However, not having a cohesive theme also led me to not be able to promote anything. If I told somebody I had a blog, there was no way to describe it. There was no way to get other people to write for a site that really had no point.

Eventually, it felt like not having a theme had more disadvantages than advantages. First of all, themes can be incredibly loose. If an occasional idea that doesn’t strictly conform to a basic format is something I want to write about, the blog police aren’t going to arrest me.

 I titled this blog Letters From Suburbia way back when for reasons I can’t really recall. I mostly liked the sound of it. I’ve always been a suburbanite, so really it just meant that this was writing from somebody in the suburbs. Clear enough.

But what does it mean to be from suburbia? It certainly is a drag, in many ways. A lot of time, it seems like issues are being beaten to death, and they aren’t even the issues we should be discussing. Cultured people are rare, and it can often be difficult to even engage in a meaningful conversation.

So consider this my meaningful conversation. Letters from Suburbia will bring up ideas and thoughts that I feel aren’t being addressed by other sources. It will counteract the lack of intelligent discourse of the world at large.

Now does that mean I will finally update regularly? That—you’ll just have to keep an eye on.

This is from an article about a gene that supposedly makes people more likely to be unfaithful. Ok, now we are just getting silly. As science has become more precise, so have excuses. Whatever happened to just doing bad things because we’re human?

That is the problem. There is a human desire to make everything somebody else’s fault. Responsibility is never our own. We were made with something bad in us, so when it comes out, well, I couldn’t help it.

As a society, we need to admit our failings and not look for ways to make it not our fault. We’re human. We screw up. But that doesn’t make it some cosmic thing out of our control. We’re all unique, but we aren’ t all just a collection of genes that makes decisions for us. Take some responsibility.

Here are three noteworthy individuals (Sadly, for bad reasons):

1. William Walker–Walker was a lawyer and journalist who one day decided, like any sane person, that he would like to raise an army and take over a Central American country. So he did.  In 1855, when he undertook the expedition, he had already conquered Baja California with an army of 45. No sweat. He needed more, so he raised an army of about 300 and took over Nicaragua. Literally. He was recognized as the President of the country for almost a year, before being forced out of office. When he tried to return to the area in 1860, he was executed.

2. Henry Rathbone–Trivia question: How many people in President Lincoln’s box at Ford’s Theatre were murdered? The answer? Two. (Another question you can ask is how many people in the box were later in a mental hospital–also two). Rathbone and his fiancee Clara Harris were in the box with Abraham and Mary, sitting next to them, when Booth killed Lincoln. They were powerless to stop him, although Rathbone did his best to disarm the assassin afterwords.

Sadly, that is not the end of the story. In 1883,  Rathbone murdered Clara (and unsuccessfully tried to kill their children and himself). He spent the rest of his life in an insane asylum in Germany.

3. Charles Guiteau–Upset that he was passed over for the job as ambassador to France, despite the fact that he had no qualifications whatsoever, Guiteau did the country a favor (in his own mind) by murdering President Garfield. Guiteau had a history of rejection. He joined a sex cult, but nobody would sleep with him–they nicknamed him “Charles Gitout.” He managed to be a loser in just about every way possible. In the end, he managed to succeed in two things: killing the president, and being hung. But that’s about it.

What Glee does is turn popular kids into the geeks they never were. And THIS I have a major problem with.

I try not to pay attention to the show or the buzz that it receives, but one thing I have noticed is that fans of this monstronsity of a program call themselves “Gleeks.” Fine, a simple and potentially clever way of punning the show’s title. I get that.

And if these people were geeks who were unpopular and awkward in high school, it would make sense. But there is a major and incredibly irritating problem with this sentiment–almost all Glee fans I know were not geeks in school–they were popular, non-geeky, and socially adjusted.

What is it about the past that makes people pine to be bigger losers than they actually were? There’s an oft-repeated statistic about wealth in the United States–19% of people believe they are in the top 1% of earners. Clearly, this is a mathematical impossibility, so they are not all that rich.

