To any other poor soul who happens perchance to stumble upon this thread:

Please accept my sincere apologies in advance for probably wasting a thread, because if they didn't have the courage to post prior to 1/1/00, how could they possibly suddenly gather the courage to step up to the plate here?

Since I think practically no one will come forward, feel free to use this thread for any constructive purpose you feel would be appropriate. Or simply use it as a respite before you go back out into the storm.

And I promise on bended knee to try my level best to never waste the time it took you to click into this thread again.

To the "newbies":

If you do come forward, and are civil, if nothing else you should gain a measure of respect. So come on, folks! Step right up!

(To the rest: Please wake me if someone knocks...zzzzzz....)

-- eve (123@4567.com), January 04, 2000

Answers

I didn't post here until yesterday because I didn't find the site till then. I had heard of Yourdon, deJager, Yardeni, etc, but I just chuckled when I picked up their writings, as they were so silly and uninformed. I was curious to see the responses of people who bought into the Y2K bug. For my own part it was worth a laugh to listen to panicky people on the radio, but I assumed most of the forums were full of people who were not going to get talked out of a crisis, by golly. Arguing with Chicken Little that the sky will not fall is useless until it doesn't fall.

-- Jim Thompson (jimthompsonmd@attglobal.net), January 04, 2000.

Ok..here is my reason: I was on the net a few years ago and for reasons that will remain private I trashed the whole thing. (anyone who wants to snicker..go ahead if it makes you happy) I had heard of Y2K prior to that but knew there was a long way to go. Well, for reasons I won't explain I lost my job in July of this year. I was so convinced of the Y2K fallout I have not been in a big hurry to find another job. About six or seven weeks ago I decided to get back on line with this laptop because I knew if I ever was going to find any real news about the bug it would be on line. And now, to answer your question: It took an unlearned boob like me to finally find a board as good as this one...ok...also laziness entered in to the equation...;)

-- Kyle (midtnbuddy@aol.com), January 04, 2000.

Thank you all for the forum. Especially "Greenspun" and Ed Yourdon.

I have very little comments to make. But, I do appreciate the forum. It is a study in human nature - frustration, joy, bitterness, blame, and appreciation.

May we all know ourselves better as a result of this experience, and realize what our own personal responsibilities are to God, self, family, church, and community.

I wish I had known about it "before" 12/31/99, but I did not.

M.C.

-- M.C. (mountaineer60@juno.com), January 04, 2000.

Just found the site on Sunday. Seems that most failure reports are being posted here. Looking for trends. Don't believe half of what I see or any of what I hear from major media outlets.

Things are getting reported here, from the folks on the line.

-- let's be frank (candor@mindspring.com), January 04, 2000.

I've lurked here for a long time, and have long appreciated the blended tapestry of personalities, intelligence, humor, and willingness to share on this board. I am a Christian homeschool mom and wife of a wonderful "moderate doomer" dh. :-)

Hmmmmmm... I suppose as an introduction I should give myself a designation -- like this? Pre-rollover: doomer-7 Post-rollover: doomer-5-but-will-take-a-long-time-to-get-there (LOL)

Thanks for the newbie thread, Eve! God bless all,

-- Appreciative Lurker (Lurking@homewithfamily.com), January 04, 2000.

Oops - forgot to answer the original question as to why I've not posted much before -- it's because I was too busy *learning* from you all, and didn't have much to offer.

Thanks to all--doomers & pollies alike, :-)

-- Appreciative Lurker (Lurking@homewithfamily.com), January 04, 2000.

i have not posted before because i had never heard of this board till one of the lists i am on gave a link to here and just love the info here

-- brenda banks (b29651@bellsouth.net), January 04, 2000.

Dear Eve,

I've been here a long time, but the posts were starting to sound desperate during the period leading up to the shutdown of the board. I first posted re water and wastewater; seems there is a dearth of practical understanding of these and other basic technologies.

