stuff

[anotheranon]

I listened to an interesting Art Bell radio show yesterday while coding.

It was with William Strauss, one of the authors of "The Fourth Turning". They suggest that human history is cyclical, and that 4 different cycles, or "turns", are always repeating throughout human history. The "Fourth Turn" is a period of crisis that occurs before a new paradigm of thinking (the authors suggest that we may be in the Fourth Turning now, what with current events. There's a shocker). The authors further suggest that the characteristics of different generations cycle as well (though I don't quite fit their definition of "Gen Xer", born between 1961-81 - I guess there is room for improvement/interpretation). This isn't some new-agey horoscope-influenced speculation; the authors seem to have based their theories on genuine trend analysis of historical events.

Should be an interesting book to read, if I ever get through my constantly rising stack of unread books. Sure, some of them are art books, technically designed less to be read and more to be looked at (picture books for adults!) but they still take time. I'm currently trying to finish a small stack I checked out from the library and given that they are biographies they should go rather fast, but even so....I'm trying to read at least an hour a day, and its sad I have to schedule it like that because reading should be a pleasure, not something to "get finished".

Meanwhile I'm sitting here at work looking for stock photos - its amazing how many stock photos of medical and technical subject matter there is out there. So many of them involve photos of people though, and we're instructed to try and use photos of actual employees where possible.

The weather is still fabulous - brisk enough to be the perfect day for a hot cup of coffee but I don't have to wear a heavy coat yet. Even so my winter sinus weirdness is already acting up and the headaches come and go.

Comments

[geekchick]

They had I think one of the other authors (I forget his name offhand) of the book on CNN this afternoon. Art Bell *and* CNN, guess they've got all the bases covered now. ;)

I'm excited about this fall thing. I dug out some fuzzy sweaters and velvet today, which makes me happy. Yay for getting to wear clothes in colors and fabrics I actually like!

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Talking to CNN too? What did he say?

Re: weather. Yes:) The wardrobe is happy here too. But the sinuses are not into it.

[geekchick]

He was basically talking about the premise of the book, and how we seem to be at one of those crisis points which will precipitate another turning. I caught sort of the middle of it I think and recognized the name of the book from your post. It was one of their 3-minute interviews, so nothing was too detailed (but they did have a nifty Powerpoint-esque graphic with the list of the various stages ;) ).