Flare Sci-Fi Forums: Y2K and The Meaning of Life

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Posted by JazzJunky on :

Well...with the new millenium approaching, I'm sure many of you have been questioning your beliefs, your life, your origins, where you've been and where you're going. If not...well, what the hell are you doing reading this? Just kidding. Anyway, apparently this "Y2K" thing is supposed to be a big deal. So what, the year "2000" means precisely squat. Considering this whole fandango is based on the Christian calendar, it's probably a good idea to dismiss any rumors of Fire and Brimstone...or locusts or Angels with heralding trumpets...or the dreaded four horsemen of the apocalypse...and yes, the coming of the antichrist (to many christians, Marilyn Manson). Why, you may ask? Because the Christian calendar is anywhere from four to seven years off, that's why. So, if it was destiny for some supreme being to bring the world to a crashing halt 2000 years after Jesus Christ's birth...he's later than a Vegas whore's period after a bachelor party.
The point is...the only real threat this New Year's day is going to be from all the religious and cult nuts who think the world is gonna end and are going to stock up on weapons and will kill anything that moves on January 1st. That...and all those terrorists who are stealing explosives and weapons of mass destruction....but that's beside the point. Most of the computer problems have been solved. No, Russia's nuclear weapons won't launch because their computers failed. Folks....it's Russia...their computers fail ALL THE TIME. Besides...even if their computers failed (or ours for that matter) they can't launch without entering the proper codes...and both the US and Russia have soldiers posted at each other's nuclear weapons facilities so there won't be any "mistaken" launchings.
Look...the only real fear we have to face the next few days is a bunch of idiots with irrational fears and lots of destructive power. And hey...when has that ever caused a problem?

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"Yeah, it hurt a bit, but the chicks dig it...."
-Prince Albert

Posted by Jay the Obscure (Member # 19) on :

Ah, a kindred spirit...but more on that is a sec.

Yes, I admit it, I keep water and canned food in my apartment! Save for the fact that it is really for the next great California earthquake, I'm all set for the over hyped year of 2000.

I have my most of my jazz in a metal drawer thingie at work...that way I can drown out the bottom feeders...and will make the transition to the new year quite well. At home, I usually listen to KLON (a great local station) or WBGO on the net.

Unfortunatly, a casuality of the Y2K hype was a jazz concert in So Cal because no one bought tickets. Oh well, such is life.

Anyway, it's a pleasure to meet another jazz person.

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It's no use. I guess I'll have to leave all my money to the Egg Advisory Council. Eggs have gotten quite a bad rap lately, you know, Smithers.
~C. Montgomery Burns

[This message has been edited by Jay (edited December 30, 1999).]

Posted by LOA (Member # 49) on :

*raises an eyebrow* Huh. Jazz is back. And it's only been *looks at watch* About 5 months since he left! Wow..... *L*

Good seein' ya, Jazzy *grin* Oh... and as a side note.... I'd just like to point out that not all Christians think this is the end of the world... hehehe.... in fact, my church is very AGAINST the Christians that are preaching that as set in stone fact.... they're going to hurt our credibility as a whole when we all wake up alive and intact on Jan. 1st

~LOA

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"The battle is raging inside my weary heart
screaming for me to let it all go...
My body is weak and I can't take the struggle anymore...
the love that was here is filled up by anger and rage..." ~FOM

Posted by Justin_Timberland (Member # 236) on :

The only thing I'm questioning this year is that whether I like boy bands like the Backstreet Boys and 98 Degrees because of their looks or because I'm hoping that they are into menage a trois...

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Sometimes I run
Sometimes I hide
Sometimes I'm scared of you
But all I really want is to hold you tight
Treat you right, be with you day and night
Baby all I need is time

-Britney Spears

Posted by Vacuum robot lady from Spaceballs (Member # 239) on :

That's pretty damn disgusting.

I don't suppose music has anything to do with it? No, of course not, music today is based on image, not sound.

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"I've never seen anything this beautiful in the entire galaxy. Alright, give me the bomb" -Ultra Magnus, Fight or Flee

Posted by Jay the Obscure (Member # 19) on :

*waits for Sol's entrance*

That would be one of his "issues" with the world as we know it. The fact that groups with no substance like say the Bonehead Boys seem to get record conracts while other bands, which shall remain nameless, do not get the recognition they deserve.

