Like Whatever
All things Gen-X. Take a stroll down memory lane, drink from a hose, and ride until the street lights come on. We discuss the past, present, and future of the forgotten generation. Come on slackers, fuck around and find out with us!
Like Whatever
Countdown To Chaos
Have you ever wondered how a simple trip to the grocery store could turn into a holiday adventure? Join Nicole and Heather as they share their Christmas tales with a sprinkle of humor and nostalgia. While Heather plans to enjoy a peaceful day cooking in her pajamas, Nicole's hectic week includes last-minute shopping escapades. A hilarious hot water mishap that ends with a family rescue. Through their festive chatter, they remind us that the chaos of holiday preparations often leads to the most treasured memories.
Remember the Y2K buzz? Nicole and Heather take you back to when the world collectively held its breath, fearing computers would misread the year 2000 as 1900. Their journey through the so-called Y2K crisis lightens the mood with quirky glitches and survivalist antics, including how media and some personalities capitalized on the fear. With anecdotes of a world bracing for chaos that never quite materialized, they reflect on the real efforts behind the scenes to keep us moving forward into the new millennium.
As the episode wraps up, Nicole and Heather get whimsical, imagining a Grinch-inspired holiday full of beloved characters and classic films. From the thrill of potential disasters to the joy of new holiday traditions, this episode promises a hearty mix of laughter, nostalgia, and reflection. Tune in for a nostalgic ride, and perhaps you'll find yourself inspired to create some unconventional holiday traditions of your own.
Two best friends. We're talking the past, from mistakes to arcades. We're having a blast. Teenage dreams, neon screens, it was all rad and no one knew me Like you know. It's like whatever. Together forever. We've never done this, ever Laughing and sharing our stories. Clever, we'll take you back. It's Like Whatever.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Like Whatever a podcast for, by and about Gen X. I'm Nicole and this is my BFF, heather. Bah humbug, so we are recording on Christmasmas eve it is christmas eve it is uh. So hopefully, when you hear this, uh, you will have had a nice holiday and santa brought you everything that you wanted.
Speaker 3:Yep um, he's bringing me everything I want, which is spending the day by myself Perfect. I know I'm so excited.
Speaker 2:Joe has to work.
Speaker 3:I'm home alone. It's the best Christmas ever you had Instacart drop off. I had Instacart drop off food.
Speaker 2:I'll be making myself dinner.
Speaker 3:I'm excited for it. It's pretty perfect. It's like the greatest thing ever. Everybody gets so bent out of shape about it too. They're like how could you spend Christmas alone? Because that's all I want to do is spend aloneness.
Speaker 2:I just want to be alone.
Speaker 3:Leave me the fuck alone. If I'm not sad, trust me.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:Oh, do you want to come have dinner? No, no, I don't I want to come have dinner. No, no, I don't. I want to stay home by myself and cook my own turkey in my own oven, in my pajamas yeah, which I wore my pigeon. Today was pajama day at work, nice I wore my my any chance I get to wear pajamas and leave the house I'm gonna take it. What'd you do this week?
Speaker 2:um, not a whole lot, just worked um.
Speaker 2:The governor gave state employees off today, so nice yesterday was my last day of work and I don't go back until after the new year, so lucky bitch. Yeah, it's. Sometimes it's good to be a state employee. Yeah, I guess, um, doing a bunch of last minute shopping. This lady yeah, sometimes it's good to be a state employee. Yeah, I guess, doing a bunch of last-minute shopping. This lady cracked me up. I was in Food Lion and there were two fast lanes. There were two side-by-side and the lines were kind of merged. I wasn't really sure, right, and so like the one line moves. So I asked her if she would like to go up there and she just calmly looked at me and shook her head no, and she was like I'm getting a break from my four children right now.
Speaker 2:I was like oh, the longer the line, the better she's like yes, I get that.
Speaker 1:I was like okay, I get that.
Speaker 2:I was like okay.
Speaker 3:I get that. I finished my shopping the other day. I did it all online. I cheated, oh no, I did go to TJ Maxx the other day. I got a couple of things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was fun being out today. A lot of families out in matching pajamas, it was cute.
Speaker 3:Sure, some people looked like they were having fun.
Speaker 2:Not everybody, no not everyone, I don't know.
Speaker 3:I have a Red Nurse on my route and yesterday when I went, I was like hey, I knew how late they were going to. It wouldn't have mattered if they were open how late today, but I figured I would just ask because I knew I would be there before 12. And I was like oh, what time are you closing? And they're like oh, don't worry about stopping by. And I was like oh, fucking thank. God, because the thought of going into this parking lot and into the store even to drop something off is just maddening.
Speaker 2:That was nice of them, yes.
Speaker 3:And the bank also told me not to worry about it today. So they said don't worry about it, we'll see after Christmas. And I was like that's awesome, I know. I had some really cool, cool businesses on my route, so it's been like stupid cold.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, Like it stayed warm forever, and now we didn't get fall, no, and then Okay, so it's not as cold as, like you know, wisconsin or places where it actually gets cold, but it's cold for here, and so I have to work outside, you know, and I was really really cold on Saturday. I mean like just couldn't feel my fingers, anything, and I was so looking forward to getting home and taking a hot-ass shower. And on my way I get a text from my husband that was like hey, we don't have any hot water, and I was like I hate my life. I know that's. All I was thinking about was how hot, because our shower gets like ridiculously hot.
Speaker 2:You're crazy, I don't take hot showers.
Speaker 3:Oh, I have to take a hot shower, and I will be in there until the water runs cold, and so then we didn't have hot water on Sunday either.
Speaker 2:It's no wonder your hot water heater broke.
Speaker 3:That's probably why because I just run the hell out of it. And then yesterday, so my dad came and fixed it Nice, because he's handy that way Nice. And so we had. Here's what I don't get. Okay, just tell me. This just makes no sense, because it made no sense to me. Okay, so we had hot water. Okay, but for some reason earlier in the day, okay, when I left for work yesterday morning, we had water, because I brushed my teeth and I went to the bathroom and I filled the dog's bowl, so I know we had water, right. And then I left.
