Y2k is coming! Y2k is coming! bottom-line---YOU and YOURS will be impacted and you best hold-on! prepare! We can't define the exacts, but nobody knows for sure, but it will be bad, all agree on that.

If your life benefitted from following the above, why did it take Y2k to move you? Y2k was about a dating issue in some computing systems, how did this effect you directly? Have the positives outweighed the negatives of following the above? Would your life have been just fine if you had never heard of this Y2k thing? Would you have been better off if you had never heard about the dam Y2k bug? Did those around you, who blew Y2k off as BS largely, suffer from not listening to you and others who "sounded the alarms"? If you told others, and you benefitted, would you do it again? if not, why not? Why do you even have to think about it?

Does Andy Ray piss you off? Do I? Do folks who "rub it in" grind you? If you benefitted, and did so apparently using your best judgement, why do these folks affect you?

If you misjudged Y2k, how is lining-up behind others who also blew it beneficial to you in maybe not making the same, or similar mistakes in the future? Who are you defending? you? or something in you? Why is it so hard for many to just accept they blew it? Is the reason Y2k, or the fact they had not the sense to avoid falling for what they, know now was a pile of BS? Why don't we see posts about how folks benefitted from Y2k here?

Would you say Y2k used you? Again, was all this in your interest? or somebody else's interest?

These are the questions one must answer honestly. This is what I mean when I talk about the Meme, the Millennium Contagion.

-- Doc Paulie (fannybubbles@usa.net), June 06, 2000

Answers

Hi Doc,

Lots of interesting questions; for now, I'll focus on one point.

I was a doomer, and obviously dead wrong. But I don't regret any of it; in fact, I see it as a wonderful experience, for the following reasons.

First, I had, in effect, a year-and-a-half long crash course (self- taught from books, web sites, tips from forum posters, and practice) in self-sufficiency. The things I learned are priceless. The second thing is that it pretty much forced me to finally come to terms with my own mortality and that of all of my loved ones.

Yes, some money I spent could be looked at as unnecessary, but to me it was just insurance expense.

-- eve (eve_rebekah@yahoo.com), June 06, 2000.

Eve,

As always, you are the voice of reason. I'm with you!

-- Observer (observer@lots.to.observe), June 06, 2000.

I was served one helluva tasty steak last night and the wine was impeccable!!!

-- capnfun (capnfun1@excite.com), June 06, 2000.

I was number 6,443,965 served, if I remember correctly.

-- I'm Here, I'm There (I'm Everywhere@so.beware), June 06, 2000.

Doc:

Interesting questions. I thought the programmers knew what they were talking about and I believed them.

Yes, I would have been better off if I never heard of Y2K. (Last year would have been much more productive in work.)

Although I did learn a valuable lesson: Every issue/theory has two sides, each side has convincing arguments, and it is almost impossible to know who is right until *after the fact.* No matter what their creditials.

I told all family memebers, who didn't believe me. None of them gave me a hard time for that. I think that was extremely polite and caring of them. They're not a bad bunch!

Andy does not piss me off. He's amusing at best, and easy to ignore.

It doesn't bother me when people rub it in here on the boards. They were right. Simple as that.

It's not hard for me to accept I just blew it, as you say. It gave me a HUGE lesson in critical thinking...something I had let lapse. I, pretty much, will never believe anything like that again. Like I said, the arguments on both sides, on issues like this, are equally convincing (imho). So whose to say? Black & White are too simplistic.

When I become slightly defensive on the boards, it's to stand up for others like myself and *also* to defend myself. I mean, one must admit feeling foolish about being so, so, so wrong. I guess defensivness just comes out. Esp when someone is being particuarlly cruel.

Y2k did not use me, it did seem to take over my thoughts from October '99 to ohhh, February 2000. I don't know whose interest it was in.

I will say, looking back, it did make fantastic fiction. (esp when c4i was around)

Regards,

-- Not now, not like this (AgentSmith0110@aol.com), June 06, 2000.

I hear ya, capnfun, but was it even better than the pizza and chocolate milk you like for breakfast? :)

Observer,

Hi, and thanks for your nice thought. I should add that another really cool thing Y2K did for me is finding new friends and many other fascinating people in this forum and over at EZ.

-- eve (eve_rebekak@yahoo.com), June 06, 2000.

Eve,

It's hard to say.The steak is something that you know is going to be devoured all at one sitting,while the pizza is ordered so that you know/hope that there will be leftovers thus extending the time of enjoyment into the next morning.

-- capnfun (capnfun1@excite.com), June 06, 2000.

I was. But I cannot find that damn subpeona. It's aro0und here somewhere...

-- FutureShock (gray@matter.think), June 06, 2000.

The REAL lesson in all of this pertains to the widespread powers of the Internet to create and give credibility to all manners of urban legends and unproven half-truths. Will we learn from this? Most likely not.

