Flashback to 1999

[goldenband]

There were a ton of people who worked their asses off to keep Y2K from being a disaster. It's impossible to know for certain what would have happened had no one bothered to do anything about it, but while I don't think it would have been Armageddon, there could have been lives lost in places like hospitals, and things like power outages and banking malfunctions were more than likely.

That's the big problem, of course: blowhards go instantly from "Only a coward would worry about that" to "Only a fool didn't see that coming", and vice versa. It's a whole macho thing: either something isn't a threat and is "overblown", or it's a fight to the death and you're shooting to kill and nuking it from orbit -- with no in-between.

Things like prudence, moderation, proportionate response, and daily maintenance go out the window. If someone's attitude is "I am always right", dealing with them in day-to-day life is usually miserable -- but when people like that try to implement policy, it's really disastrous, whether in government or in a business.

And on the business end of things, there are a whole lot of IT people who got fired because "Why do we need you? Everything's running fine", and who suddenly got rehired at consultant's rates when everything went to hell in their absence and no one else knew how to fix them!

[newmodelarmy]

My biggest 1999 takeaway from a pop culture standpoint was Phantom Menace. The hype, the merch, everything. I was 12 when Jedi was released so the original trilogy was sacred to me. To see Phantom Menace play out as a droning government policy flick was brutal. When Jar Jar Binks appeared, I almost walked out and regret sticking it out to see the rest of the movie.
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That's hysterical. However, as bad as the prequels are, they are nothing compared to the mess that is episode 8 and 9, in my opinion. Episode 8 and 9 are the only Star Wars movies I have only watched once and will NEVER watch again.

I graduated college December 1998 and began my professional career in accounting (as an auditor) in January 1999 for a large prestigious firm. I can't even tell you how many hours I spent auditing companies Y2K response and readiness, it was crazy. All I remember is how uneventful the whole thing was. It became 2000 and.......that was it! I can't believe 21 years has gone by so fast! It's crazy. 1999 was a good year, but nothing compares to the 80's for me, the decade I grew up in.