A Janusian poll

[andrewducker]

[Poll #1664049]

Comments

[andrewducker]

My theory, by the way, was that by anticipating debate, and highlighting that to people, it would then fail to occur, because people would get their impulse to respond satisfied by clicking "Yes".

Of course, this comment probably negates that :->

[hfnuala.livejournal.com]

My work doesn't have holidays or days off. Or a wage.

[meaningrequired.livejournal.com]

I want to change my answer to Twenty Eleven! :(

[andrewducker]

Go click on the poll number at the top of the poll, and then on "fill out poll" on the page that takes you to.

[lilaanne.livejournal.com]

My work doesn't appear to want anyone there. Started holidays on the 21st of December and back on the 10th of January. :)

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

> Two Thousand Eleven

WRONG WRONG WRONG Americans.

> Now that they're over, the previous decade will be referred to as...

You forgot to ask people whether they think the decade ended last Saturday or last year...

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Oops, my mistake on the second point.

[bracknellexile.livejournal.com]

Not as wrong as "Twenteleven" which is the other variant I've heard.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

Question: How is it any more wrong than Brits saying "Twenty one" rather than "Twenty-and-one" (like they do in France)?

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

> Two Thousand Eleven

WRONG WRONG WRONG Americans.

First reaction: why so emphatic?

Second reaction: if he gets that worked up over something that trivial, I probably don't want to know.

[drainboy.livejournal.com]

Even though we've only just started the 210th decade of the Anno Domini, we've definitely been out of the noughties since 2010 reared its ugly head. Otherwise surely 2000 was in the 90s, which is silly as the word 90s implies there's a 9 in the title.

I mean, when you hit 30 you're in your 30s...you're certainly not in your 20s.

I remember a link some while back saying the same thing that swung my vote. You can start a decade whenever you like. Just because the first decade began with the year 1, doesn't mean you have to start counting all future decades from that. A decade is just a serial grouping of 10 years.

[andrewducker]

Yup, that would be my thinking too.

[draconid.livejournal.com]

+1

[drplokta]

The 201st decade, not the 210th decade, which will be 2091-2100. But yes, the period from 2000 to 2009 was a decade, although it wasn't the 201st decade.

[natural20.livejournal.com]

Aye, we make this time up, so we can largely decide what we want. These days, for years, I tend to count by significant digit, so when we went from 2009 into 2010, new decade right there. No-one ever tried to claim 1990 was in the 80s...

[randomchris.livejournal.com]

My first day of doing-work-that-I-get-paid-for was on the 27th, but my first day back in the workplace will probably be the 5th.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

I picked "noughties" out of that list, though I personally would have voted for "aughts" if it had been on there.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

In my opinion, we're doing fine without an agreement on what constitutes a decade, and what to call 2000-2010ish, and we should not worry about it :)

[simont]

We don't need a term for that decade now, because we can just say 'the last decade'. It's ten or twenty years from now, when people looking back over recent history want to talk about the trends that happened in that decade as opposed to the ones in the surrounding decades, that they'll start needing a less relative name for it.

(Which doesn't contradict your point, of course, that we can ignore the question for now and let people worry about it as and when it actually becomes a problem for them.)

[hfnuala.livejournal.com]

I like Eric Hobsbawn's solution - the century breaks didn;t fit the stories he was telling, so he invented 'the long 19th century'

[matgb]

Exactly. And the Short Twentieth, and I think he was right about that one even though he did it a little early to judge.

[matgb]

My first day back was today. But I know people that worked New Years Day, and I've worked Xmas day once or twice.

Admittedly that was 'go into office, check messages, reply to emails from SE Asian agents, go home', and normally took less'n an hour, but it had to be done.

And given my generally humbugish approach to Xmas, worked well for me.

Then, when in the US over Xmas, I spent Xmas day in a multiplex, which is apparently a tradition over there, lots of service sector types working.

[andrewducker]

I've worked New Year before - doing directory enquiries. Which was terribly entertaining, as just after midnight you get a whole bunch of calls along the lines of "We haven't seen Uncle Trevor in thirty years. He lived in Norfolk. Can you find me his number?"

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

They'll be called the noughties but I'll ignore this because it sounds like a bad porn film. ;)

[lizzie-and-ari.livejournal.com]

I think we should call this decade 'Elevenses' and spend as much as we can of it eating buttered muffins.
A.x

[dougs.livejournal.com]

We're a couple of years into the 124th octet of the second [binary] millenium, which finishes at the end of 2048.

*puts on hard hat*

Distant future

[errolwi.livejournal.com]

While I worked on the 29th (for about 5 hours, and in the office even), I'm only scheduled to work in January on the 10th, 17th and 24th (31st is a Public Holiday).

[eatsoylentgreen.livejournal.com]

I'd give 2010 a C. I put together some savings but otherwise my life went nowhere.

Wait you don't do our yankee grades. Fuck.

It was barely passing. Do I consider myself lucky to be alive, in a life that I no longer want?

[andrewducker]

My school grades were A to E, and I've seen enough US tv to get the hang of it :-)

[spacelem.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, let's see. Two grandmothers died, my father died (the entire circumstances surrounding that event have been extremely stressful), and we had a miscarriage. Also I spent the entire year working on a paper that still isn't finished.

Yes, 2010 was a seriously bad year for me.

[andrewducker]

I seriously hope that this year is better for you.