I was also tempted to post to the lady who had just bought her first shotgun, but twenty-five militia geniuses beat me to it. Now that the CDC has passed, I have posted a time or two, but the board is much less crazy than it was, and nobody is asking desperate questions anymore. I hope I can contribute in future, but the IT folks and the market watchers seem to dominate.

If anybody wants to know what happens when a tankcar full of chlorine derails, I'm here.

-- james hyde (hydesci@gte.net), January 04, 2000.

To the Newbies,

I'm very sorry for presupposing a lack of courage in you. I know this label certainly does not apply to all of you (maybe it only applies to a few), as I'm starting to realize.

And I (and I'm sure many others here as well) heartily welcome your input, as long as it remains civil, no matter how drastically I may disagree with you.

-- eve (123@4567.com), January 04, 2000.

To answer your question,

Been way too busy helping the Austin community prepare to sit down and write; this is the first chance I've had a breather to sit down and do so in about a year.

Ever been the new guy at a place of employment? You do a great job, but somebody else in the office gets to take vacation whenever they want, and you have to work around their schedule. They make more than you do; they have more say in the company. Not because they are better at their jobs; far from it. They do a crappy job, but they have something you don't: "seniority." In other words, they got there first, and hung onto their position. Now, they just suck a paycheck, and you the bottom feeder have to bust your fanny to get noticed, because you are "the new guy."

Just 'cuz you're the new guy doesn't mean you don't have good ideas and opinions. You, old timer may not be able to lay golden eggs on command just because you've been hanging around for a long time.

We're all here to learn from each other; it shouldn't matter how long we've been here, as long as our information is helpful.

Besides, I just like this forum for the pretty pictures that pop up at the bottom of the posts(that chick in the Venice Beach shot is a hottie)

Peace Y'all,

Don

-- Shimoda (enlighten@me.com), January 04, 2000.

Why post if you have nothing new or better than existing posts? Just to see yourself on the forum?

-- Rose (only rose please) (r.1@juno.com), January 04, 2000.

Lurked here for over a year. Used all your knowledge. Did not have anything to say that had not been said better. Thanks to all of you. Completely out of debt. Family closer then its ever been. Confidence up to wahoo. Independence is wonderful!

Thankyou One and All, Joy

-- Joy (Tryon1ja@cmich.edu), January 04, 2000.

Thank you all so much for your interesting responses. I guess I'm being proven wrong about the response rate.

I'm still hoping for more replies, though.

To Joy:

I hear ya! Personally I'm in the process of changing from pessimist to optimist, yet I don't regret one second of the past year and a half of my "doomer" period. In effect I just had a one and one-half year crash course in self- sufficiency. And since I felt plenty of time pressure, and because I thought the situation was so serious, with so much at stake, I learned at a much quicker rate than my normal learning process. Partly because of all this wonderful new knowledge I have, I'm happier now than I've ever been in my life!

-- eve (123@4567.com), January 04, 2000.

Oops! Sorry about the typo in the thread title. Given the rollover and all, maybe a typo the likes of, say, "January 1, 1900", or maybe my arms completely freezing up or something, would have made more "sense" than "12/31/00".

-- eve (123@4567.com), January 04, 2000.

I heard about this list about 4-6 months ago. I lurked for a few days, but had made preparations, so didn't come back. About a week before the rollover, I started lurking again to see what was going on. Evidently, "Wars and rumors of Wars" were ongoing on this list.

So, I have just started posting a few things. Will contiunue until we can be sure of an "all clear" on Y2k. But, there will be other calamities and problems.

-- jetod (jetod@hotmail.com), January 04, 2000.

eve, I found this place about 2 months ago from a GN link. I am a GI; have been for about a year. I posted a couple of times before the rollover, but mostly just lurked. I am really encouraged by the (non) events so far, but I am convinced there will be problems yet to come. I don't buy into every conspiracy theory, but the press is not unbiased by a long shot. I am grateful for others who report in as they experience glitches, so that we an hear what is going on, unfiltered by the press. J

-- J (Y2J@home.com), January 04, 2000.

ps I don't know how to format well. J

-- J (Y2J@home.com), January 04, 2000.

right rose&joy...besides i'm a slow typer.

