Suburbia

I'm in Picturesque Suburbia.
I met an ex heroin addict,
I know a girl who tried to get pregnant to keep her boyfriend.
I'm in a town with the highest membership of alcoholics anonymous.
I'm in Picturesque Suburbia.

Writer

I'm a writer.
I almost Failed English at 16,
I can't spell half of what I write.
& I always carry a camera.
Apparently, I'm a writer.

English

Apparently, I'm English.
I don't have a football team,
I know less about the British music scene than my Mexican friend,
& I drive a Jeep.
Apparently, I'm English.

Wandering Lower Manhattan

From visiting many other state and cities,
I've quietly come to the conclusion that Richmond, Virginia is a good place to live.

Good in the sense that it's not Great and Good in the sense that you could do so much worse.

The people follow a fairly wonderful stereotype.
They are friendly, welcoming and usually only worry about Taxes, God, the next election & nowadays of course, the economy.

On the whole they have humble and contented lives.
There's always SOMETHING to do, you can complain all you like but at least Richmond has bars that stay open late and a $2 movie theater.
VCU gives Richmond the pulse that it desperately needs,
the thousands of roaming students give the place a younger face that it otherwise would easily not have.

What I'm trying to say is if you live here for a bit, you become accustomed and acclimatized to the way of life down here.

That all changes when like me, you jump in a car, plane or train and obliterate all of your small town thinking and park yourself on Lower Manhattan for a couple of days.

What's the first thing I do?
I cross a street without looking,
something that my vigilant London upbringing would never let me to do,
something that up until two years ago felt genetically programmed into me from London.

The bonus of this of course, was to see an irate taxi driver.
An experience i have not been fortunate enough to receive since playing tag and whacking wing mirrors at bad taxi drivers in London when I used to work as a bike messenger.

I was so awe struck from being back in a great city that I did nothing.
No Musuems
No Galleries
No Shops
&
Nothing but take in some sun and follow an impulse to start walking

Armed with a camera and 4 hours of free time I walked the streets of Soho, Tribeca, Battery Park South Ferry and Wall street, some of which were areas that I had not seen even when my parents lived in New York.

It's weird feeling to have a an entire city at your feet and choose to just wander for the day.
It still felt like the best thing to do.

Road Trip USA

Ever tried to drive for thirteen constant hours only stopping for gas and to obey your body?
I did.
Ever drive for another ten hours just after you've driven for thirteen hours only to stop for gas and your mind's well being?
Yeah, I did.

Virigina to Texas is a fun drive,
if you like straight roads, bible signs,
Arkansas,
& a car that doesn't know the concept of suspension.

Did I mention I don't have cruise control?

Bang Bang Bang, Reload, Bang

I hate guns,

or least the civilians that carry guns.

I know this has been said a million times by more than enough people,

but I'm sorry, this country has a misplaced faith in firearms.

Faith in firearms is a ridiculous notion.

You trust a weapon, a weapon that fires a projectile faster than your mind can track it.

You trust weapon that can kill your entire family before you need to replace a cartridge.

You trust a weapon to guard yourself because you let other people carry the same weapon.

You actually trust a weapon.

Have some responsibility and grow up.

There is no real threat, most people killed by firearms are killed by someone they know and usually that's an accident.
There are few or no illusive bad guys, its all in your mind.

This week, in the town that I live in, a man was held at gunpoint and mugged, luckily he was not hurt. Gun crime happens everywhere, that is unavoidable, but it happens far less in places were the average man does not own a gun, the opportunity is not as easy to grab.

You live in relatively safe country, you don't believe that, go to 80% of the rest of the world.

Think of your family, your friends and put the bloody guns down, if you continue to stand up with an outdated irrelevant right to bear arms, then you clearly don't go out into the wider world enough and see that most people now function perfectly fine without the use of a firearm.

As far as I'm concerned, there are only a few reasons for owning a firearm.

1) You want to practice shooting targets because you hate your life and the people around you.

2) You have a small cock.

3) Your weekends are boring enough to require the shooting of beer cans and unsuspecting wildlife.

If you like firearms and you have a problem with this, then good, that is your opinion and this is mine, If you want to challenge my opinion please do.

Thank you for reading my weekly Venting.

Texas State Fair

It was a bizarre Saturday,

7am that morning I had schooled both of my younger brothers in how to run a 5K,

that was the highlight of the day.

Four hours later, under the heat of the Texan Sun I made my first visit to a State Fair.

I wasn't expecting to be amazed, but I was not expecting to be appalled by the lack of Texas things in the Fair. It was just corporate meets the fairground.

It didn't help that it was 95 degrees in the shade so you couldn't stand around for too long in the heat to admire the crap. I tried my best to give it a chance, but it became painfully obvious that the fair was not a good move as soon as my family started to get annoyed with the place. We left after a few short dissapointing hours.

They didn't even have a t shirt in my size.