There are only a few things worth extending for as long as possible, and they all have to do with interactions with other human beings.

I


t's a rainy dreary day in Charlottesville. Matthew Hart is lying around on the couch watching cooking shows on pirated cable, scribbling notes of the recipes in a spiral notebook. He seems to have a pathological interest in watching television exclusively about food preparation. To me it's all very dull. I only think about food when I'm hungry and then I work as fast as possible to end my hunger so the irritation of having to eat will evaporate and I can get on with the more important things in life.
Like fixing the tire which is always going flat on my oversized camouflage 12 speed. But that too is something I just want to get behind me as quickly as I can.
There are only a few things worth extending for as long as possible, and they all have to do with interactions with other human beings.

Ages of some of the people in and out of my life:

Leticia the Brazilian Girl: 17	Leah: 18	Matthew Hart: 19	Deya: 20	Elizabeth Stark: 20
Zachary: 21	Peggy: 21	Jessika: 21	Sara Poiron: 22	Monster Boy: 22
Jenfariello: 23	Leslie Montalto (old girlfriend): 28	Nathan VanHooser: 29	Me: 29	Josh Furr: 30
My Brother, Don: 32	Steve Weiner: 40 something	My Mother, Hoagie: 60	My Father, Bob: 73	God: infinite

I guess we should hold a wake for the era of pleasant conversations and music in the living room.

I


  managed to get a 2400 baud modem working in my big 486 at Kappa Mutha Fucka, and though it was useless for surfing the web, it could read my mail adequately (if slowly).

Downstairs Matthew and Leah were watching a dreadful made-for-teevee action thriller based around an endless car chase scene. It was so incredibly boring that I went to take a pre-work nap a little on the early side. I have a feeling that now that we have cable, we're going to be watching a lot of mindless television. I hope it doesn't destroy our little society. At least we're not paying for these bullets put in our heads like the dissidents do in China. That's a pretty disturbing link, guys.

---

As I was leaving for work, Monster Boy announced that we actually have about sixty channels, including good ones like the sci-fi channel. I guess we should hold a wake for the era of pleasant conversations and music in the living room.

---

Bacteria have such a bad rap now that advertisers don't even need to mention why they should be destroyed; their very existence is cause for panic.

O


ne of the things I see a lot in television ads is advertisers' exploitation of the fears of parents for the well-being of their kids. This taps into a primeval response system as old as the crocodile. Perhaps the most disgusting of such ads are the ones that distort the virulence of a suspected enemy of our children. These days it's no longer cool to bust on witches and Jews, but drug dealers, the Internet and child care workers are often considered acceptable targets. In advertising, the most accepted of all scapegoats are insects and bacteria. Bacteria now have such a bad rap that advertisers don't even need to mention why they should be destroyed; their very existence is cause for panic. There's an interesting article in Scientific American about the disaster we face from the pursuit of our irrational war against the bacterial world.

For linking purposes this article's URL is:
http://asecular.com/blog.php?970722