Speaker 3:And then I get a text in the middle of the day that says your dad is here, but now we have no water at all. And I'm like, wait, but there was water this morning. And then I get a text later that says, okay, we have hot water again. And I was like, yes, I'm gonna have a hot ass shower. And then I get a text later that says, okay, we have hot water again. And I was like, yes, I'm gonna have a hot ash. And then it was, but we don't have cold water. And I was like, how is that a thing? I? So I was like I don't what no, that's not possible because if you have hot water, then cold water goes.
Speaker 3:I know how water heaters work it's like they shut off a valve somewhere no, because my dad and I did it.
Speaker 3:And so I get home and I'm, and he's there and he's like okay, I took a hot shower, we have hot water, it'll be good for you, but I have. And he had all the faucets in the house, all the other faucets in the house, open and nothing was coming out of any of them, none of them. But the toilet flushed and refilled and the shower worked. And it wasn't just hot ass water that came out of the shower, like it was a, an equal amount. So I don't understand how, but then this morning when I got up, we had all water. So don't, I have no idea what happened, but I do know that I took a hot ass shower last night and then there was water this morning. But the poor bird wanted to take a bath because every time we got near it was like so the water was dripping.
Speaker 3:Because we left it on what night? Saturday night, yes, saturday night. We let it run, no Friday. Saturday night, we let it run no Friday. We've been letting it run since Friday. We let it run Friday drip all night. And then we let it run Saturday, and then I was going to let it run all Sunday, just so it didn't freeze and then we didn't have water. I don't know, I don't know how that happens. Joe was like I don't know if it's because those pipes run through the attic and there's like a chunk of ice in there, but some places. But the bathroom sink does not have any water, but the toilet and the shower, which are like five feet away from each other all have water, so this makes no sense.
Speaker 3:I don't know what the hell, but this morning we had all kinds of water I can't wait to see what you have tomorrow hey, you knows, it might be all filled with water. I might have a pool and not know about it. So I don't know what the hell happened, but the poor bird didn't get her bath, oh I know. And now she's. She's gonna be really pissed off today because I don't let her out. I get home so late, late on Tuesdays from us recording.
Speaker 3:Nicole lives like an hour away from me so it takes me an hour to get home and I don't let her out and she gets very upset about oh and then? What day was it? One of the days we didn't have water. We were changing the filter for the heater and the thing was open because we didn't get a filter yet. We forgot about the filter.
Speaker 3:So we took the old filter out and we were like, oh, we'll put another one in there. But it was open and it didn't dawn on me until the bird had been out for like an hour and a half and she noticed it and I was like, what are you looking at, oh fuck. And I and a half and she noticed it and and I was like what are you looking at, oh fuck. And I had to run over and I'm like trying to shut the thing because she was looking at it like I am out of here, bitch. So I got it shut and so the bird did not escape thank god, you would have been devastated I would have.
Speaker 3:I love that stupid ass little bird. I have a caique. I know nobody has ever heard of it. They're also called white-bellied parrots or black-legged parrots and she's so cute and she's hilarious. But these are not a beginner bird and I am a beginner bird owner and she bites the shit out of me and I was reading last night, I was looking into, I was reading more up on it. Now I'll do the research on it. Yeah, I did the research before.
Speaker 2:I know you did.
Speaker 3:But so one of the things was like are they nippy? And it was like I and they can inflict a dangerous bite. And I was like no shit, because I have right now Currently she bit in between my finger, but she doesn't mean it.
Speaker 3:I know that's what I say about my cats too. When they bite me. The problem is she's only three, so it's a play bite. And when I was reading about whether or not I should get her a little friend I can't afford a little friend because these birds are stupid expensive, but I got mine for free. I didn't pay that much for it. I was looking into getting a friend and they said don't get any other kind of bird other than a caique because they play so rough that they can really seriously injure another bird.
Speaker 3:And if you watch the videos, they like tumble around on the floor together and when she plays she is very rough when she plays. And then she was trying to give me kisses and she was making the kissy noise and I was like no, because you're just gonna bite my face. I do not want to have my face bit right now. But yeah, so, um, that's what I did. I had to save my bird from escaping out into the wild. I don't think she would have done very well, because I think they're from the Amazon Wicked cold, not oh. And you know what else I did this week? Oh, this is horrible.
Speaker 3:Speaking of birds, I was delivering in my apartments and I come out of the one apartment and I see a hawk fly down. This is the second day in a row that I saw a hawk fly out of nowhere. One came straight across my windshield and I was like oh shit. So I go out and there's a hawk and it's like diving down in the parking lot and I was like, oh shit, what's that hawk? And then I see feathers everywhere and I was like oh no, because when I had drove by earlier I saw a pigeon and I thought it was weird. I never see pigeons there and I was like I wonder if that's somebody's racing pigeon, because it was just sitting kind of not doing anything Right. So I go over to look and it in fact the hawk does, did have the pigeon. The pigeon got away and the pigeon goes under a car and then the hawk flies away and you know.
Speaker 3:I probably would be faster at delivering if I didn't fuck around with birds all day. So the hawk takes off and is in a house across the street, is up on the on the roof and I was like, oh shit, so I'm going to look for this pigeon, like I'm going to do something for it. But I was actually trying to see if it had a band or anything on it, in case it was somebody's pigeon. So i'm'm trying to find it, trying to find it, and it's dodging underneath cars and I'm looking and then finally it pops out from under a car and it takes off flying and then the hawk went after it.
Speaker 3:So I think I made the situation worse. And then I was like I'm just going to get in the truck because either I just killed that pigeon or I made that hawk's day. I don't really know what.
Speaker 2:I mean it's the circle of life.
Speaker 3:I didn't see either of them. And there were trees. Maybe it had gotten to the trees without the hawk getting it, but I don't.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we had a hawk eat a squirrel out in our backyard the other day.
Speaker 3:That was fun.
Speaker 2:Because I feed the squirrels.
Speaker 3:Oh no. So I was a little devastated. I bet that's sad. It's so sad. I mean I get it, it's the circle of life, but I don't want to have to know about it like I get it, a hamburger is a cow and I like cows, but I don't want to know how it became a hamburger right, exactly I just want to pretend like it's not it's like if wildlife could just keep it a little more private, right like what are you doing out in the middle of nowhere, eating pigeons and shit?
