The diary presented here
is not only perpetual in that a date always falls on the same day of the
week, but also in that it can be used in and for any year, regardless of
its being a leap year or not.
It is based on the Metric World Calendar introduced, 41 years after the
end of the Second World War, as the
'Quaternary Metric Calendar' in
the
Book of Symbols of the
Model of Neutral-Inclusivity.
There is no need anymore to use the Gregorian-Christian or any other such
calendar, yet for the time being it will be possible to
add Gregorian
dates to the Metric ones for those who have to communicate with people
who still annually buy and actually use a diary rooted in this
historically malformed freak of culture.
The possibility to add these 'foreign' dates is the only concession: for
the rest the user will not be bothered, nor indoctrinated, with preprinted
references to supernaturalist, monarchist or other exclusivist
(non)events.
Those who are fond of them can and may freely enter such notes
themselves.
At the top on the left of each page of the diary proper you find the year
number of the week, the abbreviation of
the compass name or the Model name of the
Metric month and, if enough space, the Month-Day codes for the first and
last days of that week.
At the top on the right you can find whether the page shows the first,
second, third or fourth week of the month, unless you opt for showing the
Gregorian dates.
At the bottom of the page, in the box reserved for the eighth week day,
you find both the Week-Day codes of the week in question (the left side
of the equation) and the Month-Day codes (the right side, with the month
represented by a number).
The use of the
(Year-)Week-Day code is the most
practical, the use of the compass names for the months the most informal
and unrelated to any particular denominational or political system.
The use of the (Year-)Month-Day code is more formal and in
combination with the Model names of the months suitable for special, even
solemn, occasions.
(For an illustration of this see, for instance,
Go Global, Go Metric.)
You have the following general options with respect to the presentation of
the diary cover and week pages on screen:
- which week or weeks you want to be shown on screen (and printed out);
this is done by entering a number or range between 1 and 52; '0' will
display the outside cover pages, '53' the inside ones: '0-53' will
display the whole Metric diary
- a choice between
compass and Model names and
abbreviations at the top of the week pages.
(At the bottom the number of the month is used and at the back of the
diary there is a table which shows which compass name and which
Model name corresponds with that number.)
- the Gregorian dates in italics at the top on the right instead of the
week and the name of the Metric month, the Gregorian date in italics
in each day cell on the right at the bottom and the Gregorian-Metric
correspondence of week days on the inside back of the cover
- the number of week pages you want to see in one row, for example, 4,
so that every row represents a Metric month. (In the standard
metric paper size versions this number is 2.)
- the width of each page: somewhere between 350 and 600 pixels, if you
intend to use this diary on paper. (In the standard versions 450
pixels for size A5, 350 for size A6.)
- the height of each of the day cells that make up a week: about 100
to 130 pixels, or only 40 to see what the page will look like.
(The text on the inside cover pages requires a height of at least 100
pixels per cell.)
The metric international standard paper sizes are A0 with an area of one
square meter, A1 with an area of half a square meter, A2 with an area of a
quarter of a square meter, and so on, each one with the same (aspect) ratio
of its length to its height.
Of this A series A4 is the most frequently used for printing documents and
brochures.
TRINPsite therefore provides the following specific options with respect to
the presentation of the Metric diary cover and week pages on A4-size
paper which is subsequently cut and folded to one of the smaller sizes:
- a
standard A5-size diary, that is, a diary of 14.8 cm by 21.0 cm
in which a table of two weeks together covers an A4 area;
this A4-size table will have to be printed in landscape style;
the pages are shown in the order in which they should be printed
on paper: after entering one of the numbers from 1 to 26, the other
week page will be supplied automatically to the left or right of
it, with enough room in between for the spine of the booklet;
the spine text contains a code in which 'A' stands for the front and
'B' for the back of a double-sided sheet
- a standard A6-size diary, that is, a diary of
10.5 cm by 14.8 cm in which a table of two weeks together covers an
A5 area;
this A5-size table will have to be printed in portrait style, either
with one table at a time or with two tables (one at the top, one at
the bottom) on A4-size paper;
again, the pages are shown in the order in which they should be
printed on paper (see above);
the spine code now also contains either a 'T' or a 'B' in
which the former stands for the top table and the latter for the
bottom table on the front (A) or back (B) side of the sheet;
it is recommended to print the top tables in the normal way, one at
a time, and the bottom tables upside-down, also one at a time (in
such a way that the same side of each paper goes
thru
a printer twice and in opposite directions)
- the year on the front cover can be preprinted (even the year of a
backward incompatible calendar, should you so desire) and the name
of the owner as well (you yourself or someone you would like to give
the diary to in a gesture which, you must not forget, will then
become irreversible)
Dates between parentheses refer to the days in a leap year.
In the Metric World Calendar this applies solely to the very last day of
the year, which may or may not be an extra day.
In the Gregorian-Christian calendar these dates start on 29 February and
continue until the rest of the year.
The Metric day of the week corresponds with the same Gregorian day of the
week for a whole year (or half a year before and after the end of a leap
year).
If you have chosen for the display of Gregorian dates as well, you will
find a table on the inside back of the cover where you can fill in the
Metric-Gregorian correspondence for the current year.
Thus, in 68 aSWW the first day of the week falls on a Gregorian Saturday,
the second on a Sunday, etc, until 68.26.8.
From 68.27.1 the first day of the week falls on a Gregorian Sunday, the
second on a Monday, etc, until 69.26.8.
The correspondence between the dates of the two calendars is only valid
(because fixed) so long as Metric leap years are made to coincide with
Gregorian ones.
At MVVM-site (mvvm.net) you can find more information about a Metric diary
printed on paper (good for any and every year!) and about The Metric
Calendar, a Metric Diary, an ebook with a detailed account of the
Metric Calendar not even found on TRINPsite or MVVM-site itself.
The ebook also contains the Metric Diary, but presented in 53 images
on screen in color.
The subdomain metric.mvvm.net will immediately take you to the page
with the presentation of these two publications.
