Flare Sci-Fi Forums: Countdown to April 9, 1999

This is topic Countdown to April 9, 1999 in forum Officers' Lounge at Flare Sci-Fi Forums.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://flare.solareclipse.net/ultimatebb.php/topic/10/27.html

Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :

That's right, on April 9, 1999 a lot of couples will be making a lot of noise during the night for the race to have a baby on January 1st, 2000, or even better, on the first stroke of Midnight, January 1st, 2000.

A lot of hogwash if you ask me, I don't see why so many people want to try for that goal. But then again, I'm basically single, and have no plans for having any children in the near future.

I've heard that some governments are offering prizes to these so called "Millenium Babies". Expect a HA-UGE peak in births around that date. Not only that, expect a decline of births about a month before or a month after that date.

------------------
I can resist anything.......
Except Temptation

Posted by deadcujo (Member # 13) on :

Well, whoever has the first baby will surely have their 15 minutes of fame. And maybe a couple covers on magazines. And perhaps some kind of deal with a diaper-manufacturer or something...that kind of thing happens every day here

------------------
The Unknown Vulcan

Posted by Siegfried (Member # 29) on :

Tee hee hee.

My twentieth birthday is on April 10th.

------------------
"Some people call me the Space Cowboy. Yeah! Some call me the Gangster of Love. Some people call me Maurice. Whoo hoo! 'Cause I speak of the Pompatus of Love!" - Steve Miller Band's The Joker

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

And the funniest part will be that all these people will have their kids at the beginning of 2000, and they'll miss the third millennium by an entire year! *LOL*

------------------
"I fart in your general direction!"
-John Cleese, Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :

Now, don't make me get out the millenium pedantics stick and beat you with it.

------------------
'It's okay to only know three chords but God, put them in the right order'
-Hank Hill

Posted by The Vorlon (Member # 52) on :

Actually, isn't the whole system out by 4 or 7 years? (it's one of the two, I can't remember which). There's debate over just when they started keeping track of the ADs and when Jesus' birth supposedly was... Thus, the true millenium could still be several years away. =P

Of course, seeing how 90% of the population is so dense that they won't even consider this sort of thing, it won't make any difference whatsoever... If they WERE smart, they could say that 2000 is a transitional year between the 2 centuries/millenia and party all the way through 12.31.99 to 01.01.01... I'm sure some ppl would agree to a year-long party. =]

------------------
Lyta Vorlon: "Our great mistake. Our failing. And now your failing. The error is compounded."
Delenn: "What mistake?"
Lyta Vorlon: "The first one, the one from which all mistakes proceed: The error of Pride..."

-- Kalesh Naranek, Last of the Vorlon
www.orc.ca/~jheinbuc/

Posted by Siegfried (Member # 29) on :

I have to side with the Vorlon on this. I'm gonna party like it 1999, 2000, and 2001!

Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :

We'll need a year long supply of Beer, Wine, Pop, Pretzels, Chips, Dips, Nachos, Salsa, Cheese, and of course, Aspirin.

------------------
I can resist anything.......
Except Temptation

Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :

but Wouldn't it suck if you were born a minute before or a minute after midnight!?! What if the parents take it out of them for the rest of their lives!?! - We didn't get the cover of Women's Day cause YOU had to be born 25 seconds late!?!

silly.

------------------
Alamaraine, count to four...

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

Y'know, I think I'd rather be a pedantic who knows it starts in 2001 than a moron who thinks it starts in 2000...

And the calender, if you want to base it on the birth of Jesus, could be off anywhere from four to six years (by my understanding), but it's the other way. If we shifted the calender, we'd already be three to five years into the third millennium. And, besides, if the calender were recalculated to Jesus' birth, we'd probably have to move New Year's to a completely different season.

As it stands, the calender most of us use places the beginning of the CE/AD period one thousand, nine hundred, and ninety-eight years and eighty-nine days ago, on January 1, 1. Add two thousand years to January 1, 1, and you get January 1, 2001. That's the way the calender works. It's an indisputable fact. Saying that the third millennium starts in 2000 is like saying that this year started on a Tuesday, when it started on a Friday. You can't just assign arbitrary properties to the calender. If you do, why even bother having one?

------------------
"I'll bite your legs off!"
-Terry Gilliam, Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :

The 2000/2001 debate is another reason why I call this hogwash. There is exactly no point. And when this does happen, all the hospitals will be maxxed out. Good thing I'm not going to be a doctor.

