Today, January 1st, 2002, the currency is changing in my country as well as in other european countries. One euro equates 6.55957 units of French francs (my currency until yesterday), so I could convert a price from euros to francs by adding 50% and dividing by 10, but it would be boring. Besides, I don't want to continue converting the prices in my head for the next 40 years, as my parents do since 1960 (the value of the French franc was multiplied by 100 that year). And, above all, I would be ashamed to use an electronic convertor.

So I decided I would not do the conversion. Instead, as soon as I wake up (I am still sleeping right now), I will learn the approximate prices of a few products by heart, and I will use these prices as references for the price of every product I buy. I expect euro to become natural in a few weeks with this method. Here is my list. Yours may be slightly different.

What                   | How much before   |     How much now 
---------------------------------------------------------------
bread                  |         4.50 F    |            0.70 € 
newspaper              |         7 F       |            1.10 €
cinema                 |        50 F       |            7.60 €
shirt                  |       250 F       |           38 €
1-month rent           |      4100 F       |          625 €
Plane ticket to Tokyo  |      5000 F       |          760 €
50 m2 apartment        | 1,000,000 F       |      150,000 €
fresh air              |         0 F       |            0 €

Everything will be much cheaper, except fresh air.


In case you hadn't noticed, this writeup was written several months before the real January 1st. Now it's the real January 1st, and that's it. I have euro coins, I took a few euro banknotes in an ATM at 1 a.m. What does it change? Well, nothing until I stop typing and go out to buy things.

But I still thing it is a great thing. When you know how many wars devastated Europe over the centuries, when you consider that two world wars started here, when you think about how proud of its history each and every of our countries are, you must acknowledge that few things in history can be compared to this move to a common currency. Everybody say that our politicians are shallow, corrupt and without ambition. I think they have done something remarkable in the last 40 years.

A blanket of smoke sits over Sydney as I write this. A few hours ago a gentle shower washed the air clean, briefly, long enough for us to enjoy the fireworks. Now the smoke from the pyrotechnics mingles with that of the bushfires probably still ravaging the state. The new year hasn't settled in yet; I'm still in transition. I sit in my room surrounded by the accumulated detritus of my eighteen years, listening to heart-wrenchingly beautiful music, wishing I could play a tenth as well as the pianist I'm listening to. The view of the city centre from my window is muted by the smoke. In the morning it will be an ugly grey-yellow pall, but now it only obscures the harsh details of the city, leaving a collection of dim, distant lights like something in a dream. Right now, even the smell of smoke isn't unpleasant; not too heavy, it reminds me of the smell of incense that seems to permeate every corner of Bali, where I spent my last holiday. Though some of it is wrought from the destruction of others' homes and hopes and dreams, right now I can only see that I am surrounded by beauty.

I am young and inexperienced, but these seem like moments to live for.

Well, me personally, I don't care much for New Year's. Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, Halloween or any other holiday for that matter. Most of the time because they are tied to organized religion, which I detest. This writeup is not to be a rant on religion, though. It isn't supposed to be a rant at all, if I can help it. Just a little recount on how I spent New Year's (or Silvester, as it is called in Germany).

Now for me, New Year's is a day like any other. It's just the last day on the regular calendar, or the first, depending on how you look at it. But I still will go out with friends and party, since it seems like the right thing to do. But for the first time in my life, I spent the time between the years alone. Among other people, but alone. A certain number of you will understand what I mean.

Now Amanda (see December 23, 2001) was in Dortmund for New Year's, which was a bit depressing. But I thought I would spend the time with the usual people. But then Timon and Stefan felt like going to some party in Hanau (entrance fee was 20 bucks, egad) where they were gonna play Techno and Schlager (German Folk music), so I didn't feel like it. Daniel was going to Frankfurt with some people I knew but didn't like, so I didn't feel like that either. I finally reached an old friend of mine, Felix, who invited me to a small house party of a friend of his in Egelsbach. 6 people, including me. I didn't get along with them very well, so I finally caught a train to Frankfurt, to at least watch the fireworks. That was around 23:00.

So eventually I ended up walking through downtown Frankfurt, listening to Life of Agony, White Zombie and Body Count on my MP3 player. Very fitting music, dontya think? I stalked the streets, looking out for Daniel, smoking my cigarettes, dodging fire crackers, sipping Glühwein.

