The simple things you never knew
 

I really did think that everyone in the world used A4 sized paper :( :(

What mind-boggling revelations have you had about stuff you've always taken for granted?

What size exactly is this A4 paper you speak of? 8.5 X 11 inch size paper is basically standard for school and work, at least with most of the people/companies I've dealt with.

A4 is 210mm by 297mm, which Google converts to 8.27 x 11.69 inches.

There are people who have never heard of A4? :(

I have never touched that type of paper with stated dimensions ever in my 22 and a half years of existence on this planet.

A4, A5, Letter, Legal, what the heck, all is a matter of preference. Here in Manila the letter size seems to be the standard for school work and legal for corporate, but I submit resumes in A4 to stand out. :D teehee

Back on topic though, I always thought the Dragon Ball series was made in China. :P It was not until I was in high school til I noticed the japanese characters and lyrics during the intro scene. I dunno, maybe because Dragon Ball had a unique style (especially the facial features and hair on the characters) amidst all the same looking big eyed blu haired animes then. meh.

This is really retarded but until I went to work for a dental financial consulting firm, I never knew that dentists were "real" doctors with as much education as medical doctors, just on a different part of the body. I just always thought they were highly educated tooth fixers.

I played pool (billard) and I puckered the black ball in. Not knowing that the black ball needs to be the last one to end the game. There were still like 5 or 6 balls left. ;_;

When I was about, oh, 10 or 11, I thought that "sex" was merely the act of penetration, and then after that, people just kind of sat there and that was it. I didn't realize there was all this thrusting and moving about involved.

O god, GERMANY uses A4. Its slimmer and longer than our 8.5x11". I think it's A4 anyways. It's such a bitch to deal with that paper when I'm using US paper and I need to shove everything into a file. I am so OCD about files and paper alignment. I will go as far as cutting off the extra on the German paper just so the papers align.

As far as revelations, ha ha. This one is pathetic. Until about 3 years ago, I thought Thursday was spelled THRUSday. And the word epitome I spelled "opitomi." I have no idea.

Apart from that, there have been some interesting cultural differences I've noticed between Americans and others, but nothign MAJOR.

When I was in elementary school, I always thought Marion Barry was two people: Mary and Barry. :p

Man, he sure put the Columbia into District of Columbia.

As for the paper sizes stuff, I know about them. I don't really know where from. I think I just looked them up out of curiosity after seeing them in MS Word or something many years ago. :/

Despite I live in the US I actually like A4 better. It's slimness is more pleasent on the eye, and the ratio of the A4 (which is 1.4135, thanks for posting the numbers I never knew it was this) is a bit closer to the golden ratio (1.618).

On topic, in Junior High school that I realized there was a New York City, and a New York State. :edgartpg:

Similiarly Washington DC, and Washington State double :edgartpg:

Didn't know it even existed. They name paper?!

Well, they don't actually double since they're on complete opposited ends of the country and all.

I didn't know my grandmother's name until I was 10. Even my parents called her nan.

HOLY SHIT THE WORLD AS I KNEW IT IS NO MORE

When I was just a little Capo, I thought that oral sex was just talking about sex. =o

Did you know peanuts grew in the ground? I always thought there was a peanut bush or something and you picked them, but they're root plants.

Yeah. Well. I don't really think of where my peanuts come from.

LOL! This should be quote of the year! LMAO!

Yeah, up until a few weeks ago, I didn't know that girls shirts had the buttons on the other side. Well, I guess that's because I've never worn a girls shirt before but still, my friends were pretty surprised when I told them that.

A girl I was talking to at school thought that guys never got boners in public, ever. I had to explain the waistband or "quick tuck" to her in full detail, with the help of a few of my male comrades.

I didn't know that. I'VE HAD A REVELATION! Seriously though, why do the buttons need to be on different sides?

Anyways, I pronounced Arkansas "arr-CAN-zas" for a very long time. Seriously, it's spelled like Kansas but with an Ar in front of it, so why "ARR-can-saw"? I was so embarrassed when someone corrected me on that. I also didn't know until a couple years ago that most people have their Christmas family gatherings on Christmas Day rather than Christmas Eve. I'd always gone to my grandparents' on Christmas Eve, so I had never given it a second thought.

Since I'm talking about the holidays now, I'll mention that I had a really funny impression of what Boxing Day was for a while. I knew that people in Britain celebrated it, so when I was little I figured that it was a day where there was a big boxing match in Britain and everyone watched. That belief stuck with me well into my teenage years for some reason. I figured out later that it probably didn't involve boxing, but it wasn't until recently I read up on what the holiday is all about.

