Sunday, December 31, 2000

A Thousand Years

As I write this it is less than 12 hours until midnight, January 1, 2001. The new Millennium! The 21st Century!

I can hardly believe it. Here we (as in mankind) are on the verge of the future. It didn't really sink in until a few days ago. Usually I regard the New Years' festivities with boredom and indifference. I don't party. I don't drink. I usually stay at home, while others whoop it up. Of the parties I have been to, they have been unsettling. I would usually stand around in a corner, watching everyone else and their wives, husbands, significant others going through the traditional ritual of giving and receiving hugs and kisses. Well, they should know that those of us who HAVE no one find it "not in good taste, these public displays of affection (PDA's)." Of course, it can also be said that we knew ahead of time it was going to happen, so we should shut up about it. They just don't realize we fell “left out” and “not worthy of being loved.”

But who cares about that. Why dwell on the past, when the future is just around the corner? Sure, we don't have a lot of the fancy things that were talked about it movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey. But we have some of them.

How did this date sneak up on us? Maybe on a subconscious level we knew that the 21st Century was coming, but it always seemed a long way off. Something to think about later. There were other things that occupied time: school, work, girls (or boys, if you're a girl), having fun, etc. But later is now. We've arrived. And we're not really prepared.

“But,” you may ask, “How can you prepare for a specific date?” Good question, and it’s one I have the answer to. To a lot of people it’s “just another holiday” whereas it’s a big (sort of) date for those of us who are science-minded. The 3rd Millennium… the 21st Century… the binary date 01/01/01.

The future holds much promise. And to that end, I am going to make a few predictions. Normally I won't do “New Years’ Resolutions” but I'll do a “Millennium Resolution.”
  1. I resolve to finally have a date (not the fruit, but a date with a human female) before the end of the 3rd Millennium.
  2. I resolve to NOT be working at my current job at the end of the 3rd Millennium.
  3. Watch more movies.