I noticed while running the terminal version of Folding that the time stamp next to activity is about 8 hours ahead of my system time. Is this normal? Does the terminal for some reason want to run on Greenwich Mean Time without telling me?
Sure, and just remember that UTC doesn't change in summer.
Be glad you don't live in the Southern Hemisphere from time to time. That makes it even more confusing. I worked for a company with a customer in Chile. During our daylight savings time, we were 2 hours away. During theirs, we were on the same time.