Trevor,
I am in the process of drafting a Caravel (Santa Maria) for POF construction. The plans that I have were drafted in the metric scale. I struggled for three weeks trying to redraft everything in Imperial only to have the frames come out looking like a can of worms. I enlarged, reduced, scaled, skewed and distorted the plans in Photoshop and nearly consumed two entire bottles of good Scotch in the process (Single Malt, not that blended crap). Still couldn't get things to come out correctly. Then I thought, "I wonder how they would turn out is I just drafted everything metric?" After about the third frame, the clouds parted, a beam of sunshine showed through, and the sounds of heavenly angels softly singing in chorus was heard off in the distance.
Imagine my sheer amazement in discovering that everything was suddenly divisible by 10 and that all I needed to do was move the little "dot" to the left or the right and things scaled perfectly. An entirely new world opened up to me. Perhaps I'm on to something here.
I told my wife about my discoveries with the Metric System, to which she responded, "Duh!" (She's from France and believes the "American System" is just stupid) She asked me if I had fully embraced the metric system. I told her that I had gone through an experimental phase in college just like many others do when searching for themselves or taking Chemistry and Physics, but had given up on it as I believed if G_d had meant man to be on the metric system, there would have been only 12 Apostles. Then there was that summer at Band Camp. After all, the only TRUE way is the American Way and any country that didn't use the Imperial System was not only resisting the steady march of progress but was also demonstrating that they were rude and didn't have the common courtesy to measure things in 128th's and 32nd's the way NORMAL civilizations should.
I have now accepted the fact that I am bi-mensural (Mensural - adjective, of or involving measuring). I am no longer ashamed. I'm not quite ready to come out of the closet as a fully Metric as I fear my circle of family and friends are not quite ready to accept the life I have now chosen. I fear that I will be ostracized by members of the small North Carolina town in which I live. I will keep my new-found metric lifestyle to myself in the hope that at some time in the not too distant future, Metric people can walk proudly down any street in America without fear. I dream that someday we will even have "Metric Pride Day", maybe a parade, and perhaps our own flag (with little tick marks every 10 units across the front, of course). We could even protest against our oppression by loudly chanting, "What do we want? METRIC! When do we want it? NOW!" Maybe even "Down with the Imperialists!"
I've ordered a set of metric rulers and measuring tools from Amazon with specific instructions that they be delivered discretely in unmarked brown paper wrapping. I am excited and look forward to their arrival tomorrow (I'm a Prime Member, so I got free two day delivery going for me too).
If anyone is interested in forming a Bi-mensural Support Group, with possibly a 12-step program, please don't hesitate to drop me a line. Together let's rise up and fight the Imperialists who have persecuted we fun-loving, Scotch-drinking (Single Malt only), Metrics for far too long. Our victory is only a few inches centimeters away...
Literly Yours,
Hank Reardon
P.S I was being sincere when I told my friends their baby looks like a movie star...I just failed to mention that the kid looks like E.T.