if you aren't reading Roy's End of the Decade series at the Voice you're missing out. The man is doing a heckuva job counting down the reasons why this almost finished decade sucked. I'd add some of my own but he's only reached number 7 and my personal additions would mostly feature having made bad decisions inre: women. I give the right ones too little and the wrong ones too much, but wahwahwah, at most there's one or two of em reading this so anyway. This decade is almost over, fuck it.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
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14 comments:
u give girls this url? bad move.
Heh.
I pledged I would only say this once, so tough luck on you, brad: it is NOT the end of the decade. A decade is ten years. This decade (and century and millennium) began in 2001, so 2009 is the ninth year. The decade will end next year.
Call it the end of the oughts or whatevs, if it makes you feel better cause they really sucked, but I swear to FSM...
I agree with you on the millennial divide, but not on decades. Decades run from 0-9, and have the same digit in front. Otherwise you end up arguing that 1990 was part of the 80s, which is just plain wrong.
Plus you have to remember, there was a year zero, at least in theory. The first decade ran from 0-9, not 0-10.
If anything I'm more sympathetic to claims the millennium really started in 2000 than the idea that decades run from 1-10.
Oh man, you almost had me convinced, but seriously, year zero? There was never was a concept of zero in counting in order, nor was there a year zero, neither for Dionysius Exiguus, nor for Venerable Bede.
You can't have it both ways - either you accept that the 21st century and the third millennium began on January 1st, 2001, then you must also accept that there never was a year zero and that the first decade began the very same moment the 21st century and the third millennium began. Otherwise year 2000 is the last year of the last century and millennium, but the first year of this decade and that's really absurd.
As I said,
Call it the end of the oughts or whatevs
or refer to it (and the eighties, nineties and so forth) by some other term, but a decade, it sure ain't.
So Jebus was born already a year old?
Nah, the monks miscalculated. Jebus was born at least five years old (Herod died in 4, hehe, BC).
I'm just saying that bad medieval math aside, Jebus was born 0 years old, making the first year AD the year 0. As I'm not a Christian I'm not held to whatever bad logic they twisted themselves into.
Well then why even celebrate anything that is even remotely related to counting the time passed since the maybe-birth of a sort-of-historical-and-religious-figure?
Oy, deja vu, I had this conversation multiple times nine and eight years ago and now I remember why I pledged what I pledged. Why don't we call it the end of the oughts and drink to good riddance?
I have to agree that the year ending with '1' is the official start of a decade. And so there is one more year of this awful decade to go.
1991 was such a seminal year because it really did feel like the start of a new decade. Achtung Baby. The fall of the USSR. Clarence Thomas / Anita Hill. Magic Johnson. The final Pixies album. The first Pearl Jam album. My first email account. That year absolutely rocked in so many big ways.
When I finally teach a history of terrorism class someday, I will tell the students that the world did change in August 1991 - which set the stage for 2001. But in no way did 2001 change the world like 1991 did. No way,
yummmmm, @aol.com....
Wait- so when I partied like it was 1999 I should have waited until 2000?
Party any chance you get, the calendar be damned!!
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