When I'm reading, it's usually a history book, or a biography, or some kind of social theory work, though I do like to pick up a work of fiction, particularly science fiction, for a lighter read. Video streaming on demand has sucked us into its gravitational well, and I spend an inordinate amount of time binge-watching movies and TV shows with my BFF and her family.

I'm always working on some writing project or other, though often if I'm writing these days it's on my blog.

In The Zeitgeist
My latest blog, where I share my perspective on these changing times.

I absolutely love to play tabletop games, and am always down for one if I have the time, whether it's a two-player game with my BFF, a game with a bigger group if we can get one together, or just an online game with old friends or with new friends recently met.

When I was a child, my father worked in the foreign service (U.S. State Department), which meant we travelled the world, and lived in different countries as a family. I am the oldest of four children, and growing up we only had each other, as friendships we made outside of the family would always come to an end after a couple of years. I think this experience has helped to keep me close to my parents and siblings, though we are now far-flung in our geographic locations. It's also why I like to keep the friends I make now. I find it easy to make friends, and have trouble letting people go.

I like to think that my exposure to other societies and cultures growing up also helped me to develop into a tolerant and open-minded individual. As Mark Twain said, "travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." I highly recommend to everyone that they get out and see the world. It will help you become aware of the big picture of human existence, and to see your own familiar milieu in a new light.

The Barreras eventually returned to the United States, and moved to Virginia, where I attended South Lakes High School in Reston. After high school I pursued a Bachelor of Science at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. While doing so, I participated in the University's work-study program. Another recommendation of mine is for young students to get work experience as early as possible - you will develop skills and knowledge that you will not pick up in an academic environment, and you will get a head start on building your resume/CV.

I made plenty of great friends at Virginia Tech, some of whom I still visit to this day. I lingered in Blacksburg for quite a few years after graduating; I just wasn't ready to give up the college lifestyle. No doubt my best memories of good times come from that era of my life. But I had to move on, to make something of myself, so just after my 30th birthday, I moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to work for a software startup company. That was in the glorious days of the dot com boom.

The startup burned out, and after a little meandering I eventually found myself in the Triangle area of North Carolina working as a software tester. The region has a lot of IT jobs, and friends I knew from Virginia Tech were already living there, so it was natural to be drawn to that location. The job I moved there for lasted a few months before the company was swallowed up by a competitor and the office shut down. But I stayed put, and continued to advance my career, sometimes working contracts, and sometimes full-time positions.

I lived in North Carolina for nearly twenty years. Toward the end of that time period, I attended my thirtieth year high school reunion back up in Reston. There, I reunited with my old girlfriend, Aileen, and we found that we wanted to be together again. She lives in Pennsylvania, and for a few years we visited each other and travelled together. We became BFFs. Then, after my last contract in NC ended, I searched for work up where she lives. When I landed a job, I moved up to West Chester (about 20 miles west of Philadelphia), and a new book in the life of Steve began.

When the coronavirus pandemic lockdown began, I moved into Aileen's house in Morgantown. I was able to work from home from that location, and the apartment in West Chester languished, unused. After some effort to make space for my lifetime of accumulated possessions, I fully moved in and let the apartment lease expire. So now I am absorbed into my BFF's family and life, hunkering down with them in a small Pennsylvania town, and making the best of things in this tumultuous time.

Aileen suggests always having your epitaph ready, so here is mine:

Since sometime in the '90s I have been very interested in the generational theory of William Strauss and Neil Howe. Their book 13th Gen: Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail? really struck a chord with me. Then I read Generations, and before long I was an active participant on the T4T discussion forum (now defunct - but it lives on here). For several years I had a generations blog where I posted news stories and commentary relevant to the theory. I stopped updating the blog some time ago, but I'm keeping another site up with my latest ruminations on generations.

Steve's Saecular Pages
My latest material based on the Strauss and Howe generational theory.

I have had the pleasure of meeting both William Strauss and Neil Howe in person, and have even worked for their company, LifeCourse Associates. I am especially proud to be able to say that I helped Neil with his latest book, The Fourth Turning Is Here, along with Aileen. We did some research, mostly on pandemics, and did most of the end notes and bibliography, which was a monumental effort.

Another big influence on my thinking has been the work of Amit Goswami. That started when I read The Self-Aware Universe at the recommendation of an old friend. The book opened my eyes to a new way of understanding the spiritual dimension of life. Now I own most of the books Goswami has written.

Goswami uses quantum physics as a starting point to explore a consciousness-based science of reality. As such, he reintroduces spirituality into scientific thinking. He describes a model of the world we experience which affirms the basic ideas common to all spiritual traditions. There is an excellent synopsis of his theory of the self-aware Universe here: The Self-Aware Universe Synopsis. His ideas make sense to me in light of some of the stranger things that have happened to me in my life.

I really think there is a synergy to be found between the consciousness-based ontology described by Amit Goswami and theories of history, sociology, and other so-called "soft sciences". The idealist paradigm of the perennial philosophy recognizes that higher-order things like ideas, beliefs, and choices are real, whereas the materialist paradigm brushes them off as mere epiphenomena.

I also believe that acknowledging that higher orders are not mere trappings, but rather are substantial realities, helps one to see that there is a progressive evolution in the cosmos. Life is not a meaningless struggle for existence; we really are going somewhere. To paraphrase Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, if we can't accept that there are further stages in the development of consciousness, then all that we've come to so far has been pointless, and the universe is absurd. But if we can believe in higher orders yet unattained, then we can have full faith that a brighter future awaits.

Big Steve's Big Site
This is a web site where I rant about life, the universe and everything, and collect links and stuff.

A Real Live Gaming Workshop
This my web site with some game ideas - board and card game variants and PC game scenarios and add-ons. I've made one complete but flawed text adventure game.

Generation Watch
My original generational theory blog. It records my struggles to figure out what was happening socially in the 2000s era.

topiramate diaries
In 2004 I had a seizure while driving, so I wrote a sort of a blog about it.

Book and DVD Reviews
Here I have some reviews of books and DVDs, often written with a touch of social commentary.