Bill's diary:
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fri 18 aug:
got my watch today - what a fantastic piece of engineering! it's big and bold, but simple in design.
it's very very light, and though it's so big i hardly know i'm wearing it. everyone at work i've 
shown it to is seriously *impressed*. some of them are even more impressed by the fact that i'm
going to try and live in another time system for 10 days in the experiment. i think that half of
them think i'm mad.
played with the watch, and worked out how it all works. two time zones of conventional time, a
stop-watch, a timer, an alarm, and Internet Time. i have set internet time using a web site - seems
a lot of people are interested in the concept...
(thoughts about the experiment): i'm not going to have any clocks in my house. no clock on the
microwave, the VCR, alarm clock radio - anything. not so hard, but waking up might be a problem. the
watch has no alarm for internet time, just a display. could be a problem.
watching TV to catch and record my favourite shows could be a bit tricky, although i don't watch
all that much TV. setting the VCR for a particular show - i simply won't be able to do.
will i try and get used to @time first, or go in to the experiment "cold turkey"? i've thought about
this, and although it may be easier to get used to the @ numbers first, i think i'll go into the
project fairly 'cold', and see how that works. will be hard going places and trying not to look at
conventional clocks) town hall square is a good example...

sat 19 aug:
still love my watch. boy, i must get a life somewhere along the line...
went visiting relatives today to catch up. all very impressed with the timepiece, and all think 
i'm mad. oh well. seems however that after i explain the swatch internet time concept to most
people, they are quite taken with the idea, and everybody seems to be most interested.
folks next door had a house-warming party, and i rocked along, met some people, and created a few
more internet time converts...
i'm trying to look at my watch more and more to tell the time, so i get used to doing that during
the project. i don't normally wear a watch, so it's a little difficult to get used to.

mon 21 aug:
started thinking about what i'd put up on the web site about the project. initially, some information
about the experiment, and afterwards, perhaps molly's and my diaries of the event. probably any media 
coverage as well.
i commandeered (well, stole...) some graphics from the Swatch web site in preparation for a re-design
of mine to incorporate the project. will have to think more seriously about that. probably do 
something next weekend...
i have been desperately trying to obtain a poster of the last Swatch ad campaign - i saw some of these
in bus shelters around town and i just HAVE to have one!! the poster shows a Beat watch hovering above
the ground like a space ship, with the words "I want to believe" below - as in the poster in fox
mulder's office. what a brilliant poster! trouble is, i can't find one - seems that there are none 
left in Australia, according to Swatch in Sydney. will try Switzerland. hope i can get one - it would
be great to have one in time for the launch of the project.

tue 22 aug:
(thoughts about the experiment): bus timetables are going to be a bit of a problem, i think. unless i
work out a metric time version. would that be cheating?? i don't think so. i'll have to make one up in
excel or something, and carry it with me.

wed 23 aug:
getting used to looking at my watch more and more. think this will help a lot.

thu 24 aug:
did some calculations to try and help me in my internet time experiment. one hour of conventional time
equals just over 40 beats (41.6), and half an hour is about 20 or 21. say 20. ...so i reckon if i have
an idea of the equivalent hours in the day, i can probably guesstimate the '@time' within a few beats
or so - eg for buses, meetings, etc. it turns out that in brisbane, @000  happens at 9 o'clock in the
morning. don't know if this will make it any easier, but perhaps the fact that the 'official' start to
the working day equates to 000 may make it easier for me to deal with - don't really know yet.
i looked up the Swatch web site to do some conversions and to produce an initial list of
"hours = beats".
worked out a couple of interesting things from this:
(1) at some stage between 2pm and 3pm, conventional time will read the same as internet time. i figured
that at 2:25, it will be @225. also figured that around this time of the day, it may be quite confusing
for a poor little internet time person like me...
(2) one o'clock in the morning conventional time is, in internet time, 666. i've dubbed this
'the devil's hour'.
i think that these two pieces of trivia may help me in some way, but i'm not sure how at this stage...

fri 25 aug:
talked to a few people at work, and tried to explain about how i will be trying to estimate @time when
the (ahem) time comes. i think i'll keep with me a list of hourly conversions, and then try to estimate
the @time, based on approx 40 beats to the hour, and 20 to the half-hour - as per my original plan.
this seems to be the best way to cope, at least initially.

