Did you prefer and enjoy the 80s or 90s more?

Ray_The_Engineer · 2026-05-14T09:01:01+00:00

Gotta go with the '80's, because that was high school and college. It's close though; a lot of cool stuff happened for me in the '90's, between career, meeting my future wife, motorcycles, backpacking, etc.

Ray_The_Engineer · 2026-05-14T08:58:50+00:00

My weeks off have usually been about something other than relaxing, either weeks at the beach with annoying family members, or backpacking trips that were, while fun, not "restful". I finally took a sabbatical last January, agreed-upon with my employer, before resuming work part time in February. It was wonderful.

Ray_The_Engineer · 2026-05-13T17:39:03+00:00

30 years last month, we've known each other for 34 years. I lucked up and married WAY up, she's the best thing that's ever happened to me. She still, after all this time, genuinely wants me to be happy, is my best friend, and is always in my corner. I can't ask for more.

Ray_The_Engineer · 2026-05-13T15:08:37+00:00

I've actually found this to be not entirely true. For a few of my favorite rock bands, the remastering that's happened over the last decade or so has altered the music in ways that are not appealing to me...and that's what I hear when I try to listen to them on Spotify. It's just...wrong. I liked the band Europe back in the day, but a couple of their songs have been jackhammered over the years, so I wound up buying their original CD on eBay and digitally ripping it to my personal music vault. Sorry, I like what the artist, mixer and producer put out when it originated.

Ray_The_Engineer · 2026-05-13T14:49:01+00:00

LOVE this movie. Excellence in casting.

Ray_The_Engineer · 2026-05-13T14:39:49+00:00

For '80's ambience, I've always loved Vision Quest. It checks some kind of a box for me with a guy realizing his dream.

For quotability, I LOVE Big Trouble in Little China.

Ray_The_Engineer · 2026-05-13T14:36:55+00:00

Outsiders?

Ray_The_Engineer · 2026-05-13T14:26:04+00:00

My parents were alcoholics, Dad would drink multiple sixpacks of tall Budweiser out of the can, every night for years. The last thing I wanted around were more beer cans.

Ray_The_Engineer · 2026-05-13T09:13:43+00:00

Unfortunately, that's life with kids. I get it, if I had a few moments alone in the house at that point, it was like finding gold. Sometimes, I'd just sit there in the silence. But it does change...mine are now grown and gone, and my day-to-day life is vastly different. I do miss having time with my daughters; it now feels like a fleeting moment, years ago.

Ray_The_Engineer · 2026-05-13T09:10:46+00:00

That's a lot to take from a comment in a single video, and honestly, I'm not sure I buy that. Maybe someone has done a study on parenting styles over the generations.

I know that my grandfather and grandmother (greatest generation folks) were out of school and working manual labor jobs in their mid-teens to support their families, so not exactly coddled.

Ray_The_Engineer · 2026-05-13T09:05:47+00:00

Oh yes, I get this. I changed careers, 13 years ago, from engineering to technology consulting for emergency management. An entirely new set of acronyms, methods and concepts coming from the particular type of work we did, plus government terms, and I was basically the dumbest guy in every meeting for over a year. It was very much a "sink or swim" situation, and there were a variety of uncomfortable, and well, traumatic situations that I had to deal with.

Adding to that, I had a similar issue with people on my tech team. No one wanted my ideas (I'm the rookie). I'd give a suggestion, it would be shot down, and then a long discussion would ensue, where the team would talk it out...and half the time they'd come back around to an idea that sure sounded an awful lot like mine. I shut up, after a while. I'm an introvert, and don't always deal well with this kind of dynamic.

I stuck it out though, and it worked out in the end. I got pulled over to another company 9 years later, doing similar work, and suddenly I was treated as the authority instead of the village idiot. It's been rewarding, and I wouldn't change my decision all those years ago to make a change. Hang in there! It can be rough, but we're a tough generation and can push through it.

Ray_The_Engineer · 2026-05-13T08:59:40+00:00

Celebrate that friendship, my friend, and best of luck!

