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Disconnected: How it feels to be separated from society for a week.

Written: May 29, 2017 (3 days after the impact)

I recently received a concussion.  It sucked.  A lot.  Memory loss, headaches, and nausea are a few of the symptoms I experienced.  The doctor told me that all concussion cases are unique to each individual. Someone in the same situation may experience a completely different set of symptoms.

Written: June 1, 2017 (6 days after the impact)

What is very similar in nearly 100% of concussion cases is the treatment.  A minor case requires the person with the injury to avoid physical activity for a minimum of a week.  The reason is because when a person does an activity that raises their heart rate; the rise in blood pressure is immediately felt in the brain.  A major case will most likely require the injuree to avoid nearly all activity, both mental and physical.  In addition, anybody with a concussion regardless of the intensity is told to avoid electronics for at least a week or more depending on the severity.

I was fortunate to only receive a minor concussion.  My symptoms included memory loss of around 15 minutes before the impact, and 50-60 minutes after the impact (at least that’s what I was told).  At the time of this writing, it has been about six days since the impact and I still have memory loss.  I’m also battling headaches and random nausea, however, it is getting better.  

Despite my injury, I was able to turn a horrible (and boring as hell situation if I am being totally honest) into a positive one.  I have gone without most technology for nearly a week now and it has been invigorating.   Netflix, programming (my hobby), social media, or reading on a tablet.  I have traded them all in.  I have been playing board games, completing a puzzle (Rue Francis), reading physical books (which I like better anyways), and even coloring (yes I get it-I’m acting like a little kid).  It’s funny though because doing these activities which are technology free, I have been far more relaxed and it has helped me escape the stress of being injured.  

Anybody who is reading this and relates to being worried or stressed about something that we cannot control should take a tip or two.  If you’re getting headaches, discomfort, or you’re bored then change-up what you are doing in your free time. Instead of bingeing on the latest episodes of “13 Reasons Why” or catching up on “Game of Thrones,” how about picking up the actual book?  Grab a puzzle (they are actually pretty cheap from Barnes and Noble), go for a walk, draw in a coloring book (my favorite).  I am confident that these will all have a positive influence on your overall well being.

If you need a book recommendation check out our other posts:

  • Titles of the Souls: Parsec
  • Titles of the Souls: Buzz

Or feel free to email us at oldsouls100@gmail.com.

I hope I’ve convinced you (yes I am trying to make you do something) to use a little less tech for an hour or two!  If you have anything to add, please drop a comment below.

– Buzz

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Songs of the Souls – Parsec’s Top 5

In no particular order:

1) One – Released by U2 in 1991 as a track on their popular Achtung Baby album. One was written during a time that the band was considering breaking up and allegedly the song brought them back together.  You can feel the anguish and hopefulness in the song.

2) Let It Be – Written and released by the Beatles in 1970, as a track on the album of the same name. This song predates me by about 10 years, but it immediately registered with me the first time I heard it. I think that it is hard to find a song more timeless than Let It Be.

3) The Times They Are A-Changin’ – Written and released by Bob Dylan in 1964, as the title track of his album of the same name. Dylan intentionally wrote this song as an anthem for the times. I don’t think that he realized how universal it would become.

4) Piano Man – Billy Joel’s first single released in 1973. I don’t think I have heard any other song that tells a story in the same way as this one. When I hear it, I can visualize being in a bar listening to Billy skillfully play the piano and riff on the harmonica.

5) Ashokan Farewell – An instrumental piece composed by folk musician Jay Ungar in 1982. Popularized by the PBS television miniseries The Civil War. Many people mistakenly believe that this song was from the Civil War because it so elegantly captures the spirit of that period.

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Songs of the Souls – Buzz’s Top 5

In a particular order:

1) Meanwhile Back at Mama’s – Released in 2014 as part of the Sundown Heaventown album by Tim McGraw, Meanwhile Back at Mama’s is my favorite song of all time….period.  Listening to McGraw sing about a small town and how he wants change only to return years later is a situation that sits close to me.

2)  The Downeaster Alexa – Written and released by Billy Joel in 1989, as a track on the album Storm Front.  This song was released 10 years before I was born.  The song is named after his daughter Alexa, who he also named his downeaster — a type of boat — after.  This is the the third song of Billy Joel’s I had listened to (Piano Man and Big Shot came first).  However, this is the first song Billy Joel song I listened to with my father.  This is one of our greatest connections.