Speaker 3:That's just wrong. Anyway, all right, so let's fuck around and find out about Y2K.
Speaker 2:I'm so excited Because I did not read the script this week and I hear there's a lot of really cool stuff in here and I'm making most of it up and I love this. I'm going to be a little bit embarrassed by the stuff I share about myself today but, it's too relevant to the story to not share so my sources were Britannicacom, siedu and HowToGeekcom.
Speaker 3:So I did actually learn a lot about Y2K. I thought, much like everybody else, it was just a big like it was all this fuss and much ado about nothing, and then it came and went and nothing, no planes dropped out of the sky, nothing bad happened. So it was like, well, that was a waste of my ear, right 25. And it's actually been, if you can believe this one, because when I look, because I was like, oh, I should do Y2K because this episode airs right before the new year, that's cool. But then dawned on me it has been 25 years, 25 years, so perfect timing.
Speaker 3:So 25 years ago, the apocalypse was looming. Yes, it was. Many computer programs, especially those written in the early days of computers, were designed to abbreviate four digit years as two digits in order to save memory. Four-digit years as two digits in order to save memory. So when the year 2000 happens, they were afraid that it would be unable to recognize the 00 as 2000 and interpret it to mean 1900, thus failing to operate.
Speaker 3:Also, a lot of software did not take into account that the year 2000 was a leap year, and there was like a whole lot of stuff I didn't understand about how they incorporate leap years into computer programming.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, so it's not, I didn't know about that, yeah.
Speaker 3:I didn't either, and it made it was like, oh. And then I tried to read it and I was like okay, that's not going to stick anywhere. It needs to stick, so we'll just move on. I'm just going to tell you that it's a problem. It has to be programmed in there. It was feared that some computers might fail on September 9th 1999, 9-9-99, because early programmers often used a series of nines to indicate the end of a program.
Speaker 2:I remember that too.
Speaker 3:Yes, that was another apocalypse that didn't happen. That did not happen. The most at risk were mainframe computers, of course, like so, insurance, banks, utilities, many devices containing computer chips, ranging from elevators to temperature control systems, and commercial buildings to medical equipment. They were all believed to be at risk, which you know that's going to be a problem, that's a bad thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the world's going to shut down. Okay, so they knew this was going to be a problem in 1984 in a book called Computers in Crisis, and then they reissued the article in a book called the Year 2000 Computing Crisis.
Speaker 1:She's taking pictures of me, me, and that's not right as far as recorded.
Speaker 3:now you got me fucked up. So computer world in 1993 had a three-page doomsday 2000 article and they said that the new york times called it the information age equivalent of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, because everybody was. I mean not in 93, yet Nobody was freaking, they were. All computer programmers were freaking out, right, because they knew this was going to be a problem in the 80s, right? The acronym Y2K has been attributed to Massachusetts programmer David Eddy that he sent in an email he sent in 1995. People were calling it cdc, century date change, f-a-d-l faulty date logic fall.
Speaker 2:yeah, but I don't know no, you said that exactly right, I know, but where?
Speaker 3:did the other a come f-a-d-l. There's no other a, it's just fdl oh no, I noticed that too.
Speaker 2:That's weird, I don't know. They left the A out. Fdl must have stood for something else.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I guess. But Y2K, just you know, sounded better. A Y2K preparedness survey commissioned in 98 showed that among 13 economic sectors studied in the United States, government was the least ready for Y2K. Shocker, I know. So in October of 98, bill Clinton signed the Year 2000 Information and Readiness Disclosure Act.
Speaker 2:If I could interrupt, there for a second Shout out to Bill Clinton Was in the hospital.
Speaker 3:He got out. He did get out yeah.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:And I said Jimmy Carter was going to outlive everybody.
Speaker 2:And I said Jimmy Carter was going to outlive everybody.
Speaker 3:The law was designed to encourage American companies to share Y2K data by offering them limited liability protection for sharing information about Y2K products, methods and best practices. So basically they were like we don't know what to do. So if Elon Musk had been around, they would have been like hey, elon, we're going to need your brain for a minute. And so they private companies were also working on it. So because the world was not ready, in mid-December of 98, the UN convened its first international conference on Y2K in an attempt to share information in crisis management efforts and establish the International Y2K Corporation Center based in Washington DC. $300 to $600 billion were spent worldwide, the $100 billion in the United States alone.
Speaker 2:For something that never happened Fixing this problem.
Speaker 3:Fixing it, fixing the problem See and that's see, we'll get there. Oh sorry, how was it fixed? Well, the obvious way to do it was to expand the date to four digits. Right, but that was going to cost a lot of money due to reasons.
Speaker 2:I'm not smart enough to understand End of the world, spend a lot of money.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, Well I guess it was for, like, smaller entities.
Speaker 2:Oh, they wouldn't have been able to afford they wouldn't, have been able to spend their money.
Speaker 3:Right, but I don't. There was a lot of.
Speaker 2:There is a lot of computer stuff on this that I was like I don't get that, but we'll share it for those of you that do understand it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was like a lot of different anyway. Um, another way to fix it was that month values can be higher than 12, but two digit two digits can hold values up to 99, so you could use the month value as a flag, and this is the one that involved a whole bunch of math that I did not understand, and it was like I was reading Chinese.
Speaker 3:I don't know what any of those months meant. I don't know. It didn't make it, it didn't even like look like it made any sense to me. I said fuck that shit. I'll just tell you that that's what happened.
Speaker 2:And you can look it up. If you're interested, you can do the math on your own time.
Speaker 3:Some removed the month, so instead of month, month, day, day, year, year, it was day day day, so day of the year, one to 365. C century year year obviously the year. Year year obviously the year. Right then this one is interesting. It's pivot years. So if all of your existing data was newer than 1921, then you could use 1920 as a pivot year.