It appears that nerds are the same way. It feels like 75% of Americans want to believe that they were among the 5 nerdiest, least socially-adept people in their high school. Your later success comes after being picked on in high school. But your shirt being called weird once doesn’t make you a geek. You were not one. And you can’t be one retroactively. You can’t pine for the days that never were.

I don’t care for Glee–I find it annoying, and pointless, and stupid. That much can be gleaned solely from the commercials I’ve had to watch. However, it becomes offensive to me on a personal level when the head cheerleader wants to remember her days as an weirdo. NO. YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO. Real geeks can be attracted to this show. I don’t care. But I refuse to allow non-geeks to commandeer our word. I’m not going to accept that without a fight.

1) Ignore everybody, and act like a giant weirdo.

2) Try to make small talk with some strangers.

I usually chose option 1. (Or, the offshot of it, don’t go at all.) I feel like I grew up in a world where everything has a point. And I never understood making small talk with people you’d never see again. What’s the point of that? You’re not gaining anything from it. You’re not really giving anything to the other person. All you’re doing is fighting boredom for a few moments.

For whatever reason, I would act this way. That unless you were in a situation where there was some tangible benefit to engaging with somebody, what’s the point? Now, if you asked me about it, I would have never actually admitted to that. I never had those thoughts. I’ve always been reserved, and it takes real energy for me to meet people. I’m not the life of the party and I never will be. So to spend up social energy on people who you will never see again–how could that be worth it?

As I’ve gotten older, this mindset has started to fade. For me, meeting people is not as hard anymore. I’m not as quiet as I used to be, and now I can just talk to people with no agenda. It makes you more real. You don’t need anything from the person, you’re just celebrating being alive.

Case(s) in point–the short chat with the storeowner. These people are dwindling by the day, as Walmarts and Starbucks and their ilk dominate the landscape, but it is always nice to see somebody who has their own interesting place of business, specialized, and it’s great to talk to them for a few brief moments and then go on your way.

In June, I was taking a huge test. When I was there, a girl, fresh out of college named Amber started talking to me about the test, and we just struck up a conversation about our lives and what we were in for. We talked for maybe 20 or 30 minutes, and after we finished the test, we went our separate ways. We didn’t exchange contact info, so there is a 99.9% chance I will never see this girl again. However, when we were both there and nervous about this test and needing a distraction, we were able to connect like that.

Same thing at the wedding. I went not knowing anybody who would be at my table (like I said, I knew people there, but they were going to be very busy with other things that night.)  I met some people about my age. I didn’t want to be friends with them, but they weren’t bad people, they weren’t dreadfully boring or crazy. They were fine. And that’s all you need sometimes in a social situation…just people to help pass the time. It doesn’t matter that you’ll never see them again, it’s just nice to meet somebody and talk about this crazy world we live in for a little while.

NEW YORK – This may come as no surprise to residents of New York City and other big urban centers: Living there can be bad for your mental health.

Now researchers have found a possible reason why. Imaging scans show that in city dwellers or people who grew up in urban areas, certain areas of the brain react more vigorously to stress. That may help explain how city life can boost the risks of schizophrenia and other mental disorders, researchers said.

Previous research has found that growing up in a big city raises the risk of schizophrenia. And there’s some evidence that city dwellers are at heightened risk for mood and anxiety disorders, although the evidence is mixed.

I was in New York City today. And I have to say, I was stressed. There are people everywhere, some of them great, some of them loud, inconsiderate, or crazy. You are crammed on a subway, crammed on a train, crammed on a sidewalk. There are more things to do, but there are more people who want to do those things.

This was not at rush hour–it was in the middle of the day. I can see the anxiety and stress that living in a large metropolitan area breeds. However, I certainly do see the benefits of that life, and maybe the stress is worth the excitement. There is probably more exciting leisure activities in New York than there is in a town of 77 people. So I agree with the stress–doing things causes stress. However, whether or not it is a bad thing and a necessary evil is another question, and one I can’t definitively answer.

