Having ridden through the Great Harmonic Convergence of 1987, the Y2K non-event, the start-up of the Large Hadron Collider, and more predictions of the Rapture, Armageddon, cometary impacts, magnetic-pole inversion, rogue planets, and other pseudo-scientific woo-woo stuff than you can shake a stick at, I was never remotely nervous about this whole Mayan calendar end-of-the-world thing that was supposed to happen today. I find it hard to believe that anyone actually was — I mean, come on! Some centuries-dead culture only laid out their calendar so far ahead before their civilization collapsed, so we here in an entirely different culture are supposed to seriously worry about the Earth exploding or whatever? Ridiculous. But I guess there are nervous types out there who are always looking for an excuse to freak out about something. These are people who don’t get that the world is always going to hell in a bucket, and always has been, for every generation of humanity stretching all the way back to the Cro-Magnons who worried about their kids consorting with those thick-browed Neanderthals in the next cave over. I know the whole “Keep calm and carry on” thing has become a tedious cliche, but like most cliches, there’s a real kernel of truth at the core of it. So the next time people tell you the world is coming to an end, take a deep breath and tell yourself you’ll believe it when you see the Death Star looming in the sky overhead.

Of course, my disdain for this nonsense wouldn’t prevent me from wearing a t-shirt with this cool design on it, if I could find one:

And if nothing else, the whole Mayan Apocalypse thing did give rise to some amusing memes and miscellaneous netcrap. Here’s a classic:

And this (best imagined, I think, in Comic Book Guy‘s voice):

And here’s my favorite summation of this whole event:

However you’re spending your end-of-the-world day, hope you’re having a good one…