Speaker 3:Any dates between 00 and 20 were taken to mean 2000 to 2020. Anything from 21 to 99 meant 1921 to 1999. And that is what a lot of places went with, like, just pretend nothing happened before 1921, so that when the year 2000 rolls around, up to 2020, 2020, you know. So that's foreshadowing. So the doom spread through media outlets, of course, and it added to the overall fear of major system failures. Monarch home video released one of the few y2k themed products with their 1999 one-hour family survival guide video. Actor Leonard Nimoy narrated the show and, in a slow, controlled voice, described the disasters the world was about to face. I watched 15 minutes of it yesterday. That's as far as I could get. I know I love Leonard Nimoy, but it goes on about Atlantis and ancient revelations, and then it just tells you all the ways you're going to die. It is epic, but it was an hour long. I was like I can't. I'm sorry, leonard, I'm sorry Mr Spock, but I can't.
Speaker 3:I can't with you right now it's too much with your ancient Atlantis. I mean, okay, it's a computer not is exciting.
Speaker 3:This is the part I can't wait for. A variety of fringe groups and individuals, such as those with some fundamentalist religious organizations, survivalist cults, antisocial movements, self-sufficiency enthusiasts and those attracted to conspiracy theories, called attention to Y2K fears and claimed that they provided evidence for their respective theories, end-of-the-world scenarios and apocalyptic themes. The interest in the survivalist movement peaked in 1999 in its second wave for that decade, triggered by Y2K fears. In the time before, extensive efforts were made to rewrite computer programming codes to mitigate the problem. To rewrite computer programming codes to mitigate the problem, some people anticipated worldwide power outages, food and gasoline shortages and other emergencies. They raised the alarm because they thought Y2K code fixes were not being made quickly enough. While a range of authors responded to the wave of concern, two of the most survival-focused texts to emerge were Boston Post on Y2K in 1998, and the Hippie Survival Guide to Y2K. So this is where we're going to.
Speaker 2:So yeah, when you said the fringe group religious organization, survivalist cult, antisocial, self-sufficient enthusiast yes to all of those. Yes, so this was, in my past life, my first marriage. So, yeah, Anyway, I was a part of all of this.
Speaker 3:She was Wait. Can I first yes? Anything to save me from happening. I have known Nicole since 1992. Yes, I think I have seen Nicole without makeup five times in those years. I think I have seen her without her hair done zero times and she lived with me for like four months, so continue.
Speaker 2:Okay, so it doesn't even matter. We had this group of friends and we were preparing for Y2K. I'm pretty sure we prepared for the end of the Mayan calendar too. Yeah, anyway, mayan calendar too, anyway. So we for a couple years were stockpiling freeze-dried food, canned goods, gas masks, electric or not electric, the foil, blankets, tents.
Speaker 2:And then part of our group bought a mountain in West Virginia, like the whole mountain, a very, very rugged wilderness, like you had to cross a creek to get to the spot where you could camp, and we went down there frequently, setting up latrines, and I think we ended up with yurts at some point and cooking, like it. Just, I mean, the only I will say it was it was really cool because you would go like far out in the woods and bathe in the Creek and like there's something about like just bathing naked out in the creek, although I was in West Virginia, so of course, the Appalachia. Yeah, what's? The movie Deliverance is in my head nonstop, like I'm certain some hillbillies are going to come take me away If you didn't see a Yeti or a Bigfoot or whatever they call them in Appalachia.
Speaker 3:I don't think that they're-.
Speaker 2:I saw absolutely nothing like that. No Bigfoot, yeah. Yeah. I mean we had escape route plans like map paper maps with it mapped out. If shit goes down and we're still in Delaware where we have to go, where we're going to have to cross water like we.
Speaker 3:I don't think bridges were going to fall down. I don't think computer programmed bridges.
Speaker 2:No, there was going to be military at the bridges. See, every time we thought of everything.
Speaker 3:Every time she would talk about this I'd be like uh huh sure sure you're going to go live in the middle of the woods with. We thought of everything. Every time she would talk about this, I'd be like uh-huh, sure, Sure, you're going to go live in the middle of the woods with no hairdryer and no makeup. Okay.
Speaker 2:I didn't want to.
Speaker 2:I was always really, really, really hoping none of that stuff would happen. So, although I never really thought that any of it would but I had to play along because that was the relationship that I was in at the time and you had a kid I did yeah, yeah, and we took him there too. Poor kid, I know. Yeah, if it would have just been like camping on a private mountain in West Virginia, it would have been pretty cool. Yeah, like it really was neat and I love to cook like over a campfire, because I did a lot of camping in my younger days and there was a guy at the top of the mountain that owned like the other part and he had a fresh trout stream or pond or whatever. So he'd bring us down fresh trout and I'd clean them and cook them on the campfire. Yeah, I was always really good at breakfast too.
Speaker 3:Pioneer girl.
Speaker 2:I can do it all. You know what?
Speaker 3:Hey, you can do a winged eyeliner and you can camp on. You can cook trout on a campfire. Hell yeah, that's all you need for Y2K yeah.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, that's my, that's my embarrassing story. I was really, really, really wrapped up in this, although I didn't really believe in any of it. It's just the situation I was in at the time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was pretty entertaining. And then when she said, oh, we got this mountain, I was like, oh for the love. I mean, come on, okay, and you can come too. I good, I'm good, I'm gonna stay here. I'll deal with whatever zombie thing happens here, let's be fine. If it gets real bad, I'll just go drown in the ocean yeah, that would have been a way better option than all the shit I went through all this because that was like huge.
Speaker 3:The preppers then were just like there was like every tv show was like preppers this and preppers that and they had like the buckets you could buy and like all this shit. That was prepper crazy and build a bunker and you know all that, all this craziness in your go bag. You had to carry a bag with you everywhere you went in case shit got real and then you buried buckets everywhere At meeting points.
Speaker 2:We had meeting points if we all had to leave and, you know, try to get there.
Speaker 3:Let me tell you how I do not want to be alive in a world where preppers get to be right yes, I agree with that, a trillion percent I do not want to be in a society without cable I am not built to be a survivalist no, I'm not it's a lot of work.
Speaker 3:You know there's no downtime you watch all these like I survived and like I was in a plane crash and I lived in the Amazon, hooked to a tree, for six months. I don't possess the will to live like that. I do not. I would definitely.