-- Ra (tion@l.1), June 06, 2000.

I guess I was a believer & did make preparations.As it turned out none were needed but I don't believe I was wrong to be prudent.I haven't had a car accident in 20 years but I still take out insurance.Is that wrong ?Folks that like to "grind it in" do not annoy me.They just bore me.I just think they can't have much else do even 6 months after the non-event.

I do not believe that the Y2K threat was BS because the absolute fact was the worldwide jury was out till rollover whatever anybody may have thought.Some of us may have suspected but nobody knew for certain.

Lots of lasting benefits from the whole experience.The main drawback was tiredness & anxiety & oh yes,not relaxing and really enjoying New Year's Eve..

-- Chris (griffen@globalnet.co.uk), June 06, 2000.

FS: Rofl.....

Capn: Hi dear, type of steak please, along with wine list.

Eve: Very well put.

-- consumer (shh@aol.com), June 06, 2000.

Sumer!!!,

Prime Rib (rare) and a 1996 Cilurzo Petite Sirah : )

-- capnfun (capnfun1@excite.com), June 06, 2000.

Doc, was I served? Yes, I was served, a vast awareness that I did not request. That possible threat led me into the Internet World of endless information (good or bad). From Y2K, to old time ways, digging a well, history, etc, etc. I probably will never travel abroad, but I have learned how to visually visit and internet "talk" to the folks who live there. I can only hope the "adventure" held some education for everyone who journeyed. I read Gary, and moved from an expensive neighborhood (Gasp!), onto a double-wiiide with land. I didn't say a whole to others, just gave them a print of FEMA's warning. I have noticed a certain attitude change when others heard I had escaped the confines of a postage stamp yard, expensive home, and moved to acreage and a "double-wiiide". This is not the time, but maybe one day it will be, that I will point out to them "If you think I am lowly because I moved to a double-wiiide, what MUST you think of Jesus, who was a homeless man?"

-- Jesus (was@homelessman.com), June 06, 2000.

Capn: Yummmmmmmmmmm!!

I love prime rib, my fav is filet of course :-)

Lobster tail w/filet will work also, but no wine, gives me a headache.

But I'll take a creamsickle :-))

PS, how ya doing bud? keep missin ya.

-- consumer (shh@aol.com), June 07, 2000.

Doc,

I was certainly concerned about the possible impacts of Y2K, but I never knew for certain that it would be bad. I just did not know.

I may have taken the threat of Y2K more seriously because of my experience with the Northridge Earthquake. My home was damaged extensively and we were without water or electricity for over a week. At the time I was not prepared to fend for myself and it was a miserable, scary time.

Following the earthquake I put together an emergency kit, so I simply added to my preparations for Y2K. Okay, in retrospect perhaps I went just a little overboard, but in all honesty I do not regret any purchases I made for Y2K.

Does Andy Ray and similar posters "piss me off"? Sometimes, however I am not irritated by the content of his posts, but rather the tone he conveys. I try to feel sympathetic toward him because he seems so bitter and negative and that must take so much energy to hold on to.

In closing, I don't believe I was wrong about Y2K, because I honestly did not know what would happen. Perhaps I was gullible, naive, or just plain stupid in your eyes. I may even have this dreaded "Millennium Contagion Meme thing" that you speak of. Do you suppose a good dose of Colloidal Silver would clear it up? Alright, I may regret a *few* of my purchases, but I can live with that.

-- Grace (SincerelyGrace@aol.com), June 07, 2000.

You should ask yourself some questions too, Doc Paulie. You worried about y2k panic, but it never happened. Would your life have been just fine if you had never heard of this y2k panic thing? Would you have been better off if you had never heard about Y2k panic?

Some people worried about y2k. Others worried about the TB 2000 message forum.

-- Varieties of (the@y2k.meme), June 08, 2000.

I was a Polly, yet the TB forum definitely had its effect on me. I began lifting weights heavily in early '98 (that's 1998), expecting to have to act after rollover. By the time December of '99 rolled around I had purchased about twenty-eight gallons of water and a lot of non-perishable food. My only real concern was embedded chips. Power grids didn't drop off, so the wife and I gradually consumed all preps. I still stick to a pretty intense physical workout; I guarantee I wouldn't have started it without a bit of Y2K fear.

So, to answer the initial question, I was served along with a couple area grocery stores (though not to any great excesses). Does that make me a moderate? That was a rhetorical question -- don't answer.

-- aqua (aqu@fin.a), June 08, 2000.

I answered this question, my post appeared for a short time. Then it disappeared. Don't question this post, it is still a case of now you see it, now you don't. For all they proclaim. We gotta find another board for truth. I have seen my posts disappear, Hell, I sought only to offer inspirational. A parodox of mankind, to know friends from foe. I leave from posting from this board, and I will never post here again. Amen.....

-- I don't Speak (Muchexceptfor@truth.com), June 10, 2000.