Oh man, I absolutely love A4 paper. Because of that WONDERFUL ratio that rocketdog mentioned, it's perfect for printing zines and pamphlets! I can't believe you wily Americans don't have it! I'd be glad to send you some, you poor, deprived souls.

This one's kinda stupid but, when i was in grade 5 (the first time Canadians get exposed to sex ed in school) my teacher held the female genetalia diagram sideways for some reason (and it was a really weird diagram now that i think of it) and i thought that the vagina and the urethra (sp?) were the same hole. Yeah, got a bit of a shock when i hit grade nine (year two of sex ed)

It never ocurred to me that people in other countries would teach their pets commands in their native languages until my time in Germany.

A female friend of mine didn't realize that guys experience shrinkage when they're cold. Some friends and I had some fun explaining it to her, and her not getting it. We think she was holding out for an example.

I'll probably remember more later.

wait you don't have a4? OHSHI

When I was young (say about 11-12-ish), I thought sex was 2 people standing up rhythmically hitting groins together by doing pelvic thrusts towards each other. ._.;;


I'll remember more some other time.

When I was in middle school, I knew what sex was, but I thought oral sex was a fancy term to describe kissing. After all, that made sense <.<

The buttons are on the other side so you can take her shirt off easily with one hand.

I didn't know that different countries use different power voltages. I learned the hard way on a trip to the Phillippines years ago when I plugged in my PS1 and it started smoking, a lot, after 10 or so seconds. I wrecked my PS1, and was reluctant to plug anything in after that.

Hmm. Thanks for educating me. I've heard it pronounced, and I've seen it written, but for obvious reasons I never made the connection, and assumed that they were two different words.

I'm English, and I used to think that's where the name derived from. Only when I was a kid, mind you...

Up until 8th grade, I had thought Puerto Rico was Cuba.

I still don't really know where Puerto Rico is on a map.

I thought Oral Sex was a special type of kissing, like French Kissing, except you like move the toungues in and out of each other's mouths or something. >.>;

I mispronounced foliage as foilage, and a few other words like that. I dunno how but I've understood sex for as far back as I can remember, oddly.

What kind of person hasn't seen Seinfeld?

Well.. I actually just like legal better than anything else. I also like tabloid size but that can be hard to work with.

I've never had too many of those moments myself, but my friends sure have. Here's a quick list of epiphonies my friends have had:

1. You don't own the property if you're paying rent.

(yeah my friend got mad when i told him the cleaning guys would probably be in his place while we were working and he said that he's paying money so that they couldn't get into his "property" unless he was home. his tantrum went on longer than that, but you get the idea)

2. All guys masturbate.

(my friend got mad when she found out that her b/f masturbated instead of trying to call her over. i explained to her it's either wait almost 40 minutes to get a hold of you or just beat it. she didn't like that at all :p)

3. Air at the gas station isn't free except for paying customers.

(same friend with the rent thing. i asked him for change for the air machine and he got pissed after i told him i needed it cuz it wasn't free. he was under the assumption that it was free if you just asked them, but i explained that they probably did it for him cuz they thought he had already pumped gas. he was still mad.)

4. Flashing your head lights is a way people communicate while driving.

(another time with the rent guy. whenever i'd pull up to a stop sign or whatever i'd flash my headlights for the other person to go. my friend thought i was just trying to be an ass or something i dunno. i had to sit him down and explain it to him)

when i think of more stories, i'll let you guys know, especially if they have to do with my own personal revelations

Ha. To this day, I still don't know how to properly pronounce the word "harbinger". I was once told, but forgot soon thereafter.

Does it end like the word "singer"?

Or does it end like "Henry Kissinger"?

I can never figure it out.

You'd do that every time, just to tell him to go? Your friend was right, you WERE being an ass :\

If someone was driving behind me and kept flashing their lights at me, I'd assume that there was something seriously wrong with my car, like my tail lights were out or I had a dead dog tied to my bumper or something.

Double Post:
Har (as in har har).

Binge (as in binge drinking).

Er (as in Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, Crash can't read IPA :P )

I was going to say something more interesting, but really, I never heard of A4 before, and this is just about the most interesting thing I've seen. Why in hell won't America adopt such structure as the international standard again?

Wikipedia is awesome.

For the same reason America won't adopt the metric system. Stubbornness..