I don't know what it is with me. On the one hand, I seek human companionship, on the other I revel in my solitude. Is it the self-pity? Or the feeling of being on my own, doing my own thing? In any case, I still felt slightly depressed. Sure, I could have joined my family, watch a movie or something. But I shiver at the thought, I don't know why. I want friends, but I want to be alone. I have no idea.

But at least the fireworks were good.

I MUST stop noding daylogs. Factual noding, factual noding...

The dawn of 2002.

The year holds great promise for me. First and foremost it will be the year in which I gain my black belt in karate. If that's not enough, this year I will also obtain financial independence, and start my own business.

I will do all this in a vibrant state of health, with abundant energy and compassion and love for all beings. I will severely limit my intake of the poison of alcohol, which is my last remaining vice.

The way I see it, life is too short to be miserable all the time folks, If you're here you're already a winner. You have been given the amazing gift of life. That's truly remarkable in the first place. Then you get the freedom to live it the way you like, which we often take for granted in a western society.

So this year, I plan to make the most of my life. I'm tired of being half alive.

Happy New Year, anonymous folks of Everything 2. May your 2002 be filled with success, love and passion for existence!


I also truly give thanks for the wonderful people who have filled the inbox on my phone with goodwill sms messages. I know a lot of amazing people.

The beginning of the second year of the third millennium.

You know, it's kinda funny, for much of the 20th century, people believed that by 2000, we'd all be wearing aluminum foil clothes, riding around in flying cars in a dome on Mars.

It is now 2002.

Where the hell is my flying car? I was promised flying cars!

Anyway, Happy New Year fellow noders!

OK, so 2001 is now officially over. Where are the damned JetPacs? I took a bus home yesterday. No public teleport booths, no videophones (no, the one in the bank that lets me get a mortgage doesn't count; besides, it doesn't work), no moonbase, no undersea cities, no nanotechnology, no personal space yachts for the moderately well-off, no friendly computers.

Damned liars. I'm buying a club and a lionskin, and renting a cave.

Did you know that this website is still going to be here like 18 years from now and people will still be able to see this stuff?

Happy 2002, fellow noders!

The Everything Quests: The E2 Tourist Guide was a success, and the submissions were very impressive. There's a lot of suggestions for things you should see if you have to travel this year. Spend a few upvotes there, particularly with the newbies. There's a lot of upcoming talent at the bottom of the Other Users nodelet :)

Why not take a bit of time and thank folks like Nate, Dem Bones, N-Wing, JayBonci and Professor Pi, plus the hoardes of Content Editors and gods who volunteer here on E2. I for one am grateful for their hard work and their encouragement.

Happy new year! =^D

Coke and aspirin is a myth. The two components are happily sloshing around inside me right now, and I feel fine.

If anything, the muscle tension from the caffeine is nicely counteracting the relaxing, blood-pressure-lowering effects of the aspirin, giving me a wonderful capillary massage.

Also, I'm not dead yet. =^)

New year's eve was fun.

And, of course, reunion with old friends is always fun.

"Wow! Dick Clark actually looks *younger* this year!"

"Naw. Every 30 years, they just thaw out a new clone." =^)

Today I got up and went to buy a prepaid phone card, 'cause I wanted to call a guy, and he lives just far enough away to be long distance.

It was about 7pm when I got up, and about 8 by the time I called, though I didn't expect him to be around on a night like tonight, tonight being New Year's Eve. (And, of course, he wasn't around.)

Me, I had to work.

Meh.

Midnight comes around, and there aren't any cakes coming down the line, so I stop and write a "Happy New Year, 2002" on the box I had just packed. (Does anyone else have the urge to pronounce "2002" as "toot"?)

It's now officially Y2M, and the turn of the millennium is finally done, even for the pedantic, and the world has not come to an end! --well, if it's not yet 2002 in the Julian calendar, I guess the millennarians may still have thrust.

Over the intercom, instead of people calling mechanics to various machines, were dozens of people sending out New Year's wishes. All of us, poor saps, working hard in the Antharian granola mines instead of watching the ball drop. I wanted to get on the intercom and yell:

Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!

--but I thought better of it, because, who knows, what if they did?