I guess people think more of 2000 because it is a nice, even number, and also that it is the first year that features a 2 as the first digit.

------------------
I can resist anything.......
Except Temptation

Posted by Aethelwer (Member # 36) on :

I agree, Tim, but, remember, you can't have arbitrary redundant ranks in any system either...

------------------
http://frankg.dgne.com/
Rodimus Prime: "Don't panic. Stay calm until we know what's going on. Then we'll panic."

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

You can if you're inventing a new one... :-�

------------------
"I'll bite your legs off!"
-Terry Gilliam, Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :

OKAY!

Right, anyone here (mainly the Brits, cause the Americans wouldn't know a party if it came up and pooped in their trousers) going to stand around in December this year, when everyone is having a good time, and start shouting 'No, the millenium starts this year, because there wasn't a year 0, the first century would have then been 1-100, the second...hey, you've spilled beer on my cardigan!'?
Nope?
There's a difference in saying that it starts in 2000 because you're a moron, and just going with the flow because you don't want to be a pedantic arse that doesn't get invitied to parties because you'll spend you're whole time telling everyone that they're getting the rules of 'fuzzy duck' wrong.

Tahna said it best. 1999-2000 changes 4 digits. 2000-2001 changes 1. Since the actual millenium has no relevence to anything ANYWAY, that's use the excuse that all those cheques that have 19__ written on them will be useless in 9 months.

Oh, and why would we have to move New Year's if we recalculated the millenium cause of Jesus. I can understand moving Christman, but New Year's?

------------------
'It's okay to only know three chords but God, put them in the right order'
-Hank Hill

Posted by Aethelwer (Member # 36) on :

Yes, but there's a difference between inventing a new system and tacking on redundant ranks.

------------------
http://frankg.dgne.com/
Rodimus Prime: "Don't panic. Stay calm until we know what's going on. Then we'll panic."

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

If we base the calender on the birth of Jesus (which we really shouldn't do, anyway), New Year's and Christmas would be the same day (since it wouldn't make much sense to base a calender on someone's birth, but not have the year start on that person's birthday). Now, supposedly, when Jesus was born, there were shepherds out herding their sheep. I read somewhere that December is in the rainy season in Israel, meaning that shepherds probably wouldn't have their sheep out in the fields, meaning Jesus probably wasn't born at that time of year. So, if we move Christmas to the correct time of the year, and put New Year's on Christmas... See?

Anyway, it would make the most sense to put New Year's on one of the equinoxes or solstices, since those are natural phenomenon. How'd it get stuck where it, anyway?

------------------
"I'll bite your legs off!"
-Terry Gilliam, Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Posted by Baloo (Member # 5) on :

If any of you think that the fact that the millenium doesn't start in the year 2000 is a reason not to make whoopie, you have your priorities all wrong.

Any reason to party horizontally, vertically, or in an accelerating arc descending from the vertical to (or through) the horizontal is just fine by me.

Not the millenium? HOO-Hah! Let's party!

The millenium? Hee-WACK! Let's party s'more!

Elvis isn't dead.
He just had to go home.

------------------
ADVISORY:
There is an Extremely Small but Nonzero Chance That, Through a Process Known as "Tunneling," This Product May Spontaneously Disappear from Its Present Location and Reappear at Any Random Place in the Universe, Including Your Neighbor's Domicile. The Manufacturer Will Not Be Responsible for Any Damages or Inconvenience That May Result.

[This message was edited by Baloo on March 31, 1999.]

Posted by First of Two (Member # 16) on :

Oh, screw it. Let's just start renumbering with the year of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon. (Which would make this the Year 30).

Start the year at the Solstice, end it at the Solstice.

Celebrate Christmas in.. last I heard, the general scholarly consensus was March..

Make the date of the first airing of TOS a National Holiday.

That should do it.

------------------
*I only SEEM Normal*

Posted by The Excalibur (Member # 34) on :

First For Dictator!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

------------------
Parallax

Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :

But Christmas isn't on New Year's now...

And how'd you get that the calander was based on Jesus anyway? The year numbering system is, but not the rest of the calender.

You can't have Christmas in March. It snows much more often here in March than in December. The whole point of Christmas is to get really excited about the weather getting colder, and then get bitterly crushed again when it fails to snow.

Besides, if Christmas was in March, Jesus would die only a couple of weeks later.