Up until middle school, I thought sex was where both got nude and jumped into a bathtub. Inside, the sperm would come out of somewhere, travel through the water, and enter somewhere. This misconception came from a picture in a sex ed book with a obese couple in a yellow bathtub.

People didn't know about A4? Ok, I'm sorry but this is really a surprise.

Double Post:
Huh? it isn't?

I've heard of A4 and such, but our teachers only supply 8.5x11 and 11x17 :(.

When I was young, like really young, for some reason I thought sex involved a man peeing inside a woman lol. I guess because I didn't know of anything else that COULD come out?? I don't know.

It ends like "singer".

har - like "hard" - bing - as in Bing Crosby - er - as in...well...."er"

It wasn't even anything to do with racism, but when I was a little kid, I used to think black people were coloured so because they were born out of their mother's, uh, other hole.

It seemed logical to me at the time :/

Up until a few months ago, I always thought it was spelled sequal.

Main Entry: 1har·bin·ger
Pronunciation: 'här-b&n-j&r
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English herbergere, from Anglo-French, host, from herberge camp, lodgings, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German heriberga
1 archaic : a person sent ahead to provide lodgings
2 a : one that pioneers in or initiates a major change : PRECURSOR b : one that presages or foreshadows what is to come

Based on its entry in the dictionary I've pronounced it "har-bin-jer" since I can remember learning that word in high school.

Ahaha. That's awesome. <3

I have a story related to black people as well, and my mom constantly reminds me of it.

When I was 4 or so, and saw my first black guy, I apparently said to him "You should take a bath, you're covered in dirt". I guess I'm lucky that he didn't get angry. Mom tells me he laughed and explained that his skin was darker.

When I was little I somehow used to think Africans and other black people over were simply permanently really tanned because their home country was so hot.

I only found out last week that Seattle is on the west coast.

...

A4 is the standard paper size outside of the US and Canada?

Can somebody explain to me why the typical Canadian still uses feet and inches and pounds when describing a person? We supposedly use the metric system, but the typical person doesn't know their own height and weight in metric units. It's retarded.

Ahaha, wow, this makes me comfortable enough to say mine. Up until about a year ago, I used to think that Wednesday was spelled Wensday. It's just one of those things that are so common you never really think about them.
Still ... for shame :(

The typical person I know doesn´t even know that feet and inches are used to measure lenghts and heights. Pounds are still in use in Germany, although not as an official unit - you can get into real trouble if you only print a pound value on your product. So it´s just retarded for the typical canadian person. ;)

---

I always thought it was stupid that german motorways share the same name for both directions. I never knew if I was driving in the right direction when I was not familiar with geography of that area.

Over three years after getting my drivers license I finally figured out that I just have to look at the numbers printed next to the name of the exits. When my exit has the number 40 and the numbers go 50... 49... 48 everything is fine. If it is 43... 44... 45 I´m obviously driving in the wrong direction.
I think they don´t tell you that in driving school because it´s so extremely easy to get.

I thought that was normal? Unless I've misread it, its the same in England.

So, something random to add here.

In lists of classic books, I always saw Don Quixote listed. It was never something I had read, or knew anything about. The other day, I heard someone talking about it, and of course they pronounced it as "key-ho-te", and it finally hit me. I never realized the name "Don Quixote" came from Spanish origin, and had been pronouncing it as "quicks-oat" in my mind. And until now, I never pieced together that the two pronunciations were the same book.

Here in the states, the inter-state highways (and most numbered state routes), have a small sign underneath the route number indicating East/West/North/South-bound direction of travel.

Speaking of the American Interstate System, up until a few years ago, I didn't know that there was a method to the madness of interstate numbering:

Major interstate route numbers are giving one or two digit designations. Even numbered routes run east-west, and odd numbered routes run north-south. The lower the route number, the further southwest you get. So, for example, I-10 runs east west along the southern border of the U.S., and I-5 runs north-south along the west coast with I-95 running north-south along the east coast and I-90 running along the northern border.

Major interstate routes that run through dense urban centers frequently break off into beltways around the city, or spur routes into the city. Beltways are given an even numbered prefix, while spur routes are given an odd numbered prefix. For example, I-95 runs right through Wilmington, DE; Philadelphia, PA; and Trenton, NJ. Just south of Wilmington, it breaks off into two beltways: 495 and 295. I-495 just bypasses Wilmington. I-295 is much longer, and goes around the collected urban centers of Wilmington, Philadelphia, and Trenton. Up around Trenton, I-95 shoots off a spur across NJ towards Point Pleasant Beach, and its given the designation I-195.