My New Year's Resolutions:

Happy New Year, Y'all!

Another Happy New Year

How can one resist? And I want to to tell all the Angst trackers: It is so Hap Hap Happy.

Boring, maybe. Hungover? Well, if a sinus headache counts, because the heat's cranked up (...that reminds me, I used to have hangovers because of crank), then I, too, can happily report one -- even without the kicks from Champagne.

Ennui Without the Bad Connotations

My significant other (...is there anyone with an insignificant other...a goldfish?) and I stayed home, just like every New Year's Eve, and like so many times before, claim -- "I'd like to go somewhere this year." Of course, the 11 PM news interviewed folks that echoed the domestic dummied-down declaration of ours, and Jay Lenno and Tim McGraw had more viewers than they might have.

Why 2002 is more special than any other Year

  1. 2002: Can be read backwards and forwards the same way!
  2. BMW: Had a popular small 4 cylinder sedan named the 2002 in the late 1960's.
  3. Survived two years past the supposed end of the world.


We cut the cord on our tv last night, it was swift and easy and I will be ashamed later when I am in a bad mood because that was a stupid thing to do. it wasnt. it seemed a good way to start the new year and a good way to force myself not to buy the playstation 2. I cant let myself get so distracted this year. I cant fall for the lie of leisure time. I can't work to play. cause fuck that. fuck that. I must work to finance my dreams and when I am not working I must do the grunt work for those dreams. Thats all there is to it. I know I cant be to hard on myself and that its ok to go out and hang out with friends and go to clubs but if I know that I am not satisfied by those distractions why keep going? Because its what I know and its whats easy but it is the path of the common and the bored and I want huge statues built in my honor,., with a plaque signed by all the leaders of the world thanking me for elevating human consciousness. I want to make everyone psychic. I want to create the physical manisfestations of the universal mind.

Allow me to look back at the big events of 2001, if I may.

January started off with me living in sunny Concord, CA working on Slackware full time. We all knew the company didn't have much longer to live so it was basically just waiting for the shoe to drop and for us to all lose our jobs. That had been going on for a few months and actually went on until about March. It was tough going every day not knowing if you were going to have a job next week or not. Hard to make long-term plans that way.

March was when BSDi tanked and we got bought up by Wind River, makers of embedded BSD. Whee. They didn't want anything to do with Linux so we were out on the street as far as a job was concerned. Note that losing a job does not mean the rent on the $1400/mo. apartment stops being due. For a while, we struggled with finding a new home for Slackware. There were no takers so we had no choice but to do it ourselves. Unfortunately, this meant there wasn't going to be enough money to pay us all. But we were welcome to get other jobs and still work on Slackware. We all said a collective, "Thanks but no thanks".

April, May, June: Logan moves out of the three bedroom place we had in Concord. He got a new job in Fremont and moved into a big tower in Walnut Creek. It was just down to David and me in the Concord apartment. Over a delicious meal at Taco Bell (hey, we were jobless) we decided to get the hell out of California while we still had a few dollars. So it was decided we would move back to Georgia and either gets jobs or go back to school. We moved out in June and tossed our junk into David's parents' garage. Also in one of these months, Allison decided it would be a good time to break up again. I would not find out why until later...

July was spent first looking for jobs and apartments suitable for living in when you have a good job. There were no jobs. So we stopped looking around for such apartments. Since there were no jobs, David and I both decided to go back to school. This was a good idea. We went and begged and pleaded until they said we could get back in. We found two other people and rented a house in Home Park so we could be close to school.

September or October was when I learned what the deal with Allison was. She had found someone else and was now confused about what she really wanted. I would spend the next several months in some sort of relationship void. It was not a fun time, and I do not recommend it to anyone. In the meantime, I kicked ass at school.

December brings us up to the present. I finished up the term and ended up with three As and one B. That's by far my best semester ever at Tech. I turned 22 with little fanfare since I was stuck at my mom's house in Charlotte, NC (though I did spend some time with a friend that night). Holidays happened. I came back to Atlanta where Allison told me that no, things were not going to work out between us. Thus ends my on again, off again relationship with her since my junior year in high school.

