6:28 pm, and I'm about to set out on NYE. I've got everything ready; torch (long story that I'll explain some other time), candy (I am *not* going to drink alcohol in the place I'm going to use the torch in.. which is basically an abandoned grain silo with a spectacular view. Damn, ruined the torch secret. Oh well. Anyway, I want to bring SOMETHING), 600-page SAT book to give to a friend I'll be meeting that night, plus money and a gun. Well, not the gun, although when I'm fighting my way from Gladsville to Cremorne point through 600,000 drunken people I'll probably wish I DID have one.

6:32 pm now. 1 year, 5 hours and 28 minutes until y2k hits us.

Happy New Year from your man on the front line of the International Date Line.. One badly-written and slightly misspelled report coming in about 12 hours describing what systems stopped functioning as opposed to what simply blew up. Full coverage of any riots that happen.

Happy New Year!!

--Leo

-- Leo (leo_champion@hotmail.com), December 31, 1998

Answers

Leo,

Happy New Year to you. And we will be expecting that report, whether it's good or bad.

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), December 31, 1998.

Happy new years leo! Make sure that none of the old corn has fermented in that silo before you light that torch!

-- Moore Dinty moore (not@thistime.com), December 31, 1998.

You know about methane in those old silos, don't you, Leo?

Leo?

Leo?

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), December 31, 1998.

Leo,

I was curious...do Austrailians have any particular traditional meal that you eat for New Years? We eat black-eyed peas, collard greens, ham and cornbread here in the south.

Just wondering,

ME

-- me (justme@usa.com), December 31, 1998.

We eat our words here once in a while. I'm sorry for being such a jerk. Happy New Year everyone.

-- Jimmy Bagga Doughnuts (jim1bets@worldnet.att.net), December 31, 1998.

The silo had been explored before. It was safe, if you stayed away from the dangerous areas (clearly marked by big signs saying "DANGER", and numbering exactly two.) Also, don't think of it as a silo. Think of it as maybe twenty silos put together to create a big building that actually isn't a silo, inside. Don't know what it was, inside- it was dark and everything was rusted and the place hadn't been used in twenty or more years.

Beautiful view, though. Three-sixty degrees, from the Harbour Bridge to the North Shore to Parramatta to the Eastern Suburbs to the CBD to the Harbour Bridge. We got to watch five fireworks displays at once! (The main Harbor Bridge one, the slightly-lesser North Shore one, the big Eastern Suburbs one, all the fireworks they let off the top of the CBD buildings, and the top of the Bondi display over the lower, southern, CBD buildings.)

It occurs to me that if you wanted a safe hideout in y2k, you could find a big abandoned place like these silos. Pack your food there -it might be a bit of a nuisance getting it up the long flights of metal-grille steps, but you could always rig up a pulley in the vacant lift shaft-, occupy the highest levels (with a panoramic view of all the disaster and chaos that's happening), set some motion detectors on the limited numbers of ways to get up (or just remove the steps on all but one location), and sit tight. Who'd go into an abandoned building like that to look for food? You'd get a great view, and if you wanted to bring some dirt up there- great place for a rooftop garden, too. (There was enough roof space, and I am not kidding, to fill at least two or three ACRES.) Did I mention the incredible 360 degree view for miles around; if I'd had a telescope I swear I could have seen Katoomba (150 km west of Sydney, in the Blue Mountains which were visible.)

In answer to those questions:

I used an electric torch. I hadn't checked the batteries and the damn thing was running at a flickering one-third power the whole time. Oh well.

No traditional New Year's food for us. A lot of alcohol, however.

And of course I was not *stupid* enough to drink while on or in those silos. The other people were, but I have a thing about heights (I'm scared shitless of them), and being even the slightest part inebriated while on the top of a 20-30 storey building is enough to give me the shits heavily.

Report is about to be written.

--Leo

-- Leo (leo_champion@hotmail.com), December 31, 1998.

Now Jimmy,

There are some honest words.

Happy New Years everyone!!! And dont forget to check out our occasional poster and roving investigative reporter Declan McCullagh on Good Moring America tomorrow a.m. Jimmys providing chocolate- covered doughnuts. Ill send a digial cafe latte to everyone on the 1999 thought waves.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), December 31, 1998.

Midnight is about 13 hours away here on the US Left Coast. Happy New Year, one and all! May the year to come see us all well prepared in every way for the "Dangerous Opportunity" ahead!

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.com), December 31, 1998.