Speaker 2:I mean, the one that really gets me is mountain climbers. Like what is wrong with you, I know.
Speaker 3:Like on Mount Everest, there's all these dead bodies you have to walk past. They're just frozen in time. Why? Just to say you did it. Okay, good for you.
Speaker 2:Like who cares? So you got to tell like 20 people you did it and no, none of them cared. No, Because you're probably that guy that does like CrossFit too. Oh, when I was, I did the summit of Mount good for you, shut up.
Speaker 3:No one cares why it's cold. Do you know what I've done? I've been in a plane, flew over it big deal yeah there you go, I would I wrote in. I've seen pictures of it yeah, I wrote in a tube over top of it. Yeah, I agree. So okay, other than preppers. Then we have my favorite, the reverend jerry falwell. Yes, he suggested that y2k would be the confirmation of the christian. Then we have my favorite, the Reverend Jerry Falwell. Yes, he suggested that Y2K would be the confirmation of the Christian prophecy.
Speaker 3:Oh come on yes, god's instrument to shake this nation, to humble this nation. The Y2K crisis might incite a worldwide revival that would lead to the rapture of the church. Can I stop you there for a second? You sure can.
Speaker 2:There is a commercial have you seen it? With the old minister. Dude, that's like um, you know, god loves you and jesus, and blah, blah, blah and and say this prayer with me. And then he like says a prayer, no. And then he's like now call this number and I'm like that shit pisses me off, because you know what. It's the old people on social security that are calling and giving this bitch who has probably worth billions of dollars don't even like.
Speaker 3:You know how I feel about I have a. My mother-in-law is that person.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so she will yes, it's, it's just so shitty. She will give everything she has to and people wonder why we're not christian.
Speaker 3:I, it's, it's look, don't get me wrong. If it's your bag, that's fine, but these people that go like way over the edge, yeah and I'm not knocking all christians.
Speaker 2:Like my um assistant at work, miss ruth, who I adore, is a very Christian woman, like God-fearing, and when she says she's going to pray for me, that means something to me. Because she means it, I'll take whatever you can get me. Typically, when people say a prayer or something, I don't bow my head and close my eyes. I mean I'm not rude about it, but I just. But we had our work lunch and Miss Ruth did the blessing. I dropped my head and closed my eyes so fast and I said amen when she was done. But I love that woman and she is a true Christian woman, like she's a good, good person. So I am not knocking all Christians, I'm not.
Speaker 3:I have a coworker that he is a God-fearing man and he gives me a hug every single solitary day and I'm pretty sure he's trying to save my soul. Oh, and I love him. He is the best, but I don't think it's going to work.
Speaker 2:Does he know? You don't have a soul to save.
Speaker 3:I think that's why he's. I don't think he knows like.
Speaker 2:That's why he's so drawn to it. He's like it's so dark that one needs to be saved, but yeah everybody, just everybody, and you know. But he means it with the best of intentions, you know, and with love in his heart.
Speaker 3:Hey, if you want to pray, he tells me all the time we prayed for you this weekend. I can, I'll take the prayer, take the prayer absolutely.
Speaker 2:and if, when I die and there is the pearly gates, I'm hoping that he is standing there waiting and it's like that one yep, that's the one I chose. Yeah, so you said it was a plus one he does, and I just it.
Speaker 3:It's funny to me and it's funny to everybody else, because you know, I look the way I look and he just loves me.
Speaker 2:Sounds like a good name, oh he loves me.
Speaker 3:Good, um. So back to mr falwell. Yeah, he, he was. He said you know you have to to.
Speaker 2:He encouraged food hoarding, taking lessons in self-sufficiency and weapons stockpiling, and you know and I wonder how much of a cut he got for oh I'm sure that these companies that he was yeah, their commercials probably ran during his tv shows and I'm sure he had his own piece of that pie that he was yeah no doubt I don't think anything.
Speaker 3:Jerry falwell does is above the goodness of his heart.
Speaker 3:No I don't think he's trying to help you. Get, he's not going to help you when, anyway, um, the chicago tribune reported that some large fundamentalist churches, motivated by y2k, were the sites for flea markets and the sale of a paraphernalia designed to help people survive a social order crisis, ranging from gold coins to wood-burning stoves. Yeah, and here's like so okay, I get it, there won't be any money. I mean, there still would be paper money, because it was only $2,000. So we hadn't completely switched over to what like nowadays. Yeah, it's going to be a problem because I can't. If I don't have my phone, I don't know how much money I have, I can't get to it, I don't and it's all just. And now money is just numbers that move from one account to another. It's nothing, it doesn't mean anything anymore.
Speaker 2:I mean, you can move money. So easy.
Speaker 3:But I mean, then it was paper like I don't. And why is gold? So you can get fucking gold anywhere yeah, but it's always been.
Speaker 2:I know why always.
Speaker 3:I mean nowadays you can get cold gold and it's everywhere. Like why is it so valuable? Um, it's ugly too, I don't know. Yellow gold is horrible, I know.
Speaker 2:Platinum is where it's at.
Speaker 3:That's right, I'm going to get silver. See what happens. So yeah, so many of them used Y2K to promote a political agenda in which the downfall of the government was a desired outcome in order to usher in Christ's reign. The cold truth is that preaching chaos is profitable, and calm doesn't sell many tapes or books. Y2k fears were described dramatically by a New Zealand-based Christian prophetic author and preacher, barry Smith, in his publication I Spy With my Little Eye that's clever when he dedicated an entire chapter to Y2K. But most people didn't think that it was going to be the rapture. You know Most people.
Speaker 3:So it became clear that leaders of these fringe groups and churches had manufactured fears of the apocalypse to manipulate their followers' intra-dramatic sense of mass repentance and renewed commitment to their groups, as well as using additional giving of funds Shocker, I know. Using additional giving of funds Shocker, I know. Christian leader Colonel Stringer and his commentary published. Fear Creating Writers sold over 45 million books citing every conceivable catastrophe, from Civil War, planes dropping from the sky to the end of the civilized world as we know it. Reputable preachers were advocating food storage and a head for the cave mentality. But no banks failed, no planes crashed, no wars, no civil war. None of these prophets of gloom and doom ever materialized. In case you didn't remember, it didn't happen. Jesus did not come.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm aware I spent thousands of dollars on survival stuff.