Up until about 13 I thought Kansas City was in Kansas. A lot of people do. I'd say at least 50%. It is in Missouri though if you didn't know.

That's how it is in Canada, unless you're turning onto a major travel rout.

this is a fact, buttons are on the left side of a girls dress because during the whole master and slave era or so, servants were the ones who buttoned ladies' garments, meaning they used their right hand. WHile men did their own buttoning. :D

Similar to this, I learned pretty late that there are other reasons to flash your headlights at someone... I was surprised at the number of meanings behind flicking the high-beams.

1.) Signaling someone to go first at a stop sign
2.) Signaling someone that they've left their high-beams on, and they're bright like hell
3.) Signaling someone that they don't have their head lights on at all (they probably have the parking lights on, so with the dashboard lit, they don't realize the headlights aren't on)
4.) Informing someone that there's a cop in a speed trap ahead (This one surprised me immensily... its also saved my ass a couple times).

I always wondered about this one.

No, that's not correct. Kansas City sits on the border between Kansas and Missouri. There's a Kansas City, Kansas and a Kansas City, Missouri. I found this out when I was in Kansas City, Missouri driving along once and all of a sudden I was in Kansas.

I don't practice this one because isn't there some urban legend that there's a gang initiation rite where the prospective gang member drives around at dusk without headlights and the first person who flashes his lights at him he follows and kills.

Actually, it's only for certain *Coughs* generation really. I really love the metric system. It's much more easier for me to think how many MLs something is or how many KGs an object weighs but when refering to humans I have to use inches, pounds. Distance/speed is depending on what we're talking about and conversion is so much easier then the other system... Plus it's more accurate.

Anther random thing, I just realized that everytime my Dad can't come up with a good enough come back to what we're discussing he says this. "It's wrong, this is America and it's wrong. We shoudln't have to promote it."

Sad thing is, he stays in the house all day so yeah.

You mean this one?

Yeah. Freaks me out.

Umm...how can one system of measurements be more accurate than another? It's not like measurements suddenly less precise when you use a different system.

For the longest time, I thought the month is spelled as Febuary. :(

As far as paper sizes go, I have used both letter and A4, having studied in both Philippines and Singapore. I have both sizes at home, and it's a minor annoyance at times to print on the wrong size.

One thing about the Philippine "long bondpaper" (8.5" by 13") size that I can't understand, is why the format persists instead of the US legal size (8.5" by 14") as defined in word processors and printers.

I was gonna check that on Snopes myself... I'd never heard of that legend. Snopes says.... not true! Yay, we can continue flashing highbeams at people without worry for our lives... unless roadrage somehow comes into play.

When I first read Faust by Goethe I really had no clue how to pronounce the author's name. I mean, from an English-speaker's perspective, saying GO-ih-tha isn't that crazy. And nobody corrected me, because nobody else in my high school was even interested in that kind of literature :(.
I found out how to pronounce it because a German exchange student (violist) had the last name Goethe, and she pronounced it for us. And I was shocked.

Also, the whole A4 deal...yeah...I've used it before, but I can't say I have a preference. Paper is paper, unless you're drawing on it. In which case, I like 9x11.

Because, in baking/cooking, metric/volume is more accurate then the American system. Many will debate it but I seem to get better products when using the metric/volume when baking/cooking then using American system.

Back in my first year I thought weight loss was dead easy; I could lose 2kg in 1 week no sweat by simply eating 1-2 small meals a day. Little did I know it was predominantly water weight and loss of lean body mass, and the fat came back quick once I re-fed myself with junk like chocolate and fish & chips (only without the fish :P). I think if I ever catch my kids doing that, I'd shoot them. I've come damn far since then :)

Oh yeah, and I agree with how metric>America's own. But even more perplexing is the system they use for numbering teeth. The US goes from 1,2,3 etc. from top right to top left, bottom left to right, whereas nearly everywhere else divides each quarter into sections, that is 1_ for top right, 2_ for top left etc. My point can be demostrated by FDI system = 2nd molars are 17, 27, 37, 47, whereas Americans would notate them as 2, 15, 18, 31... er okay.

Only the Americans and Canadians, dear. The standard in Asia is A4. Don't know about Europe but as they don't usually go by inches I'm sure their printer settings are also set in metric measurements.

