Self-awareness poll

[jedusor]

[Poll #1737224]

Comments

[gerald_duck]

Note that I don't need to know my blood type as I'm prohibited from giving blood for all sorts of reasons. And I gather social security numbers are a whole bunch less important in the UK than the USA (here, you only need it when starting a new job).

(And I assumed you meant "the last four characters of your full post code" by "the last four digits of your full zip code". And I tickied "IP address" because I can remember at least some of my IP addresses. And I'm assuming you only want us to know bank balance to the nearest $100 or so? And… and… I'm over-analysing, aren't I? :-p )

[linaelyn.livejournal.com]

The reason to know your blood type is so you can receive the right sort of blood in an emergency, not so you can give the information when you donate! At a donation, they test your blood for type anyway -- they've got time to do that, and what if a donor gave inaccurate info, for whatever reason?!?

I can't donate, either. I find it frustrating.

[kaberett.livejournal.com]

... if you've lost enough blood to need a transfusion, you're not exactly going to be in a fit state to tell them, though.

And, thanks to the wonders of the NHS, in a situation where a blood transfusion is needed the data will be accessible.

And if it's more urgent than that then they'll use O-.

But no fucking way do you trust a patient suffering severe blood loss to tell you what kind of blood to give them!

[blue-estro.livejournal.com]

And if it's more urgent than that then they'll use O-.

And this is why the Red Cross blood banks hound me for donations like clockwork 8 weeks after every donation. The folks at the blood banks are reasonable, but the elderly volunteers who call to ask me to come in pretty much imply that I have failed in civic duty if I have been so neglectful as to let myself catch a head-cold and am unable to donate.

[kaberett.livejournal.com]

Hrf. Sorry to hear about the hassling, but thank you so so much for donating - I'm not currently able to, though this looks as though it might change in the forseeable future, so, um, yeah, in the meantime: thank you so much for donating, for those of us as can't or won't.

[blue-estro.livejournal.com]

No thanks needed, I do it because I can and it goes entirely to a good cause (unlike disaster donations (http://www.npr.org/2011/01/11/132807059/haiti-aid-money-lies-unspent-drawing-criticism), the Red Cross can't exactly sit on blood donations indefinitely). I understand that being CMV-negative and an 0- make me a rare commodity ("You can give blood to BABIES!"), I am really not sure how I feel about it being used as a guilt trip by a stranger should I want to get another piercing or tattoo.

[gerald_duck]

I thought surplus whole blood got turned into plasma, which is also much needed and has a longer shelf life?

[gerald_duck]

What kaberett said.

You worry about what happens if a donor gives inaccurate information; what if a recipient gives inaccurate information?

The only reason I can see to know one's blood type is because people who are O- are in greater demand for blood donation purposes. But I can't give blood anyway, so I don't know my blood type.

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

I'm assuming you only want us to know bank balance to the nearest $100 or so?

Boy, it would be nice if it were no big deal to just round things off to the nearest hundred. No, that is not what I meant. :P

[gerald_duck]

Um… maybe I should have expressed that in percentage terms, rather than as an absolute? To the nearest 5% or so?

I have a dozen different companies taking fluctuating amounts on fluctuating dates each month. Either I watch my account like a hawk or there has to be some level of uncertainty!

[linaelyn.livejournal.com]

I'm not really sure my entry here should count as "self-awareness" at all, in my case. Numbers just "stick" in my head, the way that some people have photographic memory for things they've read. For me, it's just numbers. I not only know the license number of the car I currently drive, I know the license numbers for every car I've driven, throughout my life, and all the cars Estel has driven, and many of the cars of my friends and family. I recognized one of my soccer players yesterday (she drives a blue Prius, just like half of the folks in the South Bay, here) by her license plate number. I can tell you the phone numbers of my elementary school friends in Detroit, MI, nevermind that I moved away from there 1976 when I was eleven, and never called any of those numbers, ever again.

I have a rotating IP address. I don't know what it is currently. I know what it was the last time I had to type it in, to set up the Minecraft server (usually Estel's job, since I don't play, myself; he & the kids do). I simply happen to have weighed myself in the last 24 hours, but I hadn't done so for a month prior.

Not knowing my bank balance is just because I'm wealthy-enough to have a cushion in there. The checking account has overdraft protection via the savings account, and the balance fluctuates daily, but always has a buffer of several thousand dollars, for emergencies. So, I know what the balance is, ballpark, but not the actual number, anymore. Back when I was at your stage of life, I always knew to the penny, how much was in there.