Speaker 3:That's probably still sitting somewhere.
Speaker 2:It probably is. It was in that old metal shed in the backyard. Oh yeah, it's probably still in there.
Speaker 3:You probably could still eat that food too. It's probably disgusting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it probably was always disgusting. I guess it's true.
Speaker 3:Oh, but when Pat Robertson, of course, had to put his 10 cents in about he, said that, he well, he did give equal time to optimists and pessimists. So you know, know, that's saying something for him, yeah, so what did happen? Okay, what happened actually?
Speaker 2:yeah, this is what I'm excited about that.
Speaker 3:No planes fell out of the sky right, but you said, things did happen well, yeah, and here's the thing like so obviously, australia and the other side of the world is 24 hours ahead of us. So if you put the news on the day before when Australia was having their, you could see nothing can happen. And as it came across the world and nothing was happening by the time it got here, by the time it was midnight on the East Coast you should be pretty secure in the fact that nothing was going to happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember being relieved when midnight hit in Australia.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I remember watching it on TV. All right, cool. I was like we're going to watch everything happen and nothing happen.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:Okay, so what did happen? Planes didn't fall from the sky and nuclear missiles didn't self-launch, despite predictions from doom-mongers, although personnel at a US tracking station observed the launch of three missiles from Russia. This, however, was a human-ordered launch of three Scud missiles. As the Russian-Chechnyan dispute continued to escalate, two nuclear power plants in Japan developed faults that were quickly addressed. The faults were described as minor and non-life-threatening. The age of the first baby born in the new millennium in Denmark was registered as 100.
Speaker 3:That 100-year-old baby Bus tickets in Australia were printed with the wrong date and rejected by ticket scanning hardware. Egypt's national newswire service failed but was reinstated quickly. U? S spy satellites were knocked off air for three days due to a faulty patch to correct the Y2K bug. Several months into the two thousands, a health official in one region of England spotted a statistic anomaly in the number of children born with Down syndrome. The ages of 154 mothers had been incorrectly calculated in January. Skewing test results. The ages of these women put them in a high-risk group, but it wasn't detected. If the risks had been correctly identified, the mothers would have been offered an amniocentesis test. Four children were born with Down syndrome and two pregnancies were terminated. The US Naval Observatory, which runs the master clock that keeps the country's official time, gave the date on its website as 1 January 19,100. Whoa, yeah, we really shot into the future on that one Shoot.
Speaker 2:we all took a time capsule. I don't think anybody had that on their bingo card.
Speaker 3:The Bureau of Alcohol, tobacco, firearms and Explosives could not register new firearm dealers for five days because their computers failed to recognize the date on the application.
Speaker 2:I bet that pissed a lot of people.
Speaker 3:I was wrong about that one and this one is funny because this was right here. 150 Delaware Lottery Racino slot machines stopped working.
Speaker 2:Ooh, I was working in one of the casinos and I was at work. Obviously, it was New Year's Eve. I was a cocktail waitress. You didn't have off work, yeah, so I was there when Y2K went off.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't know if it was 150 at Dover Downs or if it was between, because I don't think Harrington was around yet.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, they were.
Speaker 3:Oh really, oh yeah, Did they build them all three at the same time?
Speaker 2:Or right together, right together yeah, it was all around the same time.
Speaker 3:I mean it, harrington used to be way smaller it was like a barn, yeah, that they filled with machines. That's when it was good so I don't know if that was 150, like over all three casinos.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah probably because it was sounds like it was a certain brand of slot machines yeah, so it was probably like the wheel of fortune.
Speaker 3:That one's my favorite. If I play slot machines which I hate, but I just I only play slot machines I put 20 in and that gets rid of all my bad luck right, and then you go to the tables.
Speaker 3:Yeah and I'm not rich. That's clearly not working out for me, although I am gonna play the lottery tonight because it's over a billion. Yeah, in New York a video store accidentally generated a $91,000 late fee because the store computer determined a tape rental was 100 years overdue, which that would not be cool. And you know how, when you walk into the and they're like, oh, you owe $91,000. Because you know it's just fucking kids working there. And they're like, oh, you owe $91,000. Because you know it's just fucking kids working there, and they're like, oh, you owe $91,000. And you're like, um no, I sure don't.
Speaker 3:In Tennessee, the Y-12 National Security Complex stated that a Y2K glitch caused an unspecified malfunction in a system for determining the weight and composition of nuclear substances at a nuclear weapons plant. Although the United States Department of Energy stated they were still able to keep track of all the material, it was resolved within three hours. No one at the plant was injured and the plant continued carrying out its normal functions. And then it created drones that are coming for us today, just kidding. And then it created drones that are coming for us today.
Speaker 2:Just kidding.
Speaker 3:In Chicago. For one day the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank could not transfer $700,000 from tax revenue. Problem was fixed the following day. Additionally, another bank in Chicago could not handle electronic Medicare payments until January 6th Weeks, yeah oh during which time the bank had to rely on sending process claims on diskettes.
Speaker 2:Wow yeah, kicking it old school.
Speaker 3:In New Mexico. The New Mexico motor vehicle decision was temporarily unable to issue new driver's licenses. The campaign website for the United States presidential candidate Al Gore gave the date as 3 January 19,100. For a short time. Go Al Gore. Yeah, he invented the internet. He should have been able to fix it. Serial guys, Godiva Chocolatier reported that cash registers in its American outlets failed to operate. Not Godiva reported that cash registers in its American outlets failed to operate. Knock a diver. The first became aware and determined the source of the problem on the 2nd of January and immediately began distributing a patch. A spokesman reported that they restored all functionality to most of the affected registers by the end of the day and had the rest fixed by the 3rd of January. The credit card companies MasterCard and Visa reported that, as a direct result of the Y2K glitch, for weeks after the year rollover a small percentage of customers were being charged multiple times for transactions. Microsoft reported that after the year rollover, Hotmail emails sent in October of 99 or earlier showed up as having been sent in 2099.
