* * *

There's been much talk, in the last few years, concerning the Year 2000 (Y2K) bug. If you don't know what that is yet, you only have 363 days left to avoid any information regarding it -- including this column -- and you won't have to worry about it anymore, anyway.

Actually, I think that one of the best reasons to celebrate the new millennium, will be the fact that we won't have to hear any more doomsday scenarios about how all technology will stop working when the clocks hit January 1, 2000. Sure, there will be some problems, but aren't there always *some* problems with computers? There's been enough attention, in my opinion, put on the subject that most critical systems have been thoroughly checked out, and many more will be under close watch when the big moment comes; come midnight next New Year's Eve, that big unknown becomes known, and a known problem can be dealt with far more expeditiously than an unknown one.

I already know that our VCR only goes up to 1999, because the 19 is fixed -- only the last two digits are changeable. It will still play and record, I assume, but the days of the week will be messed up unless I choose a year in which the days of each month are aligned the same as 2000 and beyond. I think that this is a good excuse to go out and buy that new Zenith model with the talking menus (big grin).

It's the problems we're not expecting that I fear most. I've been wondering for the last year or so, how many computer viruses have been and are being passed from disk to disk, computer to computer, network to network, just waiting for the year to hit 2000 -- or 00? Viruses can spread far and wide if they are given enough time to do so. I scan for viruses periodically, and I will surely check prior to the end of the year; but that is certainly no fail-safe, so I will also be sure to make a good backup, as well.

No, while there will be a few glitches, I don't think that it is the machines that we need to be worried about. It's people that concern me. Now, I'm no terrorist, but if I were, I'd have been working on a plan for 2000 a long time ago. We probably don't have much to be concerned about here in little old Wausau, but it's not only terrorist that want to bring in the new millennium with a bang. I read each year about people getting hit by stray gunfire from stupid people using guns as noisemakers. I think it was in Milwaukee, Friday morning, where a 13 year old girl was shot in the neck and killed. Unfortunately, I think that crazy people will be coming out of the woodwork for the millennial festivities.

I'm not worried about the Y2K bug at all . . . it's the Y2K hysteria that scares me.