3) Californication – Written and released by Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1999, as the title track of his album of the same name.  Every time I listen to this song (which is daily) I can imagine every little piece of Hollywood mentioned throughout the song.

4) Into the Night– Chad Kroeger (Nickleback) teams up with Santana for a smooth collaboration of North American and Hispanic of music styles.  Released in 2007 the amazing guitar solos and simple lyrics are the reason that I can put this song on repeat for hours at a time.

5) Wait for You –  Elliot Yamin wrote a song that I have listened to quite possibly more than any song.  I say this because I can still remember my listening on my Mother’s second generation iPod that was bigger than my hand.  I listened to this song on repeat (along with Phantom Planet’s California) for hours at a time.

– Buzz

I listen to a lot of music and for me there are so many it’s hard to choose at times.  Here are a few more that nearly made it as spot number five:

  • Vienna by Billy Joel
  • Kryptonite by 3 Doors Down
  • Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana
  • 7 Years by Lucas Grahm
  • Viva La Vida by Coldplay
  • Photograph by Nickleback
  • Girl from Ipanema by Frank Sinatra
  • Harder to Breathe by Maroon
  • Toto by Africa
  • Mockingbird by Rob Thomas
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Are millennials the entitlement generation?

In my opinion, every generation beginning with the Baby Boomers has had a sense of entitlement. It’s just what each generation has felt entitled to that has changed. For instance, Baby Boomers developed a sense that they were entitled to retire. Gen Xers developed a sense that they were entitled to successful careers. Millennials developed a sense that were entitled to everything on their terms. What is overlooked is that entitlement is rooted in expectations, and each generation is guilty of having those.

Did the “Traditionalist Generation” (a.k.a. Greatest Generation) have expectations? I’m sure to some extent they did, but they also went through the events like the Great Depression and World War II. Until very recently (see Great Recession), I don’t think that anything in the last 100 years has tempered the expectations of Americans as much as those events. Therefore, I think that we would be hard-pressed to call this generation “entitled.”

As for the Baby Boomers, they’ve lived their lives expecting to benefit from pensions, retirement plans and social security. Over time, they developed an expectation that they could spend their golden years traveling or living on a beach somewhere. It was their reward for working hard and paying into the “system”. Pension cuts, bad economies, ageism, longer lifespans and other factors have all contributed to a much different retirement reality for countless Baby Boomers.

As for Gen Xers, we grew up thinking that a college degree was the gateway to long-term careers with plenty of upward mobility. For example, when I started in college in the late 90’s, I knew recent graduates who were getting great tech jobs with significant signing bonuses. I truly expected to be on the same track…and then the dot com bubble burst…then later the Great Recession hit. Based on these events and others, I no longer expect to move up in a company – let alone stay at one for 20+ years.

As for Millennials, they are faulted for being the entitlement generation because they are viewed as being narcissistic and perhaps they are, but it’s rooted in expectations developed in their childhood – a time of economic boon and perhaps “over-sheltering.” If we label them based on their expectations, we must fairly call out our own.

– Parsec

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Is college for everyone?

This is a highly debated topic and while my viewpoint is not groundbreaking, I hope that my thoughts will register with those choosing whether or not to attend college.

Father = Bachelor’s Degree
Mother = Bachelor’s Degree
Sister = Working toward Bachelor’s Degree
Friend = Working toward Associate Degree
Friend(s) = All planning on attending college.

The question I have for all of them is: Why?

A few facts taken from a recently published Forbes article:

– $1.3 Trillion in student debt
– Over 44 million borrowers
– An average student from the Class of 2016 has $37,172 in debt from student loans.

If you live in the US and you know anybody that has attended college then at some point you have probably heard the phrase “everybody goes to college.” Is this true? The answer is mostly, and it is supported by the NCES. Studies show that from 2000 to 2014 enrollment has increased by 31%…A huge increase!

Enough with the stats, here’s my take:

College is NOT necessarily the path for everyone.

You may say, “Buzz, how can this be true?” The answer is that for some people it is the right path, and for others it is not.  How do you know?  This list may help:

Reasons To Go

– You have your mind set on a career path that REQUIRES, not recommends, a college degree or certification. Yes, I am talking to all the doctors, lawyers, and aeronautical engineers out there. If you are going into a field that truly needs the education then that is a good reason to go to school.

– The school you are going to has an extremely high job placement in the field you are attempting to go into.

