December 7th, 2015

Hello readers, all two of you or whatever.

I'm reading a book by Joe Hill called Heart Shaped Box. Joe Hill is Stephen King's (who I love) son and a pretty well respected writer with his own merit. I like the book, it's pretty well done, although it's no King. The premise is good and the writing is sturdy for the most part. The only problem that I really have with it is that he sort of paints 'gothic' girls in a pretty negative light. I guess I should explain that by gothic the book means girls with pale skin, heavy dark makeup, lots of piercings and tattoos, that kind of girl. So I don't know if that's strictly gothic, I'm not sure of the correct definitions with this sort of stuff. Either way, both the girls the book talks about have been molested/raped repeatedly in their young age, have depression, are very sexually loose, have all the piercings, ect. So, pretty stereotypical for a gothic chick. That is to say, and I must make this part very clear, I don't think that these things necessarily pain people in a bad light, that's not what I'm saying. (Except rape, that's always fucking awful) I actually really dig tattoos and piercings and high libidos (duh) and I don't care if a girl is a 'slut'. If you want sex go out and have it, it's what I would do. I'm not going to knock you for doing something as awesome as having sex. Just be careful and stuff. All of these things made clear, I think it's a little shallow to write both the women in the story to be essentially the same character. I mean, I understand people have 'types' but not all women who look gothic are also depressive psychos who were raped and spent a good chunk of time stripping, I mean come on, that's just dumb. Of course it is a stereotype and with all stereotypes there is a ring of truth, that's just life. 

Still, though, it's a pretty good book with a lot of cool imagery and descriptive paragraphs. 

My regular non-reading life if pretty uneventful. I'm finally in the last stages of sickness, fucking thank god. I'd give myself one or two more days before I'm back to one hundred percent. I can still make money, that's the important part. 

Man, one thing that I forget and then remember once a year when Christmas comes around is how much I love wrapping gifts, that shit is so much fun. I can't tell if it's because I like the artsy part of it or if I like the gift giving part.. Who knows. It's been really fun though, for real. I'm really happy with the gifts I've gotten for my friends and family so far. Oh man, I got my Dad this watch on amazon that was originally like 600 big ones for just under 50 bucks, that's some crazy shit. The watch looks awesome as fuck though. One thing that this holiday season has taught me for sure is that Amazon Prime coupled with black Friday/cyber Monday is real real nice for Christmas shopping. FUCK THE MALL.  

I've been listening to a lot of Led Zeppelin again. Not that I really stopped I guess, just that it's been a while since I really concentrated on their music. It's always nice to sort of rediscover those bands that made big impacts on you when you first started listening to them. Oh man, especially Zep's song Out On The Tiles, that shit is my jam. It's so fucking groovy, I can't believe I had forgotten about it. 

Alright, I'm done for today. I need to finish present wrapping. Peace.