A Study in the Relativity of Time and Distance
Time is relative. So is space and distance. I would like to give you a few examples of this.
Distance: A Study in Seattle
A mile seems to be longer in Seattle than Dallas. Seattle, as it is sandwiched by water on both sides in what scientists call a "water sandwich", has no space or ability to sprawl. Dallas on the other hand, is a classic example of urban sprawl where areas that were farmland just a few short years ago are now dotted with malls and home improvement warehouses. Seattle also seems more European in that residents actually want to be centrally clustered, and downtown is actually a lively, bustling place. Dallas is very pioneery-old-westy in that they continue their manifest destiny out towards McKinney, and try to be as far from their neighbors as possible. Downtown is a ghost town.
Neither is wrong or right. My only point is that I am used to jumping in the car and it taking me 30-60 minutes to get anywhere. When I look at a map of Dallas, I know how big that is and how long it takes to get where. When I look at Seattle I just assume it's roughly the same size and plan for it to take me an hour to get all the way from the NW side of town to the SE side....only to find it takes about 20 minutes. Conversely, Seattliens tend to balk at distances, thinking something that is a 20 minute drive is just ridiculously far.
Time: A Study at Coney Island
When in NYC a few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of spending the day at Coney Island. (I also attended the US Open Tennis tournament, and you can see the photos from both in my NYC flickr set.) At one point we happened along some breakdancers on the boardwalk:
They were kind of marching in place, waiting for a crowd to gather before they started their show. They would shout things out at each other and clap in unison. The main guy would shout out to his comrades and the crowd: "How many seconds to showtime???" And the secondary main guy would should back: "Showtime in 30 seconds!!" Then 30 seconds later...
The main guy would shout out: "How many seconds to showtime???" And the secondary main guy would should back: "Showtime in 10 seconds!!" Then 10 seconds later after a bigger crowd had walked up, and it looked like more people might be coming over...
The main guy would shout out: "How many seconds to showtime???" And the secondary main guy would should back: "Showtime is in 30 seconds!!"
....
Anji and I were so confused. Then when we went to the freak/sideshow, the ticket selling girl told us to wait 15 minutes before we bought our tickets. We sat there at the bar for 10 minutes, and we were going to get up buy tickets, but we heard her tell the next person in line to wait 15 minutes. !?!?!!?? So this is a warning...Coney Island is running on some crazy offset time, and you must be vigilant so you don't miss SHOWTIME. Which is in 30 seconds, 30 seconds from now.
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