– The school you are going to attend is offering large scholarships that will cover the majority if not all of your debt.

Reasons NOT To Go

– There isn’t a guaranteed return, in fact you are almost guaranteed a negative return these days.  The chances of an individual incurring debt from college is greater than graduating a clean slate.

– You want to experience the “college-life” which often translates to the “party-life.”  As a teenager I have never been a part of the party-crowd.  For me to say that going to school to party is a waste isn’t necessarily fair, but I can say that I know many people who chose to go to “party” schools.  These people often didn’t graduate on time, incurred large debts throughout their education, and graduated with a degree that meant nothing to them.

– You don’t know what else to do. The default for young adults shouldn’t be to go to college. At any age — and especially the age of 18 — people in general need to search for what makes them happy, not just do what they think they should do.

– Your field might not require a degree to start in. A field like fashion design or marketing is something that most people believe that you must have a degree to break into.  My friend who works as a designer for a large corporation is living proof that no such education is needed (I’m sure many of you are wearing his designs right now).  No degree was required and this is the case for many fields.

If you are interested in reading more about how the facts utilized in this article were attained, please visit the sources below (or you could just take my word for it).

Again, college is NOT necessarily for everyone.  If you think it’s for you, great!  I wish you luck, however, if you seem to fit into the mold of Reasons NOT To Go, then I encourage you to consider another path than just attending college.

– Buzz

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2017/02/21/student-loan-debt-statistics-2017/#3ce207885dab (Forbes)

https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2017/unemployment-rate-2-point-5-percent-for-college-grads-7-point-7-percent-for-high-school-dropouts-january-2017.htm (Bureau of Labor Statistics)

https://hbr.org/2016/05/two-thirds-of-college-grads-struggle-to-launch-their-careers (Harvard Business Review)

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cha.asp (National Center for Education Statistics)

 

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Parsec and Buzz: An Introduction

Why the pen name Parsec?

Released in 1982, Parsec was a side-scrolling, space-based computer game made for the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A computer. A Parsec is also a unit of distance in astronomy – which I assume is the basis for the video game’s name. It was a challenging game with amazing graphics for its time.

Parsec was the first video game that I recall playing as a kid and something that my family still talks about to this day. Indeed, it’s quite likely that my father’s TI-99/4A is hiding somewhere in an attic waiting for someone to go another round with the infamous asteroid belt.

Video games are often the subject of controversy and rightfully so. Much like movies and television, they have become more violent and graphic (the Mortal Kombat series is one that sticks out in my mind). As someone who logged countless hours playing video games in my youth, I feel that violent video games may have desensitized me to some extent, but it’s not what I associate with my own general personal experience over the years. When I think about the games I have played, I think about art, creativity, strategy and the pursuit of better technology. In fact, playing video games spurned an interest in computers that led me to both a computer science-based education and career. I recall my mother saying to me as an adult that she walked into my room one day when I was a kid and was struck by what an impressive creation I had built with my Legos. I’ve seen what my daughter has built in Minecraft with the same sense of awe.

Why the pen name Buzz?

Released in 1995, Toy Story was the first feature-length computer-animated film that was produced by Pixar.  The plot of the story was very unique.  Toys would pretend to be lifeless when there were humans in the room, however, when the toys were alone they were animated and life like.  It is regarded as one of the greatest animated movies of all time (especially by me).

There are a number of reasons that Buzz is a great pen name for me.  Toy Story was released before I was even born, yet growing up, it is the first animated movie I can remember watching.  I recall when I went to Disney World as a kid.  My family lived in the Midwest and my parents decided that we should drive all the way down to Orlando, Florida.  Luckily for my siblings and I, our wagon-style car had a tiny DVD player in it.  We watched Toy Story…then we watched it again…and again…and again.  I remember watching it for nearly the entire trip down AND back.  Not only that, but I loved going on the Buzz Lightyear ride at Disney World in the Magic Kingdom.  It was the first and last ride that my family went on.  I was hooked.  From that point on when I got home I played with my toys like Andy did; I pretended that they lived, and even to this day I sometimes worry that my old stuffed animals might hate me for putting them in that plastic garbage bag in the back of the closet.

Another reason that Toy Story had such a significant impact on my life is because of the lessons that it taught: friendship, teamwork and to never leave a friend behind.  It also taught me about how people (or toys) care about each other and the value of happiness.

To infinity and beyond!