I had memorizes what dates fits earth holidays. That's how I knew that a few weeks ago Christmas was coming.

The Galactic Standard Calendar is the standard measurement of time in the galaxy, it has 368 days long with a day consisting of 24 standard hours and it's also a luno-solar calendar, based in one planet of my Galaxy.

[winscenario]

That's pretty close to the dates on Earth, actually. Give or take a couple days, but that's about it. Stardates are based on the Earth calendar as well, seen as we were one of the founding members of the Federation, and our calendar was the most average and balanced out of all the others from each founding race. So they agreed to build an interstellar calendar based on it.

Well before my time, obviously. And the way to measure days and years has been changed a few times. Before I came here, it was 2263.4, which is the equivalent of January 4th, 2263. [ There's a pause, then he adds. ] My birthday, coincidentally.

[momsboy]

Ey, that's cool. Humans are far more easy to find across space in your universe than mine, so It makes sense that a calendar similar to Earth was established.

Not all planets I visited follow the Galactic Standard though, some alien species live for so long that they don't have a proper concept of time, or consider measuring it a waste of time.

Your birth...YOUR BIRTHDAY? Why didn't you tell me sooner? Jim, we would have organized you a b-day party! [ NOT COOL, JIM. ]

[winscenario]

That is true. We're all over the place-- like an annoying, curious plague.

[ Jim huffs out a chuckle at that, shaking his head. ]

And that's exactly why I didn't tell anyone. I didn't want a party. But thank you anyway. I did celebrate it, just... not with a party. [ And pretty much with just one specific person, but anyway. ]

[Video]

[theprezident]

We've got space travel, but we don't have "stardates" or anything like that. But we're also still just ... humans out there, which I've realised might not be the case for everyone. Peter was surprised, anyway. So we do the 365 days a year, 24 hours a day kind of thing, no matter the planet. I guess it's just easier that way.

[winscenario]

No, that seems fair. If our own first interstellar travels had happened before we met other species we'd probably have stuck to our own calendar, but we made our first allies and friends the very day our species achieved warp speed. So we got to meet many races out there who'd been traveling around the galaxy for centuries before us, and we had to adapt to them too.

[theprezident]

I won't lie, it's kind of weird that anyone else I've met here who's travelled in space meet a ton of aliens all the time. We've only got like ... a few remnants of an alien species. Don't think anyone's met any of them, and it's just the one as far as we know.

[winscenario]

That's too bad. It's really something special, getting to meet different species and different cultures. Some of them are friendlier and more exciting than others, granted, but more often than not it's a very positive experience.

Can I ask how far you've traveled, in your time?

[ Text ]

[dataset]

Are these answers being documented? I'd be interested in reading a full report of how time is measured elsewhere. 

[winscenario]

I'm compiling any and all information I can get my hands on. If you want to read it later, you're more than welcome to. You can also help put it all together, if you want. This is probably going to take a while, anyway.

[dataset]

Yes, I would like to take a look at it.

Similarly, I am compiling the data I find into detailed reports. I am willing to assemble any information you have with what I’ve gathered and update it as more information is available.

[winscenario]

Great. We can exchange ideas and compile all the information into one place, that'll be helpful. I have a farm in the Groákr Expanse, I'm there more often than not during the day.

[ In fact it's exactly where he is right now. ]

You're free to come by anytime you want.

video;

[captainmaterial]

My home somewhat lines up. Our time was based on the planet Coruscant's rotation. 368 days in a year, 5 days for a week, seven of those for a month. [Primeday, Centaxday, Taungsday, Zhelday, Benduday. 10 months + 3 festival weeks + 3 holidays. Copying those from the Wookiepedia so we can reference if necessary.] We called it the Galactic Standard.

[winscenario]

That's fairly close, when you sum it up. Weeks and months differ slightly but not by much. Do you have any measures of time, too? Like hours, minutes, seconds?

[captainmaterial]

Yeah, all of that is pretty much the same. We don't use your uh...stardates? [Everything else is a little weird and not mentioned.]

[winscenario]

No one outside of my universe, or too far behind my point in time, seems to know about them, either. That's normal, I guess, things differ like that.

Do you have an Earth, where you're from? Or have you ever heard of that planet before coming here?