sat 26 aug:
looked up the manual for my mobile phone, and managed to work out how to turn the clock display off. i
must have at some stage turned it on, but do you think i could remember how i did it? i sometimes don't
know how i cope with modern-day life, in some ways. sheesh.

sun 27 aug:
nothing much to report time-wise. continuing to wow people with the watch ("like, wow! what a great
watch!"), and those who know about the experiment are just as interested as i am to know how it goes.

sat 9 sep:
molly called me from new york to discuss things (she's been away for about the last month) and this is
the first contact we've had for a while. discussed many aspects of the experiment, and sorted out a few
details about how we were going to do it. decided to start on wednesday @000.
promised i'd have the new improved web site up and running soon, so i'd better get a wriggle on. will
start tomorrow. i promise.
(thoughts about the experiment): some things we might try and understand from the project might be:
(1) when, why and how often we look at our watches. neither of us is used to wearing a watch, so this
should be interesting - both of us from 'non-watch-wearers' to being totally dependent on our watches.
(2) are we continually converting times in our heads, or will we get to the point where we innately
'know' the @time? i think that initially, i'll certainly be converting, but i wonder whether such a
total immersion will allow me to 'think' in metric time. this also will be interesting.
ideas/concepts for the new-look web site include: a series of clocks, showing boston, brisbane and
internet time; diaries to be in ASCII text format files, to be updated every few days, perhaps; press
releases and paper clippings; and so on.
got a lot of work to do on the web site, i reckon. i'll start tomorrow. i promise.

sun 10 sep:
started procrastinating about the new web site at quite an early hour today... weather here in
brisbane is gorgeous at the moment, and doesn't lend itself well to sitting inside and designing web
pages. BUT...
i printed out a small hourly converter and stuck it to the back of my mobile phone. i'll use this in
the early stages until i get more familiar with the time scale.
i'll start the web site tomorrow. i promise.

mon 11 sep:
got a call from an old uni friend, toni, who said she's flying out to new zealand on wednesday, and
wants somewhere to stay on tuesday night (tomorrow!) she's taking off about 8:30am, so she'll be 
gone by around 7:30 - which is before the experiment starts, which is a GOOD thing. if she was to
come a day later, i'm not sure that things wouldn't be in a bit of a muddle!
got to thinking about that web site thingy. better start on it tomorrow.

tue 12 sep:
finally did the re-design of the web site - geez, i work well under pressure! needs some more content,
but i'm pleased with the way it looks and works.
toni arrived around 8:30pm, and we had some dinner (pizza) with friends (mind you, these are the same
friends who have promised to come around with clocks, and spook me by waving them around in front of
my windows...!).
i then prepared myself for the next day by promptly hiding most of the clocks. no wonder everyone
thinks i'm mad...
toni and i had a hell of a time trying to set the alarm - she seemed convinced that she should be
still thinking in NSW time (one hour ahead - daylight saving), whilst trying to reconcile whether
6:30am NSW time is the same as 7:30 QLD time, and whether the one-hour difference should be ahead
or behind or what. in the end we worked out that she should just go with the flow and adopt QLD time,
which then worked out ok. hell, if a simple thing like daylight saving can throw normally sane
people into a dither, then i shudder to think of what i'm getting myself into tomorrow...

wed 13 sep:
toni left for the airport around 7:30, as planned, and i busied myself hiding the remaining clocks,
and re-booting the microwave and VCR (they both flash meaningless numbers now...). at 9am, i
ceremoniously turned off the radio alarm clock, and switched my Beat watch to internet time,
knowing that this was the only time i will be allowed to look at for the next 10 days. a bit scary.
i realised that i still had a diary that had conventional times in it, so had to make up a series of
@time equivalents that i've now stuck over the hours in my diary. now i know i'm obsessed.
finished off some remaining web site stuff (java applets that refused to work), and got ready to
go into the city for work. no idea what the time really is, but managed to catch a bus without waiting
too long (i decided against the internet time bus timetable, as i thought i could probably handle
this using my feeble brain, and the buses come every 20 beats, anyway...)
managed to walk through town without looking at any of the various clocks that pepper the CBD. i really
have to concentrate, so as not to look at other clocks - pretty difficult, by hey, it's only the first
day.
actually managed to schedule a meeting for tomorrow - at @041 - with a colleague who i think is
probably humouring me about this time thing.
really had no idea at any time of the day what the actual conventional time was. it was a little
disarming, to be honest, and makes me realise very early on how much we rely on knowing "the time".
managed to catch a bus home without too much fuss. walking through the city, all the shops were
closing, and i noted that the time was around @350 or so. i think that if i take note of 'when things
happen' and equate that with an @time, then i think it will be much easier to adjust. i'll try that
and see how it goes.
back at home, i find that i glance up at the empty space where the kitchen clock was, on a fairly
regular basis. i wasn't really aware i was doing that so often. mmmmmm.
i organise to call a friend in canberra @520, which i figured would be around 9:30 my time, and 10:30
her time (daylight saving), and really have to think about the conversion factors, and realise that
i'm still really thinking in conventional time - probably because the rest of the people in my world
(molly excepted) is, too.
i rang my sisters in melbourne to tell them about the new web site stuff, and it turns out that my 
sister's boyfriend works at a community radio station in melbourne, and wants to do a radio interview
with me about the metric time experiment on wednesday of next week. woohoo!
one thing about the watch, though. it doesn't have an internet time alarm, so i'll have to rely on my
body clock / biorhythm to wake up in the morning. watch this space - i'm sure it will be interesting...