[kaberett.livejournal.com]

I do know my blood type; I do know my entire post code but have no idea how this maps to zip codes; I do routinely memorise licence plate numbers; I don't memorise debit cards; I don't know my IP address; I don't have my National Insurance Number memorised because I barely ever use it; unfortunately I do know my current weight to the pound, but I don't normally because it's not healthy for me; and I know I'm in the black and set to continue in the black, but that's about it as far as bank balance goes :-p

[kaberett.livejournal.com]

Er, re bank balance - I know (or can rapidly work out) how much I have in savings, and I know that the answer to that is "plenty enough for emergency bail-outs on a scale I'll need them". I also know that I am comfortably in the black and my student loan is about to come in, so no way am I going to end up using my (£1500, interest-free) overdraft any time soon, let alone come anywhere close to my limit, and I don't actually need to know any more than that.

Also, I only get quarterly statements.

[bookishfellow.livejournal.com]

I do know my entire post code but have no idea how this maps to zip codes
My understanding is that British post codes are approximately equivalent to the 5-digit ZIP code here in the US. Jedusor is referring to the ZIP+4, implemented in 1983; the 4-digit suffix narrows your zone down to a very few residences (as in, one side of a street, or one floor of an apartment building) and occasionally only a single address. So my ZIP (XX002, first two digits redacted) is approximately equivalent to my city of residence, but my ZIP+4 (XX002-1647) covers about six houses on my street.

[greedy_dancer]

No idea about my hat size because I don't wear them. I know my glove size though!

Zip code is easy as in France it's only 5 digits...

Weight, I have a vague idea if I gain or lose weight, but I haven't weighed myself in ages.

Bank balance: I never know. Every month when I get the statement, it's like a little surprise! >.>

[rubrick.livejournal.com]

Some of the questions are ambiguous. (I have several credit cards, only one of which I have memorized. I have multiple IP addresses at work which don't change, and one at home which does.)

I'm a little surprised so many people know their 9-digit ZIP. I wonder if some respondents misinterpreted "full".

Giving a pass to those who don't have cars but "would memorize their license numbers" if they did seems a little unfair. I try to memorize mine. I'm just terrible at it.

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

Oh, Rick. It wouldn't be a true LJ poll without a comment from you dissecting the flaws in my survey construction. :P

[rubrick.livejournal.com]

Hey, you're the scientist-in-training. :-)

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

Indeed! I appreciate and cherish your nitpicks. ♥

[kaberett.livejournal.com]

Despite not having a car, I have memorised multiple license numbers, including those I most often get lifts in. Does that help? :-p

[gerald_duck]

Conversely, here in the UK a full postcode is two clumps of letters and digits, seven or eight characters in total. This gives about the same number of combinations as a nine-digit ZIP code.

In the UK, there was a major drive in the seventies and eighties to get everyone using their full postcode. It worked; they're ubiquitous noawadays. UK-based e-commerce websites tend to ask you for your house number and postcode then give you back your full address and say "Is this right?" Courier companies will refuse to deliver without a postcode and the postal service can and will delay a letter that lacks a postcode.

I already knew that full US ZIP codes were far less well known than UK postcodes, but until jedusor's poll I hadn't realised quite how bad the situation was. (-8

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

The post office doesn't even use them. I know someone who used to add the four digits diligently, and then a letter got delayed because they needed to double-check the ambiguous address. She asked why they hadn't used the full zip to confirm, and was told that they don't look at that. There's no point to knowing it--I'm as surprised as Rick that this many people do.

[elgecko.livejournal.com]

I suck for not knowing my blood type, but I may soon do. =)

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

I don't have a current weight to the pound. My weight stays within a consistent range from week to week, but that range is about ten pounds.

[gerald_duck]

Wow! Are you always weighing at the same time of day? If I always weigh myself first thing in the morning, my weight fluctuates by only about 2-3 pounds, but I can get much bigger variations through the day.

(I've just drunk two pints of water. That's a two-pound weight gain right there. (-8 )

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

No, I'm not, so maybe it does vary more throughout the day than it does from day to day. But I think my original point still stands: what could I even say is my current weight?

[lonesomepolecat.livejournal.com]

I know my current weight to within 100 g.

I've never known it to within the pound.

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

Yeah, yeah, Mr. Metric. :P

vanity plate ftw

[lara7.livejournal.com]

really easy to know yr plate if your have a vanity plate; you need to control for that variable. :-)

though paul had a non vanity plate, and I knew it was 424 RZE after taking his car for oil changes a few times. But they make you swap your plate every 5 years or so, and I don't know his new one he got in February.

Re: vanity plate ftw

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, didn't even think of that.