And as for sound, there are few enough people who are willing to invest the time to listen to jazz. Something that can be as challenging as it is rewarding. Follow the links in my above post and you can find out for yourself.

At least you never saw Miles Davis and John Coltrane doing a choreographed dance on stage. And for that matter acoustic jazz players have no need to fear Y2Crap.

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It's no use. I guess I'll have to leave all my money to the Egg Advisory Council. Eggs have gotten quite a bad rap lately, you know, Smithers.
~C. Montgomery Burns

Posted by Vacuum robot lady from Spaceballs (Member # 239) on :

Actually, I'm starting to like Jazz a lot more than I did, thanks to my Psychology Professor. He's quite into it, and told me about a campus jazz concert, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It's played with a lot of feeling, and I like that.

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"I've never seen anything this beautiful in the entire galaxy. Alright, give me the bomb" -Ultra Magnus, Fight or Flee

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

Form Jazz is okay. I can't stand improvisational jazz, though.

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Calvin: "No efficiency, no accountability... I tell you, Hobbes, it's a lousy way to run a Universe." -- Bill Watterson

Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :

First of all, though I consider myself a rabidly viscious music type person, people should be free to listen to and enjoy whatever they like. It is, after all, the goal I am striving for, is it not? An open musical market where everything is out there for people to hear?

I don't even have a problem with image, really. Lord knows I wish I could look EXACTLY like John Linnell in the video for "They'll Need A Crane". Or Beck, basically at all times. But the problem with music today is entirely commercial. Music is an industry. Ok, sure, let's run with that. Of course it is an industry. But it should be an industry whose purpose is to sell music, not The Gap.

Prime example: Total Request Live. MTV in general, really, but I wish that Carson Daly would find himself on Venus in summer while ravenous venusian ravens tear out his eyes, so I'm going to pick on TRL. The groups played on this show are not chosen by music lovers the world over. They are very carefully culled from a small number of songs provided for at a goodly price by an also small number of record companies. Those that Marketing selects as appealing to the target demographic, in this case screaming teenagers, are selected as possibilites. And therein rests the problem. Demographics are great for advertisers, but are nothing less than a noose tied around the throat of creativity. If I'm trying to sell the largest number of Old Navy vests possible, I want my advertisement to reach as many people as possible. Hence, I don't want quality, I want bland generalites that will offend no one.

And so sales at malls across the country continue to grow while the corpse of pop music twists softly in the breeze.

Or does it...?

Without a doubt, good music is being produced these days. But you can't hear it on the radio, you can't see it on TV, and you certainly can't buy it at Wal-Mart. Musical nirvana is out there for those willing to expend a little effort in the search.

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"20th Century, go to sleep."
--
R.E.M.

Posted by Fabrux (Member # 71) on :

*remembers how hard it was to find a TMBG CD in town*

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Frank's Home Page
"My son and I have this wonderful kind of rivalry. Since I've taken over the Mac department in our home, he's seen fit to take over the PC. I have a routine I do for him, walking down the hall, bumping into walls, doing corkscrews and stumbling. I tell him I'm a Windows operating system." - John de Lancie

Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :

So this isn't the best place to shout out "Robbie is the dog's bollocks!" then?

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"Obesity. Adiposity. Corpulence. Whatever word you use, it represents one thing: being a big fatass."

Geraldo Rivera

Posted by Jay the Obscure (Member # 19) on :

Well, jazz is defined by improvisation which can run the gamut from Miles Davis' "cool" to Dizzy Gillespie's "hot" to Thelonious Monk's "avant garde" with several stops in between.

I prefer cool jazz and have a growing collection of Miles Davis. I suggest to anyone the disk "Kind of Blue," arguably the best single jazz album ever produced. The improvisation mediates between Davis' graceful horn, Cannonball Adderley's artistic alto sax, and John Contrane's unrestrained tenor sax.

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It's no use. I guess I'll have to leave all my money to the Egg Advisory Council. Eggs have gotten quite a bad rap lately, you know, Smithers.
~C. Montgomery Burns

[This message has been edited by Jay (edited January 01, 2000).]

