I saw this commercial for an internal antenna that increases the reception of your cellular phone. Just one of those cheesy commercials for a product that may work for some people but won't work for most, or at least won't work for more than a bit of time. In any case, that reminded me of another cell phone product that is designed to cut down on the RF transmission of your phone so that you get less RF radiation.

What's the big deal about RF radiation? What's the big deal about brain cancer? I read an opinion piece by some scientist who did his own research finding that there is a lot of specific radiation from high-intensity power lines. The guy wrote that he was going to make sure to warn his friends and family and wear a special protective suit whenever he had to work around power lines.

Ok, that's going a bit too far. Sure, there are certain prices to being a high- tech society, some of them being rather fatal. Contrast that with the diseases and other ills that we've cured over the years -- our life expectancy is quite a bit better today than a few decades ago, though maybe not as great as a hundred plus years ago (that's another useless fact that I probably have wrong).

In any case, why are we afraid of dying. I'm sort of ambivalent about right now. So what if I'm dead? As long as the human race continues that's fine with me. I wouldn't want everyone to die in some sort of nuclear or ecological holocaust. I've made a contribution to society and I'm happy with that. Which brings me to the next point: a lot of people want to procreate to pass their genes (or as an excuse to have sex).

But then again, what's the point of passing on our genes? I for one believe that what you're taught when you're growing up is more important than what's embedded in your genes, at least for the vast majority of people. If the knowledge we teach and culture we imbue on our kids is more important to what makes them what they are (and not their natural looks, intelligence, physical ability), then it shouldn't really matter what genes are in your kid.

Adopting a kid, or inheriting one from a spouse, and bringing them up with your values and culture is just as valid to me as bringing up a kid from your loins. But lets look at the much bigger picture. Society at large, like a city or state or country, has a certain culture. Through its school systems, television and other media, even the Internet there is a certain amount of knowledge that is imbued on kids by our society. Kids not only grow up in our image, but in the image of the society that they live in. To me if I die with no progeny, I can at least have the knowledge that my culture will live on in the people around me...

The new neighbors have a lot of guests who tromp up and down the stair making quite a bit of noise. It's funny that every time I hear someone coming up the stairs I think of Murray coming up ahead of Dave and I get that bit of anticipation before I remember that it can't be Murray and Dave. It was always subconscious that I associated Murray's banging up the stairs with him and Dave coming over to walk Murray. I'll get used to it eventually I suppose...

With the new television season starting, I can see that next week is going to be quite eventful, especially considering the baseball playoffs, since both the Giants and A's made it to the postseason. Well, there is this other VCR from Dave and Julie that isn't being used so I may use that. Otherwise I have to tape things on scratch tapes and then transfer them over later.

There really aren't any new shows that I want to watch next week. Mostly because the baseball playoffs preempt most NBC programming. There is also a presidential debate on Tuesday that I should tape and watch. And the Country Music Association Awards on Wednesday. Anyway, next week I'll watch Dark Angel, Gilmore Girls, Grosse Point and That's Life and see if they're any good.