thu 14 sep:
well, managed to wake up without an alarm. felt pretty good about that, i can tell you. i had told
my body to wake up @930, and actually woke @925. trouble was, i had a late night last night updating
the diary, and went back to sleep - woke again @995! aaaaarrghh! thinking about the meeting i had
arranged for @041, i raced around like a mad thing to get to the meeting on time. i think (but i'm
not quite sure, mind you) that the bus was late. how embarrassing - the first meeting scheduled
using internet time, and i was late for it!. hayden was ok with it though, and probably thought it
was quite amusing. i think he's still humouring me...
geez, it's hard not to look at clocks. never noticed it so much, but it must be an innate part of our
(well, my...) nature. i'm finding it difficult to see a clock in the distance and "not" look at it.
i had to answer the phone today and talk to someone in Alice Springs (different time zone) who then 
wanted to ring back at a certain time to catch the person they'd called, and asked me what time it
was in brisbane. boy, did he pick the wrong person to ask! i had to check the back of my phone for
the converter and do a quick calculation. i'm thinking that i'll probably have to do this sort of
thing again before the project ends...
i've written down on a 'post-it note' (a rather fetching shade of fluorescent green) a list which
i think i'll carry with me for the duration of the experiment. it's a kind of activity list, and i
think it'll help me. it is simply a list of common things i do during the day, with equivalent internet
times that i should be doing them. at present, it reads: "wake up @930. start work @000. lunch @150. 
end work @350. dinner @450. bed @600". that's as far as i have got.
am tired. i think the stress of living in another time dimension is wearing me out...

fri 15 sep:
i'm finding things (1) sometimes easy; and (2) sometimes a bit difficult; and (3) sometimes ok.
i'll explain.
(easy)(sort of...):
the "metric-ness" of the clock doesn't seem to be a real worry for me - that is, the fact that it reads
out in divisions of 100 instead of divisions of 60. i originally thought that i may be a little
confused, especially for instance if the clock reads @158 -- my natural reaction would be to think 1:58,
almost 2. this would be hard if the numbers were less than 60, but less difficult if the numbers
were between 60 and 100. i'm finding that this is not so confusing. i think that it has to do with
the way i generally 'say the time' when i'm thinking internet time. i tend to say the three numbers
on after another, such as "one-five-eight", rather than the more conventional way that we get used to,
using conventional time, of "one-fifty-eight". of course, this is easier when it is, for instance, @792.
there's no way we use those sorts of numbers in our conventional time notation. but if i get used to
saying the time in the 3-figure notation, then for some reason i find the numbers less confusing to
deal with.
(difficult):
i find the time a little difficult to cope with at particular times of the day, too, which is a little
strange. at the moment, i'm working in the city, and catching buses, and having lunch, etc. etc. i find
that any time whilst i'm at work, there are things going on around me that other people are doing
(having morning/afternoon tea, lunch, leaving work, etc.) that give the time a sort of 'context', so
i find it easier to deal with the strangeness of @time. after i got home from work though, i find that
there is no real contextual external factors that help me to innately know what time it is. i don't
really watch a lot of TV, and apart from a few phone calls and visitors over the last few days, i'm
free to make dinner, relax, read, or whatever - without having a definitive awareness of the "time".
i've made a note to myself that @600 is around when i should be in bed - and i guess that helps - but
it's still a little disconcerting.
(difficult):
i think also that the numbers are a little confusing for me. (i think this will be really different for
molly on the other side of the world, and i will be interested about her comments about this...) i have
been waking up between 900 and 930; working till 330, and going to bed between 500 & 600. even though
i know it's not the case, it seems that i'm waking 'later' and going to sleep 'earlier'. it almost
feels as if my "day" has been shortened (from purely a numbers perspective, of course). it's probably
the first time in my life that it's been ok to wake up at 930, though...    but then again, going to
bed before 600 really sucks. it's actually funny how this has worked out, because the numbers in other
parts of the world (including Boston) will be completely different, and this numbers-confusion problem
i'm experiencing will not really be a problem for them. interesting...
(ok)
for the most part though, i think it's going pretty well. i'm beginning to get used to the numbers, and
to what part of the day they refer. i still struggle with the urge to look at clocks, though.
when i got to the bus stop this afternoon, some guy asked me the question i has been dreading since
i started  -- "hey, what's the time?".   i was pretty much lost for words to simply explain what 
i was doing, and i was indeed without a real clue to what time it was (even though i was so obviously
wearing a pretty serious watch). he quite patently though i was a loony, and moved away. don't really
blame him, i guess. although, i really think that he looked a lot weirder than i did. he had a
nose ring and purple hair, for a start...

