I think that one of the strongest indicators of insecurity is how hard you fight to win an argument when you are wrong. If you are secure in yourself, you can sacrifice an argument, lose a point, without any loss of face or loss of self-confidence. But those who argue to the final angel and pin often seem to reveal an inner self-doubt: a fear that once they concede just one point, all is lost.
The US seems to feel this way on measurement conventions as I discussed earlier today.
And while I'm on the subject, let's talk dates.
Why is it that the US insists on writing today's date, as 08/09/07??? In fact, the date is a rather pretty 09/08/07, in non-US format, or 07/08/09 in decreasing size of time units. I like them both. I lean towards the latter as a favourite, since when naming computer files, it makes for a reasonable listing convention: in dictionary order, earlier files get listed first (and actually, I almost always use 2007.08.09 as the convention, so that it works with pre-2000 files too). In addition, US americans can usually be persuaded that this is their convention too --- they seem most concerned about the month coming before the date.
Anyway, preferences apart, when I write a date these days, to avoid confusion I almost always write it as "August 9, 2007" or "27th August, 2007" --- depending on whether I am writing it for a US or non-US audience.
Yours, 070809-ily,
N.
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12 comments:
When I write out checks I use the 9 Aug 07 format, but switch when I use 8/9/07. At work we date our files with the 20070809 suffix.
I don't like how us Americans have to be different from the rest of the world with stuff like that.
ps. michele sent me.
I like 9 August, 2007. That's what I use for official correspondence... query letters, etc., usually. But we do everything different here, don't we?
Michele sent me,
Mike
because my husband was in the service i tend to use the 9AUG07 format myself. it is odd that the US Army uses that format but the country in general does not.
michele sent me
I like today's date like it is written in Spain: 09.08.07 :)
Have a happy day anyways!
Michele sent me your way!
hello again, michele sent me, but this time I want to tell you I ordered the cheese kit you wrote about recently.
I think many of us in the US have always felt the need to walk our own path. I agree on the government not liking to back down to the point of looking like a child throwing a very big tantrum. Lord knows, I didn't vote for the current head.
oh yeah, michele sent me
I do the same thing when naming files. Very logical. :) Makes perfect sense.
Michele says hello!
~S
when posting my piece yesterday I got all screwed up with the date presentation. I ended up posting it to reflect Sept 8th, 2007 by mistake.
I have never been able to get this right. I blame it on my left handed thinking. it's just one of those things.
and you're SO right.....it's a huge open insecure wound when one observes someone fighting over an issue they are dead wrong about. GW and cronies is a prime example of this way of being aren't they?
In my genealogy files I always write the month, because otherwise Americans just get confused. I don't like finding other people's data with just numbers, because I can't figure out which they mean (unless of course, there is a number greater than 12 in there).
When I type things in Microsoft Word it tries to fill in the rest of the date, American format so I have something silly like 9 August-09-2007 unless I spot it and delete it
Michele sent me
Me - I'm still stuck with 09Aug07 (although today is now 11Aug07) because that's how the military does it. Some habits die hard.
I always get confused with the dates, i do like using the actual month as it saves confision.
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