Some of the simplest things I did not know until recent years:
a) common physics. Wet floor + no friction shoes = slippage. Yeah...that was a smart move. Painful one at that.
b) That adding a "the" before a particular street name or highway is a part of speech/language particular to an area you come from. It's most common for Southern Californians such as myself to give directions like, "Take the 405 North to the 101 and get off on the second exit." Where a Northern Californian, (as I'm told) would typically leave out the first couple "the"s.
c) the best way to communicate while having a mouth full of cotton gauze and still on anesthesic is NOT by using my cellphone to text msg. :(

I interpreted anal sex as annual sex. Meaning some people only did it like once a year or something...

I eventually figured out what it really was later.

Huh, who told you that? That doesn't make any sense why one system would be more accurate than another. 1 cup will always equal 236.59 ml and vice versa... It is stupid to say that 1mm is more accurate than .03937in since they mean the exact same thing O_o, the same goes for ANY other measurement system as well. Seriously there is nothing wrong with the English measurement system.

At my work we use mostly letter sized paper and on occasion legal sized paper. I've heard of A4 before but never used it, I'm not even sure where I could buy that here if I can at all.

Maybe he feels 1000mL is somehow more precise than 1 quart because it has more numbers in it, or something (either way I still say you're going to lose the precision from the conversion by choosing to either measure to the top/bottom/middle of the line on your glass).

Yeah, I found that out over the summer. Here in the east we tend to call most numbered roads "Route" unless it's an interstate where we'll prefix it with an I. So, instead of driving on the 5 from LA to SF you'd take I-5.

When I was young I thought lemmings actually looked like :lemming:

huh I've heard of people calling highways "Route" but here we just call them highways (hwy 38) and we usually just abbreviate interstates to I, like I-5.

I've only just learnt today that Americans and Canadians don't use A4 as a regular paper size 0__o

Gumby, you fail to realize. Say you need eggs for a cake.

There are many many bakers who argue this over and over which is more accurate. Most will agree metric is more accurate just because of this.

Say you need 12 eggs or egg yolks. 1 cup/240 MLs.

Since every egg has different SIZE egg yolks/whites. It is more accurate/easier to measure by VOLUME 240 MLs then it is by 12 eggs/egg yolks or 1 cup.

EDIT:

And I was told Racin, that your suppose to measure below the line. Though I forgot the technical term of it.

Senorita Awsome: I hate raisins. I'm going to set fire to a raisin bush.
Unamed second party that thinks hes cool but isnt: uhhh you know what raisins are aren't you?
Senorita Awsome: yeah they come from the raisin bush
Unamed second party that thinks hes cool but isnt: ...

who cares where raisins come from Im not a fucking botanist >: (

I think you're referring to the meniscus?

Well, as a decent cook myself, I say that measurements in cooking/baking/whatever is all relative, so it really shouldn't matter so long as you're keeping consistency with the system you're using in relation to what you're measuring.

I dunno... I never cooked anything that precisely before so I may be wrong in this... I'm an eyeball-measuring type of cook. /shrugs

Peanuts come from the ground. I always thought there was a peanut bush or something, and you just picked the peanuts off.

But nope. Peanuts are a root plant.

When I was a wee bairn, I thought semen = pee.

Root beer made you drunk...

Don't most large-scale bakeries measure things by weight? That's a much more efficient, and precise, method of measuring ingredients (in which case it doesn't matter if you use grams, pounds, or stones, as long as you're measuring just as precisely you'll get the same value).

Umm...a cup is a volumetric measurement in the same way that 240mL is. You're just as likely to actually measure out 238mL as 1.005 cups. Tell, me, which system is more accurate, Fahrenheit or Celsius?

Also, I'd also guess that 12 eggs is closer to 1 cup than 240 megaliters, so I figure imperial would be a better system if you don't know your metric prefixes. :tpg:

As nabhan said, it's the meniscus.

Well it depends, some meausre by volume, some by weight. It depends who is the owner/head baker.

By ML, I ment mililiters..... I suppose mL I shoudl have used instead of ML.

Though I thought there was no such thing as Megaliters.

simple computer things
 

For the longest time I had so many problems with the simple computer things. i always thought the hard drive was the entire computer. The monitor was like a tv and you could have it on and work without the computer being turned on. It was really stupid, I know. But, I grew up in the stage where computers were all new and you didn't get started on computers from the beginning. I guess we all learn, huh?

I never realized that the ABC song is the same as Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star until high school.

Also, I didn't realize your foot was as big as your forearm. I didn't think my foot was that big.