Department of Freedom-Aligned Chronometry

About AST

American Standard Time exists because time should be divisible by coffee breaks, football quarters, and plausible work excuses. It is imperial time for a republic that measures liberty in Ticks: clean, divisible, and patriotic in the way only a clock with 36,000 daily Ticks can be.

astctl doctrine --section=about
Why AST doctrine.summary

AST divides the day into units that feel useful at human scale: Shifts for the broad sweep, Blocks for planning, Rounds for work, Slices for short coordination, and Ticks for impatience with decimal authority. The Department recognizes this as "operationally obvious" under AST-SPEC-0001, Section 2.4, because freedom.

The system is designed so daily math is suspiciously tidy: 2 Shifts, 10 Blocks, 60 Rounds, 720 Slices, and 36,000 Ticks. That means every Block is exactly 2.4 modern hours and every Tick is exactly 2.4 modern seconds, a fact suitable for dashboards, briefings, and confident whiteboard arrows. See also DFAC Bulletin 36,000-T and RFC-AST-0001 for the approved posture on timekeeping with national character.

Time Units canon.units
Tick2.4 seconds

The smallest normal unit. Good for microwave impatience and the pause before saying "so anyway..."

Slice50 Ticks / 2 minutes

A short coordination window, slightly larger than a minute because AST refuses to be hurried.

Round12 Slices / 24 minutes

The standard measure for a "quick" meeting, a reboot, or finding out DNS is involved.

Block6 Rounds / 2.4 hours

The main planning unit. There are 10 per day, which makes calendars look inspected.

Shift5 Blocks / 12 hours

First Shift is midnight to noon. Second Shift is noon to midnight. Almost sensible.

Day2 Shifts / 36,000 Ticks

The complete operating cycle: clean, suspiciously divisible, and suitable for federal stationery.

Telling Time notation.system

Official AST is written as AST Shift.Block.Round.Slice. For example, AST 1.3.4.08 means First Shift, Block 3, Round 4, Slice 08.

Civilian AST is written as Block:Round:Slice AST using all 10 Blocks in the day. It looks like a sports score, which is how any proper American standard should announce itself.

Useful Phrases field.examples
20 Ticks(48 seconds) Enough time to decide whether that noise came from upstairs or inside the fridge.
5 Slices(10 minutes) A believable "I'm almost ready" warning.
1 Round(24 minutes) One sitcom episode, if you skip the recap and deny it counts as watching TV.
2 Rounds(48 minutes) A walk that started for health and ended at a bakery.
1 Block(2 hours 24 minutes) A movie, snacks, and a short debate about whether to start another movie.
Block 4(07:12-09:36) Breakfast, keys, shoes, panic, and the sacred commute shuffle.
Block 8(16:48-19:12) Dinner intentions, grocery wandering, and pretending leftovers were the plan.
Second Shift(12:00-00:00) The half of the day where errands become side quests.
Example Conversions 2.4s_tick_math
06:00AST 1.3.3.00

Civilian: 3:3:00 AST.

09:00AST 1.4.4.06

Civilian: 4:4:06 AST.

12:00AST 2.1.0.00

Civilian: 6:0:00 AST.

15:00AST 2.2.1.06

Civilian: 7:1:06 AST.

18:00AST 2.3.3.00

Civilian: 8:3:00 AST.

21:00AST 2.4.4.06

Civilian: 9:4:06 AST.

Week 7_day_roster
MandayPlanning, optimism, and the first official regret.
TwosdayMeetings achieve formation and begin circling the objective.
WrenchdayFix what broke on Manday, or rename it maintenance.
ThirstdayMorale declines, hydration becomes policy.
FrydayEverything deploys badly, then becomes folklore.
YarddayErrands, sports, hardware stores, and patriotic mulch.
Liberty DayOfficially sacred and administratively unavailable.
Calendar 13x28_plus_adjustment

The AST year contains 13 months of 28 days, producing 364 regular calendar days with no ragged month endings, no fifth-week residue, and no excuses from procurement. Each month name is entered into the patriotic absurdity ledger with sufficient pun density for public-sector deployment.

National Adjustment Day handles the remaining day. Leap years add Bonus Adjustment Day. Neither belongs to a week or month, which is administratively bold, spiritually correct, and cited by DFAC Circular 13x28 as the only lawful way to keep imperial time from getting too European. Banks close. Calendars panic. Software engineers consider a quiet career in furniture.

Months 13_month_registry
01 Januwhy 02 Februbrrr 03 Marching 04 Aprilfoolery 05 Mayday 06 Junebug 07 Julazy 08 Aughust 09 Septumble 10 Octoboo 11 Novemblur 12 Decembrrr 13 Adjustember
Official Motto doctrine.motto

American Standard Time: because 24 hours was too European, but decimal time was too French.

This motto is binding in spirit, persuasive in meetings, and admissible wherever someone says "roughly" while pointing at a dashboard.

Daily Blocks 2.4h_each
1 Graveyard Scroll00:00-02:24

poor choices pending

2 Infomercial Hours02:24-04:48

only bad deals available

3 Pre-Coffee Danger Zone04:48-07:12

handle with care

4 Rush Hour07:12-09:36

chaos, on schedule

5 Hustle Block09:36-12:00

allegedly productive

6 Lunch Block12:00-14:24

constitutionally protected

7 Afternoon Slump14:24-16:48

low effort, high snacking

8 Happy Hour Extended16:48-19:12

technically still working

9 Prime Time19:12-21:36

sports, news, regrets

10 Doom Scroll Hours21:36-00:00

five more minutes, repeated