I'm BAAACK :)

[MikeBjerum]

Has DDMack been on here this decade? It seems like forever.

I was thinking about this just now.  Do you realize that we are only 125 days into this decade? 

[Majer]

Welcome Back Tom.

[Big Frank]

I was thinking about this just now.  Do you realize that we are only 125 days into this decade? 

We're actually in the final year of this decade, and the next one starts 1-1-21. There was never a year 0. The first year was year 1, the first decade was years 1-10, and the second decade started with year 11. For the same reason, the first century was years 1-100 and the second started with 101. Also, the first millennium was years 1-1000, the second was 1001-2000, and the third millennium started in 2001. But a bunch of people celebrated the beginning of the millennium a year early in 2000. Just like a bunch of people who didn't know any better celebrated the beginning of the 20th century a year too early, in 1900 instead of 1901. But no matter how many times you explain it to some people they still insist there were only 9 years in the first decade and the second decade started with year 10. I still haven't heard any of them come up with a reason why it was still called a decade instead of a nonade, novemade, or something with one of the other "9" number-words, when deca = 10. They also can't  explain why by their logic there were 99 years in the first century but 100 in all others since then, or 999 years in the first millennium, but 1,000 years in the second millennium and there will be 1,000 in the third. But they were all still decades, centuries, and millennia even if the didn't have 10, 100, and 1,000 years, just because they said so and you can't tell them any different. I don't think you're one of those people. I sure hope not.

[MikeBjerum]

You know, I thought about that concept when I typed it.  We can start at zero or we start at one (Think of zero as ten in the decade, vs. zero as the starting point of the first year).  When you talk age, some cultures are like ours that start at zero and some start with a one.  For some strange reason the cultural norm in our nation is to start age at zero and decades at zero.  That is where my mindset was when I posted.

This is far too deep for a bunch of guys (apologies to our fine ladies that hang out here) who have a main focus of not spilling Hoppe's 9 on the pages of their Bibles.  The concept is that Tommy will screw up soon and be back in FB Jail.