So the year had some high points and some low points. I lost my job and my girlfriend. I got back into school, had awesome grades, and spent a lot more time around my Atlanta friends who I missed very much while in California. I'm hoping that the next year will work out much better relationshipwise.

happy new year :-)

Me and my friends had a great "First Night" here in Boston, even thought it was soooooo cold. We saw neat ice sculptures, fireworks (I never want to be any closer than I was last night!), a procession (what is the difference between a procession and a parade?), and finally a kinda-wimpy-but-fun-anyhow countdown. Oh and we walked across a frozen pond which, although only a foot deep, was kinda freaky when it creeked.

Yay for New Years Eve and fucking with my head and the little knot in my stomach more than any other day in a long time.

There's this girl (there's always a girl). We'd been friends for about 10 months--the better part of this year. She goes to school, out of state, with a close friend of mine. And when I visited him, I also got to meet her. On and off over the past one or two months, we've sort of been flirting, goofing around, whatever. And I never took it too seriously, and I don't think (didn't think?) she did either. And now, thanks to the wonderful aid of alcohol and marijuana, I'm not all that sure.

See, after a few drinks we ended up smooching. Fairly briefly, because I felt kinda weird about it. In fact, this may have been after smoking up too. I don't remember (isn't that always a good sign?) And then later, this time at my house (the party had sort of migrated about half an hour. Thank god for designated drivers.) We ended up smooching again. Just a few minutes, and nothing really serious.. I think, I hope.

See... I don't want to get started on a relationship with her, or anyone. Especially not a long distance one. And now I'm in the tough position of A) not knowing what she's thinking or feeling, and B) wondering how I'm gonna let her know all of this.

So whatever. I went to sleep and sort of hoped everything would be forgotten or unimportant in the morning. Then comes the grabbing of the hand.. kissing it.. this was all on her part. And I am so lost.

May see her tomorrow to go record shopping with some friends. God. I really need to talk to our mutual friend. Too bad he's fucking his girlfriend right now.

I like to be happy.

I must say it's really nice to be happy. I like where I am in life. I don't node much anymore.
If any of you were wondering what happened to the masturbation girl who married that brit noder, she is doing rather well these days.

A few years ago a friend said to me, "You like being unhappy. You aren't happy unless there is tragedy." I was of course offended, but it was hard to deny. I reveled in my depression. I wore my emotional scars like headphones connected to a direct feed of Natalie Merchant's suicide anthems. I pitied myself, and invited others to do so like some Sylvia Plath poetry-reading club.

Now, I really have little to complain about. I feel sated in every aspect of my life. I have a loving husband who I simply can't get enough of. I go swimming at the gym and generally eat and feel healthier. I find more time to read and visit friends. I am interested in new hobbies, and my life seems more focused.

So what's different? As much as I want to attribute this newfound personal contentment to some strong emotional character trait within, it is more honestly because of a strong character. I have someone special to love. Anthony makes me happy.

I don't want to go on some saccharine sweet speech about how being in his arms brings me a comfort I had only hoped to know. I know that the majority of noders are looking for love in all the wrong chat rooms. My love poems for Dizzy get beaten down lower than a homosexual in Mike Tyson's prison cell. It wasn't long ago that I was writing Ode to the Empty Side of My Bed. My life was consumed with finding someone to love. I am lucky to have found him.

I was recently telling one of my more depressive friends to lighten the fuck up. I know life isn't a string of ass sparkling orgasms and ice cream sundaes, but it's not all that bad either. Then I realized that he was single and it wasn't truly fair of me to dole out simplistic advice like lighten up. It's hard being lonely. Humans are meant to pair bond. Wake up and smell the stranger next to you. For the commitment impaired, I would like to point out you are rapidly aging, and you don't want to be that old bald guy in the college bar trying to pick up girls a decade or two younger. I'm not telling you to stop being so choosey. By all means find a good one. Forget your fairy tales. There is no Ms. or Mr. Right. If you find someone who makes you happy, and will put up with your bullshit, be good to him/her.

Most of all be happy. I would very much like for you all to be happy. That doesn't necessarily mean you can't be happy with out a significant other, or that if it doesn't happen right away you should murder your classmates. Just find happiness and enjoy it while it lasts. Happiness comes and goes like stars, and it helps if you look up.

May you all find peace and comfort in this new year.
Love,
Dana

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