The Darkest Corner of Blogger

No. Fuck off, it isn't. Now, let's be clear, I consider myself pretty liberal, in terms of political and social leanings. My own beliefs are best described as an amalgamation of several so-called satanic viewpoints and philosophies. I like to cherry pick the useful parts and leave the LaVeyan survival of the fittest dogma at the door. I've long held onto the core belief that, if the way someone else chooses to live their life, or the way that they simply exist doesn't cause you or the people you love any harm, then it's your role to mind your own damn business. It's not rocket science, it isn't so-called Christian values (hahaha - I mean, seriously?!? ), it's just basic fucking decency. Every person is their own god. I'm my own god, you are yours. Guess what? That gay couple that live a few streets away from you? That trans person that you saw on social media the day before yesterday? That recreational drug user hanging around the bus shelter after d...

Really, I'm not. I've just done something that I haven't done for quite a while. I've deleted Facebook from my phone and laptop. No worries, I'm fine, in fact, I'm feeling better than I have in a long time. The fact that I should even feel compelled to say that I'm fine however should give an indication into the nature of social media in general - "You're not on Facebook? Man, what the fuck is wrong with you?!?" It feels like time for a reset. The nature of social media in general, and of Facebook in particular, is such that it can be a force for good (I'll say a bit more about that soon), but the bad often outweighs that. It's a leech, a fat, bloated leech that sucks on the teat of creativity, self-confidence and, most of all, time. Negativity is amplified, boosted by an algorithm that favours nastiness and contentious viewpoints, because everyone likes to read about that shit, right? On one hand, it provides a hollow sense of schaden...

I'm back, did you miss me? I'm in the mood for a bit of a rant this time around, so bear with me, indulge me, or stop reading right now, take your pick. I'm that guy; one of many who stayed up until 3am New Year's Day to watch the finale of Stranger Things . Half asleep by the final scene, I watched it with my eager daughter, only for her to proclaim at the climax that she hated it. In my own opinion, the grand finale wasn't perfect, true, but it did what it said on the tin. It wrapped things up with its usual blend of nostalgia, combined with a bittersweet notion of torch-passing. In previous interviews, writer-creators The Duffer Brothers had stated that the recurring theme of the final season was that of an end to childhood, of moving on, closing the door - quite literally in the final scene (spoiler!). Although the epilogue was a little too long for my liking, and strayed almost dangerously close to schmaltz, it achieved that pretty damn well. Even my daughter...

Hi friends, neighbours, and readers. This time around I’m probably going to try and keep things short. Where did the time go? Seriously; where  did  it go? It’s been a funny year. That’s something that I’ve come to find myself saying somewhere around this time for the last few years now, and each time I do, the use of the word funny feels a little more ironic. Every time, I tell myself that things can’t get any more batshit. Every time, I turn out to be proven wrong. It’s become the new normal to see the world spiralling down into some hellish abyss with no return escalator. But, you know that already, and you probably don’t need to hear it again from me. Now, I usually shy away from too much in the way of annual reflection. It’s usually been my belief that life is an ongoing thing, not something to be broken up into individual cycles. The idea of something like new year’s resolutions always strikes me as being on an almost  I-promise-myself-I’ll-do-better-next-time-no-re...

I promised that I was going to blog a bit more frequently. I also promised that I was going to make my next post more writing-centric, and I am. Sort of. Like many of you probably are, I’m currently making my way through Ryan Murphy’s latest foray into the world of  true  crime. After their relatively faithful rendition of the Jeffrey Dahmer story, followed by an interpretation of that of the Menendez brothers (I haven’t seen that one, so I can’t comment on allegations of liberty-taking), it has come to be the turn of the man usually regarded as America’s first  celebrity  serial killer. So I’m going to try and share my thoughts on  Monster: The Ed Gein Story . You will notice that I placed emphasis on the word  celebrity  in that last paragraph. Gein has long been immortalised previously, in movies, television, even in music, so one more retelling might seem, I don’t know, superfluous. Still, the current serialisation has been both highly publicised a...

Opinions are like assholes, everybody has one. Here's mine. Hell, I'm not even anywhere near as fast a writer as I'd sometimes like to be, so my sharing my thoughts here usually ends up taking a back seat. That said, I'm going to get a few things off my chest, and what I've got to say might be a little bit divisive. You're more than welcome to stop reading now, or as soon as you realise who and what it is I'm talking about. I won't be offended, really, even if some people out there might paint me as the sort of lefty lunatic who gets offended by everything (to them I gladly say a robust  fuck off, you pre-judging cunts. Was that lefty lunatic enough for you? ). I'm going to say my piece about Charlie Kirk. At the time of my writing this, social media, along with pretty much the whole of the Internet, is on the verge of meltdown. Facebook in particular is even more of a hell-bound train drowning in the cesspit of Zuckerberg's making than usual. Th...