sat 16 sep:
karen and rhondda came around last night to watch the opening ceremony of the sydney olympics, and
managed to endure a household with no clocks (although i noted that they both wore watches...). no
real idea what time we went to bed, but it was seriously late, i think...
not much happening today - karen and rhondda coming around later to watch some of the olympics -
swimming finals, etc. it is certainly easier to get through the day without looking at clocks if
you are not at work or in the city, i've decided. went shopping at Indooroopilly shopping centre
without getting  too confused about the time. a lot of shops started to close up around @230, which
i thought was a bit early. (and it was - closing time for most places was @291...  or so i thought).
early night, watching some olympics stuff.

sun 17 sep:
woke pretty early  and realised i'm getting quite used to the numbers on my watch - a kind of
familiarity i didn't think i'd have after such a short time. i think the total exclusion of other
conventional time has played a big part in this. i'm still kind of equating the numbers back to the
'hours' of a day, but i haven't had to consult my conversion table for quite a while now.
i organised to meet some friends (peter and jo) for lunch @185 today at 'the jazzy cat' cafe, in the
West End area of brisbane (BTW - fantastic food, sensational wine, superb jazz music, - definitely
a great afternoon out at a reasonable price!). got there actually on time (surprise, surprise!), and
had another interesting time explaining to yet another group of people  about internet time. it's
utterly surprised me, but i never tire of explaining to people about this, because i invariably get
a similar reaction - initially they think it's a joke; then they understand  and agree that it's a
good idea; and then support it.
i find that i have been (probably on purpose?) staying away from watching TV. i'm wondering why this
is. i've thought that if i know what (conventional) time a program is on, maybe i'll kind of revert
back to old time, and stuff things up. that's probably true. in fact, i really haven't missed that
much that i consider that i have missed. maybe if i watched more TV this experiment may have had
a harder 'media' edge?? timing in a lot of media quarters is important, if not critical...
having said that about TV, it's actually a bit convenient to have the olympics on at the moment,
because channel 7 has continuous coverage at all hours of the day and night, and it doesn't matter
what time paradigm you're in, you can always see olympics events at any time of the night or day...
it's pretty good that i could manage to organise the olympics to coincide with the 10-day global
internet time experiment, don't you think? NOT that there was any *bribes* involved....


mon 18 sep:
my colleague hayden seems to have taken quite an interest in this internet time thingy.. hayden rang
me when i was on the bus this morning, wanting to know when i could meet with him and work on this
project we are working on. i told him i'd be at work in 20 beats or so and would call him. i did, and
he asked me the time (it was @161). he said he'd be up to meet @175. at least i wasn't going to be
late for this one...
the day went pretty quickly. i checked on the web site to see if the clock java applets were displaying
the correct time - i've been told there's problems. my friend lorraine in canberra rang me to say that
when she looks at the java clocks, they are 2 hours wrong. i rang tech support at my ISP, to try and
get them to check the time on the web server computer. think they could do that for me? yeah, right.
after checking it, it looks like the applets take the time based on the local time on the computer
of the person who's looking at the site. which doesn't really make sense to me. anyway, lorraine's
clock shows the correct time, so i really can't work out what is going wrong when she looks at the 
site. really a bit confusing. might have something to do with daylight saving (she's one hour ahead),
but i still haven't worked it out...

