Ch...Ch...Changes...

"Turn and face the strange..."

Hey, how 'you all doin'?

I hopefully managed to exorcise a lot of negativity with my last post which, ermmm, probably doesn't leave me with a hell of a lot to say this time around. Fair enough, I'm more vocal when I'm miserable. Go figure. Anyway, I promised myself this year that I was going to keep this little corner of the internet a bit more up to date, to post here more frequently. As a consequence of that promise, I'm now sitting fairly late at night, running through my own head in search of what to write about. Some writer, huh?

Okay, here I go...

I'm trying to make some small changes, partly as a means of slimming down my reliance, dependency, or whatever you want to call it, on social media. With that in mind, I've gone cold turkey on a few things. Twitter was kicked to the kerb a long time ago now, I wore out my welcome there when everyones' least favourite billionaire manchild took the reins (this is my safe space, I can call him a shit-stirring fucknugget if I want, okay?). More recently, Instagram and Threads followed, in part thanks to the proliferation of spam accounts, porn bots, and religious/right wing propaganda. Also, if you're going to change your moderation rules to kowtow to the incoming new order, and are more concerned about a shortfall of masculine energy (whatever the hell that even means) than you are about the welfare of your platform users then, let's be honest, I want fuck all to do with you.

All of which brings me to a dilemma; to Facebook or not to Facebook, that is the question.

I've grown increasingly disillusioned with Zuckerberg's glorified Hot or Not site for a while now, but I've stuck with it through the scandals, succeeded in looking the other way and - for the most part - avoiding some of the more mouth-frothing fringe elements. I've even grown a substantial (for me) second dedicated author page. The main issue that, I'm guessing like a lot of other people, I've used the platform as a means of maintaining contact with friends, most of them distant, with whom I'd otherwise probably lose contact. With that in mind, I've reached a compromise of sorts. Stopping short of closing my account, instead I've deleted the app from my phone, avoiding the temptation to indulge in what had become little more than pessimistic (who, me?) doomscrolling. It isn't a conclusive response, or even a definitive one, but it'll probably help me sleep at night, as well as free up more of my time. Let's just call it a mental health break, my own small way of sticking it to the man (I use the term loosely, even though we all know how much he digs that strong, manly energy, despite resembling one of H P Lovecraft's fish/human hybrids). Okay, so it's not so much cold turkey as tepid chicken, or something like that, but it'll do for me.

At least I've still got this place, right? Right.

Anyway, enough shit talking, I feel like ending on a bit of a lighter note this time around so, with that in mind, here's a little something that I probably won't do too often; share what I'm up to right now:

What I'm reading - Good Dogs, by Brian Asman (Blackstone Publishing).

What I'm watching - Better Call Saul (very slowly, I'm not a big binge watcher, so no spoilers). Squid Game season two (damn youuuuu!).

What I'm listening to - Godflesh - Streetcleaner, Purge.

What I'm doing - Still beavering away on the first draft of my next novel. Tentatively titled Bad Day, it'll hopefully be released into the wild somewhere in the first half of this year.

What I'm drinking - Stupid, stupid question.

Okay, I'm done for now. Catch you later!

- L