You don't understand the startdates?
Take, for example, 20081221.2041
Let me stick some spaces in some helpful places:
2008 12 21 . 20 41
That better?
20081221 means 21st December 2008, and 2041 is in 24-hour clock format, IE 8:41PM
Stardates in the Star Trek universe work in an entirely different way. Wikipedia has a good explanation on how Stardates work.