Subject: A Mid-Decade view of the 2000s

Dec. 9, 2004

The 2000s, so far in my opinion have been a disappointing decade
for the most part. 

We have perhaps the worst president ever (Bush), stupid mainstream
rap, reality TV, 9-11 and terrorist threats, and the Iraq war.

On the bright side, we have some awesome rock music,
underground rap, great movies, and a lot of cool comedies. Also,
of course, today's video games are as of yet unparalled.

As of now, the boy and girl bands of the late 90s and early part
of this decade are gone, but many of their artists have gone solo
and/or teamed up with pop-rappers.
Hard rock is back, and European "pop" seems to be coming back too
(like it's ever been gone). Rock and rap seem to be as or more
popular than pop.

When it comes to movies, well, computed animated films like
Monsters Inc, Ice Age, and The Incredibles are in vogue. Many,
if not most, modern movies have a token black guy. Remakes
of books and old movies are common.

Television's always sucked, but especially now. In 2000 Survivor
came on and reality shows swept away most of the cheesy-but-
wholesome sitcoms of the late 20th century. MTV doesn't have
music or cool shows anymore. Disney and Nickelodeon have switched
places in their niches. Cartoon Network is a lot racier these
days.

As for politics, which is very heard of these days (although
probably less heard of now than it is to readers of this in the
2010s, 2020s, and 2030s), well, the country is very torn between
Democrat and Republican, or in layman's terms those who hate
Bush and those tho tolerate/like him (I'm in the hate him party).
The world is worried about terrorism, much like people a
generation or two back feared the Cold War.

Today is high-tech but not that much so.  Things are more
digital but little things now would be amazing to people 20
or 30 years back. We haven't been to the moon in thirty years
and we've barely scratched interstellar space. Video games
have very nice graphics but not virtually real yet. A mission
to Mars may be up soon.

As for mindset, well, men seem to like skinny young women, but
older (as in 25-36) beauties men seem to like best of all. People
now are very fat often.  Cussing is acceptable except at fancy
restaurants, dates, churches, etc. Violence on TV is fine but
sex is bad (unless on HBO). Today's kids seem to be more of
free thinkers then any generation before Generation X (born
1965 to 1980). People aren't meaner today, despite what the
old folks say. Political correctness is very present and many
speak against it. People today can't live without the Internet,
and this is the first decade where that is true throughout its
entire run (in the early 90s the Net was around but not everyone
had it or needed it).