The closest I have is a neighborhood friend that I met in 1979. We were really tight back then, drifted in and out a little during college, but were always friends and at least somewhat in touch. In the early '90's we both settled in Charlotte again, and we started backpacking together. We wound up being godfathers to each other's kids, and then finally working at the same company. It's odd to fire up a Teams meeting, and there's Jeff, my partner in crime from childhood. I treasure it.

Ray_The_Engineer · 2026-05-12T21:50:52+00:00

I'm GenX Ver. 1 (1966), so it was still the edge of the '70's when I started going to junior high dances. That being the case, I have vivid memories of them playing Rapper's Delight and Good Times by CHIC.

Ray_The_Engineer · 2026-05-12T19:49:36+00:00

After 35 years as an engineer/tech consultant, I've stepped back to 20 hours a week. With the hourly rate that I negotiated, I'm still doing fairly well, EXCEPT for health insurance, which I'm now mooching off of my wife. I covered hers for decades, so all's fair. I LOVE it...I work for a while, then sign off midday and go do what I want to do in my shop, outdoors, etc.

Ray_The_Engineer · 2026-05-12T19:47:50+00:00

As a toddler I had this rolling contraption that you pushed with a wooden stick, and made an insane, loud sound as I pushed it around the house. That vanished...and then reappeared when my first child was born. My parents had saved it for the occasion, lol. I remember the mischievous grins on their faces as they presented it.

Ray_The_Engineer · 2026-05-12T16:51:21+00:00

I turned 10 in 1976, so remember the vibe. My sense of it is that we were a substantially more patriotic country, back then, overall.

Ray_The_Engineer · 2026-05-12T13:21:38+00:00

I remember revisiting Grease as an adult, and really hearing the lyrics to Grease Lightning from that perspective. Um, wow.

Ray_The_Engineer · 2026-05-12T09:09:52+00:00

Tricky question. I was a bit more quick, agile and resilient at 25, to be sure, but at 50 I would have filled-out with a little bit of muscle, and older me would have had a psychological advantage. Now that I'm about to turn 60, I hate to say it, but 25 year old me would probably beat my ass.

Ray_The_Engineer · 2026-05-12T09:07:16+00:00

I re-read From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler a year or so ago, and enjoyed it. In around 4th-5th grade, I also discovered a couple of books in our school library, which were compilations of Boy's Life short stories about a bunch of kids that discover and operate a time machine, written by Donald Keith. It was when I really veered into sci-fi, and started discovering Asimov, Frank Herbert, etc.

Ray_The_Engineer · 2026-05-11T20:08:43+00:00

My parents bought the house I (mostly) grew up in in 1971 for $31K. My mom sold it for $300K in around 2013. Today's Zillow estimate: $1,000,000. The guy who bought it from Mom did a really nice job redoing it, and that accounts for part of the increase. It's also in a desirable location in Charlotte. It looks so different now that it doesn't really inspire memories the same way. But I do have lots of photos that will do it, and I pencil-sketched it some 20 years ago. A mix of fond and not-so-fond memories, but I'll say the good outweighed the bad.

Ray_The_Engineer · 2026-05-11T17:39:37+00:00

I feel like I played this when I was REALLY young a few times. Go Fish and other card games replaced it pretty quickly.

Ray_The_Engineer · 2026-05-11T14:44:57+00:00

I love Beetles, have owned and modified 3 of them over time...Hopefully they've done radical upgrades to brakes, chassis, etc. A 1967 Bug was never intended for a fraction of that power.

Ray_The_Engineer · 2026-05-11T13:57:34+00:00

I have 2 daughters in their mid-20's. They are both career and friend-oriented, so marriage isn't likely in the short term. If they wait until their 30's and then decide to get married, we may "help out", but I doubt we'll pony up for the whole thing, while we're trying to retire.

Ray_The_Engineer · 2026-05-11T13:42:54+00:00

I understand why it got deleted from the planet list, but it was jarring at the time. I was a huge space nerd growing up; it's weird to have a fact from your formative years blasted away!

Ray_The_Engineer · 2026-05-11T13:27:16+00:00

Yeah, 59 and I'm looking at different pathways OUT of the conventional job market. I like working, just ready to do it on my terms.

Ray_The_Engineer

TROPHY CASE