Not-So-Mith'd Opportunity: Random Banter # 222

[Peelee]

How much are we talking about here anyway?

You'd have to ask them. Expect upwards of $15, though.

[Bartmanhomer]

Do you not have First Class Post in the US? You know, stamps cost less than a quid each, delivery within two days...

Yes, we have a first class post in the US. Although there's Express Mail which the delivery takes only a day but it's very expensive which cost about by $24.

[Peelee]

Do you not have First Class Post in the US? You know, stamps cost less than a quid each, delivery within two days...

Less than a quid? First class post here runs ya 0.43 pound sterling, according to my fancy googling. Who's your post guy, you're way overpaying!

[Anonymouswizard]

Less than a quid? First class post here runs ya 0.43 pound sterling, according to my fancy googling. Who's your post guy, you're way overpaying!

70p* per stamp in the UK, delivery is normally overnight but might take up to two days, excluding Sundays (if you need your letter to arrive then it's best to send it by owl). From what I'm hearing about US post that's approximately $80 dollars of value!

* so roughly £0.29

[Peelee]

70p* per stamp in the UK, delivery is normally overnight but might take up to two days, excluding Sundays (if you need your letter to arrive then it's best to send it by owl). From what I'm hearing about US post that's approximately $80 dollars of value!

* so roughly £0.29

How y'all on the metric system but don't have 100 pence make a pound?

[Qwertystop]

70p* per stamp in the UK, delivery is normally overnight but might take up to two days, excluding Sundays (if you need your letter to arrive then it's best to send it by owl). From what I'm hearing about US post that's approximately $80 dollars of value!

* so roughly £0.29

"First class" as regards mail delivery might mean different things in the UK than the US. The USPS "First-Class Mail" is the standard rate for letters and postcards up to 3.5 oz in standard size/shape envelopes, and small packages up to 13 oz, arriving in 1-3 business days.

The equivalent in the Royal Mail would probably be 2nd Class, as the cheapest option.

Also, the US is physically rather a lot larger than the UK, so "next-day anywhere in the country" is a correspondingly much larger ask.

I'm not sure where the "2-9 days" for a "plain white envelope" cited above came from. 2-8 days is the given time for Retail Ground and Media Mail, which are the cheapest options for larger packages (Media Mail is a discounted Retail Ground for specific classes of packages).

[FinnLassie]

For the most part, Finland has stopped stamping envelopes so people don't actually know how late your mail is. Quite often it takes 1 week to get something you got in 1-2 days in the not so far past. Finnish Post is a joke. We don't have 1st and 2nd class mail anymore unless you send something abroad, and our standard stamp is 1,50€.

[Anonymouswizard]

How y'all on the metric system but don't have 100 pence make a pound?

That's what all this pavlova over the last couple of years hasn't been about, isn't it?

In all seriousness, the more scientific among us younger generation can hey annoyed at how much the country doesn't use SI. Why are road signs in units of 1.6km? Why is beer served in 0.568L glasses? Can't people just use real units?

Allso, the US is physically rather a lot larger than the UK, so "next-day anywhere in the country" is a correspondingly much larger ask.

Oh sure, I get that. But considering you have to pay extra to get that delay in the UK the idea of 3-9 days as standard comes off as laughable. I'd expect standard delivery to be there within the week,even in a pave as large as the US.

[Peelee]

In all seriousness, the more scientific among us younger generation can hey annoyed at how much the country doesn't use SI. Why are road signs in units of 1.6km? Why is beer served in 0.568L glasses? Can't people just use real units?

UK: "Let's invent and use the Imperial system!"
Also the UK: "I don't understand why we have stuff in the Imperial system."

Oh sure, I get that. But considering you have to pay extra to get that delay in the UK the idea of 3-9 days as standard comes off as laughable. I'd expect standard delivery to be there within the week,even in a pave as large as the US.

I don't know where the 3-9 days came from, but as said, for letters the standard delivery is 1-3 days. Which, for the US, is damned impressive.

[Honest Tiefling]

I don't know where the 3-9 days came from, but as said, for letters the standard delivery is 1-3 days. Which, for the US, is damned impressive.

Unless it's something from the government, in which case the next ice age might occur before you receive mail...

I've managed to get jury summons months after the date. I hope I wasn't needed?

[Mystic Muse]

Two to nine days is the estimate Ebay used to give me for the cheapest available shipping through USPS, so that's what I was going off of.

[Qwertystop]

Two to nine days is the estimate Ebay used to give me for the cheapest available shipping through USPS, so that's what I was going off of.

It might be too large for First Class, so then the baseline is Retail Ground/Media Mail's 2-8 plus a potential +1 for "maybe the seller doesn't get to the post office until the next day".

[Bartmanhomer]

UK: "Let's invent and use the Imperial system!"
Also the UK: "I don't understand why we have stuff in the Imperial system."


I don't know where the 3-9 days came from, but as said, for letters the standard delivery is 1-3 days. Which, for the US, is damned impressive.

Mystic Muse said the 3-9 days part.

[LaZodiac]

Yes, that what I mean. 9 days?! Wow! Unbelievable.

Ask the post office what day they send the mail out, and only deliver mail on those days. Otherwise, accept that the mail is called "snail mail" for a reason.

Anyway: PUBBY.

It's my aunt's new dog, a King Cavalier Spainel, named NUGGET.

