The Year of the Rat '08 was one of the suckiest years in my personal history, and I know I'm not alone. The saddest thing is that I'm a Rat according to the Chinese, who definitely know all. My past "Rat" years were split in the good/bad category - age 12 sucked, age 24 was great, age 36 was awesome, age 48 totally sucked the big one. So I guess I'm batting .500 overall on Rat-year-performance. The next Rat year will be when I'm 60. Yes, it seems eons away right now, but I know I'll probably wake up one morning in a couple of months and find it's the year of the Rat again... that is IF the world hasn't ended already. 

Speaking of that, I made the mistake this past week of watching the History Channel late at night after working. It was "Armageddon Week" on the Hitler... er, I mean History Channel. (and yes - of course Hitler made a cameo appearance during Arm Week...). Anyway, as most of you probably know, the ancient Mayans stopped their very long term and very detailed calendar project at the date, Dec. 21, 2012. Then there's the Egyptian calendar/astronomy thing and Nostradamus and the Hopi tribe and various other old-timey peoples who pointed to 2012'ish as being the end of it all. Life on Earth, that is - at least as we know it. 

So I watched through computer-weary eyes in the wee hours and found myself getting hooked on this series of doomy-gloomy prophecies and "scientific predictions". One night, the discussion included a cosmic event that is supposed to occur on that fateful date (12/21/12) - when the Sun rises in the middle of the Milky Way, basically. Some of the "scientists" on the show claimed that this will cause a huge disruption in Earth's magnetic fields at the very least, meaning losing all satellite and cell phone service, et. al. "for awhile". OK - that would be bad, obviously, as most of us have become totally addicted to our communication toys - especially the cell phones and inter-tubes. (ah - what will we do without Ted Stevens and his quaint "big tubes" blather?). That Sun thing actually got my attention more than the other dire predictions of mass quantities of radiation being spewed at Planet Earth like bullets that basically wreck everything, or the weakening of the protective planetary "force-field", thus inviting mega-killer asteroids into our sacred sphere, OR the big polar shift, causing planet-wide mass earthquakes and "extreme" weather events that just keep going... and going... and going... you get the gist.  

The way I see it is this: IF the big, huge planet-destroying event(s) DOES occur, than WTF. It's done. We're either dead or roaming the planet a la Mad Max, looking for cans of peaches and gasoline. I would prefer the former in that event, quite frankly. (although the peach-hunting feral life might be interesting for a couple weeks... hmmmm). But, if 2012 "only" brings a temporary disruption to our communications-fix, I think the end result could be even worse. First of all, SO many people who are already totally stressed out and pissed off will be even MORE pissed off and stressed out. This is where things could get ugly. Anarchy could ensue. Think about it - there are millions and millions of people out there whose only contact with other humans is through Twitter or cell phones or the internet. Cut all that off and these people will become the true islands they are, which is a breeding ground for more serious mental illness and extreme "acting out". Imagine all that dormant psychosis out there that is currently being kept at bay by modern "anonymous" communications venues, suddenly unleashed into our streets! 

Yes, even tho I'm a self-described half-assed blogger, I could envision myself running around in my bathrobe and eating people eventually. It's just the natural progression of withdrawal symptoms from this crazy digital/cyber-reality we've been absorbed into.  It wouldn't be pretty, and would make "The Lost Weekend" or "Leaving Las Vegas" look like Disney classics.

So, after all this thoughtful introspection and visualization of the end of the world as we know it, I decided to Google the thing about the Sun rising in the middle of the galaxy, bla bla bla. Overall, the evidence was mostly supported by sites that use huge Times Roman type in 28 different colors, with sophomoric writing and embarrassing illustrations of lame spacey stuff, et. al. Consequently, I came away relatively unimpressed with the "data" out there regarding this momentous impending event, and decided that maybe I had better go ahead and pay those credit card bills after all. Damn. 

Saying all that, however, I do remain intrigued by the interesting possibilities that something might be up, and whether "it" happens in 2012 or not, I can safely say we are, indeed, living in interesting times where many of the old rules have been broken, and many old beliefs are being reconsidered as to their contemporary validity. I think the wiser among us are recognizing that we really don't know shit about a lot of things, and that if we listen and pay attention during these crazy times, we just might learn something. 

Maybe.