Posted by Diane (Member # 53) on :

Broadway Rules.

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--Then, said Cranly, do you not intend to become a protestant?
--I said that I had lost the faith, Stephen answered, but not that I had lost self-respect. What kind of liberation would that be to forsake an absurdity which is logical and coherent and to embrace one which is illogical and incoherent?

James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

Posted by Jay the Obscure (Member # 19) on :

Bah! There always has to be one in the crowd.

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It's no use. I guess I'll have to leave all my money to the Egg Advisory Council. Eggs have gotten quite a bad rap lately, you know, Smithers.
~C. Montgomery Burns

Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :

Well it's the year 2000 here in Eastern time, and at the time of writing this, nearly Central time as well. No the power didn't go out, we still have water, no sign of the four horsemen or nuclear missiles bearing the insignia "CCCP" on them.

But what I do wonder, am I in the 21st century or not? Most believe that it, and the millennium starts in 2001. Most Americans you'd said would say it's the new millennium and 21st century.

Happy New Year all.

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Calvin: "You don't think humans evolved from monkeys?"
Hobbes: "I sure don't see any difference."
Federation Starship Datalink - Starship site of the new millennium.

[This message has been edited by Hobbes (edited January 01, 2000).]

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

Well, reagrdless of what people think, 2000 is the final year of the twentieth century. It's a simple fact. I'll admit, it doesn't make sense, but that's the way it is. The calendar system in reference begins at the year 1, not 0, and there's nothing to be done about it.

Here's one way around it: Don't think of the turnover as midnight, January 1, 2000. Think of it as the middle of Julian Day 2,451,544. Not quite so mystical-sounding, is it?

Anyway, regarding the music thing... I've begun to think in recent times that we are actually witnessing the death of rock and roll (meaning that it really isn't being produced as a large portion of music these days). Does anyone else think that's true?

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"...more people buy Harry Potter novels than the works of Alexander Pope, but that's no measure of their quality."
-Tom Aylward-Nally, December 29, 1999

Posted by HMS White Star (Member # 174) on :

Hey wait a minute TSN are you saying that the Julian Calender goes back to the year 4716 B.C.

By my estimates we are exactly (depending on your time zone) on the 730,120th day day since they decided 1 A.D. would be where they restarted the calender.

Of course I could be wrong, happy new year and hope everyone has fun waiting 365 more days to the next Y2001 .

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"Think of all the delightful aspects of the reproductive process: menstruation, pregnancy, labor. And the part we're trying to eliminate is sex?" Cecil Adams the guy who does Straight Dope.

Posted by The359 (Member # 37) on :

Just for clarification, 2000 is a leap year, correct?

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"The things hollow--it goes on forever--and--oh my God!--it's full of stars!" -David Bowman's last transmission back to Earth, 2001: A Space Odyssey

Posted by bryce (Member # 42) on :

Yes, more Y2K bugs to come in Feb.

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Peace on Earth

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

*digs his way out of the bunker*
*looks around*

As Q said in "All Good Things..."

"Awww.. nothing happened..."

Guess I'll have to do it myself.

*makes note to call up local ultraconservative radio talk-show host who predicted widespread chaos, and belittle same*

and I failed to convince any of that bunch of Christians who DID believe that the world would end to show a final act of faith by transferring all their worldly property to me.

Oh, well, there's always next year. Gullible Fundies will always be with us.

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Calvin: "No efficiency, no accountability... I tell you, Hobbes, it's a lousy way to run a Universe." -- Bill Watterson

[This message has been edited by First of Two (edited January 02, 2000).]

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

HMSWS: Actually, I believe the Julian Period starts at noon, January 1, 4713 BC.

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"...more people buy Harry Potter novels than the works of Alexander Pope, but that's no measure of their quality."
-Tom Aylward-Nally, December 29, 1999

Posted by Montgomery (Member # 23) on :

Where's the ka-boom?
There was supposed to be an earth-shattering ka-boom!

Delays, delays...

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"I cannot live out that life.
That man is bereft of passion... and imagination!
That is not who I am!"