Reply to: IT Contract Billing Services

[Numptycorner]

If you don't wear a watch, as I don't, you tend to get pretty good at estimating the time.

Thats very true, I don't wear a watch and I am never more than 5 minutes out. It's bizzare but the brain is a pretty good clock.

[cojak]

They don't call you bullet for nothing, do they Zeit?

[cojak]

I'm considering lodging with zathras...

[wendigo100]

Nope, close to the middle amongst the theatres, pubs and restaurants...

So you'll just be living on the wispy periphery near the M25.

[cojak]

Nope, close to the middle amongst the theatres, pubs and restaurants...

[wendigo100]

I'm hoping to be extended (ooh er missus) but expect to be relocated from the "M4 corrider" to The Smoke.

Is that right in The Smoke, or on the wispy periphery near the M25?

[cojak]

I'm hoping to be extended (ooh er missus) but expect to be relocated from the "M4 corrider" to The Smoke.

I've never worked in London before so could be good...

[hyperD]

Well I think I can count seconds relatively accurately - but I get distracted when I have to talk to someone and can't do both at once.
Must have a male brain or something!

Bit like driving and talking (on a mobile).

I have a radio operating licence when I fly: the first thing that goes when the tulip hits the fan as you are approaching Cranfield, for example, on one engine in a Gougar GA-7 is, not surprisingly, your radio comms to the Approach.

[Rebecca Loos]

Well I think I can count seconds relatively accurately - but I get distracted when I have to talk to someone and can't do both at once.
Must have a male brain or something!

[hyperD]

I used to count seconds when I was younger. I still use the technique now. It helps if you are have some musical/rhythmical ability.

All you do is look at your watch for a few seconds and tap your foot or hand in time to the second hand. Make it feel like a heartbeat, a song bass beat or whatever.

If you are a Jedi then slow your heart rate to 60bpm.

Simply count in your mind and don't get too excited.

[wendigo100]

Wendigo I am very interested in that particular skill. I need it for the gym, when I have to stretch for a number of seconds (say 30) and people come and talk to me but I still need to keep track of the seconds whilst in conversation. How do you practice it?

Thank you

I sort of set it up in the back of your head, like the beat of a drum, and imagine the sound of the numbers and pictures of each 10.

Coincidentally, I was stretching as well last night while chatting with my daughter, but I've no idea how accurate it was, and at 120 seconds per stretch I suppose it wasn't so important.

I think the accuracy was down to calibration in idle moments. Counting along with a clock trying to get 10 seconds right, then 20, doing it with your mates to see who could get closest. After a while you learn to multitask it.

That's the sort of useless thing you sometimes find yourself doing at school. I haven't done it for many years so I'm probably way off now.

[BoredBloke]

How do you practice it

By counting. You will notice when people are doing it as their lips tend to move, or you'll see their fingers twitching at roughly one second intervals.

If you don't wear a watch, as I don't, you tend to get pretty good at estimating the time. One guy I worked with used to constantly ask me the time to see how good I was at doing it. The fact that there is a little clock at the bottom right of my screen was lost on him. The best bit was when he said.

"Ok it's 10:30 now, but I bet you won't know the time if I ask you in 5 minutes."

I used to tell him that I had been counting since he last asked me.

Only 5548375 to go......

[Rebecca Loos]

Wendigo I am very interested in that particular skill. I need it for the gym, when I have to stretch for a number of seconds (say 30) and people come and talk to me but I still need to keep track of the seconds whilst in conversation. How do you practice it?

Thank you

[wendigo100]

I am planning to be away in 5556570 seconds

As one of those useless skills, I used to be very good at counting off seconds in my head while conversing with people. I did some tests at school and was pretty accurate over one minute. I couldn't do it for three months though. Are you a savant?

[BoredBloke]

"only for two or three months so I might be back"

By the way this project is going, I fully expect it to be running when I am drawing my pension. So I'd say the chances of you getting back here would be quite high. I am planning to be away in 5556570 seconds