-- tso (bestrong@cmc.net), January 04, 2000.

Eve:

Just found this board over the weekend. Via Hyatt's board, which I also recently found. Why did I just look for and find these great boards now? Because I love truth. Don't we all like to know what is *really* happening, especially in such a historic moment as this?

Bless you all for creating such a powerful culture of intellectual honesty and humanity.

I share the concerns of some here who find that this board is receiving some unwanted attention. Since it is one of the few places where accurate info is being disseminated, it is natural to expect that the board will be the recipient of certain kinds of scrutiny. Ironically, many of those scrutinizers are, regardless of just what functions they are required to perform, just as drawn to and fascinated by the content here as I am -- for some of the same reasons that I am -- namely, that accurate info on the event which is now unfolding is *very* difficult to find, no matter who or what you are.

Simply put: Many of the best minds in the Anglo world are coming here, to find information, to quiet it down a bit, or both! (;-)

Another irony is that no matter why we come, we are *all* united by our intelligence and also by a single principle: We believe in doing and living by what is right. God bless us all.

-- tim phronesia (phronesia@webtv.net), January 04, 2000.

Appreciative Lurker: I don't have much to say in regards to the main point of this thread, but I felt I must write to say that I think it's great that you are home-schooling your children. My mother is also a Christian homeschooling mom, and I am forever grateful to her and God for working it out that way. Stay strong! You hold the future of the World in your hands.

-- The Shadowy Figure (nsaneirish@hotmail.com), January 04, 2000.

Posted on and off for about a year under the handle Ramp Rat, mostly lurked though and took off about 6 months in the summer due to making hay while the sun shone (literally) and in part also due to the unpleasantness of some forum regulars to divergent viewpoints and the name calling that happened as a result of the clash of views. "Polly/Doomer" come on folks!!! Came back to the list in October/November, not much to add to the equation. I outed myself on December 31,(using my real name and address) to lend credibility to my reports from the ATC front. I don't have much use for eye witness reports from pseudonyms and responded as such.

-- Cathy AKA Ramp Rat (ldalcorn@alaska.net), January 04, 2000.

To all of you,

Thank you all so much for responding and sharing your thoughts and background. I don't know how many of you there are out there, but I'm really happy with all the responses.

From this thread at least, it looks like with the caliber of new people on board, the forum is richer indeed!

Thanks again, and, although my time is a bit more limited right now, I hope to be talking with you on some of the other threads soon.

-- eve (123@4567.com), January 05, 2000.

I was on my company's Y2K readiness team for a couple of years. I needed some solid information from collegues and all I saw on the net were debates. The last year was so intense, due to Y2K readiness, that my team practically didn't have a life. The only things I were reading were lower level technical stuff to help get the operating systems Y2K ready.

Believe it or not, it wasn't until the cutover weekend that I found out Y2K was being so *hotly* debated on the net. I had hardly even heard of many of the names (like North) that people were quoting from. I stumbled upon this group and a few others because I was curious as to what people were saying about Y2K.

I must admit the the terminology confused me at first GI/DGI?? At first I thought GIs were military people. Couldn't figure out why so many military people were posting to these groups!! (I've caught on.)

I've been sticking my 2 cents in because I hadn't seen many posts from people who had actually worked on the problem and could relate what they had seen. Since I'm a systems person, I was involved with testing all our apps. and feel I can relate more than just a narrow view of a program I modified. I was also in touch with collegues doing similar work at other companies.

I probably won't hang around for too long. Just trying to relate facts I know to clarify speculation still taking place. For example, there were people saying we wouldn't know until Monday if we'd have problems. I related how all the departments where I work were required to complete post-rollover testing by midnight Saturday (New Year's day). I'm sure other companies did the same thing. We were not going to wait until Monday.

-- Chris Josephson (chrisj62954@aol.com), January 05, 2000.

Chris,

Thanks for your input, and welcome.

-- eve (123@4567.com), January 06, 2000.