It’s the end of the world as we know it…

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December 21st, 2012 has been touted as the end of the world…according to the Mayan calendar.

I’ve been picking up on all the hype over the past few months and just sort of absorbing it in. The continual conspiracy theories and rumors around why they ended on that specific date. I remember when the y2k scare was going around, the fear of the world ending because all of the computers were going to shut down! Oh the horror! Basically the programmers just programmed up to that time and then stopped so they could work on other parts. More than likely planning on getting back to updating that part of code later.

Well that got me to thinking and I developed some theories of my own. Maybe the person who made the calendar ran out of rock and never got around to getting any more? Maybe it was his turn to be the ritual sacrifice? Maybe he got busted by the prince on having an affair with the princess? Maybe that’s the day they ascended back to the heavens?

There’s all sorts of theories on why it ends at this date. Personally I think that’s as far as they got for their day (It really was a very impressive feat, figuring the calendar up to that date!) and just said ‘Ok, that’s enough for now, I’ll finish it later.”

Honestly, I’ll admit I’m not really that worried. I mean if it is the end of the world then so be it, nothing I can really do to prevent it. So instead I plan to make the most of this year. Learn a new programming language, achieve some certifications and take a well deserved rest while painting the house. Ok, that may not seem like a rest but to me it is!

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If the tech world ended, what would you do?

I was talking to a friend the other day and he was telling me about how he would like to start doing some leatherworking. No, not the stuff in World of Warcraft but the real type of leatherworking. I mentioned to him that I have a box of leatherworking tools somewhere in my garage and he’s more than welcome to them as I don’t really see myself doing anything with them anytime soon.

This, along with some recent events in the technology world got me to thinking. What would happen if we lost all of our high tech gadgets and technology? Now I know what you’re thinking, “Oh jeez, another one of these survivalist nuts.” but hold on, I’m not really one of those guys, I do think its good to have some skills and things to fall back on but seriously, what would todays world do if we lost our internet, computers, TV and other things?

Not to long ago our local Wal*Mart had a major failure in it’s point of sale system. They were unable to process any purchases for well over 2 hours. Now you old timers would simply say to just take cash and finish the sale, well that’s easier said than done. They weren’t even able to get into the registers not to mention most of the cashiers probably didn’t know how to count or make change. Not really their fault but today’s technology has virtually eliminated this skill.

As some of you may already know, one of my hobbies is woodworking. I’m mostly focused on learning hand tools and joinery. Nothing wrong with power tools but thousands of years ago they didn’t have power tools and all that really beautiful old furniture or buildings had to be made somehow. This could be something I could fall back on if all of today’s technology was lost.

So what “old world” skill do you have? Have you participated in it lately? Are you teaching younger members of your family your skill?