Some people who need medical care but can’t afford it go to the emergency room. Others just hope they’ll get better. James Richard Verone robbed a bank.

Earlier this month, Verone (pictured), a 59-year-old convenience store clerk, walked into a Gastonia, N.C., bank and handed the cashier a note demanding $1 and medical attention. Then he waited calmly for police to show up.

He’s now in jail and has an appointment with a doctor this week.

News like this has come out every once in a while, and I’m actually surprised it doesn’t happen more often. It is legitimately crazy that we don’t have universal health care. Republicans don’t want it (it helps poor people). Democrats don’t want to push for it (helping poor people not worth the effort). People across the country delay urgent health needs because they can’t afford to pay for it. This is the United States, 2011.

I’d say we could be more like Sweden, but then I see stories like this:

Stockholm: At the “Egalia” preschool, staff avoid using words like “him” or “her” and address the 33 kids as “friends” rather than girls and boys.

From the color and placement of toys to the choice of books, every detail has been carefully planned to make sure the children don’t fall into gender stereotypes.

“Society expects girls to be girlie, nice and pretty and boys to be manly, rough and outgoing,” says Jenny Johnsson, a 31-year-old teacher. “Egalia gives them a fantastic opportunity to be whoever they want to be.”

The taxpayer-funded preschool which opened last year in the liberal Sodermalm district of Stockholm for kids aged 1 to 6 is among the most radical examples of Sweden’s efforts to engineer equality between the sexes from childhood onward.

Now, I can understand not forcing people into stereotypical gender roles. That’s a good idea. But a 2 year old boy is….a 2 year old boy. If a two year old boy wants to play with a Barbie, ok, I can accept that. But getting rid of gender alltogether? Too far.

The deep-fried Kool-Aid is selling like deep-fried hot cakes, according to their famed creator, “Chicken” Charlie Boghosian.

Chicken Charlie’s is a staple of fried rations at fairs across the country. It sold 400 to 600 orders of deep-fried Kool-Aid per day the first weekend of the San Diego County Fair. That’s about double the rate of previous debut items, Boghosian said.

“That’s because it tastes so darn good,” Boghosian said of the Kool-Aid.

The deep-fried novelty takes the shape of a doughnut-hole. There are five per order. That breaks down to as much as 9,000 balls of deep-fried Kool-Aid eaten over opening weekend.

Boghosian said Chicken Charlie’s has already gone through 150 pounds of Kool-Aid powder and 1,500 pounds of flour. Chicken Charlie’s debuted deep-fried Klondike Bars and Pop Tarts in past years.

Fairgoers on Tuesday were also buying up the deep-fried Kool-Aid.

“It starts off tart and tangy, and then finishes really sweet… I love this stuff,” said Seth Baldwin of Vista.

So disgusting, I have to post it. And yet, I would probably try it (then again, I’ve said that about the KFC Double Down, which I still have yet to try).

So, what then, would a proper list of the band’s best albums look like? I am certainly not qualified to answer that, but because this is a blog, and bloggers are not qualified to answer anything and do anyway, I may as well give it a shot.

1. Revolver–no brainer.
2. Rubber Soul
3. Abbey Road
4. Let it Be–always unfairly maligned. Yes, the band was completely disjointed at this point. No, it’s not a cohesive album. But it’s a bunch of really good songs.
5. Help!
6. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band–”A Day in the Life,” “Getting Better,” and a lot of stuff that’s just kinda ehhh.
7. The White Album–six or seven pretty good songs, but just oh so much filler…
8. Hard Day’s Night
9. With the Beatles
10. Beatles for Sale

What is the worst job you’ve done?
Super Mario Brothers.

What has been your biggest disappointment?
Super Mario Brothers.

If you could edit your past, what would you change?
I wouldn’t do Super Mario Brothers.

Source: Doot doot doo doo doot doo doo
You can bash this film, sadly. Super Mario Brothers is one of those awful films I used to watch anyway. When it’s a movie you grew up with, you ignore faults. But yeah…it was pretty dreadful, artistically. Not like 11 year old me cared.