Speaker 2:Ooh, more time travel, yes.
Speaker 3:Although this did not affect the email's contents or the ability to send and receive emails. No, but if you were trying to say that you are a time traveler and you showed somebody that email and be like see, I have an email from 2099. That's how that started. That's how that rumor started? I fully think so. In 2020, here's the foreshadowing Parking meters in New York stopped accepting credit card payments. This was attributed to the fact that they had hit the upper bounds of their pivot year. Oh yeah, all 14,000 parking meters had to be individually visited and updated. Shut up.
Speaker 2:Oh, my God.
Speaker 3:So one good thing that did come of it, so September 11th 2001.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you remember that I did not put those words in the right order. One good thing that came out of it September 11th, oh, okay.
Speaker 3:So yeah, well you'll see why?
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, I don't mean that way, I'm just busting your balls. All right, shut up All right.
Speaker 3:So the reason it was all the Y2K shit was good. It's because on September 11th 2001,. The infrastructure in New York City, including the subways, phone service and financial transaction, were able to continue operation because of the redundant networks established in the event of a Y2K bug impact. The terrorist attack and the following prolonged blackout to lower Manhattan had minimal effect on global banking systems. Backup systems were activated at various locations around the region, many of which had been established to deal with a possible complete failure of networks in Manhattan's financial district on the 31st of December 1999. That is good, yeah. So like who knows what would have happened? I mean, yeah, that was good, yeah. So like who knows what would?
Speaker 2:have happened.
Speaker 3:I mean, that was like that's scary to think about and you never even really think of that Like, because it just Think of them just as they were buildings.
Speaker 2:But yeah, you think of the two buildings, but not.
Speaker 3:Not everything that goes into what was right there. Right, yeah, that was something, and I'm sure that's what the terrorists were thinking they were going to bring down our financial district. Yeah, so now it all makes. Yeah 24 years later, it all makes sense.
Speaker 3:That's crazy Skeptics pointed to the absence of Y2K related problems occurring before January and even through the 2000 financial year. So they said the skeptics were like well, but the financial year starts earlier anyway. So why did none of these problems happen? Because they start in 1999 in many jurisdictions and a wide range of forward-looking calculations involved dates in 2000 and later years. Estimates undertaken in the lead-up to 2000 suggest that around 25% of all problems should have occurred before 2000. Yeah, because of the long-range dates, right during 99, that the absence of significant reported problems in non-compliant small firms was evident, that there had been and would be no serious problems needing to be fixed in any firm and that the scale of the problem had therefore been severely overestimated. Also, countries such as South Korea, italy and Russia invested little to nothing in Y2K remediation yet had the same negligible Y2K problems as countries that spent enormous amounts of money.
Speaker 2:Joke's on you.
Speaker 3:Western countries anticipated such severe problems in Russia that many of them issued travel advisories and evacuated non-essential staff. They were so worried that Russia did jack shit for it that they were like oh, everybody gets to get out. Critics also cite the lack of Y2K-related problems in schools, many of which undertook little or none. By September 1999, only 28% of US schools had achieved compliance for mission-critical systems, and a government report predicted that Y2K failures could very well plague the computers used by schools to manage payroll, student records, online curricula and building safety systems.
Speaker 2:Yes, because the education system doesn't get enough funding. So where the hell were they supposed to get this money to comply To change?
Speaker 3:the dates dates I don't know they didn't and they didn't do it and they didn't have any problem their districts probably couldn't afford it okay, but also, here's the thing, so like I'm gonna play devil's advocate on that one so, but okay, and I get it that they're.
Speaker 3:That was critical to them, but it wasn't like worldwide, it wasn't shutting down the grid, right. So, even like I get it, there was not widespread problems, but it also wasn't a complicated system that they were using. True, you know what I mean. Like it was just like your everyday.
Speaker 2:Like the IT guys, probably could have taken a class and then and they might have.
Speaker 3:You know they probably just updated like two years later. Because you know schools, I know they don't get a whole lot of money, but a lot of times they do update their systems every few years. So who knows, maybe they updated right before and the problem was fixed on their own. Bill Gates fixed it all on his own.
Speaker 2:I don't know, but I don't know why it didn't anyway all on its own.
Speaker 3:I don't know, but I don't know why it didn't anyway. There were very few Y2K related problems in an estimated 1.5 small businesses that undertook no remediation efforts. But again, they were not using massive systems. So January 3rd was the first weekday of the year in 2000. The Small Business Administration received an estimated 40 calls from businesses with computer issues 40. Just 40. Not bad. And none of the problems were critical. But I argue, and this is my 10 cents. So everybody says, oh, it was just a, you know, oh, it didn't. It was like this big overblown problem and it didn't happen. And so all this money was wasted and all of this nonsense. But what if they did actually fix a problem?
Speaker 3:exactly there was an an actual issue. There was going to be an actual issue, and I think the problem with americans especially is that when it doesn't happen, we're like, oh well, see you just over, blew it, but there, you never see all the shit that happens to prevent it from happening I mean when we saw all that with covid, like everybody's like oh covid, you know it's gone.
Speaker 2:Now it's not even that big a deal because we got vaccinated. That's why we don't have covid as as rampantly and that's just it.
Speaker 3:I mean, that's the thing of it. You know, I remember when Obama was president, ebola we were all going to die of Ebola. Ebola was coming and it was going to run through this country and I watched a documentary on it and the CDC did so much before Ebola even got here that it stopped it from happening. So it was like crisis averted. And I think a lot of times that these overblown issues that everybody is like, oh, that's stupid, we spent all this money on it, but but that's because we didn't know what they did and maybe that's the government's fault, maybe that's just their maybe planes would have fallen out of the sky if we hadn't done exactly like.
Speaker 3:Maybe they did fix and I mean there was a legitimate problem.
Speaker 2:They knew it was going to be a problem yeah, and obviously there was, because there was effects from it there were, and you know they might not have been, and that's just it.
Speaker 3:So they were just little problems that happened. But what if these bigger problems were just prevented? And it seems to me that if they knew in 1984 that it was going to be a problem, then it was going to actually be a problem and they fixed it. Yes, so we don't have Ebola. No planes fell out of anywhere and we all lived through the Y2K craze that was really fun.
