Of all the games I've ever played,

Y2K the computer game, (my christmas present) has been one of the best mystery games I've ever played. Full of twists and turns and teasers. With the added incentive, that it is real life and your ultimate survival and well being may depend on how well you play the game.

It has been interesting to watch you all play. There's been a smorgasbord of items to select from. Polly cards (not worth much) Doomer cards, Wild prediction cards, paranoia cards, illusion cards, panic cards, unverifiable and verifyable testimonial cards, fact cards, statistic cards, history cards, religion cards............ If you arrange them all properly and can keep a level head about you, you might win!

You get a clue here and a clue there and you have to use your mind as well as your instincts to fill in the unknown missing pieces. The built in real time clock with its checkpoints at each corner are a window in time for reality checks to your progress and understanding of the situation. You may win a little at each checkpoint if you put your pieces together right or lose a little credibility if you over reacted.

I have a large family and many friends who I care for and have learned a lot about playing the game of crisis management from the Y2K game experience. I don't see any losers here. I can honestly say for sure that sooner or later its all gonna come in handy.

As the New Year spike approaches many who are looking out out for the safety and well being of family, friends and neighbors may believe that the final reality check will come at the stroke of midnight or very close to it, before or after.

This may be the utimate Catch 22. Spike dates have been bad Wolf cries.

(1)You may get your ego and your credibility flamed if you find you advised them too far out on a limb and find yourself having to deal with the "little boy who cryed wolf" syndrome (I'd recommend saving some Credibility for some later dates)

(2)You could find yourself and those around you seriously unprepared for the wild card effects of embedded systems, nuclear problems, terrorist attacks, or any other suprises from the missing wild card pieces portfolio, as well as the slow burn effect of the y2k computer problems. If you seriously prepared you may or may not find yourself insured against the unknown.

Nothing feels better than holding a couple of the old "get out of Jail free" cards you saved up as a result of preparation.

I have personally scared the Bajesus out of many around me at times to stimulate preparation in some who would not act without sufficient stress. I personally can't afford to face a potential crisis without adequate insurance, the way a single person could. For me, Y2K preparation has been a monumental task. (Many kids, and a new grandchild, 2 weeks ago.)

MY CURRENT GAME PLAN I'm thinking that the most likely effect of Y2K the computer problem is a slowburn between the infrastructure and the quality of the quiet repairs that have prepared for it and the FOF capabilities ready for it. Its an infinity of variables that no one including those with actual hands on experience can predict for certain with out risking making a fool out of themselves. (nothing there I personally can deal with, but testimony clue cards) We're all subject to our intuition and the luck of the draw against our best efforts of preparation and positioning. Then we wait for the dice to get rolled and the numbers to come up.

I thank god I'm alive for the experience and found this place to see an exchange of Ideas, for me its the best game in town.

Starting today, I'm gonna change the face on the old relentless obsessed asshole I've been for the past year. I'm gonna party like theres no tommorrow, and assure those around me that we've got nothing to worry about and if something falls out of the sky, the hell with it. We gave it our best shot.

I'm gonna break out the champaine and wish you all at TB2000 and everyone around me (pollys included)

a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Then I'll brace myself for February! Heres to you all!

-- robert j. (crandalls@cableone.net), December 25, 1999

Answers

Hear here I agree. I am tired so tired not only has all this been stressfull but Christmas getting readies and the rest are tiring too. I would love to find the Sleeping Beauty spinning wheel and go to sleep for ten years just for the rest. I am not among the young and happy I am not. Things have changed so much since I was born I hardly recognize my country or its people. I am not looking forward to life extension drugs or treatments. I do not want to be invited to the future for the stuggle of it is too taxing. I am not complaining mind you I understand most of it, I just dont have the ambition or the desire to work hard any more or to rebuild a future or to correct the one we have. Sorry about that but I am honest. So whatever comes my way I will know it is all a part of something that had to be or was unpreventable due to the greed and hunger for power many have. I too wish everyone the best and a good and not to troubling new year. I have done all I could do for my circumstances.

-- Susan Barrett (sue59@bellsouth.net), December 25, 1999.

Susan, we are two of a kind, I have spent 68 years on this earth, raised two sons, have an adopted daughter, a wife that is almost an invalid because of arthritis. I know this world and the people in it. I also know the government, I was with it for over 45 years, I know their tactics. I also know that we are sitting atop the tower of babble and God is just before scattering the people. I have prepped, I have studied, I have used all my resources to try and provide a survival situation should it be needed. As a child we were next to being beggars, I know hunger and sickness. Also I know of living in primative conditions with no power or luxuries. I am too old to start over, and especially under primative conditions. I am tired, tired and tired. However I am not just going to sit down and die, and let those around me die, when I go, I will be fighting for survival. I have those around me that have the give up attitude, we are all going to die, why prolong it. That is awfully easy to say when you are warm comfortable, and your belly is full. But those words do not come as easy when you find yourself in subfreezing conditions with no doctors, no food, not even a flush toilet, and you have the runs. Words are cheap and fool spouts them forth carelessly. But under survival conditions the words are far different. That is why I want to be at least as prepared as I can be when that time comes. Words do not warm the body, they do not fill the belly, they donot provide drugs for sickness. Action is needed, Prayers must have feet and hands, words alone will not do it. This tower of Babble is just before being demolished. There are absolutely too many variables at play for it to be any other way. No matter how good the house, or building, if you yank the foundation from under it, it will crumble. The foundation is just before being yanked. On a scale of 1 to 10 I judge this Y2K thing to be an 11.

-- Notforlong (Fsur439@aol.com), December 25, 1999.