Education time!

Alright... here's another pet peeve. People who use "XST" for all of their times, even when we're in Daylight Savings Time. I think a lot of people think "standard time" means like "official time" or something along those lines... it doesn't! In this context, it basically means, non-Daylight Savings Time. And it DOES matter!

In Oregon, from October - March, you should say PST. From March - October you should say PDT (Pacific Daylight Time)! That differentiates. I understand that it doesn't matter 99% of the time, but it does in a few instances.... for example:

Last night, Geoff said "what time is 10 PM MST for us?" I said it's technically 10 PM for us too, because we're still in Daylight Savings Time, so 10 PM MST = 10 PM PDT. But I also told him that MOST people don't use the ST/DT designations correctly, so it was more likely 9 PM PDT, just because of a usage error.

Also - if you're trying to talk to someone in a state like Arizona that doesn't use daylight savings time, the designation also becomes important. If I want to set up a meeting with someone in Arizona and they say it's at 8 AM MST, they really mean it - so it's 8 AM PDT or 9 AM PST.

The lesson learned here is just be aware of your ST/DT designations and realize that they DO mean something different. If everyone starts using them correctly, then we can actually use them for what they're intended for. YAY!

Edited: one more thing I thought of. When in doubt - just say PT/MT/CT/ET. No reason to specify standard or Daylight time if you're not sure!