[Honest Tiefling]

It's my aunt's new dog, a King Cavalier Spainel, named NUGGET.

Is that for emphasis, or does she spell her dog's name in all caps all of the time? Either way, I approve of the name.

[Bartmanhomer]

Ask the post office what day they send the mail out, and only deliver mail on those days. Otherwise, accept that the mail is called "snail mail" for a reason.

Anyway: PUBBY.

It's my aunt's new dog, a King Cavalier Spaniel, named NUGGET.

I already did. I didn't put tracking in the mail.

[Insane Jeenyus]

coot widdle pubby.

[SZbNAhL]

How y'all on the metric system but don't have 100 pence make a pound?

It's quite simple; there are twelve pence to a shilling and twenty shillings to a pound, so the pound is 240 pence. Much easier than messing around with cents, pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters and dollars like some people.

As to the script debate, I'm still surprised when I see people write in print. It's just so ... slow. I wrote the below in about 150 seconds:

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Printing each individual letter would take ages. How do you take notes?

[LaZodiac]

Is that for emphasis, or does she spell her dog's name in all caps all of the time? Either way, I approve of the name.

Emphasis mine.

coot widdle pubby.

It's so cute!

It's quite simple; there are twelve pence to a shilling and twenty shillings to a pound, so the pound is 240 pence. Much easier than messing around with cents, pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters and dollars like some people.

As to the script debate, I'm still surprised when I see people write in print. It's just so ... slow. I wrote the below in about 150 seconds:

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Printing each individual letter would take ages. How do you take notes?

Efficiently. I should send some of my saved work notes, blank out any names and numbers, and show off my own terrible writing.

[enderlord99]

It's quite simple; there are twelve pence to a shilling and twenty shillings to a pound, so the pound is 240 pence. Much easier than messing around with cents, pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters and dollars like some people.

Most of those are coins, not listed values.

A dollar is a hundred cents and there are no other units. That's actually simple.

[Anonymouswizard]

It's quite simple; there are twelve pence to a shilling and twenty shillings to a pound, so the pound is 240 pence. Much easier than messing around with cents, pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters and dollars like some people.

You forgot the groats, and the crowns of course. Only a full doesn't realise how they fit in. (ETA: wow, some people can't take a joke.)

In all seriousness my fantasy settings tend to use a basic coinage system of 1 gold crown=12 silver shillings=240 copper pennies(=960 copper fathings), bared entirely on me forgetting the correct pound->shilling->penny ratio. There are, of course, alternate currencies for other nations, and intermediate coinage, but in-game you'll be tracking crowns, shillings and pennies for simplicity. The assumption is that a peasant labourer is paid in pence, while a skilled craftsman can make shillings in a week. Crowns are rare, a single one might be the promised reward for a starting 'adventure'. Might switch the denominations back to Old British and introduce silver barons as coins worth roughly one shilling and eightpence.

As to the script debate, I'm still surprised when I see people write in print. It's just so ... slow. I wrote the below in about 150 seconds:

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Printing each individual letter would take ages. How do you take notes?

...You're sure you're bit a trainee doctor? I'm sure we could scruff it up a bit more (in reality, yeah that's neat if a bit cramped, only got stuck on one word).

Now I just need to steer the conversation towards bank branches and our mothers' maiden names.

[Algeh]

Ask the post office what day they send the mail out, and only deliver mail on those days. Otherwise, accept that the mail is called "snail mail" for a reason.

Anyway: PUBBY.

It's my aunt's new dog, a King Cavalier Spainel, named NUGGET.

OHH who's a dog? With EARS and a DOG BELLY?

[DataNinja]

Now I just need to steer the conversation towards bank branches and our mothers' maiden names.

Don't have any banks, but there are still some tree branches lying around in my yard that I need to get rid of sometime, if you want those. And does discussion about my motherboard count instead?

[Qwertystop]

That is indeed a very dog, Zodi.

[Bartmanhomer]

Don't have any banks, but there are still some tree branches lying around in my yard that I need to get rid of some time if you want those. And does a discussion about my motherboard count instead?

Sarcasm. You win the gold medal for best sarcastic member in GITP.

[Insane Jeenyus]

Speaking of branches in the yard, I walked to the mail room for the apartment complex, and say a tree with about the top 15 feet of dead wood had been knocked off recently.

[factotum]

It's quite simple; there are twelve pence to a shilling and twenty shillings to a pound, so the pound is 240 pence. Much easier than messing around with cents, pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters and dollars like some people.

You realise you've just given away that you're a time traveller from before 1970?

[Insane Jeenyus]

You realise you've just given away that you're a time traveller from before 1970?

you are just now figuring that out?

[Anonymouswizard]

You realise you've just given away that you're a time traveller from before 1970?

I've travelled her from the year 1994 to ask

Do you guys think I Souls hey a beard trim before Pride? I've already got my shirt picked out, I've got some proper glasses cleaner in, and I'm going to pick up a flag, but I should be able to squeeze one in.

[LaZodiac]

I've travelled her from the year 1994 to ask

Do you guys think I Souls hey a beard trim before Pride? I've already got my shirt picked out, I've got some proper glasses cleaner in, and I'm going to pick up a flag, but I should be able to squeeze one in.

The answer depends entirely on what sort of Pride it is.