Will we miss the crazy ‘00s now that they’re finally behind us?
By Liz Anne Bautista

We're a couple of months now into the new decade, the noughties have come and gone and, man, will I miss it. Indeed, quite a lot has happened to me during this period. It was the decade I went to college, graduated and joined the workforce (oops, I think I just gave away my age), the decade we bought a new place and, nine years later, saw it, more or less, 10-feet deep in flood, the decade we got tech-savvy, and the decade we got mad-obsessed over the interwebs, and, in a way, ourselves. Time Magazine calls it the decade from hell, but I think it's not so bad. We learned a lot from this decade, and hopefully everyone came out of it a tad older and very much the wiser.

Here are just some of the memorable moments from the decade we'd like to call the Noughties:

2000
Metallica sues online audio file sharing service Napster, which was created by an 18-year old Shawn Fanning, saying it has violated copyright infringements and promotes piracy. The court ruled in favor of Metallica, costing Napster $26 million in settlement. Meanwhile, in 2009, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich told VH1 that he illegally downloaded their own album, Death Magnetic, and describes the experience as, um, bizarre.

2001
In September 11, 2001, four commercial planes were hijacked by terrorists and intentionally crashed into the Pentagon, the World Trade Center, and in Pennsylvania. In lighter news, Apple launched its first portable media player known as the iPod.

2002
This year is known as the year gaming comes of age. This year saw massive growth in gaming sales with the release of the Xbox, Nintendo's GameCube and the Playstation 2.

2003
Arnold Schwarzenegger, an Austrian-American bodybuilder and actor who starred in the Terminator, Kindergarten Cop, Last Action Hero, and as Mr. Freeze in Batman & Robin, runs as governor of California and wins.

2004
Our favorite domestic diva, Martha Stewart, goes to jail. Stewart did 5 months in jail after being found guilty of obstruction of justice and lying to investigators about a stock sale. She made a quick comeback after her release and was soon hosting, baking, and making millions of money again.

2005
This was the year video sharing website, YouTube, got invented. Uploading, sharing, and watching videos becomes easier thanks to three PayPal employees, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim.

2006
Due to the boom of millions of user-generated content like YouTube, Facebook, Wikipedia, and the virtual world, Second Life, Time magazine names YOU as person of the year. Thanks, Time, for catering to our vanity!

2007
Also known as the year of Britney Spears's meltdown. In July, Britney Spears's divorce to Kevin Federline became final and the following days saw the popstar in the gossip columns week after week. My favorite headline came from Sheila Marikar's ABC News: “Bald And Broken: Inside Britney's Shaved Head.”

2008
Graphic Designer and Illustrator, Shepard Fairey, became widely known into the mainstream for making the "Hope" poster in support of Barack Obama's presidential campaign. In November, Barack Obama wins the election becoming United States's 44th and first African-American president. In the sports arena, our very own Manny Pacquaio punched six-division world champion, Oscar de la Hoya, into retirement after beating him in a 9-round match.

2009
This year was considered the worst year of the decade, with its back-to-back celebrity deaths (Michael Jackson, Farah Fawcett, Patrick Swayze, DJ AM, and Brittany Murphy). Locally, we were hit by two of the worst depressions our country has ever encountered, causing massive floods all over Metro Manila and the Bicol region. Attention was also given to pollution after the calamity, since large amounts of solid waste and the presence of illegal settlers made for narrow waterways, which aggravated the flood.