Speaker 2:Thanks, except for me having to share, yeah, but it's all right. It felt good to get it out. It's like therapy I went.
Speaker 3:I went to a family reunion. That night we had to go to my dad's side of the family family reunion.
Speaker 2:I don't know why and and so you were hoping the apocalypse.
Speaker 3:Yes, because my dad has 13 aunts and uncles. Yes, I think it's 13. Yes, so it was that side of the family, so there's like a kabillion of us. Luckily it was here and I didn't have to go anywhere, but he forced, it was a forced, it was forced interaction.
Speaker 2:Can you imagine if you would have died with all those people?
Speaker 3:I would have been really pissed off. Yeah, yes, because it was because we sat anyway. We sat in a booth just the four of us was not communicating with anyone, because, yes, they're stupid, I don't know, but that's what I did, and that actually is the last time I stayed up to watch the ball drop, 25 years ago. And these people that go to like New York to do that, no, even when I was young. No, I mean no.
Speaker 2:You literally have to stand there all day and piss yourself. I just, you have to wear a diaper and pee yourself and you're cold.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:And you can't get food.
Speaker 3:No, no part of it, just for 10 seconds. Well, we'll say 15, because you know.
Speaker 2:So if I could afford one of those hotel rooms, with a balcony. I would do that, Maybe, yeah.
Speaker 3:You can't afford that Exactly.
Speaker 1:Nobody can no.
Speaker 3:I never really understood the excitement behind New Year's. Anyway, never my thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I used to enjoy it, but it was when it was Dick Clark. And now it's fucking Ryan Seacrest Like will he ever go away? He's everywhere, I just and I don't like the music that probably makes me sound old, but, although a lot of it is our, our music but it's still shitty people. I don't want to see them back then. I don't want to see them now yeah, I.
Speaker 3:I just I don't. It's. It's too late at night. I can't stay up that late and well forever. I had to work the next day anyway. I didn't. I had to be at work by six o'clock anyway, so I don't plus, I've always said new year's eve is amateur night.
Speaker 2:It is a lot of people out drunk yeah not that people who usually drive drunk are any better, but there's a lot of people out there that do not know what they're doing and pretty much everybody's drunk I mean unless you have a dd or an uber or something like that. So it's just not worth it to go out no I and we had every day on years.
Speaker 3:Um morning we would, we did breakfast, you know, and um they would do the polar bear plunge I did that one year our restaurant was right like a block off the beach so that was like our, that was like the busiest day of the winter that'd be fun, though, yeah so we always worked, so I didn't. It's too late.
Speaker 2:It is too late. The older I get, man, these days I'm ready to go to bed at seven.
Speaker 3:I went to bed the other day at nine because I was exhausted. The cold, the cold just wears me out.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm in bed by nine every night.
Speaker 3:Well, I try to stay out till 10. That's why, when you text me at like 9, 13 which is such a turn of events, because when we were younger she would try and talk to me at nine I'd be like bitch, I'm in bed. I've been in bed asleep for hours yeah, I can't hang anymore all right, I can't.
Speaker 3:It's just the the cold the last week has just been. It's standing out there and it's the wind has been whipping and it's just. I know it's not zero degrees, but it's cold enough and the the air here is is wet and thick.
Speaker 2:It's and it's typically gray and seasonal depression.
Speaker 3:And we are. I call it the windy season. Once we hit November, it just stays windy and there's just differing levels of wind.
Speaker 2:We can't have wind in the summer.
Speaker 3:No, we're burning up, no, and then it just one day in May, may it just stops being windy until november yeah, and then it's 107, yes, and then it's just not as humid as can be and you can feel the air you have to like cut through the air literally yeah, it's not, they're not fun. But so now we're in the windy season and the cold blows right through me and I I heard it snowed somewhere up here, yeah, up north, yeah, mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when my nephew went into his postal job up north today. He sent the family the group text that he was. The weather was better. It was snowing and stuff up there and one of our family members in Arizona was like oh, send a picture. He's like it's rainet, snow, hail shit, just garbage. It's nothing pretty your typical not sending it typical delaware delaware nonsense.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's I. I got um, um. I was sitting on the couch and I got the notification snow will end in you know 10 minutes in your area and I was like, wait, it's snowing in my hair.
Speaker 2:I went outside. It wasn't, it was a pack of lies, it was. It was supposed to snow here this morning too.
Speaker 3:It didn't I was, I was. I do like snow. I don't like snow at my job, but I do like snow it is pretty yeah, okay, anyway, that's that about that so that was all Y2K.
Speaker 2:Yep, so Merry Christmas to everybody, or Happy Holidays. Hanukkah starts tomorrow too, I think. Oh, really. So Happy Hanukkah to our Jewish friends, and whatever else that you celebrate. I just hope you have a nice week.
Speaker 3:I'm going to make a holiday where we worship the Grinch Grinchmas. No week I'm gonna. I'm gonna make a holiday like where we worship the grinch.
Speaker 2:Grinch, miss no you can add all the characters that you like. You can have jack, okay, exactly that sounds good.
Speaker 3:Yeah, maybe I'll come and watch that okay anyway, I have to watch die hard tonight oh yeah, and then everybody has to watch what you call it tomorrow. I don't watch it I. What is tomorrow was it was no um, you'll shoot your eye out. Oh, christmas story I never.
Speaker 2:That's not my movie no it's just not that my family ever watched, so it just doesn't have that over and it's on I mean I've seen it and I've had it on the TV in the middle. I know the story, Like I know the characters, but it's just not one I need to watch.
Speaker 3:Ho, ho ho. You'll shoot your eye out. Don't shoot your eye out, everybody. You don't need a Red Ryder BB gun. But thanks for listening, Like share rate review, all of the things. You can find us wherever you listen to podcasts. We are now on pandora. I don't know if I said that or not. Um, the website should be up at some point after the new year, when I have more time to fuck around with it.
Speaker 3:Thanks, um, you can follow us on all the socials at like whatever pod. Uh, you can send an email to like whatever pod at gmail. Or don't like whatever whatever bye.