tue 19 sep:
had a pretty easy day. got woken up early (about 890) by lorraine ringing from canberra (on daylight
saving time). i helped her with an application for a job, and e-mailed it to her about the middle of the
morning. went into work and did a bit. left early (around @280, rather than @330).
i'm tending to watch a lot of the olympics when i come home. apart from the fact that it's a kind of
continuous visual feast, we're actually winning quite a few medals at the moment.
i feel really quite comfortable now with internet time numbers, and find that i don't have a desperate
urge to look at other clocks, in the way i did when i first started.
my sister helen rang to tee up the radio interview with david tomorrow. said david is going to
ring me at 4:10pm in the afternoon (we had to use their time system, of course...), and the interview
will be live. sounds good.
a few people have asked me what time system i'll use after the experiment. i always assumed that i'd 
revert back to normal, conventional time. at the moment though, i'm really not quite sure...
at the moment, i'm feeling too lazy to cook, so i'm hunched over my keyboard, eating pizza. i feel like
a REAL computer nerd... sheesh!


wed 20 sep:
woke early this morning, thinking about whether helen meant 4:10pm her time (they are on daylight
saving) or 4:10pm my time for the radio interview. rang her, and it turns out that she meant 4:10pm
her time, which was 3:10pm my time. mmmmmm. i think these type of situations is the reason Internet
Time was invented in the first place...
toni rang me while i was on the bus to work, saying she was back in brisbane after her skiing trip 
to new zealand, and could she come over? suggested 11am at my place, making a mental conversion to
beats. this time i wasn't late, managing to catch a taxi at the right (internet) time to get home
in time.
had the radio interview this afternoon (at the appointed time of around @255). went quite well, i think,
and i'm hoping to get the tape of the interview transferred into 'real audio', so i can put it on the
web site.
blobbed around tonight, ringing up friends and family, and generally having a good time.

thu 21 sep:
i must admit that working for myself has some advantages. i really have the flexibility to work when
it suits me (or when i run out of money, which is rather often...). one thing i've thought about during
this experiment is whether i would be any more cognisant or 'aware' that i was living in internet
time if i had a more strict and 'standard' 9 to 5 job. a job where i had to get to work at a set time,
have lunch between this and that, and go home at the same time every day. i think that on the one hand
i would probably get more used to certain numbers equating with certain 'times' or 'events' - this
happens with me now anyway, but it would likely me more noticeable, i think. on the other hand, i may
simply become stuch in a time-based routine that just had different numbers to guide me through.
living as i do, i tend to do different things at different times, and this has added a complexity
that i think has given a unique spin to this project.
maybe i'll get a more strict full-time job and try the experiment again...
organised a meeting tomorrow for @200 somewhere in the southern suburbs. this will test my @time
skills, i think.

fri 22 sep:
well, folks, only one more day to go. it's been quite an interesting time, i reckon.
i said a few days ago that i wasn't sure what i'd do (time wise) when the experiment is over. i'm
still not 100% sure, but i think that maybe i might try and live using a dual system - maybe have the
@time on my watch, and still have all my other clocks around. it might be interesting to see how i
deal with that, i think. at least if i'm in any doubt about the time, i can simply click the button
on my watch and check the conventional time that way (one of the things i wasn't allowed to do during
the last 10 days).
my friend lorraine is flying in from canberra tomorrow. luckily, her plane gets in after the project
finishes, so i shouldn't have a problem getting to the airport in time to meet her.
i think it'll be quite good to deal in conventional time again, even though it's been an interesting
time living without it. in the radio interview, david asked whether i feld 'isolated' (or something
like that) from the rest of society because i use a different time scale. i think that to a certain
extent, i do feel a little 'on my own'. not in the same way as some people, but i do feel that i'm
living in a different little world. we all do that to some degree anyway, i suppose.
my own little world has been quite an interesting place over the last 10 days, though.


sat 23 sep:
well, i'm writing this @275 - it's only about 25 beats to go, and then it's all over. a really
interesting exercise, i think you'll agree. i guess i'll be busying myself this morning getting
all the clocks back up and working, re-setting the VCR, things like that. and i've got a plane to
catch...
better go and post this on the web site. catch you all another time. (get it?)  ;-)


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(c) bill collins, 2000