I mean, bad enough to have your birthday on Christmas anyway, give the guy a break.

------------------
'It's okay to only know three chords but God, put them in the right order'
-Hank Hill

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

I'm not saying people can't celebrate the year 2000. They just should know that they'll still have a year of the second millennium left to go...

And where's the sense in basing the year numbers on a certain event, but not when the year begins and ends? That's like saying "Let's base our calender system on the birth of the graet and powerful Tim Nix, but let's make the year start somewhere else. Find a guy on the street and ask him to pick a random day, and that'll be New Year's..."

------------------
"About as useful as a narcoleptic rickshaw driver."
-James Lileks

Posted by Chimaera on :

This debate has about as much value to it as the one about the great mystery of the Klingon forhead. *Chimaera grabs nearest megaphone* GET OVER IT! WHO CARES? Not me. I'm not going to delay my celebration a whole year just because some monk in the middle ages didn't understand the concept of zero. As people have already mentioned, the date system is completely arbitrary (and has been changed several times since the birth of Christ anyway), and is off by several years. This is something that only the bean counters and bored history buffs would be interested in. As far as I'm concerned, the new millennium starts at 2000, and if its technically wrong by one year, well that's an error of only 0.05%, I can live with that

------------------
"Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you."
-Commander Riker, USS Enterprise

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

Well, if we include a year 0, perhaps each month should start w/ day 0. The year would start on January 0. Is that how it should work?

------------------
"About as useful as a narcoleptic rickshaw driver."
-James Lileks

Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :

Something tells me a certain TSN isn't going to any parties this December 31st...

And neither am I! Damned lack of a social life!

*pouts*

------------------
"The record of my unspeakable crimes, in previous lives, in previous times, indelibly stains the pages of history."
--
They Might Be Giants

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

Yes, well... Even if I ever did go to parties, I wouldn't go to any party the celebrates the third millennium at the beginning of the last year of the second. But, since I never go to any parties, I guess the question is somewhat moot, eh? :-)

------------------
"About as useful as a narcoleptic rickshaw driver."
-James Lileks

Posted by Montgomery (Member # 23) on :

Recommends the follwing global celebrations:

Jan 1: New year's Day
Feb 5: Montgomery Day (Birthday)
March 21: TFI Spring day
April 1: Great Maker Day
July 31: Sunbathing day
August 21: Hallucinogenics Day
September 8-15: World Trek week
December 31: Alcohol day

------------------
"I'm sorry I'm late....
I've been irrigating the desert...
Which isn't easy on your own."
- M&W

Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :

Ya know, I can't tell if those lack of party to go to comments are light-hearted comments, or actually bitter and twisted jokes.

Still, come over here Sol. With an American accent in the middle of Trafalgar Square, you'll be as popular as a turd in a swimming pool.

Joking.

Or am I?

do do do do (Twilgiht zone music plays, for reasons no-one quite understands)

------------------
'It's okay to only know three chords but God, put them in the right order'
-Hank Hill

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

Actually, my comment was a lighthearted twisted joke-comment. And remind me to steer clear of Trafalgar Square... :-)

------------------
"About as useful as a narcoleptic rickshaw driver."
-James Lileks

Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :

To be honest, I'm plainning to spend new years knocking on all the British guys houses here, taking a photo, and saying 'foxy Monty wanted to see you one last time before the world ended'

Except Monty's house obviously. I've got something much more fun planned for him. He he he.

------------------
'It's okay to only know three chords but God, put them in the right order'
-Hank Hill

Posted by Antagonist (Member # 76) on :

OH MY GOD!!!!

The shock of it all has just hit me!!!
This is 1999!! In 8 weeks DS9 will be gone, in 9 months it'll be 2000! GEEZ!
Worse yet, in two years 9 months I'll have graduated!!!!!!

Where the freaking hell have I been?

------------------
"Truth is cheap, information costs."

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

Well... You've been here. :-)

------------------
"About as useful as a narcoleptic rickshaw driver."
-James Lileks

Posted by RW (Member # 27) on :

That's bad enough. Why am I here? Because I don't have a social life. And I'll be here for some time to come unless I get hit by a bus or something similar tomorrow. But time does seem to fly. I can remember thinking about becoming 10 in that magical, distant year of 1990, in 1986. And now I'm not that far removed from 20. ARgh..

Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :

It's April 9, 1999.

And what will you be doing tonite?

------------------
I can resist anything.......
Except Temptation