What are you planning to do when the world ends?

Is it really the final countdown?

Is the world going to end on Friday, December 21, 2012?

It is if you listen to a whole bunch of people who believe they understand the Maya calendar and how it corresponds to the Gregorian calendar most of the world uses now.

Some of those people who believe the world will or might end on Friday are making some plans to mark the date.

Not all of those plans are as interesting or mysterious as what ever it is the woman in this photo is doing but we think our readers may have some intriguing ideas of how to spend the last days in the world.

The whole world ending idea comes from scholars who say that, according to the Maya calendar, the world began on August 11, 3114, BC, just about 2 million, 798 days ago.

Yes, that's BC, as in Before Christ, or Before Common Era (BCE) as it is sometimes referred to. 

Technically the current long cycle, or universal cycle, of years on the Maya triple-wheel calendar began on that day.

There was another long cycle before it and two more before that one.

Each universal, or world cycle lasts precisely 2,880,000 days (about 7885 solar years).

The Maya believed that the universe is destroyed and then recreated at the start of each universal cycle, say scholars.

That would correspond to the date AD or CE 12, 21, 2012 in our Gregorian calendar. 

Friday.

But scholars who have delved deeply into the nature of the long calendar say the Maya believe we are living in the fourth world.

The fourth long cycle or the fourth universe created after the previous three ended.

The calendar doesn't actually mention anything about how the world might end and it isn't even Maya.

The Maya expanded upon and refined it but the long calendar is actually from a period in Mesoamerica that predates Maya control or widespread habitation of the area they called home during the height of their civilization.

It wouldn't be a far stretch to believe the Maya and everyone else using that calendar will, on December 22, 2012, start counting the days of the fifth world.

But a significant number of people would rather believe that the world we live in will simply stop being at 11:11 utc on December 21, 2012 (6:11 a.m. in our time zone).

Then there are some who would rather just play with that idea, or sort of toss it around as a possibility worth doing something about, 'just in case'.

We at SooToday.com would like to know how you plan to spend this world's last days, you know, just in case.

Will you be continuing to slather on your anti-aging moisturizers, check your stocks and manage your retirement funds?

Perhaps you will purchase some Canada Savings Bonds for your children or grandchildren so they will have money for post-secondary education.

Maybe you will enroll in a course yourself, or start a new business between now and Friday morning.

Then again, maybe you will go on a shopping spree on Wednesday and Thursday, racking up huge credit card debts with the notion that you may never have to pay it back.

Will you spend Wednesday and Thursday eating candy and reading at least one of the books you've always wanted to read?

Maybe you'll spend it in a tropical paradise with your favourite person or people in the world. 

Or maybe it will just be another couple days like any other couple days.

We invite you to comment below in our comments section and tell us how you believe you'll be spending Wednesday and Thursday as well as early Friday morning this week.

Be sure and tell us how you would like to be spending that time if you are so inclined.

Then scroll all the way down to the bottom of the homepage and take a few seconds to answer our poll question, too.

It may be the last poll you ever respond to.